Gunmetal Magic: A Novel in the World of Kate Daniels

never known for being mean or cruel. He was also the male alpha of Clan Bouda. He had to have known exactly what sort of risks he faced by bringing another woman and shoving her at Andrea. He had to have done it to provoke a reaction. The next time we met I’d pound his face into ground beef.
    Still…I couldn’t believe that there was no method to his madness. He’d chased Andrea for months and he’d won her, then lost her. Perhaps this was some sort of stupid attempt to make her chase him.
    “Are you going to fight for him?”
    Andrea stared at me like I was crazy. “What?”
    “Are you going to fight for him, or are you going to roll over on your back and take it?”
    “Look who’s talking. How long did it take you and Curran to have a conversation after that whole dinner mess? Was it three weeks or more like a month?”
    I arched my eyebrow at her. “That’s different. That was a misunderstanding.”
    “Aha.”
    “He brought his new main squeeze here after you called him with a peace offering. That’s a slap in the face.”
    “You don’t have to tell me that. I know.” Andrea growled.
    “So what are you going to do about it?”
    “I haven’t decided yet.”
    I wasn’t sure she felt Raphael was worth fighting for. But once, when I was in a really bad place, Andrea had told me that she felt like being with Raphael had healed her. She’d said he was picking up broken pieces of her and putting them back together. Well, all the pieces had fallen again, and Andrea was trying to reassemble herself on her own.
    I’d seen Andrea fight. I’d seen her in unguarded moments, taken over by bloodlust and rage. Raphael would have to tread very carefully, because whether she decided that she wanted him or revenge, nothing would stop her.
    I tried to pick my words carefully. “Nothing is free. If you want it, you have to fight for it.”
    “I’m thinking about it,” she said. “How did your day go?”
    “I got some head. It was vamp, but still.”
    “That good, huh.”
    “Yup.”
    “I have a glass monster corpse for you. It’s in the freezer.”
    I gave her a nice smile. “You shouldn’t have.”
    “It’s a bribe for putting up with my psychotic break.”
    The car motor started up. Curran had gotten tired of waiting.
    “That’s my ride,” I said.
    The door swung open, and Curran walked in. I held my breath. Having Andrea and him at each other’s throats would be more than I could take.
    Andrea rose to her feet.
    A show of respect for the Beast Lord. I decided that breathing was a good thing.
    Curran nodded to Andrea. I got up too, walked over to him, and kissed him, just in case he was entertaining any violent thoughts. He winked at me.
    “Hold on, let me grab the vamp head.” I went to the back and got my head.
    When I came out, carrying the head in a plastic bag, Andrea and Curran were still in one piece and had been joined by a freshly washed Ascanio.
    I waved at Andrea, and Curran and I went to the car. Ascanio tried to linger behind, but Curran looked at him, and the kid decided he’d better follow us.
    We got into the car and pulled away.
    “And how did your day go?” I asked Ascanio.
    He turned to me, a dreamy look on his pretty face. “We killed things. There was blood. Fountains of blood. And then we had barbecue.”
    Why me?
    When we walked through the doors of the Keep, Doolittle was waiting for us. Roderick’s necklace had turned the color of white gold. He was having trouble breathing. The next magic wave could be his last.
    Ten minutes later we rode out of the Keep in a Pack vehicle. Curran drove. I sat in the passenger seat, holding a bowl of jewelry and bullets for our offering. Doolittle and the boy sat in the back. Roderick whistled with every breath, and Curran drove like a maniac to the north leyline, his hands locked on the wheel, his face a grim mask. We reached the leypoint in record time and he didn’t slow down as he drove the Jeep off the ramp into the invisible magic current. The magic clutched the car and dragged it north to the mountains. Whether magic or technology was in ascendance, the leylines always flowed and I was damn grateful for their existence.
    The current carried us to Franklin, spitting us out at a remote leypoint, and from there we drove up a winding road to the Highlands. It used to be a ritzy destination, beautiful lakes and waterfalls wrapped in emerald-green forests that spilled from the sheer cliffs. Million-dollar homes, leisure