Dreamwalker (Stormwalker #5) - Allyson James Page 0,3
of dragons in human form—not nice, sexy dragons like Mick, but serious kill-anyone-who-pisses-us-off type dragons.
The feel wasn’t right, though. Dragons give off an aura of fiery red, which sparks if you get too close. I’d been living with Mick long enough to recognize dragon aura at fifty paces.
This aura was far more subtle, hidden even. Only something very magical could cloak exactly what it was.
I didn’t have long to wonder. The door opened, and I looked inside to see a man in a business suit and expensive shoes, wearing wire-rimmed glasses and sitting comfortably on a leather seat. He appeared harmless, nerdy even, but the eyes that regarded me from behind the glasses were gray and hard as steel.
“Hello, Janet,” Emmett Smith said to me. “Get in. We need to talk.”
Chapter Two
The last thing I wanted to do was climb into a limo alone with Emmett Smith. It might be the last thing I ever did, so I did not leap to obey him. Even when two large thug-like men exited the car to persuade me, I stood my ground.
Emmett called himself the Ununculous. The because there was only one Ununculous at a time—the reason being that he’d killed all others who could rival him for the title. The Ununculous was the most powerful mage in existence. Emmett hadn’t only murdered everyone who stood in his path, he’d stolen their magic as he’d gone along, somehow absorbing it into himself. For all I knew, he ate his rivals and imbibed their magic that way.
This summer, Emmett had battled both against me and alongside me to keep another mage from taking a very powerful artifact that lent its user unstoppable magic. Gods, dragons, mages, and I had fought it out in the desert on one long, exhausting night.
Emmett had helped me then, but he’d also discovered I possessed another artifact I’d been trying to keep secret from him. He’d told me he’d be back to take it from me someday and now, here he was.
“A truce, Janet,” Emmett said. He hadn’t moved from his half reclined position, but Emmett didn’t need to work very hard to kill me. “I only want to talk. Honest.”
“In that case, we should do it somewhere public with all my friends around me, including and especially Mick.”
“You have even stronger friends than your lover,” Emmett replied. “How about Sheriff Jones? We can drive to Flat Mesa and pick him up.”
An interesting proposal. Nash Jones was a magical null—that is, magic did not affect him in any way, no matter how strong it was. One reason we’d escaped from Emmett last summer was that Nash had absorbed his spells, and then, with an assist from Mick, had driven Emmett away.
Emmett found Nash puzzling. I had no doubt he would love to dissect the man and discover what made him immune to magic. Emmett might not be able to hurt Nash with spells, but there was nothing to stop him ordering one of his goons to shoot him outright.
“Pass,” I said. “No reason to put Nash in danger on a nice autumn night. I do it to him often enough.”
Emmett lifted his hands. “I give you my word, I will not attempt to hurt, disable, or kill you in any way. I really do only want to talk.”
I didn’t move. “About what?”
“Many things.” He gestured to the seat opposite him. “Please. I can drop you off at your hotel. I see your friends have stranded you here.”
“It’s not far. I can walk, or call someone.”
“With what? If you are running true to form, you have lost, left behind, or destroyed your latest cell phone. Let me save your feet. And please hurry and make up your mind, before I have to insist.”
I sighed. Truth to tell, I was curious to know what Emmett wanted to talk about, though I could guess. His thugs had dark automatic pistols surreptitiously pointed at me. While I could destroy those with a well-placed slash of magic, I’d probably kill the men as well, plus blow up the car and maybe a good bit of road before I could stop myself.
Tourists on vacation, who’d come to stay in the historic Harvey Girls hotel designed by a woman architect more than a hundred years ago, were wandering the street. I’d kill them too.
Emmett knew that. His mouth twitched into his version of a smile as he glanced at the innocents around us.
“For every second you delay,” he said, “I can have one of them