Blackthorn [3] Blood Torn (49 page)

Eden shook the tension from his shoulders, rolled his head left and right, nimbled up, ignoring his waning energy before taking a defensive stance.

Unfairly fresh to the fight, the leader eventually took advantage. Several poundings later, he’d weakened Eden enough for number three to get a grip on him. Wrenching Eden’s arms back, number three exposed Eden’s torso for the leader to make several more dangerously impactful blows.

Eden knew he had no choice but to sag, the move allowing him to regain a few inches between him and his captor, the latter loosening his grip just a fraction as he’d hoped.

Not wasting any time, Eden used the leader as a walk-up, kicking him hard in the jaw and simultaneously slamming him against the brick wall in the process. He concluded the manoeuvre by pivoting over the one who held him and taking him to ground with the force, his opponent’s head cracking on the floor beneath him as he used him to soften his own fall.

Stumbling back to his feet, Eden spat out another mouthful of blood as he looked across at the leader now also upright again, his slitty eyes filled with rage.

This time Eden was out of patience. A full-on fight in under three hours was not what he had planned for. And he most certainly hadn’t accounted for dying. This time the leader was going down.

But another con emerged from around the corner. One who clearly wasn’t expecting to walk in on the floorshow but, from the way he smirked as he discarded his cigarette, was all for interaction.

The newbie and the leader fought together and they fought dirty, Eden taking several more blows for the many more he defended. He struck them both hard enough to draw blood several times, but not enough to floor either of them for long.

His body ached, his eyes blurred as he took a smack to the nose. But as the newbie wrapped his arm around his neck, jammed his other arm behind his back, Eden hadn’t expected the leader to play
that
dirty.

He rammed the blade into Eden’s side. And twisted.

‘Fucking do it again,’ the one holding Eden hissed.

Eden felt the blade leaving his numbing body, before the leader rammed it in again.

When he felt it withdrawn once more, Eden knew the next one was going to be fatal.

He took a steady inhale to build up the last of his strength, ready to shove back against his captor with all his force.

A split second later, the leader’s head was twisted sharply to the side, his limp body slumping to the floor. He heard further crack of bones from the newbie, his hold loosening.

Eden fell to his knees on the floor. He clutched his side as he squinted up through blurry, bloodied eyes, barely able to make anything out but a girl stood above him – a tall and shapely female with dark, waist-length ringlets.

That distinctive feature along with the fact that, whoever she was, she clearly wasn’t human, told him he might have found what he’d come for.

If
he lived long enough to see it through.