Kate Daniels 02 - Magic Burns

looked me straight in the face, smiled, and vanished.
    I scrambled to my feet. The red bolt punctured the dirt between my feet, catching me on the way up. I straightened very slowly.
    He stood a few feet away, pointing the crossbow at me. It was loaded. The hand-sharpened bolt head stared me in the eye. I couldn’t dodge a crossbow bolt from nine feet away. Not even on my best day.
    â€œHands where I can see them,” he ordered. I showed him my palms, the Pack maps still securely clutched in my right hand.
    â€œYou cheated!” Julie’s outraged voice rang from above. “Leave her alone!”
    His nose no longer looked broken. No blood, either. Wonderful. Not only could he teleport, but he also regenerated while he did it. If he started spitting fire, we’d be all set.
    Keeping his crossbow leveled, he reached down to his thigh and pulled my needle out with a wince. “That hurt.”
    â€œServes you right,” Julie yelled.
    â€œI suppose you’re rooting for her?”
    Julie’s eyebrows rose in trademark adolescent scorn. “Duuuuuuuh.”
    â€œDon’t make me come up there.” Steel vibrated in his voice and Julie ducked behind the crates.
    â€œLeave the kid alone,” I told him.
    â€œJealous? Want me all to yourself?” He jerked the crossbow right a little. “Turn around.”
    I turned my back to him, expecting the bite of a steel bolt head between my shoulder blades any moment. “Very nice,” he said. “Turn around again.”
    I turned around to see him frowning. “I can’t decide if I like the back view or the front one best.”
    â€œHow about a view of my sword up very close?”
    â€œThat’s my line, dove.”
    His leer left no doubt as to the meaning of his “line.”
    â€œTurn around again. That’s a good girl.”
    I heard him walk toward me. That’s right, come closer. I’m very helpless. With my hands held up and everything.
    â€œNothing funny,” his voice warned in my ear. “Or next time I pop in, I’ll pin your lass to those crates.”
    I clenched my teeth and stood still.
    â€œYou broke my ward. I’m put out—those bitches are hard to pin down and now I’ll have to do it again. I should put a bolt through your neck.” His fingers brushed the back of my neck, sending shivers down my spine. “But I’m a nice guy. I’ll give you a piece of advice instead: gather your kid and go home. I’ll even let you take the maps back to the furries, since you fought so hard for them. Stay out of my way from now on. This isn’t your fight and you’re in over your head.”
    â€œWhat fight? With whom? Who are you?”
    â€œI’m Bran. The hero.”
    â€œThe hero? Humility is a virtue.”
    â€œSo is patience. And if you’re patient and lucky, you might just be the girl I bed on my last night in town.”
    His hand squeezed my ass. I spun about, intending to punch him in the nose. The hangar lay empty, except for the gossamer trail of mist. It lingered for a long breath and then dissipated into the breeze.
    I battled a very strong urge to kick something.
    Julie stared at me from the crates. “He went poof.”
    â€œYes, he did.”
    â€œHe likes you. He grabbed your butt.”
    â€œNext time I see him, I’ll cut his arm off. We’ll see if he can grow it back.”
    I glanced to where the skeleton once hung. The bolts were missing. How the hell did he manage that?
    All my precious evidence was gone. I didn’t even have a chance to m-scan the scene to get a fix on what kind of magic was used. All in all, this had not gone very well. I didn’t have a clue as to what was going on, and I’d just had a conversation with the guy who could explain everything and learned absolutely nothing. Except for the fact that I had a shapely ass. Healthy self-esteem is a good thing. If I didn’t have any, I’d be beating my own stupid head against the first available hard surface.
    â€œAre you leaving now?” Julie asked from the crates.
    Hell no. Nothing that involved several women missing, a bottomless pit ringed in blood, and an inhuman skeleton could possibly amount to something benign. And Mr. Grab-ass apparently wanted to keep me as far away from it as possible. I wondered why.
    â€œYou want to find your mom?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œDo you want my