Page 43 of Deck the Skulls

“I’m not dragging, I’m carrying,” Pike said as he passed behind Anatoly with a girl under each arm.

Rissa wasn’t amused. She would never leave Anatoly to fight without her backing him up!

“Let me go, you big fucker,” she ordered, trying to get out of his hold without doing damage. The guy was only trying to protect her, but when she saw the stairwell looming, she took drastic action.

“Sorry,” she said before she slammed her fist into Pike’s crotch. The man went perfectly still, then slowly sank to his knees while letting both women slide out of his grip.

“Pike?” Cora asked, rushing to stand in front of him. “What happened?”

“Get him upstairs,” she said to Cora before scrambling to her feet. When she turned to join the fray, she froze at what she saw.

She blinked, not believing her eyes. There were three wolves the size of mastiffs fighting the strangers. Where Mason had been standing was a stone gargoyle with a long sweeping tail, horns, and clawed hands. He grabbed one of the men and literally ripped him in half, throwing the two halves to the sides.

Anatoly and Kimble were grappling with several of the men, and while they hadn’t changed into animals, both men’s eyes were glowing red.

Then Zan entered the bar. He didn’t even pause when he saw the chaos. His outline blurred, she heard ripping clothing, and then there was a huge mountain lion standing where he’d been.

The identical nonuplets had changed as well. All of them had big spikes coming out of their backs and their fingers ended in long, curved black claws.

“I’m dreaming,” she whispered. That was the only explanation. Or someone had snuck shrooms in one of her drinks.

A table hit the wall not far from where she was and exploded into kindling. One of the pieces of wood hit her in the cheek, causing her to flinch.

Reaching up, she felt the spot. It hurt. When she brought her fingers back down, there was blood. This wasn’t a dream. She was really here, seeing these things happen.

Then her gaze was drawn to the woman who’d run into Sanguine. She was still curled up on the floor, sobbing.

Fuck, she was right in the middle of everything. The world might have gone strange, but there was someone in danger, and Rissa felt the driving need to help.

Crawling on her hands and knees, Rissa skirted around the fighting and got to the woman.

“Hey, can you move?” she asked.

The woman opened her eyes, looking up at Rissa with both hope and confusion.

“You’re human?” she whispered.

“Of course—” Rissa stopped herself. There was no “of course” with everything going on. She tried again. “Yup, 100% human, and I want to get out of danger. Can you come with me?”

Movement caught her eye, and she glanced to her right. The guy that the gargoyle had ripped in half was slowly coming back together.

“Oh, that’s not good,” she mumbled.

The woman followed her gaze, then let out a little whimper when the guy’s eyes moved, and he looked right at them.

“Come on!” Rissa said, grabbing the woman's hand and half leading, half dragging her behind the bar. As far as safe went, it wasn’t much, but it was better than being right next to the front door. The woman curled up against her, clutching at her with a surprisingly strong grip.

“It’s okay,” Rissa soothed. “I’m sure everyone out there will take care of those things. No one’s going to hurt you.”

“Only putting salt on them will stop their regeneration,” she explained with a sniff. “They’ll keep coming back over and over again until everyone is exhausted. I need to run!”

Rissa raised up on her knees and looked over the bar top. The nonuplets were spread out across the bar, blocking both exits. Pike and Cora were gone, hopefully sheltering upstairs like Anatoly ordered. That was good, she didn’t want the other woman getting hurt because of her.

“We’re not going anywhere yet,” she said, sinking back down.

That’s when she saw that the woman had found a knife. She was focused on it, her tears drying up. Rissa didn’t like the weird calm that had taken over the woman’s expression.

“I won’t let them take me to McConnel, or anyone else,” she said, her voice flat. “I’ll kill myself first.”