Segrid let out a disgruntled noise but pulled back. With a scowl, he admitted, “He is helpful but annoys me. I may dispose of them both.”
When he grinned and tossed me a wink, chuckling as the Berserker guy began to curse and cuss up a storm, I burst out laughing. Troll-squatch, shit starter extraordinaire, indeed. “Ugh, I love you, baby,” I admitted, to my male’s immense delight.
∞∞∞
Iwasn’t sure what I’d expected, staring down at the male responsible for the hell that had become my life. He’d manipulated and terrorized me, taking over every aspect of my life towards the end there until Segrid had come barging in and saved me from it all. Now, as I stared at him, my hands hidden in the arms of my thick hoodie so he couldn’t see me wringing them in it worriedly, he was so much… less.
It certainly helped he was tied up, hogtied with some kind of magicked rope, blood dripping down his arms where he’d fought to free himself to no avail. A thick, booted foot pressing to his back kept him from squirming around. The wide shouldered bruiser whose foot held him in place lifted a fat cigar to his dark lips. Pulling out a lighter with a picture of a scantily clad devil woman on it, the Hellhound lit the end of his cigar. His eyes glowed like the tip of the cigar in the low light.
“Got any last words, Johnny Rotten?” the male, Rez, as he’d introduced himself, asked the Vampire at his feet.
“Go fuck yourself,” the Vampire spat. “All of you.” Glaring at me, he bared his fangs and hissed. “You aren’t worth the taste of you, filthy bitch!! Cuckolding Troll whore! You were my bride, as promised to me! Why, I should have snapped your little-”
Before he could finish that sentence, his white blond hair was gripped, jerked back in a meaty fist, and my Troll-squatch prince charming gripped one of his fangs and snapped it clean off. The Vampire screamed, and then there was another snap. Before he could howl again, Segrid turned until his back was to me. A loud, popping snap filled the backyard, a squelching wet noise, the metallic scent of blood thick on the air as it stained the ground, spilling out, and then nothing. Letting the limp body fall where it would, Troll spat on him, huffing in disgust, and had just enough time to catch me before I fell as black spots danced in my vision and splat, I’d done wet myself.
“My Vivienne?” Troll kneeled near the puddle that I am, and went to scoop me up.
“I’ll get a bucket,” Rez called, adding belatedly, “and, like, a trash bag or something for Johnny Rotten over there.” The Hellhound grunted, muttering lower, “He’ll hold, at least ‘til I can get him to somewhere better kept, like the damn old freezer at my place. He should still be dead-dead til’ then.”
You mean he’s not dead? I tried to say, but all that happened was soapy gurgles burbling. And that was all I recalled as I went ahead and passed the heck out.
Chapter 6
Segrid
Staring down at the incapacitated Dhamphir, I rolled his bloody fangs around in my hand for a moment before stuffing them into my pocket. My Queen had found her form as she’d fainted dead away, Rez’s bucket unnecessary. After assisting him in bagging the undead blighter and settling my beloved in her bedroom and tucking her in, assured she was safe, that left only one task left.
“What are you to do with him?” I asked of the Hellhound stuffing the Vampire deeper into the trunk of his metal beast of a car, a Charger, or Ethel, as he called the glorious grey glittering beauty that purred so loudly my trusted van was puny in comparison. Slamming the trunk shut on the Deado, he turned to prop his jean clad backside carefully along the back.
Pulling a sucker from one of the coat pockets of his leather jacket, he peeled the wrapper off and popped the pined apple and coconuts reeking thing into his mouth. His fangs peeked as he grinned. “Got somethin’ in mind for ‘im.”
When I merely raised a single eyebrow questioningly, he shrugged.
“Look, man,” he said suddenly, “it ain’t gonna be nice, he might not survive it, and if he does, you could say there’ll be Hell to pay. You feeling me, Troll?”
“If he comes near my Queen-” I started to warn.
“He won’t,” he cut in. “And if he does, I’ll take care of the defanged twerp myself.” A dark look overtook the hound then, a peek of Hell in the wicked smile that lit his dark features.
“I will be taking your word for it,” I agreed finally, “but heed my warning.”
Rez lifted his hand and shot me a halfhearted salute. “Considered it heeded, or whatever.”
With a grunt, I nodded and turned to return to the house.
“Hey, Troll,” he called as I took the last porch step, “thanks, you know, for letting me take the Fanger off your hands. He’s no use to me actually dead-dead.”
“His head would have been ugly on my wall anyway,” I grumbled with a long, grievous sigh that had the male chuckling darkly.
“Trust me, man, he says he wants a bride? I know some people who will pay top dollar for a desperate leech.”
Now that was interesting. “Be careful what you wish for, yes?” I asked, half turning.
“Exactly.”
“Then may whomever finds themselves attached to his person roast him and dance on his remains,” I called, raising a hand to wave him off, and went into the house.
It was not near what I’d have liked to have done to that disgusting blood sucker, but perhaps I had been going about it all wrong. Yes, the Deado would indeed continue breathing, but if the hound was true to his word and the Vamp did find himself well and truly held by another creature, may he live the kind of hell he’d put my sunshine through.
