FOR ONE, THE MAN standing had to be almost seven feet tall. His arms were thicker than my waist, and he had legs like tree trunks covered in skin. For someone his size, he moved down the aisle with a light, quick grace that gave me a sinking feeling in my stomach. Massive and fast; that wasn’t good. But what had me the most concerned was that the man now jumping into the arena wasn’t a vampire. He was a ghoul.
I could kick my silver heels through his heart until the cows came home, but it wouldn’t kill him. Neither would these heels suitably double as a sword to cleave his head off. Alrighty, then. This would be interesting.
Ian grinned at me with expectant victory. “Do you know who that is, Cat? That’s Grendel, the most famous mercenary of the ghouls. He’s almost six hundred years old and a former stradioti of the Venetian armies. Grendel used to be paid according to the number of heads he lopped off in battle, and that, my dear poppet, was just when he was human.”
I caught Bones’ eye. He raised a brow. Did I want him to intervene? he was asking silently. He could stop all this by pulling the property card, I knew, and Bones’ expression told me that Ian wasn’t exaggerating a bit in his description of what a badass Grendel was.
I gave the smooth-skulled ghoul another thorough evaluation. Yeah, he looked like a mean motherfucker, no doubt about it. And here I was armed with only a pair of high heels. I glanced up at Noah, who had a resigned expression on his face. Clearly he thought he was a dead man no matter what happened. I could take the easy way out. Call myself Bones’ Bite Bitch and walk away with nary a broken fingernail to show for it, but that wasn’t my style. No, I’d rather fight this giant and win my freedom than get it handed to me by default. But where was a cannon when I needed one?
“Don’t bash her about too badly, Grendel; I have plans for her later.” Ian smirked.
The ghoul gave an ominous laugh. “She’ll be alive. Anything else is up to you to heal.”
How comforting. I shook my head ever so slightly at Bones, indicating I didn’t want him to intercede. Then I cracked my knuckles with a hint of grimness, watching as Grendel approached. The ghoul looked me over with a professional, callous scrutiny, no doubt deciding which of my bones to break first.
“To show that I have no fear,” he said in his deep voice. “I’ll let you strike the first blow without defending myself.”
“I’m not giving you the same thing,” I responded instantly.
A cold smile wreathed his face. “I would hope not. Then this would end too soon and spoil my fun.”
Nice. Grendel the Giant was a sadist. Who said anything in life was easy?
I took a deep breath—and then leapt in the air toward him, kicking my feet out with all my strength. My heels landed in his throat and I scissored outward, hoping to sever the spinal column in his neck.
But it didn’t. What it did do was tear off two big chunks of his neck and leave me straddling him as we both fell back from the impact. I landed with my knees very indecently around his face, and then I jumped back.
Ian laughed so hard, his eyes turned pink from tears. “You didn’t use that battle tactic with me before, Cat. I daresay I feel cheated.”
Grendel wasn’t in as jolly a mood. He got to his feet, rubbed his throat where the skin was healing back into place, and gave me a very unpleasant look.
“You will pay with pain for that.”
What was I supposed to say? It wasn’t good for me, either?
Grendel’s fist shot out. It was almost comical, because I only saw a blur and then boom! I flew into the stands behind me. Landed on two well-dressed female vampires who helpfully threw me back into the arena without even a how-do-you-do. As soon as I hit the ground, I rolled, narrowly avoiding a kick that would have landed my intestines into my chest cavity. Then I jumped up to prevent him from crashing down onto me like a WWE wrestler. Fuck me, he was fast! And he wasn’t fooling around! Another leap made his balled fist land on my shoulder instead of my ribs. There was a crack as my collarbone broke. Another crack as he feinted left and followed through with an underhanded right, smashing three of my ribs at least. I darted away, gasping, to be hit in the back when I wasn’t fast enough. Face-first I sprawled onto the arena floor, scrambling, my heart sinking as I felt an iron fist close over my ankle.
Grendel yanked me closer and drove his fist into my side. I pulled back at the last second, so he didn’t take out my entire right rib cage, but he blasted my kidney. I doubled over, coughing up blood in a crimson ribbon, barely able to even breathe. Grendel let go of my ankle. He got to his feet and began to laugh.
“This was the feared Red Reaper? This?”
There was an outbreak of applause. I wasn’t the crowd favorite, obviously. Grendel took a bow, still laughing, while a cold rage erupted in me. This fucker was not going to hand me over to Ian while chuckling at how easy it had been. I would take him down, pain or no pain. Come on, Cat. You’re not done yet.
“Pussy.”
I said it while pushing myself into a half-crouched position. Grendel stopped laughing at once. He loomed over me, drawing back his hand to clock me.