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Chapter 1

THE PHONE RANG IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT THE , and the phone shouldn't 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 sant, handsos that Jim was not At least not in his human shape

I clawed lance at the windup clock across the rooht"

"I've 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" Jim's voice hardened

"Half"

The phone went silent as my former Guild partner mulled it over "Okay, forty"

I hung up The bedrooht sifted into the rooht acted as a catalyst and the loith a weak bluish patina where the silver in the alloy interacted with the ward spell Beyond the bars, Atlanta slept like soend, dark and deceptively peaceful When the ic wave ended, as it inevitably would, the beast would awaken in an explosion of electric light and possibly gunfire

My ouldn't stop a bullet, but it kept the h

The phone rang I let it ring twice before I picked it up

"Fine" Jim's voice had a hint of a snarl in it "Half"

"Where are you?"

"In the parking lot under your , Kate"

Calling from a pay phone, which shouldn't have worked, either I reached for my clothes, left by the bed for just such an occasion "What's the gig?"

"Some arsonist wacko"

FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER, I WAS WINDING MY way through an underground garage and cursing Jiic, I couldn't see my hand in front of my nose

A fireball blosso with violent red and yellow, it roared towardknife sweaty in my hands Heat bathed me For a moment I couldn't breathe, and then the fire hurtled past ainst the wall