Ripper

by Lexi Blake

  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 mo
ments, 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 reach
ed 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.