Free Magic Edge by Ella Summers

leaning in further. His hand caressed her cheek, feather-soft, brushing back her hair. It slid across her neck…
    She clenched up as he scraped across the vampire bite.
    “What’s this?” Logan asked, looking it over. “It looks like someone bit you.”
    “Someone did. A vampire elf. I thought you were watching the fight.”
    “I had to run before the end of it,” he said. “It doesn’t look that bad.” He pulled back far enough to look her in the eye. “Should I be worried that you’ll turn into a vampire and eat me up?”
    She shrugged. “If that was going to happen, I would have already changed into a vampire.”
    “You’re immune to vampire venom?”
    “Gaelyn thinks I’ve built up a resistance to it from the last time I was bitten.”
    “You’ve been bitten before?”
    “Just a nip.”
    He looked as surprised as an assassin could be—which was to say his eyebrows might have lifted a tad. “So, you’re immune to vampire venom. And to the poison Hugh tried on you last night. You can dissolve iron chains,” he tallied off. “What are you?”
    “I’m just a mercenary who fights monsters. That’s all you need to know.”
    She hoped he didn’t know enough about magical history to add it all up and figure out she was Dragon Born. The magic-breaking was probably a dead giveaway; there weren’t too many Magic Breakers, and most of them were really underpowered. Alex didn’t know much about the Dragon Born, except that in addition to sniffing out magic, her kind was supposed to have had the power to break any spell.
    Her sister Sera thought the Dragon Born didn’t have much to do with dragons, but Alex wasn’t too sure. They did know that the Dragon Born mages had gotten their name from the unique circumstance of their birth: like dragons, they were two souls born into one body and later separated by magic. They’d once been the most powerful mages in the world, thanks to an unusual effect of the separation spell. According to ancient lore, when the two souls were split each into their own body, their magic multiplied instead of divided. Each new mage had the power of two. Just like the dragons.
    So if the Dragon Born were born like dragons, couldn’t they also share other things in common with them?
    It was too bad there weren’t any dragons left to ask. They’d died out long ago. There weren’t any Dragon Born left either because the Magic Council had declared them abominations and hunted them to near extinction. As far as Alex knew, she and Sera were the only ones in the world. Though it’s not like any other Dragon Born would be quick to speak up. To do so would mean their death.
    “You are a lot more than ‘just a mercenary who fights monsters’,” Logan said. “That much is certain.”

CHAPTER TEN
    Supernatural Steel

    THERE WASN’T MANY places open for business in Zurich on a Sunday, but the things you could count on were train stations, bars, and shooting areas.
    Supernatural Steel, the citywide shooting tournament for Zurich’s magic population, was held every year at the Glass Dome. Large enough to hold a soccer field, the dome was made of UV-blocking glass, an important consideration when a sizable fraction of the participant pool was sunlight averse.
    Logan parked in a spot spray-painted with the picture of a pair of crossed daggers over a skull. Alex didn’t know what the symbol meant—and she probably didn’t want to. It must have had something to do with being an assassin. One thing was perfectly clear, though: if a regular joe tried to park in a space like that, the parking police would be the least of their worries.
    Alex and Logan followed the stone path from the parking lot to the entrance hall. Inside the building, Rustic Charm had teamed up with Modern Elegance to dance the do-si-do of interior decorating. The blended look worked surprisingly well. The floors were made of elegant beige tiles, the ceiling dripped with strands of tiny magic lamps, and the