The Lost Enchantress by Patricia Coughlin Page A

open flat. When they were just inches away, blue lasers shot like blades from the center of their palms.
    Terrified, Eve cringed backwards and came up against Hazard’s arm; it curled around her like a steel cable. She fully expected the evil-looking lasers to slice and dice their way through the mist and then do the same to them. Instead, there was an explosion of white sparks and a screeching sound so high-pitched it was painful, and the lasers were deflected with enough force to send both brothers flying backwards in a blue-black blur. They slammed into the concrete wall ten feet away and came to rest on their butts.
    For a few seconds they just sat there, stunned. A very few seconds as it turned out. Rolling to their feet, looking all too resilient, they began moving forward once again, but this time there was more caution than swagger in their approach. Brother Tall even seemed to hold back half a step and let Brother Small take the lead as he lifted his right arm and moved it over them slowly, without actually making contact with the mist. Instead of the lethal-looking blue lasers, his outstretched palm glowed with a soft white light. It seemed to Eve that he was checking for something. She had no idea what it might be, but she was in the business of reading people, and whatever bizarre breed these guys were, they were close enough to people for her to read them. The look they exchanged was one of surprise-laced fear.
    The laser boys were afraid of . . . what? Hazard? The mist? She couldn’t tell, but something had sure spooked them and that was good enough for her.
    Brother Small muttered something under his breath that Eve decided must roughly translate to “Let’s get the hell out of here,” because Brother Tall quickly reached out with one gangly arm and made slicing motions in the form of an X. At once the air in that spot rippled and separated, creating a dark opening that both men tumbled into and disappeared.
    Eve saw it happen and she still had to look around, twice, to make sure they were really gone and not just lurking in the shadows, waiting for the mist shield to come down so they could strike again. Only when she was convinced they were nowhere around did she allow herself to sag with relief, thankful for the strong arms and solid chest supporting her. Her relief lasted only seconds, and then she remembered who owned those strong arms and solid chest. She wrenched free of Hazard’s hold, which wasn’t difficult since he seemed more than willing to let her go.
    The mist disappeared as well, melting back into the atmosphere and leaving them eyeing each other across several suspicion-laden inches of space.
    They spoke at the same time.
    “How did you . . . ?”
    “How did you . . . ?”
    “Me . . . ?”
    “Me . . . ?”
    Their scintillating conversation was cut short by a security vehicle rounding the corner at the opposite end of the garage with its rotating yellow spotlight on.
    Hazard grimaced.
    Eve wasn’t sure, but he might have also growled.
    “I’ll be in touch,” he said through clenched teeth.
    She wanted to fire off a clever comeback, but there wasn’t time in the fraction of a second it took him to vault to the top of the garage wall in a single fluid motion and—as she looked on in disbelief—drop out of sight on the other side . . . leaving her to deal with the security guard.
    Fortunately, years of arriving at a news scene and being told she was going live in sixty seconds had prepared her to think fast and run without facts. She told him a group of teens had hit her up for spare change and taken off when they saw his lights. Strange loud noises? No, she hadn’t heard any noises. Nor had she seen anyone leap over the wall behind her.
    “Wouldn’t that be dangerous at this level?” she asked him.
    “Dead dangerous,” he declared. “And dead is what you’d be if you tried it. I guess my eyes were playing tricks on me, because I could have sworn I saw a fellow . . .” He