by Linsey Hall
Fugitive of Magic
Dragon’s Gift The Protector Book 1
Linsey Hall
To Erin Thomas, who is awesome.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Thank You!
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Glossary
About Linsey
Copyright
Chapter One
It was business as usual until about five o’clock. That’s when the demons showed up.
Five of them crossed the street toward my shop like they owned the whole damned road. The late-winter sun set behind them, making their forms blaze in orange light. Through the wide glass window, it was easy to see their bulging muscles, prominent horns, and the weapons that hung off their utility vests.
“Hey, Nix, you thinking what I’m thinking?” asked my friend Cass, who helped me run our magical treasure-hunting business.
“Yeah. They look like violently decorated Christmas trees.”
Cass laughed, her red hair gleaming in the light.
“Ridiculous,” I said. “Everyone knows you only needed one good weapon at a time.”
“You think they know how to use all those things?” she asked.
“Not as well as we do.” I grinned. “I’ve been hankering for a good fight. What do you say we meet them outside?”
“Good plan, Batman.” She glanced around at the enchanted artifacts on the shelves. “Be a shame to lose any stock.”
“Exactly.”
I stepped out from behind the shop counter. We strode toward the glass door, passing by shelves stuffed to the brim with the fruits of our treasure-hunting labors. We risked life and limb to recover these artifacts from enchanted tombs and temples. Though the ones now on our shelves were replicas, they were each enchanted with a spell. I wasn’t about to let some demons steal from us.
As the demons reached the sidewalk, I pulled open the door, then leaned against the jam.
The five of them were massive—each at least six and a half feet tall. All possessed power—dark magic from the rank smell of it.
Good. I liked a challenge. And my boots hadn’t kicked much ass in the last couple weeks. They were getting bored, and I was convinced that demon blood conditioned the leather nicely.
“Can I help you, gentlemen?” I raised a brow, pointedly eyeing their horns. Demons weren’t allowed to walk freely on Earth. Too violent and conspicuous. Humans weren’t supposed to know about magic, and demons would blow our cover.
The biggest demon stepped forward and spoke, his voice a growl. “Here to make a purchase.”
“Mm-hm, sure, yeah.” I nodded, glancing down at his weapons. “You usually come dressed for a fight when doing a little shopping? And with four buddies?”
Maybe they were out for a boys’ night of antique shopping, but I doubted it. They’d showed up at the end of business hours, dressed to kill.
Literally.
Since we had a robbery attempt a least once a week and the last one had been ten days ago, we were due.
“How about you forget about stealing from us so that I don’t have to get your blood on my clothes?” I really loved this vampire Hello Kitty T-shirt, and demon blood was a bitch to get out of fabric. Good for leather, bad for cotton.
The demon didn’t answer. Instead, the rank scent of his magic flared, like a garbage fire blazing bright. It was all the warning I got. All the warning I needed.
I called upon my magic, what little I had. It shivered through me, down my arm and towards my hand as I envisioned a conjuring shield that would block whatever magic he chose to throw at me. I didn’t have the badass violent kind of power that Cass did, but my conjuring came in handy in fights.
But instead of creating a fireball or some other magical weapon, the demon shoved his magical signature away and reached for the blade at his hip. My silver shield appeared on my arm just as he drew the long knife and swung at me.
It clanged off my shield, making my arm vibrate.
Beside me, Cass hurled a fireball at the demon standing next to my attacker. The ball of flame raced through the air and crashed into his chest, blasting him backward. She turned her attention to another demon.
My demon attacker raised his blade again, clearly determined to plow through my shield this time. As he brought it down, I conjured a knife and plunged it into his side, dodging his blade that hurtled toward my shoulder. It sliced through the fabric of my shirt, but only left a thin cut in my flesh. Pain flared briefly, but I used it as fuel.
I kneed the demon in the crotch and yanked my blade out of his side, then stabbed it into his chest and twisted.
He grunted, his eyes going wide.
“Go back to hell.” I kicked him in the chest, sending him flying backward.
Behind me, a demon tried to creep past, sneaking into the shop. I spun, swinging my shield like I’d seen Captain America do in a movie, and nailed him in the back of the head.
Thanks, ‘Cap.
The shield clanged loudly, as if he had a skull made of iron, and he wobbled. I plunged my blade into his back, right where I guessed his heart would be. Sometimes it was hard to tell with demons.
From the way he sagged, I must have hit my mark.
I withdrew the blade and let him fall.
We had this in the bag.
I turned to see how Cass was making out with the fifth and final demon. Probably wiping the floor with them, if I knew her.
She’d downed the fourth demon with a fireball. His crispy remains sat on the sidewalk like a burned turkey dinner. But the fifth was shimmering with some kind of magic that smelled like a swamp and prickled against my skin. All magic had a signature—scent, taste, feel—and whatever this guy was about to do, it was big.
Ah, hell.
I raised my blade to throw it at him, but before it left my fingertips, he’d split into two different demons. Both were identical.
Double hell.
That was some rare, dangerous magic.
The demon split again, making three. And again.
Well, this was going poorly.
I hurled my knife at the main demon, but he dived behind a car just in time. The blade whizzed past him. I turned my attention to the demon who charged me, conjuring another dagger.
“Please be an illusion,” I muttered as I threw my knife at him. It plunged into his broad chest and he grunted, stumbling back.
Damn it.
“They’re real.” Cass threw a fireball at one. It crashed against his chest in a flash of sparks, throwing him backward into a light post behind.
“A Multiplicita.” I was too close for a bow and arrow, my preferred weapon, so I conjured a sword. In a world of magic, conjuring wasn’t that exciting.
Unless you could conjure pointy things and knew how to use them.
Which I did.
Unfortunately, there were now a lot of demons. They kept appearing, one by one, from behind the car where the host demon hid.
Cass could light the vehicle up with a massive fireball, but the damned thing belonged to an Order of the Magica member. Government officials did not like it when you destroyed their property, and we really didn’t want to get on their bad side.
The demons chose that moment to charge. I dodged the fi
rst, swiping out with my blade as he passed. It sliced through his side and he shouted, but kept stumbling for the shop. The next was on me almost immediately. I plunged my blade into his gut and sidestepped.
At my side, Cass took down two demons with the same fireball. Two more charged her.
I pressed my fingertips to the comms charm at my neck, igniting its magic. “Del! We need backup!”
“At the shop?” Del’s voice crackled through the comms charm. She was our best friend and the third leg of this operation.
“Yeah.” I swung my blade at a demon who tried to dodge past me, swiping the steel across his neck. Blood spurted, splashing against my face. Warm and wet and gross.
Through the glass door, I could see the demon who’d gotten past me ransacking the shelves.
Whatever they were after, there was no way in hell I’d let them have it.
Cass took out another demon with one of her handy fireballs. The smell of burning demon flesh made bile rise in my throat. Contrary to popular thought, it did not smell like grilled chicken. This was getting out of hand. Keeping a low profile was our safety blanket. And this was not low profile.
Down the street, Del burst out of the door that led up to our apartments. She raced toward us, sword drawn and her black hair flying behind her. Thank fates we lived in a magical town or this shit would be even more conspicuous.
“Behind the car!” Cass shouted.
Del veered right, no doubt to search for the host demon who was creating our attackers.
I turned my attention back to the shop. The demon inside had found whatever he was looking for, because he now charged the door, something lumpy tucked under his arm.
I stepped into his path and raised my sword. “Dream on, buddy.”
As if I’d let him get away.
A hard arm wrapped around my middle and swung me away from the door, hurling me hard against a lamp post. Pain flared in my shoulder, blurring my vision. My blade dropped from my limp hand and I collapsed.
Crap.
I scrambled to my feet as my new attacker bore down on me. He was a demon like the rest, tall and broad and armed like a mercenary out to take down a zombie baseball team. The weapons hanging from his vest clanged against each in a violent chorus.
Of all his weapons, he’d chosen a massive curved sword. He raised it overhead, his gaze burning down at me, and swung.
My heart thundered in my ears as I dived, scooping up my blade and narrowly avoiding getting cleaved in two. His blade banged against the ground. I swiped out with my own sword, going low and for the legs like I favored. They never saw that coming.
This guy didn’t, either, and he toppled like a tree, crashing to the sidewalk.
Behind me, Cass and Del were taking care of the rest of the demons. Del wielded her sword like a tornado of death while Cass hurled fireballs at the few surviving demons.
Ahead, my prey was sprinting down the sidewalk, past the old brick buildings that made up Factory Row. He was twenty feet away, two of his buddies at his side.
I left my sword on the sidewalk since it would do me no good in a footrace.
“Watch the shop!” I sprinted after them, leaping over a flock of pigeons that decided to land on the sidewalk in front of me. I called upon my magic, letting it shiver through me, and conjured a bow and arrow.
I was about to fire when a crowd of revelers poured out of Potions & Pastilles, our favorite coffee shop, spilling onto the sidewalk in front of me.
Shit.
I didn’t have a clear shot. There were six brain-dead partiers blocking me from my quarry.
I pushed through the crowd, breaking out to see the three demons stopped at the crosswalk as a bus trundled in front of them. Factory Row, where we lived and worked, was usually quiet. Not today.
I drew back the string on my bow and fired. Satisfaction warmed my chest as the arrow sped toward the closest demon and hit him in the back. He stumbled to his knees.
A shout sounded from behind me, a deep bark. I glanced back. Through the crowd of revelers, who now scattered at the sight of my bow, another demon raced toward us. He stopped dead still and hurled something high into the air.
It was a tiny black pebble.
Ah, hell.
I turned back to the demon I was pursuing, sprinting toward him as I watched him snag the little back pebble out of the air. He threw it onto the ground in front of him. It exploded in a cloud of silvery dust.
Shit, shit, shit.
A transportation charm.
The two demons leapt inside the dust, disappearing to who the hell knew where.
Generally speaking, it was a piss-poor idea to follow demons into unknown portals.
But no one ever stole from me. It fucked with my track record.
Chucking good sense in favor of victory, I sprinted for the cloud of dust that was now dissipating. The portal would be gone any second. I said a quick prayer to the fates and hurtled into it.
My next step carried me into darkness.
What the hell? It had been dusk on the other side of the portal. But this was dark.
I blinked to regain my vision. We were in an alley. It was vaguely familiar, but something was seriously off. Ahead of me, the demons sprinted away. They ran single file, with my target in the lead, protected by the demon behind him.
I raised my bow, aimed, and fired. The arrow whizzed through the air, striking the last demon in the back. He stumbled and fell, leaving my prey exposed. He seemed to realize that, however, and dodged left, hiding behind a dumpster.
His magic swelled briefly, a strange signature that I’d never felt before. It rumbled in my chest, as if a jet plane had landed nearby. It turned my insides to jello and made my knees tremble.
Depending on the strength of their magic, supernaturals gave off different strength signatures. And this guy was strong.
Scary, piss-your-pants strong.
What the hell kind of magic was this? And why hadn’t he used it back at the shop?
Dread opened a dark hole in my chest. Wherever we were—in this strange shadow land—he was comfortable using his creepy dark magic.
The ground rumbled beneath my feet, trembling like an earthquake was about to tear through the earth. Ahead of me, the paved alley split open, a chasm opening up in the ground.
Well, fuck.
I was cut off from the demon, who was on the other side of the alley, hiding behind the dumpster. The crack raced in front of me, cutting me off.
I sucked in a breath as my heart pounded in my ears, then took a running jump over the crevasse. I made it to the other side, but teetered on the edge, arms wheeling.
The breath whooshed out of my body as I envisioned falling into the deep dark pit behind me.
Barely, I managed to right myself, then sprinted toward the brick wall at the edge of the alley, running alongside the building as the crack in the middle of the passage creaked and groaned, widening. I had to kill this demon or I’d be swallowed into the earth.
Along with this entire creepy alley.
When I reached the dumpster, I swung my bow over my back so that it hung with the string crossed over my chest, and hauled myself up onto the lid of the dumpster. I was past sneakiness now—totally out of time for that—and I thundered across the lid. I reached for an arrow in the sheath at my back and dropped down onto the demon who crouched against the side.
His wide eyes met mine.
I stabbed him in the neck with the arrow. “Didn’t expect to see me, did you?”
His mouth opened and blood gurgled out of the corner of his lips. Something heavy rammed into my side and pain flared, an agony that definitely spelled cracked ribs.
I glanced down to see the demon’s fist balled at his side.
The damned demon had punched me!
I shoved the arrow deeper into his neck. The strength that had fueled him finally faded, and he collapsed against the wall. The life drifted out of him.
I grabbed the lumpy package fro
m under the demon’s arm and scrambled away from him. In a few moments, his body would disappear back to whatever Underworld he’d come from.
That was the thing about killing demons while on Earth—they didn’t really die. They just went back to the Underworld and got another go. Like a video game.
It was why I didn’t have to feel guilty when I killed one.
At least he hadn’t gotten what he’d come for.
I was about to peek into the package to see which enchanted object he’d stolen when a noise sounded from down the alley. A moment later, magic flared.
This signature was entirely different—it felt like a cool breeze blowing inside my mind, then burned like fire.
I winced, looking up and squinting into the darkness. The demon’s earth-breaking magic hadn’t extended up that way, so the alley looked normal, though very creepy. A dark mist had started to flow over the ground as the magical signature filled the air.
Whatever was happening down the alley, it was dangerous. Dark magic. The illegal kind that hurt as well as helped.
I needed to get the hell out of here—wherever here was.
Shit. I didn’t know where I was, nor did I have a transport charm or the ability to teleport.
Quietly, I stood, keeping the package tucked tightly under my arm. I was about to turn and head back the way I’d come when a small flash of white caught my eye.
Hair. White hair. And a dark cloak.
There were two figures grappling down the alley, as if they’d spilled out of a smaller street into this one.
Not my business.
But as I turned to go, I got a better glimpse of the white-haired figure.
It was an old man.
The bigger figure was attacking an old man.
That was screwed up.
Fights were common in Magic’s Bend—if we were still even in my town—but I wasn’t down with people attacking old folks.
I sprinted toward them, the package tucked under my arm. I opened my mouth to shout, but a silver light burst from the pair.
The flash blinded me and I stumbled, nearly losing my hard-won prize. Blinded, I righted myself, my vision clearing just in time to see the larger figure running away. I couldn’t make out a thing about him—I didn’t even know if he was a man or a woman.
