Page 92 of Heart of Iron
No time to savor the sweetness of the moment.Through her tears she saw Ingrid come out of nowhere, the leg of a chair held in one hand.She swung it hard and Will caught her wrist with a contemptuous snarl.
It should have been the end of it.But Ingrid moved faster than Lena believed possible and snapped a palm into the joint of his elbow.As Will roared in pain, she followed through with a leg, sweeping his own out from under him.
Will hit the ground hard and Ingrid swung the chair leg at his head.He kicked up, snapping the piece of timber out of her hand and then arched back onto his shoulders and kicked himself to his feet.Snarling with rage, he hit Ingrid around the waist and carried her to the floor.
Lena took a cautious step forward, surveying the room.He’d made a mess of it.Groaning men littered the ground, clutching at broken bones and bruises.Not one of them was dead though.
Yet.
The blur as he and Ingrid fought was too fast to follow.Using his brute strength, he forced the other woman flat to the ground, tearing her shoulder up behind her and kneeling on her.Ingrid snarled, her face ground against the floor and her eyes molten with anger.
Bronze eyes.
Another verwulfen.
Will forced her arm higher.Ingrid’s body shook and she winced, her other hand clawing at the ground.His gaze darkened and he set one hand against the joint of her shoulder, his intentions clear.
“No,” Lena cried.“Don’t do it!”
Leaping forward, she grabbed his arm and tugged ineffectually.Will snarled at her, all wild eyes and teeth and her heart leaped into her throat at the madness she saw there.For a moment she wasn’t sure if he would go for her too.She saw it in his eyes, saw the need, the desire to kill glaring back out at her.
“Will,” she whispered, sliding her wrist in front of his nose.If he smelt her, recognized her, he would never hurt her.
He eased back on Ingrid’s arm.Her hands shaking, Lena gently touched his cheek.“Will, look at me.It’s Lena.You know me.”Caressing the line of his jaw, she swallowed hard when he turned and gently bit the fleshy pad of her palm.
One bite and her blood would flow, mingling with the blood that stained his fractured cheekbone.One bite and she’d be infected.Quivering violently, she gave a breathy little cry as his tongue rasped over the sensitive flesh.Then he let go, his teeth sliding gently over her skin.
Behind her Rosalind snapped to someone, “As soon as you get a clear shot, take it.”
“The girl’s in the way.Want me to shoot her?”
Lena froze and glanced over her shoulder.Jack stared down an enormous rifle at her, focusing through the glass monocle.
“If you shoot me,” she said, surprised by how calm her voice sounded, “you’ll never stop him.”She slid a steadying hand over Will’s shoulder.“He came for me.Because of the way Mendici took me.I can stop him.”
Rosalind’s nostrils flared.Her gaze flickered to Will and back.“He’s beyond stopping.”
Sliding her body between them, trying to cover as much of Will as she could, Lena shook her head.“He’ll listen to me.”
Rosalind wavered.Lena could see it in her eyes.
“I’ll talk to him,” she said.“Calm him down.Then we both walk out of here.I’ll keep your secrets.”
“Or we could kill you both,” Jack said.
Lena’s eyes narrowed.“Try it and you’ll find out why nobody dares cross a verwulfen.You have to shoot me first and he’ll kill her.”
“Do it,” Ingrid snarled.
“Shut up.”Jack lowered the rifle slightly, cold gaze considering.His expression softened slightly as he looked at Ingrid and Lena realized there was some sense of compassion, some weakness within him.“One condition.We want the transformational.Complete the project and deliver it within five days.That’s the cost of our cooperation.”
Yesterday she might have simply agreed.“Why?What do you intend to do with it?”
“It’s a gift.For the Scandinavian ambassador.We’ve already made contact with them.They’re expecting it.”
The transformational was only a toy, really.Granted, a very life-sized one by the time she was finished.“I’ll never complete it in five days.”
The rifle twitched.“You don’t have a choice.”
