Page 83 of Golden Eagle

The crowd shouted.

The emcee scrambled into the cage, panicked. “Hey, hey, hey, man! You can’t kill the guy! Jesus!”

“No–” Trina started, unheard, as the rat-faced man grabbed at Lanny’s shoulder.

For one awful moment, she thought he might kill the emcee. Coiled, snarling, feral-eyed, he whirled around, getting his feet under him, popping upright and leaning down into the man’s face. Blood on his knuckles, blood spray in an arc across his face.

He looked like something from a horror movie, impossible and terrible under the harsh lights.

“Lanny,” she shouted, standing.

He froze. Mouth open, panting, slick chest heaving. Stared at the man he’d almost struck, fist still cocked back. Then he came back to himself, wild-eyed a moment. She could see the thought cross his mind:oh no. All his powerful grace abandoned him, and he staggered back a step, nearly tripping over his felled opponent. Dredged up a smile awful in its brittle insincerity.

The emcee stared at him a moment, then brought out his own pretend smile. “Shit, dude.” He laughed. “You’re insane! Come here!” He stepped over the other vamp, and grabbed Lanny’s wrist, twisted back toward the audience and lifted a bloodied fist overhead. “Ladies and gentlemen!” he crowed. “Do we put on a show here, or do we put on a show?”

The crowd cheered, delighted and bloodthirsty.

Trina let out a long, deep exhale. A shiver stole through her, and it turned into full-body tremors.

Some of the fury was bleeding back in. That idiot; risking his job, his identity as a human being, and for what? The thrill of punching someone? Proving he was stronger than regular men? Was he really that shallow?

But a portion of the shaking was fear; God, he’d been murderous. Impossible.

And some of the shakes were shame, because all that murderous, impossible energy had turned her on, and she wasn’t proud of that.

“Fuck,” Nik said beside her, going suddenly tense.

Sasha made a wolf-like whuff of inquiry, and then cursed softly in Russian.

Then she saw it.

Lanny had beat the ever-loving shit out of his opponent, but he’d been fighting a vampire, and not a human. A human would have been hospital-bound. But this vampire turned his bloody head on the mat, and his hand latched onto Lanny’s ankle.

She sucked in a breath.

Nik surged to his feet, and went to the gate of the cage in a few long leaps.

Trina stood, the shakes threatening to take her out at the knees. She’d never felt this surge of fear, apprehension, and nerves all at once, not even while chasing down a suspect. This wasn’t her own life at risk, but Lanny’s. And Nik’s.

Nik, who shoved his way into the cage just as Lanny got pulled down, dragging the emcee with him. They went down in a tangle, and then the other vamp, roaring, clambered on top of Lanny, ready to strike.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion after that.

Lanny reached up for the other vamp’s eyes with curled fingers. Kneed him in the gut hard enough to draw a quick, pained inhale, but not enough to throw him off.

Nikita reached them. Grabbed the emcee by one flailing arm and lifted him up, flung him away like a doll, toward the gate without a backward glance. Then he reached for Lanny’s opponent.

He caught him in the crook of the elbow, where it was drawn back behind him, Latched on tight, and pulled.

Nikita was six-feet, easy, and not scrawny by any means…but he was slender. Under his denim jacket, he had a wasp waist, and his skinny jeans gave truth to the fact that he didn’t eat enough. Lanny’s opponent – now Nik’s – was massive. Trina had the sense that, two to one, this would still be a close fight.

But then Nik reminded her of what had happened the one time he and Lanny had faced off, the day Lanny had pummeled Alexei into a bloody pulp.

Nikita tugged, and the giant vampire toppled backward, off balance, landing at Nik’s feet, staring up at him in shock. Before he could gather himself, Nikita grabbed his square jaw in one hand, and squeezed, knuckles going white with the effort.

The vampire’s mouth opened on a pained gasp, and Nikita gripped tighter. The vamp’s legs kicked, and he reached up to claw at Nikita’s wrist.

Nikita leaned down, and snarled something too quiet for her to hear. When he straightened, it was with one fast, fluid movement, and he brought the other vampire with him.Threwhim over his shoulder like so much garbage.

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