Magic Unchained Read Online Free PDF Page A

nearly thirty years. Not since the Solstice Massacre.
    But although those were the questions she knew ought to be going through her head, her mind had blanked. All she could do was stare at Sven as he levered himself off her and rose to his feet with a loose-limbed grace that sharply defined the muscles under his tight black clothing, making her entirely aware of his body, and the imprint it had left on her own.
    Don’t think about it,
she told herself, but the familiar refrain barely registered.
    There was a low whine and the scuff of paws on dirt as Mac trotted over to stand beside him, then looked at her with his pale green, human-seeming eyes gleaming, his ears pricked and his plumed tail wagging in wide sweeps. Sven and the coyote made a formidable pair, and the sight tightened her throat. It had been a long six months since they had gone down to Mexico to head up the Nightkeepers’ efforts to contain the spread of the
xombi
virus—an infection that was part magic, part disease,and thoroughly vile. She had worried about them, especially when the reports back from the southern front had grown increasingly grim. But her relief that they were home safe caromed off resentment that she hadn’t gotten any word beyond the official reports, nothing personal, nothing that acknowledged her and Sven’s connection or the fact that he’d been the one to bring her back to Skywatch to take on a job she hadn’t wanted. He’d promised to help her with the
winikin
… and then he’d taken off without a word. Which was just Sven, and shouldn’t have surprised her.
    It had, though, and that was why, as irritation won out over relief, she summoned a flip smile she knew would piss him off, and said, “Hey, welcome back. Did you miss me?”
    That was a laugh, of course, because he’d always made it his business never to miss anyone.

CHAPTER TWO
     
    Sven had braced himself to see Cara, thinking through what he wanted to say to her… but as he stared down at her now, caught between the desire to haul her into his arms and the nearly overwhelming urge to shake her until her damn fool teeth rattled, he was floundering because they were way the fuck off his script.
    He had planned on getting her in private and talking to her—really
talking
to her, for the first time in years. He sure as shit
hadn’t
been prepared to show up just as the alarms went nuts, and to get out to the ball court just in time to see her trying to outrun some godsdamned hellbeast—a demon inside
Skywatch,
for fuck’s sake!—armed with a jammed MAC-10 and more guts than common sense. He hadn’t been braced to find himself planted on top of her as he’d pulled the magic necessary to take the creature down. And he sure as shit wasn’t ready to be this close to her while his pulse thudded off rhythm with those urges, along with knowledge that he’d just come damn close to losing her.
    He rolled off of her, stood, and hauled her to her feet,though the distance didn’t do nearly enough to cool him off. His rehearsed scene had started something along the lines of,
I know this is a couple of decades too late, but I owe you an apology.…
Instead, he found himself leaning down to roar, “What in the
hell
were you thinking? You nearly got yourself killed!”
    Mac moved to his side, ruff bristling, but then subsided and settled to his haunches with his eyes fixed on Cara.
Friend,
he sent in the thought-glyphs that were his main way of communicating.
Missed friend
. But that wasn’t enough to cool the fury riding high in Sven’s blood. Mac existed in the moment—the demon was gone
now
; he was happy to see Cara
now
; he was hungry
now.
Humans, though, had to deal with the past-present-future stuff. That meant that when Sven looked at her, he didn’t see a petite woman with a striking white forelock and exotic deep brown eyes, wearing curve-hugging black pants, an edgy black jacket, and an air of,
You and what army?
Well, yeah, he saw that. But he also saw the