Dead Man (Black Magic Outlaw Book 1) Read Free Page A

store owner, more prescient of the danger of rabid dogs, hopped over the counter with an aluminum baseball bat in his hand.
    " Coño, perro! " he exclaimed as he feinted with the slugger.
    He wasn't trying to hit the thing. I mean, who really wants to beat another living thing with a bat, especially man's best friend? But the pit bull isolated the threat and caught the aluminum in its mouth. Sharp teeth spilled to the ground like marbles, but the dog had made its point and yanked the weapon from the store owner's hands.
    The man bolted towards the door with a " Carajo! ", shoved the old woman outside with him, and slammed the door. His eyes met mine and he mimed a halfhearted shrug in response. So much for being a hero.
    My mango went flying like a cannonball and bounced harmlessly off the pit bull's snout. It lunged for me, going for a leg bite with half its remaining teeth. I picked up the entire cardboard box of mangoes and upturned it over him. The hail of fruit didn't do much, but the box fell over the dog perfectly. I side-stepped and the whole bundle of fur and produce crashed into the plantains display.
    The bokor and one of the gunmen were crossing the street. I hadn't seen where the other two men went, but I knew it was time to go.
    I ran to the back room and navigated around the disorganized store inventory. An upside-down mango box with bananas on top gave chase. The blind dog looked like a pinball as it bounced off various obstacles, but its single-mindedness made up for its other failings. Eventually, the box fell away and the dog bounded after me. It wasn't fast enough, however, to beat me to the back exit.
    The metal door banged as I hefted my weight against it. It didn't budge. Unable to halt my momentum, my head bounced loudly against the door. It still didn't budge.
    Damn. The exit was locked from the inside. If I ever made it out of here alive, I could file a fire code violation. For now I scrambled up the adjacent utility shelf just as the pit bull snapped at my heels.
    Straddling the top shelf, huddled against the wall and the low roof, I wasn't overly proud of myself. But I was out of range of the zombie pit bull. It barked and howled and leapt at me, but I was safe for the moment.
    Back to necromancy, then.
    Death magic is a patient art. Its most powerful applications are heavily threaded in ritual and preparation. Even its flash magic utilizes tokens and tributes. None of which were handy.
    Fetishes aren't completely necessary. Like rituals, they're used to amplify magic. The most common scenario is an animist who has no power without them. I'm not that kind of animist. I can do plenty on my own. I can tap innately strong power for my age. (Cisco Suarez is no slouch.)
    But you may have noticed I'm not a specialist. I've always preferred the jack-of-all-trades route. Being confined to a single patron's power is boring, but there are schools of thought that believe the only way to truly master a discipline is to specialize. While I'm a good necromancer, this bokor had likely studied nothing but this brand of voodoo his entire life. And here I was, without a fetish to stretch the boundaries of my spellcraft.
    That meant I had little chance of deanimating the drooling zombie trying to make me its lunch. But I was right next to it. Far closer than its master. Odds were I could exert some control over it.
    I got inside the dog's mind again. I didn't bother with clouding its position. I didn't try to break its link with the bokor. Instead, I pushed a suggestion.
    "Stop," I commanded.
    The barking halted immediately. The pit bull ceased jumping, even though it still paced side to side in anticipation.
    "Stay."
    The dog stopped cold in its tracks.
    "Um... Sit?"
    The pit bull retained a mask of fierce hunger but parked its butt on the ground without hesitation.
    Like I said, no slouch. I may have been a little rusty, but I still had it in a pinch.
    I dropped to the floor cautiously and took in a relieved breath