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

by Margo Bond Collins

  “I’ll leave you to it.” Alessa strode after Lionel and the others.

  I walked up to Hadrian. “You died well,” I told him. “A helsing warrior would have been proud of that death.” The katana sliced through his neck with a single swift strike. As I hurried toward the exit, I wiped the blade clean on my yellow hunting coat, admiring the weapon as I did so.

  On the street outside Cressington Tower, the others had come to a stop, and I quickly saw why. A seeing eye confronted them, and this wasn’t one of Danielle’s. From the way that Christian Cressington’s face, inside the eye, was red and bloated, he was mad as hell.

  “This isn’t the time,” Lionel told him wearily.

  “You don’t get to tell me that!” Christian shouted. “I’m your father and the head of this family. My headquarters have been broken into, and from what I can tell so far, dozens of the family mages are dead. I have no idea what happened, and I demand an explanation.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t be the head of the family anymore,” Lionel said quietly.

  “What did you say to me?” The seeing eye pushed itself against Lionel’s nose.

  “You heard me.” Lionel grabbed his pendant and raised a palm against the seeing eye, forcing it back. “You embrace technology of the future, but you cling to ideas of the past. We no longer live in a world where mage families should be able to kill or even exile hood mages. But that’s for another conversation. As I said earlier, this isn’t the time.” Lionel closed his fist, and the seeing eye imploded. “I may have just used the last of my life force dismissing that,” Lionel said with a sigh. “But it was worth it.”

  Alessa put an arm around Lionel’s neck, pulled him close, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Well done.” She released him and continued across the street. “Now, let’s get out of here.”

  I gave Alessa back her katana, and she sheathed it. She got into the driver’s seat of the van; I took the passenger side. The other three climbed into the back.

  “Where’s Gabriel?” Danielle asked suddenly.

  “He’s safe; he got away,” I said. “But he’s not our friend.”

  “If he’s not our friend, then…” Alessa looked across at me, realizing what it meant. We had a dragongod as an enemy. “That’s not good.”

  “Let’s not get into it now. Let’s just get away from here. Sleep. Heal. We shouldn’t go back to Camp Danielle or any place Gabriel knows of. Dump the earpieces.”

  “I know somewhere we’ll be safe for a night or two,” Alessa said. “Beyond that, if what you say is true, we’ll need protection. I have one idea of where we could go.” She turned on the engine, still looking across at me. “You aren’t going to like it.”

  Chapter 32

  As we cut through the park in Rittenhouse Square, a winking sun sent intermittent rays of slanting sunlight flashing between the skyscrapers. Four of us walked side by side: Lionel, Becca, Danielle, and me. We had matching gloomy expressions on our faces.

  Lionel touched my shoulder. “We’re arriving early.”

  “Let’s stop here a few moments.” I sat on a bench that still drew the last of the evening sunlight, closed my eyes, and let the warmth heat my skin. I filtered out the traffic and sounds of the city, concentrating on the twittering of a bird, and the music of a nearby busker. I didn’t smile, but some of the tension left my face. Sunny warmth on my skin made everything seem a little brighter.

  “Imagining everything is back to normal?” Lionel asked.

  “Something like that.” I opened my eyes again.

  Lionel had sat beside me. Danielle shifted from foot to foot. Becca looked calm and purposeful. She had decided to wear the bracers of the maser gun on her forearms, ignoring all protestations from her brother.

  Harps emerged from inside the right-hand side of my hunting coat and climbed on my shoulder. Danielle reached forward and stroked the fur at the back of his neck. “Are we making a terrible mistake?” she asked. Harps jumped off my shoulder, exploring further into the park.

  “We’ve been over this,” Lionel said.

  “The decision isn’t final, but it will be soon,” Danielle said. “This is the last chance to change our minds.”

  “We can’t protect it on our own,” Lionel said. “We need help.”

  It. The it he referred to was currently nestled against my left-hand side, weighing my hunting coat. A pillar of creation.

  “I still don’t believe that destroying a few statues can bring about the end of the world,” Becca said. “It’s just not…” She paused as she sought a word. “It can’t be scientific.”

  “Not everything can be explained by science,” I said.

  “That’s where you are wrong,” Becca said. “We just need sufficiently advanced science. Dragongods, vampires, magic, the swirl, everything is ultimately explained once we dig deep enough.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Danielle said. “I’ve thought about this. Science may be just a construct of our world. The overworld. It may not apply to everything outside that world. Perhaps we live in the equivalent of a child’s toy made out of LEGO bricks. Those who live inside it can only understand the logic and science of LEGO pieces. The dragongods, swirl, the underworld, they are outside our normal reality, thus they aren’t bound by the rules of LEGO bricks.”

  “That’s a depressing thought,” Becca said. “If we are living in a world of LEGO bricks, then if something outside that world decides to smash the whole thing up, the LEGO people don’t have much power to stop them. A toddler has a tantrum, and everything ends.”

  We all descended into silence. Unfortunately, Danielle’s LEGO metaphor lined up too well with how Gabriel saw the world, or at least how he had expressed it to me. The dragongod had enjoyed playing with the world as it currently existed and now wanted to make sure it was disassembled in the right way so another LEGO toy could be constructed for him to play with. A hard reset, he’d called it. He wouldn’t let the LEGO toys continue to learn and grow, in case they accidentally melted down the bricks, which would prevent another Lego world being formed.

  I sighed. Even attempting to stop Gabriel was laughable. What chance did LEGO people have at stopping a toddler? The same zero chance that mortals had against someone who’d been alive at the beginning of existence.

  However, despite having a pillar of creation in my pocket and knowing what Gabriel wanted, that wasn’t my greatest fear. It was stupid, of course, but I worried more about what Dagger would do than anything else. My head feared Gabriel, but in my gut, deep in my gut where all true emotions resided, I feared Dagger. I didn’t see any way that I could explain what had happened to him in a way that he would understand. I had partnered with a vampire against the god of my people. And…

  I glanced up at the tall building with the blacked-out windows on the other end of the square—our planned destination. If I entered that as a supplicant rather than an attacker—whatever my motive—I would be truly damned in Dagger’s eyes. It would be a betrayal of everything he believed, everything he stood for, everything he’d taught me.

  My initial mission in the city had come from the helsing kings, with Gabriel pulling the strings. A dragongod only had to show off his dazzling blue aura to get any helsing warrior to obey him. Returning to my people had become impossible, and I had no doubt Gabriel would use the warriors for any upcoming plans. Any protestations I made would just make me a traitor and blasphemer. So what choices did I really have?

  Twilight descended, bringing a chill to the air. Shadows crept across the park. A hare bounded across the grass, and Harps shot out of a hedge, giving a squeal of delight as he chased it.

  He didn’t get close to the hare, of course, but it was good that at least one of us was unburdened by worries. I remembered Harps’s broken body sliding down the concrete pillar. I’d been sure he’d been dead. How was I going to be able to put Harps in danger again after that? But I’d needed him against Grimstar, and I was going to need him again.

  H
arps raced across the grass toward us.

  You are chasing other animals now. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? I thought as Harps climbed up my lap and onto my shoulder.

  It’s easy, Slate, Harps thought. Why didn’t you tell me how easy it is? I just needed to learn the trick.

  What trick is that?

  Knowing that they are more scared of me than I am of them.

  I chuckled. When you ran off, I thought it might be for a secret meeting with that baboon you talked about. You know, the ugly one.

  I’ve decided to stick with you a bit longer.

  I was afraid of that. I projected the thought as a joke, but it was actually true. I was afraid of what would happen to him if he stayed with me.

  “Shall we continue?” Lionel asked, standing up.

  “Are we sure we’re sure about this?” I asked.

  Lionel groaned. “Not you too. We’ve been over this.”

  After the battle in Cressington Tower, we’d slept through the day. The next night, I’d told everyone who Gabriel was and what he’d said, and we’d discussed what to do long into the night. Alessa had argued that we couldn’t protect the pillar alone, that we needed to persuade a powerful faction to help us. We couldn’t rely on helsings to help against a dragongod, and after what had happened in Cressington Tower, Lionel and Becca wouldn’t be listened to by their father. Not for a while, at least.

  “I still think approaching the Hamiltons could be a better choice,” I said. “Jacinta proposed an alliance with me even before a need for it arose.”

  “An alliance.” Becca raised her eyebrows. “Is that what you young kids are calling it these days? What exactly was it that arose between you?”

  “What do you really know about Jacinta except that she enjoys healthy airflow in her chestal region?” Lionel asked.

  Jacinta is the girl you smelled of when you came back from the fancy party, right? Harps thought. The primrose-nectar girl.

  “Apparently, she smells like nectar,” I said.

  “That would be the expensive perfume,” Lionel said. “Jacinta is the most calculating person I know. The Hamiltons are not in a position to defy the Cressingtons right now. Jacinta would hand us straight over to Christian if we went to her. We’ve been over this.”

  I nodded. I was just putting off what needed to be done. “Let’s go, then.”

  As exited of the park, I glanced across at Danielle. “Harps is now chasing animals rather than being chased by them. Next thing we know, you’ll be capable at magic under difficult circumstances.”

  “I already…” She spluttered. “In Cressington Tower… What do you mean, will be able?”

  I smiled, and realizing I was joking, she gave me a fierce glare.

  My smile widened. Having Danielle glare at me had become something I looked forward to.

  “Just wait,” she said. “My spellbook will soon to be overflowing with anti-helsing spells.”

  She was joking, but there was a good chance that was exactly what we’d soon need. In addition to anti-dragongod spells, if such things existed. Which they probably didn’t.

  We crossed the street, pausing at the building entrance, where a doorman wearing a fancy suit and a top hat stood guard. “Yes?” he asked.

  “Alessa C. arranged a meeting,” Lionel said. “We are expected.”

  The doorman nodded. “You know you can’t go up yet?”

  “Of course.” Lionel nodded. “Alessa will be along shortly.”

  We walked into a reception area. Behind the desk sat a mountain troll with a bottle of vodka in front of him. He glanced up when we walked in, got a nod from the man in the top hat, then lost interest.

  “How long?” I asked the troll.

  His answer was to take a vodka bottle, take a big swig, wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, then noisily burp.

  The four of us clustered close together. Harps crept off my shoulder and into an inner pocket. We knew from Alessa that the lower stairs of the building had been blocked up and that the elevator didn’t operate during daylight hours.

  We had timed it well, and we weren’t waiting long before the elevator hummed into life. A bell dinged as it hit the ground floor, and its doors opened.

  The troll thumped his vodka bottle on his desk and nodded us toward it.

  “Not yet,” Lionel said. “We can’t go without Alessa.”

  Whatever meager chance we had of a friendly reception was gone without Alessa. The troll wasn’t blessed with patience, though. He stood to his full eight-foot height, looming over us, and nodded toward the elevator again. Getting into a fight with security wouldn’t leave a good impression either.

  I slid between the troll and the others, trying to figure out how to deal with the situation. Then the outer door opened, and Alessa stepped inside. “She’s here,” I said with relief.

  Alessa walked straight to the elevator and entered, and Lionel, Becca, and Danielle followed.

  I took one step forward, then froze.

  Alessa turned back. “What is it?”

  “I know we planned on this. But now I’m here. I can’t go in there.”

  “You have somewhere else to go?” she asked.

  “No, but…” I looked down at the green aura that shimmered on my hands, then back at the red swirling aura that surrounded Alessa. “I can’t. Dagger would… I can’t.”

  The elevator started to close, and Alessa grabbed the side to hold it open. “This a door to walk through,” she said. “We’re not strong on options, but don’t forget what we accomplished in Cressington Tower. If we’d failed, we’d all be dead. Existence itself could be on life support, or even have ended. This is an opportunity.”

  A door. A way forward. Hope.

  Even if all doors were closed and all hope was lost, helsing warriors would continue to fight. Dagger mightn’t support me anymore, but he couldn’t take back what he had molded me into. Warriors battled the hardest when the odds were most against us. And with a dragongod in the other corner, the odds had never been worse.

  Bring it.

  I strode into the elevator, joining the rest of the mage team.

  The End

  The sequel is due in 2018. However, you can learn how Lionel and Alessa met in a prequel called The Demon Mirror:

  A vampire and a mage must defeat the ultimate enemy—their own reflections come to life. To survive until dawn, the mismatched couple will not only have to solve the mystery of the demon's curse, they'll also need to confront the secrets of their hearts.

  The Demon Mirror is free for fans, just let the author know which email address to send it to: http://davidjnormoyle.com/readers-group/

  For more great urban fantasy from the same author, a book called Fire Sorcerer kicks off The Sentinels series: http://davidjnormoyle.com/the-sentinels/

  Fire Sorcerer: My name is Rune and if I’ve learned one thing, it’s not to play with fire. Magical or otherwise.

  About the Author

  David was born in Australia, but moved to Ireland at an early age. The early globe crossing must have gone to his head, as he has since backpacked through and lived in numerous countries. He grew up on a farm as the eldest of nine unruly siblings, but since his escape, he prefers city living. His electronic engineering degree is currently gathering dust while he lives in worlds of his own creation.

  He has two ongoing urban fantasy series (The Sentinels, Dragongods Saga), one ongoing epic fantasy series (Weapons of Power) and one completed epic fantasy series (The Narrowing Path). Find out more on his website:

  http://davidjnormoyle.com/

  Gilded Revenge

  Megan J. Parker and Nathan Squiers

  Gilded Revenge © 2017 Megan J. Parker & Nathan Squiers

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Gilded Revenge

  Revenge has never been sweeter…

  In a single night, Rumpelstiltskin took everything from Serafina.

  Out to reclaim her child and exact vengeance for the death of her husband, she’s left her people and hit the road. Arriving in a new city, she finds herself thrown into a series of chaotic events as she draws ever nearer to her goal but she’s going to need a little help.

  Joined by two unusual allies, she may finally have a chance to exact her revenge and return home with her child.

  Prologue

  She could still remember it all. Every awful detail.

  She could still remember the first few weeks after the loss, still remembered how her people had barricaded her to protect her from herself. She remembered how she’d wanted to hate them for that—remembered how she’d wanted to hate them for a lot that they’d done and remembered how she’d wanted to hate them even more that they hadn’t—but, more than anything else, she remembered how she’d wanted to believe that it would’ve been better if they had just let her go. That last part, though, wasn’t just a memory; a memory you looked back on, that she was still living. Plagued every night by the haunting memory of her child’s screams, Serafina had long since forgotten what a decent night’s sleep felt like.