Court of Shadows: (A Demons of Fire and Night Novel) (Institute of the Shadow Fae Book 1)

The vampire bared his fangs, and I knew we’d both be dead by the
end of the night if I didn’t get him out of here. I leapt over the bar with the
speed of a hurricane wind, hurtling toward him. I slammed my fist into his
skull—once, twice, three times. He staggered back, then collapsed. He’d
fallen so easily I almost didn’t feel a sense of victory, but I grinned down at
him anyway. The colored lights of the bar stained his porcelain skin red.
I had to get him out of here.I tried to project a calm I didn’t feel. “Like I said,” I purred, “a guy like
you would be more comfortable in a hipster joint with arcade games and
herbal cocktails. You can talk about synthwave or whatever there. Move
along. Now.” I may have screamed the last word. A sense of urgency was
taking over.It was at that point, I realized that everyone in the bar had stopped
talking and were all staring at me over their pints. A pop song crackled
through the speakers, and the neon sign in the window flickered on and
off. Otherwise, silence shrouded us.Easy, Arianna. Easy. I stood over the fallen vampire, holding up my
hands. “Nothing to see here, folks! Just an ordinary Friday night kerfuffle.”
I loosed a long sigh. Two thin hawthorn stakes jutted from my messy
bun, ready for the vampire’s heart, but I restrained myself. My boss would
flip his shit if he saw me beating up customers—again. And I definitely
wasn’t supposed to kill people—even if they were undead—in front of a
crowd. Rufus frowned upon things like that in his establishment.You can take the girl out of the gladiator arena….It was just unfortunate that the vampire had made the serious error of
trying to bite me.