Kate Daniels 02 - Magic Burns

sluggish wave. When I opened my mouth, my voice sounded dull, stripped of all life and inflection. “I brought a sick beastkin to the bouda house. She’s my friend. If you’re going to kill her, you’ll have to go through me.”
    He closed his eyes tight, put his hand over them, and rubbed his face. I sat in a chair and kept my mouth shut, letting him work through his pain.
    â€œWhy me?” he said finally. “Are you on some sort of mission to fuck up my life?”
    â€œI try my best to avoid you.”
    â€œYou’re doing a hell of a job.”
    â€œI honestly don’t mean to cause problems.”
    â€œYou don’t cause problems. An unpiloted vampire causes problems. You cause catastrophes.”
    Rub it in, why don’t you. “Look, after this, I promise I’ll do my absolute best to stay out of your way. Are you going to murder my friend?”
    He sighed. “No. I haven’t killed any beastkin, and I’m not going to start now. It’s an old, elitist custom. I’d have cut the legs from under it when Corwin found us, but there was a lot of opposition and crushing it without hurt feelings was tiresome and time-consuming. If your friend wants to join the Pack, I suppose I’ll have to revisit the issue.”
    The sword in my sheath kept my spine from bending all the way and I very much wanted to either slump forward or to lean back. Even my vertebrae were tired. I unzipped my leather jacket, shrugged it off, unbuckled the sword, and set it in the sheath next to me. “She wants to hide. She’s a member of the Order.” He’d figure it out eventually anyway. “I’m going to help her to cover it up. After I find Julie.”
    â€œYou lost the girl?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œHow?”
    I leaned back. “Her shaman boyfriend snatched her from my friend. He did something that caused her to start shifting, but she couldn’t finish.”
    â€œGo on.”
    â€œI found her, loaded her into a cart, and drove her to the hyenas.”
    He gave me an odd look. “You drove her from the Order to there through the deep magic?”
    â€œYeah. We did pretty good except for some weirdness at a gas station.”
    He thought about it. “How long ago did all this happen?”
    â€œHours.”
    â€œDerek couldn’t pick up Julie’s scent at the scene?” A slight growl of disapproval crept into his voice.
    I shook my head. “The shaman used too much wolfsbane. I’ll find her. I just don’t know how yet.”
    â€œIf there is anything I can do, I’ll help. Don’t get excited. It’s not because of you. For the child. If it wasn’t for her and the flare, I’d throw your dumb ass out of this window.”
    â€œWhat does the flare have to do with it?”
    â€œI don’t want it to be attributed to a loss of control on my part. When I throw you out of the window, I want there to be no doubt the act was deliberate.”
    Wow, he was pissed.
    Now the muted setting made sense: a neutral room, soothing light, a book. The deep magic fed the beast within him. It took a monumental effort of will to restrain it. With the flare so close, Curran was a powder keg with a short fuse. I had to be careful not to light that fuse. Nobody outside the Pack, except for Andrea, knew I was here. He could kill me right now and they would never find my body.
    We shared a silence for a long moment. Magic blossomed, filling me with giddy energy. The short waves again. They would ebb in a minute, and then I’d be exhausted.
    Guilt gnawed at me. He could control himself in my presence, but I apparently couldn’t control myself in his. “Curran, up on the roof…That is, my brakes don’t work sometimes.”
    He leaned forward, suddenly animated. “Do I smell an apology?”
    â€œYes. I said things I shouldn’t have. I regret saying them.”
    â€œDoes this mean you’re throwing yourself at my feet?”
    â€œNo. I pretty much meant that part. I just wish I could’ve put it in less offensive terms.”
    I glanced at him and saw a lion. He didn’t change, his face was still fully human, but there was something disturbingly lionlike in the way he sat, completely focused on me, as if ready to pounce. Stalking me without moving a muscle. The primordial urge to freeze shackled my limbs. I just sat there, unable to look away.
    A slow, lazy,