Heart of Vengeance (Alice Worth #6) - Lisa Edmonds Page 0,6
dead or out cold.
I heard slow clapping and turned. Nora stood in the mouth of the alley, flanked by four more goons with guns raised. “Alice, it’s lovely to see you again. It feels like fate keeps bringing us together.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not fate; it’s that your dick bosses keep sending you on little errands.”
Her smile vanished. “My orders are to bring him in. You can come too, if you like.” She pulled a pair of spell cuffs from her belt and twirled them around her finger. “Just slip these on like a good girl and I’ll make sure you get there without so much as a scratch.”
“I think we’ll take door number two,” I said, inching in front of Daniel. He growled.
“There is no door number two, sunshine.” She dangled the cuffs. “It’s my way…or the dead way.”
“Moses needs me alive,” I murmured to Daniel. “She can’t kill me, but she can kill you. I’ll buy you some time to get out of here. When you can, get to Sean Maclin, my partner. Our pack will protect you.”
He snarled. “I’m not leaving, and I’m not bringing danger to any pack, especially not yours.”
“Come on, Alice,” Nora called. “Don’t make me insist. I don’t know why you’re here, but it’s time for you to either run along home or decide to come with Mr. Holiday and visit my boss. I know he’d love to see you.”
She had no idea how badly Moses wanted me, or why. Moses had to make sure no one knew I was really his granddaughter, who’d supposedly died five years ago in an accident at his compound in Baltimore. If that news got out, everyone would be after me, from the feds to every cabal in the country, and every Vampire Court too.
“Do you have somewhere safe to go?” I asked Daniel.
He growled and didn’t answer, but I saw from his expression that he did have a place to go.
“Do this for me,” I said. I knew it wasn’t fair of me, and the last thing I wanted to do was to send him away when we’d only just found each other, but I wanted him far away from Nora. “Come find me soon. We have a lot to talk about.”
He planted his feet shoulder width apart. “You can’t fight them all by yourself.”
I smiled. “I’m not by myself. Trust me, Daniel.” I paused. “The first album I ever bought was Dark Side of the Moon. When you come find me again, we’ll listen to it together.”
He stilled, his face a mask of both pain and wonder.
“Go.” I repeated. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two mages and two goons at the opposite end of the alley. Malcolm floated behind them, unseen and waiting for my signal. He gave me a thumbs-up.
I turned back to Nora. “A while back, I told you we’d have to take a rain check and finish that conversation another day.”
Magic spooled around my arms in every color of the rainbow. My cells buzzed with the magic I’d absorbed from the sorcerer I’d killed. The power was enormous and strange and I was only just beginning to learn how to use it.
It was also slowly killing me, but that was a problem I’d have to solve another day.
My wolf raised her head and growled. My eyes grew warm and my vision went gold around the edges. “How about we finish it today?” I asked Nora.
She stared. The goons with her exchanged glances.
Beside me, Daniel smiled at her. It was a purely predatory smile—one I used myself from time to time. I guessed I knew now where I’d gotten it from. If he was weirded out by my magic or my wolf, he didn’t let on.
“You want to play?” I asked Nora. “Then let’s play.”
Instead of leaving, Daniel dropped to his knees and shifted in a surge of golden shifter magic. His wolf was enormous: dark gray with a band of black fur across his shoulders. He flattened his ears back against his head and showed Nora all of his teeth.
It occurred to me Daniel had just as much reason to hate Nora and anyone else from Moses’s cabal as I did. Fair enough—we could do this together.
My wolf prowled restlessly. My skin prickled like fur was pushing at it from the inside. She wanted out. I feared releasing her, because once she left my body I had no control over what she did. However, my desire to