I peered through the windshield of my ’93 Mustang. The Buzzard Highway stretched before me, a narrow line of crumbling pavement vanishing into dusk. Below it ran the Scratches, a twisted labyrinth of narrow ravines gouged out of the ground by magic three decades ago, when our world began to end. The old road skimmed the top of ravines, rolling far into the distance, where the sunset glowed gold, red, and finally turquoise. There was something vaguely wrong with this picture, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
The Buzzard Highway took no prisoners. Step too hard on accelerator, turn the wheel half an inch too far, and Boom! Pow! Fiery crash! To the bottom of the ravines you went. Only Atlanta’s best and craziest raced here.
That’s why I liked it. When a girl weighs a hundred pounds wet, her glasses look like a loupe borrowed from Sherlock Holmes, and everybody under the sun makes fun of her because she’s a vegetarian and blood makes her vomit, she has to do something for fun. The wild deafening chaos of Friday night Buzzard race was my fun.
It was so peaceful now. So quiet. Just me and the Mustang. I named it Rambo. It was a sweet car, built from ground up for one purpose: to go fast. We understood each other, Rambo and I. Rambo liked to kick ass, and I made sure it had a chance to show off.
My body was so light. It was an odd feeling, almost like swimming or floating through some feathery cloud.
A familiar face appeared in the windshield: pale skin, dark eyes, a long tattoo of a dragon wrapped around the neck, snaking its way down under the blue tank top. Kasen. Decent enough guy as wererats went. He worked the tow truck and liked to hang out at the races at Buzzard Highway. They were good for his business.
Kasen’s lips moved, but no sound came out. He looked kind of funny there, sideways, flapping his lips in silence. What is it you want, silly person?
Kasen was sideways.
The sunset behind him was sideways too, the highway running to the left the sky.
Oh crap.
Crap, crap, crap.
The phantom cotton clogging my ears vanished and the world rushed at me in an explosion of sound: the distant roar of car engines, the groaning of metal, and Kasen’s voice.
“Dali? You okay, baby girl?”
I tried to talk and my mouth worked. “Cool like a cucumber.”
He grinned. “You know the drill. Hold tight.”
I clamped my seat.
Kasen stepped out of my view. Rambo screeched. Metal clanged. I winced. Rambo, you poor baby.
The sunset turned and dropped into its rightful place with a shudder. Rambo’s tires hit the pavement and bounced once. The left lens of my glasses popped out of the frame and plunked onto my lap. I swiped it off my jeans, squeezed my left eye shut, and climbed out of the car.
“I flipped!”
“You flipped.”
Hot damn! Rambo’s front end looked like a crushed coke can. Water wet the highway, leaking from the hood – the enchanted water tank that let the car run during magic waves had ruptured. I must’ve taken the turn too fast.
Kasen peered at me. “Why is your eye closed? Did you hurt yourself?”
“No, it’s closed, because my glasses are broken, and looking through one lens makes me dizzy.”
“Situation normal, all fucked up.” Kasen rubbed the back of his head.
Thank you, Captain Obvious. “It’s not that bad!”
“You want Rambo towed to the usual place?”
“Yeah.” My races would be cancelled for a month. Bummer.
Kasen nodded at the Mustang. “That’s your second crash in three weeks.”
“Aha.”
“Didn’t Jim forbid you to race?”
Jim was my alpha. The shapeshifter Pack was segregated into seven clans, by the family of the animal, and Jim headed Felidae with a big Jaguar paw hiding awesome claws. He was smart, and strong, and hot, and the only time Jim noticed my existence was when I made myself into a pain in the ass or when he needed an expert on ancient Far East. Otherwise, I might just as well have been invisible.
I raised my head to let Kasen know I meant business. “Jim isn’t the boss of me.”
“Actually yes, yes he is.”
It’s good that I wasn’t a wereporcupine, or his mouth would be full of quills. “Are you going to snitch on me?”
“That depends. When you die, can I have your car?”
“No.”
Kasen sighed. “I’m trying to make a point here. I’ve been watching this race for six years now and I’ve never seen anyone crash as much as you. You’re my number one customer. You can barely see, Dali, and you take stupid chances. No offense.”
No offense, right. No offense stood for I’m going to insult you but you can’t be mad at me. I bared my teeth at him. When it came down to it, he was a rat and I was a tiger.
Kasen raised his hands up. “Fine. Forget I said anything.”
The world blinked. The colors turned slightly brighter, the scents grew sharper, as if someone dialed the picture’s resolution up a notch. A welcome warmth spread through my body – the magic wave had flooded the world. The distant roar of the gasoline engines choked and died. It would take fifteen minutes of chanting to get the enchanted engines to start. The race was dead.
“What if I take you to dinner?” Kasen said. “I know this really nice place down on Manticore…”
Wererats always knew this nice place to eat. They munched constantly or they went twitchy, meaning they suffered attacks of the hypoglycemia: cold sweat, headaches, convulsions, accompanied by nervousness and bouts of aggression. Not fun.
I squinted my open eye at Kasen. There was no reason for him to offer me dinner. Most likely, he just wanted to butter me up so he could get a shot at my wheels after my demise. Too bad for him – I might not have been the strongest weretiger or the most bloodthirsty, but my bloodline was pretty damn old. Lyc-V, the shapeshifter virus, and my family were good friends and the levels of virus in my body ran higher than in most shapeshifters. The higher the concentration of the virus, the faster the regeneration. Normally higher levels of Lyc-V also meant greater risk of losing your mind and turning into a crazed loup killer, but so far I hadn’t had to worry about that.
I was hard to kill. Nothing short of a fiery crash complete with a giant explosion at the end would send me into afterlife, so if Kasen was hoping to inherit my car, he would get a smoking wreck for his trouble.
I wrinkled my nose at Kasen. “Thanks, but no thanks. I need to get home.”
He heaved a sigh. “Maybe next time.”
“Sure. Maybe next time.”
Awesome snippet! I can now face the craziness at work with less homicidal rage than usual.
Thanks a Bunch. We live for snippets.
dali’s such a nut, but you gotta love her!
Oh, I just love her. She’s so sweet, and she thinks that Jim never notices her? Ha! I can hardly wait for the story.
I can relate to the blind but defiant because I am severely (severely!) near-sighted. I applied to the Air Force when I was about 19 years old for the pilot program. It was the fastest way for a woman to get in the space program back in that day (70′s). They turned me down! I was devastated. And pissed.
Personally, I think Jim deserves his own book. Actually, books about each of the clans would be awesome ….. Pretty please? I love your universe.
That sux! I wanted to be a kosmonaut, too, but it was explained to me at the very early age that I have better chances of growing wings.
“When I was a child, adults would tell me not to make things up, warning me of what would happen if I did. As far as I can tell so far, it seems to involve lots of foreign travel and not having to get up too early in the morning.”
— Neil Gaiman (Smoke and Mirrors)
Yeah, it does suck. From my point of view, however, I do think you are doing something even better.
Hmmm… Makes you wonder. Does Jim have competition for the darling Miss Dali? Once again, you rock! Wonderful little snippet and you can really hear the difference in Dali’s speech and thought patterns from Kate. It wasn’t like I was reading soemthing YOU wrote. It was like I was in Dali’s mind. But then, you are definately a cut above the average writer.
That’s the funniest thing about writing Dali – half of the time she has no clue.
Loved the snippet! You are sooo brilliant!!! Just a few sentences and I already like Kasen!!! “Situation normal, all fucked up.”
So much fun! I loved how she was confused as to what happened. Hilarious! Thanks for the fun snippet.
Wonderful snippet, thank you very much!! Dali really cracks me up – she is so in her own world…love it!!
Thanks for the snippet!
Woot!
Thanks for the snippet!
Thank you for the snippet. I love Dali. It is great to get a story from her perspective. I like the fact that she tries to get Jim’s attention. As you can tell, thinking of Jim and Dali together makes me smile.
Oh my, I do miss Kate’s universe
), but your snippet cheered me up and now I don’t feel like I’m totally burned out anymore – thank you for that 
I love that Dali got a chance to tell a story – is it just a snippet or is it meant to be a part of a short story or novella?
I just got home from work and didn’t feel like doing anything at all except maybe falling flat on my face (in front of a computer apparently
It’s a novella for the upcoming anthology
Yay!! Novella, which one, do we have a name? I buy it… maybe i ordered
already.. maybe not, it is new right? *excited*
that’s incredibly good to hear!
I’ll be looking forfward to it 
New anthology? When, where? need anthology … dying for Kate 5!!! dying!!!
Thanks!! Good to read on dali..
It’s awesome! Thank you so much!
When can I buy it?
ohh, I love it!!! I have this special spot in my heart forndali…. she’s just so special! a veggie-tiger, nearly blind with a love for speeding… you gotta love her!!!
thanks for this unique and funny character!!! the best thing is, she is not only highly entertaining and drives jim nuts, no, she’s also useful and an asset in her own way, something she can prove in magic strikes. I love her.
thank you for that snippet!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!
SNIPPET!!!
Thankyouthankyouthankyou! Loved it. Dali is so clueless about Jim. Wonder what she would have thought of Kate’s “shot in the dark” that had Jim’s whiskers in a twist in Magic Bleeds? ::evil smile:: I am looking forward to the anthology, but what is it’s title? ::blush at ignorance:: Have a great day, most awesome writers of the Kateverse.
Yey snippet! ::bows down to your genius::
Thannnk you! X
Thank you! I adore Dali and that was awesome. Can’t wait for the Novella now. Yipeee!
Oooooh, it’s a novella. How cool is that? I love Dali.
‘Maybe next time’. LOL. With one sentence they both know that Dali is going to race again AND that she is going to crash. I’ll look forward to the novella.
Beautiful! *happydance*
Aw Dali is so cute and clueless <3 She's got teeth tho. I like her a lot.
Love learning more about Dali! Thank you! I love how robust and dare I say “real” the characters seem. Thank you so much for putting so much time and effort into the character development!
Thank you!!!!
oh thank you very much, it was like always pleasure to read
i loved dali pov and i cant wait for that anthology 
Oooh, I am so excited for a Dali novella! When does it take place in the timeline? Is Kate already “The Consort”? Dali is adorable!
Bravissimo! I adore Dali.
Dali really does see the world differently than the rest of us LOL Can’t wait for the Novella. Uh, I THOUGHT I was up to date on everything? Do we have a name for the anthology??
Anyways LOVED it lots!
Thanks for the snippety goodness! With you on gloomy – rained all day yesterday, at least the sun came out today. Looking forward to the new novella – all your characters are vivid but I love white tigers so excited Dali gets her own story. Keep up the great work!!
poor Rambo. But… what happened to Pookie? Did Dali crash her?
And if her family is so old, is she also a first?
Bayou Moon is pre-ordered, and when you let us know the title of the anthology, that will be ordered as well.
This made my day and I wasn’t even having a bad day
Can’t wait until it comes out! Loved it! Thank you!
Thank you!!! I look forward to Dali’s story – I have a feeling it’s going to have me ROTFLMAO!
I loved it. If Curran has his problems with Kate then Jim surely has his hands full with Dali. I love her as well. I have to agree their story needs to be told. You left us hanging with those comments in Magic Bleeds about still being available. Loved it, loved it. Keep up the great work.
Is this the same ride as the one she uses in Magic Bleeds? I thought it was a ’99. . .
Thanks so much for the snippet! Awesomeness!!!!
As usual, thanks for the fabulous snippet that brightened my day
Thank you!
Perfect!! Thanks =)
I just love Dali, she seems like a character that can easily find her way into your heart. Her endearing clueless-ness is too funny. I can’t wait to read the rest of her story, I’m so happy to hear she gets her own story in an anthology! Thanks so much for the snippet, they are always something to brighten my day!
Interesting. Very interesting.
Yay for snippets! I didn’t even know that there was an upcoming novella about Dali
Ilona,
You’re the most generous author I’ve seen. Giving us so much with your snippets.
I don’t understand how you can share so much with us and not get into trouble (that’s every other author’s excuse anyway).
I love your books, and these little snippets just make me put all your books on pre-order!
You always keep me coming back for more!
Thanks a lot!
Thanks for the fun snippet.
Is it just a coincidence that the place that Kasen wants to take Dail to is very similar to the name of the white tiger from Siegfried & Roy’s (Monticore)or did you do that on purpose?
T
Loved the snippet! I would send you cookies, but they wouldn’t survive the shipping.
And if you need content, you can feed us Bayou Moon snippets
.
yay, a snippet!! heehh Can’t wait for the short story. <3
*happy dance* Thank you Ilona! Dali’s POV is refreshing to read. I don’t know how you do it – Kate, Andrea and Dali have different voices.
I think I’m crankier than usual today – or I just don’t like reckless people who put other people (or even themselves) in danger to feel “alive” or “noticed”. So, while this snippet was very well written and engaging – which is par for the course for enything you guys write – it’s probably my least favourite of everything you have published or shared so far. I’m sorry to sound so negative here – I do thank you for sharing this snippet. I guess I might not just like Dali too much – too bratty for me, maybe? I thought the pretty boy vampire piece was a little more riveting, sorry.
Thank you so much sharing, though, if it means anything.
loved it! so nice to hear dali’s voice. unusual character and i like her not having a clue about whats going on!
Yeayyy! snippet! cant wait find out when this short story well be out!! annd im still doing the waiting dancing for kate 5.. and im pretty sure i cant feel my toes anymore
Dali is a First!