THE MAGE IN BLACK, Sabina Kane Book 2 (Excerpt Only)

CHAPTER ONE

The Kum-N-Go's roadside-chic interior was bathed in a sickly fluorescent glow. The aroma of stale smoke, urinal cakes and rotgut coffee had me breathing through my mouth on the way back to the ATM. It was my turn to pay for gas, so getting cash took priority over raiding the snack aisle for the moment.

While I entered my code and waited, Adam chatted with the attendant at the front of the store. He glanced over and raised his eyebrows. I lifted a finger and took a moment to admire the way his ass filled out his jeans. Even after sitting in a car for two days straight, he still looked hot with his stubble and road-weary smile. Too bad the mage part made him off limits.

Before I got caught staring, I move my gaze to the window. Adam's SUV and my cherry red Ducati provided the only scenery in the empty parking lot. The bike's 180 horses rested docilely on a trailer behind Adam's behemoth. Before we'd left California, he'd argued I wouldn't need wheels in New York, but I held my ground. That motorcycle was the only good thing left of my old, broken life. Leaving it behind wasn't an option.

A flash of white caught my attention as Stryx landed on the roof over the gas pumps. The red-eyed owl had followed us all the way from California, and I assumed he'd be joining us in New York. I'd gotten so used to seeing him, I no longer questioned his reason for following me. He never caused trouble, which was more than I could say for my other companions on this road trip from hell.

The headlights from a midnight black Mercedes lit up the window. It pulled in on the other side of Adam's car, so I couldn't see the driver get out. I waited to see if he'd come inside to pay, but loud beeping from the ATM grabbed my attention.

I took the clump of twenties the machine spit out and stashed it in my pocket, relieved the account still worked. Registered under a false name through a bank in the Caymans, the account held the bulk of my savings. When I'd set it up, it was a better-safe-than-sorry measure, but now it was all I had left to my name.

I was turning toward the front of the store when the three redheads came around the back of Adam's car. My heart sputtered and then kicked into overdrive.

How'd they find me so fast?

"Adam! We've got company!" With one hand, I reached for my waistband and grabbed for my gun. I cursed, realizing I'd left it in Adam's center console along with a box of apple cider bullets. After a few days on the road with no sign of trouble, I'd grown complacent, and now I was about to fight three assassins armed with nothing but the pair of apple wood chopsticks that held my hair back. Awesome.

The mortal male behind the counter wore a red smock with a nametag that read "Darrell."

"Go lock yourself in the store room."

"Huh?"

I flashed my fangs and pulled him bodily across the counter. "Get the hell out of here!"

Wetness spread across the front of his wrinkled khakis. He stammered for a moment, then turned tail and ran toward the back of the store.

Adam had already spotted the trouble. "Friends of yours?"

I turned toward the door, watching the three vampires make their way toward us. "The one on the left is Nick Konstantine. Likes to get stabby, so watch your back." Nick was the kind of vamp who gave the rest of us bad names. He liked to rape his prey before draining them. Nasty dude. "The big guy is Fatty Garza."

"What's his specialty? Eating his opponents whole?"

"Something like that,"

"And the female?"