Without thinking, I reacted by driving my fist into my attacker’s groin. He dropped like a ton of bricks.
“Sorry, sorry,” he moaned over and over, hands clutching his crotch as he rolled side to side in pain.
It was a Tribunal Security guard. I turned at the sound of footsteps and found two more security guards racing up the porch with batons in hand.
They heard their partner wheezing, “My fault, sorry, oh God it hurts,” and figured out the situation.
“What are you guys doing here?” I demanded.
“We were told to keep the perimeter secure by Investigator Thomas,” replied one of the guards coming to the aid of his man on the floor.
“When did that come about?”
“We started detail this evening.”
Thomas went so far as to assign a security detail to the house? He trusted my Protector skills so little he brought in a Tribunal Security team to do what he thought I was incapable of doing on my own?
They told me they were assigned as security during the day and hadn’t expected any trouble; it was the night shift they believed would have all the action. The guy rolling on the floor was new and a bit nervous because the other two had told him all sorts of scary stories about the ferociousness of half-bloods.
He was simply jumpy and when I opened the door without announcing my presence, he acted first and thought second. This, unfortunately for him, would be a decision that would haunt him for the rest of the day.
His two buddies helped pick him up and I rushed inside for a bag of ice. I didn’t mean to punch so hard, but it was daytime so I hadn’t thought I would do too much damage. I guess all those hours of training with Cyrus were improving my strength and reaction time.
I returned with the ice wrapped in a dish towel and apologized again.
“I’m really sorry about that,” I clucked like a mother hen.
“Yeah, my bad. Not a problem,” he responded through clenched teeth, yelping a little when he put the ice on his groin.
“I’m Colby, by the way.” I put out my hand to shake but realized his were kind of full at the moment.
His two buddies grinned and introduced themselves as Todd and Mark, taking my hand in turn.
Todd, who’d explained the situation, was very tall and wide like a football linebacker. He whistled in appreciation of my fast reaction.
“You know, Colby, I’ve never seen a girl, much less such a tiny one such as yourself ever get the best of any Tribunal Security.”
Mark nodded in agreement, looking at Zach, his downed comrade, in shame. “Yeah, it’s a sad day when a girl punches you in the nads, man.”
Zach tried to defend himself. “She’s superfast and stronger than she looks.”
I nodded at them. “He’s right. I’m stronger than I look.”
Todd and Mark looked at each other and laughed some more.
“It’s okay, buddy.” Todd clapped his hand on Zach’s shoulder. “It can happen to the best of us.”
There was more guffawing all around.
“If you guys hadn’t told him all those stories about how dangerous half-bloods were, he wouldn’t be hurt, you know.”
I was trying to scold them but one look at Zach’s face made me realize my mistake. The girl who punches a man’s family jewels doesn’t raise his standing by scolding his buddies. Apparently, this adds to the humiliation. So I decided to offer an olive branch instead.
YOU ARE READING
Fangs for Freaks (Book 2: Half-blood vampire series)
VampireHalf-blood vampire protector Colby Blanchard knows there's nothing like a blood sister... She's got the half-blood vampires freed from slavery or worse, execution and created a protective haven for them. She's laid the smack-down for some way-neede...