Apocalyptic Mojo Read Free Page A

hard.
    And he despised the woman. The last thing he wanted was to have any kind of pleasant thoughts about her. Particularly of the carnal kind.
    Frowning crankily, Draigh forced his gaze away from the soft roundness bulging past the edges of the leather top. The woman was a damn temptress. He’d seen her type before. He’d had his balls handed to him by one in fact. He might not be the smartest hunter on the planet. But he rarely made the same mistake twice. The witch was nothing but trouble.
    And at the moment she stood between him and his prey. That was unacceptable. The first thing he needed to do was rid himself of her. Then he could do the job he’d been hired to do.
    Her steps slowed and faltered as they approached the low-slung structure at the edge of town. It was built into the side of a hill. He immediately realized the same thing she obviously had. It was one of the bunker-style buildings that had become so popular since the great wars. Only the entrance was above ground. Most of the structure would be subterranean.
    He slid a furtive glance the witch’s way and noted the moisture already beading on her upper lip. Her usual creamy, peach-toned skin had turned a pasty shade of tan. He wanted to celebrate her discomfort. But somehow he just couldn’t. “I can go inside and question the witness. You can wait outside.” He hadn’t meant for it to sound like a command. Unfortunately that was the way it had emerged from his lips.
    Sirius dropped to his wide haunches, his tongue sliding out to snap across his lips as if to say, “I can’t wait to see her reaction to that one.”
    Her head whipped around, flinging the thick, waist-length braid into the air as her gaze snapped in his direction. “I’m fine. I don’t need you protecting me.”
    Draigh ground his teeth and clenched his fists. So much for learning from his mistakes. He’d tried to give the viper a soft nest to rest upon, and the damn thing had thanked him by attempting to sink its fangs into his throat. “Suit yourself, witch.”
    She strode right up to the victim’s door and pounded. Draigh waited a few feet back, his gaze sweeping the area for signs of Edwige’s own special type of trouble. The witch pounded on the door again and received no response.
    She glanced at Draigh. “Looks like we’ll have to do this the hard way.” Magic thickened on the air and Draigh swore. “Let me try…”
    Ardith sent a focused beam of magic into the door handle and the door swung open. She turned to give Draigh a smug smile, not noticing as a large hand appeared from inside the house and wrapped around the edge of the door. Draigh called out a warning and she started to turn.
    The door slammed outward, sending her sprawling.
    Before he knew what he was doing, Draigh had thrown himself over the witch and covered her to the ground.
    She landed beneath him with an umph and started pelting his chest with her small fists. “Get off me, oaf.”
    Pain pierced his calf as her damn familiar clamped his massive jaws around Draigh’s leg and gave it a warning squeeze, a low growl rumbling in his chest.
    The stench of sour, old death assailed his nostrils. Draigh squinted through the shadows beyond the door and saw movement. “Stop it, witch! Call off your dog. We have company.”
    He tried to grab her wrists but she was too agitated. Fighting the urge to smack her unconscious, Draigh screamed into her face, “Stop fighting me. Edwige’s pets are about to descend on us.”
    Fortunately her dog was smarter than she. He released Draigh and stood with teeth bared, snarling at the shadowed entrance.
    She stopped pounding on him and peered around his shoulder just as the first pale half-rotted face appeared in the doorway. “Well why didn’t you say so?” The first blast of her magic nearly took his ear off and left a whistling tone in his head.
    He rolled off her. “Damn it, woman.”
    She leapt to her feet and sent another blast into the conglomeration of