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“Any of what?”
The man let out a sound that was as close to a growl as he could get, and he lunged forward, pointing the blade right at me.
I had magic on my side. I wasn’t about to tell him that, but it helped me in situations like this where humans tried to look for shit where they didn’t belong. The blade bounced off the magic barrier I’d put up around me, and the man looked at the blade in his hand as if it had betrayed him.
He looked up at me, and his eyes turned darker than they already were, rage taking over.
“You think you’re so smart, huh?” he said and lunged forward again. Everything looked slower to me, and I could guess where he would be next. He extended his shoulder, arm straight with the blade and his weight on his front foot. It might have worked in his favor if he’d fought a mortal, but I wasn’t close to being human.
I just looked like one.
It didn’t take a big nudge to push him over, and he fell to the mulch with a cry.
“You should take a hint and leave,” I said simply. “If you can’t beat ’em, scram.”
“I’ve never run from a fight,” he said.
“No, my guess is you cause the fights. You might have started this one, but I’m going to finish it.”
With another snarl and growl, he jumped up and lunged at me again. This time, when he attacked, I didn’t use magic. I didn’t slow things down, and I didn’t try to evade him. He pissed me off. I knew what he was looking for, and I wasn’t going to let him find her.
Mine.
I slugged him through the face so that his head snapped to the side.
He stumbled and spit out a tooth. He stared at the broken tooth on the ground, laughed bitterly, and wiped his mouth where blood trickled from the corner of it.
“You want to dance, boy?”
He ran at me, and I let him come. I rained hits down on him. Jaw, ribs, nose, stomach, nose again so that I felt the bone crack against my knuckle. He got a few punches in, too. He hit me in my ribs and kicked my shin like a fucking girl. He spun around and kicked me again at the back of my knee, and I nearly buckled and went down.
I was better than that, though. This human form was powerful enough to take on a man like that in my sleep, and when I unleashed my fury, I put him on his ass on the ground. I kicked him in the ribs, and he howled in pain. Blood pissed out of his nose, and he held onto his side as if he was trying to keep himself together.
It was going to hurt him to breathe for a long time.
“I don’t think you heard me before, so I’ll say it again,” I said and kneeled in front of him, resting my elbow on my knee. “Get. The fuck. Out.”
His eyes filled with fear, the anger he’d harbored until now finally fading away. He realized this was a losing battle. A part of me was annoyed that he gave up so quickly—I was just getting warmed up. Another part of me was glad this was over. If he didn’t get the hell out of Dodge now, I was going to kill him.
No one fucked with what was mine, and as long as Lorraine was bound to me, she belonged to me. It was my job to look after her.
When he got up and ran away, I let him go. His limping form disappeared through the trees, and he took his darkness with him.
Fucking asshole.
I wiped my lip. My fingers came away red with blood. He hadn’t had the upper hand at any point in the fight, but he’d done some damage.
I licked the wound, the taste of blood metallic on my tongue before I shook it off.
I turned and headed toward the cabin to check on Lorraine. I doubted she would be in danger after I told the fucker to leave, but I wanted to make sure.
ChapterTwenty-Three
Lorraine
Philippa walked into the cabin, studying me cautiously.
“I think I’m starting to figure out this oven,” I said. “I made a pie.”
