The Victorious Redemption Complete Series Boxed Set, page 28
The howling died away. All eyes turned to the east of the clearing. Jasmine followed their gaze in time to find a large naked woman striding out of the woods with a towering giant of a man following in step.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Words
Jasmine’s grandmother offered a cocky smile as the newcomers approached with confident strides. “Del. Kendrick. So nice of you to join us.”
They were a funny contrast to her grandmother with their imposing figures almost double her height. The woman, Delilah, was close to six feet tall and strongly built with muscled shoulders and legs as thick as tree trunks. She looked as though she could outwork and outfight most of the men, not only in the pack but ones Jasmine had met in the city—and she knew a few who would have enjoyed the challenge.
To top it off, she was shapely, with curves everywhere women heard they should be. Her hair was bright blonde and pulled back into a tight ponytail that hung over one shoulder. Her eyes were a piercing blue that was visible at a distance.
Her brute strength suggested manual labor while her grace held an unspoken beauty.
Delilah didn’t bother to look at Jasmine. She strode up to Jasmine’s grandmother and towered over her, attempting to intimidate her with her fierce gaze. The man behind Del remained a step behind, but his gaze also fixed on the withered woman.
“Thought you could get everybody all riled up without me, Grayback?” Delilah spat her words like venom.
Her grandmother remained unfazed. “You were late. Don’t bitch at me because you weren’t where you were supposed to be. It’s not my fault you can’t keep track of time.”
“I had business that needed handling.” Delilah’s gaze flickered to the man beside her.
Her grandmother grinned and looked past Delilah at Kendrick, who blushed and squirmed where he stood. “Yeah, I can see you took care of that. The fact is, welcoming back a member of the pack doesn’t require every member to be present, especially when they’re too busy bumping uglies to consider arriving on time. The world doesn’t wait for your orgasm.”
A soft wave of snickers ruffled through the pack. They instantly stopped when Delilah turned to each of the wolves, her eyes blazing. “Just because no one’s playing ball with your worn-out catcher’s mitt doesn’t mean you have to be a prude.”
Her grandmother shrugged. “I’m not a prude. You can’t abide people being rude, yet it’s something you’ve done twice now. Some might call that hypocritical.”
“Twice?” Delilah narrowed her eyes.
Her grandmother pursed her lips. “Yes. Twice. First you were late—strike one. Now you’re making my granddaughter’s return all about you and beanpole playing ‘hide the sausage.’ So, if you don’t mind, you can kindly clamp your muzzle shut so we can get back on track.”
She turned her attention away from Delilah, but Delilah blocked her with a firm hand on her shoulder. Jasmine could tell that was the wrong thing to do when her grandmother’s eyes flashed.
The towering woman held her stance. “Hold your horses, Grayback. I still get my sniff of the corpse before a verdict.”
Jasmine stiffened.
Her grandmother growled. “That brings your count to three. If you were mine, I’d have you over my knee to beat that big ass like I was smacking dust from a rug. Now shut up and scent her before I lose my temper.”
Delilah chuckled. “So sensitive.”
Delilah turned her attention to Jasmine. Danger exuded from her glare. Delilah approached her slowly and took a long whiff of the air surrounding Jasmine.
She pulled back with her nose wrinkled. Jasmine could already imagine the insult coming up the woman’s throat. Her hands tightened involuntarily into fists. She’d love to reach down that throat and punch the oncoming insult back where it came from.
Luckily her grandmother put a hand on her arm and brought her back to her senses.
Delilah spat on the ground. “Bad enough you bring a corpse into our home, but even worse, this one’s fit to burst with the stink of it. This is something you bury and forget about. You don’t go dragging it around pretending it’s—”
Jasmine’s grandmother socked Delilah’s jaw hard enough that her teeth clacked together and her head whipped to the side.
“I warned you,” her grandmother growled.
Jasmine’s lips parted in surprise. There was strength to that punch, a power she couldn’t imagine from a woman as old as her grandmother. She was certain that a blow like that on any other woman would have knocked them to the ground and left them sleeping for half an hour, minimum.
Only, this wasn’t a regular woman.
Delilah’s head swung back as steady as if it were mounted. Her eyes shone with anger.
“My turn.” Delilah reared back to strike.
Jasmine was already moving. Instinct took over as she stepped in front of her grandmother. The blow hit Jasmine in the cheek, powerful enough to have cratered the older woman’s face.
As the pain sparked, then fled, anger flooded to the surface. Jasmine ground her teeth and flexed her jaw as all of her training from the last few weeks took over. She launched one punch after another in an uncontrolled flurry.
There was a sudden commotion of barking wolves around her. Jasmine felt hands on her shoulders.
She opened her eyes, not sure what to expect when she did. Delilah stood there with two fingers to her nose, which was streaming blood. There was a shift in the air. Jasmine’s throat dried as she held Delilah’s gaze, knowing that now was the time to hold her ground. There was no going back from what she had done. She only hoped her grandmother would be able to forgive her.
You had one instruction.
Delilah grinned. “She drew first blood.”
Beside her, her grandmother muttered, “Shit.”
Jasmine broke Delilah’s gaze and turned to the other wolves. She found sadness in their eyes, and when she tried to meet their gazes, they looked down at the ground. They knew there was no way Jasmine could recover from this.
“I’m sorry, Grandma,” Jasmine blubbered. “I couldn’t let this Sasquatch crack your head open.”
Her grandmother nodded but didn’t meet her eyes. “I know, darling. I know.”
The lumbering man behind Delilah, Kendrick, lifted his head and spoke to Delilah. “Come on, Del. She doesn’t know how things go here. It wasn’t her fault—”
Delilah turned on him in a fit of rage. Her eyes blazed, and her face was a mask of anger. “Shut your fucking mouth, K. This is no longer your business. This is about her and me.
“This corpse is about to get a crash course in what it means to be Were. If she truly wants to fit as one of the pack like the grayback says, she has to follow the same rules we all do, right?”
Her grandmother shook her head. Jasmine’s stomach dropped, but when she looked up again, she was surprised to find the ghost of a smile on her grandmother’s face.
“So, how are we doing this?” her grandmother asked.
Delilah spat a thick globule of red saliva. “Right here, right now. Wolf pelt.”
Her grandmother rolled her eyes. “If you hadn’t been so busy playing with Kendrick’s dangly bits, you’d know she can’t shift anymore.”
For the first time since she had arrived, Delilah’s confidence faltered. She stepped back and looked at Jasmine with a modicum of pity. “Fine. If that’s the case, I can stomp her scrawny ass in man-skin, same as anyone else.”
Jasmine’s grandmother nodded solemnly. “How far?”
Delilah eyed Jasmine up and down, and a dark grin broke out. “Until surrender or death.” She sneered. “Or, you know…whatever passes for ‘death’ for a zombie.”
CHAPTER NINE
Challenge
“Let’s help you out of these clothes, then.” Her grandmother sounded like Jasmine was a young girl again and was merely helping Jasmine from her school uniform.
“What are you talking about?”
Her grandmother eyed her up and down, her eyebrows raised.
“You’re kidding.” Jasmine looked across the clearing to where Del was flexing her arms and getting ready for what was about to go down.
“It’s the way of things,” her grandmother informed her. “You want to be with the pack, you’ve got to act like the pack, and the pack says no clothes. Now, strip!”
Jasmine stepped out of her jeans and T-shirt and looked across at Delilah. Her throat constricted. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Of course,” her grandmother replied softly enough that the other Weres couldn’t hear her. “This is all going perfectly to plan.”
“To plan?” Jasmine asked. “This is all going to shit. In five seconds I’m going to be an actual corpse rather than a living, dancing corpse.”
As Jasmine stripped the last of her clothing, her grandmother grabbed her shoulders and smiled at her. “Look, we’ve got Del where we want her. By initiating a fight she has acknowledged that you are a part of the pack. These are pack rules, and now all you’ve got to do is take her on.”
“She’s an elder Were,” Jasmine replied. “I’m a nobody. How am I supposed to make that happen?”
Her grandmother chuckled. “It’s almost as though you’ve completely forgotten what you are.” She patted Jasmine on her head and stepped back.
Jasmine turned to face Delilah, then looked past her at the boulders and rocks standing sentinel within the tree line. She tried to remember what Qadir had told her. The only way to kill a revenant was to… What was it? Something about cerebral disruption? Cognitive dismemberment?
Shatter the skull. Mush the brain.
What were the odds that Delilah had never seen a zombie movie? Did she know the secret to Jasmine’s downfall?
“You’ve got this,” her grandmother assured her.
“You’re up, corpse,” Del shouted with a savage grin. “Let’s see what this magic monster is made of. I mean, other than necrotic tissue and a foul stench.”
There was no fanfare, only sudden silence as Delilah ran at Jasmine and crashed against her. An elbow flew into Jasmine’s cheek with such power that the bone cracked upon impact.
Jasmine groaned as the pain appeared and dissipated as quickly as it came. Delilah sent an uppercut into her ribs with a chorus of cracks as more bones broke beneath Jasmine’s flesh.
Jasmine huffed and managed to block the next blow. She jabbed, knocking Delilah in the chest and sending her a couple of steps backward.
Delilah was having none of it. She recovered quickly and came back at Jasmine like a freight train. Del was relentless with her attacks. She used all her limbs, every appendage, every bend and digit to attack Jasmine.
She grabbed, punched, raked, thumped, and walloped. Jasmine hadn’t prepared for this, not even in her training with Ethon. Her imaginary attacker had been quick but didn’t have this raw muscular power.
Delilah was the clear alpha, able to move in the blink of an eye, her strength a marvel to behold even in man-skin. Jasmine tried to fend off the blows, but Delilah had shaken her confidence in her abilities. This was not a mere human thug high on Crim. This was a fully trained, fully grown Were—and Jasmine was losing.
She felt parts of her body healing rapidly under each blow. Her ribs had mended within a minute or two, but Del broke them again moments later.
If Jasmine were human, she would be dead by now. If she were a Were, she would be on the cusp, panting and vomiting on the ground.
She hooked her leg around Delilah and toppled her back. Before she could jump on the Were, Delilah rolled out of the way and struck Jasmine in the side with a powerful blow from her knee.
At one point, Jasmine managed a succession of four blows to Delilah’s face. The Were’s nose exploded with a fresh spurt of blood before she threw her head forward and smacked her forehead into Jasmine’s face. Jasmine’s nose broke, but only a trickle of dark ichor leaked from her nostrils.
“You’ve got this!” her grandmother shouted with an enthusiasm that Jasmine couldn’t reflect.
Delilah smirked, happy to watch as Jasmine staggered and tried to stay on her feet. “You wanted the pack. You get the full force of the pack. It’s gonna be fun killing the dead.”
She sprinted at Jasmine again, crossing the ring in a flash. Her kick made Jasmine stagger back until a large mossy boulder stopped her.
Jasmine huffed and wheezed as she slid onto her ass and clutched her ribs. The pain was gone and her body worked overtime to heal itself, but the sensation was uncomfortable. Things moved beneath the surface of her skin that shouldn’t move. Bones repaired themselves, and things clicked back together.
Delilah paused briefly to hold her arms in the air and flexed her muscles to show off for the pack. Jasmine watched her with anger, wondering how the hell she was ever going to take down such a monster.
Her grandmother stared at her from outside the ring. Jasmine found solace in the fact that there was no concern in her grandmother’s eyes. She wasn’t sure if that was lunacy or confidence. Either way, it didn’t matter right now.
Her grandmother placed a hand on her chest and drew a few deep breaths before pointing at Delilah, who was facing away.
Delilah turned to address Jasmine. “I thought you’d have more fight in you. I’ll be honest. This is all pretty disappointing.”
Jasmine rose to her feet and watched Delilah carefully as she tried to understand her grandmother’s message.
Then it hit her. Delilah was struggling for breath. Her chest rose and fell in large inhales and exhales. The bruises and marks Jasmine had left on her were healing, but nowhere near as fast as Jasmine’s wounds.
She remembered some of the legendary fights Ethon had told her about. Sometimes it’s not about brute force. It’s about outlasting your opponent, wearing them down, and taking the blows until you can get yourself in a position to return them.
Delilah stalked toward her. “Is this it? I hoped you would get back on your feet and at least give me something of a challenge, corpse. Where’s the fight? Where’s the menace I’ve heard so much about?” Her eyes flashed to Jasmine’s grandmother.
Jasmine straightened. One of her ribs visibly snapped back into place beneath her skin. She beckoned Delilah forward. “Bring it.”
This time Jasmine attacked first. She moved swiftly into place and struck Del in the center of her stomach with her knee. A whoosh of air expelled from Delilah’s lips. She growled, almost howling her response before using her speed and strength to come at Jasmine again.
There was another flurry of blows and kicks. Jasmine was the clear underdog of the fight.
Delilah hooked her arms underneath Jasmine and spun her. The trees smeared in a blurry green and brown before her. Del released Jasmine to hurl her across the clearing. Jasmine spun wildly before landing on her stomach, breathless.
You don’t need air, do you? That’s another advantage.
Before she could peel herself off the ground, Delilah did the job for her. She grabbed Jasmine by the back of the neck until she was at eye level. She stared deep into her eyes.
“How to kill a zombie…” she mused. “There are only a couple of ways, aren’t there?” She pulled back and flung Jasmine directly at the boulder. Jasmine landed face-first. Her nose and skull took the worst of the impact.
She dropped to the ground, almost lifeless. Even in her dizzy state, as stars wheeled behind her eyes and fireworks exploded, she tried to center herself as her bone claws threatened to tear from her skin. “Man-skin versus man-skin,” she muttered and spat thick dark blood from her mouth.
Delilah ran another set of cheers from the crowd, working the audience before she stalked back to Jasmine.
By that point, Jasmine was back on her feet. Her face had already healed. Apart from a dark mark of dried ichor smudged across her cheek, there was nothing.
For the first time since they had begun their fight, Delilah’s confidence faltered.
“It’s time,” Delilah growled. She lowered herself and sprinted at Jasmine. This time Jasmine sensed that Del was slower than at the start of the fight. She had used a lot of her energy. No sweat showed on her brow, but her breathing betrayed her state.
She came at Jasmine like a sentient boulder barreling toward her. Jasmine twisted at the last moment, using the techniques her trainer had taught her. She batted Del’s arm out of the way and leveraged the woman’s momentum against her as she spun.
Delilah smashed into the rock. Her head hit the surface with a crack, and for the first time she involuntarily sprawled on her ass.
The Were scrambled to her feet. Panic was setting in. She looked wildly around for Jasmine, but Jasmine had already healed. There was no breath to restore, no energy to recoup. Jasmine jumped onto Delilah’s back, secured an arm around her throat, and squeezed. Delilah scrambled for breath, her brain starving for oxygen.
A competitive advantage.
Del staggered wildly around, looking for the boulder. She turned her back to its surface and slammed Jasmine against the rock. Jasmine grunted as whack after whack squashed her between a rock and a hard place. Her spine snapped. She felt things break that she didn’t know could break.
Yet Delilah grew weaker until finally, Jasmine felt her slacken in the chokehold. As Delilah dropped to the ground, unconscious or possibly dead, Jasmine relinquished her grip on the Were’s throat and fell beside Del.
She rolled to her side and lay still for a moment. Her body was a mass of broken bones, but parts of it were already popping back into place, healing with her incredible power. She had never been more thankful for it. She could easily have been dead right now.
A shadow loomed above her. Jasmine groaned, wondering what fresh hell Delilah was about to unleash, but a soft voice whispered in her ear, “It is over.”
Jasmine looked up to find the pack descending upon her. Many of the Weres had shifted to their human forms and were smiling. They dragged her to her feet and congratulated her for the fight she had undertaken.
The fight I just won.
