Finn winced and gave her an apologetic shrug, but he never took his eyes off the dwarf.
The dwarf’s head snapped up at the sound of my voice, and the gun followed a second later. He stepped to the end of the counter and grabbed hold of my bare arm, his fingers digging into my skin as he pulled me next to him. His hot breath wafted up my nose, reeking of onions and garlic. I hoped he’d enjoyed whatever he’d had for lunch today because he was going to be eating through a straw soon enough.
“Who the hell are you?” he growled, shoving the gun in my face. “Where did you come from?”
“I was . . . I was . . . I was in the back, trying on some evening gowns,” I said in the breathiest, most terrified and helpless voice I could muster. “I don’t want any trouble. Please, please, please don’t shoot me!”
The dwarf stared at me for several seconds before he lowered his gun and let go of my arm.
“Just so you know, that’s the ugliest damn dress I’ve ever seen,” he said. “You look like a fucking daffodil.”
He shook his head and reached inside the case to grab another handful of jewelry. The second his eyes dropped to the diamonds, I stepped forward, yanked the gun out of his hand, and drove my fist into the side of his face.
With his dense, dwarven musculature, it was like smashing my knuckles into a cement block. My punch didn’t have much effect, except to make him stop looting the jewelry case and focus all his attention on me, but that was exactly what I wanted.
“Stupid bitch!” he growled, stretching his hands out to grab me. “I’ll kill you for that—”
I pistol-whipped him across the face with the gun. My fist might not have had much of an impact, but the sharp edges and heavy, solid weight of the weapon did. His nose cracked from the force, and blood arced through the air, the warm, sticky drops spattering onto my skin.
The dwarf howled with pain, but he reached for me again. I tightened my grip on the gun and slammed it into his face once more. And I didn’t stop there. Again and again I hit him, smashing the weapon into his features as hard as I could. The dwarf fought back, wildly swinging his fists at me over and over again. Despite the blood running in his eyes, he was a decent fighter, and so I grabbed hold of my Stone magic and pushed the cool power outward, hardening my skin into an impenetrable shell.
Good thing, since the dwarf’s fist finally connected with my face.
Given his strength, the blow rocked me back, and I felt the force of it reverberate through my entire body, but it didn’t shatter my jaw like it would have if I hadn’t been using my magic to protect myself. Still, the dwarf took it as a sign of encouragement that he’d finally been able to hit me.
“Not so tough, now, are you?” he snarled, advancing on me again.
“Tough enough to do this,” I said.
I waited until he was back in range, blocked his next blow, and then used the gun to coldcock him in the temple. His eyes widened, taking on a glassy sheen, and then rolled up in the back of his head as he slumped to the floor.
“You know, Gin, you really should warm up before you tee off on somebody like that,” Finn murmured, leaning across the counter and staring down at the dwarf. “Wouldn’t want you to pull a muscle or anything.”
“Oh, no,” I sniped, letting go of my Stone magic so that my skin would revert back to its normal texture. “We wouldn’t want that. Have I told you how much I hate shopping?”
Finn just grinned, and pulled out his cell phone from his pocket to call Bria and report the attempted robbery. I used the long skirt of the dress to wipe my prints off the gun, and then put the weapon down on top of the jewelry case.
I’d just started to head to the fitting room to change back into my own clothes, when the two saleswomen blocked my path. They both looked at me with serious expressions. They were probably going to thank me for saving them—
“You know you have to pay for that,” Red said.
“Oh, yeah,” Blonde chimed in. “That’s a ten-thousand-dollar dress you just got blood all over.”
Blood? There hadn’t been that much blood. It wasn’t like I’d sliced the dwarf’s throat open with one of my knives, which is what I usually did when bad folks crossed my path.
I opened my mouth to respond, when I caught sight of my reflection in one of the mirrors on the wall. Dark brown hair, gray eyes, pale skin. I looked the same as always, except for the flowing yellow dress—and the blood that covered my hands, arms, and chest. Actually, being covered in blood pretty much was the same as always for me. But the dwarf had bled more than I’d thought, and the fancy gown now looked like it had come straight out of a horror movie where everyone dies at the big dance.
I started to push past the two women, but they crossed their arms over their chests and held their ground. Apparently, the sight of a ruined dress was more offensive than the fact that I’d just bludgeoned someone unconscious right in front of them.
“I just saved your snotty little store from getting robbed, not to mention kept that dwarf from probably killing you both, and you actually think you’re going to charge me for it?” I stepped forward. “Keep talking, and this dress won’t be the only thing in here with blood on it, sugar.”
Red paled. After a moment, she stepped aside. I turned my cold gaze to Blonde, who sucked in a breath and stepped aside too.
I stomped past them, went into the fitting room, closed the door behind me, and peeled off the gown. I put it on its hanger and placed it on the back of the door. Now instead of being canary yellow, the top of the dress had taken on a bright crimson color, and blood had even oozed down the full skirt, giving the whole garment a garish, tie-dye effect.
Still, as I stared at the disastrous dress, I couldn’t help but smile.
Finn was right.
Yellow really wasn’t my color—red was.
Fantasy.
Temptation.
Adventure.
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Pocket Books
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Jennifer Estep
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
First Pocket Books paperback edition October 2011
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Cover design and illustration by Tony Mauro
ISBN 978-1-4391-9264-1
ISBN 978-1-4391-9266-5 (ebook)
Jennifer Estep, Spider’s Revenge
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