“She wants my best shot, guys?” he said to the men behind him, and they drew closer, their laughter low and menacing. Shiva pulled her close and hissed right into her face. “What if I told you I knew about your little hunting expeditions? That a good enough shot for you?”
Even in the darkness, Keeran could see the colour drain from her cheeks. She tried to pull her arm free, but Shiva held on tight.
“You’re going to have to do better than making up bullshit like that, you miserable piece of shit. Following me into the woods and threatening me with what? Lies that you can’t prove.” She laughed, leaning into him this time. “That’s pathetic even for you.”
“Oh, I think it would be pretty easy to prove.” The smile returned to Shiva’s face, his teeth white in the darkness. “Once I showed them where you stash your bow, I think the council would be all too willing to check your stores. And I bet they’d find contraband in your little human friend’s house, too.” He tutted, shaking his head slowly.
Aelia didn’t reply; she just stared at him, as if her whole world was crumbling around her and she had no idea how to stop it. Keeran did. Shiva was the problem, and oh, how he longed to solve it for her.
Savouring her silence, Shiva grinned round at his friends.
“Have any of you heard her lost for words before?” That elicited another laugh and a few murmured encouragements from the sycophantic morons. Shiva returned his attention to Aelia, his eyes lingering on her face for a moment, savouring the fear she was failing to hide. “You’ve always been such a cocky little bitch, not knowing how to treat your superiors. Maybe if you showed a little respect, I could turn a blind eye to your illegal little ventures.”
This time, she succeeded in yanking her arm free, the anger in her eyes melting the fear that had been there moments before.
“My superior? Just because you can Shift and I can’t?” she scoffed, her face twisting into a snarl that had even Keeran blanching. But what did she mean she couldn’t Shift? She was no human, of that he was sure; the ring of magic in her eye was unmistakable. He’d never heard of an artemian that couldn’t Shift before. “Don’t mistake me for some human you can push around, Shiva. You’re just a limp dicked prat hiding behind a bullshit macho façade. Well, guess what, buddy, you aren’t fooling anyone.”
Shiva snapped. With all the speed of an artemian predator, he struck her right across the face, whipping her head round to the side.
Keeran saw red.
He was on them before they could register he was coming, blurring through the night to grab Shiva by the collar and throw him to the ground hard enough to hear the air whoosh out of his lungs. That winded, he wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry.
That gave him time to deal with the others.
They rounded on him at once, but he was ready. As one of them ran at him, he took hold of his throat and used his momentum to launch him into two of the others, sending all three sprawling. The one left standing tried to stop in his tracks, his confidence failing now that Keeran wasn’t outnumbered. Fucking coward.
Keeran had to really rein himself in, keeping his blows light enough not to kill him, landing a few easily past the man’s sloppy defence. Bored, Keeran angled his fist with calculated precision, smiling when he heard the satisfying crunch of ribs breaking. He swiped his leg round, sending the man crashing to the floor in time to face the three others who’d staggered to their feet.
Keeran longed for a challenge; it had been so long since he’d really lost himself in a fight, since he really settled into the blood frenzy of his people. This was all too easy.
He sank into a crouch and beckoned the three over. After an uncertain glance at each other, they charged.
One ended up on the floor with a broken arm, one lost enough teeth that he’d never bite an apple again, and the last might find he had a fertility issue in the future if the crunch beneath Keeran’s knee was anything to go by. All before Shiva had caught his breath enough to stand.
The four men didn’t wait for their fallen leader; they staggered and stumbled through the undergrowth as fast as their assorted injuries would allow them.
Keeran had his back to Shiva and Aelia, making sure the walking wounded really did leave, and allowing the terribleblack he knew would have filled his eyes to settle before he turned to her. It transpired he needn’t have worried; her attention was firmly fixed elsewhere.
Aelia had Shiva pinned face down in the dirt, his arms wrenched at a horrible angle behind his back. Any harder and she’d dislocate his shoulder. She leant in close from where she was perched on his back to whisper in his ear.
“If you’re going to threaten someone, you really need to prove you can back it up,” she hissed. “Like when I say, ‘if you or your friends so much as breathe a word to the council I’ll cut off that limp little dick we mentioned earlier’, I make damned sure you know I mean it.” She moved a knee between his legs and shifted her weight back onto it. Shiva screamed, and even Keeran felt like squirming as she squashed it against the hard ground.
“We won’t, we won’t,” Shiva cried, the desperation in his voice pathetic, albeit understandable.
“You sure?” Aelia didn’t let up, seeming to enjoy herself.
“I swear.”
“Alright then.” She shifted her weight and climbed off him, letting Shiva roll into the foetal position to clutch between his legs. She stood over him, legs wide in a power stance that had Keeran’s stomach flipping. Who was this woman? “What are you waiting for? Off you fuck.”
Aelia shooed him away with a lazy flick of her wrist. Shiva scrambled to his feet, crashed to all fours as his legs gave way, and half crawled, half ran in the direction his friends had gone.
Aelia watched him go with a smug smile, only turning to Keeran when Shiva had disappeared completely from sight.
“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for an excuse to thump that prick? And the first chance I get foryears,and you swoop in and steal it from me,” she said, and he honestlycouldn’t tell if she was joking. A hint of a smile pulled at her lips, but there was an annoyed glint in her eye that surprised him.
She looked up at him with her hands on her hips, taller than he’d guessed she’d be from a distance, but still having to arch her neck back to look up at him. Not many people had the guts to talk to him like that, especially not after they’d seen him wipe out four grown artemians without breaking a sweat. But here she was, scolding him as if he ought to be the one terrified of her.
