Magic, New Mexico_A Touch of Death Read online

  Righteous anger surged through her then. I have spent my whole life doing things for the good of our people. Carrying the weight of being a Darkmore, spending my days doing work for our kind. And the moment Bryant is gone, they challenge me?

  I am Lady Alexa of Darkmore Manor. Draven and his ilk have no idea what I can do. From now on, no one will see my fear, or my grief. I will find this champion, and we will win. Then they will see a woman who can lead them. A woman who can protect them. A woman who will carry on the Darkmore legacy.

  She snapped the umbrella shut, making her way swiftly to her car.

  I have less than a week to save us all.

  ***

  Somewhere in the shadows, Draven Cerberus frowned. Flames danced in the center of his palm as he watched Alexa and the witch with her troublesome prophecies. He couldn’t hear her, but her prophecies had been far too accurate in the past.

  This can’t be good.

  He had planned every single detail of his acquisition of the house of Darkmore. And its Lady. He would give Alexa a small amount of time to mourn her dead brother, enough time that other houses wouldn’t find his actions too crass, and then he would challenge her as leader of the clan. There would be a vote, and as much as he had threatened and bribed, the vote would be even.

  Damn Jareth and Lorcan and their loyalty to a bunch of dead Darkmores. Everyone knows Alexa can’t rule the Darkmore house alone. She needs a man by her side to lead.

  Then, because there was no clear winner, he would propose the customary fight to the death.

  Alexa would know she had no chance of winning. She would be desperate.

  Then, privately, he would make her the offer. Take his hand in marriage, and save her life and her pride.

  With no other option, she would agree.

  His groin tightened at the thought. Beautiful Alexa. A woman who always seemed so untouchable. How many nights had he dreamed of sharing a bed with her? Of claiming her as his?

  He would have power, and he would have her. At last, he would be content.

  And then, the real work would begin. He was tired of hiding who he was just to protect the humans of Mist. He was tired of the other magical beings thinking they were equal to vampires. We have powers for a reason. And humans are our food. Lions are not friends with gazelles.

  A sneer tore from his lips. His reign would be one of chaos, blood, and power. The law of the jungle. As it always has been. As it was meant to be.

  He followed Alexa in the shadows, watching as she climbed into her car and tore out of the parking lot. A minute later, a second car, driven by his werewolf Tracker made the slightest sound as it followed after her. He caught the faintest shimmer of sunlight reflecting off the metal of his Tracker’s invisible car, and then both vehicles disappeared from view.

  Whatever she was planning, he’d know soon enough.

  Nothing would stop him now.

  Another car pulled into the parking lot. An older woman with white flowers stepped out, opening her umbrella. Even from a distance, he could smell the scent of her sweet blood.

  He was tired of reheated blood in bags and the willing, pathetic Feeders who allowed him to sink his teeth into them. Draven wanted to see the panic in a human’s eyes. To smell their fear. He wanted to drink from them until the life left their body, and then tear their throat to shreds, just for the fun of it.

  The old woman knelt at a grave, her back to him.

  He smiled. Today would mark the end of peace in Mist. This woman would be the first to die. And after that, many, many more bodies would litter the ground.

  The streets will run with blood.

  His feet sank through the wet grass as he silently made his way to his first victim.

  Chapter Two

  Brendan stumbled, a soft hiss escaping his lips as his injured arm brushed the side of the brick building. For one long second, the world spun. Bile rose in the back of his throat as he fought the wave of pain that threatened to sweep him into unconsciousness.

  They’re right behind me. If I slow, I’m dead. And if I die, I can’t retrieve the communicator. They’ll continue their torture of innocent lives.

  In his mind, he heard the screaming that echoed through the labs where he was tortured. No matter the cost, I have to keep going. I have to stop them.

  Even though he couldn’t feel his feet touching the ground, and he knew he walked slightly tilted, desperately trying to keep his balance, he kept moving. His shifter senses meant that his vision was better than a human’s in the dark, but it was his sense of smell that flooded him. Because even from this distance, he could smell the pack of shape-shifting aliens close behind. Other magical creatures might think they were nothing more than a pack of werewolves, but he knew better.

  Tonight may just be the night they finally kill me.

  As he slid along the glass window of an antiques shop, leaving a bloody smear behind, his limp became more pronounced. For two months he’d been running from this pack, trying to accomplish his mission. He’d killed half a dozen of them. But his wounds never had time to fully heal because he never had time to slow. They hunted him in the light and in the dark. They hunted him across state after state as he tried to get the digital map to tell him a more specific location where the device was concealed.

  It’s taken me too long to figure out where to go.

  That damn alien technology never pinpointed an exact location until I crossed the boundary to New Mexico. Then, it had landed on Magic. Before that, he’d never even known Magic, New Mexico existed.

  The shape-shifting aliens might be determined to take his life, but unluckily for them, he was just as determined to live. Despite his broken arm. Despite the gashes on his face, arms, and legs. And despite the older broken bones and gashes that still ached when he moved.

  All I need is one night to rest. To heal. Then, they could never catch me.

  A howl seemed to vibrate through the air.

  They’re too close. And gaining on me.

  He wanted to shift, but there wasn’t time. And frankly, he wasn’t sure he had the strength to complete the transformation. Unlike the pure alien shifters, who could change in an instant, his hybrid nature had only mastered one form—that of the wolf. And it was a longer and more painful transition.

  Yet, they’re so proud of their abomination. Their first human-alien hybrid…at least the first to survive their experiments.

  Well, now the second.

  But if they get their way it will be back to just one.

  Behind him, his keen ears picked up the sound of dozens of paws slapping against the pavement.

  His blood would lead them straight to him. His scent.

  Turning down an alley, he limped forward, glancing behind him even though it cost him a precious second. But when he turned back, he came face-to-face with the high fence that blocked him in. At any other time, he could easily scale it. He gritted his teeth. But not tonight. Not when I’m this injured.

  He started back the way he’d come, but paused.

  Suddenly they were there. Beneath the yellow-tinted streetlight, a pack of at least a dozen alien were wolves waited. Their lips were pulled back in snarls that sent goose bumps racing down his spine. The light glinted off their razor-sharp teeth as they slowly stalked toward him.

  Backing up, he tried to think of any way out. Any way that tonight would not end in his death. But the truth was a vicious, painful thing. There was no way out.

  But the device must be activated. They cannot continue to create more human-alien hybrids like me!

  When his back hit the fence, he froze. Even though death was imminent, he was bound and determined to go down fighting. Even if he couldn’t think of a more painful way to go than being torn apart by a pack of vicious alien beasts.

  Ten feet from him, the largest wolf shivered and shifted, slowly rising as a naked middle-aged man with jet-black hair. Aghader’s human form. “Brendan, you bastard.”

  Brendan clenched hi
s teeth, his sarcastic response coming out before he could stop it. “Aghader, how’s the eye?”

  Aghader snarled, which only further emphasized the scars across one side of his face. And the hazy white eyeball that was all that remained of his ruined eye. “You will pay for that, and every other infraction you’ve made against us, traitor.”

  Brendan’s blood dripped in a steady rhythm beneath his feet. “I’m sure I will, but I wonder how many more of you I’ll take down before I go.”

  The wolves snarled around Aghader, their dark, multicolored fur standing on end. “Come on, boy.” Aghader took a step forward. “You can’t possibly win against us. But I’ll tell you what, if you give me the map, I’ll make it quick.”

  He means he doesn’t want me killing anymore of them in my final battle.

  Brendan smirked, even though his head was spinning faster and faster. “Sorry, old man, no can do.”

  Aghader shook his head. “You never could just obey, could you?” His tone gentled, if only for a moment. “You could have been great. The fastest. The strongest. Our greatest enforcer. But you had to have a—“

  “A crisis of conscience?”Brendan filled in, followed by a hollow laugh. “That’s my downfall, Aghader. You might have made me into a monster, but no matter how hard you tried, you could never take away my humanity. And that’s something you all lack.”

  Seeing their underground lab filled with pleading humans and dead bodies changed everything. It didn’t matter that I was sure they’d kill me before I could help; I had to steal the map and escape. I had to find a way to stop their experimentation.

  A curtain seemed to fall over Aghader’s face. “And just as I always warned, it’s going to be the death of you.”

  I need to survive. To save the others.

  Brendan spread his legs into a fighter’s stance, even though the movement had his vision blackening for a precious second. “But you should know, I don’t have the map anymore. I destroyed it.”

  Aghader stiffened. “You’re lying.”

  “I’m not.”

  His one good eye blazed with anger. “But you know the device’s location?”

  “Yep. I guess if you kill me, you’ll never know.”

  Aghader looked troubled for one brief moment before a smile curled his lips. “You heard him, boys. The goal is to make this painful. To disable him. And then we’ll take him home and torture him until we learn the whereabouts of the communicator.”

  Brendan tensed. That didn’t go the way I planned.

  The alien shifters prowled forward. Their fur seemed to absorb the light from around them, making them more creatures of nightmares rather than the werewolves they strove to mimic.

  And then a dark shape leaped down from the top of the building, soundlessly falling into a crouch on the pavement in front of him. The woman, because she clearly was one, turned and looked back at him over her shoulder.

  His breath caught. She was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. Her high cheekbones were flushed, rosy against her pale skin. Dark, shapely brows arched over stunning hazel eyes.

  Even the ones chasing him stood frozen.

  For one second, so short it was like a trick of the light, she gave him a reassuring smile, her features gentling. It made her look younger. Familiar.

  Alexa. He inhaled a breath. After all these years, could it really be her?

  Then her full lips opened slightly, flashing her sharpened canines.

  She’s a vampire? Whether he felt attraction or fear, he couldn’t be certain, but he was shocked. He’d met only a couple vampires since the aliens took him—before that, he thought of them as more creatures of legend. But now, staring at Alexa, a woman who gracefully leaped from a building and had the sharpened canines of a vampire, there was no doubt. Was she a vampire in high school? Or was she changed later, like me?

  Then she turned away from him, breaking the spell.

  She rose from her crouched position with a fluidity that told him she was a creature of magic, even if her leap from the building hadn’t.

  Before her, neither the wolves nor Aghader moved, but all continued to watch her with unspoken wonder. She was a beauty. An angel. Something delicate and graceful. Flawless splendor in a world filled with ugliness.

  The white jumpsuit she wore barely reached her upper thighs, showing off her long, bare, shapely legs. She screamed of money and privilege, from her clothing to the way she held herself.

  “Wolves.” Her voice held a confidence that bordered on arrogance. “What seems to be the trouble here?”

  Aghader’s shoulder went back, his gaze sliding over her curves with a greediness that made Brendan growl low in warning. “Nothing to concern you. Just dealing out a little punishment for a traitor.”

  “A traitor?”One eyebrow lifted but there was no surprise in her voice, only curiosity.

  “Yes.” Aghader’s gaze darted from Brendan to the woman, and Brendan knew he would soon spin his lies. “He went wild, killing a half dozen wolves in his pack without provocation. But no need to fear him, we will deal with him here and now.”

  She looked back at Brendan, and he tried to stand taller, even though the motion made his head spin again. “This creature killed six shifters?” Slowly, she walked toward him, her movements sensual. “He doesn’t look like a vicious monster to me. Perhaps he just needs taming.”

  To his surprise, when she got close enough, she reached out a hand and stroked the dusting of a beard on his chin. Standing on the tiptoes of her black boots, she leaned in. Her scent, a sweet combination of rain and freshly cut grass, filled his nostrils. Her tongue licked the blood from his earlobe, and her voice came soft as the wind.

  “Agree to be my champion, and I will save your life.”

  His eyes widened as a shudder racked his body. What had she said? Her champion? His mind worked quickly. With the wolves there was certain death. With this…vampire, there was a chance at life.

  And I would do anything for Alexa, now or then.

  “Agreed.”

  She moved back from him, pausing as her brows drew together as she gazed at his face. Does she recognize me too? Then, her expression changed into one of arrogance once more as she whirled around to face the pack of enraged animals behind her.

  “What is the name of your pack?”

  Aghader straightened. “The Shadow Keepers.”

  “A pack that I believe has territory on Lord Cerberus’s lands. If I’m not mistaken. And I rarely am.”

  The alien’s lips pulled into a thin line. “It is…I’m sorry, I don’t believe I caught your name.”

  She rested a hand on one hip, confidence oozing from her. “Me?” She huffed as if insulted. “I am Lady Alexa Darkmore of Mist.”

  He almost laughed at the shock he saw on their faces. Who is she that these aliens are scared of her?

  Brendan stared at her slender back as she faced them, his memories casting back to nearly ten years ago when he’d been a sophomore attending Night High School in Mist. Alexa Darkmore had been the most popular girl in school. To most of the people there, she was a stunning, wealthy girl who entered every room as if she owned it. Whom even the teachers seemed to bow down to.

  But to him? To him she was the girl who changed everything in one night, even though they’d barely spoken before, or since.

  Why does it feel like tonight will be another night like that—when her presence changes everything?

  “Or if you don’t recognize me by that name, perhaps you’ve heard of my other title. Lady of Death.”

  The name sent a ripple of fear through the group. The wolves lowered themselves to the ground, as if acknowledging her dominance. Even Aghader took several steps back, looking between her hands and her face in shock.

  Lady of Death? Why do they call her that? He’d heard the name whispered once or twice, but never paid attention to what was said.

  “Well, Miss Alexa,” Aghader said, stumbling over his words as he awkwardly dropped h
is hands down to hide his nakedness. “This matter—“

  “Lady Darkmore,” she corrected.

  He froze, then continued more slowly. “Lady Darkmore. This isn’t a matter for the vampires.”

  She patted her hair, which was stunningly braided to frame her delicate features. “You are right that normally the discipline between wolf packs is none of a vampire’s business.”

  Aghader visibly relaxed. “Thank you, ma’am. I mean, Lady Darkmore.”

  “Wait.” She held up a perfectly manicure hand. “I said normally. But I believe in this case I must remind you of the rules. The Darkmores may not rule your territory, but our good friends the Cerberuses do, and we rule them. When they allowed you within their boundaries, it was with the understanding that you were never to infringe upon vampire matters.”

  “Like I said,” Aghader emphasized, the wolves around watching the exchange with narrowed eyes. “This is not a vampire matter.”

  “Oh?” There was a smirk in her voice. “But it is, my dear. For what else could you call your attack on my champion?”

  Aghader’s one good eye widened. “Your what?”

  “My champion.” She turned and gave Brendan a sweet smile. “I have claimed him as my own. And he is very, very important to me. More important than you could possibly imagine. Now, when I first entered this…” She looked around, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “…place, I had determined to make a request of your vampire lord to throw you from his lands, even though it would mean that your pack would no longer have a territory of their own. However, after listening to your reasons for this attack, I have determined that my champion behaved rather badly, and perhaps deserved the beating he received.”

  Aghader’s mouth hung open. Every wolf was watching the beautiful vampire, glued to her as if there was nothing more important than what she might say next.

  “But,” she emphasized, her hips swinging slightly as she moved closer to him. “I have need of him now. So it is time for you to be on your way.”

  Aghader finally closed his mouth.”My lady, surely you must understand—“