Magic After Dark: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels

by Margo Bond Collins

“Count yourself lucky. Get out of here, then.” She turned and stormed off.

  I stared back toward the main road between two trailers and found Ryker standing ten feet away, hands on hips, glaring my way.

  At first, I wasn’t sure how to respond, because I couldn’t gauge his reaction from his blank face. But his growing grimace said it all. I closed the distance between us. “Ryker, what’s going on here?”

  “What are you doing? I can arrest you for interfering,” he started.

  Fire churned within me, hungry to unleash the raging ocean of anger. “Ryker, do you see what’s going on here? The police are assaulting people. Where’s the justice in that?”

  He stepped closer, his hands in his tailored pants, his button-down shirt crisp. Clearly, he hadn’t been fighting. “We gave the community notice months ago. So now, we must move them by force because construction will begin. They’re living here illegally.”

  A hurricane of insults stirred inside me. I pushed away his arm as he reached for me. “What are you talking about? The previous mayor had agreed to let them live here. It was announced on television.”

  He rolled his eyes. “There were never any formal documents signed.” His voice climbed.

  “Who the hell are you? You aren’t the Ryker I know. Since when do you displace families from their homes?”

  He stared at me, his eyes glazed over. Ryker shook his head, his nose scrunching, and feigned interest by glancing at the mayhem behind me.

  Voices came from my right. Several caravans away, a young guy emerged from his front door with his pregnant wife, but when their gazes landed on us, they froze.

  Ryker charged toward them. What was he doing? Helping?

  But when Ryker wrenched the man by an arm and sent him reeling across the front lawn, my world collapsed. I didn’t remember moving, but I was there, pulling Ryker’s arm. “Stop it!” I cried, my insides crumbling. The woman waddled inside.

  “Leave, Robyn.” His voice was deep and authoritative. This wasn’t the guy I’d given myself to—not at all. In that frozen second between our standoff, his expression was unreadable. No empathy. No fear. Just emptiness.

  “What’s wrong with you?” My mind surged into a whirlwind.

  He seized my arm and swung me sideways, then ran to the young man and kicked his feet out from under him.

  Ryker kneeled next to him, twisting his arms as he drew cuffs from his belt.

  Smoldering rage eclipsed the heartbreak of seeing Ryker go off the rails. I leaped after him, grabbed a handful of his shirt and yanked him backward. I was furious he’d ambush an innocent person, desperate to make him stop, and devastated he’d forced my hand and made me attack him.

  I trembled.

  Ryker jerked toward me, wearing a filthy frown. And his fist slammed into the side of my face. Pain blazed across my cheek.

  I sunk into my stomach and recoiled. Blood coated my tongue.

  He stepped back. “I take no pleasure in hitting you. But you were standing in the way of my job.”

  My eyes pricked as I stood frozen, my pulse humming in my ears. The flesh on my cheekbone burned from the punch, but nothing compared to my soul shattering. Yet now, he was already with the victim, ignoring that he’d just struck me. I shook with anger, tears falling down my cheek. Fuck that. I shouldn’t have been crying, but the shock had rattled me, dislodged me, tore the world out from under me.

  Behind me, footfalls escalated. Three police approached. I was outnumbered, and I’d be arrested. And Ryker wouldn’t come to my rescue.

  The right decision was to run in the opposite direction, but my legs weren’t moving. Instead, I remembered our last night together, Ryker’s tenderness, his promise to take me on a trip this weekend. My lungs struggled for air. Why was Ryker behaving this way? He’d once told me how he’d insisted his boss put extra security near the Lower Corner to stop gangs from taking advantage of the locals. Except the stranger in front of me was not my Ryker. Couldn’t be. The bond we’d forged now lay smashed.

  Ryker turned and looked through me.

  “You’re either on our side or theirs,” he barked, his gaze dipping to the victim alongside him.

  An ugly darkness slithered through me, hatred twisted with sorrow that such words could ever come from the man I adored. How would he react if he discovered I was a Traveler?

  I clenched my hands and charged forward.

  Ryker studied me, unmoving, but reached for me at the last minute. I ducked and kicked his knees. He fell flat on his face as the other officers closed in. I pushed the young man cuffed only on one hand away. “Get your wife and hide.”

  I angled past a trailer home and stuffed a hand into my pocket, touching the smooth glass marble and wrapping my hand around it. In my mind, I called to the energy, hungrily drawing it into me. Within seconds, the snap of energy flooded my insides, and I embraced the invisibility engulfing me. Without waiting, I emerged to find two uniformed guys darting toward the Traveler guiding his wife outside. I lunged after them, tripping one and jolting the second backward by an arm. I pinched the cuffs from his belt. In haste, I snapped one to his wrist and dragged him toward his buddy, locking them both in handcuffs.

  “What the hell’s going on?” one bellowed.

  Exactly what I had to find out. I just hoped my invisibility lasted long enough to make a difference.

  The third cop and Ryker closed in on the pregnant woman and her hubby as they hid behind a camper.

  When Ryker careened after them, I elbowed his ribs. Sure, it didn’t knock him over, but he stopped his pursuit and surveyed around. For a moment, it looked like he’d seen me. “What was that?”

  The third cop came over from the crowds, and in the distance, authorities retreated as protesters had breached the passageway into the street along with TV crews. This was wrong… The Travelers would never trust the police again. Crap, I sure didn’t.

  I bolted between two trailers, glancing back. Ryker surveyed the area as if he’d lost something. Terror consumed me, and I remained torn. I ought to have returned and forced him to tell me what was going on. Why he’d morphed into a prick. Instead, I kept running; fearing that this was somehow the real Ryker and not a mistake had broken me.

  Chapter 11

  The wind whipped past me, snatching my clothes like greedy hands as I sped on my bike. Tears refused to stop falling, and I didn’t even remember leaving the city. I was alone in the woods and hit the throttle. I hated Ryker for what he’d done. Hated myself for moving to the city three years ago. Hated the ugly world I lived in. Fury burned me up from the inside.

  I’d given Ryker everything I had, and still my cheek stung from his punch. I curved around the next bend fast, my tires skidding, smoke billowing behind me. Too many scenarios played in my mind, from forcing Ryker to see reason, to shoving him over a cliff, to understanding how the police could attack the Traveler community. Were they in cahoots with the construction company, or did they blame the Travelers for the explosion in the city? Couldn’t be, or it meant they knew the Hood belonged to the community. Nobody except a select few in the Lower Corner were privy to that knowledge. Only the elderly and a select few who were approached to join. Another reason the Hood stayed in the forest—for their own safety and for the community’s.

  I rode the bike up the curved slope, farther from the city, and I considered not stopping until I ran out of gas. I might get as far as the sister city, Jade. Maybe that place was better than Amber… had to be because nothing could be as demented and chaotic as the place I’d chosen as my home. I’d start a new life, forget this craphole. My chest tightened.

  Half an hour later, my pulse still raged. I trembled, unable to stop crying. How could I face Ryker or ever work with the police again? Not after what I’d seen today. They’d gained themselves an enemy.

  Up ahead was a rest stop. I slowed the bike and parked. With the helmet and jacket off, I ambled toward the lookout. Between several trees stood the picturesque image of Amber
City sprawled across the valley.

  I used to visit this exact location when I was with the Hood, pitying the people who lived in the city. For too long, I figured they stayed because it was easier than fighting against corruptness. I’d been an idiot then. A lot of good people were trying to make a living and fought each day for what they believed in. I respected that, including those in the law enforcement. Until today…

  Yet my thoughts kept swinging back to Ryker, and I wiped my eyes. What was I supposed to do now? Return home and pretend him hitting me had never happened? Not in this lifetime. But how could I walk away from him? What the hell was wrong with him?

  The snort of an engine roared through the woods. I turned as a black bike glided up alongside mine, tires crunching pebbles. The last person I wanted to see right then had just pulled up. Dante climbed off his bike and pulled off his helmet, his hair loose and swaying in the breeze. Damn. Of course, his trackers would have recognized me and had informed Dante. Stopping had been foolish, but then again, I was the queen of idiots apparently. My devastation was testament to that.

  And having my ex here at a time when my tears refused to dry up wasn’t ideal. Especially since my pulse spiked at seeing him stroll closer, jeans hugging him perfectly, sitting low on his hips, his black T-shirt tight across his chest, his biceps. Lord, help me.

  “You sure were in a rush to visit our lookout spot.” His hands slid into the front pockets of his jeans. “Are they showcasing fireworks?”

  “In the daytime?”

  He shrugged, studying me, then his attention sailed over my shoulder to the city. “You never know. Stranger things have happened.”

  I joined him, leaning my arms against the metal railing. His gaze dipped to the ink on my inner wrist. A matching knife image sat on Dante’s arm, and each time I looked at it, I thought of him. Remembered our pact that wherever we were, we’d always be connected.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  I couldn’t find my words because Ryker was the understanding guy who listened to my problems, held me when shit hit the fan. But today, everything was topsy turvy. I turned my head to Dante, the sympathy in his eyes warming, calming.

  “Want me to hurt the person who gave you that shiner?”

  I laughed at the notion of Ryker and Dante ever crossing paths. They were opposites, from different worlds—and enemies in their eyes. Me, I was in the middle, believing for a long time that I could live this dual life, pretending it was possible. I’d been wrong. The question was, where did I really belong?

  “I took care of it,” I said.

  “Thought so.” He nudged me with his shoulder, staying close. “Remember that time you taught Arnie new battle moves, and he busted your lip?”

  “He was a dickhead.” I’d tried to show him new tricks, but all he’d wanted to do was fight, sneak into the city, and steal stuff.

  “He means well but is a bit gung-ho in his approach. That night after he attacked you, I planned to set him right, but Charity and two others gave him their own lesson on how not to treat one of our own. Since then, he’s never raised a hand to anyone in the gang.”

  It took a few seconds for the information to sink it. “Okay, I didn’t know that.”

  “What I’m trying to say is that the Hood will always have your back. Even now.”

  I sniffled. “Thanks.” I stared out at the sprawling metropolis, but my brain kept reexamining Dante’s words. Even after I’d abandoned the Hood, they still stood by my side. Deep inside, I would always be a Traveler, and the Hood ran through my veins. Always had, and I felt it now more than ever. Had I been deceiving myself these past three years?

  Silence accompanied us. Calmness surrounded me from the woods, the peacefulness, Dante’s company.

  “Someone I thought I knew well gave me the bruise.” The words came out involuntarily, as if speaking my mind would ease the agony. Just remembering Ryker’s empty eyes, his lack of emotion, his determination to rip those people out of their homes, had my eyes watering.

  Dante reached over and wiped a tear from my cheek with a thumb. “Whoever it was must have meant a lot to you.”

  I nodded but wouldn’t in this lifetime talk about Ryker to Dante. “I want to forget about it. Did you know the cops were dragging everyone in the Traveler community out of their homes? That’s how I got this shiner.”

  Dante stiffened. “I just heard and I sent a few from my team to check it out. I should join them.” He recoiled, but I grabbed his hand in mine.

  “You can’t go down there right now. They’re arresting anyone interfering. Besides, there are enough protesters and television crews to bring light to their disgusting behavior.”

  His brow knotted. “Come. Let’s head back. I’ll send more of the team out to watch what’s going on and help those they can.”

  Dante drew me alongside him, our hands laced together. Fallen leaves littered the dirt track and a strong pine smell blanketed the forest. I didn’t pull away, not when Dante’s touch left me grounded, thinking straight, that maybe all wasn’t lost in my world. “Tell them not to wear their green sashes… You’re all over the news this morning and now the Hood is declared a menace to society and wanted by the authorities.”

  “So, what’s new?” His cocky voice should have aggravated me, but it reminded me of why I’d first been attracted to Dante. Nothing rattled him. He faced danger with determination and was fiercely loyal and protective.

  “Just be careful, that’s all,” I said.

  Alongside the bikes, Dante drew me into his arms, a hand at my back, the other gliding to the back of my head. “You’ve always been so kind. Damn, I miss you.”

  With my hands by my side, I didn’t retreat. Dante held me tight against him, squeezing me a fraction, and I breathed slower. I softened into his embrace, staring into the deepest blue eyes. Was it idiotic of me to want such happiness? To have a family again?

  My stomach sparked from his body pressed so close. I raised myself onto tippy-toes and leaned in, my lips grazing his. I’d longed for his touch, his kiss, the way he made love to me as if nothing else on the planet mattered.

  Dante’s mouth was on mine—hot, fiery, and demanding. He tasted of mint and our bodies mashed, his tongue surging against me. Thinking straight was an impossibility. I melted, craving more, and moaned. His fingers pressed into my lower back, and I wrapped my hands around his strong neck. His musky scent flooded me.

  I fell hard, pushing aside every thought. I dove into Dante’s world and let his touch, his kiss, his passion make me forget myself.

  He broke away, and the tingling in my gut spiraled out of control. Dante always had this effect on me, drove me insane with desire, but it was deeper than that. He fueled me with a hunger for life, to make our world a better place, to love and never allow evil into my soul. Warmth radiated through me.

  Dante’s calloused hands were gentle, skimming my cheeks to cup my face. “We’ve been apart for too long.” He kissed me tenderly on my nose, lips, and chin.

  Breathless, I gazed up at him. “I agree.” I shoved other thoughts aside, and the reminder that I was a cheater. But I couldn’t stay with a man who’d raised a hand at me and struck. No second chances. Ryker was lucky I didn’t break his arm. Still, the hurt lay there, bubbling beneath the surface, but I refused to go there… not when I could escape. And as much as I told myself I was rebounding, distracting myself, I wasn’t an idiot. I’d never stopped loving Dante, so did that mean I’d fallen for two men at the same time?

  Quivers crawled up my legs, and I unraveled myself out of Dante’s embrace. “So, we heading back to camp?”

  Dante gave me his spectacular smile, the one that wobbled my knees, and made me powerless to turn him down. He stood for what was right and fixing the mistakes in society, he fought for those who couldn’t, and that made him a hero in my books.

  “Let’s go, sweetheart.” He guided me to my bike and in no time we were roaring down the road, side by side.

 
Was it so wrong to want the life I’d once had back? And with that my brother’s face sailed across my thoughts, smashing through the perfect image of my past. It reminded me that despite Dante’s idealistic world and bravery, his actions came with deadly risks.

  Chapter 12

  Fresh-scented pine boughs rustled around Dante and me. We sat in silence in the woods. The sloping ground littered with foliage and rocks dug into the back of my thighs. In front of us lay the perfect window between two trees, which displayed the Lower Corner. During my time with the Hood, I would spend hours here, watching over the Traveler community, seeing who came and went, spotting unsavory intruders and rival gang members. A subdued calm had settled over the place. Blue and white police tape fluttered across the road. Three rows of homes and trailers sat on each side.

  Protesters lingered at the mouth of the street, creating a human wall, blocking anyone from entering. No sign of law enforcement. An elderly man hobbled from his house and vanished around a camper. Close to twenty Hood members hid in prime positions should danger return. We’d been here for several hours now.

  “Should have done this right after the explosion.” Dante’s voice carried pain and regret. “I should have been the one keeping guard.” He sat next to me, arms on bent knees, gaze locked on the city. His long hair blew in his face, and he tucked loose strands behind his ears.

  I reached over and placed a hand on his, squeezing. “You didn’t know the police would attack.” Just as I hadn’t known Ryker could be a complete douche. Had I been ignorant enough to not have seen that side of him? The part where he held no sympathy in his eyes? I swore he’d been a different person because the Ryker I’d fallen for worked in the soup kitchen on weekends, fed the homeless. Something just wasn’t adding up… Maybe I needed to go speak to him, dig for the truth.

  It killed me to remember him hitting me. I rubbed my tender cheek and studied Dante, who watched me with intently. The side of his mouth curled upward, and my stomach fluttered. Everything in my head had torn me in two between Dante and Ryker. Neither were perfect, but both had wriggled into my life and now pulled at my heart strings. But I didn’t have it in me to keep talking about how complicated things had gotten, so I changed the topic to something I could help solve: Missing people cases.