Shifty Magic (3 page)

"Escaped," the renegade said, his voice
laced with the musical accent of Jamaica. "But he will not be alone
for long. Tell the Lord Father that he courts a tender recruit of
nineteen and will soon have her for his blood kin."

The whites of Lord Bellmonte's eyes reddened
with blood, turning his gaze demonic. Kathy did her best to hide
behind me, but for once she didn't have anything to worry about.
All of the vampire's fury was directed at the Jamaican.

His hands clenched into fists, and I thought
he was about to tear the renegade's head off. Then the moment
passed. He relaxed, a cold, frightening smile touching the corners
of his mouth. "No quick deaths for you, Lewis. Something special, I
think. Personally attended to by me."

Lewis looked like he was about to be sick,
but he kept his chin up and didn't shake. At least not much. I
realized being decapitated was exactly what he'd hoped for. No one
knew what really went on behind the closed doors of the Church.
What I did know was that vampires were cruel and merciless. Anyone
with an ounce of brains avoided them. Lewis should have remembered
that before he petitioned them to turn him.

Lord Bellmonte turned toward the intake
officer, dripping charm and debonair sophistication as if the
unpleasant internal nastiness had never occurred. The five humans
who witnessed the unplanned reveal pretended we hadn't. A reason to
hope for the survival of our kind. Apparently, we occasionally let
our instincts trump our curiosity.

A thick, folded bundle of papers with a gold
seal on it appeared in the vampire's hand. "Which officer is
responsible for the apprehension of these criminals?" he asked as
he handed the right-to-claim papers to the officer.

The young cop's expression was a little
startled as she nodded to Jim and Kyle. Kyle started to step
forward more than happy to take credit, but I was faster. My desire
to stay under vampire radar was vastly outweighed by my desperate
need for cash. No way was I going to be cheated out of my bounty
fee.

"That would be me," I said, pushing my way
to the front of the group. "Addison Kittner."

I kept my gaze steady as Lord Bellmonte's
cold eyes swept over me and his nostrils flared as he got my scent.
Always a creepy sensation.

"How charming." He looked at me a moment
longer, obviously amused, and then his gaze slid over Lewis and the
lumberjack. "The most notorious Church renegades of the last one
hundred years defeated by a human woman, a child."

I felt the lumberjack tense beside me, but
with the collar on him and two powerful vamp leaders just waiting
for an excuse to throw him around, there wasn't much he could do
about the verbal abuse. Lewis was too preoccupied with staring
morosely at the floor to care.

"My lady," Lord Bellmonte said to me. "The
Church is in your debt."

I sucked in a sharp breath before I could
stop myself. A vampire official handing over a promise of debt was
like winning the lottery, at least for most people. All it did for
me was turn my stomach, but I kept down the impulse to tell "The
Church" where they could stick their slimy favors.

Instead, I gave a short nod of recognition,
one warrior to another, and smiled without showing teeth. It was as
much of a slap down as I dared, but it still felt good to do
it—even if he tore my heart out in the next instant. Lucky for me,
the brazen claim that we were equals seemed to amuse him even more
and a low chuckle rumbled from his chest.

"Lord Charhouse," he said to his partner
without taking his gaze from me, "double this hunter's reward."

Two gold-colored, pinky-sized flash drives
landed on the desk in front of the amazed intake officer. The sight
of twenty thousand credit units sent a thrill through my chest that
inspired a surge of self disgust. That kind of money represented
over a year of steady work to me, and I badly needed it, no
question. It had been nearly half a year since my last big job. I
had rent due on my apartment and my scruffy little office, my
fridge had nothing but a half a can of cat food left in it, and I
was about to get my electricity cut off. But this was vamp
money.

It was one thing to collect good, honest pay
from the police department for the apprehension of two dangerous
vampires. It was another to take reward money from the Church.

I guess I'd used up all my common sense,
because before I could stop myself, I'd shoved the credit units
toward the policewoman and wiped my hand on my thigh. "Give that to
the Terrance fund, would you?"

The month before, an officer had gotten
himself shot in the line of duty during a domestic dispute call. He
hadn't made it, and I'd had a front row seat for the action since
it had taken place in an apartment two floors below mine.

The intake officer plugged the drives into
her laptop and wrote out a receipt while I resolutely refused to
look at Lord Bellmonte. I already knew what I'd see on his
face...unforgiving fury. Like I cared.

Every cent from one of those drives was
nothing but blood money, gained from centuries of manipulating and
enslaving humans. Vamp clans were ten times worse than the human
crime families of the last century. Ten times worse and a hundred
times less repentant.

"Jack's wife and kids will appreciate this,
Addison," Jim said, his voice edged with a mixture of pride and
worry. Kyle frowned at me. I guess me giving my money away didn't
match up with his world view of bounty hunters.

"You still get the government payment," the
policewoman said, glancing nervously at the vamps.

A fraction of what I'd been offered, but
clean and honest. I took the donation receipt and the white credit
unit and shoved them both into the front pocket of my jeans. I
could feel the vampire's thoughtful gaze on me, and Kathy shot me a
look of disbelief as I turned away.

I suddenly felt bone-tired and wanted to go
home. I hoped that I'd find Wizard waiting for me on the fire
escape. If I stopped at the deli on the way, I'd get to have a
decent dinner, too.

The thought of a real meal cheered me up,
and I headed for the street entrance. No vampire boss grabbed the
back of my neck and warned me of my impending doom, so it looked
like I had a good chance of putting an end to a long, tiring
night.

Until I noticed the guy talking with one of
the cops who'd held the Weres at gunpoint.

My heart gave an annoying stutter of
recognition and an uncomfortable, clutching embarrassment gripped
my stomach. I cursed under my breath.

My first and only big job was when I'd
worked with him to successfully track down a human child who'd been
kidnapped by a rogue Were couple. I'd just gotten my license, and I
admit that it went to my head a little. After all the loose ends
were tied up, he'd invited me to his department's Christmas party.
The next morning I'd snuck out of his hotel room and figured we'd
never cross paths again.

Now here he was; Cooper Daine—one of the
FBI's top paranormal agents in the country. As in, a werewolf.

He looked about my age, though he was
probably a lot older. Like a wolf's pelt, his thick hair was a rich
dark brown streaked heavily with silver and going to black at the
temples. His silver-green eyes were framed with long black lashes
that matched the slash of his brows, and he had the sleek, muscled
build of an Olympic gymnast.

He was beautiful to look at. But if anyone
asked, I'd lie without a twinge of guilt and say I hadn't
noticed.

With the Weres and vampires out of the
closet plus the practitioner class—humans who had a natural access
to magic—people's paranoia was at an all-time high. Human and
paranormal hooking up was barely tolerated and usually violently
opposed. Practitioners and Weres getting together was illegal under
human, Were, and practitioner law and came with a death
sentence.

Only a fool didn't respect
my race's long history of hating mix and match sex and the way the
latest cultural upheaval had added to it. Stir in our common glee
over persecuting any who indulged in crossing the line, and you had
the makings of a really bad day. I had enough bad days without
inviting them. Like the government posters said:
Safety first—Separate but
Equal
.

If I could have snuck by Agent Daine without
being seen, I would have. Unfortunately, he stood between the exit
and me. As I got close, he pulled in a sharp, quick breath and his
wolf eyes zeroed in on me, brightening with recognition and a
momentary touch of hunger. He instantly controlled whatever emotion
had gone through him, and his white teeth flashed with a smile that
sent a warm shock running down the center of my body. Nothing like
a cute boy noticing you to turn a girl into a moron.

"Ms. Kittner," he said in a smooth baritone
that had every female in the room looking over at him, plus a few
guys.

"Agent Daine," I growled.

"Late night?"

"Infant retrieval?" I nodded toward the
contrite looking Were boys. Their restraining collars had been
removed and they stood behind Cooper with their proverbial tails
between their legs.

"Official business brought me to town and
family business brought me here." He gave the pups a stern look and
said something under his breath. Without meeting his eyes, they
nodded and slunk off to the row of chairs across the room. I
noticed their noses scrunch as they settled as far from the seats
the vamp Deacons had vacated as possible.

Sauntering over to me, Cooper glanced at the
vampires who were still standing around the intake desk finishing
paperwork. The United States government never interfered with the
internal politics of the paranormal societies, but they demanded a
lot of forms and signatures when they knew a citizen was never
going to be heard from again.

Lord Bellmonte turned slightly and his eyes
met mine. The cold, speculative look in them made me wish I'd kept
my mouth shut earlier.

"Looks like you've been making your usual
charming impression," Cooper observed. "And on the Charlotte Regent
no less."

"The Rege—" I resisted the urge to close my
eyes and wish I hadn't gotten up that morning. I rallied with my
usual cloak of outrage. "I had a job to do and I did it," I shot
back. "I'm not responsible for what arrogant paras think of
me."

His gaze raked over me and heat pooled in my
stomach. "Aren't you?" he murmured in a silky, low tone that just
reached my hearing before melting into the background sounds of the
busy precinct.

He always had liked skirting the edge of
acceptable behavior. It amazed me that the FBI thought so highly of
him. "Stop that." I gave him a hard look and he laughed.

"Who pissed on your ice cream?" he said, a
smile still touching his sexy mouth.

"Nice seeing you, Agent Daine. Now I have
important things to do." I strolled past him and shoved open the
heavy precinct door. The thick June air of North Carolina hit me in
the face, heavy with the stench from blocks of surrounding
misery.

The center of Charlotte had once been
beautiful and prosperous with banks, restaurants and tree-lined
streets. After 2024 when the paranormal terrorist attacks hit,
everything changed. Prosperity turned to rubble, rubble rebuilt
into slums, and the festering slums broke the spirit of the town. A
story repeated around the world in every city that had been
destroyed.

I wished for a moment that nothing had
changed, that everything was still beautiful, humans were the
rulers of the planet, and murderous creatures didn't roam the night
waiting to prey on them. Individuals like Cooper thought they could
make a difference. People like me knew that they couldn't, but we
still kept trying.

That made me the bigger but more realistic
fool, I guess. Which was why I cared more about getting some dinner
and heading for my bed than I did about offending a werewolf FBI
agent and vampires who kept assassins on their payroll.

As I left the precinct and made my way to
the nearest transport station, I wondered when my tendency to take
risks would finally use up all my luck. I had a feeling that day
might be sooner than I liked.

CHAPTER TWO

The late morning sun attempted to stream through
the dirty glass of the basement window above me. My place of
business,
Kittner
Investigations
, wasn't much, but it was
mine. In my world, that meant a lot.

On one side of the ten-by-ten room sat my
desk, an impressive structure made from two beige double-drawer
filing cabinets with an old wooden door laid across the top. The
setup gave me plenty of room for my laptop, micro printer and
copious clutter, which made it perfect in my opinion.

In the corner to the left, sat a red-painted
crate supporting the all-important coffee machine, in front of me
was the steel and silver reinforced door, and in front of that, two
folding plastic chairs for the clients I was going to get any day
now.

As an extra precaution in
case visitors came with something more in mind than hiring me, I'd
secretly installed an escape hatch behind the classic
Pirates of the Caribbean
movie poster that hung on the wall behind me. After several
weeks of work and a steep learning curve, I'd managed to quietly
cut through the cinderblocks to the storage room on the other
side.

I couldn't care less what my landlord would
do if he ever got wise to it. Only fools didn't have a second way
out in an emergency.

As the weather heated up, I hardly ever
noticed the musty smell of my basement paradise, or the occasional
mouse droppings in the corner. The rent was cheap, I could walk to
the building from my apartment, and best of all, it stayed cool
this time of year without air conditioning. My landlord even
allowed pets.