“Interesting. I had always thought him a myth. Remember when our fathers told us of the ancient guardian of the waters? The one that protected the innocent?”
“Yes, they said it was an ... eel,” Bradi said, stunned that Marisa had seen it. Laughter welled up inside him and he was left no choice but to let it out. “Eli is a perfect name for our son. If he is anything like his mother he will become a legend as well.”
THE END
Excerpt from WICKED LUCIDITY by Mandy M. Roth at New Concepts Publishing!
Prologue
“Do you hear me, dark angel? You cannot defeat us all.”
I snickered as I stared up at the vampire that had me pinned to the hard pavement. He stared down at me with eyes that weren’t even strong enough to decide between pale yellow and orange. Neither of which were found in nature but then again, vampires weren’t exactly run of the mill. Well, unless you lived my life. In my reality, they were staples.
His rank breath moved over me as he practically spat in my face. “Have you nothing to offer, dark angel?”
He pushed down harder, using his forearm to press against my throat. My eyes widened as I stared up at him. I could feel him trying to force his power, his dark magik into my mind. Had I been human, it would have worked. He’d have been able to turn my mind with ease, bend my will to suit him.
For once, I was thankful that I was anything but human. I let my body go limp, pretending to succumb to the death he offered. His smugness almost radiated off him. I lay there, careful to use my own power to mask my life signs.
The vampire laughed, the sound so full of evil that I had to fight not to cringe. I remained still as he climbed off me. “Let all know that I have slain the great dark angel! She died at my hands! She took her last breath before my eyes! She....”
Blah, blah, blah.
I struck out fast, ramming the heel of my boot into his groin. “She is sick of hearing you babble, asshole.” I rolled, following him as he backed up cupping himself. Quickly, I delivered another blow to his midsection, catching him off guard and sending him tumbling to the ground.
I got to my feet fast and towered over him. Grinning, I stared down at him as I put my hand out. My magik rose to the occasion. “Stake,” I said, conjuring one instantly. I glanced at it and then the not-so-smug-looking vampire on the ground.
He hissed. “No. You were dead.”
“Technically, you’re dead so do we even need to get into a debate or do you want me to get this over with?”
“Boss?” Seger, my second in command, called out from around the other side of the large building. “You back here?”
The ugly vampire seized the momentary distraction to sweep my legs out from under me. Never one to take the easy route, I flipped high into the air, tucked my long legs into my body, and used my power to stop myself. Redirecting my momentum, I flipped back toward him.
He gasped as I extended my body, striking him back to the ground. I slammed the stake down, scoring a direct chest hit. A puff of dust surrounded me and I held my breath until it cleared.
A strong hand fell upon my shoulder. “Boss? Karri, you okay?”
Glancing down at the partially shifted, clawed hand, I smiled. “I take it that you guys ran into some more bad guys.”
Seger chuckled, allowing his bloodied lycan claws to slide back under his skin. The light layer of fur there began to recede quickly, leaving only a human hand in its place. “Yeah, you can say that. If you add in the dead bodies I see lying around you, I’d say our count for the night is up to forty-three. That’s a hell of a lot higher than it should be. Any word from the powers on what’s going on--why the bad guys seem to be coming in droves?”
The idea of the powers--the men and women sworn to oversee and protect the innocents--giving a damn about a surge of evil in the tiny Midwestern town we had only just arrived in made me laugh. We, various teams of four soldiers, dedicated our lives to serving them, righting wrongs and keeping humans safe from things they could only dream about. The thanks we got was double-crossed or flat out ignored. “They don’t care, but I do.”
“I hate to admit it but you were right to want to warn the team based here, Karri. These demons we fought tonight aren’t just piss ass nothings. They were strong. Strong enough to take all four of us to beat.”
“Yeah,” I whispered, looking around at the carnage. Sighing, I lifted my arms high into the air. “Tell the others to hold on. I’m about to play clean up.”
Seger grinned and pressed his hand to his walkie-talkie. “Karri’s playin’ housekeepin’. Watch your asses or you’ll end up dusted too.”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head as I let my power ride out and over the dead bodies. A second before I let it loose, I felt another presence, a familiar one. Gasping, I stared around at the darkness, trying to locate the source but finding nothing.
“Karri?” Seger asked, pressing up against me.
“Do you sense that?”
“Sense what?”
I shifted a bit, still feeling a familiar presence. “Someone I know is close.”
He chuckled. “Not to point out the obvious, Karri-Lynn, but Amber, your best friend lives a few blocks down.”
“I know that. Not her, idiot. Someone else. Someone powerful.”
“I don’t feel anything, boss. But I believe you do.” He put his arm around me and pulled me into the warmth of his body. “Come on, let’s get rid of these bodies before a human wanders in and finds out that their shiny, happy world isn’t so sparkly. And then we need to get you moved into your new place.”
I looked around at the bodies and snickered. “Somehow, I thought it would be different here, Seger.”
“Different how?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Less violent.”
He laughed, deep and from the gut. “Oh, darlin’, you’d be bored to tears if you didn’t get to chop at least one demon’s head off a night.”
As sick as that sounded, he had a point. “Suburbia, here I come.”
Chapter One
I stared at the large four-story Victorian home in front of me. What was I thinking? The place was huge. Too big for just one person and certainly too much work for me. Calling it a fixer-upper was a far cry from the truth. My need to start a new life and protect the lives of others had outweighed my better judgment. I was hardly a master craftsman and I’d just taken on the project of a lifetime.
Pulling a box out of the trunk of my car, I glanced around at the rest of the neighborhood. It was even better than Amber had described it. My house was one of three on the cul-de-sac. The one to my left had caught my eye the moment I’d arrived. The white home with green shutters looked as though it had been meticulously tended. Of course it would be my luck to move next door to someone who was picky. I could already see the feuds over my unkempt lawn. Maybe, if I were lucky, neighbors would get mad enough to clean my yard because they were sick of looking at it.
“Karri, get your butt up here. You have got to see this!” Amber, my best friend, shouted from the four-story window.
I headed in, carrying the box of cleaning supplies as far as the front porch before I ran up the stairs. Walking into the large, full attic, I found Amber digging through two large chests I had specifically told the “movers” to put in the far back corner of the basement.
Yeah, they listened well.
The movers, also known as “my men,” were currently out to lunch. They’d spent the morning setting up my home office. Since they worked for me in the fight against evil, it was in their best interests to get me up and running as soon as possible. Livelihoods and actual lives depended on me. They’d already banished me from the room because I was hovering too much. They told Amber that she could stay, but from the way they were all staring at her breasts, I was scared to leave her without a chaperone.
Amber dug through the contents of the chest, her long auburn hair falling in and over it. She looked like a curious nymph all tucked in on a secret
she couldn’t wait to reveal. She held up an object with a long silver handle and a pickaxe-like top. Her blue eyes grew with fascination. “What is all this stuff?”
“Weapons. They’re all from my father’s collection. I finally took them out of storage.”
“Wow,” she whispered.
I went to her quickly, removing the Martha war pick from her hand, convinced she’d put an eye out if she wasn’t careful. “Let’s leave it be. Our luck we’ll chop our fingers off or something.”
“Pfft, you’re like Karri Lee, fighting queen. Hey, did you see the thing that looked like brass knuckles but it has claws on it instead? That’s wicked cool.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, it is wicked all right.”
Amber had a flair for dramatics. Not that it came even close to meeting mine, but still. The coffee shop she owned was set up more like a psychic reader’s home base, but the locals seemed to flock there for the coffee all the same. In truth, she was very sensitive to most people and places so it made sense that she’d naturally lean toward the Psychics R Us look. Had she not been battling sickness, her skills and gifts could have developed more and she would’ve made one hell of a psychic.
As far as I knew, or rather, as far as Amber let on, she’d been doing well for the greater part of a year now. I hoped that was true. The idea of losing my closest friend terrified me. The idea of losing her to a cancer-like illness that human doctors didn’t understand and continually mislabeled sickened me. Amber’s sickness came from not using her powers. It was that simple. Since she was unaware that she even had powers, it wasn’t an easy fix and telling her to use what she’d been burying since birth wasn’t as cut and dry as it sounded.
One had to come into their powers on their own. It was just the way things were. Trust me, if I could have fixed her by shouting “use your magik,” I, of all people, would have. It would have saved me a lot of pain and several deals with the devil.
Amber laughed. “Have you looked in the mirror?”
“No. I don’t have one hung up yet, so unless I can find a really reflective puddle then I’m not getting to see myself anytime soon. Why?”
Amber shook her head. “You look like an erotic cowgirl housekeeper.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” She pulled her long hair back at the base and fastened it with the tie she kept on her wrist. “I can’t ever remember seeing you with a do-rag on your head. Don’t get me wrong, the whole big brown eyes, white-blonde hair hanging in loose strands from that rather sad bun thing is hot. But the red handkerchief, barely there, tiny top you’ve got tied over those borderline obscene breasts might be a bit too much. That looks like a bikini top gone horribly wrong.”
I snickered. So did Amber.
“Sort of like a cowgirl’s version of a day at the beach, Karri. Oh, I do love the dirt on your nose and cheek though. And the jean cut-offs thing you’ve got going is all the rage. The topper is the brown work boots. Nice.”
Glancing down, I bit my lip as I checked myself over. “I wasn’t aware I was being judged in the housecleaning portion of the pageant. If I say that I want to end world hunger for my question and answer time with the panel judges, will I still have a sporting chance of winning? I really want to be Ms. Bitch of the Universe.”
Amber shook her head and started down the wooden steps. “You are such a smart-ass.”
“Thanks. Can I get some points on that as well? Have they wised up and added that category yet?” I answered following behind her. She went toward the front door and I went for the fridge. “Pick your poison,” I called out.
“Beer.”
“Beer it is. I should have known. You’re all cute and dainty looking, right up until I see you chugging on a cold one. Sorry I was a bad influence on you.” Grabbing two, I headed out and found Amber sitting on the front porch steps with her head down. Immediately, I worried that she was lying about being in remission. I’d seen her at her worst with it and had no desire to see her go through it again. If I could head it off, I would. “Hey, you feeling okay? We can take a break. In fact, we can call it quits for the day. I don’t win a turkey or turn into a pumpkin if I don’t finish unpacking by midnight. And since I have no prince, I’m in no hurry. Should I leave behind a work boot for any possibilities to find me later?”
Laughing, she shook her head. “I’m fine. Don’t start worrying for no reason.”
I sat down next to her and handed her a beer. “I earned my worry badge, honey. Take it or leave it.”
She nudged me and giggled. “I’m glad you finally moved out here. I hated knowing you were alone in New York.”
“I wasn’t alone, Amber. I had Chester.” I grinned from ear to ear as she moaned.
“Karri, a parakeet, which has since died, doesn’t count.”
Taking a sip of my beer, I winked as I aimlessly fiddled with the triple knot, silver charm necklace I wore all the time. “Now you’re discriminating against nonhumans. What happened to you? We didn’t graduate that long ago.”
Amber snorted. “You know it’s bad when I start thinking seven years is a lifetime.”
To Amber, seven years was a long time. As sick as she’d been, it was a miracle that she was here at all. I wrapped my arm around her and gave her a good squeeze. “This is a music moment if I ever felt one coming on.”
“Oh no, you aren’t going to get me dancing around in public again. My days of that are long gone.”
Ignoring her, I hopped to my feet and rushed to find my portable CD player. I’d last seen it in the dining room but that didn’t mean much in the middle of a move. With the endless heaps of boxes scattered about my house, it could be buried anywhere. “Tony, Tony, look around.” I smiled as I did my slight homage chant to the patron Saint Anthony who was supposed to help me find lost things. Or, at least that’s what I think he was good at helping with. My luck he was the one you asked for help when you wanted to lose something.
I let my power up just enough to find what I was looking for. The second I zeroed in on the CD player, I dropped the power.
As I picked it up, I found a box marked dresses and costumes. Setting the CD player on it, I picked it up and took it out with me, happy that I’d propped the screen door open with a brick. Trying to carry it all would have been impossible otherwise.
I set it down next to Amber and wagged my brows. Opening the box, I couldn’t hide my excitement as I saw all the things I still had. I grabbed the long white wedding dress and its sister, a floor-length emerald green maid of honor dress. “Look what I found.” I held the dresses up. The green one had been tailor made for Amber with the idea she’d be my maid of honor. Yeah, that’s right. I was supposed to be the bride. I bit back a laugh. Too bad it didn’t work out that way.
Amber shook her head. “No way.”
“Hey, we might as well get our use out of them.” Tossing the green dress to Amber, I laughed as she caught it and pulled it over her head quickly.
I stepped into the sleeveless wedding dress and pulled it up my body. Its large, bell-like bottom flared out all around me. I zipped it as best I could and bent down to the CD player. “I thought one of these moments might come about so I made a CD for the occasion.”
Amber covered her eyes and peeked out from between her fingertips. “Please tell me that you didn’t do what I think you did.”
I pushed play and stood before her. One of the seventies disco songs that I’d played to death when we lived together came on and Amber squealed. “No, you still have this? You were too young to like it in college. I’ll dig a hole so you can bury it. Dump the wedding stuff in it too. I’m sure I can even find you a sparkling silver shovel to bury it with.”
Putting my hand out, I waited for her to take it. She refused it. I didn’t give up. I swayed my hips back and forth, reenacted every seventies dance I could think of and was on the verge of singing. Amber stared out from under her hands, laughing hysterically.
“Hey, are you suggesting I dance like
a court jester?”
“Yeah, if court jesters should be in a thong on a pole, then you sure do. Only you could pull it off in that getup.” She dropped her head down and snorted. “Heaven help the children of the neighborhood.
“Come on, Strawberry Field. Get out here.”
“Don’t go calling me that again, Karri.”
I kept dancing. Seeing Amber happy made me not care who thought what of me. Not that I’d ever cared much in that department anyway. “I’ll keep hitting repeat on the playing of the funky music if you don’t join me.”
Amber stood slowly and sighed. “Know that I do this only to spare your neighbors any further torture.”
“Mmmhmm.” I put my hand out to her and pulled her gently to me. We did a fake bump of hips. I concentrated hard on paying attention to my strength with her. It wouldn’t take much power on my part to inflict damage to her and that wasn’t something I’d allow to happen.
The second Amber began moving her head to the beat, I couldn’t help but smile wide. “I knew you still had it in you. And I would like to point out that even considering all of his flaws, he, note that I’m not naming names, did a wonderful job of selecting a dress that looks hot on you.” Every piece of me wanted to shout exactly who had had the dresses made. Somehow, the very whisper of Jean-Paul’s name could bring him and I wasn’t really up to seeing him. Not that he’d venture out in broad daylight, but still. I held my tongue.
“Gee, I’ll have to send him a thank you.”
I laughed. “Umm, please don’t.” We moved to the beat, just like old times. “Whoohoo, it’s still there. I was afraid you might have either lost your love for our private disco revival moments or did your best to forget them.”
The faint sound of a screen door opening filled the air. It made the idea of being in a real neighborhood all that much more exciting. There wasn’t, as of yet, any demon shouting out how I was the Dark Angel sent to destroy them all. No. There was the sound of a screen door. As mundane as that may be to anyone else, to me, it was heaven.
Force of Attraction Page 13
