Before I could make it outside, a body flew in at me. I jumped back just in time, the man windmilling his arms before tumbling into the barstools at the bar and landing on his face. Reagan’s words rolled in after him. “There’s one.”
“She’s nuts,” Emery said, spreading a spell over the struggling body. I weaved in a little of Reagan’s magic, hardening the air and making the guy lie still.
“Got more out here,” Reagan yelled from somewhere outside the door. She grunted. “I’m not so easy to sneak up on, you fecking turdswallop!” Another body tumbled through the door.
“It sounds like a really bad word when she says it.” As I helped Emery secure the newest mage, I felt Reagan’s magic drift away, too far for me to use it. She was probably chasing someone. “Right, she’s got this entrance covered. Let’s close down the back.”
Emery ran across the front of the bar, weaving between two small wolves with tails low and hackles raised. I followed until I felt the intent of a spell coming.
EXPLODE.
Spinning, I saw magic billow through the front entrance of a building on the other side of the street, clearly created from multiple people with different grasps on spell work. It was both clumsy and powerful enough to do the job.
Letting Emery handle the back door, I surged toward the front, pulling elements fast. Though I would not admit it to Reagan, the bounty hunting gigs had sharpened my reflexes. I concocted a spell that would both counter the mess surging toward me and take out the casters behind it.
That sent off, I caught movement to my right.
“Penny!” Emery screamed.
He’d had a premonition. I was already on it.
The enemy mage got off his spell, but I was ready. My counter-spell cut through it and blasted into him, knocking him off his feet and onto his back. He didn’t even get a chance to scream.
A quick glance at Emery revealed he’d already turned around. He knew I had it handled.
The mages across the street screamed as my spell homed in on them. More screaming came from the side. Three mages were sprinting down the center of the street in my direction.
I braced myself to fire a spell at them when I saw why they were running.
Reagan ran behind them with a grin and an outstretched sword. “Do not pick on my friends!” she yelled.
A horn honked as she shoved them to the ground, cackling manically.
I looked both ways but didn’t see or feel any more magical enemies. The humans that had their phones out, aimed at the woman chasing people through the streets with a sword, would have to be dealt with later.
The cops would be here shortly. We needed to get out of Dodge.
“Hurry up,” I yelled at Reagan. I spun around to check on Emery in time to see one of his spells shooting toward the back door. A huge wolf followed, snarling. A scream died almost as soon as it erupted, but another started up, turning hoarse with terror. More shifters launched toward the back door.
Something tingled my awareness, coming from the right. The wall directly behind the bar was empty, which indicated no one had made it over the bar. That didn’t mean they weren’t using it to hide.
I spread a mini-ward across the door that would alert me if anything came through. That done, I ran forward and peered over the counter, seeing a black mat pocked with holes spread across the brown floor. Something clinked and I caught sight of the heel of a foot.
Thinking of Joe, I hefted myself onto the bar.
Not Joe at all. A skinny man with an open satchel and herbs spilling out. It was a mage, and he was hiding from the opposition.
“You slimy little coward,” I seethed, having fired off a spell to keep him put without even thinking about it. I didn’t have the help of Reagan’s magic, but I had plenty of my own power. I slammed him with it, hearing his surprised yelp before the force of my magic knocked him out.
That was cool.
I pushed back onto my feet, hearing a distant blast echoing from the other side of the bar. Emery was still mid-battle and could probably use my help.
I jumped back from the bar, away from the barstools, and turned, the heels of my shoes squeaking against the bar floor. Before I could move forward, a hand came out of literally nowhere and curled around my neck.
“Holy dump truck ping-pong!” I gasped, immediately surrendering to the surprise and terror. As expected, my survival magic kicked into high gear, electrifying my body and blasting the hand touching my neck.
A zzzzzzz sound preceded the hand flinching away. Shadows moved and coalesced as a massive man stepped away from the wall. At least six-four in height, heavily muscled yet graceful, he slipped around me to block off the exit.
Black clothes covered his body from neck to ankle. Clear blue eyes wrapped in thick lashes the color of midnight surveyed me without emotion. His face was startlingly handsome, but the planes and angles of its bone structure, along with the way his thin nose ended in a slight hook, gave him an almost harsh look, enhanced by the throbbing aura of competence.
His intelligent eyes surveyed me, cool and analytical. Sizing me up.
“I can see you,” I said, as though that were some kind of threat. Magic rolled through my fingers, a weave even a vampire couldn’t outrun.
“I have two contracts outstanding,” he said, his voice like a lullaby, something people wouldn’t mind hearing as they slipped into their grave. “One is to kill you.”
“That’s my cue.” I shot out a line of red, the vermin zapper.
Shadows moved and spun, confusing my eyes. I heard a grunt, three feet farther to the right than I’d anticipated. I turned to blast him again, but an arm suddenly wrapped around my waist before pure brawn sent me into the air.
“Good gravy, that’s confusing.” I shot off a wide spell, guaranteed to wrap him up. Crashing against the wall didn’t even faze me. Practice made perfect, as they said, and I’d been thrown around a lot in my training.
The spell sliced across the collection of shadows, the way he masked himself, and slammed against the wall behind him.
“You can dodge spells?” I hit the ground, not stopping. “Luckily, I am a problem solver.” I zapped off another spell just to keep him at bay, but that dang hand came out of nowhere again, snatching me off the ground and pinning me to the wall.
Survival magic tore through my body and smacked into his torso, flinging him back. He rammed the edge of the bar and knocked all the chairs down around his feet.
Shadows started to collect, pulling around him as he fought the barstool legs to keep from falling. I felt the whisper of his magic against my skin. It connected him to the world around us in such a hypnotic way that I could but stand there for a moment, eyes closed, drifting on his magical breeze.
“Please,” he said, the lullaby wrapping around me. “I did not mean to startle you. The second contract is to protect you. One to kill, and the other to protect.”
Reality seeped in through the dreamlike effect of his magic, waking me up. I blinked my eyes open, meeting that glacial gaze, strangely not cold, just beautiful.
“I’m not sure what’s going on,” I said. “Are you hypnotizing me with magic, or is this another sign I’m cracking up?”
He didn’t respond, and no reaction bled through his expression. “I can name my price in either contract. I have never been in this situation before. I wanted to meet the target and decide for myself if she should live or die.”
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news…” Reagan’s voice cut in from just inside the door, my mini-ward having been dissipated without my knowledge. Her sneaking prowess was so good that not even the stranger heard or felt her coming.
Shadows pulled from around the room and flew at the stranger, confusing my eyes. I was magically onto him, though. I could feel the center of that dizzying storm, softly flowing from one place to the next, moving so fast, zigging and zagging, it was hard to keep track of it.
A solid wall of air formed in front of him and slapped him back. His body flew out of the shadows and hit the back wall horizontally. He crashed down to the floor.
“If you choose the wrong side, you will be the one dying. Not her.” Reagan sauntered forward with her sword in hand and magic swirling around her in a complex harmony not even this stranger could match.