Shades of Gray: A Jude Magdalyn Novel Read Online Free Page A

her more winded than me. If it came down to a fight, Izzy was at more of a disadvantage.
    I hauled her up, not giving her time to complain. With my eyes on the approaching quartet, I knelt down and made a basket out of my hands. “Up and over, Izzy. No arguments. And back away from the fence.”
    For one of the few times in our friendship she did exactly as I told her, without any comments or complaints. She’d just turned around and started backing towards the steps when one of the new, larger players jerked me up by my left shoulder, fast enough to have me stumbling into him. Without missing a beat, he whirled me around, locking both of my arms behind my back.
    There’s a reason cops cuff you from behind. It immobilizes your upper body and more than one person has discovered you can’t kick with both legs. The muscle behind me knew all this and used his knowledge accordingly. If there’s a scarier sensation than looking into a face that could haunt your nightmares and not being able to get away from it, I don’t want to know what it is.
    Hart reached his right hand out and stroked it gently down my left cheek. His touch was icy and even though he’d had to have run just as fast as Izzy and I, he wasn’t winded in the least. None of them were, including the woman, and she was wearing three-inch stilettos. The woman had some serious skills.
    His voice was just as cultured as earlier this evening but there was something else in it now, it took me a moment to pinpoint exactly what - eagerness.
    “You sacrifice yourself for your friend. How noble. I do believe I’ll enjoy bending your will to mine.”
    He leaned toward me, close enough I should have been able to feel his breath on my face. His mouth was less than an inch from mine and I couldn’t feel even the minutest stirring of breath. As close as he was, the pulse in his neck should have been visible - it wasn’t. He smiled and the flash of light on his teeth buckled my knees.
    He had fangs. Honest to God, true as you live, fangs.
    Oh, this is bad.
    The muscle behind me grunted loudly and for a moment I thought my sagging had put too much weight on him. The thug could probably bench press me. There was no way a little thing like my knees buckling would make him grunt. I heard a whiz above my head, followed by a second, louder grunt, and I put two and two together.
    Somebody was shooting him - with arrows.
    This night could not possibly get any more fucked up.
    My captor dropped my arms, probably in an attempt to pull the arrow out of his chest, and I fell to my knees. I heard the air above me hiss again and then twice more. When I turned my head to look behind me, I saw the thug on the ground, arrows in his heart and head. I would have screamed, except Izzy was doing enough for the both of us.
    I was suddenly jerked back to my feet.
    Hart held me in front of his body like a shield and I got my first look at the new dancers joining the fight. If the evening hadn’t already taken more turns than a drunken man’s road, seeing the gorgeous man from outside the Cat’s Meow aiming a loaded crossbow at me would have been the cap on possibly the worst night of my life. It didn’t help when I noticed more archers on either side of him, and to the far left - a woman old enough to be my grandmother - with a ball of fire in her hand.
    Apparently, I’d been wrong. The night could get more messed up.
    “Release the girl, and I’ll allow you to walk away tonight, Hart.”
    Hart laughed and it was the sort to make small children cry and flowers die. Well, maybe not, but it wasn’t pleasant.
    “What makes you think such an outcome is possible, Williams? Would you shoot the girl if I refused to release her?” he shouted at the archer.
    I was getting irritated at being jerked around and being called “girl”, but figured in this moment discretion was the better part of valor. Williams, as my would-be rescuer answered to, smiled coldly. “You’ve forgotten to guard your