Chapter Eighteen
Everything happened all at once.
After the briefest hesitation, Dark Hair seemed to realize the fight was on, and snarled at me. It was a low, menacing sound that sent a chill through me but did nothing to convince me I was in any real trouble. My confidence, for better or worse, was through the roof.
These guys had asked for trouble, and I was going to deliver.
Dark Hair shoved one of his gray-haired lackeys in my direction and the guy stumbled, then advanced on me uncertainly. This dude would rather be doing anything other than fighting me right now.
I stepped up to him as he pondered his first move and slammed my fist hard into his sternum. He let out a wheeze and as he was doubling over to catch his breath I lifted my knee into his ribs and then threw another right hook into the side of his face.
He was down for the count before he had time to think about how to come at me.
My knuckles were split and bloody, I must have hit the guy’s teeth on my second punch. I crooked a finger at the other skinny guy. “Next.”
Dark Hair curled his lip in disgust and bellowed “The girl is mine. Kill the rest.”
The new men who had arrived descended on our group, and soon we were a mass of flying fists and feet. Someone shoved Wilder into me and we both hit the ground hard, his hefty bulk landing square on top of me.
The breath was knocked from my lungs and I was still seeing stars when someone grabbed me by the ponytail and started to drag me away from the melee. I didn’t bother craning my neck to see who it was. This was a game of survival, it didn’t matter who I was fighting as long as I won.
I got hold of the man’s wrist and dug my fingernails in. Some wolves, like Mercy and Secret, had the ability to partially shift themselves into wolf form even when the moon wasn’t full. I was not so lucky, I only had my natural fingernails combined with a lot of sheer grit.
My nails broke the man’s skin and he howled in pain, dropping me on instinct.
I clambered back to my feet—the ground was the last place I wanted to be in a fight—and kicked the guy hard in the side of the face. He went down and didn’t get back up.
I glanced back at the fracas and saw that Wilder and Santiago had each managed to take down two apiece—impressive for Santiago who was, in spite of his magic, only human. Memere was nowhere to be seen, and while worry started to gnaw at me, I had to believe she was okay.
A man barreled right for me, his lips peeled back to show deeply stained brown teeth and a look of pure menace.
I lifted my hand a moment before he crashed into me and whispered, “Away.”
A burst of bright white light emerged from my hand and punched into him like a fist. For a brief second he hung in midair, staring at me with naked surprise. Then he flew backwards across the shore and over the heads of the others who were fighting, sailing right back until he landed among the high branches of a tree and dangled there, unmoving.
Nothing stuck out of his chest and he appeared be breathing. His buddies could help him down later if they felt so inclined.
I’d taken my eyes off the fight a moment too long.
Someone, and the bulk of his upper body made me believe it had to be Dark Hair, wrapped his arms around me from behind and lifted me fully up from the ground. I let out a yelp of surprise. So much for seeming like a total badass.
He started carrying me towards the boat while the others were occupied with their own fights. With my arms pinned to my side, it was hard for me to retaliate. Not that I’d been expecting a fair fight here, but this was about as far from fair as things got.
If he wanted to play nasty, I could do that.
Rather than trying to wrest my arms free, I pushed down and back, towards him. I didn’t have a lot of traction available to me, but I was able to give him a firm open-handed slap to the junk, which succeeded in doing what I wanted. He let me go.
As he sputtered and swore at me, I was able to twist in his arms, and with my hands now free, I jabbed both of my thumbs into his eyes. It was self-defense one-oh-one but there’s a reason they teach it: the moves work.
I didn’t push hard enough to pop out an eyeball or anything, but he was not enjoying himself.
Dark Hair howled and squirmed to get away from me. “Bet you wish you’d just given us the fucking boat now, don’t you?” I snarled.
“Bitch.”
So original.
He punched me in the stomach and once again I was left momentarily breathless, gasping for air as the pain of his strike seared through me.