Bleeding Out
Authors: Jes Battis
Tags: #Vampires, #Contemporary, #Fiction, #Fantasy, #General, #Demonology
PRAISE FOR THE OSI NOVELS
Infernal Affairs
“
Infernal Affairs
has everything that’s best about the paranormal mystery genre, and it continues to get better.”
—
Owlcat Mountain
“Filled with snark, wit, emotion, and charm.”
“A good read.”
—
Night Owl Reviews
Inhuman Resources
“I love this series with a passion, and
Inhuman Resources
is definitely my favorite thus far… I love the juxtaposition of modern science (verging on the futuristic sometimes) and weird magic.”
—
The Green Man Review
“A truly enjoyable urban fantasy filled with magic, romance, and crime fighting that pits semihuman Tess Corday against all that goes bump in the night.”
—
Smexy Books
“For people who like
CSI
and its ilk,
Inhuman Resources
is a good urban fantasy version of the forensic genre. And for all the detecting urban fantasy heroines do, it’s fun to read about one who actually is a member of the magical law enforcement.”
—
The Good, The Bad and The Unread
A Flash of Hex
“Wonderfully detailed, easily visualized, and overflowing in paranormal crime scene action. The aspect most likely to capture the reader’s attention is the author’s talent in developing charming characters who are passionate in both their professional and personal lives.”
—
Darque Reviews
“This procedural murder mystery with a biting supernatural edge is enhanced by the interplay of terrific characters. Battis delivers big-time, so make sure to add this series to your must-read pile.”
—
RT Book Reviews
“Author Jes Battis has created a credible mix of science and magic, and the book’s strength is its detail-oriented nature.”
—
Sacramento Book Review
Night Child
“Hooks you from the very first line.”
—Keri Arthur,
New York Times
bestselling author
“A good old-fashioned murder mystery.”
“Jes Battis takes the readers on a tension-filled journey of murder, mystery, and temptation… An intriguing story line; easy, flowing dialogue; and fascinating characters all combine to keep readers engaged, but it’s the never knowing what’s around the corner that will have readers coming back for more.”
—
Darque Reviews
“Battis manages to make the world come alive as a workable universe with infinite complexity.”
—
SFRevu
“[An] absorbing paranormal detective tale… The combo of cutting-edge technology and magic highlights a procedural thriller filled with ominous twists. Telling the tale from the point of view of a stubborn, rule-breaking heroine keeps the tension high and the risk palpable.”
—
RT Book Reviews
“Compelling new urban fantasy [that] mixes equal parts forensic investigation, modern science, and down-and-dirty magic to create something new and different… a great start to a new series.”
—
The Green Man Review
“Unique.”
—
Night Owl Reviews
Ace Books by Jes Battis
NIGHT CHILD
A FLASH OF HEX
INHUMAN RESOURCES
INFERNAL AFFAIRS
BLEEDING OUT
Bleeding
Out
Jes Battis
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
BLEEDING OUT
An Ace Book / published by arrangement with the author
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Ace mass-market edition / June 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Jes Battis.
Cover art by Timothy Lantz.
Cover design by Lesley Worrell.
Interior text design by Laura K. Corless.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed
or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of
copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ISBN
: 978-1-101-56883-5
ACE
Ace Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ACE and the “A” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is
stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the
author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
For Rowan
In the golden lightning
Of the sunken sun,
O’er which clouds are bright’ning,
Thou dost float and run,
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.
—“To a Skylark,” Percy Bysshe Shelley
It’s hard to close a series. You don’t want to say good-bye to the characters, even when you know that they’re late for new adventures and you have to say good-bye. I will certainly miss writing about this peculiar family, but I also feel that they can take care of themselves, as they have taken care of me.
I owe a lot to my friends and family, who call me to make sure I’m alive whenever I’m in the middle of finishing a book. Medrie, Mark, and Rowan, thank you for always letting me come over and play. Bea, thanks for the dirty talk. Mom, thanks for sending me books. Dad, thanks for the cauldron. Manuel, thanks for convincing me to take the
teleférico
. Madrid,
te amo y te agradezco
. Vancouver, thanks for everything.
Very young, I would take my mother’s Meteor and drive into the desert. There I spent entire days, nights, dawns. Driving fast and then slowly, spinning out the light in its mauve and small lines which like veins mapped a great tree of life in my eyes.
—M
auve
D
esert
, Nicole Brossard
1
Nobody speaks until we see the headlights. Then
a ripple of energy passes through the dark room. I raise my hand for silence. The van idles for a bit in the driveway, then stops. For a moment there’s nothing more. Then the door of the van opens. Derrick looks at me. I nod. He and Miles cross the room and take up position on either side of the entrance. Now there are footsteps. I breathe. I’m suddenly riven. What if this is a bad idea? What if it goes horribly wrong?
I hear the key. By now, I really should be past worrying about things going horribly wrong. I should be past fun-sized candy, too, but I’m not.
The door opens.
A figure pauses at the entrance. It could be a midnight
letter carrier, or a vampire Girl Scout. But I know better. I smile. I’ve been waiting for this moment for years, ever since he told me how old he was.
“Now.”
Derrick turns on the light. I raise my hands in the air. We raise our voices and scream at him:
“¡Cumpleaños feliz!”
For a second, all Lucian can do is stare at us in shock. We’re all wearing pointed hats, even Derrick. Mia and Patrick hold noisemakers, but seem loath to use them. A streamer falls quietly from the ceiling.
I step forward.
“Happy ninety-first birthday, Lucian.”
“When you put it that way, I feel as if my body should actually be decaying.”
“But it’s not. And I’m thankful for that.”
“You looked really surprised,” Derrick says. “For one second, I thought you might actually kill us all with necromancy.”
“Have I ever once tried to do that?”
“No. But in our line of work, you have to be prepared.”
Lucian turns to me. “So that’s why you kept sending me on errands today. You were plotting something fierce.”
“Well, I don’t want to brag. There is punch, though, and possibly Mad Libs.”
“Thanks.”
“All right,” Derrick says. “Let’s party like it’s the twenties.”
“Can we stop referencing my age, please?”
“Fine. Let’s party like the mystical badasses that we are.”
Lucian has an odd expression on his face, like uncertain delight. “Still, it’s just another birthday. There’s no need to bring the house down. I’m touched that you guys went to all this trouble, but—”
Mia hands him a glass of punch. “Lucian, you’re a creepy old man, and we need to celebrate that. Derrick bought an ice-cream cake.”
Lucian looks at him. “Dude, seriously?”
“It’s in the kitchen. Want to see it?”
“I think I do.”
The kitchen is full of brass light. Derrick’s herbs have perked up in their bottles. Outside, our neighbor is smoking menthols, and I ignore the tickle in my throat. As per instructions laid out by Mia and Patrick, there is a frosted necromancer on the white face of the cake.
Lucian frowns slightly. “This is me?”
“No, it’s an everynecromancer,” Mia says.
“Is the everynecromancer holding someone’s arm?”
“Of course. Dead bodies are your power source.”
“I told you he wasn’t going to get it,” Patrick says. “For the record, man, I wanted you to be holding a fudge pitchfork.”
