Magic Edge (5 page)

“This isn’t going quite like you’d pictured it, is it?” he said, the hint of a chuckle speckling his words. He didn’t move in, even though he could have taken her out pretty easily right now.

“No,” she growled. “It really isn’t.”

She angled a kick toward his shin. He sidestepped with a fluidity that took years to master—and few ever did. She tried for his head next. When he evaded that too, she switched to his shoulder. That didn’t work either. Logan was too fast and too strong. And he was really starting to get on her nerves.

“What are you?” she asked. “A vampire hybrid? A shifter mage?” Neither of those sounded quite right.

“I’m not magical. I’m human,” he replied.

She could hardly hear him over the pounding drum beat of her pulse.

“Albeit a genetically-enhanced human,” he added.

“Enhanced?” she asked. “Enhanced for what?”

“Strength, endurance, speed—basically everything I’d need to take down a supernatural.”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” she said.

Not that she was surprised such people existed. Many humans didn’t like the idea of being so vulnerable to the supernaturals. It was only a matter of time before someone managed to develop countermeasures.

“The world is full of surprises,” he said.

Grinning, Alex aimed a kick at his groin. Even the badass assassin Slayer was a man underneath it all. He was too experienced to put up a hand for her to kick into him, but instinct compelled him to protect himself. As he hopped back, she swept her leg across the ground, kicking his feet out from under him the moment he landed.

He fell—but not far. He braced his hands against the floor and flipped back up to his feet. It just wasn’t fair. No one was that good.

“There’s no need to work against each other when we could work together,” Logan said, circling around her.

She matched him step for step. There was no way she was letting someone that fast out of her sight. She’d probably wake up in chains again.

“We would make a good team,” he continued. “My knowledge and experience combined with your magic.”

Alex froze, remembering to move again just in time to narrowly miss a nasty punch to the face.

“I know you have magic,” he said. “Don’t even try to deny it. Only someone with magic could have done
that
to those chains.” He pointed at the frayed ends of shredded metal dangling from her wrists and ankles like demonic jewelry.

“Maybe I used a chemical agent.”

“No,” Logan said. “I checked you. Thoroughly.”

The look in his eyes was provocative, the smile on his lips outright wicked. Alex nearly blushed—until she remembered that she wasn’t attracted to him. Not at all. At least not most of the time. Well, maybe only occasionally.

Ok, fine. If sex had a face, he would be it. His aura screamed power, raw and turbocharged. Maybe he wasn’t made of magic, but there was definitely something magical about him. Especially those eyes. They burned with green fire. She wanted to throw him against the wall and just—

“Why do you hide your magic?” he asked, his words stomping that thought right out of her.

“There’s nothing to hide,” she replied. “Because I have no magic.”

“You’re not human.”

“Neither are you,” she said. “Maybe I’m a genetically-engineered super human, just like you.”

“Cute, Alex. Nice try. But as you might imagine, I know a thing or two about genetically-engineered super humans, and you aren’t one of us.”

“There are more of you?”

“Yes.”

“How many?”

He looked at her for a moment, as though he was going to say something, but then he shook his head. “No. Not yet.”

“Why not?”

“You don’t trust me, so I can’t afford to trust you.”

“Fine,” she said. “Let’s just get this fight over with.”

“As you wish.” His hand darted forward, obviously aiming for her solar plexus.

Oh, no you don’t!
She’d had the wind knocked out of her enough times today already. The broken remnants of her ankle chains swooshed against her legs as she spun out of the way. Logan’s momentum drew him forward, past her. Now in back of him, she swung out the chains dangling from her wrists. They hooked around his arms, and she heaved back. She looped her arm around his head, holding him in a solid lock.

“Got you,” Alex said in triumph. He wouldn’t be breaking out of that hold, no matter how strong he was.

“So you do. Congratulations. It almost makes you forget about that major blow to the ribcage I landed on you, doesn’t it?”

She scowled at him, only to realize that he couldn’t see her expression with his back to her. Phooey. “I beat you fair and square.”

“Using weapons.”

“Weapons? What weapons?” she asked.

“Those chains.”

“You mean the chains you used to tie me up in your basement?”

He expelled a patient sigh. “Well, when you say it like that, of course it sounds bad.”

“It doesn’t just sound bad. It
is
bad,” she told him. “A normal person doesn’t chain people up in his basement. That’s the realm of serial killers and other psychopaths.”

“I’m a genetically-engineered assassin designed to kill supernaturals. I have super strength and speed, and I’ve trained to fight my entire life. When did I ever claim to be normal?”

“Well…you didn’t. I suppose.”

“And as I explained to you, I saved you from death last night. The least you could do is say thank you.”

“Thank you,” she muttered.

“You’re welcome. Now let me go, so we can talk like civilized people.”

Alex loosened her hold but didn’t let go entirely.

“Or would you rather keep fighting it out like barbarians?” he asked.

“Fine,” she said, releasing him.

He pivoted around to face her. “Damn it, Alex. That hurt.” He rolled his head around slowly, stretching it out.

“Good. Maybe now you’ll think twice about chaining people up.”

He sighed. “Let me see your hands.”

She showed them to him. A red rash ring was burned around each of her wrists. Logan unlocked the clamps, and they fell to the ground. He brushed his finger across her wounds.

“That bad?” he asked.

“No,” she lied through clenched teeth. She tried to relax her face—to hide the pain—but her skin was as raw as an uncooked steak.

“I have a cream that might help with that,” he said.

“No, thank you. I’ve been poisoned quite enough times for one week.”

“Are you trying to be difficult, or are you just naturally that way?”

“That depends. Are you trying to be obtuse, or are you just naturally that way?”

“That smart mouth is going to get you into trouble someday,” he told her.

“Thanks for the warning, but it’s about twenty years too late. That day has long since come and gone. But if you stick around long enough, it will surely come again.” She shrugged. “It happens at least once a week.”

His blond eyebrows lifted. “You’d like me to stick around?” He looked happy, but you never could tell with assassins.

Err…
“I said a week, Romeo, not a lifetime.”

“Romeo, huh?”

She tapped her fingers across her arms and waited for him to get to the point.

“I don’t like Romeo,” Logan said. “He mopes about, spouting silly poetry. Then he kills himself with poison because he’s an idiot.”

“There are a few things in between.”

“Yeah, more poetry.” He rolled his eyes. “And more killing.”

“Assassins are no strangers to killing.”

“No, we’re not,” he agreed. “But we are strangers to getting ourselves killed due to idiocy. At least the good assassins are. The others are dead, so I can’t ask their opinion of poetry. Or poison.”

She tried hard not to laugh—but only half succeeded. A garbled chortle burst forth from her lips, and she turned it into a cough. Logan didn’t look fooled.

“I take it from the fact that you haven’t resumed your efforts to chain me to you, that you’ve agreed to take my help in finding the Orbs,” he said.

“Why do I need your help? What can you contribute? Besides the assassin jokes, that is.”

“You want to work with me because I have contacts. I’m in the same circles as the people who will be after that bounty on the Orbs.”

“Circles of assassins and thieves,” she said. “Forgive me if I don’t find your association with them particularly comforting.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”

This time, she didn’t even try to hide the laugh. In fact, she added an extra sarcastic kick to it.

“Look, all that matters is I can get you close to people who might know something about who’s after the Orbs,” he said. “You can take my offer. Or not. But if you don’t, I might decide to collect on that bounty myself.”

Alex sighed. “Fine. You might be useful after all, but I’ll need to run it by Gaelyn first. Where’s my stuff? I’m going to forewarn you now. If you tell me you’ve already pawned it off, I promise I’ll retaliate in kind.”

“Relax. It’s in the other room. Just what sort of assassin do you think I am?”

CHAPTER SEVEN

House of Thieves

AS IT TURNED out, Logan was the sort of assassin who had your stuff cleaned and neatly sorted—you know, after he chained you up in his basement. Alex strapped on all her blades, just in case the assassin decided he’d like to kill her after all. Assassins were fickle like that. She took a moment to greet her boots and then dialed Gaelyn’s number.

“Alexandria,” the immortal answered in his calm, grandfatherly voice.

“Hi. So I kind of got tied up last night.” In an assassin’s basement. “That son of a harpy who bartends at Impulse poisoned me.”

“Alexandria, you must be more careful. That’s twice in one day. You’re putting undue stress on your body.”

Yeah, like she’d asked the vampire elf to bite her, then had run over to Impulse and told the bartender to put poison in her pineapple juice. Gaelyn didn’t coddle his employees. He was a no-nonsense sort of grandfather. Alex had never met either of her grandfathers, but she imagined they must have been just like that.

“I feel ok,” she said, opening and closing her fists. She hopped a few times on one foot, then switched to the other. “All systems in order.”

“I’d still like to take some blood samples to be sure. Your reaction to the vampire venom was most unusual.”

So he hadn’t forgotten about that after all. Damn. “Blood samples. Right. When I have time.” Which would be never, if she could help it. “But I’m not calling about the poison.”

“I’ve heard about the theft of the Blood Orb from Impulse last night.”

His tone was perfectly neutral, but Alex couldn’t help but feel defensive. Probably because she felt guilty.

“Yeah, that happened while I was out from the poison,” she said. “You might want to tell the vampires about the bartender who betrayed them.”

There was a brief pause. “Done.”

Through magical or technological means? Alex didn’t ask. Gaelyn was pretty handy with a smartphone—for an old guy.

“Wait, a minute,” Gaelyn said. “The vampires say the bartender is already dead. Someone found his head in the back room of the bar this morning.”

Yuck. “And the body?”

“Not yet.”

It sounded like someone was tying off loose ends.

“Anything else, Alexandria?” Gaelyn asked.

Logan entered the room and leaned against the wall.

“Uh, yes.” She chewed on her lip. “I’ve found myself a…partner.”

The assassin winked at her.

She stuck her tongue out at him. “Someone to work with me in the investigation.”

“Who?”

“Slayer.”

“The assassin?” Low chuckles rumbled from the other end of the line. “I thought you two hated each other.”

“Yeah, well, I guess we’ll have to look past that to achieve our common goal,” Alex said, looking at Logan.

He rubbed his fingers together.

“Right, so there’s just one little thing.”

“The assassin wants to be paid,” Gaelyn said.

“He claims to have contacts in the criminal underworld who might know who’s after the Orbs.”

“Of that I have no doubt.”

“So, what should I tell him?”

For a moment, Gaelyn didn’t say anything. As the grandfather of the supernatural community, he always worked to keep them safe. Oftentimes, that meant sending Alex or Marek or someone else after monsters or misbehaving supernatural citizens. He wasn’t part of the Magic Council. He was outside of it—above it in many ways because he was so much older than anyone else. The Council members respected him. When he said something, they listened. And he’d told them to keep the supernaturals in check and the humans safe. That was the only way to keep the peace.

Alex wasn’t sure what exactly Gaelyn was. He wasn’t a mage or vampire or fairy. And he wasn’t one of the otherworldly. She did know that while Gaelyn was immortal, his magic had dwindled with the passing years. He didn’t talk about it much, but Marek had told her.

What Gaelyn lacked in magic, though, he more than made up for in money. He’d accumulated a lot of wealth over the millennia and had no problem spending it to protect the supernatural community, even from itself. But he didn’t have much love for assassins.

“All right,” he finally agreed. “Tell your assassin that I’ll pay him for his assistance. But do be careful, Alexandria. Assassins are dangerous enemies and even more dangerous friends. Watch your back.”

“I will,” she assured him, then hung up.

“So, what did he say?” Logan asked as she tucked the phone into her jacket.

“That you’re hired.”

“Excellent.” He pushed off the wall. “And what else?”

“What makes you think there was something else?”

“I just know.”

Alex hoped super hearing wasn’t part of his genetic profile. Or mind reading. She swallowed hard.

“He told me to be careful because assassins cannot be trusted.”

“Sound advice,” he agreed. “Assassins cannot be trusted.”

“Indeed.”

“But I won’t betray you, Alex.”

“You’d better not. I have no problem stapling you to the wall.”

She followed him through a set of double doors. The words ‘Hell on Earth’ were spray-painted in glittery pink letters across them. As they passed into an open hall, Alex realized she hadn’t, in fact, been chained up in the basement but just a mostly windowless room. More graffiti covered the walls: a lot of supernatural motifs, as well as some skulls and crossbones, a few roses, and a duck procession that would have belonged better on a preschool wall.