Page 66 of Mortal Blood
I just needed to get out of here.
I slammed open the door and crashed straight into a solid wall of muscle.
“Well, look who it is. Not that it isn’t amusing to see you running into my arms, but I’m more interested in seeing you crawl at my feet.”
I stared at Kallan, and of course Eva and Harvey behind him.
“Trust me, if I’m ever near your feet it’ll be because I’m cutting them off,” I sneered at him.
“Big words for a weak little human. Oh, wait, you’re not even human, are you? Pathetic littleillegalmongrel.”
“Weak?” I curled my lip, the blood pounding in my temples urging me to bite. “I’m going to break you in half.”
“You and which army, dhampir? Because I don’t see any of your traitor’s pack backing you up.”
“Traitor would imply I’d ever had some kind of allegiance to you and your pack of mutts. And trust me, I don’t need a pack to take you down. You might like to run your mouth, but we both know you’re just…” I smirked. “Compensating.”
He lashed out, fast as a snake, grabbing my throat and tossing me out through the door. I seemed to fly through the air in slow motion, and I made the most of the time, placing my hands carefully to break my fall on the damp grass, and rolling easily into a crouch.
“What the fuck?” Kallen’s eyes widened as I straightened. Much as I wanted to echo his sentiment—I might not have spent my life falling over my own feet, but I wasn’t usually what anyone would consider graceful—this wasn’t the time. I canted my head and pasted on a maniacal smile that felt all too natural as I swaggered towards him.
He took a step back, and damned if I couldn’thearhis heartbeat stutter.
“That was rude,” I said. “You could hurt a girl’s feelings doing that.”
He rolled out his shoulders. “Oh, I’m going to hurt a lot more than that.”
“I think we’ve already establishedthat’snot going to happen.”
His lips curved nastily. “That? That was nothing. And I don’t care what kind of freak you are, you can’t fight all three of us at once.”
Well, he had me there. I didn’t know what the hell was going on with me right now, but I could already feel my heightened senses fading—and with them, presumably, my newfound ability not to land on my ass when someone threw me across the grounds.
“Not so cocky now, are you?” Eva sneered. “Freak.”
“Freak,” Harvey jeered, jutting his chin at me. The three of them spread out, circling me.
Yeah, this was really shaping up to be a shit day.
Kallan lunged forward, throwing a punch at my face and I twisted aside. A second followed right behind it and I twisted again, but not quite quickly enough, and his fist caught a glancing blow to my shoulder. I sucked in a sharp breath and ignored the pain as I launched myself at him. A leg slammed into my midriff—Harvey’s, I think—and the air exploded out of me as I was flung back. I hit the ground hard and rolled, coming up easily in a crouch.
A ripple caught my eye from my left and I twisted to see Eva rising in her wolf form, lips peeled back in a feral snarl.Fuck.
Harvey leered and shucked his shirt.
“What’s the matter, freak?” Kallan taunted. “Getting scared?”
Shitting myself, as it happened, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. “Just wondering why your two little friends are too cowardly to fight in human form.”
Kallan threw his head back and laughed, then the sound cut off abruptly and he snapped his chin back down to fix me with his cold stare. “That line might work with your little freak friends, but we’re shifters. We worship strength, and wenevergive up an advantage.”
“If you worship strength, shifter,” a voice said calmly from behind me, “then you should be bowing at our feet right about now.”
I twisted round to the newcomers, and my heart sank. Thaden and Thessalia. Exactly what I needed to make a bad day worse.
“Don’t you think so, sister?” Thaden continued mildly.
“We don’t bow to leeches,” Kallan sneered.
