Shadow Thief - Eva Chase Page 0,41

that deliciousness. It was almost a shame.

What was definitely a shame: the mangled body I was now staring at again, just a few feet away from me. My stomach flipped over. I sidestepped to avoid a rivulet of blood that trickled toward me. “What the hell was that?” I demanded, my heart thumping from the fight—and maybe a little from the eye candy I’d gotten right after, despite my revulsion at the rest of the scene.

Two other figures I should have realized would be along for the ride shifted in the darkness. Ruse tilted his head to one side as he regarded the dead man. He brought his hands together in a light clap. “Excellent smiting. A+ for technique. Maybe a little overboard in the nakedness department, but I’m really not one to criticize that.”

Thorn glared at him with a twist of his mouth that might have been a little embarrassed. He turned to me. “My apologies that I didn’t intervene sooner, m’lady. And for the… unfortunate oversight when I first arrived.”

“I’m not complaining about that part,” I said, and shot my own glare at Ruse when he smirked. “None of you should be here at all—you were supposed to stay at my apartment! And you—you massacred this guy.” There really wasn’t any better word for it.

“He was attempting to harm you,” Thorn said, completely ignoring my first point. “He had a weapon. I was simply preventing him from using it.” He frowned at me as if upset that I hadn’t thanked him yet.

I supposed I did sort of owe him some gratitude. All the same… “Thanks, but I was handling it just fine by myself. You can’t go around killing people left and right, even if they seem like real jerks. Unless someone’s actually on the verge of killing me, you can stick to beating their ass and sending them running. Or rather, let me beat their ass and send them running.”

Thorn’s forehead furrowed. “I can hardly wait to see if an attacker will get to the point of a mortal blow. He was a miscreant of some sort. What does his death matter?”

I stared at him for several seconds while I tried to construct an answer his shadowkind worldview would understand. He clearly didn’t subscribe to the idea that life was sacred regardless of what the living thing was doing with that life. Truthfully, I wasn’t exactly sad that the asshole was dead, even if the sight of his battered body horrified me.

I’d never seen anyone die except Auntie Luna, and her departure had been more sparkly than bloody.

“On this side of the divide, we don’t go around killing anyone who pisses us off,” I said finally. “There are laws, and a certain mortal sense of morality… You might not agree with it, but it’ll be easier for all of us if you try to respect it at least a little.”

“I respect what keeps you and us alive,” Thorn said. “That matters more than mortal laws or your qualms about our presence.”

I resisted the urge to reiterate the fact that I probably would have been just fine even if he hadn’t jumped to my rescue. One guy with a knife vs. my martial arts skills shouldn’t have been a problem. Of course, who knew if my attacker had more than a knife? Bloody mess and all, I might find it in me to be a bit touched that Thorn was so dedicated to my safety.

They all were. Snap eased up beside Ruse and looked me over with a worried air. “You are all right, aren’t you? He came at you very quickly.”

“I’m totally fine.” I brushed off my arms as if to demonstrate.

“If it makes you feel any better, this was no great loss.” Ruse motioned to the bashed body. “I got a read on him before our fist-happy friend here took care of the matter. You aren’t the first woman he’s attacked—and if he’d had his way, you’d have been pinned up against the wall while he forced himself on you.” He grimaced as he spoke those words as if it disgusted him to even voice that possibility out loud.

My skin crawled at that revelation. But the way the guy had gone after me, the pretense of being drunk and all, hadn’t felt like some random rape attempt. “Is that all you picked up on?” I asked.

“I didn’t have a whole lot of time to rummage around in his emotions and motivations before he and they ceased