twice cursed mage 05 - claimed by j a cipriano Read Free Book Online Page A

friends, and if she had daddy issues… Had the two of them hooked up? Fuck, that was a mental picture I’d never forget.
    “Yeah, she wants you to fix her problems for her.” Jack shrugged and began to drum his fingers on the wheel in tune with the music. “Don’t reckon you can, but it’d be nice if you could.”
    “How exactly am I supposed to fix her daddy issues?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
    “Not in the way you think,” Jack said before pointedly turning up the radio so loud, I could barely hear myself think. “But I’m sure you’ll try nonetheless.” He shook his head and muttered something that sounded like, “dumbass.”
    I opened my mouth to reply but was cut off by a gunfight, a car chase, and an explosion. Yes, in that order. Bullets slammed into the side of the truck, ricocheting off the green steel and causing Jack to twist hard on the wheel away from the gunfire. We veered into oncoming traffic as a hummer came flying out of a side street. It plowed into the bed of the truck, spinning us around in a squeal of rubber and buckling steel.
    My head smacked into the passenger side window, causing stars to dance across my vision as a massive metal harpoon split the windshield like it was made of tinfoil and not bulletproof glass. Prongs on the side of the metal head spread, grabbing onto the window like a spider as the two-inch steel cable tethered to the harpoon snapped taut.
    There was a shriek of breaking glass and tortured metal as the windshield ripped out of the F250, hit the hood, and bounced to the ground. I dropped just as a line of bullets from the military-style humvee’s belt-fed Browning M2 machinegun began pouring lead through the now missing windshield.
    Gunfire chewed into the seat behind me, covering me in bits of leather, foam, and other miscellaneous debris. Jack jerked like ragdoll under the onslaught of bullets next to me, but even still, managed to keep control of the truck while reaching for something under his seat. Evidently, bullets didn’t bother him much.
    I tightened my grip on the Walther PPK, although I wasn’t sure how I was going to chance a shot with so much gunfire filling the truck. I could wait until they ran out of ammunition, but I was pretty sure that’s when the real fun would start. For all I knew, they were getting ready to lob a grenade inside.
    “Tueri!” I cried, and as the magic word left my lips, orange, purple, and crimson fire lit across my flesh, igniting a shield over my body.
    I stood, pointing the Walther at my attackers as I did and fired off two quick shots. .50 caliber bullets slammed into me, throwing my aim off as I fired, but one of my shots still managed to catch the gunner in the arm. It bounced harmlessly off his body armor as he reoriented the Browning on me.
    Sargent grinned, his red mustache spread wide by his lips as he held down the Browning’s trigger. It spat the rest of its payload at me as I dove through the open window, rolled across the hood, and came up on my feet just beneath the gun’s barrel.
    I thrust my left hand up, knocking the machinegun up and causing it to tear an erratic path up across Jack’s truck as the sound of brass hitting the metal floor in front of me filled my ears.
    All at once, the firing stopped, and I had half a second to contemplate the silence before Sargent’s boot collided with my face. I stumbled backward off the hummer and crashed into the pavement. I scrambled to my feet as the big man leapt down from the back of his Humvee like a lithe cat and backhanded me across the face.
    It felt like I’d been hit by a wrecking ball, and as my feet lifted from the ground and I smacked into Ford’s grill, the only thing I could think was that a dentist was going to have a field day with my smile after this was over.
    “Sorry about that, partner,” Sargent said, rearing back with one big fist. “You just have one of those faces that begs to be hit.” His fist came flying toward me, and as I