His breathing labored, Ren looked up to see Coyote with war club in his hands.
Ah, shit ...
The bastard was going to cut his head off. Yeah, that'll kill me.
At least it'll be quick.
Coyote twisted his face into a snide smile. "Where's your soliloquy now?"
Ren laughed at him, then licked at his bloodied and bruised lips. "It's 'monologue,' moron. And you dared to call me the stupid one? Now I am insulted."
Coyote narrowed his gaze in warning, "Fine, then. Your requiem."
Laughing even harder, Ren coughed up blood, then cursed as it rammed his cock against the bastard's boot. His breathing ragged, he glared at his brother. "I can barely speak, never mind break into song. And the last time I checked, we weren't Roman Catholics, so there's no chance of a requiem from me. Damn, boy. Buy a dictionary. Or better yet, kill me already. I can't take another minute of your uneducated abuse of the English language."
The biggest of his attackers grabbed Ren's chin and lifted it as far back as he could so that Coyote would have a clean shot at Ren's throat. Tensing from the pain that racked him, Ren glared at the asshole whose grip bit hard into his jaw. "I knew I should have killed you motherfuckers instead of imprisoning you. That'll teach me to be compassionate, eh?"
Even though he knew it was completely useless, Ren tried to throw them off him.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he mentally took himself away from the pain they caused, back to the first time Kateri had smiled at him. The first time her lips had brushed against his skin, and she'd called him baby ...
Coyote dragged the jagged edge of the obsidian glass on the club across his throat, slicing his flesh only enough to sting. "A bientot, mon frere."
His brother lifted the club for the killing blow.
I love you, Kateri. May the gods watch over you always, and thank you for being the best thing I ever knew. If only he could see her one last time ...
In the next heartbeat, Coyote went flying into the wall beside them, and the one holding his jaw was unconscious on the floor. Coughing to clear his throat, Ren rolled over to see Cabeza doing a death match circle with Chacu.
Chacu raked Cabeza with a sneer. "How's your wife, Kukulkan?"
By the amount of rage and severity of attack that question evoked from Cabeza, Ren was going to lay money that Chacu had had something to do with her death.
And hopefully that was the worst thing the bastard had done to her.
Ren splayed his hands against the earthen floor and pushed himself upright. One of the others grabbed his right arm and snapped the bone.
Okay, that he felt....
Before he could recover, four of them were on him.
"We don't need Chacu or Coyote to finish you." As Ren's attacker reached for the Coyote's club, a sonic boom went through the room so fiercely, it knocked everyone off their feet.
Damn, I'm on the floor again. He was getting really sick of this vantage point.
At first, he wasn't sure what had happened to knock them down. Not until he saw Ash grab one of the Gate Guardians and head-slam his ass into the wall. Yeah, that hurt, didn't it, puta? Slam him again, Ash. He'd say it out loud, but the last one who'd grabbed him had broken his jaw.
Ash rounded the seven of them up, and left Chacu for Cabeza to finish off. His silver eyes swirling with fury, Ash snarled at the Gate Guardians, exposing his fangs. "You swore to protect the innocent."
The tallest one tried to peacock posture Ash. It might have worked had Ash been a couple of feet shorter. But with those combat boots on, Ash topped seven feet easy. It'd be damn hard to intimidate someone that size if they were human. Toss in the god powers, and mad warrior skills ...
You go on, bitch, and posture. Ash can probably use the comic relief.
Bald Ugly jerked his chin toward Coyote as he spoke to Acheron. "We owed a favor to the one who freed us. We were merely paying the obligation."
Ash shook his head. "Ah, see now, that was your mistake. Your obligation tripped all over a man I consider a brother. One I don't like seeing ganged up on and beaten to a pulp when I know one-on-one, you'd be picking up busted teeth ... so I tell you what ... How about I level this playing field a little?"
Still, the imbecile blustered. Maybe because his muscles were five times larger than Ash's, he thought that gave him the advantage. But one of the first things Ren had learned when he'd shot up to tower over his shorter, bulkier opponents ... Lean muscle didn't interfere with fighting technique. It made you lethal. And you were a hell of a lot stronger than you appeared to be, so people underestimated the power of your blows. While a single blow from the mountain could lay you out cold, you could get twenty in to his one and have him down first. The mountain had to be accurate.