Know Thy Frienemy E-Book

Misti Wolanski

• Herausgeber: Misti Wolanski
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Is freedom always worth the cost, even when it would cost you everything?~After the life-changing week she had in “Destiny’s Kiss”, Destiny Walker knows she’s messed up, but she isn’t stupid. Her magic’s missing at the moment, and at least a few big-name Magiks want her dead. At least as property of the director of the vampire internal affairs agency, she has protections she wouldn’t have if she were a person.The problem with the ‘property’ thing is what kind she is: concubine. Her owner ignores that part of it, perhaps because he’s fonder of her than is good for him. Regardless, after the abuse her previous owner put her through, she perfectly happy with the haven her new owner provides. She’s not the only one he protects, and she’ll do whatever she has to to keep him safe.No matter who’s behind the attempts to kill him.~A dark urban fantasy novel wherein a girl must figure out what she wants despite others’ interference. Contains mature themes, some violence and gore, and a few cases of salty language.

Leseprobe

Know Thy Frienemy

Destiny Walker: Book 2

A Darkworld Novel by

Misti Wolanski

EPUB Edition

Copyright 2013

All Rights Reserved

This is a work of fiction. People, places, and events are made up; any that aren’t made up have all been processed through the shredder of the author’s imagination and therefore bear only superficial resemblance to their originals, at best.

All trademarks, songs, books, and other writers’ characters mentioned in this text are the property of their respective owners. Their use does not indicate any association, express or implied, between their owners and the author of this work.

All effort was taken to respect real-world nations, their laws and reality, but the author is not omniscient or a lawyer, and this story is fiction. If a reader wishes to act in accordance with something mentioned in this work, the reader is responsible to verify that it is still in effect or if it ever existed in the first place.

This file is not authorized for copying by e-mail, website, or other transfer method. This work is licensed in electronic format for your personal enjoyment. If the copy you’re reading wasn’t bought for your use specifically, please respect the author and delete or pay for the e-book. Thanks!

Cover Designed by Najla Qamber

Model & Photographer: Misty Patricia

Cardo font series by David Perry

Book formatted by Misti Wolanski

• Is freedom always worth the cost, even when it would cost you everything? •

After the life-changing week she had in Destiny’s Kiss, Destiny Walker knows she’s messed up, but she isn’t stupid. Her magic’s missing at the moment, and at least a few big-name Magiks want her dead. At least as property of the director of the vampire internal affairs agency, she has protections she wouldn’t have if she were a person.

The problem with the ‘property’ thing is what kind she is: concubine. Her owner ignores that part of it, perhaps because he’s fonder of her than is good for him. Regardless, after the abuse her previous owner put her through, she perfectly happy with the haven her new owner provides. She’s not the only one he protects, and she’ll do whatever she has to to keep him safe.

No matter who’s behind the attempts to kill him.

This novel is dark urban fantasy. It contains mature themes, some violence and gore, and a few cases of objectionable language.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Author’s Note

Mark 7:12–13, ASV

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

How did you like the story?

About the Author

Also by Misti Wolanski

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Frequently it takes a community to produce a book, and Know Thy Frienemy was a good example of that.

Haddie Brice let me chat with her at length about the story at various stages, told me about how guns and gun classes work, and then gave me input on what worked and what didn’t. Sarah on the Emperor’s Edge forums* kindly directed my attention to something that didn’t work and was far more offensive than I’d intended. Annamaria Equizzi fixed my Italian and caught some rather embarrassing typos, though I now want to write a story wherein I can use the word hydroflouric acid…

*If you haven’t read Lindsay Buroker’s Emperor’s Edge series, I highly recommend it. As of this writing, she even has book 1 and much of book 2 on Wattpad.

Then there are the people who donated their money to help me fund release costs. William Gunderson was particularly generous and will be having a character in his honor in book three—I’ve already designed her from his choices, and I’m hoping she won’t end up a redshirt.

All in all, I did my best to adhere to reality as much as suited the story, but this is a fantasy novel, and the narrator’s a fifteen-year-old girl with an…unusual education, who’s prone to making assumptions about herself. Some details are going to be “wrong”, either because I had to suit the story or because my narrator’s ignorant about that particular detail.

Destiny’s…extreme “PTSD” is a case in point. The cause is in the text, spread across books one and two, but Destiny hasn’t yet realized what’s going on. (Can you spot it? The first 3 people to contact me with a correct answer will get a surprise.)

I know how annoying incorrect details can be. (One thing that always irritates me about Robin McKinley’s Sunshine is the narrator calling a Tunisian crochet hook a knitting needle, even though I suspect the author did that on purpose because the narrator wouldn’t have known the difference.) I thank you for your patience with the ones I mess up, but I also won’t take offense if you decide to rant about them.

If I have any ability as a writer, God gets the credit. My current ability to write and publish stems from a series of fortunate events I can only attribute to His providence. (For those readers who are curious, I actually adhere to a different denomination of Christianity than any of the characters in my book.)

I hope you’ve enjoyed the story! If you did, be on the lookout for book three, Lord willing in Summer 2014.

MARK 7:12–13, ASV

ye no longer suffer him to do aught for his father or his mother; making void the word of God by your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things ye do.

CHAPTER ONE

April 7, 2009 South Carolina, United States

“C’MON, DES. SELENE’S about to cut Viktor’s head off,” Alexis urges me.

I’ll never understand my flatmate’s fascination with Hollywood’s vampire movies. “Seen it.”

I haven’t seen my padrone’s car drive by to enter the parking garage. Spring break started today, the Tuesday before Easter, but he said he’d visit after helping his younger half-sister figure out her visa paperwork, so she could stay in the US to finish high school with me. This is despite the fact that I’m not sure how similar the school systems are, between countries, and she barely speaks English.

My boss shooed me out of work today, too, saying she didn’t have permission from my padrone to use me. He wouldn’t mind, but she doesn’t know him well enough to know that.

Which has left me stuck in my flat with nothing to do, accompanied by the the moody blond bohemian-punk flatmate whose idea of proper seating is a beanbag.

Alexis glances away from her movie to scowl at me, gray eyes narrowed beneath the fire engine red highlighting one side of her blond bangs. “Your sugar daddy will get here when he gets here. No stopping that short of killing him.”

I watch back out the window, scratching my wrist under the braided black bracelet that declares me a vampire’s property, with the manta ray charm that declares which one I belong to. Is that him behind the white SUV? No, that looks like a Wyrwulfs 4EVA sticker glinting on the back window. My padrone isn’t old enough to care about any old-school spelling of werewolf.

“He’s my owner, not my pimp.” I glance at the scar burned into the crook of Alexis’s collarbones, one that matches the sigil of her own former master and marks her as self-freed. Just last week, I learned the scar is trackable, making her ‘ionized’ in the jargon of the Darkworld of gargoyles and vampires and freaks and other types of Magiks. “He isn’t going to pass me around.”