They’re supernatural, definitely, and all three of them dive for me.
“Donovan says hello,” one of them growls as he reaches for me. I dive out of the way on instinct, my mind racing as I process the name he just uttered.
How? How the fuck is this possible? I have a concealment charm.
But even as I have that thought, a horrible realization washes over me.When I was storming around getting all of my stuff from Jason’s place after I realized he was cheating on me, my charm must’ve fallen off by accident.
Shit, shit, shit.
That charm was the one thing keeping me safe from the spells Donovan uses to try to find me. And now I’m going to—
A snarl erupts from my left side, and North leaps in front of me before the intruder can come after me again, snarling almost like a wolf. Cain and Raven immediately step up too, and Raven gently reaches out to pull me behind them. His skin looks… grayer now? Or am I just imagining that?
All three men look like they’re ready to rip Donovan’s goons limb from limb.
“There,” Cain says, a smirk in his voice. “Now this is a fair fight.”
Then, like a rubber band snapping, all six of the men in the room leap into motion.
My jaw drops open as chaos explodes in the small space.
They’re fighting Donovan’s lackeys. Forme.
Nobody has ever stepped forward for me like that before, defended and helped me. And Jason really only proved that I can’t trust anyone to ever do something like that for me. A guy couldn’t even stay loyal to me. Why would I expect someone to get in between me and bloodthirsty, furious vampires?
But these three are jumping right into the fray and attacking these supernaturals with everything they have.
Well, like hell I’m going to let these guys have all the fun. This ismyfight. I jump right in, ready to fight for my life.
These supernaturals are fighting hard, obviously aware of what’ll happen to them if they go back to Donovan empty-handed after having me right in their grasp. But North, Cain, and Raven are more than a match for them. They’re absolute blurs, attacking these supernaturals like their own lives are in danger and it’s not just me.
I’m pretty fucking ruthless myself. Look, it’s a dog eat dog world out there. And if anyone tries to come after me, I know there’s only one solution here, only one way to fight. You don’t fight for honor, or to win—you fight tokill. Because if you don’t, your opponent sure might be, and they’ll get the upper hand. I’ve never been able to afford to relax during a fight. There’s never been anyone to back me up, so it’s all on me to win.
Until now.
Raven seems to shift as he fights, his tattoos vanishing or changing and his skin going gray. He deals heavy punch after heavy punch, like he’s in an underground fight club and he was told just to keep hitting until his opponent’s a pulp. It’s a heavy-handed, direct kind of fighting that I certainly wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of. You have to be strong as fuck to be able to fight like this, just straight-on slugging people.
There’s a part of me that finds it kind of hot.
I dodge back out of the way as Raven goes after the guy, again and again, gaping as the attacker’s blows bounce off Raven like trying to punch a tank.
Another one of the attackers lunges for me, trying to grab me, I think to try to drag me and portal us out of here. I dodge, his fingers just barely missing me, and I can feel the whip of the air moving across my skin created from the movement. I can’t let them get a hold of me and portal me to Donovan. There’s no way I could bargain for my life right now. I’m good, but I don’t think I’mthatgood.
Cain grabs the guy’s wrist, and immediately the man’s arm sets on fire. The man screams, writhing, and Cain grabs the guy by the throat, and thenthat’son fire, too.
I back up, my hands in the air, my eyes feeling like they’re bugging right out of my head. North is moving with lightning speed, kind of similar to Raven with sheer strength, but moving more like I’m used to seeing in fights, a combination of strength and skill and speed.
He’s clearly had a lot of fight training and knows how to use his body, how to fight andwin, and Ifind myself for the first time staring instead of helping out in a brawl.
I can’t help myself. I’ve never seen people who were so capable at it. I learned from the school of hard knocks. I fight for my life and it taught me a lot. But wow.
Part of me is envious. I want to be as powerful of a fighter as these three are. I want to be completely badass like that, so that no bounty hunter would stand a chance against me.
Within minutes, the three men are dead on the floor, North, Cain, and Raven standing over them. All three men have snarls on their faces, like they’re disgusted, like they can’t believe someone would even try to attack me and think they could get away with it.
“Thank you,” I blurt, not sure what else to say. They didn’t have to do that for me.
Raven gives me that look again. “Of course.”