Page 120 of Phoenix Falling
“Sounds to me like you’ve got a screw loose.” I sighed as if he was the most tedious male I’d ever dealt with. “Are we gonna fight or shoot the breeze until my twin gets here?”
His eyes flashed, lighting the tunnel as his sword swung my way. I danced backward.
“You can’t tell me that’s the best you’ve got.”
“Your mouth is always getting you into trouble, Lyris.”
“Not today, it’s not.”
He swung again, and we traded blows for a long while. I had just spun around to strike again when a shout echoed through the halls. “No!”
I jerked my head in that direction. Risk!
Pain shot through my side. Damn rookie mistake! “I—”
Without warning, a dagger slid between my ribs. Shit!
I fell back onto the hard floor. Blood rose in my throat. I choked.
“Demetri!”
Jacob knelt over me, satisfaction oozing from his pores. “What do you think, Lyris? Should I spare you?” His gaze ran over me. “You could recover. Would you be willing to be my mate if it meant you could live?”
Oddly enough, after that first strike, my body went numb. I couldn’t feel the pain, couldn’t seem to move myself away from Jacob, but I could feel my resolve. I focused there. “Go to hell!”
“I’m almost there, Lyris. Hold on for me, Valkyrie.”
“I don’t think he’ll let me.”
Jacob leaned closer. Grinning, he pulled the dagger from my side. When I choked again, I sprayed blood across his face.
He rubbed it into his skin. “I always knew I’d have you under my thumb one way or the other, Lyris.”
“You mean you always had delusions of grandeur,” I grated out. I should probably keep my mouth shut, but something in Jacob’s eyes told me he had no intention of letting me live. Maybe I’d convinced him I would never be with him willingly. Maybe his bloodlust was finally getting the better of him. I didn’t know, no longer cared. It was okay. I’d lived a long life. The only thing I regretted was leaving my twin behind. But he had Imogen now. He wouldn’t go on alone.
Jacob traced fingers down my cheek, along my bottom lip. Without warning, he shoved two fingers into my mouth. “I always wondered what it would be like to fuck you here.”
Narrowing my eyes up at him, I bit down on his fingers with everything I had, crunching through cartilage and even bone. When he pulled his hand back, screaming, two nubs stuck up from his knuckles.
I spit the useless fingers out of my mouth before I gagged on them. “That’s what it would have been like.”
It was getting harder to breathe.
Jacob’s screams filled me with satisfaction. I wondered if Demetri could hear them. I wondered if my females were on the other side of the door down the hall, frightened, listening. Jacob would go for them next. There was no way I could allow that to happen.
He flipped the dagger in his hand, brought it down hard, through the hollow of my shoulder, pinning me to the ground. “You’ll regret that,” he ground out.
“I…” Where was all the air? “Doubt it.” I wouldn’t have time. He’d make certain of it.
“Demetri.”Everything was turning black.“I’m sorry.”
“No, damn it! You’re not leaving me!”
“Keep safe. Imogen… He said…because of Imogen.”
“What?”
I didn’t answer. My energy was leaking from me like a sieve. Instead I concentrated on tightening my fist around the hilt of my sword. The arm closest to Jacob, the one he’d pinned, was barely movable, but he wasn’t the only one carrying a backup. Feeling around the belt at my waist, I found the hilt of another dagger.
