Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,75

skin was melting off. Asshole. I hated fire spells. They weren’t difficult, as aggressive magic went, and were, in my opinion, the lazy man’s go-to magic when he didn’t want to be bothered with something that took a little effort and originality.

“Come on! Don’t even pretend that you’re sorry Simon is gone,” I said, forcing out a laugh. Sweat was pouring down my face, leaking into my eyes, so that it was becoming difficult to see. My body was screaming for me to get out of there, but my mind was torn between maintaining my protective shield and dissecting the fire spell. I had always thought that William was a decent warlock, so he had to be up to something else.

Just as I finished unraveling the spell and was dousing the flames, a pair of blades shot through the last of the fire. The first bounced off the shield while the second embedded itself in the barrier, stopping a bare inch away from my stomach. I grabbed the blade from where it hung in the air with my left hand.

William frowned to see me unharmed. “It’s not about being sorry that Master Thorn is dead,” Billy began a bit stiffly, as if insulted by my saying that he might be concerned about Simon’s well-being. “It’s that someone like you succeeded in doing him any harm.”

“Yeah, should have lain down and died,” I said while strengthening my protection spell.

“Exactly.” William smiled as he switched to an ice spell. I had been expecting it. It was like he was thumbing through a teaching syllabus for a new apprentice. There wasn’t an original thought in his little brain. I was beginning to wonder if he had come after me to earn himself some street cred in the Towers, because I couldn’t imagine that he was all that well respected. Fucking puss.

With a wave of my hand, I blocked his new spell before it could jump from his fingertips and then smiled when a new sound entered the area. Gritting my teeth, I pulled in as much energy as I could before shoving it at William. The warlock’s eyes went wide as the force hit him from the side rather than head-on as he was expecting. Still on his feet, he slid several yards to the right into the street and into the path of what turned out to be an approaching pickup truck.

Tires squealed as the driver slammed on the brakes before the sickening crush of steel hitting flesh and bone echoed through the park. Switching the knife to my right hand, I ran over to where Billy was groaning on the ground. The truck couldn’t have been going more than thirty-five, so Billy wasn’t killed by the impact, but he was in pain. Dropping to one knee, I raised the blade and hesitated. Could I do this? My gaze flashed to his blood-streaked face and in his eyes I saw blazing hatred—not fear. If I didn’t kill him, he’d come back. He’d kill me. He’d kill Trixie.

The blade arced downward, fast and straight, plunging into his chest. Billy gave one last cry and died. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. My hand flashed out and the figure was thrown against the side of the truck, trapped. When I looked up, I saw the driver watching me from where he was pinned against the side panel. The large man’s face was sickly white and his brown eyes were so wide I was afraid they’d fall out of their sockets.

“You okay?” I asked, pushing to my feet while releasing him from the spell.

He nodded, cringing back into the crumpled steel. I paused to look at the front of his truck. It looked to be one of those diesel-guzzling monsters that sound like a semi. It took a little more damage than I would have expected, but then he hadn’t had much time to stop.

“Sorry about your truck. Your insurance cover acts of warlock?”

He nodded jerkily, still looking dazed and terrified.

“Good. If you could wait a few minutes before calling the cops, I’d appreciate it.”

“You’re . . . a . . . a warlock?”

I frowned. “Yeah.”

“You gonna kill me?”

“No.”

The fear didn’t completely ease from his face as his eyes jumped to Billy’s body. “Was he a warlock?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you sure he’s dead?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re not going to kill me?” he asked again, with no small amount of skepticism filling his deep voice.

“No, I think I’ve done enough of that today,” I muttered as