blissfully ignore what’s coming if Eliph doesn’t hear me like he said he would or doesn’t get here in time. I’m not so naïve as to think I’m going to be able to escape from the three of them on my own. I’m going to become someone’s drink and meat in the near future. Not just someone, a fucking fairy prince.
“Drain me and consume my flesh, huh? Most guys just want their dick sucked,” I joke weakly.
Gods… what is wrong with me? The panic is sending pure nonsense to my mouth with zero filter.
The male in the center—the cocoa aficionado—chuckles and steps closer to me as if he has now determined that I’m completely harmless. I shrink away from him, my fingers curling tighter around my cup.
I know I am—quite literally—dead meat. But since I can’t enjoy the dignity of just passing out, I’m not going to make it easy for them. And nothing makes a bull brave enough to come close than a bit of helplessness.
Cocoa Boy, with pale milky green wings, creeps closer with his girl, their clawed hands reaching for me. The needle-like hooks that slide out of their fingertips is nightmare fuel, but I’m holding my ground while doing the best cower I can manage. At least Badass is staying back and letting his buddies have all the fun. Readying myself, I take my opportunity the moment there’s an opening.
With a bellow that I hope would make Xena the Warrior Princess proud, I hurl the boiling contents of my cup into Cocoa Boy’s face as I bring the mug around and smash it into the nose of the nightshade diva with all of my strength. I allow myself half a second to take pleasure in their screams of pain, but it doesn’t keep me from booking it out of the kitchen with Badass right on my tail. His furious roar sounds like it’s straight from a lion, as the louder rattle-snap of his wings rises around me.
Craning my head around, I nearly come unglued when I see that he’s half-flying after me with bursts from his wings in the confined space of my condo. This motherfucker is gaining—and fast!
Looping around the sofa, I can feel the tears of desperation stinging my eyes.
“Eliph!” I shriek. “Where the fuck are you?”
The collision of the fairy’s body with mine knocks me to the ground. The air bursts out of my lungs, and I can’t even draw enough breath to say anything, much less scream with the terror overwhelming me. The panicked gallop of my heartbeat and the rush of blood in my ears is an unwelcome accompaniment to Badass’s laughter as his claws tear deep into my arm. The wet sluice of blood running down my arm makes my stomach churn, and a violent tremor shakes me when he leans down close to my face and licks the drops of blood from his claws.
His eyes close in ecstasy—and then widen in shock as the front door is blown in.
Turning my head, I catch a glimpse of white hooves before that sweet unconsciousness that I prayed for finally takes hold of me.
“About fucking time,” I whisper, and pass the hell out.
Chapter 9
Eliph
I am nearly to her block when I hear her panicked shout snap through my magic to echo in my mind, and it spurs me on in a mindless race over the remaining distance. I can’t say how fast I am running, but I feel the tightening of Grimsal’s hands in my mane and hear his shouted curse.
Yet even that is filtered through a haze of urgency. The only thing I’m truly aware of is the road beneath my hooves that changes to carpeted halls when I duck inside the building, in the process startling a human who opened the door in an attempt to exit. They gape after me as I charge sure-footed up the stairs.
“Sorry about that!” Grimsal shouts back at them and nearly falls when, upon reaching the landing of the second floor, I swerve to the right and rear up to take out my ahandral’s door.
Lowering my head, I blast the wood with powerful streams of magic against the door, weakening it just before my hooves strike home. The crack of wood tearing apart is more like an explosion as the door bursts inward. I send out a dampening field directly after it to slow the projectiles so the fragments drop to the ground harmlessly just inside. I’m glad I think to do so because