Page 52 of Halfblood Deceived

She froze. She couldn’t breathe and couldn’t think.

Luce, Gabby, and Mari had the entire opposite reaction.

Luce fired with impressive accuracy at the gargoyle on the left, Gabby at the one on the right, and Mari blasted her magic at Micah.

Micah stumbled back, his predatory focus shifting from Aella to Mari.

Gabby dodged a thrown blade, falling to her knees as she fired non-stop, taking down the gargoyle she was fighting.

The snarling male Luce was shooting at kept advancing toward the little girl, as if he could barely feel the multiple bullet impacts.

Gabby growled, aiming her machine gun at the gargoyle accosting Luce, and fired, but the male wouldn’t stop going after the vampire child.

Mari snarled a spell. Verdant magic flashed, summoning a sword that impaled the gargoyle right through the heart.

Gabby tackled Luce out of the way of the massive stone body, falling on her back with Luce pressed to her side.

Mari had taken her focus off Micah for just a few seconds, but that was more than enough.

Micah moved in a blink and gripped the small fey by the neck, lifting her off the floor as if she were a cat. “You can’t cast if you can’t speak, bitch,” he mocked.

“Auntie Mari!” Luce cried, reloading and aiming her gun at Micah, but she couldn’t fire at him without hurting Mari.

Gabby stood with a growl, plucking out the blade from the dead gargoyle and advancing toward Micah, fangs flashing.

Micah fired a blast of malevolent red energy at Gabby.

She blocked it with her blade, turning on her stance, growling, and slicing at Micah.

He dodged and grabbed Gabby’s wrist, twisting her arm behind her back, forcing her to release the sword—his other hand still tight around Mari’s neck.

Gabby cried out.

Micah smiled at Aella as he released Gabby to mercilessly kick her back. The brutal impact sent her flying. She was going to land on her stomach.

Luce screamed but moved in a flash. Jumping on Gabby’s back to turn her face up in the air, Luce protected the pregnant, half-unconscious female with her little body, and took the fall for them both. Her skull made a dull sound as it crashed against the marble floor. Her head lolled to the side. She didn’t move anymore.

The gargoyles, priests, and nuns had always preached about how the lives of children were precious. But that sentiment only applied to gargoyle and human children, Aella realized with mounting horror.

Mari flailed and scratched at Micah.

He gave her a disgustingly perverse smile and tossed her against a shelf as if she were a rag doll. Mari toppled to the floor, face-first, blood pouring out of her nose. And then the shelf fell on top of her.

Micah looked down at Gabby, still half laying on top of Luce’s unconscious little body, her right arm limp and broken on her side, her left hand on her belly, a look of horror in her still-shifted eyes. Wheezing and bleeding through her nose, Gabby half-rolled to shield Luce with her body and curled protectively around her belly.

Micah laughed.

He laughed.

He’ll kill them, he’ll kill them! Aella thought desperately. Do something. Do something! She inwardly screamed at her frozen, stupid, cowardly body.

Micah’s infernal red eyes met hers. “I’ll dispatch these animals, and then you and I will settle our score, whore.”

He lifted his sword.

Gabby whimpered.

One second, Aella was rooted to the spot, shaking like a leaf. The next, she was emptying her gun on Micah. He roared and yielded back a few steps. Moving faster than ever before, Aella let herself fall to her knees to avoid Micah’s predictable attempt to slice at her. She rolled and crouched on the floor, her eyes immediately falling on the decorative claymores a foot away.

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