I was aware of my legs sliding out from under me and my ass hitting the pavement.
"Owen!"
I thought I heard Phillip yell my name, but I wasn't sure, given the way my ears were ringing right now. One thing that I did know, I had to find some way to fend off Richie, or the dwarf would beat me to death.
Richie drew back his leg. I jerked to one side, and his foot slammed into the driver's door of Finn's car, leaving a dent. The dwarf cursed and hopped around, howling with pain. I got up on my hands and knees and started crawling away from him -
My fingers brushed something hard and metal lying on the ground, and I felt a wave of magic flowing into me. I focused on the cold, hard, unyielding feel of my own power, and the soft, soothing whispers of the silverstone. After a moment, my vision fully cleared, and I felt stronger than before -
A hand dug into my shoulder and threw me against the side of the car. I slumped back down on my ass, although this time, I managed to hang on to my hammer. My hand closed around the handle, and my fingers slid into the worn, smooth, familiar groove.
"Time to die," Richie hissed, his mouth curving up into a bloody smile.
I waited until he leaned down to punch me, then I raised up the hammer and hit him in the head with it as hard as I could.
Crack.
All the movement in Richie's body just stopped, like a toy that had had its battery ripped out.
I pulled the hammer out of the dent it had made in his skull, and the dwarf pitched forward without another sound, his blood spattering all over me and his body sprawling across mine. I shoved him away and slowly got to my feet. A few feet away, Phillip was raising his own hammer high and bringing it down on Stuart's throat. He didn't need my help. He rarely had, even when we were kids.
I looked at the bloody end of the weapon in my hand. Maybe I should make Gin a hammer instead of another set of knives -
Clack-clack-clack-clack.
It took me a moment to realize that someone was running toward me in what sounded like a pair of high heels. I whipped around, and then I wished that I hadn't, as the movement made my skull start pounding even worse than before.
"Gin?" I mumbled, wondering if she'd somehow seen the fight and come to help.
But it wasn't Gin who was racing toward me. It was Sierra, the waitress.
She stopped right in front of me. Since I'd last seen her on the dance floor, she'd put a red leather jacket on over her black bustier, and a matching red purse dangled off her right shoulder.
I frowned, wondering if maybe my vision wasn't quite as clear as I thought it was. "Sierra? What are you doing here - "
"Hi, sugar," she drawled.
Sierra smiled, pulled a stun gun out of her purse, shoved it into my chest, and hit me with it.
Chapter 6
The volts of electricity pumping through my chest made every single nerve ending in my body flare to life and explode with pain. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Instead, my legs went out from under me again, and I slumped to the ground, my muscles jumping and twitching with spasms. It was all I could do to hold on to my hammer, but I knew that if I let go of it, I was dead.
Sierra smiled, leaned down, and hit me with the stun gun again. My head arched back, and I could feel every tendon in my neck, shoulders, and chest straining against the electricity surging through my body. Once again, I opened my mouth to scream but couldn't get a sound out. Every wave of electricity felt like ropes of fire curling tighter and tighter around my body.
Sierra finally pulled the stun gun away from my chest, and I slumped against the side of the car, all the fight fried right out of me. Sweat ran down my face, the salt of it stinging my eyes, and I struggled to blink away the moisture and push down the pain pulsing through my body.
I was dimly aware of Phillip still struggling with Stuart off to my left. It sounded like the giant had had a little more life left in him than I'd thought.
"Geez," Sierra muttered, staring at Richie, who was still lying on the pavement where he'd fallen. "You really did a number on him, didn't you?"
She dug the sharp toe of her red stiletto into the dwarf's side, but of course, Richie didn't move. He was much too dead for that.
"Who . . . are . . . you?" I finally managed to rasp.
She bent down so she could look into my eyes. "I'm the woman who's going to kill the high and mighty Spider - not you and your buddy there. I knew that you were up to something. You were showing way too much interest in her inside the club. Tell me, did they hire you to take out Blanco too? As a backup team in case I failed?"
They? Who were