Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews (English) Paperback Book

Description: Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews The follow-up to "Magic Bites" finds Kate Daniels, a mercenary who cleans up after magic has gone wrong, setting out to retrieve a set of stolen maps for the Pack, Atlantas paramilitary clan of shape shifters. As temperatures and tempers start to flare, Kate quickly realizes much more is at stake. Original. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Mercenary Kate Daniels tries to save her city from divine intervention in this novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling urban fantasy series.As a mercenary who cleans up after magic gone wrong, Kate Daniels has seen her share of occupational hazards. Normally, waves of paranormal energy ebb and flow across Atlanta like a tide. But once every seven years, a flare comes, a time when magic runs rampant. Now Kates going to have to deal with problems on a much bigger scale: a divine one.When Kate sets out to retrieve a set of stolen maps for the Pack—Atlantas paramilitary clan of shape shifters—she quickly realizes much more is at stake. During a flare, gods and goddesses can manifest and battle for power. The stolen maps are only the opening gambit in an epic tug of war between two gods hoping for rebirth, and if Kate cant stop the cataclysmic showdown, Atlanta may not survive... Author Biography Ilona Andrews is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team, Gordon and Ilona. They currently reside in Texas with their two children and numerous dogs and cats. The couple are the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors of the Kate Daniels and Kate Daniels World novels as well as The Edge and Hidden Legacy series. They also write the Innkeeper Chronicles series, which they post as a free weekly serial. For a complete list of their books, fun extras, and Innkeeper installments, please visit their website at www.ilona-andrews.com. Review Praise for Ilona Andrews and the #1 New York Times Bestselling Kate Daniels Novels"Ilona Andrewss books are guaranteed good reads."—Patricia Briggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author "Kate is a great kick-ass heroine."—Locus"One of the brightest voices in urban fantasy...Ilona Andrews delivers only the best."—Jeaniene Frost, New York Times bestselling author"One of the best urban fantasy series ever written!"—RT Book Reviews"Andrewss edgy series stands apart."—Library Journal "Urban fantasy absolutely does not get much better than this."—SF Signal"I cant think of another series so consistent, so well written, so full of wit and action and drama that always manages to give me exactly what Im needing."—Fiction Vixen Review Quote "Fans of urban fantasy will delight in Ilona Andrews alternate-universe Atlanta." - FRESH FICTION Excerpt from Book Chapter One The phone rang in the middle of the night. The magic wave was in full swing, and the phone shouldnt have worked, but it rang anyway, again and again, outraged over being ignored, until finally I reached over and picked it up. "Yehmmm?" "Rise and shine, Kate." The smooth cultured voice on the line suggested a slender, elegant, handsome man, all things that Jim was not. At least not in his human shape. I clawed my eyes open long enough to glance at the windup clock across the room. "Two in the morning. Some of us sleep during the night." "Ive got a gig," Jim said. I sat up in the bed, wide awake. A gig was good--I needed the money. "Half." "Third." "Half." "Thirty-five percent." Jims voice hardened. "Half." The phone went silent as my former Guild partner mulled it over. "Okay, forty." I hung up. The bedroom lay quiet. My curtains were open and moonlight sifted into the room through the metal grate shielding the window. The moonlight acted as a catalyst and the metal bars glowed with a weak bluish patina where the silver in the alloy interacted with the ward spell. Beyond the bars, Atlanta slept like some hulking beast of legend, dark and deceptively peaceful. When the magic wave ended, as it inevitably would, the beast would awaken in an explosion of electric light and possibly gunfire. My ward wouldnt stop a bullet, but it kept the magic hazmat out of my bedroom, and that was good enough. The phone rang. I let it ring twice before I picked it up. "Fine." Jims voice had a hint of a snarl in it. "Half." "Where are you?" "In the parking lot under your window, Kate." Calling from a pay phone, which shouldnt have worked, either. I reached for my clothes, left by the bed for just such an occasion. "Whats the gig?" "Some arsonist wacko." *** Forty-five minutes later, I was winding my way through an underground garage and cursing Jim under my breath. With the lights knocked out by magic, I couldnt see my hand in front of my nose. A fireball blossomed in the pitch-black depth of the garage. Huge, churning with violent red and yellow, it roared toward me. I jumped behind the concrete support, my throwing knife sweaty in my hands. Heat bathed me. For a moment I couldnt breathe, and then the fire hurtled past me to burst in an explosion of sparks against the wall. A thin gleeful cackle emanated from the garage depths. I peeked out from behind the support in the direction of the sound. Nothing but darkness. Where was the tech shift when you needed one? Across from me at the next row of supports Jim raised his hand and touched his fingers to his thumb a few times, imitating an opening and closing beak. Negotiate. He wanted me to engage a lunatic who had already turned four people into smoking meat. Okay. I could do that. "All right, Jeremy!" I yelled into the night. "Give me the salamander and I wont cut your head off!" Jim put his hand over his face and did some shaking. I thought he was laughing, but I couldnt be sure. Unlike him I didnt have the benefit of enhanced night vision. Jeremys cackle reached a hysterical crescendo. "Stupid bitch!" Jim peeled himself from the support and melted into the darkness, tracking Jeremys voice. His vision worked better than mine in low light, but even his sight failed in absolute darkness. He had to hunt by sound, which meant I had to keep Jeremy talking. While Jim stalked Jeremys melodious voice, Jeremy, in turn, stalked me. Nothing to worry about, just a homicidal pyromaniac armed with a salamander in a sphere of enchanted glass and intent on setting what was left of Atlanta on fire. The main thing was to keep the salamanders sphere safe. If that thing broke, my name would be more famous than Mrs. OLearys cow. "Damn, Jeremy, you need to work on your vocabulary. So many good names to call me and the best you could come up with is bitch? Give me the salamander before you hurt yourself." "Suck my dick . . . whore!" A tiny spark flared into existence to the left of me. It hung suspended in the darkness, illuminating both the scaly outline of the salamanders mouth and Jeremys hands clutching the glass sphere with white-knuckled need. The enchanted glass parted and belched the spark. The air hit the tiny packet of energy and the spark exploded into a fireball. I ducked behind the support just as the fire smashed against concrete. Flames shot past on both sides of me. The acrid stench of sulfur stung my nostrils. "That last fireball missed me by a mile. You shoot blanks with your other salamander, too, Jeremy?" "Eat shit and die!" Jim had to be close to him by now. I stepped into the open. "Come on, you sniveling shit for brains! Cant you do anything right?" I saw flames, lunged to the side and hit the floor rolling. Above me the fire howled like an enraged animal. The handle of the knife burned my fingers. The air in my lungs turned to heat, and my eyes watered. I pressed my face into the dusty concrete, praying it didnt get any hotter, and then suddenly it was over. Screw this. I jumped to my feet and charged in Jeremys direction. The salamander flared within the sphere. I caught a flash of Jeremys crooked smile above the glass. It wilted as Jims dark hands closed around Jeremys throat. The arsonist slumped, ragdoll limp, the sphere rolling from his weakened fingers. . . . I dived for it, caught it three inches above the cement, and found myself face-to-face with the salamander. Ruby-red eyes regarded me with mild curiosity, black lips parted, and a long, spiderweb-thin filament of a tongue slithered from the salamanders mouth and kissed the spheres glass in the reflection of my nose. I love you, too . Gingerly I got to my knees and then to my feet. The salamanders presence tugged on my mind, as eager to please as an overly enthusiastic kitten arching her back for a stroke. Visions of flames and heat wavered before me. Lets burn something . . . . I slammed my mental shutters closed, locking her out of my mind. Lets not . Jim relaxed his hold on Jeremy and the arsonist sagged to the ground like a wet blanket. The whites of his eyes stared at the ceiling from his slack face, caught by death in a moment of utter surprise. No pulse check needed for this one. Shit. There goes the capture bonus. "You said it was a live-preferred bounty," I murmured. The living Jeremy was worth a lot more than his corpse. Wed still get paid, but we had just waved a third of the money good-bye. "It is." Jim twisted the body on its side, exposing Jeremys back. A thin metal shaft, tipped with three black feathers, protruded from between Jeremys shoulders blades. Before my mind had the time to digest its significance, I hit the deck, cradling the salamander. Jim somehow got there before me. We stared into the gloom. Darkness and silence. Someone had taken 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 couldnt 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 Jims senses over mine. Jim grasped Jeremys 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 dived into it. I lunged to the left, behind the nearest 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. "Hes gone," Jim said from the doorway and pointed behind me. I turned. Far at the back, 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 had plenty of time to do it. "So he sniped our mark and left?" "Looks that way." "I dont get it." Jim shook his head. "Weird shit always happens around you." "This was your gig, not mine." A shower of sparks fell 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." Jims pager went off. He checked it and a familiar neutral mask slid onto his face. "Oh no, you dont! I cant 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 Council. Its not that Jim was a bad friend. Its just that for shapeshifters, Pack business always took precedence. On a scale from one to ten, Details ISBN0441015832 Author Ilona Andrews Short Title MAGIC BURNS Language English ISBN-10 0441015832 ISBN-13 9780441015832 Media Book DEWEY 813.6 Year 2008 Series Number 02 Imprint Ace Books DOI 10.1604/9780441015832 Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2008-04-01 NZ Release Date 2008-04-01 US Release Date 2008-04-01 UK Release Date 2008-04-01 Pages 272 Publisher Penguin Putnam Inc Series Kate Daniels Format Paperback Publication Date 2008-04-01 Audience General Audience Age 18 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:141699508;

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