Henri averted his gaze in preparation. I wanted to say nah, but Bres was right, blood would give me the edge I needed in that arena.
Bres remained seated, and resisting the urge to straddle him, I pulled down the neck of his T-shirt and sank my fangs into his jugular. Trying to feed without moaning and groaning with pleasure was no easy task, especially when the blood was so fucking delicious, and especially when I knew that Bres was hard as a rock, and I was wet as fuck. But Henri was in the room. I needed to respect that. I fed quickly and laved the wound with a swipe of my tongue, resisting the need to claim Bres’s luscious lips in a hungry kiss.
Bres sat back against the wall, watching me with hooded eyes that blazed with sexual heat.
His blood coursed through my veins, pulsing with a heat that was almost intimate.
I cleared my throat. “We should get some rest. We’re going to need it.”
I hated the unknown, and in a couple of hours, that was exactly what I’d be walking into.
* * *
The noise was deafening. Easy to see why. The arena seats were packed with golems—males, females, and, yes, children. Murray hadn’t been making that shit up.
The daemon mages were able to create golem offspring. The golems really did have everything they could want here. Guilt bubbled in my stomach, but I ignored it. We needed them. That was a fact, and feeling bad wouldn’t change it.
The cell door opened, and Murray stood in the doorway. “They’re about to announce you.” His expression was grim. “There’s still time to back out. You’re everything that the golems despise, everything that reminds them of what they should have had. I doubt they’ll go easy on you once you get into that arena.”
Bres and Henri were watching me, waiting for my decision. Was I taking Bres to his death? Golems couldn’t die, but fomorians could. I could …
“We have to do this, Kat,” Bres said.
And this was why I’d fallen for him. “I know.”
Doubt flitted across Murray’s face.
I grinned, injecting a little cockiness into my tone. “Trust me, we’ve got this. Those golems won’t know what hit them.”
Murray wasn’t buying it. “Your gramps will never forgive me if you die here.”
“Gramps knows me. He knows I make my own decisions, and he knows that once I’ve made up my mind, nothing can change it.”
I pushed past him into the corridor. “Come on, we don’t want to be late for our introduction.”
Yes, make it into a game. Flippant worked. Cocky worked. I almost fooled my brain into believing that this was just a little fun, so by the time we hit the sawdust, by the time hundreds of eyes were on us, by the time Benjamin’s arrogant, smarmy voice boomed over our heads, I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing. And then Benjamin’s words penetrated the happy haze I’d cultivated.
“They are the reason you were hunted,” he said. “Rounded up like animals and forced out of your home world. These creatures represent the council. The force behind your exile. They wanted you dismantled, and when they failed at that, they wanted you imprisoned. Now, you have the chance for vengeance. The team with the highest points will be placed in the ring with these creatures for a free-for-all match.”
Wait, what?
The arena erupted in a roar of bloody vengeance, momentarily drowning out my thoughts.
I locked gazes with Murray up in the stands. His face was a mask of shock.
Rage burned sudden and hot in my belly.
“The bastard,” Henri said. “Jeremy lied to us.”
“One shot,” Bres said. “We better make it count.”
Two huge obsidian golems with blank faces approached and herded us off the arena toward a stall at the side. They didn’t touch us, they didn’t speak, and considering the death glares we were getting from every other golem, the fact these two didn’t try and get a shove or two in told me they weren’t like the others.
They closed the stall doors on us and stationed themselves on either side of the stalls.
“Let the games begin,” Benjamin boomed in his magically enhanced voice.
My hands itched to throttle him.
“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Bres said. “We’d have done this no matter what the odds.”
He was right. Four chances to win or one. It was still a chance more than we had if we went back emptyhanded.
Outside our stall, the golems charged into the arena, grabbing weapons and facing off. A bell tolled, and the golems charged each other.
At least there wouldn’t be any blood.
Yet.
* * *
Minutes turned into hours. The sun arched through the sky slowly until it was dipping toward afternoon. Golems fell, and golems triumphed, and each time, angry eyes looked our way as if to say, soon. It’ll be you soon. So much rage. How could there be so much rage after all this time? Didn’t they understand we were scapegoats? Maybe they did and just didn’t care.
My gaze kept being drawn to the pillars for goodness knows what reason. There … a flash of light. So quick, I almost missed it. What was that? I looked back up at the stands at the spot where Murray was sitting. But he was gone. He hadn’t moved from the stands all day, even in the breaks, so where the fuck was he now?
And then the bell was tolling for the hundredth time, but this time, instead of the current teams being replaced by new ones, our obsidian golem guards yanked open our stall doors and ushered us out.
“Looks like we’re up,” Henri said.
Bres walked into the arena like a predator, all rippling muscle and pent-up rage. Henri followed, cool, calm, but ready to break heads. And me … what did they see when they looked at me, a diminutive female who could be picked up and broken? Yeah, well, looks could be deceptive.
“It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for,” Benjamin said in his ultra-loud magnified voice. “The final battle of the day. No rules. No holds barred. Fifteen minutes of what we hope will be blood and gore.”
The crowd let out a cry that was all about the bloodlust.
Four massive golems strode into the arena. Two were in metal form, the other two were wearing their human faces. I’d watched them fight. They were powerful, fast, efficient. They’d taken down their opponents in minutes.
We were so screwed.
No. Don’t think that.
“You’re one of us,” the largest golem said to Henri. “Why are you with them?”
“They’re my friends,” Henri said. “I care about them.”
“Then you’re a fool,” the golem said. “They’ll use you up and spit you out. You could be free. I will set you free. Which one is your master? I will kill that one first.”
“I’m my own master,” Henri said. “I was freed months ago.”
“And yet you stand here with them? Ready to die for them?” He looked perplexed.
“Not for them, but for the human realm, my home. It’s in danger, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect it.”
The golem’s brow furrowed. “What do you—”
The bell tolled, cutting off his words.
“Grab your weapons!” Benjamin ordered.
The golems hesitated for a split second, and it hit me. Maybe we didn’t need to wait for the Circle to speak to the golems. We could do it ourselves. Right now. Right here.
I stepped forward. “Listen to me. The human world will end in two days if we don’t get help. We came here to recruit golems to our cause. To stop a primal threat, we—”
A shrill sound cut the air. It stung my ears, but the golems bellowed, covering theirs. Henri fell to his knees, his hands pressed to the sides of his head.
“What the hell? What’s happening.”
The sound stopped, and then the golems attacked. Henri met them head-on, four against one. Hell, no.
I leaped into the fray, slamming into the nearest golem and knocking him back half a meter. He swiped, and I ducked.
I needed more than my fists for t
his fight. “The weapons rack!”
I rolled and evaded, landing a punch here or there while Bres made a sprint for the weapons.
“Kat, heads up,” Bres called out.
I caught the sword he threw my way, and twisted my upper body, bringing the blade around in an arc to slice across my attacker’s abdomen. Metal screeched against metal.
Damn, what was the point of weapons when they had no effect? I guess they were just for show when wielded by a golem against a golem, but when wielded by a golem against a Nightblood, shit. I leaped back in time to avoid a nasty stab wound, but the golem kept coming at me, his face a mask of fury. It was the leader dude, the one who’d almost heard us out, the one I thought we’d been getting through to until … that noise.
I blurred around the golem and slammed my open palm into his back, sending him pitching forward into the nearest pillar.
A flash of light.
What the fuck.
The golem spun and charged me, but my feet were already off the ground as I leaped over him to land by the pillar.
There was a gem in the pillar. A pulsing gem.
“Kat, watch out!” Bres’s voice pulled me back into the moment. I blurred away from the pillar in time to avoid an ax to the back.
Gems in the pillars that looked like larger versions of the gems I’d seen attached to the lantern posts in town, and that shrill noise … It was connected. It had to be.
Henri was fighting to my left, his face a glazed mask of rage. A mask of rage like the other golems’ faces.
This was mage control.
That sound and the gems were involved.
I’d been right, something was wrong here. As I dodged the golems, my gaze kept flitting to the crowd, taking in the anger, the bloodlust, the pulsating need for violence. There was something here, something on the fringes of my understanding.
I backed up toward another pillar to avoid several strikes. My shoulder grazed the rock, and a pulse of power shot through me and snagged in my mind like claws, gripping and tugging. The sensation reminded me of the riders, of how they’d drawn power from me.
Feeding.
Siphoning.
The pieces fell into place in a horrific picture.
The gems were siphons, and the shrill cry had been a trigger. The fucking mages were siphoning energy, siphoning the rage created by this collective. There was no doubt in my mind. But why?
Why were they doing it?
Bres was bleeding from several cuts but still kicking ass by taking on two golems.
“Bres! We need to take out the gems in the pillars.”
“Kind of busy here, Kat.”
“And you’re doing great, keep it up.”
I slammed the hilt of my sword into the back of one of the golem’s heads as I ran past, and then smashed my first gem. I felt the pop in the air. Yes, I was right, I had to be.
Ten pillars. Bring it.
I’d taken out four when Benjamin’s voice cut through the cheering of the crowd. “Get the Nightblood!”
Ah, fuck. Time to ratchet it up a notch.
Super speed all the way. Smash, smash, crunch. Arms wrapped around my torso and lifted me off my feet. Oops.
“You die.” It was the leader golem.
“This isn’t you.” I twisted and kicked out. “They’re doing this to you. Stop. Think.” I thrashed, but damn, he was strong.
Henri’s battle cry deafened me in my right ear, and then I was free, and the golem was on the ground being pummeled by Henri.
Shit. I grabbed my sword and smashed it into the final gem.
A loud pop assaulted my ears, and then there was a low hum. The hairs on the back of my neck quivered and stood to attention in warning.
Oh, shit. “Everyone get down!”
I hit the ground just as a shockwave shot out from the pillars, skimming over my head and crashing in the center of the arena before dispersing with a whoosh.
The arena was suddenly deathly silent. I stood on trembling legs. Around me, the golems were still and silent, staring at each other as if waking from a dream.
Bres jogged over to me. “What was that? What just happened?”
I scanned the arena, locking gazes with Henri before touching on the other four golems.
The big guy who’d tried to squish the life out of me walked over to us. “You said the human realm was in trouble?”
* * *
With the destruction of the last gem, the aggressive bloodthirst had dissipated, and now the arena was milling with confused golems.
The golem who’d been attacking us rubbed his head. “You were telling me about the human realm and then … I don’t understand.”
“You were being controlled,” Bres said.
“Rage,” Henri said. “I felt so much rage.”
“The gems in the pillar were doing something.” I touched the nearest pillar, pointing out the dip where a gem had sat. “I think they were siphoning energy from the arena, feeding off the rage and aggression. The shrill sound triggered your rage.”
The golem looked thoughtful. “I’ve been feeling angry for a few weeks now. Agitated and irritable.” He looked to his teammates. “We all have.”
I had a theory for that too. “I saw gems in the town. Smaller than the ones here. They were stuck to lantern posts.”
“Murray.” Bres pointed out the daemon as he came jogging onto the arena floor.
“The Circle is gone,” Murray said as he joined us. “They ran when you blew out the last gem on the pillars.” He grinned. “Smart, Kat, but then you do get your genes from me.”
I arched a brow. “Because you totally had it figured out, didn’t you?”
He sobered. “I felt something was off when the games started, and the feeling got worse the longer the fighting went on. I noticed a couple of Circle members sneak out of the stands, so I followed.” He pressed his lips together. “They have a device, and their rings were in it, glowing and pulsing. I confronted Jeremy. Turns out, they’ve been siphoning energy from the golems for decades. Their link to the miasma is weakening, and the rings act as conduits. Turns out that golems have a little weave power in them all, and it manifests through aggression.”
“The aggression they used in the war,” Bres said. “It was laced with weave power.”
“Yes,” Murray said. “It’s what made these golems unique, and the Circle has been siphoning that power. All they needed to do was trigger aggression, and they’ve been doing that by—"
“The gems in the town,” I finished for him.
“Yes, the gems trigger aggression on an incremental basis until the games, and when the golems fight, releasing their aggression, the arena siphons the energy.”
“They were using us?” The golem looked bewildered. Hurt.
Several more golems gathered around listening.
“We thought they were our friends, our protectors. We believed in them.”
“I’m sorry,” Murray said. “But you’re better off without them. Make your own council and your own rules.”
“No more children …” one of the female golems said. She looked up at the leader golem who’d fought us. “It was supposed to be our year.”
“There have to be other daemon mages who can help with that,” Bres said.
“None strong enough,” Murray said. “Why do you think the Circle only offered two blessings a year? It takes a vast amount of energy to create a golem, and with their connection to the miasma compromised, they could only risk it twice a year just after they’d siphoned the shit out of a whole town. I figure they thought they’d get an extra boost by using you to rile up the masses this year.”
The female let out a soft sob.
Murray lightly touched her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“What about Luther?” Henri said. “He has the power. He might not be able to come into Demonica, but what if the golems could go to him?”
Oh, Henri, you clever, clever boy.
“You want famil
ies,” Henri said.
“Yes,” the woman said. “More than anything. The games have always been a time of growth for us.”
“Help us, and we’ll help you,” Henri said. “Fight for us. Help us save the human realm, and we’ll make sure you have your families.”
Murmurs broke out among the golems as they considered the offer.
Finally, the golem I’d begun to think of as the leader faced us, arms crossed over his chest. “You have a deal.”
Pride at Henri’s quick thinking swelled in my chest followed quickly by blessed relief, because we had what we needed.
We had a fucking golem army, and the shimmer man could go suck it.
Chapter Sixteen
Pendragon Square was filled with golems. We’d broken into all the empty stores to provide them shelter. The sky was blood red now, which, according to Max, meant that the breach was wide open. The horrors could come through at any time. Karishma wasn’t back yet. Bres and Max had driven back to the mansion to get more weapons from our armory. Mai, Kris, and Petunia were still combing through the books. I’d asked Murray to take Gramps to Demonica and keep him there. Gramps hadn’t been too happy about that, but he’d complied. He knew the score. He knew I’d work better if I didn’t have to worry about him.
Lark was still out cold. Still at the shimmer man’s mercy.
Time was running out.
I stood over Death. He was done changing into his human form. He had a nice face, a kind face.
“I can see traces of you,” Henri said. “You have his mouth.”
“I need him to wake up.”
“I know.”
“What if he’s out of power? What if he can’t help? What then?”
“Then we fight the horrors for as long as it takes for him to recharge.”
I shook my head. “It won’t stop here. The breach will spread. All over the world. We can’t be everywhere.”
He was silent because he knew I was right. He knew what we faced. He understood that even if Death and I joined forces and went after the shimmer man, we still might fail. Heck, I had no clue what to do to kill him? It would literally be a trial by error job. Going into Somnium meant handing the shimmer man the opportunity he needed. It would be the last stand. If I failed, he went free.
Lay the Ghost: Nightwatch Series book 4 Page 11
