The living room, complete with wood paneling and old green-fabric couches, was covered in gun magazines, metal and rock posters, and racks and racks of weapons. Most of them weren’t magical, but a few were on par with Fezzik.
In a far corner stood what looked like a liquor cabinet, but one door was cracked open to reveal boxes of ammunition. They gave off a faint magical signature. Interestingly, they were sealed, as if they had been shipped here rather than made in-house. Did the brothers get their weapons and ammo from someone else and then resell them?
“That’s what we’ll find out,” Kurt called back. “If you can tear yourself away from your work.”
As I followed him deep into the house, I peeked into a kitchen and dining room that had been converted into an office overflowing with boxes and papers. He led me down the single hallway, past two bedrooms that were messier than my apartment had been after the ransacking, and to a room with a couch and a TV.
Inside was another magical being, one that looked enough like Kurt to be his twin. He was playing video games from the couch, his shirt off and corn chips dusting the cushions next to him. Only slovenly magical shifters could eat like that and have the hard muscled bodies of fitness-magazine models.
In addition to the corn chips, there were boxes of cartridges and empty magazines. He was probably supposed to be loading them when he wasn’t too busy playing his game. So far, it looked like more cartridges had fallen onto the floor than made it into magazines. They oozed magic similar to what had been in the cabinet out front. The magic seemed no more powerful than what Nin made for Fezzik, and I doubted the bullets could puncture a dragon hide.
“I could tear myself away for her any time.” The brother—Otto, presumably—paused his game and gave me a long leer as his brother stepped aside.
I still had Fezzik in hand and planned to keep the gun there.
Ignoring their leers, I tried to identify and locate the third magical being I sensed. The aura was muted, and I struggled to guess what species it belonged to.
Before, I had thought the person might be out back, but it felt like he or she was under us. Maybe there was a basement. Or at least some pit that had been dug out after the mobile home had been installed. But how did one get down there? I hadn’t seen stairs on my way in.
“She’s interested in our guns.” Kurt smirked again.
“Oh yeah? Mine’s always loaded.” Otto rubbed his cock through his jeans.
Negotiating was going to be futile. I could tell. I was starting to wish I’d driven by, tossed a Molotov cocktail on the roof, and gone to buy lotions and potpourri at the farmers market.
“Where’s the showroom?” I pointed at the faded gray rug. “Basement?”
“The showroom is right here,” Otto purred, shifting to his feet, his hand still on his junk.
“There’s nothing in this room that can slay dragons.”
“Don’t be too sure about that.” Kurt smirked and reached for me, his hand moving more quickly than a normal human’s would.
But I was used to dealing with that kind of speed. I caught his wrist before he could touch me, and glared into his eyes. “Oh, I’m sure.”
Not surprisingly, he wasn’t daunted. He smirked wider, as if pleased with the development.
“The Ruin Bringer doesn’t want to have some fun before making a purchase?” Otto asked. “That’s disappointing. Maybe we could give her a discount if she spends the day with us.”
“You ever do two guys at once, pretty girl?” Kurt asked. “Or maybe a man and a panther?”
He shifted, his wrist melting out of my grip as he transformed into a large black panther. My feline guess had been right.
As he shifted, I took the opportunity to touch my cat figurine and summon Sindari. I would fight two on one if I had to, but if these guys were as strong as their auras suggested, I wouldn’t walk away unscathed. Evening the odds made sense, and Sindari always enjoyed a fight.
“I can’t say that I have,” I said as Sindari materialized in the hallway behind me. “Do you actually have urges and find humans attractive in that form? I’ve heard that shifters are only attracted to what they’ve shifted into.”
“Not necessarily true.” Otto strolled closer, coming up to rest a hand on Kurt’s feline back. “We’ve hosted some killer parties here and experimented a lot.”
Kurt’s long black tail swished in the air and then demonstrated some possibilities for those who drifted toward bestiality. Otto laughed uproariously.
What were the odds that I could get any decent information out of them? Or think of a way to convince them to leave Nin alone?
“Put away your tail, furball.” I took a last stab. “I want to see one of these dragon-slaying guns. I’ve had run-ins with a dragon lately. I’m a serious buyer.”
“Later,” Otto purred, loosening his belt and stepping forward.
“If you sell something good to me, maybe I’ll put the word out to others. Then you won’t need to threaten other people in your industry.”
Kurt’s tail stopped swishing, and he stared at me, speaking telepathically. Other people in the industry can either join us and work under us, or they can get the hell out of the city. Did she send you here?
“Stay away from her.” The protective part of me regretted bringing up Nin, but I had come to convince them to leave her alone. With as much ice in my tone as I could manage, I added, “Or you’ll deal with me.”
“We’ll deal with you now. Pleasure before business.” Otto’s gaze flicked past my arm toward the hallway. They must have sensed and smelled Sindari’s appearance right away, but neither seemed concerned. “Your cat can play too. I don’t suppose that’s a female?”
Kurt’s tail went back to swishing suggestively.
We’re going to have a fight, Sindari.
I assumed so from the lewd tail gestures.
Do you want to handle the panther while I tangle with the human?
That seems right. Excuse me while I inform them that I am not female and that even if I were, I would rather hump a tree than some second-rate feline.
That must have been a brief conversation, because both brothers snarled, their voices surprisingly similar given their different vocal cord construction at the moment.
“Pin her down,” Otto snarled. “I’ll take care of the pussycat.”
The panther sprang for me.
8
The panther was so close that I wouldn’t normally have had time to react, but since Otto’s big mouth had issued a warning, I was ready. When Kurt’s paws left the ground, I dropped into a crouch and dove under him and into the room, rolling and yanking out Chopper as he sailed above me.
Sindari roared and leaped, meeting Kurt in the doorway. As I jumped to my feet, Otto threw a punch at my face.
I blocked with my free arm, angling it to deflect a blow that came in like a battering ram. At the same time, I lunged in with Chopper, slashing at the shifter’s bare chest.
Otto leaped back with the speed of a cat, and my blade sliced through air. It gave me time to back farther into the room, put a wall at my back, and give myself more room to swing. Otto shifted form, turning into a huge black panther, muscles rippling under his sleek flesh.
As snarls and growls filled the hallway, Sindari and Kurt biting and clawing at each other, we faced off. Otto sprang, a paw slashing for my eyes.
Aware of the couch to one side, I glided to the other. I feinted, as if I meant to cut off his paw, then shifted the blade mid-swing and changed targets. As he was busy jerking his paw out of the way, Chopper sliced upward toward his belly and vulnerable internal organs. Otto tried to twist in the air as he landed, raking his back claws at me.
My sword gave me the reach to avoid them while cutting into fur and flesh. It wasn’t a deep wound, and Otto didn’t cry out. As soon as he landed, he whirled to face me again. But shifters were always fast. I wasn’t fazed. It would be a battle of attrition; it often was.
This time, Otto ran straight toward me instead of springing into the air. White fangs dripped saliva, and his intent was clear: he meant to ram me against the TV stand and sink his teeth into my neck.
I didn’t dodge. With speed and strength I thanked the father I’d never met for, I slammed a straight kick into his chest as I thrust with Chopper, aiming the point into the panther’s open maw.
The ball of my foot struck with the blade, driving Otto backward as I gouged the side of his face—he whipped his head aside before the blade could sink into his throat. Bleeding, he jerked away and backed up. Fury glowed in his yellow eyes, and he sank low, looking like he would spring again.
But as he met my gaze, he threw a mental attack at me, one I hadn’t expected from a shifter. They were known more for brute force and magical regenerative powers than psionic finesse.
Power raked at my mind, evoking pain as if he were using physical claws on my brain. An image forced itself into my thoughts, one of me dropping to my hands and knees and letting the brothers have their way with me.
Though startling, it was a clumsy attack. I walled off my mind, pushing the pain and the crude images away. Even without Chopper and its assistance with repelling mental threats, I could have fought this idiot off.
He leaped for me again, coming straight in. Did he expect me to be so stunned by his mental attack that I wouldn’t be ready?
I had plenty of time to spring to the side and swing Chopper at his neck.
More coming, Val, Sindari warned from the hallway.
The announcement startled me, and my blade sliced into Otto’s shoulder instead of his neck. It struck bone and glanced off.
Otto crashed into the TV. I would have laughed when it hit the wall, then fell forward, glass shattering all over him, but I abruptly grew aware of more magical auras in the area. Four. No, six. Allies to the brothers?
A couple of them were coming from the direction of the river, but others were running down the street from the entrance of the neighborhood. And they were coming fast. Even as I finished counting to six, more magical beings surged into range of my senses. Ten? They were all similar to Otto and Kurt, shifters of one kind or another.