Future Tense Read Free Page B

startled her. Scared the hell out of her actually, but she kept it together. “I didn’t think it would mean anything to you.”
    “Well, it does.”
    The front door opened, and Michael stepped onto the porch, looking down to where she and Khūnbish stood on the middle landing. Michael’s arms were red up to his elbows. Drops of liquid slid from his fingers to the ground. He shook his head to get his sandy hair off his forehead. Two men she didn’t recognize stood behind him, both of them with their hair buzzed short. One of the men had a large cardboard box that at a sign from Michael he turned upside down. Ashes cascaded to the ground.
    Lys watched the particles drift in the air. He’d burned her things.
    Michael said, “There’s more, but I trust the demonstration was sufficient.”
    Her heart stuttered. “You’re supposed to be in LA.”
    “As you can see, I am not.” His attention moved from her to Khūnbish. “There is nothing here for you, Lys.”
    “I know,” she said.
    He gestured, and the two men started down the stairs. “Kill her. Bring the fiend to me.”
    Khūnbish grabbed her elbow. The contact was an electric shock. Their gazes connected and she saw his eyes wide with surprise. Then he said, “Move.”
    Long before they made it back to the sidewalk, the two men were running full speed.
    Jewel/Future Tense — Chapter 3
    16

CHAPTER 3
    Her ex was a fucking mage.
    Telos put himself between Lys and the two magehelds— demons magically enslaved to someone like Michael —as they raced for the street. When she had a few steps on him— she was fast despite running in heels —he skidded to a stop and whipped around to intercept them while Lys sprinted for his car.
    The magehelds were practically breathing down his neck. Jesus shit. They were big motherfuckers, and they weren’t looking to start a friendship. He didn’t have time to do anything but go for a kill, the hell with anything Lys might see that she shouldn’t.
    The air crackled around him as he pulled hard on his magic, pulling up from its source and through his body until the energy electrified him.
    He waited until he saw the first mageheld’s eyes turn colors, and then he released everything he had on tap. At the same time, he darted in and slipped an arm around the neck of the demon nearest him, braced with his hand and twisted. If he’d miscalculated what it would take to disable the other mageheld, he wanted this one’s body to be physically dead. He released his hold and stepped back, taking the time to register only that the corpse dropped bonelessly to the sidewalk.
    The kill order for Lys was real. The other mageheld was looping around to get at her, a fact that made him decide she hadn’t lured him here for her boyfriend sake’s.
    Jewel/Future Tense — Chapter 3
    17
    Michael came down the steps at a run, not having bothered to wipe off the blood that covered his arms. Idiot. Some vanilla human was going to notice and call the cops.
    A shriek tore through the air, high and piercingly loud. Telos reached out with his magic to dampen the sound before the whole neighborhood called the police. He whirled toward Lys, expecting the worst. But it wasn’t her who’d screamed. The second mageheld was on its knees, scrabbling at its eyes while Lys stood over him, a small cannister in her outstretched arm.
    A breeze sent the mist wafting toward him. She’d maced the freak. While Telos’s eyes watered, the mageheld lurched to its feet, stilling digging at its face. Short of its own death, nothing on his earth was going to stop the mageheld from killing Lys.
    Telos unloaded everything he had directly into the mageheld’s head. The psychic scream deafened him, then simply stopped. He was close enough to see Lys’s eyes get big as the mageheld collapsed at her feet. Killing it wasn’t enough. Not if he wanted to stay alive, which he did, and not if he wanted to make sure the mage couldn’t fuck the demon over worse than he