Dead of Night (Ghosts & Magic #1) Read Online Free PDF

She had been the one who had found me, a depressed mess wandering through a dangerous part of town at the wrong time of night, almost begging someone or something to come and kill me. She had been a little late - I had already been mugged and beaten up a bit - though in retrospect it had been for the best. She claimed she'd smelled the aptitude in me even before the treatment had introduced me to the actual power I could wield. She'd also admitted that when she saw me laying in the street, she thought I was gorgeous, despite the swelling in my eye and jaw.
    She'd fixed me up, nursed me back to health, and got me talking about everything. I'd spilled my life out to her, and found myself crying in her arms as she rocked me to sleep. That was the first week. We'd kissed once, but I'd just left Karen and Molly behind and she was nice enough not to take advantage. For reasons that were still unclear to me, we hit it off. She claimed it had to do with the zodiac. I thought it was because she was an idiot.  
    Still, the romantic part of the relationship had gone nowhere. The night of our first job together, we had gotten a little too excited, had a little too much to drink, and woke up the next morning in one another's arms. By the end of that day I'd come to the conclusion that our night of sweaty, messy sex had been way too awkward, in a brother-sister incest kind of way. She had concurred. It never happened again.
    I shut down the van and shoved open the door, wincing as it squealed. I had been hoping to make a more subtle entry, but had been betrayed again. The kitchen light went on.
    A deep breath. A review of excuses. I hopped out of the van, slammed the door closed, and made my way around to the back, to go in through the kitchen door. She was waiting there when I opened it.
    "Hey, Dan."
    She was sitting in her wheelchair, a red blanket folded tight over the remaining stumps of her legs. Her thin, muscled arms snaked down to where her hands rested on the wheels, ready to roll forward over my feet at her first spark of discontent. The long, dark hair of her Native American ancestry flowed out around her angled face, and her dark eyes were on fire. There was nothing even hinting at contentment in her voice.
    "Do you know what we have left, Conor?" She pointed to the laptop on the kitchen table. "Four thousand."
    "That's more than enough for rent."
    "What about next month? You just finished the fucking job, and we're broke."
    I hadn't expected to reach the moment of truth so quickly. My heart pounded while I reached into my pocket and found the card. I dropped it into her lap.
    "I have another job."
    She looked down at it, and then back up at me. The fire in her eyes had blossomed into a nuclear blast. Her anger had gone from a controlled yell, to a seething whisper. "That's Black's card."  
    "Put it in."
    "Conor-"
    "Put it in."
    She growled and rolled herself into position in front of the computer. She took the card and waved it in front of the screen.  
    "What the hell?" She looked at me. "Where did you get this?"
    "From the job for Mrs. Grey. The two ogres I fed to the dice were supposed to ghost it."
    I could tell she was conflicted. As much as she hated her father, she liked having a home, and food in her stomach. It was enough to cool some of her temper.
    I waited patiently while she cooled down a little.
    "I don't know, Conor. No job that pays this well is going to be no-frills."
    "You don't think I can handle it?"
    "I'm not oozing confidence. Especially since you didn't exactly get through this last one without a hitch."
    Ouch. She knew how to hit me where it hurt. "That was Caroline's fault. She came in too early."
    "I told you not to bring her. She always has to be a drama queen. Where is she anyway?"
    "She got hit in the jaw. I put her back to bed. Anyway, you know I didn't have anyone else who can be seen in public."
    Her face softened. "I'm sorry, Conor. You could have used Mr. Timms if all you wanted was a