The shadowy figures crept closer.

"What?" One of the men laughed. "That's what you've got us from our lookout post for? One girl in a night—rrrmp!"

My heel hit him in the side of a head with a thud. I whirled, and had floored another one before anyone had had time to blink.

"Bloody hell, I told you she's dangerous!" Pete screamed. "Get her! Get her!"

This time, they didn't hesitate or laugh. Three of them jumped me, two making a grab for my arms while the third threw a punch. I managed to duck the punch and pull my left arm out of the way in time, but my right arm was tightly clutched in thick, hard fingers. Jerking it downwards, I pulled the guy holding it towards me, and brought my knee up.

"Nk!"

A hand grabbed my hair from behind and pulled me backwards. Crying out, I stumbled. Instead of struggling, I let myself fall backwards, onto the new attacker, making us both topple over. His arms came around me to cage me in and squeeze the breath out of me.

"Oh no you don't, you little shit! Take that!"

Ramming my elbow into his gut, I forced his arms apart and rolled off him. Pushing myself up on hands and feet, cowering ready to spring, I let my eyes flick around the meadow. Shadowy figures loomed all around me, some advancing, some rising from the ground like zombies. If only I had a gun for the headshots!

"Let's get her!"

"Bloody hell, yeah!"

A few of them pulled knives from their pockets, others grabbed rocks from the ground. Growling, they advanced towards me.

"Put those away!"

That voice I knew. Checking out of the corner of my eyes, I saw the boss stagger to his feet. Blood was still running from the corner of his mouth, but he didn't seem to care.

"Put them away, I said!" he barked. "Do you want to end up in prison for murder? We're here for the horse, not her!"

Protesting rumbles rose up from his henchmen. He cut them off with a glare. "Just get her out of my way!"

The knives vanished, and they advanced towards me.

"Oh, that's so nice!" I smirked, humorlessly, "You aren't going to slash my face into ribbons—you're just going to kick the crap out of me. Real gentlemen, you are, you English thugs. I wish gangsters in America were this considerate."

"You heard the guv," one of them growled. "Get out of the way, or we'll beat you up good and proper!"

My answer came in the form of a yoko geri to the jaw.

"Hi-yah!"

"Ugh!"

"Shit! Grab her!"

And that was it. All of them rushed me at the same time. I dealt out kicks and punches faster than I ever had in my life, faster than at the New York Karate tournament, faster than when sending Chuck to purgatory—and trust me, that had taken one hell of a kick! I felled thugs left and right, hit guts, arms, heads, but the more I hit, the more kept coming.

"Ah!"

The first punch that hit me slammed into my stomach, and I doubled over. The next one came right behind, a fist flying down towards my head. I was damn lucky it only graced me, or I might have been out then and there. Still, I stumbled backwards and rammed into something hard. What...?

The fence! You're at the fence, you pinhead! Move!

Grabbing the top wooden beam, I vaulted over the fence, rolling on the ground and coming up a few yards away. Behind me, I heard the next punch meant for me slam into hard wood, followed by a muttered curse.

"Over the fence, you bunch of idiots! Move!"

That was the boss again. Two men jumped over right away, and three more followed in the blink of an eye. Slowly, I began to retreat towards the stable.

The five dashed forward, trying to surround me. I landed a kick at one just before he managed to get around me, but another one grabbed my arm and pulled me off balance. Hooking my leg around a third thug's knee, I pulled him towards us and sent the two stumbling into each other. The hand let go of my arm.

I didn't have long to relax. Another one threw a punch at me, and when I blocked yet another hit so fast I didn't have time to duck out of the way. The hard fist slammed into my chin, knocking my head back.

"Ag!"

Another punch, and another! I tried to block them, but there were so many men, so many fists. More men streamed in around me from all sides—all sides but one. Raising my arms to shield my face as best I could, I staggered back towards the stable. Suddenly, I felt a flat surface of rough wood at my back, and heard a creak.

The stable door. I was at the stable door. Just on the other side was Silver Star.

That same thought seemed to have occurred to the boss, too. He gestured for his men to halt. Wearily, they gathered in a semicircle around me.

"Someone get me a knife!" he shouted. "Now!"

Moments later, something silver flashed in the dark, and the boss stepped forward, a knife in his hands. I raised my bloodied fists.

The boss took a step forward. "Get out of my way!" he growled. "This has gone far enough!"

"No!"

"We're just here for the bloody horse! We're not going to hurt you."

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow. The one above which a bruise was beginning to form from a punch in the face.

A blood-stained grin stretched across the big man's face, and he raised a hand to feel the edges of his tooth gap. "Oh, I might want to—but I'm not going to. Like I said, I'm not fool enough to get a murder charge on my hands. This would have been a simple job if you hadn't gotten in the way. Now piss off, before I lose my patience."

Taking a deep breath, I straightened my back and tightened my fists. "No!"

He muttered an unintelligible oath. "Jim! Bronko! Get her out of my way!"

Two of the men stepped forward, each reaching out for one of my arms. One of them I punched in the gut and then in the head, when he doubled over. The other's arm was slammed off course before it even reached me, grabbed and twisted. He sank to his knees, whimpering, and I released him with a kick, for good measure. They crawled away.

The big guy narrowed his eyes. "All right. Jim, Bronko, get some help and then get her out of my way!"

This time, there were six of them. As they came closer, my breathing went faster. I was good, all right. But not that good. There were more than a dozen of them in total, and I was backed against a wall. No help was in sight anywhere, and no living creature was within a hundred yards, except the horses and—

"Rrrrrrr!"

The noise that suddenly came from the shadows sounded like a miniature tiger on steroids. And apart from the steroids and the stripes in the fur, that actually turned out to be true. A small, feral shape leapt out of the darkness, scaled one of the man's legs, jumped onto his shoulder, and from there on his face. Burying its claws in the scruffy beard, it clung on like an oversized, furry leech.

"Aaargh!"

Gurgling and clawing at his face, the man stumbled off into the darkness.

I smiled. "Good one, Lucky! Bite his nose off!"

It really was a good one. The best last minute help I had ever gotten. But there were still eleven men left. And I had only one ferocious little cat.

The thugs exchanged a look—and rushed towards me.

"Hai! Hi-yah! Yah!"

The first three punches I still managed to block, but the fourth hit home. Slamming me back against the stable door, it drove the breath out of me. I raised my arm just in time to block the follow-up punch to my head, but I didn't see the kick coming. It caught me on the ankle and threw me off balance.

Don't fall! For heaven's sake, do anything but fall! There are eleven of them around you!

I managed to grab the wall and steady myself—then, the next kick hit and swept my legs out from under me. I fell to the ground.

That was basically it. I had watched enough gangster movies to know what happened when a lone fighter ends up on the ground, surrounded by a bunch of guys who all had gotten a few punches and were itching for payback. Boots started raining down on me, and it wasn't a light drizzle.

Remember this if you're ever on the ground, I suddenly heard Chuck's voice in my head, from long, long ago. Turn your back on them. Shield your head with your arms. Kick out with your legs, so they'll have to keep at a distance and don't have as much chance to kick you.

Rolling around to face the stable door, I covered my head with my arms and gritted my teeth as a kick landed on my lower back.

"Thanks, Chuck!" I muttered. "I'm really sorry I had to kill you, you know."

Oh, don't be, Cassy. It was totally my fault. After all, I did cheat on you. That was a stupid thing to do.

"Yeah." Another kick hit my arms, and I groaned. "It was."

So nice to have had a chat with you again. I've got to go now. Have fun getting kicked.

"Sure," I groaned, trying to kick out at my attackers. I wasn't totally sure anymore at this point whether the voice in my head was actually Chuck's but to be honest, I hurt too much to care. "You have fun being dead."

I'll do that. Bye-bye.

"Bye, Chuck."

Finally, one of my kicks hit a target: a pair of feet. The man they belonged to stumbled, cursing, giving me the moment I needed. Somehow, I managed to push myself up on my feet. My whole body was on fire with pain, one leg wobbled underneath me, and my vision was dizzy, but I was on my feet again!

"Hi-yah!"

My fist lashed out for one of the identical twins right in front of me—but it went right through the left one. The other one grinned, and suddenly, the identical twins merged into one man. Then they became two again, their outlines blurry.

"Hold still!" I mumbled. "I'll get you! I'll—"

A fist drove into my stomach, making me double over.

"Get her out of the way!" commanded a gruff voice from somewhere. "She's no danger anymore. Let's get the horse and get out of here."

No!

Frantically, I grabbed hold of the stable door and tried to hold it shut, but big hands grabbed me, twisting my arms behind my back. Slamming my foot down, I tried to flatten somebody's toes, to somehow make them let me go, but they hauled me off the ground, and my flailing legs didn't reach anything anymore.

"No! No, don't you dare!"

Screaming, I was dragged back. A big hand clamped down over my mouth to silence me. Horror rising inside me, I watched as the massive figure stepped in front of the stable door and pull something out of his pocket. There was a metallic noise, and a knife blade flicked up, out of the handle.

"Nnn!" I moaned, desperately trying to find a finger to bite. "Nnnn!"

"Now," the big guy with the knife growled. "Let's take care of this."

That was the moment when suddenly, light flooded the night. The big man whirled around. So, fortunately, did the man holding me. Thus, I got to see how the lights of the manor house went on. First one, then two, then more and more until the entire massive, ancient complex of stone was lit up like a Christmas tree. Only... it looked a lot more menacing than a Christmas tree. Lights in front of the house flared up, making the entire façade shine in a radiant, deadly white. The night sky above, lit by moonlight just a moment ago, was suddenly pitch black in comparison. So, too, was the figure that stepped out of the manor's front door.

Admittedly, I wasn't in very good shape right then and there. But I would have known that tall, live, muscular silhouette with the flowing long black hair anywhere in the world. A grin tugged at the corners of my bloodstained mouth.

"You'd better run," I informed the man who was holding me.

"Shut up!"

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

"The stable!" the boss growled. "Get inside, and get the job done, now! We need to get out of he—"

But he didn't even get to finish the sentence. The black figure silhouetted against the gleaming manor raised something to shoulder-height—a long object, shiny and slim. My foggy brain didn't quite manage to figure out what it was, but one of the crooks was faster.

"Get down!" he screamed. "He's got a g—"

Bamm!

Wood splinters flew up into the air. In the fence right beside the man who had spoken there now was a big, gaping hole. Yelping, he jumped over the fence and started to sprint away like an Olympic contender. The man who had me in his grip let go and followed, as did most of the others. Two of them, the bravest, apparently, and maybe the stupidest, made a beeline for the stable door, pulling knives from their pockets—that is, until they heard the dogs.

Not little dogs, mind you, like those of the old ladies on the Ascot Racecourse. Oh no. These were sleek, ravenous monsters with long legs and even longer teeth—or maybe the other way around. I was a bit confused at the moment. But I knew I loved them the moment I saw them. They were beautiful. Plus, one of them bit the man who had grabbed me in the ass.

"Aaargh! Oh! No, let go! Let go!"

"Good doggie," I mumbled, smiling. The smile felt a bit strange, and to be honest, so did the rest of my body. For some reason, the world was swaying, and my head hurt quite a lot. "Good, nice doggie."

Suddenly, the world was rushing up towards me. With a thud, the ground hit me in the face.

"Bad ground," I murmured. "Bad earth! I'll take your nose and dip it in your own pee if you do that again. Or was that for dogs? Should I dip your nose into the ocean? Damn...! I can't remember..."

My voice grew slurry. Somehow, it started to get difficult to move my lips. The noises around me were confusing. Trampling feet receding into the distance, gunshots coming closer and closer... strange enough, I wasn't afraid of the gunshots. They were good sounds. They meant me no harm...

Why was that?

"Cassy?"

When I heard his voice, I suddenly knew why. Ah. Because of him. Because he had been the one firing. He would never hurt me. Somehow, I knew that, even though I also knew he was a tremendous asshole.

"Cassy... I mean, Miss McKinney, are you all right?" Hands grabbed my shoulders, shaking me. "Are you all right? Say something?"

I giggled. "Okay. You're a tremendous asshole."

The shaking stopped. "Yes," a sexily sharp voice murmured. "You must be mostly all right, if you can still be impudent."

"Yep," I agreed. But in spite of my words, I felt myself losing my grip on the here and now. Black was streaming in from the edges of my vision. Was I blacking out? I giggled again. The black widow, blacking out. That was funny!

"What," demanded his voice, even sharper than before, "the hell were you thinking? There were ten of them!"

"Twelve," I corrected. "Didn't your father teach you how to count?"

"No! He was too busy teaching me to shoot straight! Now tell me, Miss McKinney—what the hell were you thinking? Ten men, or even twelve? How could you possibly think you'd..."

His voice disintegrated into an enraged growl.

I frowned. There had been a good reason for what I had done. There always were good reasons for what I did. But what...?

Suddenly, I remembered! My hand shot out to grab his arm. I got hold of his little finger instead, but who cared!

"Those men... they... they were after Silver St—"

"Sh. I know. I know, you brave, silly, fool-hardy girl. It doesn't matter right now."

"Of course it matters! If they come back—"

"People are coming. I'll leave some to guard the stables. Silver Star will be all right. As for you..."

Strong arms slid under my body, lifting me up from the ground. They weren't at all like the arms of the thug who had held me just a few minutes ago. They were gentle, and warm, and held me with care.

"You're coming with me."

That was the last thing I heard before he set off, and I drifted into blackness.

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My dear homicidal maniacs,

I hope you enjoyed the little action scene! It was about time that our black widow got to kick some ass once more, wasn't it? ;)

Cheers

Sir Rob