Ok, I am told there is some discussion along the lines of the promised snippet, like “where is the snippet, when are we going to get the snippet, WTF just give us the damn snippet!” Well here you go.
chapter Two
“Holy Mother of God.” The tall thin spire of a woman that was Patrice Lane, Biohazard’s in-house medmage, crossed her arms on her chest. She seemed even taller from where I sat, huddled on the slope under my cloak. The cold seeped through the fabric of my jeans and my butt had turned into a chunk of ice.
The telephone pole had become a mass of flesh-colored fur. Around it the entire parking lot was covered in my glyphs. I had used up all of Cash’s chalk.
The pole slowly rained skin-colored fuzz. The same crap spread in a circle around its base. The fire had died down to mere amber, and the fuzz had spilled over it in several places and pooled against the first ring of glyphs. I’d chopped off the wires going from the pole after completing the second circle of glyphs and threw them into the ward. The fuzz had swallowed them so completely, you’d never know they were there.
Medmages and medtechs swarmed the scene. Biohazard was technically part of PAD, but practically it had its own separate quarters and its own chain of command, and Patrice was pretty far up that chain.
Patrice raised her arm and I felt a faint pulse of magic. “I can’t feel a thing past the chalk,” she said, her breath escaping in a cloud of pale vapor.
“That’s the idea.”
“Smart ass.” Patrice surveyed my handiwork and shook her head. “Look at it crawl. Persistent blight, isn’t he?”
That’s why I’d made the second circle in case the first failed, and then it occurred to me that the phone pole could take a dive. The wards of the first two circles only extended about eight feet up and if the pole fell, the disease would land outside the barrier, so I drew the third ward circle. It had been a very wide circle, too, because the pole was painfully tall, about thirty feet. Four medtechs now walked along the outer circle’s perimeter, waving censers which trailed purifying smoke. I’d sank everything I had into that ward. Right now a kitten could touch me with her paw and score a total knockout.
A young male medtech crouched by me and raised a small white flower in a pot to my lips. Five white petals streaked with thin green veins leading to a ring of fuzzy stalks, each tipped with a small yellow dot. A bog star. The tech whispered an incantation and said in a practiced cadence, “Take a deep breath and exhale.”
I blew on the flower. The petals remained snow-white. If I had been infected, the bog star would’ve turned brown and withered.
The tech checked the color of petals against a paper card and chanted low under his breath. “One more time – deep breath and exhale.”
I obediently exhaled.
He took away the bog star. “Look into my eyes.”
I did. He peered deeply into my irises.
“Clear. You have beautiful eyes.”
“And she has a big sharp sword.” Patrice snorted. “Be gone, creature.”
The med tech rose. “She’s clean,” he called in the direction of the tavern. “You can speak with her now.”
The dark-haired woman, who’d brought the chalk to me hours earlier, stepped out of the bar and carried a glass of whiskey. “I’m Maggie. Here.” She offered the glass to me. “Seagram’s Seven Crown.”
“Thank you, I don’t drink.”
“Since when?” Patrice raised her eyebrows.
Maggie held the whiskey to me. “You need it. We watched you crawl around on your hands and knees for hours. It must hurt and you’ve got to be frozen solid.”
The parking lot proved a bit rougher than anticipated. Crawling back and forth drawing glyphs had shredded my already worn-out jeans into nothing. I could see my skin through the holes in the fabric and it was bloody. Normally leaving traces of my blood at the scene would’ve sent me into panic. Once separated from the body, blood couldn’t be masked, and in my case advertising magic of my bloodline meant death sentence. But I knew how tonight would end, and so I didn’t worry. What little blood I left on the asphalt would be obliterated very soon.
I took whiskey and smiled at Maggie, which took some effort since my lips were frozen. “Did you finally get the phone working?”
She shook her head. “It’s still out.”
“How did you contact Biohazard?”
Maggie pursed her narrow lips. “We didn’t.”
I turned to Patrice. The medmage frowned at the circle.
“Pat, how did you know to come here?”
“An anonymous tipster called it in,” she murmured, her eyes fixed on the pole. “Something is happening…”
With a loud crack, the utility pole snapped. The dark-haired woman gasped. The techs dashed back, waiving the censers.
The pole spun in place, fuzz swirling around its top, teetered, and plunged. It smashed against the invisible wall of the first two ward circles, toppled over it, and slid down, dumping the flesh-colored shit onto the asphalt. The pole top rammed the third line of glyphs. Magic boomed through my skull. A cloud of fuzz exploded against the ward in an ugly burst and fluttered down harmlessly to settle at the chalk line as the pole rolled to a stop.
Patrice let out a breath.
“I’d made the third circle twelve feet high,” I told her. “It isn’t going anywhere, even if it really wants to.”
“That does it.” Patrice rolled up her sleeves. “Did you put anything into those wards that might fry me if I cross them?”
“Nope. It’s just a simple containment ward. Feel free to waltz right in.”
“Good.” She strode down the slope to the glyphs, waving her hand at the tech team fussing with some equipment on the side. “Never mind. It’s too aggressive. We’ll do a live probe, it’s faster.”
She tossed back her blond hair and stepped into the circle. The chalk glyphs ignited with faint blue. The ward masked her magic, and I could feel nothing past it, but whatever Patrice was working up had to be heavy duty.
The fuzz shivered. Thin tendrils stretched toward Patrice.
I wondered who’d called Biohazard. Somebody called. Maybe it was just a good Samaritan passing by.
And maybe I could sprout wings and fly.
Maggie leaned to me. “How can she enter but the disease can’t leave?”
“Because of the way I made the ward. Wards both keep things in and keep them out. It’s basically a barrier and you can rig it several ways. This one has a high magic threshold. The disease that killed Joshua is very potent. It’s heavily saturated with magic, so it can’t cross. Patrice is a human, which makes her less magical by definition, and she can go back and forth as she pleases.”
“So couldn’t we just wait it out until the magic wave falls and the disease dies?”
“Nobody knows what will happen to disease once the magic falls. It might die or it might mutate and turn into a plague. Don’t worry. Patrice will nuke it.”
In the circle, Patrice raised her hands. “It is I, Patrice, who commands you, it is I who demands obedience. Show yourself to me!”
A dark shadow rolled over the fleshy fur, spreading into a mottled patina over the pole and the remnants of the body. Patrice stepped back out of the circle. The techs swarmed her with smoke and flowers.
“Syphilis,” I heard her say. “Lots and lots of magically delicious syphilis. It’s alive and hungry. We’re going to need napalm.”
Maggie glanced at the still untouched whiskey in my glass. I raised it to my lips and took a sip to make her happy. Fire rolled down my throat. Few seconds later I felt my fingertips again. Woo, back in business.
“Did they clear all of you?” I asked.
She nodded. “Nobody was infected. A few guys had broken bones, but that’s all. They let everyone gone.”
Thank Universe for small favors.
Maggie shuddered. “I don’t understand. Why us? What did we ever do to anybody?”
She was looking for comfort in the wrong place. I was numb and exhausted, and the stone in my chest hurt.
Maggie shook her head. Her shoulders hunched.
“Sometimes there is no reason,” I said. “Just a bad roll of the dice.”
Her face was drained of all expression. I knew what she was thinking: broken furniture, busted wall, and a reputation of a joint where the plague almost started.
“Look over there.”
She glanced in the direction of my nod. Inside the bar, Cash pulled apart a broken table.
“You’re alive. He’s alive. You’re together. Everything else can be fixed. It can always be worse. Much, much worse.” Trust me on this.
“You’re right.”
For a while we sat in silence and then Maggie took a deep breath as if she was going to say something and clamped her mouth shut.
“What is it?”
“The thing in the cellar,” she said.
“Ah.” I pushed upright. I’d rested enough. “Let’s go take care of that.”
We went in through the hole in the wall. The techs had evaluated and released most of the patrons, who were only too happy to clear off. The tavern lay empty. Most of the furniture hadn’t survived the brawl. An icy draft swept through the open doors and windows to blow out of the ruined wall. Despite the unplanned but vigorous ventilation, the place stank of vomit.
Cash leaned against the bar. Long shadows lined his haggard face. He looked worn out, like he’d aged a year overnight. Maggie paused by him. He took her hand into his. It must’ve twisted them into knots to sit there for hours, watching each other’s faces for the first signs of infection.
They were killing me. If I could’ve gotten a hold of Curran right now, I would punched him in the face for making me think I could have that and then taking it away from me.
At the door, two Biohazard techs packed away an m-scanner. The m-scanner registered residual magic at the scene and spat it out in various colors: purple for vampire, blue for human, green for shapeshifter. It was imprecise and finicky, but it was the best tool for magic analysis we had. I stopped by the team and flashed my Order ID. “Anything?”
The female tech offered me a stack of printouts. “Patrice said for you to have a copy.”
“Thanks.” I flipped through them. Every single one showed a bright blue slice streaking across the paper like a lightning bolt, cutting across pale traces of green. The green were the shapeshifters and judging by how the watered down color of the signatures, they had taken off at the beginning of the fight, leaving behind only weak residual magic. Not surprising. The Pack had a strict policy regarding unlawful behavior and nothing good ever came from a drunken brawl in a border bar.
I studied the blue. Human mundane, basic human magic. Mages registered blue, healers, empaths. I registered blue. Unless you had a really good scanner.
“Maggie, how many people would you say were here when this happened?”
She shrugged at the bar. “About fifty.”
Fifty. But only one human magic signature.
I glanced at Cash. “I need to talk to your people.”
He headed behind the bar to a narrow stairway leading down. I followed. At the bottom of the stairway Vik and the bigger bouncer guarded the door secured by a large deadbolt.
I sat at the top of the stairs. “My name’s Kate.”
“Vik.”
“Beau.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I know it had to be hell to keep everyone put for this long and I appreciate how you’ve handled it.”
“We had a good crowd tonight,” Cash said. “Most of them were regulars.”
“Yeah,” Vik said, “If we’d gotten a lot of out-of-towners, there would’ve been blood.”
“Can you tell me how it started?”
“Someone hit me with a chair,” Vik said. “That’s when I got into it.”
“A man came into the bar,” Beau said.
“What did he look like?”
“Tall. Big guy.”
Tall was a given. I’d gotten a good look at Joshua’s body while I was crawling around the parking lot. Joshua was a 5’ 10” and his feet were about six inches off the ground. Whoever nailed him to that pole probably held him at his eye level, which made our guy close to six and a half feet tall.
Cash disappeared for a minute and returned with five glasses. More whiskey.
“What did the big guy wear?”
The three men and Maggie knocked back their glasses. There was collective grimacing and clearing of throats. I sipped mine a bit. Like drinking fire spiced with crushed glass.
“A cloak,” Beau offered.
“Like this?” I fingered my own long plain dark-grey affair. Most fighters wore cloaks. Used properly, the cloak could confuse the attacker by obscuring your movements. It could shield, smother, and kill. It doubled as a blanket in a pinch for the person or for the mule. Unfortunately it also made a dramatic fashion statement and was easy to make. Every two-bit bravo had one.
“His was one of those hooded cloaks, long and brown. And torn up at the bottom,” Beau said.
“Did you get a look at his face?”
Beau shook his head. “He kept the hood on the whole time. Didn’t see the face or the hair.”
Great. I was looking for the proverbial “guy in a cloak”. He was as elusive as the legendary “white truck” had been when the cars still filled the roadways. All sorts of crazy driving accidents had been blamed on the mysterious white truck, just as all sorts of random crimes had been perpetrated by “some guy in a cloak” with his hood pulled over his face.
Beau cleared his throat again. “Like I said, I didn’t see his face. I saw his hands though – they were dark. About this color.” He nodded at the whiskey in my glass. “He came in, stood at the bar, sized up the crowd for awhile and then came up next to Joshua. They said a few words.”
“Did you hear what he said?”
“I did,” Cash said. “He whispered. He said, ‘Do you want to be a god? I have room for two more.’”
Oh boy. “What did Joshua say?”
Cash’s eyes were mournful. “He said, ‘Hell yeah.’ And then the man punched him off his feet and the whole place went to hell.”
yay! thanks ilona and gordon!
OMG.. Bless you guys! That was terrific. Thanks a bunch!!!!!
Hmm – oddly enough no one has posted. Allow me to say, “thank you for feeding my craving”. I enjoyed it and will now go back to the jones-ing previously in progress.
And on a separate note, On the Edge is awesome!
When I grow up I want to write like you guys. Just. Wow.
Thanks for giving me another hit. Now I’m sure my W-I-P sucks.
COOOooolll. and thank you.
yeaah Kate! shee’s baaaaaaack!
“They were killing me. If I could’ve gotten a hold of Curran right now, I would punched him in the face for making me think I could have that and then taking it away from me.”
Poor Kate
Thanks ever so much for the snippet…chicken soup for the soul when you’re feeling poorly and everyone keeps warning you it could be swine flu! Thanks again.
Did she say the thing about Curran because he didn’t turn up for the dinner thing?
I reckon so…. but only Ilona and Gordan really know!
Read the Kate 4 snippet at the end of The Edge…
Ooooh.. Thanks, I am so wanting this book.
Thank You! Thank You!
Wow, thank you.
Thank you very much – fantastic!
Yay!! We are blessed with a snippet.
Ah. Thanks for the b-day present. (Even though you don’t know me…) Totally made my day.
Your welcome and happy Birthday.
I don’t know what is wrong with me… I read KATE snippet, and I saw that it was in first person… but for an embarassingly long time I thought it was an Edge snippet and was totally confused. Maybe even up until the time Curran was mentioned.
Time for sleep!
Despite my confusion, it ROCKED! Thank you so much!
dont worrie i did the same thing at frist but i have just woke up.have a nice sleep
Thank you Gordon and Ilona!!!!!! What a bunch of lucky ducks we are!!!!! Awesome!!!
ok, page saved. Reading it after chapter 1 at end of the Edge. xD
you do know this is torture, right?
Thanks, Gordon and Ilona.
Ah. So, this is what it feels like to be a crackhead getting her first hit of the day.
Thanks!
Thank you so much! What a wonderful way to end the week. You guys have perfect timing when it comes to releasing snippets.
Hmmmm…if becoming a god means getting eaten by magically delicious flesh colored fuzzy syphilis count me out…No godness for me.
Thanks for the braincrack. I was going into nasty withdrawal.
Thank you. The wait is going to feel like forever, can’t wait to read On the Edge for my Andrews fix.
:O That was soooooo good!!! Thank you!
Thanks Gordon.
Your welcome,
Ying, when a British person says the “West country” what does it refer to? We saw it on Dragon’s Den and wondered.
I’m not ying but I am English!
As far as I know, if you look at a map of England, it would be the South-West area (where Cornwall, Devon etc are). Obviously named to confuse foreigners.
“As far as I know, if you look at a map of England, it would be the South-West area (where Cornwall, Devon etc are). Obviously named to confuse foreigners.”
Mostly to keep invading foreigners confused.
You found us out. We’re vague so you all end up in places like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOGAAlHzF4o
Tee hee.
Thanks Allie.
*sigh* I was doing so good managing my obsession, now I’m back in full-blown I want more Kate mode. But thanks, it was awesome!
Thanks guys! I loved it! I really miss Kate’s world but I received my copy of On The Edge today and i’m loving it!!!
when they say the west country it means more south west. The more isolated ,quite,part of the country .I think thank good i. live in london .Thank you so much for the snippet i hope ilona is felling better.
Thanks for the awesome snippet! I can hardly wait for Kate 4 to come out. Do you think threats or bribes to the publisher would work. What’s with the “timing” thing? WTF, don’t people just buy a book when they want it?
Also, I got my copy of On the Edge and loved it. I’ve already read it through once, then re-read my favorite parts… which means I’ve pretty much read it twice. You guys rock!
Loved the snippet and like everyone else can’t wait for Kate 4 to come out.
Unfortunately I am also still waiting for my copy of On the Edge which is going to be another couple of weeks.
The wait is driving me mad!!!
thank you so much for the snippet from Kate4. Im also from the west country and generally when you say that you put on a strong accent from which you then follow by a sound thats sort of like arrrrrrgh! lol
Like a pirate?
yep! ha!
example of accent *still chuckling* enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAh_A7N3_mc
Awesome. Thanks for the snippet. You guys rock!
Thank you Gordon:) Just when I was getting over jonesing for Kate’s world you throw another morsel to me…But I am eagerly awaiting my pre-ordered e-copy of On The Edge. So I’ll at least get a fix of a full-length book from Y’all.
Sooo goood! (Teen Girl Squad-ness for you) Thanks Gordon and Ilona
Kate 4. *dances*
soo excited..
its sounding really amazing already, but its kate so that was a given!
Thanks millions for the snippet loved every word <3
Loved the edge. Miss Kate. Enjoyed the snippet at the end of the book and the extended on your site. Can’t wait until the next release.
Thank you, Gordon and Ilona, for the snippets from both of your books. You are incredibly generous authors. I’m trying to wait patiently for the arrival of Edge.
On a different topic, what kind of dog is Luka Brasi? He looks just like my bullmastiffs except for the fact that my dogs have tails.
Mr. Luka is a Cane Corso, basically an Italian mastiff, or the old Roman Dog of War. Very close probably to what you have.
He is very sweet with Ilona and the kids but terribly fierce with strangers. Smaller I think than most mastiffs but somewhat quicker and more agile.
Awesome! Thank you!
tks
I can’t believe Curran didn’t show
Thanks so much for the excerpt. Great to get the follow on the sneek preak from Edge.
Snippets are really wetting my appetite for the book itself. I want it in my hands NOW!!… waiting is hell. I read On the Edge and now I can’t wait for Edge 2. Ilona and Gordon you are both awesome.
Love it! Thank youthankyouthankyouthankyou! I’ve been dying since I read the teaser in the back of On the Edge yesterday. I also really enjoyed On the Edge and I really wasn’t expecting to. I love the Duchess, Memere and William.
Received On The Edge today and have just finished reading it. Really enjoyed it.
Liked Rose a lot and could understand why she was so closed off. Really loved Georgie and Jack and found your take on William really moving. Hope you show more of him in future books.
Great to read the Kate 4 snippet and found it interesting how you re-arrange chapters and make slight alterations; in previous snippets Kate got the call about the bar after she had dealt with Andrea’s arrest and now that part obviously comes later in the book.
Looking forward to reading more. Thanks for the wonderful writing on both series.
aaaaagh! THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING MEEEEEEEEEEE!
WANT IT NOW ARGHHHHHH!
*runs around making stomping noises and everything*
Thank you.
*goes to read her On the Edge book now…*
Thanks so much 4 the snippet. I now have my husband
reading your books, after me of course. He only read
health books. Grandkids call him Mr. Organic.
Thanks for the snippet! The only reason I can wait for the next book is because I have no option.