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Magic, long since a lost art of mankind, is reclaiming its hold on the world, and Atlanta Georgia has been thrown into turmoil. Buildings are crumbling, technology is failing, mythological creatures roam the streets, and the ancient gods have returned with a vengeance! The world is in search of a hero ….

Kate Daniels is a mercenary, not a hero. Just ask her — later. Right now she has a girl, a city and a world to save. If you aren’t on her side, get out of her way! If you are on her side, you might want to keep a safe distance. As a friend you’re safe from the sharp edge of Slayer, her sword, but not even the gods themselves are safe from the sharp edge of her tongue.

Magic Burns is a laugh-out-loud sexy, high suspense, action-adventure, urban fantasy epic that will satisfy your longing for a book so good you just can’t put it down. You need to read this TODAY!

If you like paranormal, you’ll love Ilona Andrews!

Excerpt:

We stared into the gloom. Darkness and silence.

Someone took out our mark with a crossbow bolt. Could have taken us out as well. We had stood by the body for at least four seconds. More than enough time to squeeze off two shots. I touched Jim and touched my nose. He shook his head. With all the sulfur in the air he probably couldn’t smell a skunk if it sprayed him in the face. I lay very still and tried to breathe quietly. Listening was our best bet.

A minute dragged by, long, viscous, and silent. Very slowly Jim shifted into a crouch and nodded to the left. I had a vague feeling the door lay to the right, but in the darkness with some unknown crossbowman waiting, I would trust Jim’s senses over mine.

Jim grasped Jeremy’s corpse, slung it over his shoulder, and we took off, bending low, running fast, him ahead and me, half-blind in the gloom, slightly behind. Concrete supports flashed by, one, two, three, four. The tech hit, and before I could put down my raised foot, the magic drained from the world, leaving the battered technology in its wake. The fluorescent lamps in the ceiling blinked and snapped into life with a buzz, bathing the garage in a weak man-made glow. The black rectangle of the exit gaped ten feet before us. Jim dove into it. I lunged to the left, behind a concrete support. The salamander in the globe stopped glowing and went to sleep, looking like a harmless black lizard. My long range weapon was tuckered out.

I set it down on the floor and slid Slayer from its sheath. Salamanders are overrated anyway.

“He’s gone,” Jim said from the doorway and pointed behind me.

I turned. Far at the back wall the concrete wall had crumbled, revealing a narrow passageway probably leading up to the street. He was right. If the bowman wanted to take us out, he had plenty of time to do it.

“So he sniped our mark and left?”

“Looks that way.”

“I don’t get it.”

Jim shook his head. “Weird shit always happens around you.”

“This was your gig, not mine.”

A shower of sparks broke from above the door and a green EXIT sign burst into life.

Jim stared at it for a moment, his features twisted in a distinctly feline expression, disgust and fatalism rolled into one and shook his head again.

“Dibs on the bolt in his back!” I called.

“Be my guest.”

Jim’s pager went off. He checked it and a familiar neutral mask slid onto his face.

“Oh no, you don’t! I can’t carry him by myself.”

“Pack business.” He headed for the exit.

“Jim!”

I killed the urge to throw something at the empty doorway. Served me right for taking a job with a guy who served on the Pack’s Council. It’s not that Jim was a bad friend. It’s just that for shapeshifters, on a scale from one to ten, Pack was eleven and everything else a one. Pack business always took precedence.

I stared at a very dead Jeremy laying like a sack of potatoes on the floor. Probably a hundred and fifty pounds, dead weight. There was no way I could carry him and the salamander at the same time. There was no way I could leave the salamander unattended either. Magic could hit any time, setting the little lizard ablaze. Plus, the sniper might be still around. I needed to get out of here and fast.

Jeremy and the salamander, each worth four grand. I no longer did a lot of work for the Guild, and gigs of this size didn’t come my way too often. Even split in a half with Jim, the bounty would cover my two mortgages for two months. The thought of leaving four grand on the floor made me physically ill.

I looked at Jeremy. I looked at the salamander. Choices, choices.

#

The Mercenary Guild’s bounty clerk, a short, trim man, stared at Jeremy’s head on the counter. “Where is the rest of him?”

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