“You’re not…what I was expecting.”
She’d probably thought I’d be bigger and scarier, with a back-hump, a girl-stache, and a uni-brow. I got that a lot. It was getting old.Reallyold.
Irked, I ripped a strip of tape from her arm a little rougher than was strictly necessary. “Call me Lex.” I shuffled to my left to cut away the last bit connecting her leg to the chair. “And you’reexactlywhat I was expecting.” Small, frail, and helpless. Typical damsel in distress. All she needed to round out the image was a cone-shaped hat and a tall stone tower.
What I didn’t say was that anyone who’d spent more than an hour with the three stooges out there should know better than to judge a book by its cover. Size isn’t everything; the goblins themselves were proof of that.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded, and my opinion of her improved a little with the knowledge that she had some self-respect and wasn’t afraid to defend it. She stood, the top of her head barely reaching my nose, and stepped quickly away from the tape-covered chair, as if it might snatch her back without warning.
“Precisely what I said. Up for a little poetic justice?” I added before she could argue.
“What’d you have in mind?” Her gaze traveled briefly through the doorway to the barely-lit factory beyond.
I held up the gray tape. “Well, Larry and Curly are down for the count, but if we hurry, Orthus may still have Mo by the back of the pants.”
“I don’t think those are their names.” Surprise flickered behind Cari’s blue-green eyes as she processed the rest of what I’d said. “The hound? Thehoundhas one of them by the seat of the pants?”
I nodded and tossed her the roll of tape.
She caught it in one-handed, still staring at me. “It’stheirhound.”
“I don’t think that’sanyone’sdog.” I hauled the wooden armchair to the office door, pulling the pistol from my waistband on the way. She’d said there were only three bad guys, but victims sometimes got things wrong. Especially when they were tired and in shock. “I’d love to know where they found such a scary-ass mutt in the first place.”
Cari pushed past me into the factory proper, and her eyes widened when she saw that Orthus did indeed have a goblin by the seat of its pants. “Well, there’s the obvious answer,” she said her elbow brushing my arm. Mygunarm. I dropped the chair and stepped away from her. The day I let something get in the way of my aim would be the day I died. Again.
“There’s an obvious answer?” I frowned down at her, pleasantly aware of the three or so inches I had over her, even while I was barefoot. And she was still taller than the tallest of the goblins.
“I mean…” Cari’s eyes narrowed as they found Hagen, where he lay in a widening pool of his own blood. “Where else would you get a hellhound? Other than the obvious.” She crossed eight feet of concrete in several long strides, stopping to kneel beside the now unconscious goblin and check his pulse.
Hellhound?I stared at Orthus, only vaguely aware of Cari pressing a cloth to Hagen’s stomach.The dog’s a fuckinghellhound?That knowledge brought up as many questions as it answered. Like how on earth a human teenager had been able to identify a hellhound when I hadn’t.
“The obvious. Of course,” I muttered. The damn dog had come from, well…hell. And he liked me. I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but it couldn’t be good.
Orthus growled, rolling his eyes toward me in impatience. I glanced at Cari as the shock of the whole hellhound thing wore off. “Hey, what the fuck are you doing?!” I lurched for her, exasperation emanating from my very pores. But if I was irritated with her, I was even angrier at myself for letting her wander off.
I dragged her away from Hagen’s still-but-breathing form by one arm. “Didn’t you learn anything from being kidnapped by a band of goblins? Even half-dead, he could have ripped your arm from its socket.” Stupid humans. They were always making dim-witted decisions, then bitching and moaning when they got hurt. It would have served her right if I’d let the goblin eat her fingers like hors d’oeuvres. Finger food, if you will.
That was a lesson she’d never forget.
“You mean likeyoualmost did?” she retorted, tugging her arm from my grasp as she took a step back from me, adolescent anger blazing in her red cheeks.
I inhaled deeply, searching for patience. “That was gentle compared to what he’d have done to you if he were still conscious.”
“He wouldn’t have touched me.” She frowned up at me, know-it-all defiance written in every line of her face. “I have yet to serve my purpose.”
“Then maybe I should put you right back where I found you.” I glanced pointedly toward where Orthus still had a mouthful of Dirk-tail. “Huh? Pretend I was never here?”
Cari’s face paled, her pixyish features scrunching in panic.
That’s what I thought. “An injured goblin isn’t going to be thinking clearly enough to know heshouldn’thurt you. He’s going to rip apart anything within his reach. You’re lucky he’s unconscious.”
So was I. Damn lucky. My inattention could have cost me Cari’s life, and a hell of a big paycheck.
I gestured toward Dirk with my blood-stained left hand. “Let’s get the third stooge restrained before the dog—” Thehellhound. “—loses his grip. Tear me several long strips of tape.”
Cari wiped both damp hands on what remained of her blouse. At which point I noticed her right sleeve was missing; it was now bandaging the wound in Hagen’s abdomen.
I shook my head in bewilderment. I didnotunderstand the Good Samaritan mentality. I was more of a “survival of the fittest” kind of girl.
