We moved down the hall and found no sign of what had terrified the prisoners. For a moment, I thought it might be the warden’s newly arrived guards but there was no sign of them or anything that might have caused the impromptu stampede.
“Well, well, well,” a deep-throated voice said over my shoulder. “What have we got here?”
I recognized the voice immediately and spun around, releasing Agatha’s hand and taking up my bedpost cudgel. Before I could bring it around, one of the Afzit twins placed the point of his blade up under my chin.
He had a large bulge from where I’d struck him over the head earlier. He had other cuts to his face and unless he came in contact with another prisoner earlier, it was my handiwork and labeled him as the elder twin.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said.
“Oh, but we do,” Afzit the elder growled under his breath. “Nobody issues a beat down of the Afzit twins without paying for it.”
I was keenly aware there was only one brother. Where was the other one? Had I hit him over the head so hard that it took him out of commission?
I hoped so.
Agatha screamed and when I turned, I found the other twin wrapping his arms around her waist and tugging her away from me.
“Agatha!” I yelled, turning to confront Afzit the younger.
The blade stiffened beneath my chin and made a small incision there, causing the blood to run down my neck.
“We’ll have none of that,” Afzit the elder said. Then he spoke to his brother. “What have we got there?”
Afzit the younger pulled Agatha’s hood back, revealing the smooth cheeks of her face and her gorgeous blazing eyes.
“Looks like we’ve got ourselves a Prize!” the younger Afzit twin said.
“Is this true?” Afzit the elder said, fixing me with a dangerous glare. “Have you been holding out on us?”
Afzit the younger grabbed at Agatha’s breasts through the thick material of the shirt she was wearing.
“And boy, she’s a beaut!” he said.
“And where might you be taking her?” Afzit the elder said.
My hands weren’t far from the blade at my throat. If I was quick, could I take him out? I glanced across at Agatha, who struggled against Afzit the younger’s wandering hands. He lifted up her shirt and cupped a naked breast and lowered his mouth to suck on her nipple.
I might take out one brother but it would leave Agatha in danger.
I turned to Afzit the elder, his black eyes drilling into me.
“I was taking her to the Klika gang leader, Inchun,” I said.
The elder blinked, taken aback. Afzit the younger’s mouth pause and came no closer to Agatha’s nipple.
“Inchun?” Afzit the younger said, sharing a look with his elder brother. “Why would you be taking a fine specimen such as this to the likes of him?”
“I owe a debt,” I said calmly. “This is my way to repay him. I found her wandering the halls, lost, and decided to make the most of the opportunity.”
Afzit the younger released Agatha’s breast and wrapped his hand around her throat instead. Even he wouldn’t want to anger Inchun if she really was his property.
“But he doesn’t know you’re coming with her, does he,” Afzit the elder grinned. “You owe us a debt for the attack you made on us earlier. And you can take what little of her is left to Inchun once we’re done with her.”
“Inchun won’t be pleased with a damaged product,” I said, overriding the nasty taste of bile bubbling at the back of my throat at my own words.
She wasn’t a product. She had been early in the evening but after I claimed her and made love to her for the first time, we’d become so much more.
“We’ll take you both to our cell,” Afzit the elder said. “We’ll have our way with her, you’ll watch, and then you can take her away.”
“Fair enough,” I said.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at Agatha. She would have a beaten and broken look on her face that I could do this to her.
“Your cell is this way, right?” I said, turning to point, knowing the cell was in the other direction.
“No, it’s this way—”
As I turned one way and Afzit the elder turned the other, his blade left my throat an inch. I snapped my hands around his arm and twisted it. I wanted to break it so it was unusable, but the damn creature moved with the movement, jumped, spinning end over end, and threw out a leg.
It struck me across the head but it didn’t knock me down.
The reactive movement of my head was less than Afzit the elder expected. He lost his balance and fell to the ground.
I slammed my foot on his chest and, my hands still wrapped about his wrist, twisted his arm.
There was the satisfying crunch as I ripped it from its socket but it wouldn’t be enough to disable the creature. Such injuries were common in the pit. It wouldn’t take him long to heal from it.
A snapped bone on the other hand…
I brought his arm down over my knee. A sharp snap tore a scream from the elder’s throat.
I leaned forward and buried a fist in his face. It wasn’t enough to knock him unconscious but the resulting slap against the hard floor was. His entire body went limp.
His knife fell from his grip and I caught it, lowering it to his throat.
I looked up at Afzit the younger who had his own blade at Agatha’s throat. She struggled but it was no use.
“Let my brother go,” he hissed.
“Let her go first,” I said calmly.
“How do I know you’ll keep your word?”
“I think we both know I’m the more honorable of us.”
The younger twin hissed through his fang-like teeth and growled. He was crazy enough to slit Agatha’s throat and run at me with the blade. The twins were known to do a lot worse.
Agatha ended the stalemate
