I snorted and turned toward the door, feeling very much like I was missing some key piece of information. His comment about Swift...it meant more than he was letting on. It seemed like he had more to say but had decided against it at the last moment.

  I opened the door and Swift took a breath of relief.

  “Aww, were you worried?” I asked as we strode toward the elevator.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” she denied.

  My phone rang, interrupting our heartfelt moment. The caller ID showed Rune Rentals, but only one person ever called me from that number.

  “Blackwell,” I said as I answered the call.

  “Hey, Blackwell, it’s Billy,” he said excitedly, practically shouting into the receiver.

  I held the phone away from my ear slightly. “Tell me you have good news,” I responded eagerly.

  “Well...that just depends on how you look at it,” Billy said, sounding shifty all of a sudden.

  “Billy, spit it out,” I warned. That caught Swift’s attention, and she leaned in a little to listen. Billy was certainly talking loud enough for her to hear.

  “I have a car for you, but...it was planned for demolition anyhow,” Billy hedged.

  “What the hell kind of car is it?” I demanded.

  “Oops, I’ve gotta go, my shift is over. You can get the keys from George!” Billy said, hanging up abruptly.

  I lowered the phone and glared at it.

  Fifteen

  I unlocked the new rental car and cringed at the high-pitched beep. My GTR was gone. Forever. And I was stuck with The Clunker. I could have lived with it if they had given me a soccer mom car, but what I got instead was something that they must have scraped out of a back lot just to punish me. It was a pale yellow El Camino. The piece of crap didn’t know if it was a truck, or a car.

  “I can’t believe they gave you this car,” Swift said.

  “It’s hideous—” “It’s so cool,” we said at the same time.

  I glared at Swift. “Seriously? Cool? Look at it!” I said, pointing at the offensive yellow paint and the long, useless bed where a trunk should be.

  “It’s a classic!” Swift argued, her eyes snapping with barely contained magic. She had a temper that I was learning went from zero to a hundred in no time at all. “I’ve always wanted one.”

  I stared at her, too appalled for words. This car was an abomination. An insult to everything I held dear.

  “Let me drive if you hate it so much,” she said, sticking out her hand.

  “No way,” I said, marching toward the driver's side. “You’re never getting to drive.”

  “Chauvinistic asshole,” Swift muttered as she pulled open the passenger door and climbed in, slamming the door shut behind her. The leather seats creaked as she sat down.

  “I’m not a chauvinist, though I am an asshole,” I said, cranking the engine. It sounded anemic, and I knew this thing would end up lumbering around turns instead of hugging them like the GTR. “I wouldn’t let you drive even if you were a guy.”

  “That doesn’t make it better,” Swift argued, throwing her hands in the air.

  “Sure it does,” I said, merging with the traffic. Thankfully, her contact was only a fifteen-minute drive away. I didn’t think I could stand any longer than that in this thing. “I may be an ass, but I’m not actually a bad guy. There’s a difference.”

  “The only difference is—”

  Her words were cut off as an SUV rammed the back of the car. We spun out into the intersection and I tried to steer away from oncoming traffic, but another car clipped the front bumper. The force of the impact whipped us around for a third time. My shoulder hit the glass hard, and my teeth bit into my cheek.

  I slammed on the brakes and we skidded to a halt. Pink magic glowed around Swift’s hand as she began to summon her mace. She kicked her door open, sending it skidding across the asphalt before she jumped out into the street.

  Smoke was pouring from under the hood, and, of course, my seatbelt was stuck. There was no way I was dying in this junker. I pulled the knife from my ankle holster and cut through it, ripping it free, then forced my door open and climbed out. But instead of stepping onto asphalt, I fell.

  Darkness blurred my vision, and the oppressive cold of the shadow magic stole the breath from my lungs. There was not a single magic user more annoying than Shadow Mages. If you couldn’t avoid the portals they created, there wasn’t much you could do to counter them. And they were a bitch to catch up to if they fled.

  I fought against the magic for a moment, but without being able to breathe or move, it was a losing battle. I had another option, but there was no telling what might happen if I used that. I’d just have to see what was at the other end of the rabbit hole.

  Sixteen

  Drip. Drip. Drip.

  The noise made me want to rip my ears off. Heeled shoes tapped across the concrete floor and someone stopped in front of me.

  “Quit pretending you’re still unconscious,” a familiar, threatening voice said. “I can sense that you’re awake, idiot.”

  “Please tell me the car is totaled,” I groaned as I forced my eyes open. I was tied to a chair in some sort of grimy, underground warehouse. The kind of place B-movie villains committed all their torture and ill-advised drug deals.

  “The what?” the woman who had threatened me the night before asked, crossing her arms as she peered down at me.

  “Yellow El Camino,” I said, testing how tightly my arms were bound. Very tightly was the answer. “There’s no way you missed it.”

  The woman rolled her eyes. “I should have gagged you.”

  “Kinky,” I said, winking at her. “My safe-word is potato.” All my things lay in a pile behind her, including my katana, which sucked on several different levels. I didn’t expect the bad guys to leave me armed, but they’d have been safer if I still had the sword; they just didn’t know that yet.

  The woman glanced at her watch. “You have about an hour left to live. Any last requests?”

  “Let me go?” I asked. She looked at me, unimpressed, and I shrugged. “I had to try.”

  A sharp knock rapped against the door. She walked over, her heeled boots echoing off the concrete and metal. She cracked the door and began a quiet conversation with whoever was on the other side.

  I craned my head over my shoulder, getting a look at the ropes around my arms and checking to see if they had Swift stashed in here somewhere. However, I was the only prisoner, which meant I was bait. Most likely for Swift.

  There was no way to tell exactly how much time had passed, but I didn’t think it had been long. My head felt fuzzy, but my shoulder was still sore from the wreck; and the inside of my cheek was still bleeding sluggishly.

  “You’re not getting out of those ropes, just in case you were going to waste your time trying. They’re heavily enchanted,” the woman commented as she walked back. The bald guy who had attacked Swift and me in the street trailed behind her. He sneered at me, but it was even less effective with the actually scary mage standing in front of him.

  “So is this all some elaborate ploy to draw Swift in, then kill us both?” I asked, curling my hand into a fist. If I wanted to do this without dying – and I did, just for the record – then I needed a little time.

  “It’s fairly simple, actually,” the woman said, her eyes flicking back to me. “We took you, and now Swift will come and attempt your rescue. We would have killed her on the street, but kidnapping you was much cleaner. We try to keep our disputes under wraps when we can. It’s uncivil to make a scene in public.”

  “What exactly is your issue with her, by the way? That’s always been a little unclear,” I said. Maybe the bad guys would be honest with me about who she was and what she had done if no one else would. “Consider it my dying request,” I added with a grin.

  The woman pursed her lips, considering answering for a moment. “Lexi Swift is a thief and a disgrace to her family name. I’ll consider it an honor to take her head.”

  Well, that was something. I had a hard time imagining her stealing anything with her aggressive belief in following the rules though. “A thief, huh? What did she steal exactly?”

  “Definitely should have gagged you,” the woman muttered, turning away and pulling out her phone.

  If I wasn’t going to get anything else useful out of her, then it was time for me to bust out of here.

  I kept my magical energy tightly under wraps. When people felt it, I always got an odd reaction. Some people thought I felt pathetically weak, normally a sign they were weak themselves, or they felt the full depth of my energy and freaked out. I wasn’t all-powerful. In reality, I was weaker than most mages, but only because I couldn’t use the magic I had. It was too dangerous, except for situations like this where it was either die, or die trying.

  Seventeen

  My fists shook as I reached into that dark part of myself that I normally tried to pretend didn’t exist.

  After my parents' murders, I had been on the verge of going completely insane. Master Hiko took me under his wing and gave me a chance. That chance was the katana. It suppressed my magic enough that I could focus it and actually use it without risking death.

  Over the years my Master had made me practice without the katana, but I hated it. I liked being in control. I liked getting my way. The magic didn’t care. All it wanted was mayhem.

  “When are you expecting Swift to show up?” I asked, some of the strain showing in my voice. I just wanted to get enough energy in my hand to blast these ropes off my arms. The trick was do that without blasting off my actual arms.

  “Don’t worry. Your girlfriend will be here any minute now,” Baldy sneered. “She can watch you die first.”

  “Rude, it’s always ladies first,” I retorted, digging my nails into my palm as the shaking traveled up my arms. “Besides, she is definitely not my girlfriend. I like women with a little more class.”

  The door flew open, skidding across the floor with Swift perched on top like a skateboard.

  “You’re one to talk, Blackwell,” Swift shouted, pointing her mace at me. Her eyes glowed fiercely, and her magical signature flared out of her like a warning. I was resentfully impressed. She had also arrived about thirty seconds too late.

  “Hey Swift,” I shouted back.

  “What?” she snapped.

  “Run,” I growled out. Behind me, the mayhem magic flared out, popping like a gunshot. The ropes melted away like ice cream on a hot day in Texas, but it didn’t stop. Of course not. That would have been too easy.

  I snapped my arms forward and the chaotic energy flew over me, smashing down in the place where the female mage had stood. The concrete crumbled into a crater of dust about three meters wide. A whisper of a shadow formed to my left. I jerked back and slung the magic there instead, but the Shadow Mage was already gone again. She was obnoxiously speedy.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Swift demanded, locked in a struggle with Baldy.

  “I can’t hold this back much longer, just run!” I yelled back, turning in a slow circle. The magic I was born with was unruly, and almost uncontrollable. And now that I had let it loose, there was no turning back.

  The Shadow Mage hadn’t fled; I could still feel her like a bad sunburn. The heat of her magic hovered at the edge of my senses.

  I felt a rush of air at my back and ducked just in time for a blast of cold energy to fly over my head. I shoved my arm back, and the mayhem magic surged toward the Shadow Mage, following her into her portal. I guess it was time to find out what happened when those magics collided.

  Swift kicked Baldy with a shout. He tripped over his own feet and fell on his back. She brought her mace down on his head, and that, folks, was that. She really seemed to have a thing with smashing in heads. I made a mental note to not piss her off so often.

  A twisting shadow tore the air itself apart, then hovered there, twitching. “Swift, I think we really need to run,” I said, taking a step back. The magic shuddered in response to whatever was happening inside that portal. “Now!” I shouted, turning and running toward her.

  Swift’s eyes went wide, and she finally took my warning seriously. She sprinted toward the door as well. I slid to a halt, snatched up my katana, then chased after her.

  The air split open behind me, and the Shadow Mage reached out of the portal. Black lines crawled up her face as the crazed energy consumed her. She shrieked, her hand outstretched as if we might save her.

  Her torso dropped free of the portal, trailing guts and blood behind her. It had cut her in half. The magic ballooned out, swallowing up her remains, and then exploded.

  Swift leapt through the doorway as the blast forced me through right after her. I wrapped one arm around her waist, lifted my katana like a shield, and smacked my palm against the rune on the pommel. Magic flared from it, and a bright, blue shield wrapped around us as we were engulfed in the mayhem magic.

  Eighteen

  Encased in the shield we were safe, but it sure as hell didn’t feel safe. The force of the blast launched us through the air. Rubble and dust flew around us, making it impossible to see. A chunk of concrete the size of a bus hit us from above. We smashed into the ground, trapped beneath it.

  “What was that?” Swift asked, breathless. My shield was still active but was starting to crack. “I’ve never seen a mage destroy an entire building with one spell before.” Her glowing eyes blinked awfully close to my face. I pushed myself off her, but my back hit the shield.

  “After getting kidnapped and nearly killed, I think it's time you answered my questions,” I said with a glare. This had gone on long enough. Either she would answer, or Bradley and I were going to have a long – possibly violent – chat. Honestly, I still didn’t want Swift as my partner so I would likely have that chat anyway.

  She crossed her arms between us, jabbing her elbow into my still sore ribs in the process. “Chief Bradley instructed me to—”

  “Stop citing the rules, and stop trying to blame this on Bradley. You just don’t want to tell me,” I snapped. My eyes were adjusting to the darkness, and I could see that she looked just as angry as I felt.

  She ground her teeth together. “My family is trying to kill me,” Swift said finally. “I’ve been disavowed, which is almost like being disowned, but it comes with a price on your head.”

  I groaned and rolled to the side, forcing her to scoot over so I could lie down and be trapped in a more comfortable position. I wasn’t sure how much longer my shield would hold the rubble above us, but I figured that could wait until I got some answers. “And who, exactly, is your family?”

  “They’re with the Mage’s Guild,” she muttered.

  The Mage’s Guild ruled over all supernaturals, and they still do; but since the Magical Revolution, they had attempted to work with prosaic governments instead of outside of them.

  “Which sect?” I demanded.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Swift said. Magic glowed around her hand and she shifted a little farther away from me.

  “Wait, what are you doing?” I asked. Surely she wouldn’t.

  “Getting out of here,” she said, before punching straight through my cracked shield and the concrete that lay over us.

  Like I said, crazy.

  The slab of concrete cracked, dust falling from it. She punched it again, then planted both hands on it, and pushed. It creaked and lifted as she sat up. Berserker Mages had ridiculous levels of strength. I wasn’t sure if I should be turned on or scared, but I was edging toward scared.

  She gritted her teeth, and the bright magic flared from her eyes and hands. With a shout, she stood and threw the massive pylon off us.

  I climbed to my feet, my jaw dropping as I took in the crater behind us. The bits of the building that had survived the blast were strewn in every direction. Most of it had been turned to dust though. Luckily, the warehouse was surrounded by a large parking lot. If this had been in the city...well...it was better not to think about the alternative.

  I clambered on top of the concrete Swift had tossed off us and stared down into the blast zone. The crater was at least nine meters deep. I tightened my hold on the katana. This was why I didn’t like using the mayhem magic without it.

  “I’m so getting fired for this,” I said, looking out over the devastation.

  “You’re lucky I haven’t fired you on the spot!” Bradley roared, pacing in front of us. “You were supposed to keep him in line, not drag him into more trouble!” His face was so red it was verging on purple. He had to stop and breathe at some point or he was going to just pass out. “The Mayor’s office called me twice about this latest incident, and I can’t even sell it as for the greater good. This is just a cluster fuck!”

  So maybe he didn’t need to breathe after all. I crossed my ankle over my knee and settled in for a long-winded ass chewing. When Bradley got started like this, there was no point in arguing or reasoning with the man, you just had to let him vent. Loudly.

  Swift was stiff beside me, apparently taking the rant to heart. I snorted, internally, of course. She was too attached to the rules. I had broken them so often I was immune to any sort of guilt trip. I could understand why she might feel guilty though; after all, this was completely her fault.

  “Blackwell! Are you even listening?” Bradley shouted, jabbing his finger in my face.

  “Of course, sir,” I said hastily. I had definitely not been listening, but I could guess what he had said. “And you have my word it won’t happen again. I’m making it my New Year’s resolution not to destroy any more buildings.”

  Bradley’s cheeks puffed out as he attempted to contain whatever tirade he wanted to rain down on me. “You…irresponsible….undeserving…cocky…arrogant…asswipe!” He exploded on the last word, slinging his arms wide. “It’s not even January!”

 

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