Dark Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 1)

Kimber smiles, but only because she’s young. Zee too. They don’t know the gravity of this situation, but I do. Chaz is white as a sheet, so apparently he knows.

“We were scouting, and two of them got too close,” Chaz says, running his hand through his hair. “I vaporized us and moved us deeper into the snowy woods. Wonder boy tripped over something, and it turned out to be a bunker. Since it was quiet with no guards on it, we went in and investigated. The whole damn thing was loaded with weapons like these.”

He points to the knife. “Crossbows, swords, daggers, knives… It’s bad. If the anointed are back… Well, we’re going to have more to deal with than we thought.”

“Someone had better fill me in before I get a migraine,” Karma says, looking over at Chaz like she expects him to morph into a dragon or something.

Chaz ignores her, since she’s been a bit of a bitch toward him.

“The anointed were humans that were granted extraordinary powers back when magic collided heavily with the breathing plane. They’re as strong as us, as fast as us, and as physically alluring as us, but they are easier to kill. To level things up, they had the ability to craft weapons and wield them against us. But they didn’t just craft them for themselves. During the Dark Ages, they made enough for armies to slaughter us.”

Kimber sucks in a sharp breath, reaching over to touch the knife once more.

“And now… what? They’re suddenly back? Why haven’t we ever heard of them?”

The hits just keep coming. Gripping my head, I let Drackus take over the explanation.

“You haven’t heard of them because it’s a blemish. It’s humiliating for our kind to admit that an army of humans nearly eradicated us,” he tells her. “No one speaks of it. No one writes about it. As far as we’ve all been concerned, this problem disappeared centuries ago as though it never happened.”

“How did you deal with it back then?” Karma asks. “Can’t we do it again?”

Calypso frowns, and this time she answers. “No. Magic was much stronger back then. Unnaturally powerful. Spells could be cast with effortlessness, and they held more strength than any spell can today. The anointed essence was stripped from the humans it had been bestowed upon, and it was cast into purgatory along with the bloodlines that carried it. No physical being was put in there, but the right to bear a child was. If the essences escaped purgatory with the bloodlines…”

Her voice trails off as she starts worrying her bottom lip, studying the knife again.

“Then there are people out there who have been growing for twenty-two years almost,” Chaz says. “And apparently the rings know about them, since they’re using their fucking weapons. They probably have a few enslaved.”

Karma leans up on the countertop. “Or they could still be in purgatory. Someone could have just stumbled upon some of the old weapons.”

Calypso shakes her head. “No. The power of the anointed weapons died when the essences and bloodlines were banished from the breathing plane. If they’re working again, then we’re seriously fucked.”

“So we’re talking Sam and Dean kind of people, right?” Dice asks, not making a damn bit of sense to me. Who?

“No,” Thad scoffs, moving closer. “We’re talking Buffy on steroids.”

I’m apparently out of the loop on this one.

Dice swallows hard before picking up the knife. He studies it for a moment, taking in the simplistic but deadly design, and without any warning, he flings the knife beside him, stabbing Zee in the upper leg.

Zee grunts and curses as the blade sticks inside his leg, and blood spills from the wound he shouldn’t have. Metal bends against our skin. It shouldn’t penetrate it. And now our fears are being visually demonstrated.

“What the fuck was that for?” Zee growls while pulling the knife out of his leg, freeing the wound for more blood to spill from.

Dice grimaces, and then he takes a step back. “Just making sure we weren’t freaking out for no reason.”

Zee glares at him while applying pressure to his leg. It’s slow to heal, so that’s not a good sign.

“So you just ha

ppened to stumble across this?” Karma asks him, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

Chaz turns a cold stare on her. “Yes. We did. You have a problem believing that?”

She doesn’t cower, but I see a slight shiver go up her spine. “Dusters are just full of surprises, aren’t they?”

Everyone stares at the odd showdown. I still haven’t discerned what Karma’s problem is with Chaz.

“You said you’ve met one of my kind. What happened to him or her?”