Destiny Bewitched (16 page)

The giant laughed while
the man’s face shook with rage. Ignoring him, she turned to the
other harasser. “And you…how far does that tongue reach?”

His lips curved up and
he slowly licked them while running his gaze over her body. “Why
don’t you come find out?” His tongue slipped down to his chin, then
his chest, and even further down, down, down.

She shuddered. “All the
way to your dick, huh? You and Ball Sac Guy could have a lot of fun
– with you being an ass-licker and all.”

The Lizard’s grin faded
and his eyes narrowed. He reached his hands out toward her and they
morphed into large, scaly claws like a dragon. “You little –”

Geo stepped in front of
her, cutting off his threat. She watched, curious where this was
going. No one had ever stood up for her before. His confident and
soundless stride, the furious set of his jaw, the unstable look in
his eyes…God, he was frightening. And sexy.

“If either of you come
within even three feet of her, I will tear out your spine and saw
off your head with it. I have no problem ridding the world of your
disgusting existence. Consider yourself warned.”

“Fuck you,” Lizard Guy
yelled. “When these Shadow-fucks kill you, sleep easy in hell
knowing my tongue will be all over your girl.”

She didn’t even see him
move. One moment, Geo was several feet away, the next he had Lizard
Guy in a head lock and his hunting knife clenched in his fist. With
a swipe of his knife, the man’s forked tongue flopped to the
ground.

She turned her head
away with a grimace at the gushing blood and strangled scream.

“No,” Geo said calmly,
“it won’t.”

He released the man’s
neck and flung him to the ground. Without a backward glance, he
sheathed his knife then turned around and headed for her. Though
the brutality shocked her, she had to admit being the reason for
that wrath thrilled her. The fat man didn’t say a word, but glared
at her with such contempt she could almost feel it like a target on
her forehead.

“We have enough enemies
here,” Geo said in a low voice when he reached her. “How about you
keep that pretty mouth of yours shut?”

Shock had her nodding
her head in agreement.

He pulled her to a spot
off to the side and gave her arm a little squeeze. “Remember, a
dead witch is a useless witch.” He smiled but it didn’t quite reach
his eyes.

She gave a nervous
chuckle. “I’ll try to stay alive then.”

He kissed her forehead
then took his place in the center. Samantha looked for their
opponents. If she turned her head and gazed at the crowd, she could
just make out two humanoid shapes moving like ghosts around the
ring. But she couldn’t see their faces. They were so non-descript
and their shape so dark, they looked exactly like their namesake –
shadows.

Geo unsheathed his
sword and gave her a conspirator’s look.
Stay put
, he mouthed.

In answer, she drew her
sword from her back, holding it at the ready. Maybe she couldn’t
move from that spot, but she’d swing at anything that came close.
And if Geo started losing – well, he could yell at her for leaving
the circle later. At least he’d be alive to do it.

The gong rang out and
she quickly drew the chalk circle, chanting as she did. From the
side, a gaunt, black shape appeared only a few feet away. Her heart
skipped a beat and she flinched. Instinctively, she turned to look
and it was gone.

It reappeared on her
other side and she jumped. This time she kept her gaze ahead and
watched it out of the corner of her eye. Covered in a black,
flowing cloak, its face was hidden in the shadow of the hood.
Faceless, dark, almost shapeless and hovering weightlessly off the
ground – if she hadn’t already believed in ghosts, she did now.

Slowly, it reached for
her, its sleeve falling back to reveal a gaunt, grayish arm. She
held her breath, praying the spell worked. At the chalk line, the
creature froze as if hitting an invisible barrier.

Take that, Shadow
Freak!

It canted its head to
the side slowly, like it was assessing her barrier. Then it reached
out again, pressing closer and closer toward her, his hand shaking
with effort to breech the magic. Her arrogance began to waver when
a finger inched past the chalk line.

As fast as she could
move, she sliced her sword across his wrist. A hand fell in the
dirt and an ear-piercing shriek made her cover her ears. Then he
disappeared.

She scanned the crowd,
trying to locate her opponent from the corner of her eye. Where did
it go? More important, was the damn thing still alive?

To her left, Geo flew
across the ring, landing hard in the dirt with a grunt. Her impulse
was to run to him, but getting herself killed while trying to help
was a classic too-stupid-to-live move. Plus, Geo would be furious
with her – running off and dying like that. He was capable of
taking care of himself. She hoped.

Two Shadows glided
toward him.

So that was where her
attacker took off to. “Coward!” she called out.

The handless one turned
to face her. Its head cocked to the side and she could picture it
giving her a chilling look through the hood of the cloak. The hair
on her arm stood on end. Still facing her, it screeched something
to its teammate in an eerie language she’d never heard.

The injured Shadow kept
its head turned toward her while the other pummeled Geo over and
over.

It was taunting
her.

Though they disappeared
from her sight, she turned to give Geo a full once-over. Blood
flowed heavily from one arm. His mouth was bleeding. He was able to
rise up from the ground, swinging his sword with grace, though she
could tell it took a lot of effort.

He turned in a slow
circle, his eyes narrowed in concentration. She turned away to
locate the duo. A shadowy fist came out of nowhere and sent him
flying again. The two figures circled him, floating eerily off the
ground. He thrust toward them again, but missed. Another hit had
him doubled over in pain.

He was getting his ass
kicked. And the crowd loved it. She had a feeling the Shadows did
too. They seemed to revel in the spectator’s excitement.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
She paced
her small circle.
What do I do? What do I do?

She could try to
conjure her familiar but that kind of magic was hard core and she’d
never experienced more than a few fleeting seconds with it.

“Raise the ground, damn
it!” someone yelled in an Irish accent.

She had to try it.

Inhaling a deep breath,
she summoned the power of nature. Warm tingles spread over her
body. She concentrated all her energy, every nerve and muscle, then
threw it into forming a connection with the earth. Beneath her
feet, the ground began to rumble.

Yes!

Geo, now settling on a
strategy to dodge their blows, spared her a glance. And in his
eyes, she saw his only hope.

Me.

She gave the dirt a
little push, willing it to rise up around the Shadows.
A cage, a cage,
she
chanted in her head.

A big chunk of solid
earth flew up from the ground and smacked Geo in the back of the
head, raining dirt in his hair. The crowd erupted in laughter.

He tossed her a
frustrated look.

Sorry,
she mouthed.

A gleam of metal
slashed through the air, just inches from Geo’s neck. The Shadows
were done playing around. They were bringing out the big
knives.

Focus!
This time she pulled as much
power as she could from that deep place in her soul – the place
where thousands of years of witch ancestry sat untapped like lava
simmering at the bottom of a volcano. The dirt shook around
her.

“Easy,” she coaxed
herself. Using her hands, she made a sweeping motion away from her
body.

The ground shot up
underneath her like a pedestal. She lost her balance and fell on
her ass. Now the crowd didn’t just laugh, they pointed too. This
was turning into a Three Stooges routine.

“I’m so glad I could
amuse you,” she growled, standing up and wiping her pants.

Not far off, Geo
grunted and slammed into the ground on his hands and knees. One of
the Shadows kicked him in the stomach.

Screw Aedan and Geo.
She’d do things her way. She grasped the moonstone charm around her
neck. If this didn’t work, she’d declare the situation an
emergency.

Closing her eyes, and
chanted.
“Ten times
pain, ten times weak. Suffer now, no peace you shall
seek.”

When she opened her
eyes, Geo was on his feet, swinging wildly with his fists at the
figures. His sword lay abandoned several feet away.

Please work. Pleeeease
work.

Nothing happened.

They were officially in
a state of emergency. She gripped her sword and stepped out of the
circle.

A tortured screech
erupted from the one of the figures. Then another higher-pitched
one. She turned away and focused her peripheral vision. The Shadows
were hunched over, grasping their stomachs, howling with pain. She
smiled inside.

Geo stood
shell-shocked.

Suddenly, the Shadows
arched backward with a strangled scream and their torso’s ripped
wide open. Blood shot out like a water gun then pink, slimy
intestines spilled to the ground like floppy, dead worms.

One at a time, they
dropped, limp like handless puppets. She waited to make sure they
didn’t rise. With supernaturals, you could never be sure they were
dead until you saw heads roll. Even then, she didn’t trust them. A
foot twitched but they didn’t get up.

The gong rang out. The
crowd cheered. The giant came to collect the bodies.

They did it. It was
over. They won.

Geo, his chest heaving,
finally looked at her. His eyes burned with savagery. Straightening
his shoulders, he lifted his sword from the ground, wiped it on his
pants, and stalked toward her.

He’d never seemed quite
so big. She shivered. His muscles bulged and twitched, likely still
high on adrenaline. He shook his matted hair from his face. His
gaze raked down her body, a fierce gleam starting in his eyes, then
moved back up, growing hungrier.

She had to fight the
impulse to flee. He was the scariest thing she’d ever seen – and in
this world, that was saying a lot. He stopped just a foot or so in
front of her, his sharp gaze piercing her so intensely she could
almost feel it.

She was vaguely aware
of the crowd hooting and hollering around them, but she couldn’t
take her eyes off of Geo. It felt like the two of them existed in a
world of their own – her savage protector and Samantha, staring
wide-eyed up at him.

He muttered something
in Greek then grabbed her hand, leading her quickly out of the
ring.

Aedan stood, grinning
on the sideline. “That was some stomach ache, lass.”

“I told you –”

Geo pulled her past
him, ignoring Aedan’s smiling salute.

“Uh,” she said over her
shoulder. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

Geo walked straight to
the stairs, towing her behind him. The crowd moved onto the next
match like a blood thirsty machine, chewing victims then spitting
them back out.

All the way up to their
room, he stayed silent. His shoulders were tense, his grip like a
steel cuff around her wrist. Normally, she’d pull away and demand
he chill out, but he seemed razor’s edge away from beating
something into a bloody pulp. And she didn’t want to end up on the
other side of that pent up rage.

He opened the door to
Chateau La Freaksville, shoved her inside then slammed it behind
them.

She backed up a few
steps and watched him stalk her. His eyes burned a coppery flame as
he crowded her. She felt the wall at her back and gulped. A
heartbeat then he was on her. He pressed her up against the wall,
threaded his hand through her hair then bit her neck.

Holy shit! He’s not
playing around.

But damn if her body
didn’t respond. Warmth slid through her, making her knees weak and
soaking between her legs. His lips moved up her throat…to her
jaw…
mmm
. She
moaned and ground against him.

How could she want him
so badly after all that violence – bloodied and beaten? He placed
his hands under her ass and lifted her. She wrapped her legs around
his waist. When he squeezed her ass cheeks and nibbled her ear, the
lingering thoughts of blood disappeared.

He took possession of
her mouth, crushing her lips like he owned her. Bracing her against
the wall, he slid one hand between them and unbuttoned her
pants.

“
Mm
…yes,” she encouraged against his
lips. She bit and nipped at him, feeling more fevered every second.
Whatever brought this on – the violence, the danger, the Chinese
food – she liked it.

His hand snaked into
her pants where the lack of underwear was suddenly a blessing.
Fingers found that sweet center and she threw her head back against
the wall.

“Ahh!” Quivering, she
clawed at him, trying to rip through his shirt. She needed skin.
Now. She ached to touch him.

But instead, he set her
on her feet, pushed her hands off him and ordered, “Take off the
pants.” He stripped out of his pants and boots as she did hers.

Naked and vulnerable,
she shuddered. Then he shoved her against the wall again. The brick
thumped against her back, his knee pressed into her groin. His
unshaven face scraped her skin as their lips met in a frenzied
kiss. Hands swept down her body once…twice…then he lifted her and
she felt his member find her slit. A heartbeat later, he slammed
inside her.

“Oh!” she cried at the
suddenness. But her clit throbbed too much to care. She moved with
him, thrusting herself up and down while he anchored his hands at
her waist.