by Martha Carr
Johnny dove behind an overturned table and took one of the flattened black disks from his belt. He pressed the button on the top to activate it and lobbed it across the room. It exploded in the air with a crack and boom far bigger than an explosive that size warranted. Magicals of every size, shape, and race were launched away from the detonation and slid across the floor to ram into more stacked crates.
A shifter woman was halfway through a shift when the blast hurled her against a half-full vending machine. The clear pane shattered and bottles of water, Gatorade, and soda tumbled over her. She slipped into her human form a second before the destroyed machine toppled forward onto her with a crunch and the sign at the top flickered on and off.
Johnny laughed and lifted his weapon before he stood from behind the overturned table. “Do you want more?”
Shots were fired by the thugs who hadn’t been in the direct line of his last explosion. He fingered the trigger and let his automatic firing do the work for him. Bullets thunked into supplies and chairs and tables, pinged off the support beams, and ricocheted off the walls.
A witch summoning the shimmering wall of an attack spell in front of her outstretched hands screamed and fell to one knee. Her spell snuffed out and she immediately clutched both hands around her thigh above a bullet hole. “Motherfucker!”
“Maybe don’t stand so close to the metal, huh?” the bounty hunter shouted in response.
A stream of icy shards hurtled toward him from the back of the wide main room. He spun and pressed his back against one of the steel support beams to check his ammo. Okay. Light ʼem up a few more times and if Lisa takes long enough, you can have some real fun.
He stepped around the other side of the beam and sprayed automatic fire at the Crystal at the back of the room. A stormy blizzard kicked up around the enemy’s body as he pelted another stream of jagged ice that passed his target and exploded against the steel beam. The fucker can’t see what he’s aimin’ at when he goes all snowy. Come on.
A gnome with a machine-gun almost as big as he was thunked the weapon on an overturned table and opened fire. Johnny ducked and slid across the floor as the bullets whistled overhead. The report of someone else’s automatic weapon’s fire echoed through the room. Attack spells in blazing colors followed.
Before he finished his slide toward the next steel beam, the dwarf ejected the magazine of regular bullets and retrieved the last one from his pocket before he thrust it into place. The machine-gun sprayed bullets into the already cracked cement at his feet before he scrambled upright and pressed his back against the next beam. “Yeah, we’ll have some fun.”
He twisted and fired the single dart from the magazine into the center of the room. It split apart in mid-air and launched four separate pieces toward the four closest steel beams. The highly charged magnets clung to the beams after four thumps in quick succession and detonated with a massive magnetic charge. The shockwave spread outward from the beams, then sucked in all at once and drew every piece of metal in a thirty-foot radius with it.
Guns were ripped from the thugs’ hands and clanged against the steel girders. Watches and rings and thick chain necklaces were yanked off their owners too. A half-Kilomea launched toward the closest beam, dragged by his belt buckle, and roared when his belt and his crotch caught the corner of the support. He sagged against the thick metal and tried to wrestle himself free from the beam that had become one of the four strongest magnets in Queens.
A half-wizard shrieked and became airborne, carried by the rifle strapped around his neck and shoulders. He struck the closest beam with a thump that knocked him out cold and left him to dangle by his weapon strap. Even the machine-gun was dragged from the gnome’s hand in mid-fire and it lurched after the stream of bullets redirected toward the far-right beam. The bullets clanged against the metal to leave small dents but none dropped.
Two thugs were knocked in the head by their neighbors’ flying weapons and sprawled on the floor, groaning.
Johnny ejected the empty magnetizing magazine and stepped out from behind the beam a good ten feet outside the magnetic field. Holding his multi-purpose launcher-rifle with both hands like a bat, the dwarf grinned at what was left of the Artful Dodger’s cronies. “I kinda like goin’ old-school, yeah?”
A dwarf woman and the Crystal exchanged a confused look, then darted toward the Level Five bounty hunter with the dozen other criminals still on their feet. Spells streaked toward him and he ducked and dodged around them before he swung his heavy weapon into a wizard’s gut. He spun, whipped his knife out, and slashed a Light Elf’s thigh before the magical could conjure more than a spark in his hands.
“Who the fuck are you?” the elf snapped.
He walloped his weapon against the elf’s back and thrust him forward onto his face. “I’m back. Who’s next?”
Lisa slipped through the back door of the waste management company’s main building, her service pistol drawn as she cleared one room and section of the back hall at a time. She reached the rear of the main warehouse the Artful Dodger and his thugs used as their operations base as Johnny’s magnetic pulse erupted from the four steel beams in the center. That’s one hell of a toy to lug around. Now, where’s our guy?
As her partner pounded heads and leapt off stacked crates, his knife flashing under the overhead lights, she peered through the open double doors in the back and scanned the magicals. If he’s never been caught, there’s no way he stuck around for this.
The thugs raced toward the dwarf and got more than they bargained for in a serious ass-kicking from the bounty hunter. Lisa caught sight of a man with long, stringy black hair who vaulted onto a stack of crates on the left. He paused, crouched there, and looked over his shoulder at the dwarf, who quickly dispatched the other criminals as he circled the room. A thick strand of the man’s hair lifted toward the melee before it settled over his shoulder again. He leapt off the crates onto the metal shelving unit along the back wall, then scurried across the shelves toward the open double doors farther back.
So the Artful Dodger’s an Atlantean buying his way up the criminal ladder. No wonder he’s never been caught—until now.
She slipped into the hallway again and pressed her back against the wall. When she heard the soles of two light rubber shoes meet the floor, she raised her pistol and focused on the doorway.
The Artful Dodger walked swiftly through the open doors and flicked the collar of his brown suede jacket up with a smirk. He didn’t see Agent Breyer’s pistol come down on the back of his head or the floor coming up to meet his face. The Atlantean hissed and scrambled onto his back as he reached into his jacket pocket.
Lisa kicked his hand away and placed her shoe dead-center in the Artful Dodger’s chest. The only thing that stopped him from throwing her off was her pistol aimed at his head. He hissed at her again and one eye twitched. The dozens of snakes attached to his head where hair should have been raised and hissed at her too.
“If I see one of those so much as wiggle the wrong way, I’ll kill you.”
His hair was silenced and fell limply away from his face instead.
“And don’t even think about sending a stowaway.”
The Atlantean snarled at her. “What do you want?”
“Your invitation to the Monsters Ball tonight.”
He chuckled. “Fat fucking chance, lady. I bought that fair and—”
Lisa squeezed off a shot two inches from the man’s head and severed the head of one of his snake-hair creatures. The others squeaked in agony and hissed at her again as the magical they served growled. “That’s your second warning. I usually don’t have to go to three.”
A shifter catapulted through the open doors behind them, snarled, and scrambled to gain purchase on the cement floors before he thumped painfully against the far wall. As he pushed to his feet, the gray wolf snarled, shook the pain aside, and lurched into the fight as Johnny’s bellowed laughter and a, “No, fuck you!” echoed in the main room.
L
isa looked at the wolf, intending to shoot him if she had to, and the Artful Dodger seized his opportunity. He pounded his fist against the side of her knee and rolled clear when she shouted in surprise and staggered sideways and away from him. The man broke into a run down the hall, zig-zagging to keep her from settling her aim with her weapon.
Gritting her teeth, she holstered her gun as she raced after him and summoned a fireball. The Atlantean reached an open metal staircase and launched onto the edge to pull himself up by the railing. She released her fireball at his hand and knocked his hold loose. Then, she jumped after him, wrapped both hands around one of his legs, and pulled.
They both toppled into a heap, and she scrambled to her knees at the same moment he did. Her vicious right hook caught him in the jaw. His hair whipped sideways with him, and the snakes hissed again in fury.
She hissed in response and drove her other fist into the Artful Dodger’s stomach. He swung wildly at her, his eyes wide, and she blocked each attack before she pushed off her knees and into a crouch to deliver a swift kick at his chest. As soon as his back hit the floor, she stood over him to deliver two more swift punches to his face. His eyes rolled back in his head and the snakes fell limp around him. She swiped her dark hair out of her eyes before she yanked his jacket open.
The first pocket was empty, but the second held a thin, metal square that she jerked out with a grin. The engraved gold invitation winked at her under the caged lights overhead, and she secured it in her jacket pocket. Drawing her weapon again, she kept her eye on the groaning Artful Dodger and sidestepped toward the double doors into the main room. “I got it!”
Johnny leapt off a table to deliver a flying double-kick at the half-Kilomea’s gut. The hairy, growling magical staggered away, his belt loops frayed and sticking out around the waistband of his cargo pants. Pushing off his back, the dwarf snatched his empty rifle-launcher and dove through the massive warrior’s legs. His weapon cracked against the back of the magical’s knees and he darted toward the back of the warehouse with his knife between his teeth.
A wizard lurched at him and caught the dwarf from behind. He doubled over, threw the man over his shoulder and into another folding table, and dropped to punch the guy in the face. Spells streaked toward him and Lisa, and they ducked beneath the crackling magical attacks before he took another exploding disk from his belt.
“I had a great time, fellas, but won’t be doin’ it again!”
The disk detonated with a shockwave that blasted the last handful of still-conscious thugs across the room. It launched Johnny and Lisa forward against the far wall of the back corridor too. Laughing, he slapped the wall and turned to look at her. “After you.”
“Right.” Grimacing, she rubbed her smarting forehead and darted the Atlantean on the floor a dismissive glance. “Let’s get outta here.”
The dwarf followed her the way she’d come toward the back of the building, and by the time the thugs in the main room recovered from the blast, their attackers were gone.
“Oh, shit.” A gnome raced down the hall toward the Artful Dodger, who now pushed off the floor to sit upright. “Are you good, boss?”
The Atlantean slapped his crony’s hand away. “Don’t touch me.”
“My bad.” The diminutive thug stepped back and studied his boss cautiously. “It’s the first time I ever seen you take a beatin’.”
“And the last time.” The Dodger ran a hand through his snake hair and felt the loss of the one head severed by the woman’s bullet. “That fucking bitch.”
The Crystal staggered through the doors and his ice-covered feet crunched across the floor. The millions of ice crystals encasing him tinkled against each other and glittered as he moved. “Who the fuck were those guys?”
“They’re probably workin’ for one of the Monsters if you ask me,” the gnome said.
“Yeah, well, they didn’t exactly leave a note.” The Dodger straightened his suede jacket, paused, and checked his inside pocket. “Fuck.”
“Who did we piss off this time?” the Crystal asked. “I thought we were good with Mattheus, boss.”
“It wasn’t Mattheus.” Their leader rubbed the side of his swelling jaw and spat out a bloody glob. “Whoever it was doesn’t want me at the fucking ball. Get back in there and clean that shit up.”
The Atlantean turned and stormed down another hallway toward the room he used as his private office. None of his underlings said a word. They all knew the Artful Dodger wasn’t a real mob boss, not like those East Coast yuppies going to the Monsters Ball that night. He’d only bought his way into their party with the fortune he’d amassed by stealing, and a good portion of it had most likely been from them.
Chapter Nineteen
At the hotel, Johnny shrugged into his new dinner jacket that matched the dress slacks and stared at himself in the mirror of the closet’s sliding door.
“What are you supposed to be, huh?” Lying across the king-sized bed, Luther raised his head from his forepaws and tilted it in confusion. “I don’t get it.”
“Yeah, Johnny.” Rex padded toward his master to sniff the hem of the dwarf’s pants. “Halloween was six months ago.”
“We have a ticket into that party tonight, boys.” He sniffed and combed his fingers through his thick auburn hair. “I gotta play the part.”
“The part of a dwarf with a stick up his ass?”
Luther’s tongue lolled out of his mouth as he panted in amusement, and his laughter filled his master’s head. “Good one.”
He lowered his hands and turned away from the mirror to focus on his hounds. “What, you want me to find a couple of hound tuxedos? I bet we could pass you off as my magical bodyguards.”
Rex sat and stared at his master. “For real?”
“No. Y’all get to stay here.”
“Again?” Luther whined. “Johnny, you just got back.”
“Yeah, an hour ago.”
A knock came at his hotel door. When he opened it, Lisa stood there in a skin-tight maroon dress with the functionless but alluring shoulder straps draped across her upper arms. He raised an eyebrow.
She studied him slowly and pursed her lips in a small, coy smile. “Wow, Johnny. You clean up much nicer than I expected.”
With a grunt, he turned away from the door without holding it for her to enter and returned to studying himself in the floor-to-ceiling mirror. “I shouldn’t have let you talk me into the monkey suit. This is not my gig.”
“Maybe.” She let the door swing shut behind her and joined him in front of the mirror. “From where I stand, this looks very much like your gig.”
She smiled at him in the mirror’s reflection and pulled the silver-sequined clutch out from under her arm to hold it with both hands. Her three-inch stilettos only turned their height difference into a glaring discrepancy. He came up to her shoulders.
Johnny glanced at her heels. “Are you tellin’ me you can run in those if you have to?”
“I wouldn’t wear them if I couldn’t.”
“Uh-huh.” He studied her reflection in the mirror. Drop-dead sexy. That ain’t gonna help none. “Are you packin’?”
Lisa took a step back and spread her arms. “Can’t you tell?”
Where the hell’ is she keepin’ it? The corner of his mouth twitched into a crooked smirk and he turned away from her to retrieve the remote from beside the flatscreen TV on the dresser. “As long as you can draw a weapon from wherever you’re stashin’ it in that outfit, we’ll be fine.”
“You’d be surprised by how much I can do in this.”
Johnny paused with the remote aimed at the TV and grinned at her. “Not surprised at all, darlin’.”
On the bed, Luther stopped panting to lick his muzzle and utter a low whine. “Oh, man, Johnny. You’re in for it now.”
“If she was a dog, Johnny, she’d be wagging her ass in your face and tellin’ you to come and get it.”
“Ha-ha. Yeah, she is—”
The dwarf cast
Luther a withering glance and snapped his fingers. “Hush.”
The hound lowered his head to his forepaws again and Rex settled on his belly on the carpet in front of the nightstand.
Lisa narrowed her eyes at her partner and smiled. “What do they want now?”
“Merely to be a pain in my ass.” The dwarf sniffed disdainfully and lifted the remote toward the TV again to turn it on. “I’m gonna leave them with somethin’ that at least sounds like they have company.”
As he flipped through the channels, Luther stretched his back legs out on the bedspread. “Johnny. Put on one of those huntin’ shows.”
“Yeah.” Rex responded with a sharp, excited yip. “Like Duck Dynasty.”
“Like—” Johnny turned to glare at the dog. “Boy, you must be outta your mind.”
“What? That show’s awesome.”
Luther’s tail thumped against the bedspread. “There’s a smokin’-hot Frenchie on there too. She’s the best part.”
“Ugh. Don’t lower your standards like that, bro.”
“Oh, come on. First you say the city poodle’s outta my league, and now you tell me I can’t even like watchin’ the French Bulldog on the TV?”
“I didn’t say she was out of your league, Luther. I said it would never work—”
The dwarf snapped his fingers and the hounds’ bickering ended abruptly. “There. Y’all can watch Discovery Channel and maybe learn a few things about… What’s that?” He squinted at the TV. “Australia. Sure. Broaden your horizons.”
The remote clattered onto the dresser and he headed toward Lisa. “Do you have the time? The Willen took my watch.”
Smirking, she pointed at the digital clock on the nightstand. “Eight o’clock.”
“Great. So we’ll either be fashionably late or who-gives-a-fuck early. Let’s get outta here.”
“What about room service, Johnny?” Luther asked.
“Yeah. You said we’d have dinner in forty minutes. It’s been like a million minutes already.”
“Do the dogs have everything they need?” Lisa asked and looked over her shoulder at them as she headed to the door.
