Page 9 of Marked By the Dark Lord
The man next to him and opposite from me, the only one who refused to meet my gaze, wore a slick business suit clearly tailored to hide his rather frail body. No muscle at all.
To my right was a lithe, middle-aged male. He stared back at me, unblinking, while toying with a black bracelet around his right wrist. Blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail. He met my gaze without a quiver.
That one first, I decided mentally.
The one in front slowly turned in his chair. He wore tan pants and a red collared shirt with a lopsided grin that screamedfrat boy. It was, all in all, a very odd grouping to be playing poker.
Although there were no cards or chips on the table. Clearly, they hadn’t been doing that.
I listened to the room, every sound, then sighed as I pinned the leader in his seat with a gaze.
“The girl you have under the table, I can hear her heartbeat,” I growled, sniffing the air. “Not to mention, I can smell her fear from here. Give her over, and I won’t kill all of you.”
Bracelet chuckled at that. “I don’t think you realize where you are,” he said calmly, snapping his fingers.
Three more people came in from another room, including a woman who glared at me with hatred, entirely out of proportion for what I’d done. I’d never met her before, so she must just be eager to prove herself, I decided.
The room was starting to take on a reddish haze, and I grinned eagerly at what I knew was to come. A fight. Blood would be spilled. Bones would crunch, and death would permeate it all. It was what I lived for. My pants grew tighter as I thought about it, blood boiling, arousing me.
I would need to fuck something once I got home. Otherwise, I would never sleep. I hadn’t had a fight like that in some time. Seven of them. One of me.
It wouldn’t be fair, but I didn’t care.
“Last chance,” I said, reminding myself why I was there. It wasn’t just to kill. “Give up the girl, or I’ll rip the spine from each of you.”
“You aren’t welcome here,Fae,” Bracelet spat. “Leave us.”
I chuckled. “You underestimate me.”
“Look, he’s getting turned on by me,” the female laughed.
“Not you,” I said coldly, without emotion. “But for your deaths. For the fires of battle.ThatI look forward to. You’re just a walking corpse already. I intend to finish the job.”
“You’re sick,” she spat, clearly unnerved.
I threw my head back and laughed to cover my true feelings. “You have no idea,ghoul.Now, enough talk.”
Having revealed that I knew their secret, the ghouls at the table shot to their feet, mouths unhinging as they revealed extra rows of teeth. Claws jutted from fingertips, and eyeballs grew larger, more haunted as their true forms were unveiled.
I already knew what they looked like, however, and I didn’t wait for them to finish. I stepped to the side and, with a grunt, kicked the door across the room.
The three newcomers took the door in their chests, knocked backward, momentarily out of the fight. I went forward, fingers jutting forward. With a gasp and a wetshlick, I tore Frat-Boy’sspine from his body. Whirling, I slammed the bloody thing into Bracelet’s face, forcing him to parry. I then swept his legs out from under him and moved past as he fell.
Frail-Boy from the far side of the table came at me next, fearless in his hideous alternative form. All teeth and claws, he had no fear. Which was great because it made it easy for me to duck and slam my horns into his jaw. I bellowed in battle fury as blood dripped onto me. I flung my head sideways, sending Frail-Boy into Lumberjack.
They went down in a heap. I spun past them, reaching down and plucking the spine from Frail-Boy as I did. I reached Hate-Bitch next—I really needed to get better with naming my enemies, I decided—and grabbed her head in both hands just as she started to get up from under the door.
“Still not a hole worth fucking,” I spat as I pulled her head from her body, blood fountaining from around her throat.
She died with a sigh. I turned and hurled her head at Bracelet as he recovered, then threw my hands up in a cheer as I hit him right in the face. “Now kiss!” I crowed as she left a bloody print on his lips.
The other two newcomers died swiftly. That tended to happen, even to ghouls, when you ripped out their spine. Which I did with prejudice.
Then it was just Lumberjack and Bracelet left against me.
“You should have just handed over the girl,” I said, glancing at the poker table where the human victim was still hidden.
“Fuck you. Who are you?” Bracelet spat.
