Free Hidden Spark (Dark Magic Enforcer Book 6) by Al K. Line Page A

orangutan, easily ten feet in length, forearms like a troll's, biceps as large as footballs.
    The legs were just as bad. Calves bunched with tortured muscle, knotted thighs with veins thick as ropes, and everywhere were weird lumps. Strange protrusions the size of golf balls in totally random places, disfiguring its face and its entire body.
    A band of ink wrapped around its neck and concentric circles did the same around each limb and its torso. To complete the look was a black tattoo right across its eyes that snaked around its head.
    For the second time that day I decided to run. This was way too surreal a place for the likes of me, let alone Mithnite. I didn't go in for this kind of thing at all, especially with the unexpected company I had to keep safe above all else, certainly above the mission.
    It was a sick joke, a perversion of tales of dwarves and orcs from fantasy stories I'd read as a kid. I knew they were all based on fact at least partially, same as stories of wizards, faeries, goblins, vampires and everything else is, but I'd never for one minute imagined the world of the dwarves was quite as peculiar as it was turning out to be.
    "Do you mind if I go home? I think I left the door unlocked and besides, I haven't got the right shoes on. Neither has Mithnite."
    "Grrr," came the reply. I don't think it was a yes, but rather than ask again I grabbed my rather stunned friend and we did the running away thing. For about a millisecond.
    As we turned and ran, picking up speed, we slammed into an invisible barrier that shimmered and shook as much as my legs. We bounced back, Mithnite going down hard while I catapulted into the waiting arms of the ogre. It clutched me tight, each arm wrapping entirely around my body, foul, dirty claws digging tight into my sides. The stench of the creature up close and personal was enough to force my food up, but the magic was upon me, and two could play at being big and scary.
    As my eyes, normally deep, penetrating, and rather fetching—so I've been told—morphed into the depths of darkness and my perfectly aligned tattoos sprang to attention, shunting powerful energy exactly where it needed to be, my newfound abilities went straight to work.
    My hands grew in size as the ink sent magical mayhem down my arms, and each one grabbed and circled the ogre's forearm as I tried with all my might to make a fist. Flesh began to give way and bone began to succumb to terrible forces, and I think for the first time ever I found myself using magic successfully in a fight without having to do any blasting.
    My strength was seemingly enough, and as I poured more magic taken from the Empty to complement my own new nature I closed my hands tighter, felt twisted and malformed bone ready to give way.
    Then the ogre head butted me in the back of my head and released me at the same time. I stumbled forward, ears ringing, feeling like I'd been hit with a damn demolition ball. I crashed into Mithnite just as he was getting to his feet, slamming him back down with a moan and landing on top of him. No time for pity, though, as the ogre stomped forward, incensed by the fact I'd harmed it. It snarled, foul breath noxious, making it hard for me to think straight.
    There was no way out. The magical barrier shimmered with a dangerous light, like lightning ready to incinerate us, so there was only one means of escape—through the door and then all I had to do was deal with a dragon. Talk about needing a few other options, but such is the life of the enforcer.
    It was right around this time I reconsidered how wise it had been to break my resolution to stay off magic, but there was no turning back. And, I hate to admit it, but I knew I'd rather meet my end at the hands of an ogre than die because the TV was so bloody boring I just gave up and withered away. Not to say I had any intention of going out quite yet, not on the first day back on the job.
    I sidestepped the rather clumsy move of the ogre as it lumbered