by Lola Dodge
My skin tingled. Steel’s weight only hit me as I yanked him through. It took three times more focus than usual to phase us both through, and I almost snagged my passenger on a hot water pipe. Breathing hard, I stumbled into the men’s bathroom.
I was halfway to the sinks when the door cracked against the wall. Thinktank thundered in with energy crackling around his temples.
Of course it was him.
Why hadn’t I checked his dossier before the mission?
Right. He was supposed to be in New York. I knew he could read minds, but there was definitely more, and he looked way too muscular for a brain. His power jabbed against my skull like a fist squeezing my brain.
“Who do you work for?” With the question, pain jolted so hard my knees almost gave.
Fight or flight?
I could win if I had to, but it wouldn’t be pretty afterward, and Thinktank hadn’t done anything wrong. It was time to cut my losses and run.
I swung Steel off my shoulders and tossed him like a horseshoe. He hit Thinktank like the whole horse, and they crashed into the bank of urinals.
I sprinted for the wall. God, I needed a teleporter to break some laws and lend me their powers.
This was ridiculous.
I dove. Thinktank’s energy contracted around me. Instead of going through the wall, I face-planted. White streaks shot through my vision and my nose made a sickening crunch.
Blood dripped to stain my dress. I cupped a hand to my face, trying to staunch the bleed.
Steel lay crumpled under the spray of a shattered urinal, but Thinktank was on his feet and approaching. The closer he came, the more my head ached. I couldn’t let him get his hands on me. Which meant letting loose the fireworks.
I flung my hands, casting a wall of fire between us. He cursed and jumped back. If the flames burned him half as badly as they seared my skin, it was worth it.
Another pang, and the fire guttered. Thinktank looked sooty but unharmed.
Bastard.
I let loose a wave of ice, with some laser beams for good measure. The cold was excruciating on burnt skin, and the lasers felt like atomic buffalo sauce jetting through my retinas.
So much for my TV lineup. Or being coherent the next few days. My body was going to hate me for using this many acquired powers.
Thinktank dodged, lifting his fingers to his temples. A laser sizzled into his arm just before it fizzled. I slipped on leftover ice as his power clamped down.
He grabbed me by the back of the neck and kicked open a stall. “Who do you work for?”
With the question, Thinktank plunged my face into the toilet.
Ick. Cold. Disgusting.
I spluttered and kicked, but he must’ve done this before. His grip wouldn’t budge. I thrashed harder.
“The Rogue Alliance?” He plucked me out and thrust me down again.
Couldn’t the bastard just read my mind? If he couldn’t, I had one more card left. He was going to pay for making me use it.
Suppressing the urge to vomit, I took a huge gulp of toilet water. It tasted like bleach and things I didn’t want to think about, but thanks to the wannabe pirate/merman I’d apprehended off Somalia, my body pulled out enough oxygen to clear the spots from my eyes.
I let my limbs go limp.
Thinktank hoisted me up and peered into my eyes. His mental hold relaxed—just barely. It was enough.
Gluing my mouth to his, I gave him back some of the nasty water as I sucked out his powers. He toppled, and I collapsed on him, hacking up whatever I’d swallowed.
My lungs burned and my body ached, but I scrabbled over to Steel. I dragged him out of a puddle and headed for the wall.
Thinktank twitched. I really, really wanted to leave him stewing in the pool of toilet water.
He’d interfered with my sting and almost blown the mission. And what kind of guy had the stomach to keep an accused rapist on his crime-fighting squad?
But whatever Thinktank’s questionable leadership policies, he was a hero. Bona-fide. He saved babies from four-alarm fires, disarmed bio-weapons, and had kicked enough supervillain ass to warrant a knighthood, a Congressional Medal of Honor, and a Nobel Peace Prize. Anyone with a TV knew that much.
He was a good guy. And I’d have to give him back his powers.
Eventually.
I grabbed each of the heroes by an arm and dragged them through the wall, glancing back in time to see Red Ruin and Nihil tearing through the door.
They had no chance with their leader out of commission. We flashed invisible as I flew us out into the alley and into the air.
Vegas glittered below us, but hauling the men took away from the spectacle. Just because I could lift them didn’t mean I should. Pain ripped up my arms, tearing through my shoulders.
We were all going to have dislocated shoulders if I didn’t get to the station soon, and hauling both of them, I couldn’t exactly jet. Despite the pain, I shivered. Even in summer, Vegas got cold when the sun set.
Nothing like flying over the nighttime desert in a soaked mini-dress hauling two limp-ass super heroes.
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DEADLY SWEET by Lola Dodge
Book One of the Spellwork Syndicate.
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“Mix delicious cakes and frosting with spell-binding magic and adventure, add a pinch of intrigue and this is a treat readers won’t want to miss.” - Tonja, Bookworm for Kids
Anise Wise loves three things: baking, potion making, and reading her spellbooks in blissful silence. She might not be the most powerful witch, but enchantment is a rare skill, and her ability to bake with magic is even rarer. Too bad no one wants witchcraft on their campus. Anise’s dream of attending pastry school crumbles with rejection letter after rejection letter.
Desperate to escape her dead-end future, Anise contacts the long-lost relative she’s not supposed to know about. Great Aunt Agatha owns the only magic bakery in the US, and she suddenly needs a new apprentice. Anise is so excited she books it to New Mexico without thinking to ask what happened to the last girl.
The Spellwork Syndicate rules the local witches in Taos, but as “accidents” turn into full-out attacks on Anise’s life, their promises to keep her safe are less and less reassuring. Her cranky bodyguard is doing his best, but it’s hard to fight back when she has no idea who’s the enemy. Or why she became their target.
If Anise can’t find and stop whoever wants her dead, she’ll be more toasted than a crème brûlée.
Who knew baking cakes could be so life or death?
Up for a YA Sci-fi adventure?
QUANTA by Lola Dodge
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Just because Quanta can see the future doesn’t mean she can change it. She’s spent most of her life imprisoned, feeding her captors information to keep herself alive, but she’s finally reached the endgame and her death creeps closer by the moment.
The son of two senators, Altair Orpheus leads a life of privilege that provides the perfect cover for his side job: working with the rebel Shadow Ravens to undermine the ruling Seligo government. Everything is running like clockwork until he crosses paths with Quanta. As he watches her deftly maneuver through life in a perverse prison, his plastic heart melts. A jailbreak would be suicide, but Tair is willing to sacrifice everything to give her a chance at happiness.
Now Quanta senses a terrifying new future brewing. She and Tair are bound together, but every image of them kissing, snuggling, and acting knee-weakeningly happy is balanced by a much darker possibility. They’ll be picture perfect together, but only until time rips them apart.
How can she follow her heart when she’s seen how their love plays out?
ALSO BY INK MONSTER…
From USA Today Bestselling Author, Aileen Erin
Off Planet, Book One of the Aunare Chronicles
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In an all-too-plausible future where corporate conglomerates have left the world’s governments in
shambles, anyone with means has left the polluted Earth for the promise of a better life on a SpaceTech owned colony among the stars.
Maité Martinez is the daughter of an Earther Latina and a powerful Aunare man, an alien race that SpaceTech sees as a threat to their dominion. When tensions turn violent, Maité finds herself trapped on Earth and forced into hiding.
For over ten years, Maité has stayed hidden, but every minute Maité stays on Earth is one closer to getting caught.
She’s lived on the streets. Gone hungry. And found a way to fight through it all. But one night, while waitressing in a greasy diner, a customer gets handsy with her. She reacts without thinking.
Covered in blood, Maité runs, but it’s not long before SpaceTech finds her…
Arrested and forced into dangerous work detail on a volcano planet, Maité waits for SpaceTech to make their move against the Aunare. She knows that if she can’t somehow find a way to stop them, there will be an interstellar war big enough to end all life in the universe.
Also by Lola Dodge
YOUNG ADULT NOVELS
The Spellwork Syndicate
Deadly Sweet
Sugar Spells
Wicked Tasty - forthcoming
The Shadow Ravens Series
Quanta
Quanta Reset
Quanta Rewind
ADULT NOVELLAS
The Manhattan Ten Series
Ivory
Temptress
Belle Fury
Angel