It takes me a second to realize that he's already thrown Sorrow off and into a tree, cracking the wood and leaving the demon struggling to get to his feet. Vyce is still standing in one spot, his blood-red eyes focused on his boss, his father for all intents and purposes.
That's what's so confusing to me; I can't wrap my head around the idea that these men would choose me over him. I don't work well with unknowns. What can I say? I'm a suspicious motherfucker on the best of days. And when it comes to something as serious as this? I can't help it; I have to know.
"Are you insane?" Wolfe asks, shoving his guns back in their holsters and turning to me. His gray eyes are deadly serious as he grips my shoulders and looks into my eyes. "Do you want to get us all killed? Can't you just fight and ask questions later?"
"No!" I shout as Rumpel turns in our direction. He doesn't get very far though because Vyce is on him, knocking them both to the forest floor in a clash of magic that ripples out and makes my teeth chatter, my skin erupt in goosebumps. "He's your dad, isn't he?"
"Dad?" Wolfe asks with a scoff and a sharp shake of his head. "He's a goddamn tyrant, a jailer." I blink stupidly in the big man's direction as he cups the side of my face in his hand. "You're annoying and weird, but you rank higher in our esteem already. That's how much we hate him."
Wolfe presses a hard kiss to my mouth that's all heat and want and need. I rise up on my toes to meet the frantic press of his tongue, the warmth of his lips.
"Oh," he says as we break apart, a slight grimace to his expression, "if you really are infertile, then Rumpel's magic is strong as hell." Wolfe lets go of me and pulls both his guns out again. "Because you're pregnant. Try not to let him stab you through the stomach."
My mouth gapes open as Wolfe takes aim at the wild mess of fists and magic made up of Vyce and Rumpel.
"It's too early for you to know that!" I scoff, but like, magic. Magic can tell as soon as a sperm meets egg. What the fuck?! I'm not sure what my reaction is supposed to be, but I don't get any time to think on it. Rumpel shoves his hand through Vyce's stomach—thus, the warning from Wolfe makes sense—and throws him at me.
The vampire hits me like a rock and we go stumbling into the shadows of the forest.
"Are you okay?" I choke out which seems like a weird question to ask someone who's bleeding all the hell over you.
"I'm just fine," he snarls, looking like he wants to rip Rumpel's head off. Vyce pushes himself off of me and helps me to my feet. "But he isn't going to be when I'm finished with him."
"You came to save your future baby?" I ask and Vyce gives me a weird look, like I'm stupid or something. Fantastic. The same look from both Wolfe and Vyce.
"We came to save you," he says, giving my weapons and nightgown a look. "And it's been a long time coming for Rumpel to be taken out." Vyce runs his fingers through his blue-green-purple hair and exhales. "Did you hear that song he was singing?" he asks as Sorrow and Wolfe take on their boss in a flurry of bullets and blood.
"I didn't understand a word of it. But isn't this guy, like, invincible or something?"
Vyce's red eyes shimmer as he runs his tongue along his palm and then rubs his hand across the wound in his belly, healing it with his saliva. Vamp spit is some seriously powerful shit.
"You guess his name and he loses the bargain?" I joke. It's totally not the appropriate time for one, but what can I say? I excel at being inappropriate.
"He has a tattoo of his name. We have to find it and cut it off." Vyce glances down at me and smiles slightly. "If I die, and the baby turns out to be mine, give it an interesting name for me?"
"You're ridiculous," I snort, but my cheeks flush slightly with red. Wouldn't Harry love to see that shit? "So we have to find his ink, huh? How do we go about doing that?"
"Like this," Vyce says, taking off and hitting Rumpel as soon as there's an opening, slamming him back into a tree. The asshole's shirt is already hanging in tatters, and I don't see any ink at all. I move forward, noticing that Wolfe's ditched his guns and entered into the hand-to-hand combat with his brothers.
While I have a moment, I stand there and try to think. Where would I hide a tattoo that valuable? My first thought is it's on his dick, but maybe that's just because I want to cut his cock off for what he did to my mother.
But no.
Whenever he had sex, it would be exposed.
So probably nowhere near his genitals then. Under his hair? Nah, too obvious. All someone would have to do is catch him in the right light and they might spot it. That's when I remember one of the ogre girls that Harry picked up. She had a tattoo inside her lower lip. It said Eat Shit. She flashed it at him after she stormed out of the bar the morning after they had sex in his upstairs apartment.
The mouth.
Why not?
I slide Ricky from the sheath on my back. And even though I'm barefoot and...pregnant?! Eww! Okay, even though I'm barefoot and wearing a dirty silk nightie, I intend to kick some Rumpel Stiltz ass.
For what he did to my mother, I'd walk through the fires of hell for a little revenge.
I take off and leap over Sorrow's back, stabbing my sword through the man's throat. I manage to push my blade all the way through before he knocks me aside and sends me rolling across the wet forest floor.
Rumpel does the same to the guys, with a speed that's twice as fast as any of the Stiltz boys can move. And they move so fast that even I can't see them. So I'm not quite prepared for him to grab me around the throat. Rumpel lifts me up and slams me into the trunk of another tree. The brand is in his left hand. Our eyes meet as he thrusts it at my midsection. I'm fully prepared for the pain, but Sorrow stops him by grabbing his wrist in his long, red muzzle and squeezing hard. He yanks his master's arm aside, but Rumpel doesn't drop the brand. Even with a demon clinging to his arm, he holds onto it.
My sword is still sticking through Rumpel's neck, so I yank on it, spattering my body with blood. With my right hand, I reach out and pull his bottom lip down. I don't think he expects that, and I'm able to catch a glimpse of muddled black ink before he knocks my arm to the side and breaks it.
A scream tears from my throat as Wolfe grabs the metal brand from Rumpel's fingers, spins it around and slams the end into his master's chest. This time, it's Rumpel Stiltz' turn to scream.
"It's in his mouth!" I yell as the wind from the storm sweeps down and around Rumpel's body, ruffling up what's left of his clothing. Tendrils of magic wrap around him as the power in his own spell takes hold. It lasts for all of one second though before he breaks it, the brand on his skin fizzling away like it was never there.
Vyce grabs the man from behind as Sorrow shifts right in front of me, fully nude and not giving two shits about it. He yanks down Rumpel's lip and reveals his full name, tattooed right there in black. Yanking Lucy from the sheath on my thigh, I manage to slice down the length of Rumpel's lip as he screams.
Flesh falls away and I stumble back, expecting him to burst into flames or some other dramatic shit. Instead, he hits Sorrow so hard in the face that crimson liquid sprays out and I hear the distinct crunch of bone.
We're all going to need a lot of blood and sex after this to heal, huh?
Vyce wrestles Rumpel to the ground as I tear Ethel from my holster and lunge forward, sliding on my knees in the wet leaves. I put the barrel of my gun, loaded with my rowan ash bullets, to the man's skull.
Our eyes meet one last time, and I give a sad little smile.
"This is for my mother," I say, and pull the trigger.
12
My estranged brother, Vesnic, is a serious dickhead, but he lets me stay in the castle anyway.
At least now I don't have to pretend to be his queen, and I get to keep the stupid tower room I was staying in. Lucky me.