POISON  KISSED

They say that when a banshee sings, someone dies.
 
It's true. But only if we mean to kill.
 
I pulled my knifeblade tighter against the gangster's throat and jammed his heavy body harder into the rainbow-sprayed brick wall with my hip. Tall shadows stabbed into the grimy alley beneath a hot moonlit sky, and the evil scent of his blood watered my mouth.
 
Unluckily for him, I meant it, all right.
 
Sweet poison music swelled in my lungs, dripping with enspelled emotion and blood. I crooned a withering curse, and his dark-stubbled cheek blistered under my breath. "You murdered three of my friends, Sonny Valenti. All I have to do is sing."
 
Summer heat tingled my hypersensitive ears like a distant symphony, the dry air murmuring below distant traffic noise and soft breeze. Beside me, moonlight glinted silver in Joey's hellgreen eyes, his blond hair gleaming white. He slipped closer, a lean black shadow in his dark suit, and his voice slid like a needle, bright and easy under my skin where it belonged. "Easy, Mina. Let him talk."
 
My name in his mouth made me shiver. Joey DiLuca is my boss—he pays, I fight—and I know he doesn't deal death lightly. If Joey says Sonny deserves to die, that's fine with me. Joey's the thinker in this outfit. I just do.
 
I yanked Sonny's black curls back in my fist, easing the knife off a little to let the blood run. He's a big tough guy—he's not the Valenti family's chief headkicker for nothing—but I held him no problem. With my spellsparked reflexes, I'm stronger than I look. "Tell us who helped you, and this'll hurt a whole lot less."
 
"I never had nothin' to do with it." Sonny struggled, his face scraping bloody streaks on the jagged bricks. "I never even knew what they done. Get the fuck offa me."
 
Joey tapped his shiny black cane impatiently on the concrete. "Persuade him, Mina."
 
I inhaled, tingling. Summer warmth soaked my tight leather vest, safe and comforting. The music of midnight in Melbourne, sparking neon, stifling heat, a storm's sharp ozone tang and the throbbing roll of thunder. My ears exulted at the delicious vibration. To a banshee, everything is music.
 
Melody wrapped around my tongue like a fairy lover's kiss, and I sang sweet terror...

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