by Flynn, Mac
"And if we do?" I countered.
Lamia laughed and stood. "Then I get Vincent all to myself, and judging by your reaction I'd say that would be the perfect revenge for your insult towards me. My victory will be even sweeter when you learn your opponent."
Mitch stood and positioned himself between me and the snake. All I wanted to do was strangle her thin neck and make her into a purse. "Easy there, ladies. Liz, you need to save your energy for the ring," he reminded me.
I pushed the murderous thoughts of a new handbag from my mind and marched out of the room. Vince followed while Mitch stayed behind for a while longer. I stomped down the stairs and stopped outside the door. The guard golem raised a rocky eyebrow at me. "What are you looking at?" I growled.
Vince saved me from a pounding as he swept down the stairs and grasped my upper arms. He led me away from the door and the golem that pounded its fist into its other large hand. "A moment, if you will," he requested.
I shrugged off his hands and spun around to glare at him. "What the hell was that back there? You're just going to give yourself up to that snake charmer up there?"
"We will not lose," he repeated.
"And what if we do lose, huh? Where am I at? Where are we at?" I argued.
Vince raised an eyebrow and his blood-red eyes scrutinized my face. "Where are we at?" he wondered.
I froze and blushed under his thorough gaze. "W-well, we're partners, and partners aren't supposed to leave each other. And-um-" My eyes flickered down to my wringing hands, and I held up my ring between us. "And besides that, we're stuck together, remember? Till death do us part. Well, sort of. And if you go off and be the slave of that-that thing up there then something bad might happen and-" Vince stepped up to me less than a foot in front of me and his nearness shut me up. I turned my face so I didn't have to look at him.
"Look at me," he demanded.
"I'm fine," I quipped.
Vince's cool fingers grasped my chin and he forced me to look at him. His glasses slid down his nose and his red eyes drilled into mine, but I didn't see any anger or annoyance in their depths. "This troubles you greatly."
"W-well, yeah," I agreed.
He slightly tilted his head and his half-lidded eyes raised their brows in question. "Why?"
"W-well, because it kind of affects me, too. I mean, it affects both of us and-" I froze when Vince's smooth fingers slid up to cup my cheek. My blushing skin warmed his and I was mesmerized by his beautiful, glowing eyes.
"Whatever emotions you feel for me are clouding your judgment. We have never lost, and we will not lose now," he persisted.
"But-"
"Liz, have faith in me," he pleaded.
My eyes widened. That was only the second time he'd spoken my name. His red eye pleaded for my approval. I pressed my lips together, but sighed and nodded. "All right, but if you get me killed I swear I'll beat the crap out of you in the nether world."
Vince smiled and let his hand slip from my cheeks. I missed the coolness of his fingers. "I will risk the punishment."
"Good, so where do we sign up to get ourselves killed by Miss Snake's champion?"
"Go down to the cage. Lamia's already already called down there and given instructions to stop the other matches and let you in," Mitch told us as he stepped from the stairway. There was such a gloomy, desolate expression on his face that I gulped.
"Who, or what, are we up against?" I asked him.
He closed his eyes and shook his head. "That's something Lamia warned me on pain of death not to tell until you see for yourselves."
Vince set his hand on my shoulder and a small, sly smile slipped onto his lips. "Let us see the challenger."
I grinned. "Yeah, maybe I can improve my batting average with a two-to-zero streak."
We walked down the stairs that led to the bottom of the coliseum. Speakers around the facility crackled overhead and the voice of a male announcer boomed over the sound system. "The fight schedule has been changed. The fight between Sneezy Simian and Freddy Freuder will be held tomorrow, and in its place will be Vincent and Liz Stokes against a mystery challenger."
There was a collective gasp from the audience and the lights dimmed in the entire arena. We stopped and I cringed when a spotlight shone on us. Thousands of eyes turned on us and a great buzzing of exclamations and whispers arose from the onlookers. I glanced at Vince, but he stared straight ahead with his lips pursed together, the picture of stoic indifference.
"I'm guessing since they only used your first name that you're known to practically everybody," I whispered.
"A great many," he agreed.
Mitch got us going with a push down the stairs. "Come on, you two. Let's not let the nice people wait for your creaming."
I turned and glared at him as we made our way to the metal cage. "Thanks, Mitch. It's great to know you have that much faith in us."
Mitch shrugged. "Faith can move mountains, but you don't need to move mountains in the cage. You need to perform a miracle."
We reached the lowest tier where sat the cage. A short flight of wooden stairs on opposite sides of the cage led to doors made of metal pipes. There was no other way to get in, or out, of the cage. A golem stood beside the bottom of the stairs, and when we the steps on the right the golem pressed a button behind him. The cage door swung open.
"Good luck. You'll need it," Mitch quipped.
I gulped, but Vince walked straight ahead and up the stairs into our doom-I mean, the cage. I followed, and when I stepped inside the cage the door swung shut behind me with a loud clang. The crowds hushed as the lights dimmed to nothing. Only those pointed at the ring remained on, and I sweltered beneath the heat. Vince stood as still as a statue, but I could tell he was tense.
I stiffened when the door opposite us swung open, but I couldn't see our challenger. The crowd collectively held their breath. Then I heard it. A strange swooshing noise as something soft swept against the hard ground of the stairs. In a moment a tall shadow rose above the bottom of the ring, and our opponent slithered into the ring.
It was Lamia herself, and she had the widest, most wicked grin on her face that I'd ever seen.
The crowd went wild to see the mistress of the ring actually in the ring. Vince stepped back and set his arm over me to push me behind him. "I'm guessing this isn't good," I whispered.
"No."
Chapter 10
Lamia's metal door clanged shut behind her and she raised her clawed hands in the air. The crowd cheered, and behind us I heard Mitch hiss under his breath. "I have a special treat for you, my precious clients," Lamia announced to the audience. They quieted to listen to her voice, and she gestured to us with one hand. "These fighters have challenged me to a duel not to the death, but to the finish. For those of you who do not know the rules, a duel to the finish is when one side admits defeat. If death occurs before one side admits defeat then-" she paused and shrugged, "c'est la vie."
The crowd roared with approval at her death-is-nothing attitude. She had the home team advantage, but we still had each other. "What's the best way to kill a snake?" I whispered to Vince.
"Not to let her know you're going to kill her," Lamia quipped from across the ring. Her twenty-foot long tail slithered in front of her and I noticed there were sharp, thick barbs that stretched to near the tip. "But I'm not here to play to the death. I want my little Vincent alive, or as alive as he ever is."
I leapt forward from the safety of Vince's back and rolled my sleeves up. "He's not yours and he's not going to be yours!" I growled.
Lamia raised herself so she stood eight feet tall and beckoned me. "Then show me you deserve him."
I barely inched forward before a flash of darkness swept past me and at Lamia. It was Vince, and he slammed a hard right and left into Lamia's gut. She doubled over and clutched her gut, but she quickly slithered back out of his reach. Her eyes blazed with anger. "You will pay for that, vampire! I will make you massage every scale you injure!" she hissed.
"You've got to be kidding me," I quipped. I backed up, but the snakes followed. They snapped and bit at me, but only in the air in front of me. They didn't actually want to kill me any more than Lamia wanted to kill Vince because she knew she'd lose her prize trophy if I died.
Being stuck to her prize as I was emboldened me to try something very reckless. I stopped my retreat and tried to stomp on the snakes. They slithered away from my foot, but only a short distance where they stopped and hissed at me. "Hiss yourselves!" I shot back, and marched onward. They retreated and I came closer to the battle between Lamia and Vince.
Vince's fight with the big snake-cuna wasn't going quite as well as mine with the mini-Lamias. Lamia still held onto his feet, and his arms couldn't reach her tail to unwind himself from her grasp. She lifted him off the floor and held him upside down in front of her. She curled her lips back in a wide grin and revealed sharp, dripping fangs.
"You are much easier to defeat than I thought, my little vampire. Perhaps you aren't the treat I thought you were," she cooed.
Vince's lips were pressed together in pain, but a sly smile slipped onto his lips. "I wished you to bring me closer."
Lamia's eyes widened just in time for Vince to swing toward her and slam his fists into both of them. She howled and clutched her eyes. Her tail loosened its grip and Vince dropped elegantly onto his feet. He rushed her for more blows, but her tail swiped at him with its barbs, and several cut through his coat and shirt. Blood oozed from his chest and he clutched his wounds. Lamia slithered forward and snapped her wide jaws at him, but he managed to dodge her fangs only to drop into the clutches of her tail. It was as though he were fighting two creatures at the same time, and the taily one managed to wrap itself around his chest and pin his arms to his sides.
Lamia lifted him off the ground and squeezed him until his blood dripped from between her tail folds. She slammed him against first one side of the cage and then the other. Each time more blood poured onto her tail and the ground, leaving a bloody trail to commemorate her winning.
"You can't do anything with that pathetic ring and human attached to you, can you, vampire?" Lamia mocked him.
I stood five yards off and watched this bloody show in horror. Vince struggled to free his ring hand, but she kept a tight hold on his arms so he couldn't wield it. I grasped mine in both hands and a bright light shone from the stone. Lamia whipped her head to me and snarled. I grinned in return.
"He's not the only one who can use this thing," I informed her.
"But if I tear off your finger he will be," she quipped. Vince remained in her tail while her front half slithered toward me in fast, winding movements. I ducked down and raised a barrier just as her snapping jaws swooped down on me. Her teeth hit the barrier and much was my horror when they sank deep into the light. She pulled herself free, but left gaping holes in the barrier. She chuckled at my shocked expression. "You think those rings make you invincible? They are only as strong as the person who wields them, and you are not strong." She hissed and barreled down on me for a barrier-breaking blow.
A half inch from the barrier she stopped and let out a blood-curdling scream. She whipped her head to face behind her, and I followed her gaze. Vince was still trapped in her tail, but he had sank his teeth through her scales and deep into her flesh. He gobbled up as much of her blood as his mouth would allow, but two streams of blood still poured from the large puncture marks of his canine teeth.
"You bloody vampire! Release me!" she demanded. She turned away from me to pry Vince loose, but I jumped on her scaly back and clung to the stiff, thick plates. Vince must have had a hell of a bite to dig through those things.
Lamia roared in anger and reared back, but I held on to the bucking bronco and climbed up to her head and arms. I became as a cat battling a snake as I tore at her clothes, clawed at her eyes, and beat off her flailing hands. Her flailing lessened in intensity as Vince drained her of her energy. In a minute she clutched her head and swayed to and fro. Her grip on Vince loosened and he dropped to the ground. I dove off as the snake woman fell forward and crashed belly-first onto the ground.
Vince slid forward and caught me in his arms. He pulled us away and turned us around so we could admire our handiwork. Lamia lay flat on the ring floor, and her scaly skin was pale from her loss of blood. Her eyes were half-lidded and her arms flapped at her sides in a failed attempt to rise. Her little snake-lings slithered up to her and stopped her bleeding wounds with their bodies while others rubbed themselves against her cheeks to soothe her.
A bell rang overhead and the crowd went wild. There were cheers, whistles, and even the occasional rose made it through the metal bars and to our feet. Vince set me down and bowed, and I followed suit. The lights turned on and illuminated the raptured audience. Mitch stood by our cage door with a huge grin on his face and clapped.
Lamia's door swung open and the stone golem that guarded her office stomped inside. Rocky walked over to his mistress and hefted her long form over his shoulder. The creature stomped from the arena and up the stairs to her office. The smaller snakes slithered up the stairs after them.
Our door opened and Mitch strode inside. "Bravo! Bravo! That's using your teeth and claws!" Mitch complimented us. He sidled up beside us and nodded at Lamia's retreating limp figure. "Let's just hope you didn't drain her bad enough that she can't tell you what you want to know."
"We will-we will see," Vince replied.
There was something not quite right about Vince's stutter, and I glanced at his face. It was as white as a cotton sheet, and he swayed a little. I caught his arm and held him still. "What's wrong?" I asked him.
"It is nothing," Vince answered.
Mitch leaned toward Vince and raised an eyebrow. "Nothing my ass. I bet you drank a little too much of her venomous blood, didn't you?"
"'Venomous blood?'" I repeated.
Mitch nodded. "Lamia's blood contains toxins that are deadly to humans and supernaturals. Vince here is lucky he wasn't killed outright."
"I am fine," Vince argued, but his legs buckled and he leaned his greater weight against me.
"Yeah, fine," I quipped as I held him up. I swung one of his arms over my shoulder, and was surprised when Mitch took the other. "I can carry him," I told him.
Mitch grinned and nodded at the crowds. "I know, but I couldn't ask for better advertising than this."
Chapter 11
We hefted Vince up the stairs and back to the entrance to Lamia's office. The door to the stairs was open and the golem was gone. We found him and his mistress in the office. She lay on a reclining couch among the plants. A damp towel lay over her pale forehead and the little snakes were busy bandaging her wounds with gauze and wrapping. The golem stood by her side and glared at us as we entered.
Lamia was conscious, though her voice was weak, and she waved off her guard. "It's fine, Rocky. Go back down and guard the door." The golem grudgingly tromped past us and down the stairs. Lamia gestured to the chairs. "Have a seat, victors." Mitch and I dragged Vince to one of the chairs and hefted him into the seat. He straightened as well as he could, and Lamia admired him with her eyes. "You must be desperate to know the location of that facility to drink my blood. I've killed dozens of weaker vampires with just a drop."
"Fortunately I am not a weak vampire," he quipped.
She smiled. "No, you're not, and that's why I wanted you, but I suppose a bet is a bet." She waved a hand at her desk. "The location is in the center bottom drawer inside a greeting card. I me
ant to visit it at one time, but I imagine I won't get that chance now, will I?" Mitch walked around the desk and retrieved the card.
"No," Vince agreed.
Lamia sighed and shrugged. "Oh well. A little less competition in the illegal racket market won't harm my business. Now be off with you before I change my mind and have my golems crush you."
Vince stood on his own and bowed low at the waist to our hostess. "We thank you for your assistance."
Lamia smiled and waved him off. "None of your suaveness, vampire. Just get out of here before I become even more jealous of this half-dead human."
Vince bowed his head and led Mitch and me from the room. Something Lamia said stuck in my mind, and when we reached the open coliseum I sidled up to him. We walked around the perimeter towards the basement entrance. "What's she mean by half-dead human? Is that because of me becoming a part vampire or something?"
"Something like that," he admitted.
Mitch joined us and scrutinized Vince. "You sure you don't need to go to a witch doctor to have a look at your blood? I know a good one downtown, though the directions will cost you."
I rolled my eyes and pushed him away. "Don't you ever think about anything but money?" I growled.
"My life, which is far more important than money," he returned. He became distracted when we passed a lounge of beautiful cat women who were clad in loincloths and bikinis. "Speaking of life, I'm sure you won't need me for getting yourselves killed at this facility place, so I'll just take my leave."
He stepped down the stairs, but I grabbed his arm and yanked him back. "Aren't you forgetting something?" I asked him.
He blinked at me. "I don't think so."
I held out my palm to him. "Fork over the greeting card."
Mitch sheepishly grinned, pulled the card from his jacket, and set it in my hand. "You can hardly blame me for keeping it. That information is worth five million dollars."
"Uh-huh, now you can go have your fun," I replied as I shoved him toward the cat women.
