Free Under the Bridge by Autumn Dawn Page A

lot. It slid to a
stop, narrowly missing Eyrnie’s truck. Maura hopped out, dragging a
sword out of the car. Eyes wild, she charged Billy, disregarding
the men at her side.
    Billy stepped back in reflex, but her heart
wasn’t in it. Guilt demanded a price, after all. At that moment,
she felt Maura had the right.
    Her companions disagreed. Ash’s hand grabbed
Maura’s wrist like a lightning strike, yanking Maura’s sword high
over her head. The sword fell from her hand and clanged loudly on
the concrete. Outraged, she screamed like a cat and flung her free
hand out toward Billy, releasing a cloud of green pixie dust.
    Eyrnie snatched Billy out of the way, saving
her from the fall of all but a few grains. Those few fell on her
pant leg, clung, and burned. Shouting in panic, Billy tried to
douse them, but she was in no shape to manage it. Finally she
shucked out of her jeans, kicking away the flaming remains. Even
through the pixie armor she wore, she could feel the sting of
heat.
    Maura screamed again and tried to climb the
troll’s arm one-handed, biting and clawing as if she’d lost her
mind. He grimaced and held her away from his body like a
particularly loathsome bug. He didn’t look that tall in glamour,
but Maura’s feet didn’t touch the ground.
    Billy took a deep breath. “Ash. Set her
down.”
    He raised a brow, but allowed Maura’s feet to
touch the ground. When she kicked him for his pains, he growled,
low and deep. She subsided with a whimper.
    Her cowardliness faded when she looked back
at Billy, though. “Killer! Oath breaker!” she shouted, vibrating in
fury. “You killed my daughter!”
    Billy shook her head. “I didn’t—”
    “Liar! You left her unprotected. My baby
would still be alive if you hadn’t abandoned her.”
    “She wasn’t a baby,” Eyrnie reminded her.
“Carrie was old enough to know what she was doing, but you were
free to watch her if you’d wanted to.”
    That sent Maura into a frenzy. “Shut up! Shut
up, you stupid jackass! She was my child .”
    Billy didn’t have any experience with
grieving mothers, but she understood fury. While she wanted to
grovel, she seized on something Maura had said. “You don’t think
Ash did it, do you?” Didn’t Ash say she was trying to attack him
earlier? What had changed?
    Maura looked at Ash as if really seeing him
for the first time. Her face twisted in contempt, and she yanked on
her arm. Obligingly, he let go, and she nearly fell over. Glaring,
she yanked her shirt down. “I saw how she died,” she said between
her teeth. “There wouldn’t be so much…blood…if he had eaten her.”
She closed her eyes, hands fisted as if trying to control her
anguish.
    Billy took a step forward, wanting to comfort
her somehow.
    Maura’s eyes snapped open, and she backed
away. “No! Don’t come near me, killer! You owe me a blood debt. I
want vengeance! I want you to die .” Her eyes glowed with
anger, but she didn’t try for the sword at Ash’s feet. She backed
to her car, staying a step away as Billy followed her.
    Billy couldn’t stand it. “Maura…sister,” she
tried, wanting to do something to fix this, knowing there was
nothing. She could not bring Carrie back.
    “I am no kin of yours! You’re dead to me,”
Maura choked as she got into her car.
    They watched her drive away. “She probably
shouldn’t be driving,” Eyrnie said at last.
    Billy shot him a look of disbelief.
    He held up his hands. “I’m just saying.” He
glanced at her bottom half and slid out of his long-sleeved shirt.
“You might want to cover up your spandex, there. It’s not covering
much.”
    She glanced down at the pink undies overlaid
by lacy armor and quickly tied the shirt around her waist.
Yikes!
    “She’s a pixie. Nakedness shouldn’t bother
her. Besides, I’m not sure that’s an improvement,” Ash pointed out,
amused. He eyed the shirtsleeves dangling like a loincloth before
her.
    Billy shook off the comment and focused on
her