Page 103 of Protector

His feet kicked wildly at the air beneath him, but his eyes stayed on mine, and I was sure that if he weren’t gasping like a fish out of water, his lips would’ve been curled up in a cocky smirk.

In one move, he’d taken away my power, and in a rage, I forced the blade out through the back of his neck before punching it through the side, silencing him.

His head fell to his shoulder at an unnatural angle and even Carnage stepped back with raised palms. “Holy shit, Celia! He said to let you handle it, but I didn’t—fuck!”

I resisted the urge to sink the blade into his flesh again… to taunt his corpse with whispers of how soft he was and how easy it had been to rip him apart. I wanted to tell him his threats meant nothing; that Death had already come for me on a bathroom floor ten years ago.

It was over, but we were still no closer to finding Cobra. On top of that, if what Hawk had said was true, there was now a mysterious Saint to add to our list.

The room suddenly plunged into darkness, and I stumbled back, no longer comfortable with being anywhere near a corpse. Despite my strict Catholic upbringing, I was convinced that Hawk’s spirit had already escaped hell and was back to torment me.

“Carnage?” I whispered.

“That wasn’t me. Wait here, and I’ll see if we tripped a breaker.”

“Okay.” I didn’t want to be left alone but didn’t know how to voice my paranormal concerns to a biker who’d just watched me nearly take a guy’s head off without breaking a sweat.

I listened to him feeling his way back to the door before he let out a startled, “The fuck?” There was a brief struggle and then the sound of something heavy falling to the concrete.

“Carnage?” I whispered with a growing sense of dread.

“No, Ma,” a voice whispered back, and chills raced across my skin. It sounded just like Manny.

I pulled air into my lungs and lowered myself into a crouch, wondering again why I’d insisted Jamie let me do this on my own. I couldn’t defend myself from something I couldn’t see.

The back of my boot connected with a metal pipe, sending it rolling across the floor, clearly giving away my position. The attacker’s body collided with mine before I had a chance to move and we both went down hard on the concrete.

He wasn’t heavy like I’d expected and even when his arm went around my throat, I easily escaped. It soon became apparent that he’d had some martial arts training when he shifted and took my legs out from under me before trying again. Clearly, we were at a stalemate until one of us tired.

I was no longer afraid.

I was furious.

His pants of exertion became more pronounced the longer it went on, but neither one of us was giving up. My fingers brushed against the handle of my knife as I went down for what felt like the fiftieth time, and I grabbed it before driving the blade into his thigh with a roar.

“Fuck!” he cried out sharply. “You fuckin’ stabbed me!”

I flipped onto his back and jerked his head toward me just as the lights came on again.

“Rick?”

“Nah, my ma calls me Little Ricky after Lucy’s kid inI Love Lucy,” he groaned in response as Carnage stumbled over, holding on to the side of his head.

“He hurt you, Celia?”

I shook my head and rolled back to the floor. “I’m okay.”

“Celia?” Rick cried out. “Oh, fuck! You gonna tell my ma about this? I swear I didn’t know it was you. They said there was no one here… said I just had to free the guy and get out—”

Carnage yanked him up. “Who sent you?”

“My—my boys.”

Ignoring the pain in my hip, I got back to my feet and faced him. “Why would they send a nineteen-year-old kid in here? Have you thought about that? It’s because you’re expendable. How could you turn on the club that raised you?”

He shook his head. “Nah, my ma—” his breath cut off in another groan. “My ma raised me.”

“And you’re just going to ignore Bear, who’s probably headed this way because Grey has eyes everywhere?”

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