“Take it back,” I growled, standing on my toes to try to look the vampire straight in the eyes.
“No.” Marcus smiled infuriatingly. He was enjoying this. I tried to remember that the first time I’d seen him I felt his terrible sorrow. Now, there seemed nothing but amusement and a willingness to see what happened next.
“I don’t want you to be my patron,” I swore.
“I don’t want you to die in the arena.”
“I am not taking it back, Marcus.” That decision had been made in Helen Taylor’s backyard when she’d asked me for justice. I’d promised. I had nothing left but my word.
He lifted a shoulder, elegantly showing me his lack of concern. “Then you will fight, but you will fight for my life as well as yours.”
The door opened and we stopped the argument we’d been having for the last fifteen minutes. Once I’d started yelling at Marcus, the king and queen had taken it as their cue to leave. Now the king was at the door again.
“It’s time,” he said grimly.
I stared up into Marcus’s beautiful, serene face. He didn’t look like a man terrified of dying. He seemed like he would accept anything fate offered him. He’d tied himself to me in a fundamental way, and I knew I couldn’t let him down.
“Maybe I’ll decide two thousand years is plenty of time to live,” I warned him, though I knew I was only talking tough.
“Not quite two thousand,” he corrected with that mysterious smile.
He held out his hand for me. I wanted to reject it. I wanted to tell him to fuck himself, but I wanted his warmth even more than that. I’d listened to everything he said about trainers and Hunters, and while the idea of having Marcus be my personal Cesar Millan rankled, I also found it tempting. What if I could feel love without the presence of a love spell? What I’d had with Gray had been the best feeling of my life. It had been like seeing the sun after a lifetime of rain. I still felt it. I didn’t know how long the spell would last, but I didn’t want it to go away. Even if the pain was heartbreaking, it was better than the dull fog my life had been before it.
“The arena is covered in sand,” Donovan explained as he walked us toward the elevator. “It’s best you go in barefoot if you aren’t used to fighting in it.”
“Is Castle used to fighting in it?” I asked.
Donovan’s blue eyes were hooded with concern or maybe plain irritation. I couldn’t tell. Things hadn’t gone according to plan, and I had the feeling not many things had the nerve to go against Daniel Donovan’s plans. “No. The arena is where we train new vampires. Castle wanted the fight to take place in the wolf compound in Denton, but technically you belong to Vampire according to ancient laws concerning Hunters. Lone wolves aren’t popular in the wolf world. It was easy for the previous councils to claim ownership of them. I have the right to determine where you will fight since he chose the weapons.”
“Shouldn’t I have been the one to choose where to fight?” I asked curiously. “Or Marcus? He is my patron.”
“And I am your king,” Donovan stated firmly.
I snorted. I really had to stop that. It was neither feminine nor pleasant, and yet Marcus always smiled when I did it. Donovan wasn’t as amused.
We got into the elevator and Marcus’s hand played with mine. “And where would you choose, cara mia?”
“Starbucks. I could use a Frappuccino.” My stomach was grumbling. I really should have taken Donovan up on his offer to get me something. “And one of those little cookies. Maybe a bunch of those cookies.”
Marcus chuckled. “I promise to feed you properly after you have defeated the alpha and, I suspect, the two betas.” He slid a glance to the king. “Am I wrong, Your Highness?”
The king shook his head as the elevator plunged downward. “No. By accusing the alpha, she accuses the pack. Yes, he is insisting she fight him and his two betas. I didn’t want to scare her.”
No, because I hadn’t been scared at all. “And I don’t get any weapons?”
“I managed to negotiate with McKenzie on that point,” the king said. “You’ll be allowed to use cesti.”
I had no idea what that was. “Yay me.”
“It is a glove used by gladiators in Roman times,” the king explained as the doors opened and I was assaulted by the sound of people chanting. We got off the elevator and we seemed to be backstage, so to speak. Above me, the ceiling seemed to rumble and shake with sound. The arena seating was over my head and from the sounds of it, the place was packed.
“Kelsey?” Zack Owens held a large box in his hands. His face was tight as he walked over to us. “It seems like every wolf in North Texas made it. I found what you needed in the armory. I got the smallest pair we had, and we’ll still have to tape them on.” He stared down at me and I wondered what he saw. I was a five foot six, one hundred twenty pound female in clothes that didn’t quite fit and no shoes. I was sure I came off as pretty pathetic. Zack turned to the king. “Damn it, master. Let me take her and run. She’ll get torn apart out there.”
“It’s her choice, Zack,” the king said.
“Yes, now it is her choice,” Marcus interjected with a bitter flair. He eyed the king. “You have given her no say in anything that is to happen to her up to this point, but it is her choice to fight the alpha. Perhaps you and Devinshea will get everything you desire, Your Highness. You will have quelled the wolf rebellion by allowing such a valuable asset to honor their traditions and, if she dies, you can get rid of me as well. Your precious family will be safe from me once I am gone.”
The king shoved his hands through his short, dark blond hair. “Damn it, I am so sick of being in the middle of this. I have no problem with you, Marcus. I have no problem with any of it. You think I don’t remember what I felt the first time I met Z? I was eight years old and I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with her. I don’t begrudge anyone that, but I can’t get Dev to understand. I don’t want you dead, Marcus. You’ve been my friend, my freaking father half the time. I can’t stand having you look at me the way you have the last two years, but what do you want me to do? He’s my partner.”
I took a step back, not quite understanding the conversation, but feeling so wretchedly jealous of the queen I could hardly stand it. She had three men fighting over her it seemed. I only wanted one, but even he had been an illusion.
“I apologize, Daniel,” Marcus said solemnly. “I don’t agree with you on the way you have handled Kelsey. I also do not wish to put you in a bad position. I withdraw from the Council. Henri can take my place until another election can be held.”
“Marcus,” Donovan said, practically pleading.
“It’s for the best. I will return to Venice,” Marcus explained as my heart fell. “I have been gone far too long. If it helps, I have no intention of acting on any impulses I might have. Your family is safe.”
He was leaving and I would be alone here. He’d promised to take care of me, but I’d learned that people only kept their word when it was convenient for them. No man except my brothers had ever offered to do so much as open the door for me. Except Gray…
“Evan might have something to say about that one day.” The king stared at Marcus as though he could will the older vampire into doing his bidding. He finally shook his head. “This isn’t over. I’m not going to let it be. Tomorrow we’re going to sit down and talk this out. I have to go make sure everything’s ready.”
As the king walked away, I sat back on a bench and my uncle opened the box he was holding. Lying in the box was what looked like twin gloves with silver blades embedded on the back. The blades were long and wickedly curved. Cestus, Zack told me as he held them out for me. Claws, I thought dully as Zack started to pull them on me. They fit over my hands and up my forearms. He was right. They were too big.
Marcus sat down beside me. “You are all right?”
I sucked it up. I hadn’t cried about Gray. I sure as hell wouldn’t cry over him. I promised myself I would learn. I wouldn’t let another one in. “I’m fine.”
He sighed and his eyes had darkened, his mouth curving down. “I’m sorry, cara mia. You don’t understand the situation. It’s best for everyone if I remove myself.”
“It’s not best for her,” Zack said under his breath as he wrapped tape around the cestus to keep it on my hand.
“The king will never allow me to train her,” Marcus argued.
“Hey, no big deal.” I concentrated on the feel of the leather on my hand as Zack went to work on my other hand. “I don’t intend to let anyone train me. I intend to sit my ass in a cell until the king either kills me or lets me go. You weren’t going to change that. I don’t buy the crap you’re selling, Vorenus. I never did.”
“I do not want to leave you,” the vampire insisted and I got the feeling he saw right through my defensive posturing.
Zack finished taping my left hand and I stood up, ignoring the vampire. The light from the arena glowed in front of me. I would go out there alone. A picture of Gray crossed my mind and I felt tears gathering. He would never have allowed it. I wondered what he would do if he knew. Would he rush in to save me or let it happen because he didn’t want me anymore? I would have given anything in that moment to feel his arms around me one more time.
“No one fights for you, do they?” Marcus stayed close to me as I walked to the edge of the large entrance.
Even from where I stood, just outside the light I could see them. Some I recognized from various places like Liv’s school or the clubs I’d been to the last few nights. Some were total strangers, but they had one thing in common. They’d all come to watch me die. All in all, it wasn’t how I’d thought my day would end.
“I can fight for myself.” The beast inside was starting to twitch again. She was starting to call me a whiny fucking pansy who deserved everything she got if I walked out there all pathetic and ready to die.
The beast inside me isn’t polite. She’s kind of a bitch, but she did have a point. Was I really going to give them what they wanted? Was I going to give them my life? Was losing Gray so overwhelming that my poor little heart couldn’t take it?
“Let’s make a deal, you and I. If you live, I’ll take you with me,” Marcus promised. “We will go to Venice and there is nothing the king can do about it. You’ll like Venice. I will teach you. Anything else that happens between us is up to you.”
“I don’t need your pity, Vorenus.” The floor was cold under my feet. I wondered if the sand would be warmer.
Marcus put his hands on my shoulders and spun me around. His face was savage as he looked down on me. “I have no pity for you. I have affection. I have desire. I have gratitude because you’re the first thing that has made me feel alive in years. I’m not offering to take you with me because I feel sorry for you. I’m begging you to come with me because I’ll feel the loss if you do not. Please, cara mia. Have mercy on a man. Come to Venice and allow me to soothe you. Come to Venice and allow me to teach you. Come to Venice and give me the chance to seduce you.”
I nodded because there wasn’t a place in my life anymore for turning down a good offer. I hugged the vampire, his touch immediately flooding my senses with his will. He wanted me to live. He wanted me to come to Venice with him.
He wanted…me.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the last part, but I liked the rest of it and I trusted him. He would never force me into anything. I could go with him and he would wait until I decided what I wanted. The thought of being far away from everything seemed like heaven. In Venice, I could find out who I really was. There would be no king, no Castle, no Nate or Liv to deal with. There would be me and my teacher.
Yes. Yes. Yes. The beast inside liked that idea very much. She longed to be close to Marcus. And all we had to do was kill three creatures who outweighed us by a hundred pounds of muscle a piece and had years more experience killing than we did. Yeah, she liked that idea, too. I never said she was smart.
“I’m supposed to take her to her room when it’s done,” Zack said to Marcus. He stared out at the arena, too. He handed Marcus a key card. “If Trent takes her instead, here’s the key. Get her and take her out the back. I’ll have a car waiting to drive you to wherever you want to go. I’d advise hiding out for a day or two and then heading to Houston. You can catch a flight to Europe from there. Daniel might look for you, but if I promise you’ll come back after the initial three months, I think I can eventually convince him to let you go. He feels bad enough already.”
“Zachary, you have never betrayed your master,” Marcus said with sympathy in his eyes.
Zack’s head shook, a firm negative. “Nor am I betraying him now. She’ll come back. I know she will.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, but before I could answer I was pulled abruptly from Marcus and whirled around to face my brother.
Zack shook his head Jamie’s way, surprise plain on his face. “How did you make it back here? We have a ton of security.”
“I have my talents, too,” Jamie growled at the wolf. “I’m taking my sister and getting her the fuck out of here and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
I dug my heels in. Not only was I fairly certain Jamie was overestimating whatever talents he thought he had, there were several reasons me leaving was a bad idea. “I can’t go.”
Jamie’s fingers threaded through mine. “You sure as hell can. I’m sorry Nate sold you out like that. I don’t know why he did it but it’s obvious he cares more about his friends than his family. He can go to hell. We don’t have to talk to him again.”
I pulled away from him. “Jamie, stop it. If I let you take me, they’ll come after you, too. I really am what they say I am. If I don’t get this under control, I could seriously hurt someone. If I make it through…”
“If?” Jamie practically yelled.
“When,” I corrected myself. The beast wasn’t the only one who didn’t appreciate my pessimism. “When I make it through this thing, I’m going to get help and I’ll get this under control. Marcus is going to teach me and then I’ll come back and we’ll sort it out, Jamie.”
I would have a lot to deal with if I lived. I could cut Liv out of my life even though it would hurt, but how did I deal with Nathan and my mom?
Marcus moved between my brother and me. He was taking control. Once he’d made the decision to take responsibility for me, everything changed. There would be no more asking permission of anyone. Marcus was in charge. “Mr. Atwood, your sister has to fight. There’s no way around it. If she runs with you, the king will hunt you down and so will the wolves. Daniel has to because of the danger she poses. You’re getting her emotional when she needs to stay calm. You will leave my student alone or I will dismiss you myself.”
Jamie looked ready to explode. I intervened, firmly grasping Marcus’s arm to let Jamie know I wasn’t being forced. “Jamie, I need him. He’s the only one who can help me. Please. I’ll be back in three months and I’ll be better.”
“I don’t understand any of this.” Jamie stared at me and I could tell he was completely lost. I wasn’t the only one who had the world ripped out from under me.
Zack put a comforting hand on Jamie’s shoulder. “I’ll explain everything to you. You might not remember it, but we’ve met before. We played together a couple of times when my brother and your mom…met. Let me walk you through this. I know it’s hard for you to believe, but I will do just about anything for her.”
“I do remember,” Jamie admitted. He closed his eyes for a moment and came to a decision. “Where can I sit? If she’s going to do this, then I can force myself to watch.”
I hugged my brother tightly, making sure I didn’t poke anyone with the pointy end of my weird gloves. “Thank you.” I needed something from him. I needed it more than anything. “Promise me something, Jamie.”
“Anything.”
“Don’t hate him. Don’t leave him alone.”
He knew who I was talking about and his face hardened. “You can’t ask me that. He lied to us.”
“Did he?” Gray had been all I could think about for hours and I’d come to some conclusions. “He’s been your friend for years. He’s been loyal to you. He didn’t feed me those drugs. He didn’t tell us about the contract but…I don’t know. I can believe that he would think he could get out of it. It’s how he works. He gathers everything he needs around him and then he works the problem. I was something he needed. Hell, I don’t know that I wouldn’t have made the same deal in his position. Thirty years is a lot of time to work things out.”
“He was willing to get you pregnant to save himself.”
He wouldn’t look at it that way. “He was willing to get me pregnant because that’s often what married people do. He wanted a family. If it bought him a little time, he was already planning it anyway. We can’t judge him. We don’t know what it’s like to walk in his shoes. I know I can’t be with him, but Jamie, I can’t walk in there knowing he’s going to be all alone. He needs someone. Yell at him. Beat the shit out of him. I don’t care. Don’t leave him alone. I couldn’t handle it if something happened to him.”
“I’ll try, Kels. But only for you.” He turned to Marcus, giving him a forbidding look. “You better be everything they advertised or I’ll be hunting a couple of vampires.”
Zack led Jamie off and it was just me and Marcus.
He gazed down at me, his eyes deepening to a fascinating obsidian. They were so dark. I could lose myself in those eyes. His hands found mine, drawing them up to his chest. “Keep your hands on my body. We need connection. Listen to me. Let everything else fall away. There’s only you and me in the whole world.”
I breathed and felt his chest rise. His heart beat and mine found his rhythm. Slow and steady as the sun. I let everything slip from me but the feel and smell of him, the sight and sound of him.
“I want you to accept the beast that lives inside you. Clear your mind of everything except the coming fight.” His hands moved up to cup my face, but mine stayed where he’d lain them. “Relax, cara mia. Let me in. I will be with you the whole time. You will not be alone for an instant.”
Magic, soft and warm, was inside my head before I had a chance to defend against it. I wouldn’t have. Marcus’s magic was too seductive to throw a wall up against. He spoke to me with his eyes. I have no idea how long we stood there with him whispering in my head, making a place for himself deep within my brain, but a bond formed in those moments and I knew Marcus had become important to me. Necessary. He was a source of strength to tap into, a place to calm myself. I merely had to hold the thread that bound us together and he would be there.
“Is she ready?” The king’s voice interrupted us.
Marcus leaned over and his lips brushed my forehead. “She is.”
“Then take your place, Marcus,” the king said. “I’ll walk her out.”
“I will be in the stands, cara mia,” Marcus promised. “You’ll be able to see me and I will join you immediately after you defeat Castle. When you are out there, relax. Let me and your wolf take control. We won’t steer you wrong.”
Even through the calm, I began to panic because it was all getting too real. The crowd was chanting, eager to get this started. The gloves on my hands felt wrong. “But I don’t even know how to use these things. I…I’ve never fought like this.”
“But I have,” Marcus replied calmly. “Who do you think those belonged to? I fought many times using them. At one time, they were so familiar to me I felt naked without them.”
“You were a gladiator?” Donovan asked, his eyes lifting in surprise.
“I wasn’t always an academic,” Marcus said with a small smile. “In life, I was a warrior. Well, I was a criminal because of my religion. I became a gladiator because I had no choice. I was much like you, Kelsey. And like you, I was terrified the first time I was tossed into the ring. But I won, as you will. I will tell you everything, Kelsey, all my stories if you allow me to help you.”
“Your Highness.” The big wolf, McKenzie, strode up to us. “We have to begin. Castle is accusing her of running. My people are getting riled.”
Marcus gave me one final look and walked out to the stands. McKenzie followed him and then the king’s hand was on my back, nudging me forward.
“Kelsey, I know you won’t believe me, but I’m sorry it’s come to this,” the king was saying. “I never meant for this to happen to you. I only meant to find you and train you.”
I doubted that. No matter how well-meaning he was, he was always a king and that meant he would always have an agenda. I simply nodded because I knew railing at him would do nothing but bring shame on Marcus. Somehow, in those moments, I’d truly become his student and he my mentor. There was a pact between us and I meant to honor it.
Even though I wanted to tell Donovan to stuff it.
We marched to the end of the walkway where the concrete met sand. The crowd saw me and began to howl. I could see three men pacing at the other end of the arena. I noticed all three men were naked, ready to change. Castle’s head came up when he scented me.
The king stared at the wolf with distaste. “Kelsey, when you kill the alpha, take his heart. Carve it out if you have to. It’s tradition. If they force us to follow their rituals, they can handle it when we cut out their hearts.”
The king leapt up gracefully, holding onto the railing and pulling himself into the stands. I glanced behind my back and saw him taking his place on a raised throne. The queen sat to one side and Quinn on the other. The dark-haired faery leaned over to talk to the king, the duo always whispering, always plotting as though they were two halves of a whole. Jamie sat with Zack, both paler than normal. I took it all in, some voice inside telling me to look so I didn’t get distracted later.
The arena was smaller than I’d imagined, roughly half the length of a football field. The sides of the arena were made from wood and there were various things sticking out. They looked like something you would find in a dungeon. I supposed the vampires used them for training purposes. There were wooden spikes in two places at the front and back of the arena, and on the sides there were places with hooks and long, probably silver chains attached to them.
There were, perhaps, two hundred people crowding the stands, most of them werewolves, but I recognized others. Nathan stood beside Liv, their bodies pressed to the railing. Liv had been crying, her face puffy, but she wasn’t hiding it and she hadn’t cared to reapply her makeup. Scott had managed to skip his Hooter’s night. He sat back, watching with hooded eyes. He’d probably be happy to see me lose. The rest of the people were sitting except two.
I glanced into the stands and Helen Taylor calmly stood up, holding hands with her remaining child. After the briefest of moments, the party around her stood and I knew I was looking at the deer herd. They stood and stared down at me, calmly requesting I finish the job I’d been hired to do.
“Yes, cara,” Marcus’s voice said in my head. “You’re their only chance at justice. If you die, no one will care about them. They’re prey animals with no one to defend them. You are their champion.”
I was, I realized as I turned to face the man who had killed Joanne Taylor because she’d had the audacity to stand up to him. He’d killed women to further his plot against the king. They’d been pawns to be used and discarded as he saw fit. He didn’t care that they’d had dreams and plans. A righteous anger began to burn through me and I felt that beast rise. I didn’t fight her this time. I melded with her, letting her rage mate with mine until we were one. My need for justice meshed neatly with her thirst for revenge.
I heard the king speaking, explaining the argument between us. McKenzie was there as well. This was a fight between Vampire and the Packs, he stated, and when the fight was over, the side that lost would accept the outcome. The beast inside me wanted to argue with that statement. This had nothing to do with Vampire. This was an internal quarrel. The beast inside me was a wolf and she craved acknowledgment. She would howl and fight and kill until those bastards acknowledged her dominance. The wolf understood only strength and I had that in spades.
The king asked the wolves if they were ready. Castle howled, the sound filling the arena with the promise of his will. My wolf responded with a surge of adrenaline. Inside me she paced and twitched, but I stood my ground, my feet sinking into the warmth of the sand. McKenzie asked if Vampire was ready and I did as the voice in my head urged. Marcus calmly explained what was expected of me. I was a gladiator, thrown to the wolves as Marcus had been thrown to the lions. I saw it in my head, the image as clear as day. My connection with Marcus was so much stronger when I opened my mind to him that I could read his thoughts as easily as he read mine. He was thinking about his introduction to the arena. He’d been thrown to the lions, but the predator inside him had risen that day and the lions hadn’t had a chance.
“The wolves have no chance, either.” Marcus chuckled in my head. “You are more wolf than any of them have met, cara mia. Prove it to them.”
I held the cestus over my head as Marcus had when he’d fought as a full-fledged gladiator. It was the sign of a professional, cool and prepared. It made Castle stop his preening for a moment. He sneered at me across the sand that separated us and all was silent for a moment. The king gave the order and chaos broke loose.
The crowd screamed as the three wolves changed forms. The two betas knelt in the sand, their limbs flowing around them, changing shape in easy movements. They were just the preview though. Castle didn’t need to kneel and think about his form. He began to run toward me. He started on two feet, running with powerful strides toward his prey. His change was so quick, so effortless, that one moment he was a man and the next he leapt through the air, a powerful pitch-black wolf coming for me. I stood my ground, waiting for the right moment. He came toward me, snarling through the air, my neck in his sights.
“Wait,” the patient voice said in my head. “Wait,” it said even as I could feel the heat from his body and see the spit in his mouth as he opened his powerful jaw. “Move!”
I leapt into action, rolling under the wolf and kicking up at the same time. The motion sent the big wolf scrambling as he hit the sharp wooden stake and it impaled him through the shoulder. I glanced up and knew it wouldn’t take Castle long to get himself off that stake. He’d heal fast. I needed to move quickly if I wanted to gain the advantage.
It would be easier to fight Castle if I took out the betas first. I wanted to be able to focus all of my attention on Castle. While Castle writhed on the pike, the betas began to circle me. I had rolled to the center of the arena and the smaller wolves began to work in tandem. Smaller, I thought, didn’t mean small. They were simply smaller than the enormous wolf Castle became. They snarled and growled around me, enjoying the play. They twitched their tails and snapped their sharp teeth toward me. I tried to keep them both in my sights, but it was impossible. They surrounded me and Castle was almost off the spike. I was running out of time.
“Shh,” the voice said. Marcus’s voice was starting to mingle with my own inner voice. “Calm yourself. You have them right where you want them. Stop trying to follow them with your eyes and open your other senses.”
Breathing deeply, I let the instincts flow across me. I let the wolf inside take over completely. She was triumphant as she took hold of our body. I felt her will, her joy in this fight. I tracked the wolf in front of me with my eyes, but I knew where the other one was, too. I sensed him behind me and I felt the moment he decided to attack. Time seemed to slow as I moved into place. He leapt toward me and I turned at the last second, powering up to catch him in the gut. I felt the claws on my cestus sink into the soft underbelly of the wolf, and I drove forward like I was pulling a lever. That lever opened the wolf’s belly and I felt the blood gush as I rolled away, yanking my hand out of the eviscerated abdomen.
The beta hit the ground with a thud and I knew he was dead before the sand had settled around him. The claws on the cesti were pure silver. It was why Zack had handled them with the greatest care. The silver would burn the flesh. It would damage the wolf’s flesh so terribly that it died before the wolf’s natural healing powers could kick in. He could, eventually, heal a cut to his arm, but I sank those claws deep into his belly. I had cut through flesh and into his organs. He hadn’t stood a chance. The silver on my hands was coated in blood and I was perfectly satisfied with the metallic smell floating on the air. I felt Marcus’s approval from across the arena. The vampire’s dark eyes never left me. While the rest of the crowd sat on the edge of their seats or screamed their preference, Marcus was still, all of his energy, his will, poured into me.
One down, two to go. The crowd seemed to finally understand this wouldn’t be an easy kill for the alpha. I wouldn’t go easy.
Hell, I thought looking at Castle as he managed to pull himself off the spike, I wasn’t going down at all. He was going down.
The second beta howled his displeasure at his friend’s death. He lost his discipline and came after me with no thought but to get his jaw wrapped around my neck. Castle barked and I knew instinctively he was trying to order the beta to stop. He needed a moment to heal the wound in his shoulder. He wanted to face me two to one, but the beta was so far gone in his rage that he didn’t listen. He pounced, his weight shoving me down into the sand. His claws sank into my shoulders. The pain was blistering.
“Forget it,” the voice said. The pain didn’t matter. I could deal with it later.
The pain receded and I used my legs to roll the wolf off and over me. My feet sank in the sand as I ran for the other side of the arena. The wolf nipped at my heels. I sped up, knowing exactly what I wanted to do. I reached the side of the arena where silver chains hung. The wolf was too close. I turned and he was coming at me. I reared my fist back and hit him straight in his snout. He whimpered as he went down. His big body hit the sand.
When I looked at the other side of the arena, Castle was changing. He took human form again. It would help him heal quicker.
“I am going to kill you, bitch!” Castle screamed across the arena.
I picked up the chain in my free hand. “That’s what your son said.” I couldn’t help it. I really can be a bitch.
Castle’s scream might have curled a lesser woman’s toes, but I had other things to do. His wound was healing before my eyes and that beta was already getting up. I hefted the heavy rope and slung it at the downed beta before he could rise. The chain was thick and heavy, but I lifted it easily. I caught him across the legs. The flesh immediately started to smoke and the wolf howled. He tried to move, but the chain weighed a ton and the silver sapped his strength. The crowd roared as Castle changed again. Magic filled the air and knew I had very little time before he reached me. I didn’t need much.
I shoved my bladed hand across the wolf’s throat and punched into it. I dragged it through his flesh with strength and will. The cestus on my hand didn’t bother me anymore. I’d worn it many times before. In my mind, I thought about all the battles I’d fought and won, the cestus cutting through my opponents’ flesh. My memories were meshing with Marcus’s, but it gave me a confidence I wouldn’t have had. It filled me with experience. I pulled my hand out of the beta’s throat, but Castle was already on me.
The force of Castle’s big body shoved me against the arena wall and my head slammed against the big silver hook. I saw stars for a minute and went on my knees. My peripheral vision started to get hazy.
“Kelsey!” I heard my brother yelling. Nathan was throwing one leg over the railing and I was glad to see Scott stopped him. He couldn’t do anything…
“Get up,” Marcus barked the order in my head and my legs didn’t dare refuse. “Turn.”
I spun around as Castle bore down on me. Despite the throbbing pain in my head, my right arm came up instinctively to block his gnashing teeth. The blades on the cestus cut into Castle’s jaw and he jumped back. It gave me enough time to shake the cobwebs out. Castle’s next attack went straight for my thigh. I jumped, but he managed to catch my left side and sink his powerful jaws into the meat of my leg right above my knee. The teeth burned as he sank them in and I knew if I didn’t throw him off, he could break my femur and then I would go down. I didn’t heal the way he did. If I couldn’t run, I couldn’t fight. I went for the softest part of him I could reach.
I shoved a blade into his eye.
He immediately let go and before I could blink, he’d changed forms. His left eye was a bloody, mangled mess. He stared at the blood pouring onto his hands then with a growl, he reared back and punched me straight in the face. I hit the side of the arena again, this time the back of my head smacking into the wood.
Castle pressed his advantage. He used his powerful fists in a way he hadn’t been able to use his claws. He punched me in the face, the stomach, the chest. I felt like a body bag. I might have fallen over, but Castle kept me upright with the force of his blows. Pain as I’d never imagined ripped through my body. As I absorbed the agony from one blow, another landed. It seemed to never end. The crowd was chanting, screaming something, but it was a distant thing. Marcus was trying to tell me something, but even his voice was far away. I felt his panic. There wasn’t a lot I could do about it.
Castle finally decided to let me hit the ground. I tumbled to my knees and I realized my right eye must be swollen because I couldn’t see out of it anymore. My left shoulder screamed and was kind of stuck at a weird angle. It must have separated at some point. My whole body was on fire. The pain was so bad I started to hope Castle got this thing done soon.
I pitched forward and felt the sand against my swollen face. Marcus was pleading with me and the wolf inside was howling for me to get my ass up, but I thought about Gray. He was going to be sad when he found out. I wondered if he would blame himself. I wished I’d never gone after those class rolls. If I’d done what Gray had asked, I would be planning the menu for our reception. I would be arguing with Gray over fish or chicken, and when we got sick of fighting, he would take me to bed. If I’d chosen him over my stubborn instincts, I wouldn’t be dying in this terrible place.
Castle was enjoying his fans. He kicked me a couple of times, but I hurt too much to even grunt. I’ve heard that when pain gets to be too much, the body shuts down and a blissful numbness takes over. I didn’t get that. I got misery that seemed to never end.
Finally, he kneeled down and lifted my head up by the hair. From my angle, I could make out the queen weeping openly and pleading with her husband. Donovan looked like a man who wished he’d never put a freaking crown on. Zack and Jamie were moving toward the front of the crowd.
Castle leaned down. “I think I’m going to like killing you most of all, little girl. Do you know what I’m going to do when you’re dead? I’ll give it a month or so, but I’ll kill every single bitch who works in those clubs and I’ll pin it on a vamp. I’ll have my war, you understand? You changed nothing.”
He dropped my head and reared back to change. He would kill me in his wolf form. It was traditional. He took his wolf form and howled before he pounced, his teeth going for my throat.
I used every bit of energy I had left to flip my body over, ball my good hand into a fist and shove my right hand up. I saw the look on Castle’s face when he realized what was going to happen. There was nothing he could do. He couldn’t change course and his own heavy weight helped me. My claws sunk deeply into his chest. I fought to shove them in further even as his big body fell onto me, forcing my arm to go into an odd angle. He landed on top of me and he snarled as my claw found his heart. Even as the light went out in his face, he growled at me.
The arena hushed. Our final moments had been a close battle. I wondered if anyone really knew what had happened. The wolf lay on top of me, his snout in my neck, my hand in his chest. The crowd seemed to be waiting to see who got up.
“Very good, cara mia,” Marcus whispered in my brain. He knew what had happened. He would have felt me die. “You’ve done well, but you must finish. Listen carefully. I want you to…”
He gave me the words to use. I had to follow both wolf and vampire traditions. Marcus talked me through everything. He let me know he would be with me after I finished, but I had to get through this part by myself. I rolled the wolf off of me, shoving his body to the sand with as much strength as I could muster.
There were shocked cries as the alpha of the Dallas pack slumped over in the sand and I struggled to get to my knees. I didn’t feel that overwhelming urge to continue my kill the way I had before. Marcus gave me the strength to force my wolf to calm down. She gave me the strength to stay on my feet and do what I needed to do, but I was in control.
Some of the wolves began crying, but I saw many seemed relieved. I leaned exhausted over the carcass to fulfill the last of my duties. Donovan was on his feet, looking down on me with satisfied relief and something like respect. He nodded as I reared my good hand back and punched through Joseph Castle’s chest. I had to work at it and it wasn’t pretty, but I claimed the heart and managed to get to my feet. My left hand dangled. I couldn’t see out of one eye. I saw the horror in Liv’s eyes as I walked past her on my way to the king. I knew I must be really fucked up to get that look.
Donovan walked down the steps to the edge of the railing. He stared across the arena to where McKenzie sat. “The battle is done. I declare the killing of these wolves to be righteous. I need to know this is done, John.”
McKenzie’s low voice carried across the arena. “The Packs are satisfied that justice has been done. I will select another alpha after I speak to the pack. I’ll choose carefully, Your Highness.”
“And I will trust your judgment,” Donovan promised and then turned his attention back to me.
I held the heart out to him and he took it with no hesitation. Daniel Donovan wasn’t afraid of a little blood. I braced myself because it wasn’t easy to stay upright. I gave him the ancient words between a king and his death machine. “Your Highness is satisfied with his Nex Apparatus?”
Donovan’s face fell and then hardened. His words ground out of his mouth. “I am. You’re dismissed.”
Suddenly the queen was by his side and Quinn was close behind her. Their faces registered shock.
“Daniel,” the queen said, putting a perfectly manicured hand on his arm. “You have to heal her.”
Quinn shook his head. “She won’t let him.”
He was a good judge of character. I wasn’t letting that vampire anywhere near me.
I began to turn to leave the arena when a small face caught my eye. He was trying to hide behind a pillar at the top of the arena, but when he saw me looking, he stepped out. Lee Donovan Quinn had avoided his bed again. He was dressed in pajama pants and a T-shirt. He looked down on me and smiled, holding his small hand up in greeting. I tried to smile back, but before I could he was gone again. The kid was fast.
Marcus’s hand was on my elbow. “Brace yourself, Kelsey.”
He held me tightly and shoved my shoulder back into place. I screamed as the pain threatened to take me under again. I could move my left arm, but I didn’t particularly want to. Every muscle in my body ached, but I was going to walk out of that arena. Marcus seemed to sense it and took a step back.
“Marcus,” Donovan shouted as I started to stagger out. “I’ll send a doctor to her room.”
He’d probably send Sharpe. It would be just like that bastard to send Jack the fucking Ripper in to examine me. I held up my good hand as I walked out of the arena and managed to give the king my happy middle finger.