by Lan Chan
And then he was falling. Andrei landed on his back. Flesh sizzled as smoke hissed everywhere his skin was exposed. Chanelle screeched in utter fury. She clutched at her bleeding face and whipped around to glower at me. The fierce hatred in her eyes sparked a parallel emotion in me. I thought she would attack me while Kai had me disabled.
Instead, she flexed her hand and green light saturated her skin. Silence permeated the arena. Sweat crowned her brow as she raised the glowing hand to her face. Skin and muscle began to knit together. Within seconds, her appearance was pristine again.
I felt like I was experiencing everything with cotton wool in my head. The Nephilim in the crowd were on their feet, cheering and screaming. The mirrors highlighted the ethereal beauty in her perfect smile. She raised her hand and waved to her admirers.
The breeze carried the whispers of the crowd through the barrier. “She healed herself,” a reverent voice said.
“They must already be bonded,” someone else deduced. “Only the bond could give her that power.”
Chanelle laced her hands behind her back in feigned humility. She smiled benevolently at me.
A rushing sound filled my ears like a hurricane. It hit the inside of my mind and swept out all thought but one. In its wake, my mind was clear. She was going to pay for this. For everything.
Kai felt my whole body going soft. In response, his arms coiled around me. It left the hand holding Morning Star unfettered. I whipped the demon blade around so that it was pointed inward. I grabbed at every bit of emotion I felt and buried it under layers of resolve. Nephilim were impervious to a lot of things. Demon blades weren’t one of them. The scar on Kai’s brow was a testament to that. I gave myself a second to prepare. And then, with all of the strength I could muster, I sank the demon blade into Kai’s stomach.
55
Kai’s gasp echoed in the arena. It rippled through the supernatural world in a wave that I swore I could feel in my bones. Chanelle’s banshee screech followed in its wake.
I slammed my elbow into Kai’s head and pushed his arms aside. Yanking a blade from someone’s gut wasn’t easy. The suction of his muscles and internal organs was stronger than I’d anticipated. Chanelle appeared right before my eyes. Her angel blade was cutting a path to my neck. I brought the demon blade up to block her, using my legs to push up. When she stepped back, I shot up and smashed my foot into her chest.
I slipped into the Ley dimension and allowed the sight to guide me. The world became a faint web of colours. I latched on to the light green that was Chanelle and asked the Ley energy to slow down time for me.
Giselle’s voice in my mind approved. Good, she thought. You’re learning. They’re the monsters. You have every right to use the powers you were given.
I pushed her out of my thoughts, too intent on what I had to do. Chanelle doubled her assault. Both of us tried to get to our partners but unable to do so with an obstacle in the way. She’s been a pain in my ass for too long.
I knew now there was nothing I could do to get the Nephilim to accept me. Screw acceptance. If they wanted something to fear, I would give it to them. She was no less determined to kill me. We parried across the arena. Strike. Block. Strike. Block.
Chanelle was miles faster than some of the demons I’d fought, but she had barely any of the intensity. The demons came at me with unadulterated fury and greed. Chanelle thought she had me dead to rights. She wanted to drag this out for as long as humanly possible. Her sword arm arched over my head. I leaned into her instead of evading and drove my knee into her solar plexus. The impact felt like I’d shattered my kneecap. But the way she doubled over made it all worth it.
I hopped back, trying not to let the pain display on my face. The crowd was cheering once more. I blocked it all out. None of it mattered anymore. They could jeer at me all they wanted. I was done trying to be good for them. Chanelle recovered quickly. It wasn’t a surprise. Her cherubic face twisted. I pumped my eyebrows at her.
“What’s the matter?” I said. “You seem incapable of killing a little human all of a sudden.”
The echo of amusement bounced around in my head. I tried to bat Giselle aside, but she wouldn’t leave me alone.
Behind Chanelle’s shoulder, I registered Kai’s figure clutching at his side. He should have come for me by now, but he seemed content to let Chanelle play with me. That was perfectly fine. I’d return his bond mate to him in pieces.
Wary that I’d suddenly grown thorns, Chanelle paced in a small line across the mat. She wasn’t winded, but the slow inhale and the expansion of her chest told me she was either trying to rein in her emotions, or she was injured somehow. Since neither I nor Andrei had gotten anything near a critical hit, I wasn’t sure why she would be breathing so hard. Pushing aside the Nephilim half of her, I scrambled for an explanation.
When a mage became tapped out, they had to rest just like low-magic users. It must have cost her a tonne of power to heal herself.
Andrei groaned. My eyes latched on to the light amulet Chanelle had tucked into her waistband. We needed to finish this. If Andrei became any more exposed, he was going to die. Sensing where my thoughts were directed, Chanelle slipped the amulet out and held it in front of her. She raised her hand to the sky as though in tribute to the arena. I saw it the moment her fingers flexed. She was going to crumble it into shards.
I took off running. Or limping, really. Grabbing the Ley lines around me, I forced every scrap of will I had into making time stop. Chanelle’s eyes widened as she stood there. Her gaze was locked on something over my shoulder as though she could no longer see me. A metre away from her, Chanelle’s mouth opened wide. She raised her rapier, but it was too late. I leaped into the air and sliced.
The hand that held the light amulet came clean off. Her agonising scream became the only source of noise in the world. She dropped her rapier to clutch at the blood-soaked stub. In the panic, her wings unfurled. I had come to understand that it was Nephilim instinct to grow wings and fly away when cornered. Her wings fluttered. They were so strikingly beautiful. I wanted to stroke them and see if they were as soft as they looked. It almost made me hold back. Almost.
Leaping into the air once more. I grabbed hold of her left wing and cut down into the joint that held it attached to her shoulder. Once a wing was injured, it couldn’t be dematerialised. The sound of metal scraping against bone filled my ears. The artery that ran to her wing burst open. Blood squirted all over my hands and chest.
She dropped to her knees in front of me. In my periphery, I saw Kai diving towards us. For the first time ever, he would be too slow. I turned Morning Star in my grip. Furious glee hummed from the blade’s will. It wanted so badly to taste the last beat of her heart. The demon blade wanted to do the thing it had been made for. It urged me on. Kill her, I heard. I wasn’t sure if it was the blade or Giselle.
All I knew was that it was yet another force in my life that tried to control me. With a ferocious growl, I kicked Chanelle in the back. She fell forward. I stepped over her body and grabbed the light amulet from her severed hand.
Time sped up again. Her wailing mixed with the deafening call of the crowd. I gave them the finger before dropping down next to Andrei.
A siren sounded. The barriers came down as Nephilim medical personnel crawled onto the mat like ants. They converged on Chanelle even though Kai was already performing healing magic on her. What happened to nobody leaving the arena until the bout was over? Bloody double standards.
Not a single one of them had any regard for Andrei. His eyes had turned black. I pressed the light amulet to his bared chest, but it wasn’t enough. He was too far gone for the magic of the amulet to do anything but halt any further destruction.
“Andrei?”
He moaned. “Guess it didn’t matter in the end,” he gasped. He took in the scene over my shoulder. “Was that for me?”
For some reason, my cheeks were damp. It was probably the adrenaline wearing off. “Don’t die.”
His breathing had become pained gulps of air. I thought I spotted Victoria hobbling down the aisle, but my vision was blurry. I slammed my fists into the mat. Behind me, I could hear the Nephilim’s urgent voices as they cared for Chanelle.
A level voice called out over the hushed tones of the crowd. “Your allotted time for ministrations is over,” Ivan said. “Remove her so we can continue.”
There was no give in his command. I would have been gratified by the complete lack of shits he showed for Chanelle, but in the circumstances, it just grated on me.
“What about Andrei?” I screamed.
This time, the contempt in his voice was evident. “He’s a vampire. He either deals with it, or he dies.”
I almost choked on rage. And then the meaning of his words sank in. A light amulet couldn’t save Andrei now. But drinking blood would. He was this weak because he’d gone for so long without it.
I didn’t give myself time to consider the consequences. Sliding my palm along Morning Star’s sharp edge, I cut it open. The pain made me shudder.
Even through the blur of his dying breaths, Andrei squirmed at the scent of my blood. “Drink!” I snapped.
He turned his head away. His eyes widened at something. I followed his line of sight to find Kai watching us. An intense darkness throbbed in his aura. Until now, I hadn’t noticed I was still half in the Ley dimension. Throwing it off, I refocused on the idiot in front of me. One idiot at a time had become my motto.
“If you don’t drink, you’re going to die!” The warning siren sounded. The Nephilim had taken Chanelle away and the mat was being magically cleaned.
Andrei clamped his mouth shut. I admired his conviction. We would be nothing without our principals. I would rather die than break some of mine. My only issue was that he was completely off-base.
“Please,” I whispered. “You don’t know what happened to them. You’ve proven that you don’t need blood to be crazy!”
I grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “I trust you not to give in. Screw everybody else!”
His eyes grew wide and he searched my face. “No, you don’t. Nobody trusts me.”
I snorted. “I spent almost six years of my life living on the streets,” I told him. “Do you understand what it costs me to sleep in the same room as a vampire?”
I hadn’t realised it was true until I spoke the words aloud. Sophie had been one thing, but allowing myself to be vulnerable in my sleep wasn’t something I did lightly. Hence the doubling up of circles every night.
I hovered my bleeding hand over his lips. C’mon, c’mon!
I needed him if I was going to somehow win this thing. The prick of his fangs was a complete surprise. The pain of the bite made me gasp. But it only lasted for the briefest second before my mind was flooded with euphoria.
All of the negative sludge from the past few days dripped off me. Every bit of resentment I felt at being rejected by the supernatural world died away.
The change in Andrei was no less shocking. His skin smoothed out. The harsh lines of his gaunt face filled in. Colour began to bloom on his cheeks. He brought his hands up to clasp around my wrist, keeping me in place. His muscles rippled as though they were liquefied. The raspy breath became a pleasured rumble.
The sound hit the edge of the seal. My magic tried to hit back. That was when I knew this feeling in my head was unnatural. I slugged him in the side of the head. “That’s enough.”
Red eyes met mine. The intent in them was clear. I grabbed Morning Star.
“You wanna see if I have any problems cutting out your heart?”
He unlatched. I hadn’t been all that concerned.
What stole my breath was when he stood up. The light amulet dropped to the mat. He didn’t even bother trying to catch it. Sunlight bounced off his now-tanned skin that rippled with good health.
He had filled out to the point where his broad chest actually fit with his big frame. My jaw just about dropped. He wasn’t attractive in the conventional sense but there was something entirely striking about him. A confidence that had me wondering what he would have been like if his family hadn’t been hit by tragedy.
“Does blood always do that?” I asked. I had never seen that kind of transformation before.
Andrei shook his head. “Then again, no one’s ever drunk Lucifer’s blood before.”
The siren sounded. I had a fraction of a second to comprehend what I had done before a flash of green whipped past my right shoulder and slammed Andrei into the barrier.
56
There wasn’t a single person in the arena or the supernatural community who doubted Kai’s intent in that moment. The crowd cheered when his fist cracked against Andrei’s skull before Andrei even hit the barrier. A scream tore from my throat. I didn’t just give up my blood to have Andrei’s brain splattered on the walls.
By some miracle, Andrei was only marginally affected. This seemed to set Kai off even more. The mirror’s angle switched to display their profiles. Andrei was still slightly dazed. Kai’s top lip was curled in a withering smirk. He was enjoying this. Beating Andrei when he was weakened would have been skirting the line of honourable.
Kicking his ass after he’d just drunk was a challenge. Kicking his ass after he drank from me was a mission. It took Andrei a second to register that he wasn’t unconscious. A light switch seemed to turn on in his brain. He shoved his arms between them to block Kai’s next punch. Knowing he needed to create space, Andrei turned his shoulder into Kai’s chest. He sacrificed his ribs to a brutal kick that would have shattered anyone else’s bones.
Freed from immediate danger, Andrei danced away and whipped around.
Kai raised a brow. He ambled toward Andrei with a deceptively relaxed gait. When he hit the middle of the mat, Kai stopped moving. They stood there sizing each other up. I knew better than to get in the middle of it right now.
A single blow from either of them would be the end of me. That didn’t mean I wasn’t waiting for the right moment. All we needed was for Andrei to create an opportunity and I would be able to take Kai down.
Captain Nephilim ceased his staring match with Andrei to glare at me. Green eyes flashed with unrepentant rage. “What did I say about him touching you?”
The world stilled.
A blanket of red dots burst across my vision. “You’re still pulling this shit right now?” I snarled. “After you already bonded with Chanelle?”
I smacked Morning Star against the barrier to my left. Energy cracked as though it was electric. That was it, I was going to kill him myself. I took a step forward. Andrei darted towards Kai. He had been fast before, but drinking ratcheted his speed to near impossible levels. I had to drop into the Ley dimension again.
Andrei cut a path towards Kai. He jabbed with his right fist and would have hit hard if Kai hadn’t blocked. But the jab had been a ruse. He threw another punch with his left hand. Kai intercepted him at every strike. I struggled to keep focused on the blur of their movements.
Jab. Block. Jab. block.
Normally, in these situations, the jabs would have forced Kai back step by step until he was backed up against the edge of the barrier. Unfortunately, Kai wasn’t normal. Blood stained his side where I had stabbed him. Andrei used the injury as a target. Kai flinched with every hit, but he didn’t budge.
Andrei was going to tire himself out throwing punches while Kai had his feet firmly anchored to the spot.
Sensing he was losing ground, Andrei lobbed a punch to Kai’s gut. The ripple from the impact was minimal. It was like watching two brick walls hit each other. Andrei was unperturbed. He threw punch after punch at Kai until eventually even Kai had to step back to keep standing.
Andrei hit again. Left. Block. Right. Block. Left again. But this time, Andrei didn’t complete the strike. He let it reach half-way before he pulled it, crouched, and smashed an uppercut into Kai’s chin with his right arm.
The crowd roared. They stamped their feet against the stadium floor cau
sing the sound to amplify and almost deafen me. Kai was forced back a single step. He righted himself with superhuman balance and rolled his shoulder and neck as though shaking off tension. It wasn’t going to win us the games, but it was a hit nonetheless. Proof that Malachi Pendragon wasn’t infallible.
I grinned. It probably wasn’t the right thing to do. The next time Andrei raised his fist, Kai battered it aside and fly-kicked him in the head. Andrei went shooting across the mat. He sprang back onto his feet but blinked like he was dazed.
We locked eyes.
Reflected in his expression was a notion that I had just figured out. Kai wasn’t even using his wings or his angel blade. Even though Andrei was now fuelled by my blood, he didn’t have any means to harness it in the way I could if I wasn’t sealed. At best, it would mean he could hold out against an ass-kicking for longer. Eventually, Kai would win. He just had too much experience. In a battle of sheer force of will, Malachi Pendragon was unstoppable.
The next time Andrei went for a hit, I launched myself behind him. There was no honour in a dual attack, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
Andrei hunkered down. He lowered his centre of gravity like he was going to grab Kai around the waist and hoist him off his legs. Kai sprang into the air at the last possible second, twisted, and hammered a punch to the bone at the tip of Andrei’s neck and spine. The vampire went down on the mat.
I grabbed the Ley dimension and pulled it down around me. Morning Star sliced into the air in front of Kai’s face. He stepped back just in time. His angel blade appeared, flashing green light across the arena. My next strike was met with the returned clash of his angel blade.
Sweat rolled over my skin. It was an effort to hold on to the Ley dimension like this without the benefit of my magic. I gritted my teeth and kept coming at him.
Strike. Strike. Strike.
