Gunmetal Magic: A Novel in the World of Kate Daniels

lasts for about thirty seconds or so and then I need another gulp.”
    Kate leaned back against her chair. “Where is the bane of my existence?”
    “In the shower, freshening up.”
    “Oh God, who did Ascanio screw now?”
    “No, no, he’s covered in blood.”
    “Oh good.” She sighed and stopped. “The kid is covered in blood and we’re relieved. There is something wrong with us.”
    “Tell me about it.” I took another swig. “Not going to mention my beastkin appearance?”
    “I like it,” she said. “The torn pants and gore-stained T-shirt is a nice touch.”
    I wiggled my toes. “I was thinking of painting my claws a nice shade of pink.”
    Kate glanced at my feet. “That would take a lot of nail polish. What about some golden hoops in your ears instead?”
    I grinned. “It’s a definite possibility.”
    “What happened?” Kate asked.
    “I saw Raphael this morning. I’d called him last night, because Jim put me on some shapeshifter murders and I needed to interview him. I wanted a chance to apologize.”
    Kate took my bottle and drank from it. “How did it go?”
    “He replaced me.”
    The bottle stopped in Kate’s hand, three inches above the table. “He what?”
    “He found another girl. She is seven feet tall, with breasts the size of honeydew melons, legs that start at her neck, bleached blond hair down to her ass, and her waist is this big around.” I touched my index and thumb claws. “They are engaged to be engaged.”
    “He brought her
here
?”
    “She sat in that chair right there.” I pointed at the other client chair. “I’m thinking of burning it.”
    Kate put the bottle down. “Did you punch him?”
    “Nope.” I took a long swig. The alcohol burned my tongue. “After he told me that his new sweetheart’s best quality is that she isn’t me, it didn’t seem like it would make any difference.”
    “Is she a shapeshifter?”
    I shook my head. “A human. Not a fighter. Not that bright either. I know what you’ll say—it’s my own fault.”
    “Well, you did check out of his life,” Kate said. “You checked out of my life for a while.”
    “Yeah, yeah.” I took a deep breath. There was no action to displace the pain now. No escape. The ache settled in my chest and scraped at me with sharp little claws.
    “Are you going to fight for him?” Kate asked.
    I looked at her. “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 Curranto have a conversation after that whole dinner mess? Was it three weeks or more like a month?”
    Kate arched her left eyebrow. “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.” I growled, deep in my throat.
    “So what are you going to do about it?”
    “I haven’t decided yet.”
    “Nothing is free,” Kate said. “If you want it, you have to fight for it.”
    Coming from a woman who had fought off twenty-two shapeshifters to stay by Curran’s side, that was a statement based on experience.
    “I’m thinking about it.” Thinking if I wanted to fight for Raphael. What he did to me was cruel. I hurt and I wanted revenge more than anything else. But at the same time, who was I to stand in the way of his new happiness? Whatever Rebecca was giving him, he clearly needed it, otherwise he wouldn’t have made plans for their engagement. “How did your day go?”
    “I got some head. It was vamp, but still.”
    I stared at her. Kate was the last person I would have expected to make that joke. Well, someone had loosened up since mating. “That good, huh.”
    “Yup.”
    “I have a glass monster corpse for you. It’s in the freezer.”
    Kate grinned a deranged smile. “You shouldn’t have.”
    “It’s a bribe for putting up with my psychotic break.”
    A car engine roared outside.
    “That’s my ride,” Kate said.
    The door swung open, and Curran shouldered his way in. Muscular, built like he fought for his life every day—which wasn’t too far from the truth—Curran moved like a beast who knew he was at the top of the food chain. When he walked into a room, he owned it and you knew that if you disagreed, he would prove it to you. Judging by the blood spatter on his T-shirt, he had done it today already.
    I rose. It’s polite to