Fearless Read Free Page B

just as the monster smacked her across the face. Pain flashed
brightly before she forced it down. Warm blood trickled from her nose. She
wiped it away with the back of her hand.
    “Then leave it to me.” Demetrius was like an animal when he
fought. All brute force, instinctual, and deadly grace.
    Are you ever going to let him pay his blood debt to you ?
Tawa sighed. Let him kill it . He’ll eventually find a way .
    “No. This is my job.” Abby would not retreat from her duty.
Every monster she faced represented a child’s life. This had to end as soon as
possible. She dodged another flurry of blows.
    Demetrius was noisy as he fought. Snarls and battle cries.
Three days ago she had brought him home, and after resting the first night at
her loft, he had gone to a nearby park and returned with his club. He claimed
that it had to come from a tree spirit who willingly gave its limb for the
purpose of being used against evil. It made one hell of a weapon, but it wasn’t
going to work quickly with this monster.
    “Think like a child.” Abby tore her gaze from the fae’s
impressive display and zipped out of the way of the beast. She scanned the
child’s room. Books, lots of books, and airplane models. A row of hats neatly
hung from a coat rack. Some other toys and a teddy bear with its eyes plucked
out thrown into a corner. Monsters were always so cruel to the children’s
favorite toys.
    Yes, what weakness would a child attribute to this beast ? Bananas ? Tawa sounded as frustrated as Abby felt.
    Thrown into her, Demetrius and Abby crashed into the wall.
Chunks of plaster fell around them. He bounced to his feet and stood in front
of her, bare chest heaving. He never lost hold of his club.
    “Is it laughing at us?” He swung at the beast again.
    Abby could hear a strange coughing noise, and the monster
was holding its shaking belly. She stood and moved beside Demetrius. “It’s
giggling.”
    “I will not be laughed at by an overgrown monkey!” He roared
and launched himself at the thing. The monster promptly hurtled Demetrius
against the other wall.
    “It’s a gorilla.” The nightmares that came to life from
children’s minds never ceased to amaze her. Why the boy who lived there was
afraid of a giggling gorilla, she didn’t know, but it was sharper than the
typical beast. It also had to have a weakness.
    Head-on attacks weren’t working. It was too clever to let
her get behind it. It did a little dance as it and Demetrius exchanged blows.
The polka dots on the hat sparkled in the dim light coming from outside.
    The hat.
    Abby darted forward. She did so without fear of the horrific
beast or for her own life. Her only fear was that she so easily fell into
working with Demetrius and liked it. Not that she’d ever tell him.
    She swung with her left blade to distract the monster. When
it dodged it, she brought the right sword down to slice through its hat. It
howled. Its giggles turned into sobs. Abby rammed both her swords through its
chest. This time, its wounds didn’t heal. It sank to the floor with a pitiful
sob and shuddered once before it died.
    “The hat was its weak spot?” He rolled his shoulders, brushing
off blood and plaster. “That makes no bloody sense at all.”
    “It does, but I don’t expect a caveman like you to
understand.” Abby’s glowing swords disappeared into her palms.
    “Caveman? You’re the one who snores.” He shot back.
    “You’re the one carrying the club.” Abby adjusted Tawa on
her back and headed to the window.
    “Perhaps I’m the one with the club, babycakes,” Demetrius
said as he hefted it over one broad shoulder. “But at least I resisted the urge
to knock you out with it and carry you back to my cave while watching you towel
off after your shower this morning.”
    Abby’s mouth fell open and her cheeks flushed a brilliant
crimson. There was little privacy in her loft, and she had thought he’d been
sleeping. He chuckled as she hopped out the window. She