Dark Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 1)

I glare at him. “It’s not like my power can escape this shit,” I whisper back.

Faces emerge from the darkness, glowing eyes of all shades. Shit. And some of them are night stalkers.

“Good job, dark user,” one of the men with telling tattoos says. I know those markings. Only jinn use them. Which is another big problem.

“You promised the return of my brother,” Avery says, even as he shakes as though he’s afraid of the men he has handed us over to.

“And you’ll have your brother. In fact, you can share a cell with him.”

The guy’s smile crawls up just as Avery’s eyes widen. He vaporizes, but the night stalkers are too quick, and they pull him out of his shadowed state, forcing him back into the breathing plane as their twisted laughter fills the air.

He fights back, but against their night stalker abilities to subdue a warlock with just a touch, he’s helpless. And all we can do is watch when their fangs sink in, one attacker on either side of him. Blood drizzles down his neck, but most of it is drank by the hungry bloodsuckers.

“Or you can simply meet him in the afterlife,” the jinn says.

The night stalkers feast as Avery gargles for help, but he has trapped the only people who could save him. My stomach roils as the life drains from his body and the sadistic laughs ring out from the other side of the trap.

The dark laughter only booms out louder as they revel in the labored breaths Avery is releasing. Panic seizes me as my mind scrambles for a way out of this. I can’t believe I walked right into a trap. I didn’t know this source. It was on me to find out more information. And I should have spread out. We never should have gotten so close in a cluster.

The hoots and howls of the evil bastards outside the trap grow louder with every fading breath the drained dark user expels, twisting my stomach with churning emotions of what’s to come. I’ll die before I let them lock me away again.

“Be ready,” Gage whispers to Thad, forcing me to whip my head around just as he steps closer to the edge of the trap, unnoticed by the celebrating assholes on the other side.

“Just waiting on you,” Thad says with a smirk, stepping closer as well.

Dice curses under his breath, and I glance over as he goes to stand near the unconscious body of Karma—his body almost acting protective over her.

“Get her out of here,” Gage tells Dice. “Kimber, too.”

It takes me a second to process those words, and before I can become rightfully enraged, Gage suddenly forms a deep, burning red orb like I’ve never seen before. It all happens so fast. The orb forms in his hand, he jumps and slams his fist hard into the side of the trap, and the impenetrable walls surrounding us vanish as the impossible happens.

Movement catches my eyes just as the sound of fabric shredding rings out, and I glance over just in time to see Thad shifting, roaring as his mouth turns to a snout and his golden skin changes into a white tiger.

He leaps out, and realization settles in. That’s when all hell breaks loose.

Chapter 7

KIMBER

“Go!” Dice demands, his usual humor absent as he shoves me toward Karma. “Take her through a portal with you.”

I hear bones crunching, and I look over just in time to see Thad attacking one of the night stalkers who was draining Avery. His sharp canines sink into the flesh of the man, and he growls as he tries to shred him.

“Kimber, fucking go!” Dice yells.

“Like hell! I’m stronger than you. You go!”

With Karma unconscious, I can’t send Dice through the portal. He doesn’t have the ability to shift between planes, and that would leave them vulnerable to attacks.

“Just carry her, Dice. You know damn well I can help them.”

He curses, and just as a night stalker blurs toward Dice and Karma, I sling my arms out, creating a

portal that starts sucking him in. His eyes go wide in surprised horror and he fights the pull, but he’s not strong enough. No one ever is.

It’d be nice if I had the power to suck them all in, but it would take too much energy, possibly even kill me. And it’d be real damn stupid to let them see my very rare powers.

“Kimber!” Dice scolds.