“Checkmate,” I muttered. “She didn’t try to stop me from taking you because this was where they wanted you.”
“And they knew I’d come to help,” Crash said.
I thought of the card I’d pulled at Annie’s. The devil card, the one of ego and temptation, of the death of friends and relationships. Of danger and choices.
The choice to take on the job Grimm offered. The choice not to tell Crash, who would have known better than to take it on. The choice to come here without Corb. To find Crash first, then free my friends.
I stood a little taller, owning those choices, because right or wrong, I had made them. I stared at Grimm, feeling a connection to the ground below me and the dead who were there. The sensation reminded me of what I felt at the graveyard, the cooling power of the dead calming me and strengthening me. “What are the rules for this fight?”
Derek grinned, showing off slightly yellow, sharp, crooked teeth. “No rules. Use the weapons you have. To the death.”
Now here’s the thing. A young woman might have thought she’d be all flashy and show off moves, impress the guy who lit her panties on fire with his touch. I just wanted to get this done as quickly and efficiently as possible. I had a list about ten miles long and not enough hours in the day to get it done.
I adjusted the bag on my hip. A finger tapped on my back, hard and bony.
I turned and slid the bag off and put it over Robert’s head, a move which produced a series of gasps. Of course, for most of them, it would look like the bag had just disappeared. “Robert, you keep this safe until the fight is over.”
“Friend,” he muttered and tapped his finger against my chest, over my heart. “Use.”
Use my heart? I gave him a nod. “I’ll do my best.”
Robert tucked his hand into the hip bag and pulled out something, lifted my hand and pressed that something into my palm. I curled my fingers over the cool metal coin. “Use,” he said softly.
I tucked it into my back pocket. What the hell was a coin going to do, and why was it in my bag in the first place? He must have grabbed it before he pushed me out of the window of the Sorrel-Weed house.
I did a slow turn to look over the sea of goblins in the stands, but it was Davin who drew my eyes. The Silver Lady was still floating in and around him, drawing energy off his stupid ass if the dark circles under his eyes were any indication.
The hotel . . . the Silver Lady had said there was a vampire in the Marshall House. The family tree had a spell to bring a vampire plague back, but what did the coin have to do with it?
Crash moved a little off from me, giving us both distance and breaking my line of thoughts as I worked furiously to put the puzzle pieces together. “When this over, we’ll need to talk,” he said in a low voice.
Oh, I did not like the sound of that. “Yeah? You kicking me out of the house? Breaking things off with me?”
I said it all flippant like because . . . well, it was the worst thing I could think of on top of how this day was already going. Only the look on his face said maybe I wasn’t far off. Damn it.
Son of a bitch. Maybe I really was going from two hotties to nothing in one day. Hell, in a few short hours.
I faced Derek, the goblin king. He grinned at me. “I will face you, little mutt.”
“No,” Crash growled, and then Davin stepped up across from him.
There was no sound of a gong to start things. One second the four of us stood across from each other, the next Davin and Crash were locked up with all sorts of magic flowing around them.
I wrenched my eyes away from the show they were putting on, from the slurs Davin threw at Crash.
The goblin king tipped his head to one side. “I’m going to crush you.”
“Says the guy who’s the size of a bug.” I flipped my knives around so the blades pressed flat against my forearms. The adrenaline roaring through me smothered some of my fear, reminding me that, whatever Alan thought, I was trained to fight. To keep Savannah and my friends safe.
I sunk into that feeling and let out a slow breath as Derek and I began to circle each other. His teeth glittered at me. “I have killed many of your kind. I helped wipe them out.”
“Women? You killed many women? I mean, I’ve heard that being turned down a lot can make a man vicious.” I kept my stance balanced as we moved.
He shot forward, his claws outstretched and his teeth bared like a wild animal. I sidestepped, stuck a foot out and sent him tumbling end over end. He hit the ground hard, rolling through the dirt.
The crowd laughed.
I didn’t join them. From the other side of me, I heard a grunt from Crash. I wanted to make sure he was okay, and hell, I needed to see if Davin was sneaking up on me. A quick glance showed me that they’d moved farther from me and Derek, and there was no obvious strong man in the competition between them.
“You bitch,” Derek growled. “You tried to humiliate me on purpose in front of my people.”
I shook my head. “Actually, you ran at me. I protected myself, and you took a dive in the dirt. That’s really on you.”
He snarled and his face twisted, skin bubbling and pulsing. The crowd oohed, but Bridgette’s voice that cut through the rest. “He shifting into a dark goblin! Run!”
“RUN? Where?” I lifted my hands and indicated the very closed-off arena we were in.
Bridgette had pushed her way to the front tier of the crowd. “You have to kill him, kill him now!”
“HOW?” I yelled back.
“Cut off his balls!” she screeched.
I turned to see the goblin king had sprung up like a weed after a rainstorm. He’d gone from being four feet tall to having a massive twelve-foot frame bulging with muscle. He was naked as the day was long, and his . . . well, his bits were hanging low.
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?”
“Yes, it’s the only soft spot on his hide now,” she yelled, and the crowd around her yanked her off the front line. The only soft spot? Of course it was.
Jaysus lawd in heaven, this was going to be gross. The now monstrous goblin king took a step toward me and the reverberation rolled through the ground and into the soles of my feet. Fear kissed the back of my neck, reminding me that despite all the things I’d been through, all the shit I’d had to deal with, I wanted to live.
Which meant I had to be smart about this. I had to outsmart this big ducking goblin.
25
Outsmarting a goblin? All I had to do was piss him off enough that he would make a mistake and give me an opening. That being said, I was still standing with him in a fighting ring, and hoping I could take him down before I got killed or maimed.
No problem, irritating men was a gift of mine.
“I talked to your girlfriend,” I said, loud enough that the crowd could hear me. “She said you couldn’t get it up again last night.” I made a motion to his man bits, and he roared as the crowd howled with laughter.
So much for any sort of solidarity amongst thieves. Or goblins, as was the case. Big dumb Derek let out a roar that rattled my ears and literally sent me shuffling back a few steps.
Crash yelled something at me, but I couldn’t hear him through the ringing in my ears.
“Did you tell your wife yet that you have a girlfriend?” I asked.