AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Turning into theentrance of the employee carpark, Shaw waved her access pass at the sensor.Ignoring the delivery truck right on her ass, that slipped past the barrier allbut on her bumper. Lazy git. Nosing the mustang down the steep spiral drivewayoff to the left, heading for the lowest of the carpark floors and her reservedspot.
“Okay. We’re here.You’re about to walk into a building chock full of battle-hardened Valkyries.You need to remember that we are renown for killing things… violently. We arenot known for our patience, our sense of humour, or getting all fluttery when amale is around. So really, there’s only one rule, tone it down.”
Clutching thepassenger side door as the mustang whizzed past floors headed ever downwards,Kaleb felt compelled to enquire. “Tone what down?”
Raising one handfrom the steering wheel, Shaw waved it in his general direction. “All of this.You. The smile. The teeth. The dimple. The eyebrows. The flirty deep voice. Oh,Freyja, and the story-telling, real or imaginary. In fact, just keep your trapshut.”
“Why, Valkyrie, I’mbeginning to suspect that you’re embarrassed to be seen with me.”
“Now you’regetting it.” Finally they arrived at the lowest basement level. Shaw yankingthe wheel to the right, smoothly parking in a wide reserved space. Best perk ofher loathsome job.
Slamming open thedoor she got out to face Kaleb. Who was exiting the car at a more leisurelypace. His navy pants and purple Henley ridiculously wrinkled, but somehow, hemanaged to look GQ cover ready for his photoshoot. Even his sandy blonde hairlooked annoyingly… sexily windswept, the ends curling up around the collar ofhis shirt. As if a team of hair specialist had spent hours working hard on him,rather than just genetics and a car ride with the top down.
Grrr… he wassmiling Shaw’s way. What had she just said about that dimple? He looked morelike an Angel than a Demon. Until you spotted that devilish twinkle in hisgorgeous pale eyes. The one that intimated he was imagining you naked and oh,what fun times you were going to have together.
“Quit it.” Shawgrowled, magically calling one of her halberds, holding it out threateningly inKaleb’s direction.
Kaleb wasdistracted momentarily by the delivery truck. The one that had been ridingtheir bumper down the driveway now screeching to an abrupt stop, blocking themustang. Fuck, he was in motion before his brain had fully processed what wasgoing on. His Valkyrie was in danger. Leaping up, sliding across the boot ofthe mustang, blocking the swipe of the laser sword a black leather clad,helmeted Gxthian was sweeping towards Shaw’s back.
He couldn’t callmagical weapons from thin air, so Kaleb could only work with what he had.Throwing a hand up to block the asshole’s swipe. Double fuck, wincing as threeof his fingers and half a thumb went flying through the air. The assholeexploding out of the truck’s passenger seat hadn’t had time to warm up hislaser blade, so the damn thing failed to cauterised the nubs. Kalebinconveniently finding himself leaking four rivulets of blood.
Shaw was alreadyturning, swinging her halberd around, lopping the head off the attackingGxthian even as something hard, pink and bloody slapped against her cheek andfell away to the concrete floor. She really didn’t have time to think it, asthe rear double doors of the truck slammed open, disgorging, ten, twelve, no,fifteen Gxthians.
Most HuntingParties consisted of twenty members, and they weren’t cheap to hire. Who everwanted Kaleb dead had money to burn if they had contracted a second group.
Oh, well, it seemslike Shaw would get a morning work out after all, leaping up, jumping onto theboot of the sedan next to her, reaching down and dragging Kaleb up to standbeside her.
“Stay high.” Itwould be easier to protect him if he did so. Plus, this way he’d be out of thefiring line of her halberds in full swing. Issuing a challenging war cry, Shawleapt forward, calling her second halberd forth in mid leap, landing in themidst of the Gxthians. Sweeping her twin weapons about in an intricate andhighly effective manner.
Given his woundedhand, and lack of weapon, Kaleb thought he’d be deemed weak prey and inundatedby assassins. Strangely, the group appeared fixated on Shaw. Streaming towardsher like a swarm of black hornets. Laser blades glowing ominously red. Thatprovided Kaleb with the luxury of time to clamber higher still. Leaping over onto the front of the delivery truck. From this spot he definitely had the higherground, better still, it was an excellent vantage point from which Kaleb couldkick any Gxthians in the head who got too close.
Tugging off histop, Kaleb made quick work of wrapping it around his hand as a makeshiftbandage. Once that was done, he could concentrate on watching Shaw put on abreath-taking display of… halberdmanship. Twirling the long bladed staffs likethey were extensions of her hands. Leaping. Twisting. At one point bendingalmost backwards and sweeping them above her body in wide arcs. Managing to lopoff two Gxthian heads at once whilst carving another Demon in half fromshoulder to opposite hip, before removing the arm of a fourth assassin.
Whoa, the conflictin the air was too heavy to ignore. Taking a deep breath, Kaleb savoured allthe many notes. A bit on the violent side, considering Kaleb’s usual fare. Heprobably wouldn’t need to source any more conflict for a week, given the airhere was thick with this all you could eat banquet.
Viscous grey bloodsplattered the concrete in thick puddles, along with an increasing number ofbody parts. Making things both slippery and the footing a little treacherous.It would be five or so minutes until the transportal magic kicked in and bodyparts would begin disappearing, to be returned to the Gxthian Realm.
In the meantime,Shaw planted herself in one spot and began using the long sharp pointed spikesaffixed to the top of her halberd blades to stab the Gxthians through the chestor throat. Once caught on her halberd spikes she would slam them into theirnearest compatriots. If she was quick enough, she could haul back the halberd,flip her hold, and decapitate with a downward chopping motion that wasn’tgraceful but was mighty effective. Given the precarious slipperiness of thefloor, Shaw was perfectly happy just to lop off limbs holding laser swordsfirst, before coming back for a second attempt to separate craniums frombodies.
The last fiveGxthians standing played it smart, standing together, shoulder to leather cladshoulder. Clearly, they were going to attack Shaw in a co-ordinated effortmeant to overwhelm her by sheer numbers. Unfortunately for them they hadforgotten to factor Kaleb into the equation. As he slid down the hood of thetruck, kicking out hard, sending two Gxthians stumbling forward. Their helmetedheads making a surprisingly rhythmic bell like sound as they smacked together.Shaw turning a halberd sideways to slice one of their heads clean off, kickingit towards the three still standing Gxthians. Using that distraction to leaponto the chest of one of the fallen, before leaper higher still off hermakeshift springboard, swinging her halberds in wide opposite arcs.
Three morehelmeted heads flying up into the air, one unfortunately hitting the rearbumper of the mustang. Damn, she hoped that didn’t leave a dent. Twirling herhalberds one last time before thrusting both spikes into the throat of the lastremaining assassin and basically popping his cranium off his body like a corkfrom a bottle.
Surprising evenherself, instead of checking out the possible damage to her car, Shaw turned tocheck on Kaleb. He was shirtless. Why was he shirtless? Oh, then she noticedthe bloodied garment wrapped around his right hand. Remembering those first fewseconds of the attack when he’d raised his hand to block the laser sword aimedfor her back.
She likely wouldhave turned in time without Kaleb’s interference, but quite possibly might haveincurred some damage. Freyja, now she was going to have to add brave to thatgrowing list of good points that made up this surprisingly complicated Demon.
Didn’t mean shehad to like it though, did she?
“You okay?” Thewords had come out kind of growly. But he was just standing there, shirtless,looking even more photoshoot ready than before and it… annoyed her. Of course,it was Shaw’s pride that was a little dented. She was supposed to be acting ashis bodyguard and he’d gotten hurt on her watch.
“Fine… but.”Surprisingly there was a pained expression on Kaleb’s face as he looked herway.
“What?”
“You have a littlesomething.” He pointed at her face.
By the Sword, shedidn’t have a Gxthian body part tangled in her hair, did she? Given her tightspiral curls that happened way more than she would have liked. Disappearing herhalberds, Shaw quickly brushed at her hair, trying to dislodge anything thatshouldn’t be there.
