The Downside Ghosts Series Books 1-3: Unholy Ghosts, Unholy Magic, City of Ghosts. Stacia Kane

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СКАЧАТЬ grunted and stumbled back, letting go of her. Unfortunately the man kneeling in front of her pushed her legs back, so she fell with him. They hit the ground hard, shaking the floor.

      She brought her right leg up and kicked out with it, catching the kneeling man in the throat with a glancing blow. His head tipped back, but she hadn’t hit him hard enough to really hurt, and there wasn’t time to try again. She didn’t need to escape, she just needed to get her weapon, to give herself some advantage. They didn’t seem to be armed; if they were she would have known it by now.

      He reached for her again as she slammed her elbow back into the other man’s gut and threw herself to the side. The kitchen. She’d left her knife in the kitchen.

      The edge of the counter scraped painfully on her side through her thin T-shirt as she launched herself past it, bouncing off like a pinball but managing to keep her footing. They were right behind her, their hands brushing the ends of her hair.

      They caught her in front of the sink. Her fingertips brushed the handle of her knife but couldn’t grasp it. She stretched her arm, scratching at the countertop, but just as she thought she had it the first attacker caught her by the throat, pushing her back so her head hit the faucet.

      She slapped at him, tried to kick, but he positioned his hips between her legs and pressed forward, immobilizing her lower body. Her hand flailed out to the side and knocked the knife back into the shadows by the microwave. She didn’t think he’d seen it.

      “Just tell us where it is,” he whispered. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the other start lifting couch cushions, pulling books off the shelves. “Just tell us and we’ll go.”

      “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She couldn’t see his eyes well enough to know what color they were; beneath the hood he wore a black stocking pulled over his face, which turned him into a featureless ghoul, a lump of flesh like a human earthworm.

      His fingers tightened around her throat. “Don’t lie to me!”

      Her left hand slipped along the edge of the sink, and farther outward, looking for something she could use as a weapon. Something cold and hard hit her fingers, something slim and round.

      Her syringe. Filled with lubricant. Thick, oily lubricant.

      Two choices. She could ask him what he wanted, try and figure out what was going on here, but that might only make him angrier and wouldn’t distract him. Or she could lie and hope he might loosen his grip long enough for her to hurt him.

      The man in her living room gave a shout, a wordless cry of triumph. Her captor turned his head to look, and Chess made her move. One second to gird herself, to tense her body ready to attack … her fingers closed around the steel tube.

      He turned his face back to her just as she brought her hand up, but he was too late. She slammed the needle into his neck, angling it back, hoping if she didn’t hit a vein she could at least hurt him badly enough to immobilize him. Her fingers did not shake as she pushed the plunger in, giving him the full load. At the same time she used the heel of her right hand to smack him in the nose, barely noticing the pain the action caused. His head jerked back and he stumbled, his face turning back to her.

      His mouth opened, but before the scream could materialize, his body collapsed, crashing like a bag of loose rocks to the tile floor.

      The rattling thud interrupted the other one as he ransacked her living room and brought him running across the floor. Chess spun sideways, her legs steady now, a curious elation replacing her fear. The handle of her knife in her palm felt almost better than anything ever had. She braced herself with her legs slightly bent, holding the blade in front of her, and waited for him.

      Lex got there first.

      How or why he’d come to see her she didn’t know, but he certainly moved as if he knew exactly what was going on, drawing a long, thin knife from an inner pocket of his jacket with his right hand while his left reached out and tangled in her attacker’s hair.

      The man started to turn, drew his fist back, but stopped short when the blade penetrated his throat. His mouth opened, his fingers scrabbled madly at his neck for a moment as though to scratch an itch.

      Then he fell. Blood poured from the wound and spread across her floor as Lex withdrew the knife.

      “Damn, tulip,” he said, wiping the blade clean on the dead man’s robe. “You sure know how to make a man feel welcome, aye?”

      The air left her chest in a long, harsh gasp. “What are you doing here?”

      “Ain’t you get my note? Coming by to get my update, but this better. Ain’t every day I gets to kill people for a good reason.”

      “I’m so glad I could help.” There were two dead bodies on her floor. In her apartment. Two men had broken in and tried to kill her—or if not kill her, to steal from her, to scare her, to do what ever it was they planned to do.

      Two dead men. In her home. She’d killed one of them. Her knees went weak.

      “Whoa, hey now. Thought you was a tough dame. Sure looked tough I walked in. Remind me never get you mad.”

      Chess lifted a shaking hand to her head and pushed her bangs out of her eyes. “Yeah, well, lucky for you I’m in a good mood.”

      He smiled in acknowledgment and dipped his head toward the corpse on the floor. “What they want, any-road? Just robbing, or trying to hurt you?”

      “Robbing. They … they wanted something. They asked me where it was …”

      “What? They find it?”

      “I don’t know.” She shook her head, trying to clear it. Lex’s victim had shouted something, hadn’t he? She glanced into her living room. Her Blackwood box lay open, its contents spilling out onto the floor.

      The box where she’d put the amulet.

      Grabbing a tattered dish towel to guard her bare hands, she crossed the floor and knelt beside the body while Lex did the same, slicing the nylon over the men’s faces to reveal their features. Unfamiliar, both of them. Too bad, but not a surprise. Why should something go right?

      The voluminous robe was soaked in blood, but the symbol on the front was still visible. A crooked line like a lightning bolt rose above a more traditional-looking set of entwined runes, she couldn’t tell which ones. It looked vaguely familiar, but then, most magical sigils and symbols did, didn’t they?

      She found the pockets after a minute of searching. The amulet hid in one of them, tucked in the bottom, as shiny and bright as ever.

      “They wanted this,” she said.

      Across the room her phone buzzed like a hornet caught in a jar, audible even over the Pagans album playing in the background. It had been going off for an hour or so, while she sat on the couch at Lex’s place trying to summon the strength to move.

      “Oughta pick it up,” he said, chopping out some fat lines on a mirrored tray. No sleep, again, and her eyes burned. “Ain’t you got no people be worried?”

      “No. I don’t have any people.”

      “Sounds like maybe you wrong.” He finished his work and СКАЧАТЬ