Magic Edge by Ella Summers Page A

have sworn she heard him chuckle. Gunner’s gang was still discussing her. Half of the vampires were verbally undressing her. The other half of them were debating how best to kill a vigilante.
    In other words, she hadn’t missed a thing.
    “Ok, settle down, guys,” Gunner said, interrupting a particularly vile vampire who was talking about his previous vigilante conquests—both on the battlefield and in the bedroom. “We need to concentrate on the matter at hand.” His white-iron gaze shifted to Drake.
    The vampire elf squeaked in alarm. “A week. Give me a week.”
    “Well,” Gunner said with a lazy yawn. “I just sipped from a tasty fairy this afternoon, so I’m feeling generous. You have one day to bring me my money.”
    “Ok,” Drake replied, slouching in defeat.
    Gunner gave him a rough slap on the back, then walked off to look after his weapons. The other demon vampires followed. Drake watched them put their guns together with almost morbid fascination. Or maybe that was his deer-in-headlights look. His eyes did a nervous sweep of the room, freezing when they fell on Alex and Logan standing in the hall.
    “Ah, looks like your vigilante is alive after all,” Gunner commented, giving Alex a playful wink.
    “No, no, no,” Drake muttered, wringing out his hands. “This can’t be happening.”
    “I don’t think she appreciated being bitten,” said Tattoos. “Looks like she brought along an assassin to help her kill you.”
    Drake’s eyes shifted from Alex to Logan. Panic tore at his magic, sending out rocky waves of broken energy that bit at Alex’s skin like a shower of pebbles. He shot a blast of crimson and silver Fairy Dust at the overhead lights, frying the system. The vampires playing with their guns grumbled in protest, but no one else seemed to care. Their kind was a nocturnal breed after all; they could see just fine in the dark.
    The door at the other side of the room opened, flooding the area with UV-free daylight. As Drake rushed through the door, Alex sprinted forward, trying to catch him. She caught the door by her fingertips, throwing it open again. Her pulse pumping hard, she ran across the shooting field. Logan came up beside her, and together they tried to close the distance to Drake.
    “And we have a champion, folks! Breena for the Fairy Division!” the loudspeakers roared.
    The audience broke out in applause, and enthusiastic cheers poured down from the stadium seats. A bow-wielding fairy with bouncy golden hair looked up at her adoring fans and waved, her flower crown sliding sideways. A group of enamored human men in the front row whistled at her. She blew them a kiss, then turned, the skirt of her powder-pink lace and chiffon mini-dress bouncing against her thighs as she moved. Drake plowed right past her, angling for a door on the other side of the field.
    He never made it.
    Fire poured down from above, drenching him in flames. Horrid, tortured screams erupted from his mouth, the pain and terror of his dying cry turning Alex’s stomach. Completely ablaze, the vampire elf ran a few steps before smacking against the wall with a decisive crunch.
    Alex looked up. An enormous airborne dragon circled the stadium. He opened his mouth and flooded the field with fire.

CHAPTER TWELVE
    Field of Fire

    STREAMS OF FIRE rolled across the field, cascading like smashing rapids. Screaming fairies fled into the building. Two men lifted Breena, the fairy champion, onto their shoulders and carried her to safety beneath the audience’s chorus.
    “Save the fairy princess. Save the fairy princess,” they chanted over the crackle of fire.
    But as soon as Breena was inside, her spell shattered. Her adoring audience took their first clear-headed look at the dragon, then stampeded down the stairs in a raging panic.
    “Ideas?” Logan asked Alex. “Monsters are your specialty.”
    They were the only two people left standing down there. The fire that had consumed most of the field hadn’t