A Savage Spell
The Nix Series, Book 4
shannon mayer
Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Acknowledgments
This series would not leave me be, but more than that the story took a direction that I didn’t think was possible. I want to thank my editors (Angela, Tina and S.Page) and cover artist (JCaleb), for helping me bring Phoenix back to the page in a way that does her justice both in word and image. Thank you to my author friends who encourage me, my readers who love all my characters no matter how vicious ;) and of course to my family who loses me for hours on end as I dive into my worlds. You all make this journey possible. <3
Copyrights
Copyright © Shannon Mayer 2020, A Savage Spell
All rights reserved
HiJinks Ink Publishing
www.shannonmayer.com
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a database and retrieval system or transmitted in any form or any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the owner of the copyright and the above publishers.
Please do not participate in or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Mayer, Shannon
A Savage Spell, The Nix Series, Book 4
Created with Vellum
Prologue
Summer of the Purge
“What have you got today, Ernest?” his boss asked him as the man slid in through the door, silent as a stalking jungle cat. The weight of the steel door that led into the aptly named “war room” should have made some noise, yet there hadn’t been so much as a click for a warning. Which only set Ernest’s rather human heart into high speed.
Ernest cleared his throat. “A new abnormal just came in, she is . . . we’ve been hunting a long time for her. We found her in a hospital in Montana. Childbirth complications. They alerted us immediately, as we’d requested.”
“Name?” Gardreel asked softly, his voice a careful caress. Ernest knew Gardreel had been searching for one abnormal in particular and the idea that this could be her caused a reaction in his boss he wasn’t sure he liked. His eyes glittered and the front of his pants tightened, his human body reacting strangely. The boss had just returned to the facility after heading a successful grab operation in Northern Ireland and Ernest did not want to upset him when his human body was already fatigued.
Ernest cleared his throat, again, and read from the single page on the clipboard he held.
“Name: Phoenix, aka, Nix.
“Age: Thirty-four.
“Abilities: Assassin. Knowledge of weaponry, hand-to-hand combat, tactical warfare. Considered extremely dangerous.
“Abnormal abilities: Unknown, but suspected ascendant. No training.
“Connections: Father—New York crime boss, Romano. Deceased. Dealt with demons.
“Spouse. Killian Fannin, leader of the Irish mob, abnormal. Whereabouts unknown.
“Son: Bear (Possible abnormal abilities connected to his mother’s abilities.) Whereabouts unknown. Possibly deceased.
“Daughter: Un-named. Whereabouts unknown. Possibly deceased.
“Both children are off the radar, though being searched for actively.
“Medications prescribed: Patient can metabolize sedative at a rapid rate. It is suggested that all her meals be loaded with the highest dose of amobarbital possible. As we’ve seen in other patients, this will effectively depress her natural inclination to fight and increase her willingness to accept new memories.” He paused. There wasn’t much else on the chart. More would come later as they observed her, but she’d been in a perpetual state of sedation since they brought her in.
Gardreel looked at him over a pair of spectacles, his blue eyes sharp. “Ascendant? She is the one then, she has to be.”
“I suppose,” Ernest hedged, not sure he wanted to agree too much with his boss.
“Was she truly that difficult?” He tapped at the monitor they stood in front of. “She seems quiet. The redhead fought for weeks. In fact, all the other abnormals fought the sedatives far more. This one is, dare I say, peaceful.”
Ernest stared at the screen with an image of the woman on the bed, her arms strapped down, her eyes closed, and her breathing slow as if she were sleeping. That would be the amobarbital keeping her quiet, yet his boss wasn’t wrong. The other abnormals, when they were brought in, had fought as though their lives depended on being free, more like wild animals than anything even remotely human. But his boss wasn’t right either. She wasn’t asleep, just lying there quietly if her breathing was any indication. Too fast for sleeping.
Other than her initial drive in with the medics, she’d been almost silent. Easy for anyone to deal with. A complete angel, if you asked any of them.
Ernest had heard from the other handlers of how an abnormal could fight when they were cornered. They looked human, but they fought with the strength of ten men. Some of them could even change their bodies to other forms. Animals or worse. Some didn’t look human—though those were often destroyed as soon as they were located as there could be no fixing them. He shivered. Ernest had not seen any of those, and he didn’t want to. Bad enough that he would have to live so close to these abnormals and their dark blood.
Of course, things had changed since Gardreel had developed the box and the incantation. Since then, their effectiveness at bringing in abnormals had more than quadrupled.
“Keep reading, what we have on her has been largely based on stories and theories. She’s been here how long now?”
Ernest swallowed hard and traced the paper
