Fight Scene Blogfest!

So I'm back from NYC and the SCBWI Conference where I had a fabulous time with the girls despite the fact my body thought this was a really awesome weekend to develop a horrible cold and sinus congestion and cough and....blah. So I shall update you all on everything, but...today is the The Fight Scene Blogfest hosted by the ever awesome Mireyah Wolfe.

In the meantime, you can check out the FNC for our conference updates. All I have to say is right now I have a huge girl-crush on Libba Bray. She's my hero and my long lost jewelry twin.

I know some of you are hoping for a fight scene from STOLEN, but I'm at the point where I'm so close to querying that I'll no longer be posting excerpts. Sorry!! Especially for the Team Ryan fans already out there.

But...I do still have the awesomesauce for you today. I'm posting my favorite fight scene moment from the latest book in my favorite series, Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. Yay!

This is from Blood Promise.

I told the group we were going to go home--and then, while cutting around the back of a factory, I sensed a fourth Strigoi.

We jumped him. Another scuffle occured, but we eventually managed to pin him as we had others. "Go ahead," I told Denis. "You know what to--"

"I'm going to rip your throat out!" the Strigoi snarled.

Whoa. This one spoke English. Denis opened his mouth to begin the interrogation, but I shook my head. "I'll take over." Like the other Strigoi, he swore and struggled, even with the stake against his neck, making it hard for me to talk.

"Look," I said growing impatient and tired, "just tell us what we need to know. We're looking for a dhampir named Dimitri Belikov."

"I know him." The Strigoi's voice was smug. "And he's no dhampir."

Without realizing it, I'd called Dimitri a dhampir. I was tired and had slipped up. Now wonder the Strigoi was so pleased to talk. He assumed we didn't know about Dimitri turning. And like any arrogant Strigoi, he was happy to tell us more, clearly in the hopes of causing us pain.

"Your friend has been awakened. He stalks the night with us now, drinking the blood of foolish girls like you."

In a split second, a thousand thoughts raced through my head. Holy crap. I'd come to Russia thinking it would be easy to find Dimitri. I'd had those hopes dashes in his hometown, nearly causing me to give up, and I'd swung the other way, resigning myself to the near impossibility of my task. The thought that I might be close to something here was staggering.

"You're lying," I said. "You've never seen him."

"I see him all the time. I've killed with him."

My stomach twisted, and it had nothing to do with the Strigoi's proximity. Don't think about Dimitri killing people. Don't think about Dimitri killing people. I said the words over and over in my head, forcing myself to stay calm.

"If that's true," I hissed back, "then I've got a message for you to deliver to him. Tell him Rose Hathaway is looking for him."

"I'm not your errand boy," he said, glowering.

My stake slashed out, drawing blood, and he grimaced in pain. "You're anything I want you to be. Now go tell Dimitri what I told you. Rose Hathaway. Rose Hathaway is looking for him. Say it." I pressed the point to his neck. "Say my name so I know you'll remember."

"I'll remember it so I can kill you."

The stake pressed harder, spilling blood.

"Rose Hathaway," he said. He spit at me but missed.

Satisfied, I leaned back. Denis watched me expectantly, stake poised and ready.

"Now we kill him?"

I shook my head. "Now we let him go."

I hope you all enjoyed we will return shortly to our regularly scheduled blogging :-)