AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“…bitch, I should make it painful for both of them just for you doing that. I should go up those stairs, grab the boy and drag him down here so you have to watch. I should—”
That’s when all hell breaks loose.
My vision blurs and I think maybe I’ve been shot, but it’s not that. The wall on the other side of the building has just collapsed, and there are forms moving within the settling rubble. Large forms. Very large, orc shaped forms.
As I blink away the dust, I see Tigor’s face twist in a snarl as he looks at me. Kent screams, an actual high-pitched scream like he’s just seen his own death, and I’m guessing that’s exactly what this is.
Tigor stomps to me, reaching out a hand as Mol goes to the other side of the room and Oran raises a spear, sweeping it above his head. I feel Tigor’s fingers brush my face, pushing back the hair, and he snarls.
“You’re hurt. You’re bruised. He did this.”
I try to think why I would be hurt, then it comes to me. “His gun. It hit my head but I’m okay, I…”
Tigor roars, turning on Kent, tusks bared as spit flies from his open mouth. “You. Hurt. Her.” He steps forward, and I hear Kent’s pleading voice.
“No. No, she did that to—”
“Nobody hurtswhat’s mine!” There’s a final blubbing scream as Tigor raises his axe, and then a sharp thwack. Then silence. Tigor bends down, and I feel my bonds loosen. “Don’t look, little one,” he says, but he obviously doesn’t understand human nature.
I take a glance at where Kent was standing, and have to look down at the floor, almost losing my lunch at the sight. Kent’s head is in one place, his body in another. Tigor grabs him by the hair and raises the head in his arms.
“Nobody hurts what’s mine,” he repeats.
“Just you three?” I ask as I rub my wrists.
Tigor grunts. “Others said this is not their fight. Cowards.”
Mol has Yarek held at the tip of his spear, but not looking too unhappy. The JE agent is a different matter. I think I smell his fear, and it’s starting to get a little funky in the enclosed old warehouse where they were holding us.
The two other orcs have been slain already.
“What shall I do with this one?” Mol asks. “I kill him or you want him?”
“Where’s Darrell?” Tigor demands, standing from cutting Dominic’s bonds and turning on Yarek, who starts to grin. “You won’t be smiling in a minute, you fucker. I’ll cut off each of your toes after I hold your feet over a fire until you are a cinder—”
“No. You won’t.” He nods, his eyes focusing behind us all, and I turn to see what he’s looking at.
There, through the hole in the wall where Tigor and his brothers just entered, stands an entire squadron of orcs behind a stocky one with graying hair. He narrows his eyes. “We heard fighting. We came. Who is the woman?”
“She just signed over her claim to me,” Yarek says, grinning. “And this human Judicial Enforcer has sold me the rest of the subdivision. I now own it all.”
“There’s one claim you don’t fucking own,” Tigor growls. “And if you want it, you’re going to have to fight for it.”
Yarek laughs. “Clan Lakktra dies now. Kill them.”
Some of the orcs outside start forward, brandishing swords, guns and axes, but the stocky orc puts out his arms, barring their way, and their faces fall in confusion. There’s murmuring as Yarek’s eyes narrow.
“Are you challenging me, Hothron?”
The stocky orc turns to me. “You sold him your claim?”
I laugh. “Sure. At gunpoint what else was I going to do?”
“This is not orc,” he growls, turning on Yarek. “You act like a fucking human, like a fucking Judicial Enforcement. Like you own everything.” He turns his head, glaring down the orcs behind him that are starting to get restless. “Stay back!”
Yarek lets out a howl of fury. “Kill Hothron! Kill the Lakktra!”
Screams of battle rage erupt all around, half the orcs outside fighting half the others. With my bonds untied, I stand and back away, getting closer to Dominic in the relative safety behind Tigor. But I’m not under any illusions. As Mol stands in confusion, Yarek grabs his own knife from the table and whips it around, stabbing it through Mol’s upper arm. He howls with rage and pain even as Tigor and Oran move to join him.
