“You shouldn’t be here,” the fox girl said, showcasing her pointy little teeth. She’d been spending too much time in her animal form. It was starting to bleed into the human. “You have brought unease to our sanctuary. The Four roam the mountains around us, and you pack around with another set of quads. You must leave.”
The Four were here, in Romania! Shit! Another awesome piece of news to add to my shit-cake of a day. Would December hurry up and fuck off already, it was turning out to be my least favorite month. Supernaturals don’t celebrate Christmas, that was a human tradition, but even if we did there wasn’t anything jolly going on right now.
The male fox distracted me from my thoughts. “You must leave!”
I raised my right eyebrow. “And if I don’t?” It wasn’t a blatant challenge, but it was close. I hadn’t really scented aggression from them. I was pretty sure they’d just followed me as a warning, but I was in the right sort of mood to push them.
The three took a step closer, barely five feet between us. “Then we will make you.” Finally the vampire got to speak, and compared to Maximus this guy’s balls hadn’t even dropped. It was as if he was trying really hard to deepen his voice to that scary octave which the quads were kings at. He missed it by about a mile.
I pushed aside thoughts of my vamp, now wasn’t the time to drown in heartache. I was ready to work off some of the anger which was riding me like a mermaid in a seaweed storm. I slowed my breathing, taking a few moments to size up my opponents. The chick was the leader, and the one I was most wary of. When you’re smaller than most supes, you had to rely less on strength and more on developing skills. Something told me she had some mad skills.
The three of them exchanged a glance; an unspoken something passed between them. They somehow mutually agreed on an order, and the vampire came at me first, gliding over. A vamp’s speed is their greatest asset. But shifters were fast also.
He flew straight at me, fangs bared, hands aloft. Definitely untrained. I took two steps and after a combo one-two hook, smacked him straight in the nose. Cartilage fractured under my fist, but I didn’t stop there, turning with a spinning heel kick and cracking him in the jaw. As he hit the ground, I was over the top of him and had his left arm twisted behind. The distinct crack of bone breaking echoed through the silent alley.
He let out a whimpering scream. What a bitch.
I dropped my knee into his temple and just like that he was out cold.
Bouncing back to my feet I eyed the other two waiting their turn. “That was fun,” I said, not even remotely out of breath. “Next…” I smiled, and the fox male almost took a step back. I must be wearing a hell of an expression right now.
I assumed he would come at me next and I wasn’t wrong. He strolled closer. The fox was all long lean lines, but I could see lithe muscles in his lengthy limbs. His eyes were dark, almost a gray and his hair orange, like a carrot, which I’d guess was also the color of his animal’s fur. Generally, that’s how it worked.
He was less bouncy and eager than the vamp, and hopefully equally skill-less. But something told me it wasn’t going to be quite as easy. Standing motionless, all of a sudden he leapt for me, trying for the take-me-by-surprise plot. Sigh. Amateur.
I sidestepped the first swing and he tried to counter with a backwards kick to my gut. I saw it coming from a mile away. Using the narrow walls I gained height by running up the stone, launching myself off the side and landing a massive Superman punch on his jaw. He smashed back into the wall behind, and I followed, landing in a crouch over his body.
The fox tried to wiggle back to his feet, but he must have been seeing stars because his movements were jerky and he ended up falling down again. I sensed footsteps and knew the female was going to come at me while I was occupied with the male. With this in mind I swung my left elbow into his face, I heard bone crack, and since I’m not a healer I could only guess that I’d broken his jaw. He didn’t move again.
I pushed both hands onto his chest, and using his ribs for leverage flipped myself backwards into another crouch. The shock on fox bitch’s face flashed in the dim light. Yes, I had some mad skills too, let’s just hope they were enough.
I could tell that she hadn’t expected me to move so quickly; however her recovery was admirable. Her footsteps were swift, short brown hair bouncing on her shoulders.
I tried to slow my rapid pulse so I could focus on what was coming at me. Her movements were smoother than the males. She’d had training. I brought both of my hands up to guard my face. This was going to get interesting.
Two steps in and she swung a left-right-left-cross combo at my face. I ducked the first and blocked the second, before countering with my own combo. Which she managed to block. She had fast hands, really fast. I decided to change strategies. Just because she was good with her hands didn’t mean she could grapple. I needed to get her to the ground.
When she came at me again, I waited until the last second and let her punch graze me before dropping to the floor and smashing her in the stomach. She wheezed as the air left her lungs, then I wrapped myself around her legs and took her down. Her head smashed into the stone floor, and I swear I heard that dull echoing hit of skull on cement all the way into my bones. I hated that wet, bouncing sound. It turned my stomach.
She got her elbows under herself, trying to arch up and flip me off her. It wasn’t happening today. I smashed both knees into her chest and she hit the deck again. Her eyes rolled back in her head. I waited for her to react, but she looked to be out. Guess I needed to downgrade her skills from mad to mediocre. I pulled myself wearily to my feet. Now that my adrenalin and anger had been worked off, I was feeling every inch of the exhaustion which was about to level me.