Beasthood (The Hidden Blood Series)

by A. Z. Green

  Jaz could feel the menace in his words scraping against her throat and back. The hairs on her neck stood up. “I don't believe we've met?” she responded, her voice barely audible above the cacophony of the crowd. She didn't look to see what had happened, but it sounded like someone, perhaps both of them, had climbed up the cage. The rattling of metal as bodies made impact, vibrated unpleasantly through her bones.

  “Njord. Pack Leader of Red Sword Pack.” He held his hand against his chest, bowing his head just a fraction.

  Jaz's breath got lodged in her throat. She took another sip of water to wet her dry mouth. She did not return the bow, which she had learnt was as equally insulting as refusing a handshake, perhaps more, but she couldn't remove her hands from the water bottle. She gazed at it as if it held all the answers to her troubles.

  “From your expression I can see you've heard of me.”

  She nodded warily. “You're a bloodthirsty ruler.” She opened her mouth in shock, then pressed her lips tightly together, ordering herself inwardly to shut the hell up. Her Beast voice had momentarily unleashed itself.

  His expression froze, then his eyes were smiling as if he found her delightful. “Interesting,” he purred. She told herself to breathe. In. Out. “I can see why he likes you.”

  She forgot to inhale and froze in her seat. It felt like her ass was glued there. Lactic acid surged through her tightly wound limbs. Her calves groaned in protest. She gazed down at her trainers, flexed and retracted her toes and her muscles loosened again. “Who? Alf?”

  He gave her a disapproving look. “Now, Jasmine, we shouldn't lie to each other.”

  She was pinned by his penetrating gaze. His cold-coloured eyes, in contradiction, looked like pools of hot, blue, molten fire circling the black vacuums that were his pupils. She was afraid she'd be sucked into them and drown. “Where did you hear my name?”

  He smiled with approval. “You read between the lines very well, why not just ask what you really mean?”

  After a moment's hesitation she probed, “Why have you been spying on me?”

  He nodded, his approving smile widening on his strong Viking-like face.

  The description of Njord was true. He did look like an ancient Viking. If they'd had a Viking Vogue magazine in their day, he'd have been on the front cover. Despite him being very intimidating, unnerving and creepy.

  “Good question. Keep it locked in here,” he tapped his temple, “And maybe one day, if you prove yourself, I'll answer it.” Jaz frowned in puzzlement. “Now here's my gift to you. I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone where you got it. Including your Pack Leader.” He held out his hand to shake hers.

  She reluctantly took it, only registered the piece of folded paper in her hand after he stood up and disappeared into the crowd.

  She stared in the direction he'd gone, frowning, wondering what the hell had just happened.

  The round was over and Nik was coming out of the cage. She didn't realize because her eyes were fixed on the open paper that had in tiny, italic swirly writing, one small paragraph.

  Your sister was murdered. You suspect it, but I know it. I also know who did it. I hear on good authority you had a disagreement not so long ago.

  She looked up from the paper in shock. Then a whirlpool of biting, cutting and burning emotions flooded her head. There was one more line, but she didn't read it because it was then she saw Nik approaching her side of the barrier.

  A large sliding door not far from where she sat, just beneath the crowds' feet, groaned open and Nik disappeared inside. She stared after him. His body was hunched over, she could see that he was having difficulty breathing. And knew for sure that he had been poisoned.

  She crushed the paper into her palm, instinctively feeling that she needed to keep the nature of her exchange between Njord secret, not because he'd told her to, and stuffed it into her jeans pocket.

  She then stood up scanning around the arena for Alf.

  Where the hell was he?

  *

  “Has it worked?” Carr questioned.

  “It helped. But I can't keep this up for long. Kain is strong, and he's not tiring out as quickly as I'd hoped,” Nik wheezed.

  Stephanie shook her head unhappily. “I don't understand why they don't have a cut off point.”

  “Oh they do,” Carr said to her. “If it loses its entertainment value, they'll mix it up with fire and booby traps or weapons. Or other Weres from the same or different Packs just to spice it up. They can be pretty creative.”

  “Why haven't they then?”

  Carr shrugged.

  “They will,” Nik replied as if he was putting Stephanie at ease. It had the opposite effect. “Round four is usually where it gets... real... interesting.” He chuckled.

  Stephanie watched him anxiously, knowing his slow speech was due to his inability to breathe normally.

  “Sometimes they do a different thing in each round. But, I guess, because this isn't an ordinary duel. It's between Pack Leaders. They like to drag it out,” Carr added, trying to uncrease his furrowed brow with his fingers.

  “Here.” Stephanie pressed another cup of coffee to Nik's chest. He gulped it down. “Need to be sick?”

  He shook his head.

  She checked his heart with her stethoscope whilst Nik wiped his mouth. The saliva was dripping out of it like rain. Both his head and chest felt like they were being hacked at with an ice pick. “You're pulse is low.”

  “That's good right?” Carr perked up, slapping Nik on the back.

  Stephanie shook her head, dropping the ear piece of her stethoscope round her neck. “No. His pulse is abnormally low. It's weak. The poison is still going strong. Eat some more acorns, keep awake with the coffee. There's nothing else I can do right now.”

  *

  “Where have you be-?” Alf looked so furious Jaz cut off the last of her sentence to stare at him. “What happened?”

  “Those twats won't allow the duel to stop. Even though Nik's clearly been ill!”

  “Why!?” she charged. “It's cheating! It HAS to be cheating!”

  “It is. But until they have proper proof they can't halt the fight.”

  “Are they dense!? For fuck sake he might be dead by then! Are they gonna wait long enough to test the blood from his corpse! And if he doesn't die from the poison, will they even test him!?”

  He shook his head -more at the injustice of it than in answer to her question- rubbing his fingers through his hair angrily. “Okay, look, for the past three rounds, it's been plain hand to hand combat. All in the cage.”

  “O-kay?” Jaz did not like the tone in his voice. He was treading on eggshells round her, which instantly set off alarm bells.

  “But they have to make it more interesting for the crowd.” Jaz gazed levelly at him. He squinted as if in pain, “So they basically told me that this round, they're gonna do just that.”

  “How?”

  “I don't know. But this round will end it either way.”

  “End it?” He gave her a solemn look. She exhaled sharply. “We need to do something, Alf. We can't just sit here.”

  “Nik told me not to put you in harms way. I already broke that promise bringing you here.”

  “Then why did you?” she demanded, her voice bitter.

  “Because...” And the roar of the crowd drowned out any words he might have said.

  They both looked down as Nik appeared.

  Kain strode out at the same time, looking cleaner, some of his less serious wounds had already healed, though his right leg had a hefty bandage wrapped round it, his collarbone looked questionable and his torso was black and blue. Jaz wondered what it had looked like before he'd started to heal and then thought with anger that she didn't give a shit.

  Nik's minor wounds had also started to heal, Jaz noticed, though he looked very battered and bruised.

  Alf explained as the two men approached the cage that despite Nik being the stronger fighter in most of the rounds,
Kain had inflicted the most damage because Nik had been blocking more than attacking.

  Kain hit whatever he could. His blows weren't very accurate and at times sloppy, but he was fast with them and the odds of hitting a decent spot were inevitable.

  Nik never missed. His blows were always unerring and meticulous. He knew the anatomy, the weak spots, the places that hurt the most, that caused the greatest damage. But Alf had heard from others that Nik had seemed weak, out of breath and in a daze several times, which had gotten worse the longer he'd been in there, and that was when Kain's attacks had done serious harm.

  Jaz gritted her teeth, trying to drown out Alf's commentary after that as she had to painfully endure Nik hobbling to the cage.

  One guard on each side of the cage opened a door. Kain went through the furthest one, Nik through his. They stood at opposite ends, sizing each other up.

  Then the voice of a judge; Jaz focused on the box to find the owner a middle-aged man with big teeth and dark wispy hair that was caked in half a tub of hair gel, announce,

  “For the fourth round, the judges have decided that the two opponents must face each other in their Beast form, starting now!” The crowd drowned out his rumbling voice and went manic.

  Jaz stared in horror and disgusted awe as Kain's body contorted and twisted and crunched until it didn't look at all human. His roars and howls were spine-chilling. It sent shivers through every inch of her. But then she realized it wasn't because of him.

  Something was wrong.

  “Why isn't he Changing?” Alf barked. “Why the fuck isn't he Changing!?”

  Jaz gaped at Nik who was standing completely still. Not even attempting to Change. Kain's spine cracked and the dark brown hair began pushing through, covering his Changing body. His jaw crunched as it lengthened. Jaz was transfixed on two things at once that it took her a moment to react.

  She jumped up. “He can't Change,” she uttered in a low voice, mostly to herself. Alf heard her and the air in his lungs felt like a ball coated in spikes. “Jesus Alf, he can't bloody Change! He must be too weak!” she cried in panic. She clamped her hands to her mouth just as the Beast Kain, now fully Changed, lunged straight for Nik.

  Before she knew what she was doing, she jumped forward, tripping over the thigh-high barrier. She felt Alf's hand whip past her, just missing a grip on her arm before she saw the sand floor of the arena below her, rushing towards her. She held out her hands just in time to try to soften the fall before she slammed into the ground. The wind was knocked out of her and she wheezed loudly.

  Half the crowd turned in her direction, some pointing at her, the other half who hadn't yet seen her had their eyes glued to the cage. She cocked her head up, saw the Beast's teeth about to shred Nik's arm to pieces when her view was blocked by someone's back as they pounded towards the cage. One by one, five more jumped down from behind her, dodging her as they raced towards the metal dome.

  She saw two more spring out from the barrier containing the pulsing crowd on the other side. The two, followed by the others, caused an uproar in the crowd and Judges Stand. Jaz saw the two cage guards knocked out on the floor, and then Jaz felt an arm around her, yanking her to her feet. She thought it was Alf but when she saw him already at the cage fighting off one of four more guards, she wheeled round to face the cold, beautiful eyes of her enemy. “Fraya!” she barked, teeth bared.

  She was so violently angry at her, after knowing in her gut, this cold-hearted bitch had killed her sister and her unborn child. She wanted to squeeze the life out of her and enjoy watching it. But the watery, suffering look of Fraya's eyes stopped her. Left her confused and stunned.

  “Need a hand?”

  Jaz studied her suspiciously but urgency kicked her into action.

  She ignored her, turned and bolted across the sand floor, jumping over and around people fighting, throwing punches at each other. She couldn't tell who was with her or against her. She didn't care. She just needed to see if Nik was alive.

  Beast Kain was roaming around the cage, pacing back and forth. Nik was in the middle still standing.

  Alf was pushing others back from the cage. The guards had been knocked out, the hair-gel judge was screeching into his microphone, calling for order.

  It was then the balls of fire shot out from nowhere. Jaz screamed as one hurled in her direction. Those in front of her path ducked, and she dived to the side just in time. Then there was another from a different direction, coming from her left this time. She ran forward. Then another, and another. All from at least six different places. The fire balls were being shot from some kind of gun fixed into the stone barrier just below the crowd.

  The heat of the balls turned the arena into Hell itself. She kept on running but was stopped in her path as more fireballs in quicker succession exploded out into the arena.

  They seemed to miss the cage, aiming only at those who'd disrupted the fight.

  Some of the people dispersed as quickly as they could. But others weren't so lucky.

  Jaz cried out when a man next to her, not much older than she was, was hit in the chest by a fireball. His clothes were melted to his torso and the skin was burnt off like candle wax. He held his burnt flesh, and it was then Jaz saw the enormous hole in his body. His intestines, stomach, liver completely burnt away, his spine was visible, charcoal black and smoking. The stench was so unbearable she sagged over her bent knees, clutching her stomach as she retched acid water.

  He was crying, trying to find parts of his body that weren't there. As his hands scrambled around his stomach, more skin slid away like red-hot melted cheese. And then he held up his burnt hands screaming because he'd rubbed away the flesh and muscle from them, leaving nothing but charred bone.

  Jaz held her hand to her mouth not noticing the fireball hurtling towards her but before she was a human barbecue someone knocked her forward from behind, holding her down before it could hit.

  She swung round to find Fraya again. She wanted to swear at her, come up with a nasty retort but the horror of what she'd seen stupefied her.

  “Go!” Fraya bellowed, pushing her up from her lower back.

  Jaz jumped to her feet, avoiding the dead charred bodies, dodging past the five one on one combats still going on even with the raging fireballs shooting out. She wanted to scream at them to get out of there, but she needed them to be distracted. Because she knew at least half of them would try and stop her. Fraya included as she yelled at her to stop before Jaz pulled open the enormous bolt on the door of the cage and jumped in.

  Just in time to catch Beast Kain slicing Nik across the stomach. Nik was already doubled over, clutching his chest and breathing so weakly he sounded like a man on the brink of death.

  The stench of vomit was overpowering. It was his. He was sweating, clearly in agony, with several claw slashes across his stomach, back, both arms and the top of his right leg that was shaking now as he struggled to stay standing.

  She ran forward, forgetting the Beast Kain, his sharp claws, the fact he could kill her in one blow, and sprang in front of Nik, shielding him as Beast Kain jumped forward. He skidded on his hind legs, startled by the unexpected victim. Then she saw his jaws contort into a menacing grin.

  She heard his growl rise from deep in his chest and shouted back so that anyone close enough could hear,“Pack Leader Kain has poisoned my Pack Leader and I demand a re-match!” The power and volume of her voice was surprising. It echoed throughout the arena like she was hooked to a microphone.

  There was a moment of hush as the crowd settled down. The fireballs had stopped. Bodies had been left on the sand and most of the fighters had dispersed back into the crowd. Only Alf, Fraya and a four others she didn't know stood by the cage, trying to shield themselves there.

  The hair-gel judge's speaking authority was taken over by another man, who's hair and beard were bright ginger; his face didn't look more than forty-five years old. He leaned into his microphone, his hands clasped in front of him. “You have proof he h
as been poisoned?”

  “Test his blood!” She called back.

  “The fight cannot be postponed.”

  “Why the hell not!? It already is!” She screeched.

  Nik had collapsed onto the floor. He didn't seem to know where he was, or that she was even there. What could she do? Why wouldn't they just do the test and have a re-match? He couldn't fight. Did they want him dead?

  Yes. She thought with realization. For whatever reason, they don't want him to win. That must be it. “He cannot fight!” she shouted across the arena, her voice carrying to every corner. “Use your eyes and you can see that yourself!” she barked, holding her hand out towards him.

  The judge thought for a moment. “Then, while you're so conveniently in there, because of your disruption of this fight, the least you can do is fight in his stead.”

  “No!” Alf bellowed.

  The judge didn't look his way.

  “What?” Jaz croaked.

  The judge smiled, his orange beard, suddenly not giving him the funny, Clown-At-The-Children's-Party appearance she'd imagined at first. He had eyes like a pouncing crocodile. “In Nik's condition, and your obvious inferiority,” she scowled at him, “the two of you just even out the playing field.”

  The door of the cage was bolted shut mechanically and Alf stretched his arm frantically through the bars, roaring her name, but was drowned out by the frenzied, blood-thirsty crowd.

  And then the fight began.

  Jaz had a moment to whip her head back to see Nik on his hands and knees, his head down, before Beast Kain threw her across the cage. Her back smacked into the metal bars before she fell to the floor in a heap. She forgot her pains at the sight of the Beast looming over Nik.

  She jumped up. Hurtling towards Beast Kain, she knocked into his muscular back putting him off balance from his standing position. He fell forward just missing Nik who had the good sense to lean to the side at the right time.

  Beast Kain swung round, pounded after Jaz and hammered into her before she could move. She gasped unable to breathe before he had her pinned against the cage wall, his claws forking into her neck. The blood flowed freely from the wounds and she had stars in her vision. Her chest was constricted and of what little she could breathe felt like she was inhaling acid.