WICKED LUCIDITY

By

Mandy M. Roth

© copyright August 2005, Mandy M. Roth

Cover art by Eliza Black, © copyright August 2005

ISBN 1-58608-638-3

New Concepts Publishing

Lake Park, GA 31636

www.newconceptspublishing.com

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.

Dedication:

To my childhood friends, you know who you are, for still playing with me after it was painfully clear that I had a rather colorful imagination. Thank for giving in and joining me in my own private insanity.

Prologue

“Do you hear me, dark angel? You cannot defeat us all.”

I snickered as I stared up at the vampire that had me pinned to the hard pavement. He stared down at me with eyes that weren’t even strong enough to decide between pale yellow and orange. Neither of which were found in nature but then again, vampires weren’t exactly run of the mill. Well, unless you lived my life. In my reality, they were staples.

His rank breath moved over me as he practically spat in my face. “Have you nothing to offer, dark angel?”

He pushed down harder, using his forearm to press against my throat. My eyes widened as I stared up at him. I could feel him trying to force his power, his dark magik into my mind. Had I been human, it would have worked. He’d have been able to turn my mind with ease, bend my will to suit him.

For once, I was thankful that I was anything but human. I let my body go limp, pretending to succumb to the death he offered. His smugness almost radiated off him. I laid there, careful to use my own power to mask my life signs.

The vampire laughed, the sound so full of evil that I had to fight not to cringe. I remained still as he climbed off me. “Let all know that I have slain the great dark angel! She died at my hands! She took her last breath before my eyes! She....”

Blah, blah, blah.

I struck out fast, ramming the heel of my boot into his groin. “She is sick of hearing you babble, asshole.” I rolled, following him as he backed up cupping himself. Quickly, I delivered another blow to his mid-section, catching him off guard and sending him tumbling to the ground.

I got to my feet fast and towered over him. Grinning, I stared down at him as I put my hand out. My magik rose to the occasion. “Stake,” I said, conjuring one instantly. I glanced at it and then the not so smug looking vampire on the ground.

He hissed. “No. You were dead.”

“Technically, you’re dead so do we even need to get into a debate or do you want me to get this over with?”

“Boss?” Seger, my second in command, called out from around the other side of the large building. “You back here?”

The ugly vampire seized the momentary distraction to sweep my legs out from under me. Never one to take the easy route, I flipped high into the air, tucked my long legs into my body and used my power to stop myself. Redirecting my momentum, I flipped back towards him.

He gasped as I extended my body, striking him back to the ground. I slammed the stake down, scoring a direct chest his. A puff of dust surrounded me and I held my breath until it cleared.

A strong hand fell upon my shoulder. “Boss? Karri, you okay?”

Glancing down at the partially shifted, clawed hand, I smiled. “I take it that you guys ran into some more bad guys.”

Seger chuckled, allowing his bloodied, lycan claws to slide back under his skin. The light layer of fur there began to recede quickly, leaving only a human hand in its place. “Yeah, you can say that. If you add in the dead bodies I see laying around you, I’d say our count for the night is up to forty-three. That’s a hell of a lot higher than it should be. Any word from the powers on what’s going on--why the bad guys seem to be coming in droves?”

The idea of the powers, the men and women sworn to over see and protect the innocents giving a damn about a surge of evil in the tiny Midwestern town we had only just arrived in, made me laugh. We, various teams of four soldiers, dedicated our lives to serving them, righting wrongs and keeping humans safe from things they could only dream about. The thanks we got was double-crossed or flat out ignored. “They don’t care, but I do.”

“I hate to admit it but you were right to want to warn the team based here, Karri. These demons we fought tonight aren’t just piss ass nothings. They were strong. Strong enough to take all four of us to beat.”

“Yeah,” I whispered, looking around at the carnage. Sighing, I lifted my arms high into the air. “Tell the others to hold on. I’m about to play clean up.”

Seger grinned and pressed his hand to his walkie-talkie. “Karri’s plain’ housekeepin’. Watch your asses or you’ll end up dusted too.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head as I let my power ride out and over the dead bodies. A second before I let it loose, I felt another presence, a familiar one. Gasping, I stared around at the darkness, trying to locate the source but finding nothing.

“Karri?” Seger asked, pressing up against me.

“Do you sense that?”

“Sense what?”

I shifted a bit, still feeling a familiar presence. “Someone I know is close.”

He chuckled. “Not to point out he obvious, Karri-Lynn but Amber, your best friend lives a few blocks down.”

“I know that. Not her, idiot. Someone else. Someone powerful.”

“I don’t feel anything, boss. But I believe you do.” He put his arm around me and pulled me into the warmth of his body. “Come on, let’s get rid of these bodies before a human wanders in and finds out that their shiny happy world isn’t so sparkly. And then we need to get you moved into your new place.”

I looked around at the bodies and snickered. “Somehow, I thought it would be different here, Seger.”

“Different how?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Less violent.”

He laughed, deep and from the gut. “Oh, darlin’ you’d be bored to tears if you didn’t get to chop at least one demons head off a night.”

As sick as that sounded, he had a point. “Suburbia, here I come.”