Page 46 of The Alien Who Saved Christmas
His taunt trailed off with a horrendous gasp. Elf seemed to freeze in his tracks, his reptile-skin paling. Casino patrons scrambled out of his way, as he staggered backwards, clawing at his neck.
The hand sanitizer was finally starting to work. About damn time.
A rattling hiss escaped Elf’s middle throat, as the alcohol melted him from the inside out. Once it took hold in his system, there was no stopping it. The other snake-heads were already wilting, unable to exist without the primary part of their triad. Elf’s robot-legs collapsed, sending him to his knees, so maybe the right and left fellas were the ones in charge of driving the body. He was now helpless.
People were beginning to panic. Shouts for a doctor went up. Cries of fear and surprise.
In the chaos, Xane’s gaze caught Sadie’s, his eyebrows soaring in astonishment. “Hand sanitizer?” He guessed.
Sadie wrinkled her nose and nodded. The Purell spritzer worked a little bit better than she’d expected. She hadn’tmeantto kill the guy. Aside from turkeys on her grandfather’s farm, she’d never killed anything. But whatever. It’s not like Elf had been so super-terrific. He’d wanted to hurt Xane!
Elf sprawled on the ground, twitching and struggling to breathe. Honestly, now she felt alittlebad. Like one percent bad. The least she could do was loosen the collar around his swollen middle-neck.
…And while she was there, she swiped the key from around his throat.
He gave a strangled protest as she pulled it free. She was close enough for him to see her face beneath the hood of her robe. When he realized she wasn’t Lythion, she could sense the hatred burning in his yellow eyes. He knew it was all a trick. He knew she was the one who’d poisoned him.
With his last bit of strength, he tried to bite her. Fangs flashed like sabers.
Sadie had forgotten about Elf’s venom. How the hell could she have forgotten aboutvenom? Even worse, she’d underestimated the reach of his long neck. She let out an instinctive cry, as glinting teeth snapped right in front of her face.
It was a near miss. Sadie barely dodged to the side in time. Elf wasn’t giving up, though. He readjusted his aim, preparing to sink his razor-sharp teeth into her skin and kill her the way she’d killed him.
Xane yanked Sadie backwards, before Elf could strike.
With his other hand, her maybe-husband grabbed the vengeful snake-head and snapped its snake-neck. Bones crunched under his implacable grip. Elf sank backwards, his chest stilling.
Oh, thank God!
Sadie gave a half-sob of relief, practically crawling into Xane’s protective grasp. That had beenwaytoo close! She maneuvered under his bound hands, frantic to be closer to him. Her arms wound around his huge body, holding tight.
“You are safe.” He murmured into her ear. “I am with you.”
She nodded, her heart racing. If Xane was with her, she’d be okay. She tilted her face up to kiss his chin. “Thanks, big guy.” She whispered.
“Always.” He adjusted her hood to make sure her face stayed hidden. “We must go, now.”
That was a great idea. They had to get out of there, because the situation was turning really, really bad. And it had already been really, really bad. Now, it was really, really worse. Elf’s death had electrified the crowd.
“The drinks are poisoned!” A cockroach-being shrieked.
“The Rtaharion killed Elf!” Somebody else bellowed.
Overlapping shouts of “Run!” came from multiple directions at once.
Everyone wanted out of the casino.Now. There was a sudden stampede of people headed for the maze of alleyways.
“What is the next step of this plan?” Xane wrenched his bound wrists apart, breaking the loosely fastened handcuffs. The fact that he hadn’t done that while Elf was threatening him showed how committed the man was to fulfilling his part of the plan.
…And showed that he was a complete nutcase.
Sadie shook her head and tried to focus. Keep moving forward. Right. Okay. They needed to escape, but it was going to be hard to evade the alien lynch-mob. The beings that weren’t fleeing in terror were all headed straight for them.
How could they buy some time and get away from extraterrestrial-Vegas?Ocean’s Elevenhadnotcovered this part of the plan. Luckily, she’d also watchedCasino.
Reaching into her pocket, Sadie grabbed a handful of little metal bits and threw them up into the air. The coins rained down and the already frantic crowd went positively wild. Men dove for the free money. Fought each other for it. Generally created such a huge mess that even a horned guy and a human woman could move unnoticed in the mayhem.
Xane gave a burst of shocked laughter. The sound was unexpected and beautiful. “My teammate.” He decided and kissed her right on the lips. “You are an endless wonder.”
