Serpent & Dove (Serpent & Dove #1) - Shelby Mahurin Page 0,21

they pushed me none too gently into the alley wall. Andre and Grue. Of course. Though I struggled against them, it was pointless. They outweighed me by several hundred pounds.

“How you doing, sweet thing?” Andre leered. He was shorter than Grue, with a long, narrow nose and far too many teeth. They crowded his mouth, yellow and chipped and uneven. Gagging at his breath, I leaned away, but Grue buried his nose in my hair.

“Mmm. You smell good, Lou Lou.” I smashed my head into his face in response. His nose crunched, and he staggered backward, swearing violently, before lunging for my throat. “You little bitch—”

I kicked his knee, simultaneously elbowing Andre in the gut. When his grip loosened, I darted toward the street, but he caught my cloak at the last second. My feet flew out from under me, and I landed on the cobblestones with a painful thud. He kicked me over to my stomach, pinning me there with a boot on my spine.

“Give us the ring, Lou.”

Though I twisted beneath him to upset his balance, he only pushed harder. Sharp pain radiated up my back. “I don’t have—” He reached down before I could finish, smashing my face into the ground. My nose cracked, and blood spurted sickeningly into my mouth. I choked on it, stars bursting in my eyes, and fought to remain conscious. “The constabulary busted us, you asshole!” An unpleasant realization dawned. “Was it you? Did you bastards snitch?”

Grue snarled and rose to his feet, still clutching his knee. His bulbous nose bled freely down his chin. Despite the blinding pain, vindictive pleasure stole through me. I knew better than to smirk, but it was hard—so hard—to restrain myself.

“I ain’t no snitch. Search her, Andre.”

“If you touch me again, I swear I’ll rip out your fucking eyes—”

“I don’t think you can issue threats, Lou Lou.” Andre yanked my hair back, extending my throat, and caressed my jaw with his knife. “And I think I’ll take my time searching you. Every nook and cranny. You could be hiding it anywhere.”

A memory surfaced with crystalline focus.

My throat over a basin. Everything white.

Then red.

I exploded beneath him in a blur of limbs and nails and teeth, clawing and biting and kicking every bit of him I could reach. He stumbled backward with a cry—his blade nicking my chin—but I didn’t feel the sting as I swept it aside. Didn’t feel anything—the breath in my lungs, the tremble of my hands, the tears on my face. I didn’t stop until my fingers found his eyes.

“Wait! Please!” He forced them closed, but I kept pressing, curling my knuckles beneath the lids and into the sockets. “I’m sorry! I—I believe you!”

“Stop!” Grue’s footsteps pounded behind me. “Stop, or I’ll—”

“If you touch me, I’ll blind him.”

His footsteps stopped abruptly, and I heard him swallow. “You— Just give us something for our silence, Lou. Something for our trouble. I know you pinched more than a ring from that knob.”

“I don’t have to give you anything.” Backing toward the street slowly, I kept one hand pressed firmly against Andre’s neck. The other remained lodged in his eyeball. With each step, sensation returned to my limbs. To my mind. My broken fingers screamed. I blinked rapidly, swallowing the bile in my throat. “Don’t follow me, or I’ll finish what I started here.”

Grue didn’t move. Andre actually whimpered.

When I reached the street, I didn’t hesitate. Shoving Andre toward Grue’s outstretched arms, I turned and fled to Soleil et Lune.

I didn’t stop to stanch the bleeding or set my fingers until I was safe in the theater’s rafters. Though I didn’t have any water to wash my face, I smeared the blood around a bit until most of it was on my dress instead of my skin. My fingers were already stiff, but I bit down on my cloak and set the bones anyway, using a piece of boning from a discarded corset as a splint.

Though exhausted, I couldn’t sleep. Every noise made me flinch, and the attic was too dark. A single, broken window—my only means of entry—let in the moonlight. I curled up beneath it and tried to ignore the throbbing in my face and hand. For a brief moment, I contemplated climbing to the roof. I’d spent many nights up there above the city, craving the stars on my cheeks and the wind in my hair.

But not tonight. The Chasseurs and constabulary were still searching for me. Worse, Coco was gone and Bas