Demon's Vengeance The Complete - Jocelynn Drake Page 0,100

a psycho-killer bitch and instead we got a bunch of goblins snatching women so they could be locked away for safekeeping. The only thing in that arrangement that had me worried was that they might be pressuring the women they were protecting into giving up their babies as payment.

“What?” Serah gasped.

“We had to do something to keep them safe. The cops had failed,” the male goblin argued, giving Serah a little shake. “And we will keep you safe too.”

I cursed under my breath. This day just kept getting worse.

“I don’t need your protection!”

“Of course you do. The killer will get you.”

“No, she won’t. I’m not pregnant. This was all a police sting operation, and I was bait. We were trying to catch her and you grabbed me before we could find her.” To further prove her point, Serah completely opened her coat and pulled up her loose shirt up to reveal her padded stomach. The goblins looked utterly flabbergasted for a second. The male released her, shoving her away from himself as if she were diseased.

“Hand the other women over. The cops will place them in protective custody. They’ll be safe,” Bronx said, pushing to his feet to tower over the goblins that surrounded us.

“The police can’t protect them!” the female screamed. The pitch of her voice sliced through my brain so that I curled against it while clenching my teeth.

When I was sure that my ears weren’t bleeding, I opened my mouth to argue, but the words stopped in my throat at the sound of approaching sirens. The police were racing toward us and I arched a questioning eyebrow at Serah.

“There’s a tracking device somewhere in all this padding,” she said with a shrug.

The goblins took that as their cue to run. Or rather, disappear. One by one, the goblins surrounding us in the old warehouse vanished, slipping backward into the shadows as if they were made of them. The female glared at me, seeming to hesitate in decision.

“Keeping the women means that police will start to hunt you as well. Bad for business,” I said evenly.

“The abandoned Sleep Tight Inn outside of town,” the female growled at me before she disappeared.

With the immediate threat gone, the pain in my arm and ribs came back to me. I was suddenly sore, exhausted, and cold. Sighing, I dropped to the dirty concrete, too tired to keep moving. I knew I needed to use the healing spell that Gideon had taught me to fix my ribs and close the gash on my arm, but I was just too damn tired to move.

“Gage!” Serah shouted, rushing over to kneel beside me. “How badly are you hurt?”

“It’s not that bad. I can take care of it,” I said. Wincing, I lifted my right arm to look at where the goblin had sliced through my coat and shirt. Blood had soaked through the cloth, which had helped to slow the bleeding.

Bronx limped over the last few feet and dropped on the ground next to me, looking exhausted and a little ragged as well. But he graced me with a small smile and a chuckle. Yep, this was a normal night for us.

“It might be too late for magic,” Serah said against the sounds of screeching tires and slamming doors.

I cursed my luck and doused the magical lights hovering close to the ceiling. I didn’t have the strength in me to teleport Bronx and myself to another location. Between the pain and the bone-grinding fatigue, I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to get up off the floor. I was just ready for this day to finally be over.

“Did you hear what the goblin said? The abandoned Sleep Tight Inn,” I pressed. I knew that as soon as the cops swarmed on us, we’d be swept off to the hospital and I didn’t want the kidnapped women to be overlooked.

“Got it. I’ll tell them as they arrive.”

“Good. If anyone asks, tell them that the goblins grabbed Bronx and me too,” I whispered to Serah as the first cop burst through the door with his gun drawn.

“What?”

“Just do it,” I replied, tucking my right arm against my chest while trying to find a position that didn’t make the pain in my side worse. I hadn’t yet had the chance to fill her in on what I’d done to Eddie and how I’d gotten there. She was going to have to do some quick explaining about how we’d managed to beat the cop and I didn’t want