Read Night Shadow for Free Online Page A

and a dependable operative.
    He never gave her sex a moment’s thought, which was probably a good
    thing since AJ’s husband, Kane Wright, was a friend. But having Lexi
    here—Shit. Nothing he could do about it. Alex had to trust she was as
    wel -trained as the rest of them. If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t be here now.
    She was just one of the guys.
    A rookie.
    With big gray eyes.
    And bee-stung lips.
    21
    Night Shadow
    Hel .
    “Daklin, walk us through the lower floor where the event’s being held.
    Make it fast.” A buzz indicated a cal on the sat phone hooked up to his
    headset. Alex touched his earpiece.
    “Make it fast,” he told his new control, a woman by the name of El icott.
    “Streaming you surveil ance footage from the scene,” she said in a
    naturally husky voice. She sounded sexy as hell, but was probably sixty
    and a chain-smoking grandmother. Or a man using a voice synthesizer.
    The image of the hostage situation came through his ocular implant and
    he projected it against a nearby Dumpster for the others to see.
    The wel -dressed patrons of the arts had been corralled like cattle to the
    far end of an exhibit area. Several glass cases and their contents were
    smashed on the floor. The life-sized Tang horse, the jadeite translucent,
    the amber saddle and bridle rich and fiery, stood in the middle of the
    space, its head twisted, its massive ears pricked forward as if listening to
    the terrified cries of the very people who’d come to admire its beauty.
    Five men in tuxes and a dozen women in evening gowns sprawled on the
    floor. Even projected against the flaking paint of a Dumpster the blood
    was unmistakable. And no mistaking they were dead. Exsanguination.
    They’d bled out. Shit.
    The tangos, forty or fifty of them, dressed in the same black garb as the
    bunch in Moscow, held the group at bay with MAC-10s.
    “We’re about to go in,” Alex told El icott impatiently as he fol owed
    Daklin’s pointing finger through the maze of corridors and back hallways
    to the exhibit hal where the hostages were being held. He and the three
    other wizards would shimmer inside and start snatching the hostages in
    groups. Daklin would defuse any bombs. Lexi would coordinate their
    efforts from outside.
    Invisible, they’d teleport directly into the middle of the crowd as they’d
    done in Moscow. There were four of them. Taking twenty hostages each,
    they could liberate eighty people every four minutes. They wouldn’t have
    time to get them al , but if they moved fast—
    “Stand down.” El icott’s voice in his ear was cool and brisk. “I repeat,
    stand down. It’s too late. They’ve already released LZ17.”
    “Medics—” Even while Alex knew their medical team, familiar with SARS
    and other viruses of this kind, were stationed nearby, there wasn’t time to
    get them here, even magically. He cursed. Too little, too late.
    The images on the Dumpster shifted and moved. Without warning, the
    tangos suddenly dissipated into black, swirling, powdery dust.
    The guests crumbled to the floor en masse. It was a gruesome, bloody
    sight. Alex was grateful he could only see the screaming and not hear it.
    “Shit.” He grabbed Lexi by the arm. She gave him a startled look. “Go.
    Go. Go!” he yel ed at his team, then teleported the hel out of Dodge.
    Except that he and Lexi didn’t go anywhere. His damned powers were on
    the fritz. Again. Fuck. And they were alone in a stinking alley behind the
    National Palace Museum and now, it was about to blow. About to blow
    with God only knew how much LZ17 flying out with the debris.
    22
    Night Shadow
    With Alex’s fingers clamped tightly on her upper arm Lexi braced herself.
    Three. Two. One.
    No flash of white light, no sense of motion.
    Maybe that only happened the first time?
    “Damn it to hell,” Alex said under his breath.
    She opened her eyes. Same alley. She didn’t need to see it to know they
    were stil there. The smel was her first clue. “We didn’t