“Do that again,” the man growled, crawling to his feet.
“With pleasure.”
Christian hadn’t brought any impalement wood. He liked fighting with his hands and mind. Plus Viktor needed all the weapons he could get. There were nothing but gaudy paintings, statues, and tables surrounding him. The white roses had gone past their freshness date, the heady smell mingling with the stench of bodies. He stepped over a smashed painting on the floor and kicked a few overturned chairs out of the way. A headless Vampire lay in the corner.
Raven must have been here.
“For a man your size, you certainly have a disproportionate body,” Christian mused. “The last time I saw legs that frail was at the nursing home.”
Hercules flipped a table across the room, reminding Christian of primate behavior when they sensed an imbalance of power.
Christian knifed around a statue and charged the brute from the side. Their bodies clashed like two heavy stones. Hercules tried to wrap his thick arms around him but couldn’t lock hands. It was a familiar tactic, one easily avoided.
Christian wrestled his way to the side and put his foe in a headlock. “I bet you didn’t know that most mammals have seven cervical vertebrae. So a man has the same number as a giraffe.” He hooked his right arm around the Vampire’s head to break his neck, but before he could twist, Hercules slammed him against the wall with the force of his body again and again, until Christian lost his grip. The impact left a crater in the wall.
Irritated, Christian shoved the Vamp into the dismembered statue, and it broke into pieces. “Get off me, you dullard.”
The man hurled a large stone at Christian’s head. “Fuck you!”
Aha.He’d finally found the man’s insecurity, and it had nothing to do with his looks. Younglings were so sensitive, and it was obvious this guy was no more than five years old based on his language skills. He’d probably spent every waking hour in the gym to compensate for his lack of intelligence.
Christian ducked when the next stone flew at his head. “Missed me, you nitwit. I’ve never met a man as big as you that wasn’t a simpleton. Is that why you were chosen to babysit the corpses? The boss realized it was the perfect job for a blundering eejit like you.”
The man scowled. “I’m gonna rip your head off.”
Christian bowed theatrically. “Give it your best go, arseface.”
This time Christian dug in his heels and bulldozed the Vampire across the room. Hercules struck the wall, and his ribs cracked. Christian winced when the Vampire bit his shoulder like a rabid animal.
“Get the feck off me!” He couldn’t punch the man in the face because of the odd angle, so he twisted the man’s nipple clean off.
The big oaf shrieked and let go, blood covering his mouth.
“So that’s how it’s gonna be?” Incensed, Christian stalked over to a table and broke off the flat top. “You should be ashamed to call yourself a Vampire. A few broken ribs and you’re sucking on my vein like a teat.” Christian hefted the metal base. “Just for that, I’m not giving you a choice of which hole I’m gonna shove this in. And after that, I’m gonna smother your dead body with the rotting corpses in the other room—maggots and all.”
A ruckus sounded upstairs—furniture breaking, feet trampling.
“You’re gonna put that down,” the black-eyed Vampire demanded.
Not just commanded—he said it with conviction.
Christian sputtered out a laugh. “Are you trying to charm me? That was a sad attempt. I bet you’re no more than five in immortal years. Am I right? You’re still in diapers.” He hurled the table at him like a spear. “I’m your worst nightmare.”
The mostly naked Vampire was too big to move as nimbly as Christian. When he twisted away, the broken end of the table scraped across his bicep and back. Christian was a missile when he took off. He bent over like a bull targeting a matador and struck the man in the hips, flipping him over his head.
It sounded like a thick cut of meat smacking against the floor when the Vampire landed on his back.
Christian quickly turned around, grabbed a leg, and snapped it.
His adversary bellowed in pain.
Before the dunderhead got the bright idea to heal with more blood, Christian reached up and broke his arm. Screams filled the open room, louder than the music at one point. Then he flipped him onto his stomach.
Christian smacked the man’s thick skull against the hard floor. Not once but twice. “That should do it.”
The Vamp suddenly used his good arm and good leg to get on all fours. Blood dribbled onto the white floor from his dented forehead.
“Are you fecking kidding me?” He climbed over the man’s back and put him in a tight headlock. Squeezing with all his might, Christian lost focus and his hearing flooded back. There he was, straddling the man from behind with “Lady in Red” blaring from the car speakers. The domed ceiling and hard floors provided the perfect acoustics for the romantic song.
