The words were barely out of Bagley’s mouth before he was attacking again, dual swords coming in so fast that Karissa knew she’d never stop them both. But she threw up her blade anyway, ready to defend herself as long as possible.
Karissa was surprised when she ended up blocking the attack, and the one that followed, and then the one after that. Bagley looked absolutely amazed himself—and maybe even a bit worried. She couldn’t blame him. She’d never moved this fast or been this precise and sure of herself. Maybe this was why Bagley had been worried about her and Hale getting together.
She landed a few strikes, some getting through his hardened leather armor and drawing blood. Bagley landed a couple of shots of his own, too, but none of that mattered. The important thing was that he was beginning to get nervous.
That’s when she knew she had him on the ropes.
That was also when everything went horribly wrong.
She heard the thud of rapidly approaching footsteps, then someone yelling, immediately followed by gunfire. Bagley stepped away from her far enough to turn and block the incoming rounds with his blades. Karissa had half a heartbeat to wonder if she could use the distraction to her advantage when Bagley darted toward whoever had interrupted them.
There was a clang of metal on metal and something bounced off into the darkness. Then one of Bagley’s blades disappeared into thin air and he was wrapping an arm around the man’s neck, choking so hard that Karissa was sure she could hear him crushing his victim’s throat.
Karissa nearly screamed when she realized it was Lorenzo. Her doofus brother had come back to help, running headlong into the situation without even checking to see if she needed that help. And he’d gotten caught.
“Toss your sword across the room,” Bagley instructed, that infuriating smirk back on his smug face as her brother attempted and failed to get himself free. The hit man barely seemed to notice. It was like her big brother was nothing more than a weak kitten. “Or I’ll snap his neck.”
Karissa instinctively took a half step forward butstopped when Lorenzo winced in pain, gasping for air.
“Across the room,” Bagley repeated, applying a little more pressure around Lorenzo’s neck. “Don’t make it disappear like you normally do. I want it physically across the room.”
Karissa hesitated, especially when her brother looked at her with eyes pleading her not to do it. But another squeeze of Bagley’s arm around Lorenzo’s neck made her send the blade spinning off into the darkness.
Bagley laughed, and it had to be the most menacing sound Karissa had ever heard.
He pulled her brother closer to his chest, the arm around Lorenzo’s neck tightening even more. “You really shouldn’t have done that. Now you can’t do anything but watch as I kill him…and then you.”
She opened her mouth to beg for her brother’s life, knowing she’d never get to him in time to save him. Then a blur suddenly streaked across her line of sight and something huge slammed into both Bagley and her brother.
A low snarl echoed around the room like thunder, practically making the walls tremble. A split second later, Bagley was stumbling back and shouting in pain as Lorenzo slid across the floor on his back. It took a second for Karissa to make sense of what she was seeing. When the fast-moving, fur-covered shape finally resolved itself into anabsolutely enormous wolf, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind.
It was Hale.
She simply knew it.
Bagley was still standing upright even though Hale had his jaws locked down firmly on the man’s right shoulder and was shaking his head viciously side to side. Cursing, Bagley swung his sword. There were several sickening thuds as the blade came down on Hale’s back, shoulder, and flank. Bagley spun in a circle, and all Karissa could do was watch helplessly as Hale went flying off into the darkness with a howl of pain, disappearing in the same direction her sword had gone. The crashing sound as his body hit the floor and slid even farther into the blackness crushed her heart.
Karissa didn’t have time to think about how badly injured Hale might be. Bagley was already coming straight toward her, murder in his eyes. His right shoulder and arm were bleeding heavily, but his left hand was wrapped firmly around his sword.
Reaching behind her back, Karissa pulled out the only weapon she had left—the one lone throwing knife she’d been able to conceal in her pantsuit. She stepped forward to meet Bagley, not sure if holding on to the blade would be any better than throwing it. Either way, a small lightweight knife against a sword wasn’t good odds.
“I’m going to kill you quickly,” Bagley promised.“But rest assured that I’ll enjoy myself when it comes to finishing off your soul mate. And whoever the other man is over there, too.”
Karissa swallowed the rage that filled her heart at those casual announcements of the murders of people she held dear and lunged with her knife.
Bagley knocked the blade aside, almost taking part of her hand with it. Fingers bleeding from the glancing blow, Karissa kept attacking, knowing that she had no other choice. But her efforts got her nowhere, and within moments, she was bleeding from multiple wounds while doing little more than carving a few gouges in Bagley’s leather armor.
Karissa kept fighting until he knocked the knife from her grasp and it bounced off into the darkness, her hand and forearm numb from a heavy strike. Bagley had backed her up against a wall and as he lifted his blade high, she knew it was over.
Movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention, and Karissa risked a quick glance that way to see Hale walking toward her—on two legs this time—blood running down his naked body, her sword in one of his hands.
Her sword in one of his hands.
Before she could even attempt to question how he could possibly be holding her sword—a sword that disappeared when anyone other than her attempted to hold it—the blade was flying through the air toward her.
Bagley charged, swinging his blade. When the hilt of her sword slammed into the palm of her hand, his eyes widened, but he was moving too fast by then to stop his momentum. Knowing she’d never be able to avoid the blow coming her way, Karissa lunged forward instead.
And Bagley impaled himself on her blade.
