from Grimm # 5

I think this will be out in September. I know it’s a ways off. *wince* sorry…

Vanya thought she heard the air whistling—thought she glimpsed something in the darkness. But she didn’t dare look. The avid, hungry look in their eyes was already unsettling—now touched with anger. She’d killed one of them earlier.

They didn’t just want to fuck her and try to talk her into giving up her soul for the sake of sex now—they wanted her to bleed, too.

She had no doubt she was going to bleed, going to hurt.

Shit, where were they? He…she…somebody…

She’d been told she wouldn’t be alone.

Off in the distance there was a heavy, deliberate tread.

A footstep.

Something shivered down her spine.

She didn’t look—didn’t dare.

But some of them didn’t have that caution. They looked. And swore.

Something shiny, red and wet flew across her field of vision.

Blood.

There was a shriek of rage and the woman Vanya had first seen in the club bathroom snarled, “What the hell…?”

Another footstep. Deliberately heavy. Deliberately hard. Like whoever moved in the shadows wanted to be heard before he was seen. She squinted, still focusing on the demons, although it wasn’t so easy to see them now. Was it her imagination or was it darker in here now?

Vanya tried to catch a glimpse but then one of the men rushed at her. She slashed with her knife but wasn’t quick enough. He had her pinned, trapped against his body and he was strong—so damned strong. And yes, even now—horny as hell.

One iron hand gripped her wrist, squeezed, squeezed, squeezed… “Drop it, baby,” he panted it in her ear. “Now, or when I get you naked, after I’m done fucking you with my dick, I fuck you with that.”

Pain and terror blossomed in her mind, but still she clutched the blade.

Off in the darkness of the huge room, she caught a glimpse of something—no, somebody. A man—the glitter of his eyes. Nothing about that one glimpse made her shudder with fear. In fact, that one glimpse had something warm and easy rolling through her.

It gave her the courage she needed to gasp through the pain, “I bet the knife does a better job than you.”

He shattered her wrist and she screamed with the pain. The blade fell from her useless fingers and he backhanded her, sent her flying to the floor. She landed at the feet of the woman who’d brought her here. She grabbed the front of Vanya’s skimpy black dress and yanked her up, but whatever she might have said was cut short by a harsh gasp.

As one, the two women turned their heads, watched as a long, brawny arm came out of the thick, seemingly impenetrable darkness—why was it so dark? A scarred hand grabbed the neck of the demon who had broken Vanya’s wrist. He screamed, but the scream ended abruptly in a wet, nasty gurgle.

His head, sans body, rolled across the floor, like a macabre bowling ball, coming to a stop a few feet away from Vanya and the woman.

The woman shrieked and threw Vanya to the floor, staring off into the darkness.

“Who is there?”

Vanya, through the pain, started to laugh.

“You…” the demon looked at her. A furious hiss escaped her and she lunged for Vanya, gripping the bodice of her dress. “Who is there? What have you done, you little cunt?”

Vanya just laughed harder. If there was something hysterical to her laughter, it couldn’t be helped.

The woman’s eyes narrowed and she reached down, touched the silver chain Vanya wore. Something that might have been feared entered her eyes. “You’re not…”
Then she grabbed the chain, spilling the silver cross out. And she heaved out a sigh of relief.

“No. You’re not what I thought you were.”

Abruptly, Vanya stopped laughing. Behind the demon, another two of her men disappeared. Damn, she was losing them left and right and the bitch was standing here worrying about Vanya? Vanya wasn’t the damn problem.

Then he was there—bigger than life, his hair the palest blond, his face…damn, that face, it was too beautiful, too perfect to be real, and over one muscled shoulder, he had an axe. Blood dripped from the gleaming silver blade.