Read Online Seized: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Thrice Cursed Mage Book 4) by J.A. Cipriano - Free Book Online
Authors: J.A. Cipriano
Tags: Action & Adventure
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train ride to Manhattan. Less fortunately, we’d had to ditch all our guns, by which I mean Jenna and I had to ditch our guns since we were the only ones carrying them. Not having a weapon made me feel naked and exposed, especially since there weren’t many problems I couldn’t solve by shooting them in the face.
When we emerged from Penn station, the air was surprisingly brisk. As we walked along Thirty-Fourth Street toward Fifth Avenue, I found myself glad I had a trench coat instead of a suit jacket. No suit would have been able to withstand this kind of chill. Still, it made me feel like a little bit of a wuss since girls were walking around in short skirts and t-shirts. Whatever, at least I was mostly warm.
“So where is the thin place?” I asked, glancing at my entourage and sighing. We looked like the racially diverse cast of a sitcom. “I know you said it was at the Empire State Building, but that’s a pretty big building.”
“Around the eighty-fourth floor,” Wendy said, glancing up at the building while shielding her eyes from the glare with one hand. She mumbled to herself in what sounded like Latin and nodded once. “Yeah, the eighty-fourth floor.”
“And how do we get to the thin place on the eighty-fourth floor?” I asked, hoping we weren’t going to have to scale the building from the outside or try something even crazier.
“We take the elevator, Mac,” Wendy said, glancing at me like I was a total idiot before stepping into the building. I let out a sigh. Of course we would be taking the elevator. Man, I really needed to stop hanging out with the supernatural. I’d totally expected to be whisked up via magic.
The others followed after the girl like she was some kind of thin place smelling bloodhound, which based on her earlier actions, seemed likely. I guess we all had our roles to play after all. I was, obviously, a Cursed, and Jenna was clearly a badass mercenary. Vitaly was our fearless leader who was also some kind of mutant vodka-gulping werebear.
Wendy was the big question mark. Other than bicker with her creepy “talking” doll, I hadn’t seen her do much of anything. Sure, she’d come out of the diner carrying a severed head and covered in blood, but I hadn’t seen her tear the head off the nun, who owned it, or anything. For all I knew, she was just eye candy.
However, being able to spot the thin place leading into Beleth’s lair seemed like as good a reason as any to have her along, and it certainly seemed like she could do that. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that her ability to find thin places was just a bonus and not because she’d walked out with a decapitated head.
After all, pretty much everyone in our party seemed more than capable of going all sorts of “bull in a china shop” on our enemies. No, she had to be here for another reason. There was definitely more to the girl than met the eye, and I wished I knew what it was. Despite being an ardent believer in expecting the unexpected, surprises had a way of, well, acting in an unexpected way.
I pushed the thought away. There were only two emotions on a job, fear and hope. If I succumbed to fear before we even started, I might as well put a gun to my head and pull the trigger now. Still, putting my hope in Vassago to assemble a team that would help me succeed in rescuing the kids stretched my ability to hope to the absolute limit. I didn’t doubt the demon wanted his payday, but I didn’t think he’d care about casualties. If I, or any of the children not specifically bought and paid for, became one of those casualties, well, I was pretty sure the demon wouldn’t lose sleep over it.
“You coming, princess?” Marvin asked, his wooden head poking out from Wendy’s black backpack like an angry cat. “Or you just going to stand outside and mope?”
“That’s his thing,” Jenna said, glancing at me from just beyond the threshold. “He gets all broody just before every mission. This is the part
When we emerged from Penn station, the air was surprisingly brisk. As we walked along Thirty-Fourth Street toward Fifth Avenue, I found myself glad I had a trench coat instead of a suit jacket. No suit would have been able to withstand this kind of chill. Still, it made me feel like a little bit of a wuss since girls were walking around in short skirts and t-shirts. Whatever, at least I was mostly warm.
“So where is the thin place?” I asked, glancing at my entourage and sighing. We looked like the racially diverse cast of a sitcom. “I know you said it was at the Empire State Building, but that’s a pretty big building.”
“Around the eighty-fourth floor,” Wendy said, glancing up at the building while shielding her eyes from the glare with one hand. She mumbled to herself in what sounded like Latin and nodded once. “Yeah, the eighty-fourth floor.”
“And how do we get to the thin place on the eighty-fourth floor?” I asked, hoping we weren’t going to have to scale the building from the outside or try something even crazier.
“We take the elevator, Mac,” Wendy said, glancing at me like I was a total idiot before stepping into the building. I let out a sigh. Of course we would be taking the elevator. Man, I really needed to stop hanging out with the supernatural. I’d totally expected to be whisked up via magic.
The others followed after the girl like she was some kind of thin place smelling bloodhound, which based on her earlier actions, seemed likely. I guess we all had our roles to play after all. I was, obviously, a Cursed, and Jenna was clearly a badass mercenary. Vitaly was our fearless leader who was also some kind of mutant vodka-gulping werebear.
Wendy was the big question mark. Other than bicker with her creepy “talking” doll, I hadn’t seen her do much of anything. Sure, she’d come out of the diner carrying a severed head and covered in blood, but I hadn’t seen her tear the head off the nun, who owned it, or anything. For all I knew, she was just eye candy.
However, being able to spot the thin place leading into Beleth’s lair seemed like as good a reason as any to have her along, and it certainly seemed like she could do that. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that her ability to find thin places was just a bonus and not because she’d walked out with a decapitated head.
After all, pretty much everyone in our party seemed more than capable of going all sorts of “bull in a china shop” on our enemies. No, she had to be here for another reason. There was definitely more to the girl than met the eye, and I wished I knew what it was. Despite being an ardent believer in expecting the unexpected, surprises had a way of, well, acting in an unexpected way.
I pushed the thought away. There were only two emotions on a job, fear and hope. If I succumbed to fear before we even started, I might as well put a gun to my head and pull the trigger now. Still, putting my hope in Vassago to assemble a team that would help me succeed in rescuing the kids stretched my ability to hope to the absolute limit. I didn’t doubt the demon wanted his payday, but I didn’t think he’d care about casualties. If I, or any of the children not specifically bought and paid for, became one of those casualties, well, I was pretty sure the demon wouldn’t lose sleep over it.
“You coming, princess?” Marvin asked, his wooden head poking out from Wendy’s black backpack like an angry cat. “Or you just going to stand outside and mope?”
“That’s his thing,” Jenna said, glancing at me from just beyond the threshold. “He gets all broody just before every mission. This is the part
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