Black Dust Mambo Read Online Free PDF Page A

need to rest,” another voice interjected. “Medics are on their way.”
    Layne recognized the soft, faded brogue. He turned his head and looked into Mc Kenna’s dark eyes. “Hey, buttercup,” he said. “Don’t think I need medics. Not now. What’re you doin’ here?”
    She cupped her warm palm against his face. “Ye called me, luv. Now shut up and rest.” She glanced at the bed, sorrow filling her eyes. “I’ll check on our Gage.”
    As she started to rise to her feet, Layne grabbed her arm, stopping her. “He’s dead,” he said, more roughly than he’d intended. “Don’t touch him. Just leave him be.”
    Her dark eyes searching his, McKenna sat back down, crossing her legs underneath her. Layne slid his hand from her arm, the touch of her skin and the soft, pale down on her arm as familiar as his own flesh. And, as always, dammit, soothing.
    “Mind telling me why?” McKenna asked. “Wha’ happened to Gage and to you?”
    “Hexed,” Kallie volunteered. “And the trick that killed Gage still had enough juice to knock Layne on his ass when he touched him.”
    “A hex that’s now gone,” said a flannel-smooth voice. Layne looked up at Kallie’s tall, slim-muscled friend with her halo of black and blue curls. She held up a half-empty bottle of amber dust. A satisfied, catlike smile stretched across her lips.
    “Thanks, Bell,” Kallie said.
    Mc Kenna looked at Kallie and her expression hardened. “And how did both men happen to get hexed in yer room?”
    “I didn’t lay the goddamned trick, so how the hell would I know?” Kallie replied, sitting back on her heels and meeting Mc Kenna glare for glare.
    Layne felt sick as he remembered what he’d felt—or rather what he hadn’t felt—when he’d touched Gage and had tried to summon his clan-brother’s spirit.
    Absolutely nothing.
    “Gage was more than hexed,” Layne said. “I couldn’t reach him.”
    “How is tha’ possible?” Mc Kenna asked. “Yer a Vessel and—”
    “Maybe he’d already crossed over,” Kallie cut in, earning herself another narrow-eyed glare from McKenna in the process.
    “No. He hadn’t fucking crossed over because there was nothing left of him to cross over. Nothing remains of him.” Layne’s voice was strained even to his own ears. “The hex not only swallowed his life, it ate his soul. Like it tried to eat mine.”

F OUR
S OUL E ATER
    Fear slicked a finger down Kallie’s spine. Soul eater . That kind of evil, that kind of blackest-of-the-black hex, required incredible power and was spoken of only in guarded whispers for fear of calling it down. She stared at her hands, pulse racing.
    How the hell did I manage to reel the goddamned hex out of Layne and through me without it killing both of us, body and soul?
    “Holy Mother,” the little nomad breathed, distress darkening her eyes.
    “Hellfire.” Belladonna’s gaze settled on the floor just behind Kallie. A muscle ticked near her left eye. “Jesus Christ.”
    “You sure?” Kallie whispered, meeting Layne’s gaze.
    “Wish I wasn’t.” Layne eased up onto his elbows, wincing. He touched his fingertips to his sternum. Winced again.
    “I broke a few ribs,” Kallie said. “Couldn’t be helped.”
    “I’m alive, so I ain’t complaining.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    A smile brushed Layne’s lips.
    “Stay down,” the little nomad gal said, glaring at Layne as if she were a towering basketball center and not a leprechaun. “Let me check ye over before ye do a man-stupid thing like get up and act like everything’s all rosy and never been better.”
    “Hell, woman,” Layne muttered. “You’d think we were still married. You lost the right to boss me around when we got divorced.”
    “I never bossed ye. Not once. Directed, maybe. Guided, sure. But never bossed,” the black-haired leprechaun declared.
    Layne snorted in reply.
    “Hush up, you. Just lie down,” the never-bossy ex-wife ordered. “I need to make sure yer all