Page 16 of Stuck with my Frenemy
“I have to get back. The bar is full. I just needed to warn you,” Ash muttered angrily, and after a few spat curses, the back door slammed closed.
The quiet felt oppressive with his absence, yet I stayed glued to the side of the building long enough that my legs started hurting. When I convinced myself that everything I heard in the one-sided conversation could have an explanation and I was overreacting, I pushed off the wall with a sigh and got my shit together. Okay, so Mr. Deep Voice was hiding something, and he warned his brother to be careful when we go there the next day. I should be happy that I heard it so I could form a plan to get through their lies and find out if they were indeed the idiots who stole from Thor. In their shoes, I’d rather deal with someone like me or Cherry because if the God of Thunder himself came to collect his weapon, both humans would decorate the inside of the bar in pieces. Lost in my turbulent thoughts, I didn’t hear the crunch of footsteps until it was too late.
“Look what we have here, Dean,” a human slurred much too close for comfort. “Hey sweetheart, do you need a hand there? Too much to drink?”
I backed away from the wall slowly as I turned to face the human who’d spoken. A spike of adrenaline stabbed through me at the sight of two of them blocking my way to the parking lot. They were quite tall with barreled chests, and their arms were as wide as my thighs. A quick assessment told me they were members of some club because they wore matching leather vests. No weapons were visible on their bodies, but the belly hanging over the belt of the one who’d opened his mouth could be hiding a knife or a gun for all I knew.
“I don’t need a hand, no.” He reached for me. “But you might lose yours if you touch me.”
“Uhhh, feisty.” I couldn’t see his face in the darkness, but I heard the grin in the tone of his voice. “Just how I like them. Right, Dean?”
“The harder they fight, John, the sweeter they are.” His buddy, Dean, sneered from behind him.
Trees blocked me on the right, and the side of the building on my left. Going to the back of the bar was out of the question in case Ash decided to call his brother again, and the two idiots stood between me and my way out of the damn place. Karma warned us not to give away our presence to the humans, or there would be repercussions, which meant I couldn’t shrivel them to husks with my magic regardless of how tempting the idea seemed.
“I’ll ask you once. Get out of my way, and I won’t have to break every bone in your bodies.” There, no one would say I didn’t ask nicely.
They laughed.
They both came at me at once. The one called John reached for me again while the other one stepped around him to make sure I didn’t try to squeeze between them. My hands wrapped around John’s wrist, and I twisted, bending his arm until his elbow popped in the wrong direction and the snapping of a bone shot through the air. His howl broke the silence, and my heart skipped a beat. If Ash heard them shouting and came to investigate, I’d be doomed. With that in mind, I punched the screaming human hard enough for his eyes to roll to the back of his head.
Dean must’ve had enough of me fighting back, so he barreled into me like a bull. His meaty shoulder slammed in my chest, and we hit the wall hard enough for all the oxygen to whoosh out of my lungs. When his hands pawed at my boobs in a stupid attempt to tear open my shirt, I lost it. Taking his head between my palms, I pulled him back, and the next second, my forehead connected to his nose. Blood gushed down his face, but unlike his friend, he didn’t scream. His fist cracked over the side of my jaw while he huffed his alcohol breath right at my face.
“You fucking bitch, you’ll pay for that.” The threat would’ve sounded scarier if it wasn’t nasally and slurred.
Shoving him off me earned me another fist, this one across my mouth, and my own blood dripped down my chin when my lip split open. With my back pressed to the side of the building, I lifted my leg and kicked the human in the chest, sending him crashing into the trees around us. His head smacked a trunk hard, and he landed in a heap at the roots.
“Damn humans,” I spat, dabbing the back of my hand over my busted lower lip. It stung like a bitch. “This shit better heal before I get back, or Cherry might have a coronary when she sees me.”
I supposed I could tell the fruit-loop that I fell off the bike, which she might believe judging by how afraid she was when riding it, but thinking of lying to her left a sour taste in my mouth. It was probably a concussion and not because I actually cared about what Cherry thought of me. Yeah, that was it.
With one last look around to make sure no one else had a death wish and wanted to come so I could take my anger out on them, I snatched an unconscious John by one leg and dragged him deep within the trees. After doing the same with his friend Dean—and not being very gentle about it—I positioned them so they’d think they fought each other when they woke. The tip of my tongue probed at my split lip so I could stay focused on the stinging pain as a last resort to keep me from lifting my face and screaming at the skies. I shouldn’t have been in this cursed realm in the first place. Instead, I had humans pawing at me and an idiot as a teammate.
When we met Ash’s brother the next day, I had to do something. Anything to send us back where we belonged. And if Cherry thought she could stop me from getting the hell out of here, I would crack her skull open when we found Thor’s hammer.
Not even Aphrodite’s daughter would survive a blow with that thing.
A dumb voice in my head called me a liar and said I would never do something like that to Cherry.
I stomped on it as hard as I could.
