Day In Court

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE

Madison Gallagher stared down at the object in her hands in horror. Her hands shook as she opened it, not believing what she was seeing.

"Jury duty?" Maddie asked aloud. "How the heck did I not see this coming?" While nearly everyone was horrified at the idea of getting a jury duty notice, Maddie's was a special case. Jury duty was typically served during the day, and Maddie would burst into flames if she tried to show up. If that wasn't a valid reason to be excused, what was?

She nervously twirled a strand of her long red hair around her pale index finger as she tried to think of a way out of this mess. Maddie had died eighteen months earlier, but since she'd woken back up, that hardly seemed like a reason to stop living her life.

She'd been brand new to Manhattan, working nights at a bar while she pursued her dream of becoming a best-selling author. The fact that no one knew her made it easy to blend in even after she died. She went to work at night, hung out with whatever new friends she made until just before the sun rose, and slept all day. She'd wake up before the sun set and write in the safety of her tiny apartment. It worked. Everything worth doing in New York happened at night anyway. She hadn't anticipated being called for anything as mundane as mandated jury duty, though.

"I can't ditch it," she said. "I'll get arrested." She wasn't ready to give up her identity, so that wasn't an option. She sighed. It wasn't the first setback in her un-life. She'd had to learn how to control the urge to feed so she didn't eat the customers or random tourists. After her first kill turned out to be a teacher with two kids, she'd sworn she would never kill an innocent again. Now, she fed on rare steaks and bloody burgers. If she had to feed off of a living person, she fed off the willing, and never enough to kill. On the rare occasion she had to drink enough to drain someone dry, she was careful to attack people she knew were a danger to society. Working in a bar, she knew a lot of secrets. There had been a solution to feeding, and there would be a solution to this.

Being tech-savy, Maddie did what anyone her age would do; she Googled it. First, she searched for ways to get out of jury duty, but that was a bust. The city had caught on to the excuses people gave and had declared none were good enough. Short of telling them she was a vampire and running off with the men in white coats, she had nothing.

Next, she searched for ways for people with sun allergies to go out in the sunlight. None of these remedies seemed strong enough to protect her.

Feeling hopeless, Maddie went for a walk. St. Mark's Place was only a couple of blocks away and she needed to feel normal. Since St. Mark's was the land of punks and weird people, she seemed extremely ordinary compared to everyone else.

A shop she'd never noticed before caught her eye. "Black Magick Boutique," Maddie read aloud. She generally stayed away from anything claiming to be black magick, but something about the place called to her. Cautiously, Maddie opened the door and stepped inside.

A few local punk kids were shopping inside, but a couple of more distinguished people were also browsing. Maddie looked around at the stones, crystals, candles, statues, and ritual tools surrounding her.

One of the punk kids slipped a knife into his pocket. His two female companions snickered.

"I saw that, you little shit!" A very angry, very powerful voce declared. Suddenly, the kid was thrown up against a glass display by a pissed off New Yorker with short blonde hair. She looked like she might kill the kid as she pulled the dagger out of his pocket with one hand while still holding him in place with her free arm across his throat. "You think it's smart to steal from a warlock? Run home to mommy and daddy before I hex your stupid ass." She shoved the kid away. He and his friends ran for their lives.