Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, & Magic Read online

“No, just Stonecrow,” Eduardo said. “None of us thought you’d be dumb enough to show up too.”

  Guess I was that dumb. “You want to untie me now?”

  Joey punched me in the stomach again. I fell to my knees.

  “Guess not,” I gasped.

  “So?” Joey asked.

  After a moment of silent deliberation, Eduardo seemed to come to a decision. “We’ll just take care of both of them. Lucky day, Joey, lucky day.”

  I tried to feel satisfied at the sight of Stonecrow’s wrists zip tied and her petite form hauled toward the black SUVs, but even though it was her fault that I was in custody, I couldn’t work up the satisfaction. This was my necrocognitive. Not the Union’s. And I didn’t like it when any woman got treated like a piece of meat, even if she’d worked hard at deserving it.

  “Come on, guys,” I said. “You’re asking for about six different citations with this behavior.”

  “Shut up, Hawke,” Joey said. He pushed my wrists together and zip tied them.

  My heart climbed into my throat, thudding with panic, as Joey opened the back door of the SUV and I came face to face with the yawning maw of its interior.

  Briefly, I pitied everyone we’d ever made disappear into one of these black cars.

  Then I was inside and the door slammed behind me.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Note to self: Being arrested by the Union sucks.

  As it turned out, our guys were crazy fucking drivers. When Eduardo wasn’t hitting the brakes so hard that my head nearly snapped off my neck, he seemed to be veering around to catch every pothole under his tires.

  “Hope you’re not too fond of the suspension,” I called to the front. I got one sunglassed glare over Eduardo’s shoulder.

  Neither of them seemed interested in anything I had to say. Joey was talking into a cell phone too quietly for me to hear, and Eduardo was keeping up with his shitty driving.

  It was guys like him that made my morning commute a joy.

  “What are you doing talking back?” Stonecrow asked in a low whisper. “You want to make this worse?”

  Worse? My face looked like ground fucking beef, I was under arrest by my own employer, and the necrocognitive I’d hoped would exonerate me was about to get tossed into a detention center far beyond my reach. And she thought a little snark was going to make it worse?

  “You don’t get to talk. You got me into this.” My pissed-off face was much better than these punks could muster, but Stonecrow didn’t seem fazed.

  “You got yourself into…whatever this is.” She was looking pale.

  “Either way, we’re both being taken to an OPA field office for questioning.” I glared at her. “Have you been interrogated before? I’ve been on the other side of it, so I can give some pointers.”

  “I can handle myself.”

  “Sure, whatever.” I rolled my shoulders to keep them from getting tense and raised my voice again. “We getting to the office soon? I’ve got to piss like a racehorse.”

  No one answered me.

  Fuck all this bullshit. I wasn’t letting Suzy’s mix-up land me in prison.

  We were going to get out of this.

  “Don’t suppose you got any of that dust left over?” I asked Stonecrow quietly. I didn’t think boils were going to do much to slow down Eduardo and Joey, hardened kopides that they were, but enchanted dust could be useful for other reasons. I could try to change it, use its power.

  “They patted me down, asshole. They took all the supplies I had.” She pulled a face. “And copped a feel while they were at it.”

  They hadn’t fondled me, but they’d taken all of my notebooks, too. And the gun that had been bouncing uselessly against my hip. And the Stonecrow file. I’d thought I had nothing when I had to flee my apartment, but now I really had nothing. At least Stonecrow would still have her hideous teal RV if she escaped.

  Stonecrow gave me a scrutinizing look. “If you’re not with them, then why did you assault me during my job last night?”

  “You mean the creepy death ritual.”

  “That’s my job,” she said.

  “First of all, I wasn’t assaulting you. I was taking you into custody. Big difference. Second of all, I’ve been looking for you to ask for help. I wanted you to use the creepy death ritual to talk to someone.”

  Stonecrow sniffed at me. “You’ve been near death recently.”

  Yeah, because that was hard to guess.

  “I was just in a cemetery. Remember?”

  “No, not that.” Her eyes trailed over me, intense and focused. Under different circumstances, it would have been a nice look to get. “Who was killed?”

  “That’s what I was going to have you help me with before…” I jerked my chin at the dashboard of the car, indicating Eduardo and Joey.

  That was when I realized that we weren’t in the city anymore.

  The freeway had turned into a highway outside the city at some point, and there wasn’t any stop-and-go traffic left. The buildings had thinned out, and sandy hills decorated with brush surrounded the road.

  “What’s wrong now?” Stonecrow asked.

  “We’re not going to the office.” I looked out the back window like that would change what I was seeing. It didn’t. Los Angeles was a quickly vanishing memory behind us. The closest field office to the RV park was in the complete opposite direction. We were headed into the deep desert instead.

  “You got anything in your bag of tricks?” I muttered as the SUV pulled off onto a dirt road away from traffic entirely. Not that dropping my voice meant anything at that point. We didn’t have much time. “Something distracting? Flash powder? Poison ivy?”

  “Why would I—what’s going on?”

  “I just need something magical!”

  Grudgingly, Stonecrow squirmed onto her side, rolling her hip to offer her back pocket to me. No, not her pocket—it was empty, flat and smooth against her butt. “Underwear. Left side.” She whispered so quietly I could barely hear her.

  Whoa. Okay.

  I tried not to touch her too much as I wiggled a plastic bag out from under the elastic band of her underwear. Black lace. Damn. She’d tucked the bag inside the folded-over hem, concealing a couple grams of a gray powder that looked a lot like what she had used to fuck up my face.

  “I thought you were all out,” I hissed.

  She sat back. “I lied.”

  Joey glanced at me over his shoulder, still talking on the phone, and I palmed the baggie.

  Rubbing my thumb on the plastic, I tried to guess what was inside. Definitely some salt. Looked like a little grave dirt—I used it in many of my poultices, so I was pretty sure about that one. Maybe some nettle, too. It was only lightly enchanted.

  It would have to be enough.

  “Where are you taking us?” I asked, louder than before, making sure I’d be heard over the engine.

  “I’m going to do it now,” Eduardo said. He wasn’t speaking to me.

  “Not until we’re out of town,” Joey said. “Follow the plan.”

  The plan. Between our eastward travels and their mutterings, I was not feeling good about this “plan.”

  I knew the Union had more outposts than the OPA did. We were mostly a bureaucratic affair—the brain to the Union’s body. They had fingers in everything, everywhere. For all I knew, they had a hidden base out this way and we were being sent there. But it wasn’t a base I knew.

  If they were taking me somewhere that I didn’t have high enough clearance to see, then chances were good I wasn’t meant to come back.

  Eduardo and Joey were focused away from us again. I opened the bag and carefully poured the gray dust in a tiny circle on the seat between Stonecrow and me. Her eyes widened, anger flashing over her face. She thought I was wasting it. In fact, I was casting the smallest fucking circle of power ever. Wondered if I might break a world record.

  I poked the dust toward the north, south, east, west. The highway was straight as far as I could see�
��had to finish casting the spell before we hit a turn and messed up the orientation.

  Pouring the last of the dust in the center, I snapped my fingers and closed the circle.

  The magical juice inside was small enough that I didn’t even sneeze. It barely even tickled.

  “With earth and stone, I call strength,” I whispered under my breath, pushing all of my meager energy into the circle, building its force with my own spirit. “With salt and…uh…”

  “Nettle,” Stonecrow said.

  My guess had been right. Nice. “With salt and nettle, I call strength. With the desert around us, I call strength.” Yeah, I know, it was stupid, but I’m not a poet. I don’t get fancy with my words.

  But it was enough. I could see faint, coppery sparks of magic igniting within the powder.

  Strength spells were one of my only specialties. Like the poultices I kept by the bed to juice up my muscles. Even a big guy can use a small edge when all of his foes are supernatural. I’d been making them daily, like protein shakes, for years. And that was probably the only reason my tiny, miserable circle of power was actually working, infusing the dust in the center with energy.

  What else could I use against Eduardo and Joey? I needed something.

  My mind touched on Domingo. The kind of shit he used to pull in high school while gambling. Luck spells.

  “With the wind and sun, grant me luck,” I added, and I blew gently on the dust, focusing every ounce of my concentration on my brother.

  Gold sparks. Copper sparks.

  Pretty pathetic magic right there.

  And I was out of time. There was a bend in the road coming up, but Eduardo was signaling and slowing the car, suggesting that our trip was over.

  There were no buildings outside, no secret Union base. Just empty desert between a few isolated hills.

  Shit.

  I broke the tiny circle and pinched the gram of dust that I had infused with strength and luck. It burned against my fingers, but there were no blisters. I’d repurposed the magic for a more positive use, and I could only pray that my shitty spell would work. I still couldn’t help but flinch as I sprinkled it on my tongue.

  I sneezed.

  The SUV stopped with a jerk. Joey jumped out, flung my door open.

  “Get out,” he said, aiming a gun at my head.

  “This isn’t Union procedure.” I was delaying, scooping the rest of the powder into my hand. The properties of the stuff I’d used to make the circle hadn’t changed, and it still burned. I could feel my palm rippling with new boils. I clenched my fist around it.

  I eased away from Stonecrow as casually as I could. Just my hands in a zip tie and my life in tatters, nothing to see here. She struggled when Eduardo grabbed her, but they were as well trained as I was and much better prepared. I just had to hope Stonecrow’s distraction could give me a few seconds.

  Outside it was even brighter and hotter than it had been in the city. I was sweating when they pulled me out. I stumbled and fell onto my knees.

  Joey pulled me to my feet again and dragged me when I didn’t get up fast enough. He was six inches shorter than me and twice as strong. But I could feel the powder on my tongue tingling, and the strength in my muscles was growing quickly with a familiar buzz.

  My shitty spell had worked. Better still, it had worked well. My limbs felt limber and strong. My head was light. Everything fell into hyper-focus—probably the luck part of the spell.

  It felt great. Good enough that I didn’t even panic when I noticed the manmade ditch that had been carved into the side of the road just off the shoulder.

  The kopis kicked me behind the knees, making me fall on the edge. And then I felt a gun in the back of my head.

  It was a by-the-book roadside execution. They would blow our brains out, leave us out of sight of the few people who even come out this way for off-roading, let the coyotes pick our bleached bones.

  Definitely not Union procedure.

  But I didn’t know that for a fact—maybe this was what the Union did when they black bagged people. Maybe everyone I’d ever arrested had ended up in a ditch in the desert.

  Or maybe these fuckers were working for the asshole who had framed me for murder.

  Either way, I wasn’t going down. My heart was pounding and I was smiling.

  “Say a prayer,” Joey said, pushing the barrel hard into the back of my neck.

  This should have been so much scarier than it was.

  Lifting my bound, burning hands into a prayer position, I began to speak. “Hail Mary, full of grace, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, something, something, Heaven…and fuck you, asshole. Amen.”

  I twisted and flung the remaining dust into Joey’s face.

  A gunshot exploded next to my left ear.

  So much for hearing.

  His mouth opened in a roar that I couldn’t hear. He fell, dropping the gun, clawing at his face. His skin was rippling and twisting. Watching the boils rise was almost worse than feeling it happen.

  Almost.

  Eduardo dropped his grip on Stonecrow’s arm and aimed his gun at me. She was gone in an instant, rocketing toward the SUV with its open doors.

  Good. One less thing to worry about.

  I lunged to my feet and drove my shoulder into Eduardo’s gut, knocking the breath out of him. I managed to throw his ass to the ground. Jerked the gun out of his hand. My fingers were too swollen from the dust to grip it properly. I fumbled, dropping it.

  Joey and his Elephant Man features were coming after me again. I kicked sand into his face—into those open, oozing wounds. He screamed.

  Eduardo was getting up again. I swung my tethered fists at him and struck. He grunted, tried to punch me, and missed. He barely managed to claw at my face as he fell. My own boils erupted, pouring pus down my jaw.

  Both of them regained their footing and jumped on me at the same time. We scuffled, and I didn’t know who was yelling and which guy was elbowing me. Feet and fists slammed into me. I curled up, protected my head. Managed to kick Joey to the ground, and he stayed down. But Eduardo didn’t.

  When I glanced through my arms, he was drawing a gun from his jacket. He aimed it at my forehead.

  All the supernatural ways I could’ve gone out in this world, and a bullet between the eyes was going to finish me.

  How boring.

  The gunshot rang in my ears.

  But I wasn’t in pain.

  I wasn’t dead, either.

  It took me a second to sit up and figure what had happened. Eduardo was on the ground next to me, also still alive, but out cold. Stonecrow was holding a bloody rock in one fist, looking shocked that she had actually managed to bash it into his skull hard enough to do damage.

  I’d thought Stonecrow had run for it and left me behind, but she had saved me.

  I managed a grin for her.

  Joey was getting up behind her, preparing to sneak up while she was distracted. I got to my feet and kicked him a few times in the gut, knocking him back down to the dirt. And then I kicked him in the face. Pustules exploded all over the desert.

  “Thanks,” Stonecrow said, pushing a lock of hair out of her face with the back of her wrist. She left a smear of blood and dust on her temple.

  I kicked Joey again, just because.

  “You’re welcome,” I said.

  There were more zip ties in the SUV, so once Stonecrow and I had cut free of our restraints, I used them on Eduardo and Joey. They were both awake when I finished. Eduardo seemed like he was having a hard time staying awake, head lolling—he might have had a concussion, but I didn’t really care. Joey was much more conscious and much uglier.

  I crouched in front of them. The sun was at their back because I was nice like that. Evening was coming fast. They might not even get sunburned before it got dark again.

  “So how was this supposed to end?” I asked. “Was it secret Union procedure, or something personal?”

  Instead of answering, Joey said, “Are yo
u fucking stupid?”

  Well, yeah, that was a possibility. But I wasn’t the one tied up in a ditch. I couldn’t be that stupid.

  Eduardo worked his mouth around, gathering saliva on his tongue, then spat on the ground at my feet.

  Nice.

  Stonecrow jiggled my shoulder before I could ask more questions. I brushed her off, but she did it again. “What?”

  “Shouldn’t we be leaving?” She was looking at the abandoned SUV.

  She had a point. All of the OPA’s cars had GPS trackers in them. Just because we were alone for the moment didn’t mean that we’d be alone for long. “Works for me.” I patted my pockets to make sure my notebooks were where I’d put them. I’d grabbed all of my stuff out of the SUV while looking for the zip ties, and the desert would’ve been a bad place to accidentally drop them. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “You can’t just leave us!” Joey cried as we walked toward the car.

  I didn’t tell him we could. Actions spoke louder than words.

  Anyway, it wouldn’t be long before the Union picked them up.

  Unfortunately.

  I yanked the cable to the GPS tracker under the car before taking off again.

  Once we were back on the highway, I pulled the phone out of my pocket and tossed it into Stonecrow’s lap. “I’ll read you a number, and I want you text this location to the number.”

  “What location? I’ve got no clue where the hell we are.”

  I parked the car by the side of the road. “Here, I’ll do it.”

  She didn’t let me pull the phone from her hands.

  I rubbed my forehead then winced. I was still covered in blisters. The sun had only made it worse. “You can pull our coordinates up on the app on the phone. Give it to me.”

  She scowled but obeyed. I grabbed our coordinates from the phone and texted them to Suzy with a short message: “Eduardo and Joey tried to kill me. Get to them first and find out why.” I waited for the message to go through, then handed the phone back to Stonecrow.

  “We should get rid of that,” I said. “It has a GPS tracker, too. I’ll let you decide how to trash it.”

  Stonecrow stepped out of the car and ducked. When she got back in and closed the door with a solid thump, I raised an eyebrow in her direction. She said, “Under the tire.” The corner of her mouth twitched as she surveyed me. “You look like shit.”