Amber Silverblood: Rogue Wolf

Chapter Fourteen

Dex and I didn't move as one of the men walked across the room to cut off our exit, and the other kicked the grate back into the floor.

"Dex, what's going on?" I asked in a low voice.

"Gargoyles," he answered, frowning. "Skin made of stone. Strong as seven humans."

I looked at one of them, and he pounded his fist into his palm with a loud, very inhuman, CRACK. Like beating two rocks against each other.

"Gentlemen," Dex said, raising his hands in surrender. "We're not here to fight."

"I'd say you are," said the one by the door. "Otherwise this won't take long at all."

"We're just looking for someone who came through that grate either late last night or early this morning," he insisted. "Maybe you can help—"

"She was here about four in the mornin'," the one nearest to me answered. "Her and the big pile of money she gave us to keep you from followin' her anymore."

I looked at him and frowned. Whether or not he'd meant to, he had just given us a clue. She had been here. We were chasing a woman.

Now we just had to get out of here alive.

"Whatever she's paying you," Dex said slowly, "I can pay double."

The two gargoyles shared a look, scowled, and shook their heads.

"We don't like to go 'round breakin' our promises," said the one by the door.

Dex sighed. "Then maybe this will convince you!"

With that, he whipped out his scepter, the yellow gem glowing as bright as the sun. The gargoyles shied back a couple of steps when they saw it, but if Dex had been hoping they'd run for the hills he must have been pretty disappointed. Instead it only seemed to make them even angrier, baring their long, sharp teeth and snarling at us.

"Amber," Dex said quietly, "get back in the pipe while I take these idiots out."

I snorted. "Yeah, right."

"I'm serious, Amber! These guys are—"

Before he could finish, they both charged at us. Dex whipped around and blasted a bolt of energy at the one by the door, hitting him in the knee. He fell with a scream of pain and toppled over onto a table, breaking it in half.

The other one came for me. Spinning around to face him, I ducked underneath his outstretched arms as he tried to wrap me in a bear hug. Grabbing a nearby chair in both hands, I swung it as I stood back up, bashing it against his head. The chair shattered and the gargoyle staggered away from me, disoriented. I grunted in disappointment. A hit like that should have taken his head clean off.

Behind me, the first gargoyle growled as he stood back up, raising the table he'd broken over his head. "Property damage will not be tolerated!"

He hurled the table at Dex, who blasted it with his scepter, obliterating it.

"I do not," he said, "have a witty comeback for that."

Then he shot him in the face.

I looked at my enemy just as he shook off the blow I'd given him. Reaching down, he grabbed one of the metal barstools and yanked it out of the floor. He swung it at my head like a club, and I barely managed to duck out of the way in time. I could feel the force behind his swing just from the wind that blasted from it. One hit from that thing, and my head would pop like a rotten watermelon.

He raised it over his head and swung again, and I jumped back as fast as I could, kicking one of the tables at him in the process. The stool smashed it to pieces, and while those splinters flew through the air I ducked behind another table.