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Cat looked away to give Grendel another calculating glance. Then, she looked up at Noah.
We have Ian’s men to bargain with him for,Bones silently argued.You can get Noah backthatway!
“Don’t bash her about too badly, Grendel,” Ian said with taunting satisfaction. “I have plans for her.”
Grendel’s laugh boomed out again, darker this time. “She’ll be alive. Anything else is up to you to heal.”
Fuck this.
Bones started to stand.
Cat’s gaze landed on him like a physical weight.Don’t,it said as she cracked her knuckles.I’ve got this.
Unarmed against a ghoul nearly twice her height and five times her weight? How? She couldn’tberateGrendel’s head off!
As if to echo his thoughts, Grendel said, “To show that I have no fear of you, I will let you strike the first blow without defending myself.”
“I’m not giving you the same courtesy,” Cat replied instantly.
Grendel’s smile was chilling. “I would hope not. Then my fun would end too soon.”
Cat smiled back-and flung herself feet-first at Grendel. Her silver heels speared the ghoul’s throat and she scissored her legs outward with blurring speed.
Yes! By God, thatmighttake his head off-
Bones’s jubilation died as Grendel’s head stayed above his shoulders. Much of his neck didn’t, though, and thick globs of flesh hit the floor the same time that Cat and Grendel did. She landed box-first onto Grendel’s face before leaping off as if scalded.
Ian’s laughter filled the shocked silence. “You didn’t usethatbattle tactic against me when we fought, Cat. I daresay I feel cheated.”
Cat busied herself with kicking the gore from her heels while Grendel rose with ominous slowness.
“You will pay with pain for that,” he rasped through the large, healing tears in his throat.
“It wasn’t good for me, either,” Cat muttered.
Grendel’s reply was a lightning-fast punch that catapulted Cat into the stands behind her. Bones’s knuckles whitened on his chair as the vampires she landed on immediately threw her back into the arena. Cat rolled to avoid Grendel’s kick, which meant she wasn’t seriously injured, but the miss angered the ghoul. He tried to squash her with his huge body next, but she leapt out of the way, cursing under her newly jagged breath.
Cat attempted to regroup, but Grendel’s fist shot out with more breathtaking speed. Bones winced as her collarbone caved. Another blurring punch to the midsection lifted her off her feet, and blood spurted from her mouth. Bones was nearly out of his seat when she managed to dart away from another rib-breaking blow, but then Cat caught a punch to her back that took her legs out from under her. She landed face-first and tried to roll away, only to have Grendel yank her back and blast her ribs with another brutal blow. More blood bubbled past her lips as she clutched her torso and fought to breathe.
Bloody hell, he couldn’t sit back and watch this!
Bones was about fly into the arena to stop Grendel when the ghoul backed away from Cat of his own accord.
“This was the feared Red Reaper?” Grendel roared before breaking into a contemptuous laugh.“This?”
The crowd applauded. Cat stared at Grendel through a veil of blood and hair, and somehow pushed herself into a crouch.
“Pussy,” she ground out.
Bones had seen that look in her eye before. She was incandescent with rage, and rage had always given her strength.
Grendel’s laughter instantly ceased. He turned back to her, raising his meaty fist.
Cat rushed forward, still in a crouch. Her open mouth landed squarely in the ghoul’s groin. From Grendel’s instant, high-pitched shriek, she’d bitten down for all she was worth.
Grendel hunched and tried to knock her away from his groin, but Cat moved with a speed Bones hadn’t believed her capable of in her condition. She was on Grendel’s back and shoving her fingers deep into both his eyes in the next instant.
Grendel screamed, windmilling his arms trying to grab her. Cat leapt off and kicked the ghoul’s legs out from under him. When he hit his knees, she rocketed toward him and grabbed his head, yanking it to the left with all her momentum.
