A squarely built, pebbly-skinned Toad Troll stepped forward, his black beady eyes narrowing until they looked as if he’d closed them. His double genitalia swung from side to side, hitting his knees. Didn’t look comfortable to me, not in the least.

“We don’t fight amongst ourselves anymore, fucking stupid fang face.” He spat at Doran who sidestepped the arc of poison easily. With his sidestep, he was now right next to the door, which he pushed open. The two Trolls alive inside were still beating the shit out of each other. It looked like I wasn’t the only one who’d gone about causing grief by chopping off a cock or two.

The leader of the pack let out a long, gurgling hiss and about half the crowd rushed into the building. Doran lifted an eyebrow at me. “Can you handle fifteen?”

I shrugged, my heart pic S mywidth="king up speed. “Better odds than before.”

Without another glance at me, Doran spun and pulled two grenades from under his jacket. Grenades that looked suspiciously like the kind I’d gotten from Deanna. He threw them at Dox’s bar and yelled out the ignition word, “Ignitio!”

The two grenades hit around the same time, or I was assuming that was the case, because I was already rushing the remaining Trolls. “Alex, go for the pink one.” The werewolf let out a howl and launched himself full speed at the tiniest of the Trolls, taking it to the ground and snapping its neck in two seconds flat. I headed straight for the Toad Troll. That one could damage anyone but me. He spit at me, and I took it on the arm, the acid poison burning through my coat, but my skin only got a little bit warm. Booyah for being an Immune.

“Gotcha, fat boy.” I lifted my sword to run him through, but had to spin and deal with an orange-ish Troll on my right coming in fast. A big brute, he reached for me with hands the size of turkeys and enough fingers that he could probably make a mean shadow-puppet professional. I slid toward him, using a back swing to take all those grasping fingers off. Bloody stumps fell to the ground at my feet, still twitching and writhing.

“No touching the Tracker,” I said calmly, as if lecturing him on how to cross the road.

“Stupid Tracker, I’ll skin you like I did the ogre bitches,” he yelled, before falling to the ground, using his teeth to try and gather up his lopped off fingers. The words echoed in my head; they were the same ones on the note I’d found at the farmhouse. These were the guys who helped take out Dox, Sla and the triplets.

Everything around me seemed to slow, and I turned to make eye contact with Toad number two. All that anger I’d tucked away, all that fury I had to hold back, surged in me. “You helped slice my friends up and skin them alive?”

He grinned at me, showing broken teeth and tiny fangs in behind the teeth, retracted like a snake’s. “They cried like little girls as we peeled their hides.”

A scream erupted out of me, rage I’d never known coursing along each nerve ending until I saw nothing but Trolls and the edge of my sword. Blood and viscera flew around me, heads rolled, hearts pierced, and none of it was enough. None of it would bring back Dox.

The seconds blurred, and distantly I knew I’d never fought like this, never moved this fast or killed with such intensity. The movements of my body and blades blended together, a perfect killing machine that felt nothing but fury.

There may have been tears on my cheeks, but I couldn’t be sure, the stimulus of the death around me overwhelming anything else.

Their screams matched mine in intensity until they began to fade. And then just me, screaming, sobbing, kneeling in a pool of blood, hands still gripping my swords as my arms hung to the side.

“Ryleeeeeeeeeeee!” Alex’s howl broke through to me and I took in a ragged, choked breath. He sat across from me, blood staining the silver tips of his fur. “Ryleeeeee,” he said softer, his lower lip jutting way out. “No more, Alex’s heart hurts.”

Shit. I took in another, shaky breath and stood. Behind us, the Landing Pad exploded, a shit storm of glass and wood falling to the ground. I covered my head and ducked. Doran’s grenades apparently had some real bite to them. Good to keep in mind he hadn’t shown me all his tricks yet.

The crackle of a raging fire turned me around. The Landing Pad was engulfed in bright red flames that twisted S thgn= and danced in the winter wind.

“Come on,” Doran said, his eyes soft as they met mine. “We’ve got to get the hell out of here.”

I nodded and all three of us climbed into his Mustang. The drive back to his house was quiet, beyond quiet, which was weird because I heard my heart thumping with each beat.

There was no doubt in my mind those were some of the Trolls that had taken out Dox and the others, but if I could kill them like that, then the Trolls had help taking out my friends. The ogres were skilled warriors; no way Trolls did it on their own.

“Feel better?” Doran asked, as we pulled into his yard. I looked down at myself, and really saw what I looked like. My clothes were thickly crusted with Troll blood. Little bits of matter that could have been flesh or brain were flecked all over, like an abstract painting. A sudden longing to have Liam with me made me close my eyes.

“I think I will shower before we go. Have you got extra clothes?”

Doran rolled his shoulders. “I should have something that will fit you, but you might not like it.”

“Temporary clothes don’t have to be anything fancy,” I said, sliding out of the car. Shit, I was going to burn these. The leather jacket I would be able to salvage, but it had a new hole to add to the mix, and I’d have to throw out the wool lining. At least that could be replaced.

Alex padded quietly beside me, pressing himself against my leg. I realized he was doing it for me, giving me someone to lean on. I put a hand on his back. “Thanks, buddy.”

He said nothing, just looked up at me with those liquid gold eyes, then away. Doran once more led the way, this time deeper yet into the house, past the bedroom where the woman’s body still lay as if asleep.

With a sweeping gesture, Doran opened a simple white wood, slatted door into a bathroom of the kind I’d never seen. Floor to ceiling pale pink marble coated the entire room, which looked to be about thirty feet deep and twenty feet wide. An in-floor tub that took up the far wall filled with water and suds, waiting for someone to dive in; behind it a fireplace crackled, the flames dancing.

“Take your time.” Doran stepped back and shut the door behind him with a soft click.