“First, you turn to the camera and promise not to use any magic,” said the loudmouthed thug.
“Fine,” I said, impatience straining my voice. I looked at the thug with the phone and declared loudly, “I, Leda Pandora, Angel of Chaos, swear not to use any magic whatsoever as I thoroughly kick these hoodlums’ sorry asses.”
One of the thugs rushed at me, but his loudmouthed leader held him back. “Save it for the fight.”
The eager thug glared at me, and I blew him a kiss.
“Now, you,” the thug leader told Gypsy.
“All right,” she replied. “But I’m not kissing him on the lips.”
“Not the kiss,” growled the thug leader. “You need to turn to the camera and promise not to use any magic.”
Gypsy laughed, and she didn’t stop laughing until she was nearly out of breath. “I’m not a supernatural, you idiot. I’m every bit as human as you are. The only difference between us is my stellar good looks. Oh, and the fact that I’m not a moron.”
“Those are fighting words,” grumbled one of the thugs.
“Yeah, because we’re about to fight.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Unless you’re backing down.”
“Never.”
“Good.” Gypsy waved Grumbling Thug forward. “Then bring it on.”
The big, bald thug tried to attack me, but Angel darted between his feet and tripped him over.
And as he hit the ground, Leader Thug roared, “What the hell are you doing, you idiot?! How could you allow yourself to be taken down by a cat?!”
But the tumble had knocked out Big, Bald Thug. I started to laugh.
Grumbling Thug gaped at Angel, who was celebrating her victory by grooming her face.
“The cat isn’t supposed to fight. She didn’t promise not to use magic,” Grumbling Thug complained.
“She’s a cat, numbskull,” snapped Leader Thug. “She can’t talk or use magic.”
“Oh, right.” Grumbling Thug scratched his head.
“They’re so dumb, I almost feel bad that we’re going to totally kick their asses,” Gypsy commented to me.
Eager Thug grinned at her. “Don’t count your turkeys before they hatch, honey.”
Gypsy laughed. “It’s chickens, not turkeys, you big turkey.”
Eager Thug’s smile soured, and he swung a punch at her. She evaded and aimed a solid kick at his knee. The thug must have been smarter than he looked because he easily blocked her kick.
By now, I was busy fighting Grumbling Thug, so I couldn’t follow the play-by-play of Gypsy’s fight, but I did notice she was favoring strikes to her opponent’s knee. It wasn’t a bad idea. If she did manage to land one, she could knock him out of the fight.
So far, she wasn’t having much luck, but I had an idea of how I could help her.
“Switch?” I asked her.
The slow curl of her lips told me she knew what I was up to. “Love to.”
We crossed paths and each aimed for the other’s opponent. Gypsy landed a strike to Grumbling’s knee, and I took Eager down with a blow to the head. Since Grumbling had guarded high against me and Eager had guarded low against her, it worked perfectly. They’d been too slow to realize we’d switched opponents. Eager Thug fell unconscious on top of Big, Bald Thug, and Grumbling limped off, clutching his knee.
I turned to find our last opponent. Angel was keeping Leader Thug at bay with some scrappy cat fighting.
“You damn devil cat!” he hissed at her.
As he swooped down to grab her, she flicked both paws across the ground and hit him with a face full of dirt. Then, while the thug was lumbering around blind, she leapt onto his back and sank her claws into him. He jumped with a yelp and nearly collided with Camera Thug.
“Leda, you have the coolest cat I’ve ever seen,” laughed Gypsy.
The youngest thug leaned down and waved his phone in front of his gang leader’s blinking face. “I got it all on camera, boss. Just like you said.”
Growling, Leader Thug grabbed the telephone and smashed it against the ground. He shot us all a look of pure loathing, then he turned and ran away. Camera Thug picked up the shattered remains of his phone, his eyes wide. He stood there for a moment, staring at us like he wasn’t sure where this had all gone so horribly wrong. Angel trotted over to him and let out a low hiss. The thug jumped into the air in fright, then scurried off after his leader.
“And don’t come back, you big bullies!” Gypsy shouted out after them. Her gaze slid across the two unconscious thugs on the ground, then up to me. “Leda, girl, I’ve never known an angel to fight like that.”
“We aren’t supposed to fight like that,” Harker said with a long-suffering sigh.
Mischief danced in Gypsy’s eyes. “Want to wake them up so we can do it again?” Her gaze flickered to the sleeping thugs, then back to me.
I chuckled. “Maybe another time. I have work to do.”
I really liked Gypsy. She reminded me a lot of how I’d been back in my bounty hunter days. A wave of nostalgia washed over me. Sometimes, I really missed those days. The days before the Legion. Before magic and politics. Before angels and gods and demons, and all the drama that came with them.
Gypsy glanced at the two frozen elementals on the ground. “Looks like they tried to flee this storm but couldn’t get away.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “But who killed them?”
“Carver Spellsword,” she said unexpectedly.
“Who?”
“Carver Spellsword,” she repeated. “He’s a rogue dark angel.”
The name sounded familiar.
“There was a Legion notice about him recently,” Harker told me.
“What did it say?” I asked him.
“The usual. He’s considered highly dangerous. Capture alive if possible, but do not hesitate to kill if there’s no other option.”
“Hmm.” I looked at Gypsy. “What makes you think Carver Spellsword is the person behind these killings?”
“I don’t know for sure,” she said. “It’s just that the style of the kills fits his profile. Spellsword enjoys dramatic irony. He would relish the idea of a supernatural being killed by their own kind of magic.”
Her fingers drummed across the pair of pistols holstered at her hips. She hadn’t tried to use them in the fight. That told me her moral code was strong enough that she followed the rules. And watching the way she fought had told me that within those rules, she’d take every advantage and utilize every dirty trick.
“I’ll be seeing you around, Leda Pandora,” Gypsy said with a curtsy and a wink.
“She reminds me a lot of you, Leda,” Harker said as we watched the bounty hunter walk away.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
Gypsy wasn’t afraid or intimidated by me, even though I was an angel. She talked to me like I was an actual, real-life person, not some high and lofty paragon to be worshipped and feared.
“Back when I was human, I was equally saucy to the first angel I met.” My smile wobbled at the memory.
“Nero,” said Harker.
“Nero,” I sighed.
Harker set his hand on my shoulder. “Leda, you need to resolve things with Nero. It hasn’t even been a day, and his mood is the foulest I’ve ever seen it. The longer Nero stews, the worse this will get. And an angel’s pain has a way of spreading to the rest of the world.”