I tossed the dust into the air. My magic clutched it and it hung motionless like a cloud frozen in midmotion. The swarm pierced it. For half a second, nothing happened and then the flies and rosemary rained to the ground.
Sweat drenched my hairline. That took a wallop of magic. I kept walking.
The volhv planted the staff into the pavement and let go. It remained upright. He jerked a twig charm off his belt, snapped it in half and tossed one part into the street, clutching the other in his fist. The twig exploded into thick black smoke and coalesced into a mastiff-sized dog. Rivulets of smoke slid and curled along its sable fur. Pure white eyes stared at me, like two stars caught in a storm cloud.
I fed magic into my saber. The opaque blade shimmered slightly and hissed, perspiring. Thin tendrils of smoke rose from the blade.
The volhv’s eyebrows rose. He snarled a single word. The dog’s maw opened, releasing glowing fangs. The smoke beast charged.
It came at me, massive paws pounding the pavement. I stepped into its charge and sliced. Slayer’s blade severed the dog’s neck in a clean precise cut. No resistance. Shit.
The smoke along the cut swirled, sealing it. The dog snapped at my left leg, but I was already moving. The glowing fangs barely scraped my jeans just above the knee. A thin line of pain cut my thigh, like a hot wire. Wet heat drenched my skin—blood. I spun and sank Slayer’s blade into the dog’s molten eye. The enchanted saber slid halfway in. Nothing. I jerked it and danced away as the dog’s fangs clicked closed a hair’s breadth from my arm.
If only I had a portable fan with me, I’d be all set. Maybe if I huffed really hard, it would disperse.
A hot dark stain soaked my left pant leg. I was bleeding like a stuck pig.
The volhv moved his fist. The dog backed up, snapping its teeth. He was controlling it like a puppet with the other half of the twig in his hand.
“Ready to talk?” the volhv asked.
“Not a chance.”
The volhv jerked his fist. The dog rushed at me, smoke paws striking tiny wisps of steam from the pavement.
I stuck my hand into the cut in my jeans. It came away slicked with crimson. My blood’s magic prickled my skin.
I had only a fraction of a second to pull this off.
The dog leaped. I shied right and stuck my hand deep into the coils of smoke on its side. Magic pulsed from my hand, bristling my blood into a dozen sharp needles. Crimson spikes pierced the dog. Across the street the volhv screamed, cradling his fist with his other hand. The twig rolled from his fingers. The smoke collapsed on itself, sucked into a small twisted branch on the ground. I stomped on it, crushing it into pieces.
The spikes shriveled into black dust and fell off my fingers, melting into dust. My hand felt like I’d stuck it into boiling water.
“Fuck, that hurts.” The volhv bared his teeth at me.
Twenty feet between us. I ran.
He spun his staff, chanting.
Ten feet. I flipped Slayer in my hand, reversing the blade.
Six.
The volhv swung the staff, aiming to hit me from the left. I blocked the strike with my sword, grabbed his right wrist with my left hand, forcing the staff sideways, and smashed the dull edge of Slayer’s blade into his right side. Ribs crunched. I bashed the volhv’s right arm with the flat of the blade. He dropped the staff. I let Slayer slide from my fingers, dropped into a half crouch, pulled my arms to the sides of my body, and straightened my knees, driving both fists up into the soft underside of his jaw. The volhv’s head jerked back, his body wide open. I sank a punch into his solar plexus. All of the wind rushed out of his lungs in a single, painful breath. The volhv doubled over, and I grabbed his left arm, jerked him forward, and swung my right arm in a wide arc, smashing my fist into the back of his head. The volhv’s eyes rolled up and he went down.
I danced back on my toes, light and ready, in case he decided to get up.
The volhv lay still. His staff snapped its beak at me in impotent fury.
It was over. I still had all this anger to work out, but it was over. Damn it.
I stopped dancing and felt his pulse. Alive and well. Sleeping like a baby, except babies didn’t usually wake up to a world of hurt.
I swiped Slayer off of the pavement. “Sorry.”
If the sword resented being used as a stick, it didn’t say anything.
The magic drained from the world. The ferocious monster on the volhv’s staff faded back into ordinary wood.
I raised my arms and stared at the sky. “Really? Now? Would it have killed you to end fifteen minutes ago?”
The Universe was snickering at me.
I sighed and headed to my Jeep to get medical supplies, rope, and gasoline. My blood was all over the street, screaming my identity to anyone who’d cared to listen, and I needed to set it on fire.
CHAPTER 11
WHEN I RETURNED TO THE OFFICE, ASCANIO OPENED the door and hit me with a thousand-watt smile. The smile evaporated with his next breath.
“I smell blood.”
“It’s nothing. Where is everybody?”
“The wolf and Andrea haven’t come back yet.”
“There is a bound man in the back of my Jeep. I need you to carry him in and lock him in the loup cage. Don’t untie him. If he comes to, don’t speak with him. He’s a powerful mage and he’ll try to conjure painful things.”
Ascanio took off. I walked to my desk. A neat stack of files sat in its center, each beige folder marked with the Pack’s paw. Next to them waited a binder filled with papers. I opened it.
Article Seven, Section A. Clan Land and Property. All real property, as defined by Article 3, Section 1.0, is jointly owned by the Pack, with rights of survivorship. Each Pack member has a right to use and enjoy the entire property, but may not prevent another Pack member from also doing so. The real property subject to a lease between a Clan and the Pack must be for the Clan’s official meeting house, exclusively. Any nonconforming use is a breach of the lease agreement and will function as the immediate revocation of a Clan’s lease. Any personal property located on real property leased by a Clan shall be deemed the sole property of the Clan . . .
What the hell?
Ascanio maneuvered the volhv’s body through the door, carrying him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and brandished the volhv’s staff at me. “What should I do with the stick?”
“Lock it in the closet. And be careful; when magic is up, it bites.”
Ascanio nodded and took the volhv to the loup cage. I pondered the phone. Sooner or later, I’d have to call the volhvs and tell them that I had their boy hog-tied in my back room. Best-case scenario, they would trade Adam Kamen for him. Worst-case scenario, we all die agonizing deaths. Hmmm. Whom to call and what to say?
Ascanio came back. “What happened to him? He looks like he got his ass run over by a car.”
He was run over by my fist. “What are these files?”
“Barabas left them for you. He said to tell you that the Beast Lord is gone on an important errand.”
Yes, hunting Leslie before she did any major damage.
“And that you will be handling the petitions tonight.”
Full stop.
There were two things I hated: being on display and making decisions about other people’s lives. Hearing
