Crossed: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Unturned Book 2) by Cornell Rob

Author:Cornell, Rob [Cornell, Rob]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: urban fantasy, vampires, magic
Publisher: Paradox Publications
Published: 2016-11-03T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

I tensed from scalp to heels, waiting to learn what it felt like to get gunned down in a back alley like a character in a sleazy dime novel. The Switch’s door clanked shut on its own. The reforming bricks sounded like a line of dominos going down.

The vamps who would claim bragging rights for murdering the Unturned looked a lot like how Barry had described, a matching set of evangelists going door-to-door, one female and one male. Except these missionaries had fangs, and guns, and no souls to pass through the pearly gates into the next life.

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t give up the very second I saw them waiting for me. I tried to pull together a shield, but only stirred the air with as much verve as a fart. That was when I gave in to the inevitability of my death.

I was still drained from that stupid little spell. The irony was, if not for that spell, I would not have found myself at The Switch asking about Goulet, and therefore would have avoided this encounter entirely.

As it happened, the vamps never got a chance to shoot. Something dropped from the cinderblock wall behind them. A blur of color, including a shade of red I immediately recognized when Odi landed. The product in his mess of hair made the red locks shine in the moonlight. He didn’t make a sound when his feet hit the pavement, but something tipped off the pair, and they started to turn.

Odi had the first move, though. He sliced down with both hands like a judo chop and knocked the pistols out of his opponents’ hands.

“Wow,” I said.

I didn’t have long to be impressed. The vamps recovered instantly. They each took one of Odi’s arms and flung him back against the wall he’d dropped from. They pinned him against the cinderblocks and snarled in his face, making that metallic hiss undead bloodsuckers did so well.

Odi dropped his glamour. I hadn’t seen his vampire face yet. My first glimpse threw me off. I’d gotten so used to seeing him as a gangly, naive kid, I had nearly forgotten what he really was.

He matched the pitch of their snarls pretty well, but neither of them were at all intimidated. Much as Odi struggled, he couldn’t break free from their hold. To his credit, he did snap at the female’s face. An inch more, and she would have had Odi’s fangs through her nose.

For a dumb second or two, I stood there watching Odi try to break free. As his anger grew, his eyes flared a deeper and deeper shade of red. But more interesting than that, I could sense wave after wave of magical energy pulse out of him like a flashing beacon.

If only he knew how to harness all that power. He could have obliterated those fanged assholes.

A desperate—and a little dangerous—idea struck me in tandem with one of the waves of Odi’s power. I gasped as it came to me. But in order to make it work, I had to get to Odi.

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