back. “Give me the name, boy. You don’t want me telling TJ you been running around behind her back and fucking her over, do you? Selling drugs to kids, skimming her profits?”
What ?
“Did you hear that?” One of the other wolves looked up, eyes narrowing.
Oh. Shit.
I’d bumped something on the ground. It wouldn’t have been loud enough for anybody human to hear.
But we weren’t dealing with humans. The NH—non-human—population had sharper senses and I had all but shouted my presence.
“Sounds like…”
I gripped the knife and shot a look once more toward TJ’s. If I ran, they’d catch me. If I called for Goliath, he’d hear me, but probably not in time.
Son. Of. A. Bitch.
I should have gone to my room and finished my damn book.
A shadow stretched out along the ground in front of me—so close.
Instinct moved me and I lunged out, threw the knife.
I hadn’t taken out a target since the night in the sewers, but I never once doubted my aim.
I am aneira —
The words echoed in the back of my mind. I’d heard them, so often, in the years before I’d run away. Time seemed to slow.
My aim is true .
And it was. The blade flew, straight and true and so very fast. So fast the shifter didn’t even have time to avoid it. The silver buried itself in the shifter’s heart. Without waiting to see what happened, I lunged at him and as he hit the ground, I wrenched the knife around, twisting it. The scent of smoke filled the air. I didn’t waste another second. I came up and dove forward in a somersault. I landed in a crouch as I faced the other two shapeshifters.
The man pinned to the wall looked at me with greener than green eyes. To my surprise, he grinned. “It’s about fucking time.”
My jaw fell open and then there was no time for anything else. The other shifter lunged for me and I fumbled with my knife.
Teeth closed around my arm but I still got it up, shoving it into his gut. He howled as silver met skin. I swallowed down a scream, struggling to think past the pain. I knew how to do that—those lessons had been drilled into me back before I even understood what pain really was. Whipping my blade out, I drove it in, then jerked up while he continued to gnaw at me like a dog with a bone. And I felt like a bone—a broken one as his jaws managed to clamp down until the bones in my forearm shattered.
I fought the blackness back. Can’t…
Something brilliant and white exploded around us and then the weight of his body was gone from me.
A face appeared in my vision.
The man they’d been beating—
His eyes were a vivid wicked green and despite the bruises on his face, he was grinning.
“You did pretty good.” Then he cocked his head. “Took you a while, though.”
Struggling to think past the nauseating pain in my arm, I just stared at him while he hauled me to my feet. Everything around me was spinning.
My arm bumped up against him and I bit back a scream. “Shit,” he said. “You did a number on your arm.”
Don’t look, don’t look …
I couldn’t help it.
I looked. My arm didn’t look like anything so much as meat.
Bits of bone jutted out and flesh hung in strips.
I don’t know if it was the pain from my arm or the pain in my head, but in the next moment, I was bent over and puking my guts up.
* * * * *
For one moment only, I let myself lay there, taking stock. I knew where I was. TJ and Goliath had come a-running. Well, Goliath had run. TJ had maneuvered her way up over the uneven ground in her chair and her eyes had glittered with menace as she looked at us.
Then I was unceremoniously taken back to TJ’s, back to my room.
Consciousness was stolen away after TJ forced a healing tonic on me. I’d preferred the quiet of that darkness to the noise going on around me now.
“—hired you to find that cocksucker, not get one of my girls beat up, you idiot witch!”
TJ. I knew that voice. Okay. If TJ was around—and pissed-off—that meant things
What ?
“Did you hear that?” One of the other wolves looked up, eyes narrowing.
Oh. Shit.
I’d bumped something on the ground. It wouldn’t have been loud enough for anybody human to hear.
But we weren’t dealing with humans. The NH—non-human—population had sharper senses and I had all but shouted my presence.
“Sounds like…”
I gripped the knife and shot a look once more toward TJ’s. If I ran, they’d catch me. If I called for Goliath, he’d hear me, but probably not in time.
Son. Of. A. Bitch.
I should have gone to my room and finished my damn book.
A shadow stretched out along the ground in front of me—so close.
Instinct moved me and I lunged out, threw the knife.
I hadn’t taken out a target since the night in the sewers, but I never once doubted my aim.
I am aneira —
The words echoed in the back of my mind. I’d heard them, so often, in the years before I’d run away. Time seemed to slow.
My aim is true .
And it was. The blade flew, straight and true and so very fast. So fast the shifter didn’t even have time to avoid it. The silver buried itself in the shifter’s heart. Without waiting to see what happened, I lunged at him and as he hit the ground, I wrenched the knife around, twisting it. The scent of smoke filled the air. I didn’t waste another second. I came up and dove forward in a somersault. I landed in a crouch as I faced the other two shapeshifters.
The man pinned to the wall looked at me with greener than green eyes. To my surprise, he grinned. “It’s about fucking time.”
My jaw fell open and then there was no time for anything else. The other shifter lunged for me and I fumbled with my knife.
Teeth closed around my arm but I still got it up, shoving it into his gut. He howled as silver met skin. I swallowed down a scream, struggling to think past the pain. I knew how to do that—those lessons had been drilled into me back before I even understood what pain really was. Whipping my blade out, I drove it in, then jerked up while he continued to gnaw at me like a dog with a bone. And I felt like a bone—a broken one as his jaws managed to clamp down until the bones in my forearm shattered.
I fought the blackness back. Can’t…
Something brilliant and white exploded around us and then the weight of his body was gone from me.
A face appeared in my vision.
The man they’d been beating—
His eyes were a vivid wicked green and despite the bruises on his face, he was grinning.
“You did pretty good.” Then he cocked his head. “Took you a while, though.”
Struggling to think past the nauseating pain in my arm, I just stared at him while he hauled me to my feet. Everything around me was spinning.
My arm bumped up against him and I bit back a scream. “Shit,” he said. “You did a number on your arm.”
Don’t look, don’t look …
I couldn’t help it.
I looked. My arm didn’t look like anything so much as meat.
Bits of bone jutted out and flesh hung in strips.
I don’t know if it was the pain from my arm or the pain in my head, but in the next moment, I was bent over and puking my guts up.
* * * * *
For one moment only, I let myself lay there, taking stock. I knew where I was. TJ and Goliath had come a-running. Well, Goliath had run. TJ had maneuvered her way up over the uneven ground in her chair and her eyes had glittered with menace as she looked at us.
Then I was unceremoniously taken back to TJ’s, back to my room.
Consciousness was stolen away after TJ forced a healing tonic on me. I’d preferred the quiet of that darkness to the noise going on around me now.
“—hired you to find that cocksucker, not get one of my girls beat up, you idiot witch!”
TJ. I knew that voice. Okay. If TJ was around—and pissed-off—that meant things
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