Page 16 of Kiss of a Hellish Prince

Tires squealed on the other end of the line, followed by a lot of honks and a yell. Rune must have pulled a U-turn.

“Tori, do you hear me? I need you to hide!”

“Yes, okay.” My hands were shaking where I was gripping the phone. My mind immediately went to how easy it was for the men last night to overpower me. They wouldn’t be able to do that to Rune, I could hide, stay safe just long enough for him to get here.

A high-pitched scream came from downstairs, and I added, “Shit! Vivi.”

Hearing my baby sister was home and in danger changed things. I dropped the phone and ran downstairs adrenaline flooding my veins. I needed to protect my baby sister.

4

Well, It Wasn’t Random

Downstairs, Vivi huddled against a wall behind a large chair. Sarah stood between her and whatever had come through the front door. She had a wet-looking kitchen knife in her hand, and an expression that said she was ready to cut a bitch.

This badass right here—she would always be my ride-or-die.

I grabbed the pink aluminum baseball bat propped against the wall where Vivi left it after practice and stood next to Sarah, ready to defend our home.

I instantly recognized the two gigantic men standing on top of what used to be our front door. They had attacked me last night.

Random attack my ass.

“Which one do we grab?” the bigger of the two asked. The poorly done tattoos on his neck seemed to move as he talked.

“Grab all three of them. The boss can take the one he wants, and maybe he will let us play with the other two.” The other one smiled. It made my stomach lurch. He was missing several teeth; the few left were rotting out of his head.

“Fucking try it, asshole!” Sarah said next to me, holding her knife a little higher.

Her fight gave me strength. I might have gotten my ass handed to me last night, but I was unarmed, alone, and caught off guard. Now I had Sarah and a bat, and I knew what was coming. More importantly, I knew we didn’t have to beat them. We just had to hold them off and keep Vivi safe long enough for Rune to get here.

Snaggle Tooth was suddenly directly in front of Sarah. “What do you think you could do to stop me? Are you going to use that knife to make me a sandwich?”

Sarah lashed out with the knife, slicing across his arm. I swung the bat and caught the back of his knee, and he went down.

I tried to get Vivi to run, signaling with my hands for her to move but she pulled herself into a tighter ball, hands over her ears, eyes squeezed shut.

Snaggles stood back up, growling at Sarah. I wound up for another hit when Prison Tat grabbed the bat with one hand. His other hand flew across my cheek, throwing me to the floor, making stars jump in front of my eyes and pain explode across my face. He knelt down in front of me and grabbed me by the neck, pulling me back up to my feet. His hand crushed my throat, making spots dance in my vision while he squeezed. I tried kicking out. I made contact, but it wasn’t enough to make him drop me.

“You are going to regret that, you stupid cunt.”

A loud roar filled the space, coming from the front door.

My vision swam, but I could just see Rune standing on the door. His wings spread behind his back, his eyes were bright blue, and his fangs were several inches long. The sexy horns I’d seen earlier were longer and curved out from his head instead of back along his temples. They didn’t look sexy; they looked deadly.

“I bet you are going to regret it first,” I choked out.

Rune’s appearance distracted Prison Tat so when I kicked out again, I hit his stomach hard enough that he dropped me. After hitting the floor, I took a few deep breaths, the spots in my vision fading.

By the time I sat up again, Rune had followed Prison Tat into the kitchen. Snaggles was unconscious on the floor with several cuts leaking blood all over our carpet, with Murmur’s knee firmly pressed into his back and restraining him. I hadn’t even seen Murmur come in with Rune. Sarah was watching Murmur with a wary look on her face, but she was all right. Vivi was still curled in a ball, hiding, but physically unharmed.

Vivi would always be my priority. I knelt down next to her with my hand on her shoulder. She was so scared she shrank in tighter. I could feel her trembling before she jerked away from my touch.

“Hey, it’s me. It’s okay now. You are safe,” I said.

Another crash sounded from the kitchen. Vivi whimpered.

“Okay, this guy isn’t going anywhere,” Murmur said.

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