Don't Poke the Luna (Xena and Ryder)

Chapter 287

Xena's POV

The jagged metal trembled inches from my chest. But I could feel how frail she'd become whatever they'd done to her in that dungeon had left her body broken.

"You FUCKING WHORE!" she screamed, spittle flying from her cracked lips.

1 managed to twist my body, using my leverage to roll her off me. The movement sent agony through my injured ribs, but adrenaline numbed the worst of it. As she scrambled to regain her position, I grabbed her wrist with my right hand and slammed it against the tile floor.

The makeshift weapon clattered away, spinning across the wet surface.

Martha clawed at my face with her free hand, her nails raking across my cheek. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you all!"

YOU MOTHERFUCK, I growled, driving my knee up into her stomach.

She doubled over, gasping, and I used the momentum to flip her onto her back. Before she could recover, I wrapped my right hand around her throat and squeezed just hard enough to cut off her air supply.

Her eyes bulged as she clawed weakly at my grip, her movements becoming more and more sluggish. Within seconds, her body went limp beneath me.

My heart hammered against my ribs as the reality of what had just happened crashed over me. Martha had been here, in this room, trying to kill me.

hard to breathe. I reached out through the mind link, my mental voice

"Ama," I called.

it?" Her response was

attacked me. I knocked

Are you hurt? Are you okay?

though my voice trembled. "I'm just...

cold, and I need someone

coming right now!" Ama's panic was

"Thank you."

is all my fault," Ama's voice cracked with guilt. “I ran out and forgot to close the door. If something had happened

trying to calm her down even as my own hand

few minutes later, I heard rushing footsteps in the hallway. Ama burst through the door with Penelope and two female warriors close behind. They rushed into the bathroom, and Ama's eyes immediately filled with tears when she saw me sitting on the floor beside

as she

main room. Once I was seated, I reached out and gently touched

her up," Penelope commanded the two warriors,

bigding Martha's hands and feet with rope they'd brought. Penelope watched them work, her brow furrowed