Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 54305 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 272(@200wpm)___ 217(@250wpm)___ 181(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54305 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 272(@200wpm)___ 217(@250wpm)___ 181(@300wpm)
He and Gideon gazed in the direction Maddox motioned and instantly spotted a short, blond man in black leather pants that looked as if they’d been spray-painted onto his somewhat curvy body, a white shirt, and a shiny gold vest. This was Skylar? The necromancer?
The witch was nothing like Ryder had been expecting when he’d heard the term necromancer. He might have been thinking someone dressed all in black with stringy black hair, black fingernails, seeming to have crawled out of a grave. This man…this man could have been the pot of gold at the end of Gideon’s perpetual rainbow.
In his right hand was a bright-blue drink with a paper umbrella and a piece of fruit sticking out of the top. Ryder didn’t even know the bartenders at Phoenix could make something like that. The second he spotted them, he enthusiastically waved, a huge grin on his face as he hurried over to their booth.
“Whoever thought of midweek drinking is a fucking genius!” the newcomer announced as he joined their table.
“Fucking Mondays, right?” Maddox scoffed.
The man in gold shrugged one shoulder. “My actual Monday wasn’t bad, but yesterday and today were total pains in the ass. Why do they always want to go out to the cemetery right after a rain, and it’s going to be a slog through three inches of mud?”
Maddox leaned closer to the one he’d called Sky and sniffed his drink. “What is that?”
Sky bumped his shoulder against Maddox, pushing him. “I asked for a sea breeze, and the bartender—God love him—didn’t even get it remotely close. Not that I’m complaining. I appreciate his enthusiasm. This is like ninety percent alcohol and a kiss of pineapple juice.”
“Let me try it.”
“Hell, no! Go try your luck and order your own.”
Maddox glared at his friend, his brown eyes going golden while he reached out and tapped the side of Sky’s glass with his index finger. In a blink, the drink went from blue to clear.
“Oh, my God! What did you do?” Sky demanded. He took a sip of his drink and choked. Had his friend turned it into poison? Ryder’s heart leaped into his throat and he was planting his hands on the seat to slide out, even though he wasn’t sure how to deal with quarreling witches other than to toss them from the club.
“Water! You asshole! You turned my beautiful drink into water.”
Just as Ryder’s heart was climbing up his throat, Sky dipped two fingers into his drink that was now water and drew a circle on the table next to Maddox’s beer bottle and knocked on the surface once.
A small black hand with long, spidery fingers and knobby knuckles reached out of the circle and briefly patted the surface of the table before locating the bottle. The second it touched the cool glass, it wrapped those bony fingers around the bottle and yanked it down into the circle as if Sky had opened up a portal.
The only thing to rip Ryder’s eyes from that horrific sight was the panicked cry from Gideon as he climbed to his feet in the booth and practically crawled on top of him.
“Idiot! You’re freaking out the vampires!” Maddox complained, hitting Sky on the shoulder. Ryder did not miss that Maddox was paler. He hadn’t made a single grab to save the remains of his beer.
Skylar’s eyes popped up to Ryder and Gideon, his face turning bright red. “Shit! I’m sorry! So sorry! It’s okay. Everything is okay, I swear. Mad pissed me off by ruining a fifteen-dollar drink.”
“Where is it? Where did it go?” Gideon demanded, his voice trembling. He stabbed a shaking finger at the empty spot on the table.
“What?” Sky asked. His brows knitted together over bright-green eyes.
“That-that thing. The hand!” Gideon continued.
“Your little minion,” Maddox explained blandly.
“Oh! It’s gone. It’s not here. It was never really here.” As he spoke, Sky reached out and rubbed his hand through the remains of the water circle on the table so that there was no sign of it ever existing. “That was one of my helpers. They’re very food motivated.”
Gideon stopped trying to climb into Ryder’s lap, and the fingers digging into his scalp were less like claws. “What kind of food?”
“Normal, human food. They’ll do just about anything for a ham sandwich and a bag of chips.” Skylar leaned closer and smirked. “They also like Mad’s beer.”
“Fuck off, asshole,” Maddox grumbled, his arms folded over his chest.
“Okay,” Gideon mumbled. He slowly settled in the booth next to Ryder, but Gideon didn’t put his feet on the floor. He folded his legs next to him and leaned into Ryder, both of his arms wrapped around Ryder’s arm.
Maddox laughed suddenly. “Wow. Way to make a great first impression. This is why I had to come with you.”
Skylar shot his friend a look, but it fell away when he turned his attention toward Ryder and Gideon. “Sorry again. Not the first impression I wanted to make. I’m Skylar Wallace, but you can call me Sky. You’ve already met Maddox.”