“Stop!” I roared.
They did, staring, and I struck. I kicked the one with the knife in the face. His head snapped back and the shiv he held dropped to the floor. The woman flung her hands up, obviously trying for a spell, but I reached out and popped her head into the rock, knocking her out cold. Before the guy could recover, I snatched him off Poppy and dangled him mid-air. “Shame on you,” I told him.
He blinked at me stupidly, his nose pouring blood.
“Picking on other people is going to get you killed. So, knock it off or I’ll stuff your shiv where the sun don’t shine so you’ll have it with you the rest of your life. Got me?” The guy nodded and I set him on his feet. “Get your partner and go.”
He stared at me dumbly, blood still pouring out of his nose. Really pouring.
“You might need to see someone about that,” I said.
The man finally realized what was happening and put his hands up to his face. Blood streamed around his fingers. “Oh crow.”
“Get lost. Now!” I roared.
The roar gave him the impetus he needed to lift the woman off the floor and go for the entrance. They ran into Crush, bounced off, stared in utter horror and then slink around him.
I nodded in satisfaction, then squatted next to the woman on the floor. “Hello, Poppy. We’re here to save you.”
She blinked up at me, her eyes bloodshot, bags prominent under her eyes. “Who in Hecate’s name are you?”
“Mayhem, at your service. That’s my friend Crush. We’re gargoyles sent by the Queen of Hell to keep you safe.”
Her eyes slid shut as she muttered, “What the fuck, Korri?”
Chapter Four
She was a pretty little thing. Her eyes were a sparkling brown, or perhaps snapping would be a more apt word. She had her hands on her hips and she was glaring up at me and Crush as if she could kick both our asses.
It was cute, really. Though I knew enough not to say that to her.
“I don’t want you here. Why are you here? What was Korri thinking? You’re what now?”
I held up my hands to stop the questions for a moment so I could answer a few, but she continued.
“I do not need her help. I had everything under control. Oh sure, those guys were going to kill me, but I had a spell ready. A rune spell. I’m a educist! Of course I had a spell ready. And it would have given me leverage over them, leverage enough to get my questions answered. But no, you had to charge in here like some big hero,” she waved her hand at me in frustration, “whatever you are. Seriously?”
“Okay,” I said after sharing a glance with Crush. “Here’s the granite. We’re ‘goyles sent by Korri from Hell to protect you. Whether you like it or not, that’s what we’re here to do. And the Queen of Hell doesn’t want you to die in here. So.” I shrugged.
“This is crazy. And wrong. I should get a say whether I want to have two big galoots looming over me all the time.”
“Galoots,” Crush said with a grin. “I like it. Has a nice mouthfeel. Crush Galoot at your service.” My friend bowed low, gracefully, despite his large size.
“Dear Hecate,” Poppy moaned. She pressed her hand to her forehead and paced away and back to us. “This isn’t okay. I mean, I’m a fully capable adult woman. I know Korri means well, but I’m doing okay without her. Okay, I fell in with some idiots and let them convince me I was better off martyring myself for their cause, but I figured out that was not cool. So, you can just trot your stony asses back to Hell and let her know I don’t need her.” She paused. “Tell her I’m not mad at her anymore, okay? I worked that out too.” She licked her lips. “Tell her to come visit me. I won’t yell at her again.”
“Yeah, no.”
She blinked. Tipped her head. “Excuse me?”
“We heard all that and I totally get the whole empowerment thing. Heck, Crush and me, we’ll let you be empowered all you want. We love that in women. But we’re here to protect you and so we’re here.” I shrugged. “You can tell us what to do if it’ll make you feel better.”
Her eyes narrowed. If looks could kill … “She sort of reminds me of cousin Medusa. Don’t you think, Crush? Her hair’s not green.”
“Not snakes either.”
“Stop!”
We stopped and watched her expectantly.
“This is ridiculous. I’m going back to my tunnel, to my cell. Which means I’m going to say goodbye to you now.”
“Not yet,” Crush said. “We need to come up with some sort of agreement. Because we have a job to do and, like it or not, you’re the job.”
“I am not a job.”
“A pretty job,” Crush conceded, “but a job.”
“Listen,” I said, “we want to help. If you’re working on something, surely three is better than one, right? And those guys were males, right? Can you go to the dude side? No? Exactly. We can be assets to you, help you do whatever it is you’re doing.”
She huffed out a breath. “This is insane.”
“Question,” Crush said.
She arched a brow. “What.” It wasn’t even a question, just a flat statement as if daring him to keep going.
Crush, of course, was oblivious. It was his thing. “What is a educist?”
“Seriously?” She looked at him, to me, and back to Crush. “I draw magic into objects. Not everyone can do it or do it well, anyway. And it’s like rune magic, but I don’t need the sigils to draw the magic.”
“Neat.”
She looked a little confused at his enthusiastic acceptance, but then again, she’d never met a gargoyle before.
“Tell you what, Poppy. We meant what we said about you telling us what to do. We’re both fine with that.” I looked to Crush, and he nodded. “Let us
