Leda’s Log. A behind-the-scenes, slice-of-life look into the Legion of Angels, hosted by Leda Pandora, the Angel of Chaos.

Warning: may include abnormally-large cats and adorable baby angels.

Leda encounters a blast from her past. And, as usual, nothing goes to plan.

Leda’s Log

Part 11: Blast from the Past

A bar still owned and operated by the district lords’ now-defunct criminal organization? Just-cleaned streets covered in potholes and grime and vomit? Long-gone monsters lurking behind a glowing Magitech wall, threatening my town?

What the hell was going on here?

There was only one explanation that I could think of, and it was impossible. Somehow, I’d gone back in time. Sure, I’d read about it in books, but this was real life. And according to the laws of magic, time travel wasn’t possible.

Of course, as the Angel of Chaos, I did tend to break the laws of magic. On occasion. And totally accidentally.

But here’s the million-dollar question: could I fix what I’d broken?

“Leda?”

I turned toward the woman who’d called my name. Tall, bouncy, and sporting a perfect hourglass figure, Cindy was the most vivacious member of Purgatory’s over-40s singles crowd. Or at least she had been before finding her Happily Ever After with my former next-door neighbor. But judging from the skintight, thigh-high, cherry-red sweater dress that she was wearing right now—which matched her hair and shoes perfectly, by the way—none of that had happened yet.

“What are you doing here?” Cindy asked me.

Lurking didn’t sound all that legit, so I went with option B.

“Working?” Cindy repeated, her full lips pinching together in confusion. “Didn’t you take the train with Calli and the rest of your family this morning?”

I must have looked pretty confused myself because she added, “Bella’s first day at the New York University of Witchcraft is today. You all decided to go along and give her a proper sendoff.”

“Oh. Yes. Right.”

Cindy looked at me like I’d hit my head on something. “I saw you in the Witch’s Watering Hole last night, Leda. Just how much of old Monroe’s moonshine did you drink?”

“None,” I told her.

She gave me a hard look.

“Really,” I insisted.

I hadn’t gone to Purgatory’s favorite bar that Friday night for the fine liquor and highbrow company. I’d gone there to work. My mark: an escaped vampire criminal named, ironically, Mark. Unfortunately, he hadn’t surrendered himself peacefully into the safety of my handcuffs, so my brother Zane and I had to get assertive. That’s the night Zane had risked a public display of his powers in order to save my life. That’s the night my brother had been kidnapped, the watershed moment that had changed my life, setting me on my long path to join the Legion of Angels and gain the magic I needed to save him.

That’s ‘when’ I was: the day my new life had begun. Surely, this couldn’t be a coincidence. I’d been thinking about this very day just moments before I’d been catapulted through time.

A loud, deranged cackle rumbled down the narrow alleyway. I looked past Cindy, honing in on the source of that terrible noise. It was a big, bulky, pale-as-a-stick-of-white-chalk man. He was in his early twenties, and built like a human gorilla. He lumbered toward me, his lips curled into a sneer.

He stopped beside Cindy. “Leave now,” he growled at her. His words were thick, like he was speaking through a mouthful of gravel—and lots of spittle.

Cindy let out a terrified, high-pitched squeak, then scurried off. Her high-heeled stilettos clicked like horseshoes against pavement.

The man watched her go, chuckling, then he turned back around to face me. “Leda Pierce.” He slid a calloused hand over his shiny bald head. “I’ve been looking for you.”

I’d met this man before. I just couldn’t remember where. Or when. I studied him closely—from his white tank top and ripped jeans, to the tattoos that covered both of his arms and most of his neck. My gaze snagged on the tattoo at his shoulder. It read ‘Rosie’.

When I saw that name on the guy, everything clicked. I knew exactly who he was. I’d encountered him during my bounty hunter days, over a year before I’d joined the Legion of Angels. His name was Masher, and ‘Rosie’ was the girlfriend he’d beaten until she blacked out. And then the degenerate had followed up that fantastic display of asshattery by stealing Rosie’s car and making a run for it.

I’d caught Masher just seconds from the town border, tasered him, and duct-taped his hairy backside to the ‘Welcome to Purgatory’ sign. Naked. And I’d been very generous with the duct tape. It took Sheriff Wilder over an hour to extract Masher from the welcome sign—and rumor has it that by the end of the de-taping, the scumbag didn’t have a single hair left on his body.

Thinking back on it now, I was almost glad that some mysterious force had transported me back in time so I could do it all over again. Only this time, I didn’t just have a roll of duct tape. I had a full angel arsenal at my fingertips.

“I’ve thought about you a lot over the last eighteen months.” Masher’s eyes locked with mine. “Each and every single day, as I sat in that stinking jail cell.”

“Sorry, big guy. You’re not my type.” I took a step back to give myself more room to maneuver.

Masher misinterpreted strategic thinking for complete cowardice. “Yes, you should be afraid, little girl,” he said, flashing me a grin that was full-on psycho. “Because I am going to hurt you.”

He surged forward to grab me, but I sidestepped. As he passed me, I gave him a rough shove, sending him headfirst into a stack of wooden delivery crates filled with tomatoes and other fresh produce that the delivery guy had just deposited outside Dale’s grocery store. Masher roared in anger, and the delivery guy scrambled back into his truck and sped away, tires screeching, the driver-side door still half-open.

“You will regret that,” Masher told me, wiping the wood chips and ripe tomato flesh off his face.

He charged at me like an enraged bull. I lifted my hands to summon a gust of wind to knock him off his feet.

Nothing happened. The spell didn’t work.

Shock froze me for just a second, but that was more than long enough for Masher to grab my shoulders and slam me hard onto a locked garbage dumpster. A jolt of pain cut down my spine. I kicked and punched and heaved with all my strength, but all my strength had left me. I wasn’t supernaturally strong anymore.

Masher’s smug, cruel face glared down at me. “I told you that you’d regret it.” One of his enormous hands locked around my throat, and he started to squeeze. “But if you apologize for what you did to me, I might just let you go.”

“No…” I coughed. “…you won’t.”

“No, I won’t,” he agreed, laughing in glee. And squeezing harder.

I dug deeper, trying to drag my powers to the surface—any of my powers—but they just weren’t there. My magic was gone. I was human again.

I’d been so wrong. I hadn’t just been sent back in time; I actually was that person back in time. I wasn’t Leda Pandora, the Angel of Chaos, anymore. I was Leda Pierce, totally powerless bounty hunter. A Leda without magic. A Leda almost as weak as any human. Except for my memories, there wasn’t anything magical about me.

Dark spots blinked in front of my eyes. Masher was slowly strangling the life out of me, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

To be continued…

Sorry, no cats appeared in this entry of Leda’s Log because they were, well, busy sleeping.

Where’s Nero? How did Leda end up here? And how will she get back home without her magic? All these answers are coming and more. Stay tuned to my blog for the next entry in Leda’s Log!

I mentioned this before, but just in case anyone missed it, Leda’s Log will be a full book with an ebook and a print version. Actually, I’m not sure if I mentioned the print version, but now I have. 😉

I might even do an “author’s reading” (audiobook).

Timeline for the book (in various versions) is later this year, potentially autumn. I’ll have more news to share in the coming months.

Also, the Leda’s Log book cover is getting the full Legion of Angels treatment, so it will look awesome and fit in nicely next to the other books in the series. The cover is already finished. I’m just waiting on the file from artist, then I’ll put it up on this page. If you’re reading this post a week or so from now, the cover might already be up.