My Bloodline (Featherstone Academy Series Book 1)

by KC Kean

  “How about this Trudy, I can knock you out with one hit. It’ll hurt for that first second then you’ll be out like a light, but the most important part is, you’ll wake up.”

  She’s trying to take in what I’m saying but she doesn’t trust me enough to believe in my words.

  “Trudy, my friend is slowly being hung up there. All because she is my friend and they needed an incentive for me to do this. Now you're out of time, what’ll it be?” I ask, losing the gentleness to my tone.

  “Okay, you’re right,” she whispers.

  Thank fuck for that.

  “I promise you after all this. There will be changes around here and you’ll be standing beside me, do you understand?”

  She barely nods in response but drops her arms. I step into her space and before she can change her mind I raise my fist connecting it full force into her face and she drops to the mat.

  Simple as that.

  Pity they won’t all be this easy.

  Before I move up to the next ring I look around for anyone, when I see Maverick. In all the encounters I’ve had with him he’s been barely tolerable, but I believe in him enough to help this girl. I pick Trudy up and walk to the edge of the ring. He understands the silent communication as he moves to the ring.

  “She’s unconscious, I want her awake by the time I’m out of here. Keep her the fuck away from anyone vile enough to change that. You got me?”

  He doesn’t question me or consider his options; he just holds his hands out to take her through the rope.

  “Don’t let me down Maverick, she didn’t deserve to die, but if you let something happen to her. Well, I won’t say the same for you.”

  A part of me is fully aware of the fact I’m speaking to a tutor like this, but the lines are blurred in this place and I’m passed giving a shit. He nods once, then marches off. I haven’t got time to see where he is going. I need to get a move on.

  Climbing up to the second ring, I’m barely in when someone’s trying to rain punches down on me. Fuck definitely not going to be the same in here then.

  By the grunts coming from my attacker I can tell it’s a guy, and he seems quite keen to power through so he can claim my victory.

  Not today.

  The fact that he caught me off guard has me on the floor, but he’s not covering me professionally, so I raise my knee straight to his groin and he keels over a little in pain.

  “Fucking bitch,” he spits out, but I haven’t got time to chat.

  Standing, I gather myself for a second, and whilst he’s still caught off guard I bring my elbow down on his face, causing him to cry out.

  Blood drips down onto the mat from his busted nose.

  I hold my fighting stance now, ready for him to move my way. He doesn’t disappoint. He is too focused on putting me down and not thinking things through properly. His stance is poor and even after I’ve landed two blows to him already he doesn’t raise his arms to defend himself.

  He charges low towards my waist, lower than I prep for and he’s toppling me over.

  Fuck.

  I keep the momentum going so he can’t hold me in place. I rise quickly and he just sneers at me. He comes at me and I can see by the hold of his arms he’s going to go for an uppercut. Fucking amateur. Before he can get close enough for that, I extend my left fist straight for his defenseless face. It ricochets his head back, but not enough to floor him.

  I’ve caught him off guard slightly, so I continue to follow it up with a few jabs to his ribs.

  He goes to make a swing at me, but I duck and punch him straight in the dick.

  He’s not going to have any manhood left by the time I’m finished with him. He leans forward and this time I move quickly. My fist connects with the side of his head before I wrap my arms tightly around his neck and throw all my weight backwards. As we fall he’s not prepared, throwing his arms out to try and break his fall, exactly what I need him to do.

  The second my ass touches the mat I’m wrapping my legs around his upper arms, pinning him down whilst I tighten the pressure around his neck. He bucks a little and throws his legs around, but it does nothing to help him out.

  I can’t think about him now. I just continue to add as much pressure as I can until he goes lax. I’m not waiting too long, before he’s not moving. I slowly rise and stand back. Not wanting to see the damage I’ve actually done, I roll him off me and stand.

  Shaking myself off I give myself a second to catch my breath and check my body over. My ribs are hurting, he’s likely busted whatever progress my recovery has made there, and my jaw aches but otherwise so far so good.

  Not wanting to waste any more time I climb up to the next ring. I prepare myself for a blow straight off the bat again, so I’m surprised when I’m given the space to stand. When I do, I see why, there’s a referee here. Holding my daggers West had to take off me before I entered. He also holds a crowbar which must be my opponent’s choice of weapon.

  Looking to the referee he holds out our weapons to us. My opponent is another guy but he’s shorter than me, not by much but his frame is small too. Probably why he’s chosen a giant fucking crowbar as a weapon so he can attack from a distance.

  Fuck.

  Once we take our weapons the referee leaves without a backwards glance, leaving me to stare down this guy. He doesn’t make a move. He just observes me.

  “I don’t know what to make of you,” he says catching me by surprise. I just raise my eyebrow at him, if he wants to expand on that he can but I won’t push.

  “I saw you talk to the girl, I don’t know what you said to her, but she suddenly drops her defense and lets you knock her clean out. Then you get a tutor to her before you move up.”

  He still doesn’t move a step, he’s not talking to distract me, he’s assessing me out loud.

  “Then you get in the ring with that guy, who doesn’t give a shit and you pummel each other. You didn’t even check him over before coming up here. You handled them both completely differently and I’m trying to figure out why.”

  “You really want to have a conversation about this right now?” I ask bewildered.

  He just nods in response, waiting for me to continue. I don’t know this guy and I don’t need to explain myself to him, but something tells me I should.

  “Well that guy was a dick, coming at me before I was fully in the ring to get the advantage. He would have happily wiped me off the face of the earth without any care,” I sigh, “But Trudy was different. The fear in her eyes reminded me of my best friend, so I offered her a deal.”

  “What was the deal?”

  “I offered to knock her out as quickly as possible instead of death being on the table,” I answer honestly.

  He stares me down, I don’t know what he’s looking for, but he eventually speaks.

  “She’s my sister.” I frown, making him continue.

  “Trudy, she’s my twin sister.”

  I can’t keep the surprise off my face, they look nothing alike. He must know what I’m thinking.

  “I know complete opposites right? Are you offering that same deal up here? I mean, I’ll do what I need to do to survive, but I can’t leave Trudy to survive this world alone.”

  The stark honesty in his words surprises me, and I find myself nodding.

  “If you don’t mind, I'd rather you use my weapon than yours,” he murmurs, extending the crowbar to me.

  I slowly wrap my hand around it still expecting him to attack, but he doesn’t. I think this is me forming alliances in difficult situations, let’s hope I fucking survive to make good on my word.

  Not wanting him to second guess his decision I swing the crowbar at his head, wanting to knock him out but not write him off. He falls to the floor with a thud. I land on my knees beside him, checking his pulse. It’s still there, but I want him out of here. Standing I glance around but I don’t need to go far. Maverick is already climbing the ring, wordlessly he feels for a pulse then lifts the guy in a fireman’s ho
ld over his shoulder, and they’re gone.

  I think I owe him a thank you once this is over with.

  I climb into the final ring taking my daggers and leaving the crowbar behind. Rising to my feet I’m alone so far. I can’t look at Red right now, being this close and unable to do anything yet is ripping my heart out.

  Looking down the other side of the pyramid Tyler is in the top ring. The carnage left in his wake is devastating. The bodies lay lifeless in the first two rings tells me what I’m up against. The way their bodies are laying tells me they won’t be waking up.

  In the next ring down he’s clearly won, he just hasn’t stopped butchering his opponent. I don’t notice his weapon of choice until he raises his hand back, brass knuckles. That explains the blood splattered all over him, he’s definitely up close and personal with his weapon.

  He’s wasting time now. Beating a dead body whilst Red needs me. I need to speed this the fuck up.

  “Hey asshole, you fucking done?” I yell.

  He slowly rises to his feet, spitting on the dead body before slowly turning to sneer at me.

  The evil in his eyes is visible from here. I feel grateful for my journey up here so far because I’m going to need my strength to survive this guy. When I was against him in Combat it was in a controlled environment. Whereas this, anything goes here and he’s making the most of it.

  “Bitch, you’ll do good to remember what happened the last time I jumped you,” he snarls, confirming my suspicions that he was part of my attack.

  He says it to scare me, but I’ll take fucking pleasure in destroying him, because that’s what I’ll have to do, to survive this final ring.

  Against my better judgement I step back allowing him the space to enter the ring. He takes his bloody t-shirt off using it to polish his dusters, trying to intimidate me.

  “I’ve heard stories about you being a crazy bitch,” he grins.

  “Is that so?”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard you trigger if someone upsets you with ghosts of the past,” he sneers.

  I can tell where this is heading, but I think he’s not fully aware of what that trigger means.

  “I think I’ll take great pleasure fucking with your mind before I kill you. Then I think I’ll fuck your dead body in victory,” he taunts.

  I don’t respond, instead I twirl my daggers ready to get this show on the road. He just smiles wider.

  “Have it your way, my treasure.”

  I want to fucking laugh. The nerve of this guy. He thinks he fucking knows me.

  He doesn’t know shit.

  It fuels my anger.

  I’m fucking done with these cunts thinking they can fuck with me and manipulate me, all whilst underestimating my strength.

  It ends now.

  He’s staring at me like he’s waiting for me to break down, but he’ll be waiting forever. I throw a dagger straight at his thigh, catching him completely off guard dropping him to his knees. Before he can process what’s happening I’m darting towards him, grabbing the dagger and wrenching it out. I’ll bleed this fucker out, bit by bit.

  “Bitch,” he screams, his face red in anger.

  “Wrong language asshole,” I hiss, referring to his attempt to trigger me.

  He charges me and I let him knock me down, as I stab a dagger into his back and use the other to puncture another hole in his leg. He yells, but smashes me in the face with the brute force of his fist wrapped around his brass knuckles.

  Fuck me.

  The pain across my face is excruciating. I can feel blood trickling down my face, but I can’t waste time focusing on it. Instead, I tear the daggers from his skin and stab him again. This time just below his rib cage on both sides.

  He punches me in the side of the head again as he rolls off me. I’m able to keep the daggers with me and the angle he pulls away at makes it worse for him.

  He’s seething. My face is pounding, and I can barely see through all the blood running over my eyelids. He’s staggering from the pain, but he still launches himself at me, and I catch his movement too late. The force behind him has me dropping one of my daggers as he pins me to the mat. He’s sat above me with his hands squeezed around my throat. Enough to hold me in place but not enough to cut my air flow off, he wants my attention first.

  Picking up my fallen dagger with his free hand he raises it to my chest. I don’t squirm away from it, I refuse to show weaknesses to this psycho. He drags it down my chest, piercing my skin ever so slightly, slicing a line down between my breasts, cutting open my sports bra in the process.

  Fucking pig.

  “For a bitch you sure have good tits. Maybe I’ll fuck you now and again when your dead. No one can see up here, so I’ll have all the time in the world. I’ll make sure they can recognize you by your teeth though, don’t worry,” he whispers as he continues tracing the dagger down lifting it from my skin at my navel.

  The mark burns, from my collar bone all the way down but I don’t move. He’s too busy staring at my tits. Dropping the dagger his hands raise to my breasts. My skin is crawling but if it keeps him distracted I’ll push through it.

  “Pretty little nipples with pretty little piercings,” he murmurs to himself. I don’t want to give him too long, he’ll probably enjoy ripping the piercings out.

  As he grabs a handful of my cleavage, his hand around my throat slacks slightly and I know it’s now or never. Using the dagger still in my hand I slam it into the side of his neck. The pain has him lifting his hands, but the shock has his reactions slowed, which gives me time to drag it out and slam it back in his throat from a different angle.

  He falls sideways, finally able to grip his neck but he’s choking on his own blood, coughing and spluttering. I haven’t got time to watch him die slowly, looking to the side of him I know what I need to do.

  I lean in real close to his face making sure I have his attention in his last moments.

  “What you weren’t told is that when I’m triggered I turn reckless, lose all emotion, all control. I don’t care what I do when in that state.”

  His eyes are wide trying to process my words.

  “Unluckily for you even though you couldn’t fuck with my mind, someone already had, now I’ll see you in hell,” I scream as my fingers wrap around his knuckle duster and I smash him in the face over and over again.

  For attacking me.

  For doubting me.

  For touching me.

  I’ve made the world a better place without this monster, but this place is filled with monsters.

  I guess it’s going to be my job to wipe them out.

  They pushed me. It’ll be their own doing.

  Dropping my fists, I sit back from his lifeless body, trying to calm myself down, but I remember what I need to do now. Racing to grab both daggers, I try and wipe blood from my eyes to see what direction I even need to turn. It takes more time and effort than I’d like to climb up, but I make it nonetheless. I’m barely aware that my sports bra is hanging as a rag off my shoulders, showing my rack to everyone, my focus is to cut this rope.

  I don’t even look at what state both girls are in, and I don’t question how reckless my next decision may be but I stand on the block, raise both daggers and slice both of the thin ropes at the same time. I hear their bodies drop to the ground, but I sink to my knees catching my breath and trying to gain as much energy as possible.

  Wiping my eyes again I look around me. The crowd is screaming and clapping. It’s not a fucking happy victory, why would you applaud this display of violence.

  “Luna.”

  Barely a whisper reaches my ears and I search around. Red is lay flat on her back trying to take a full breath, I throw myself at her side checking her over.

  “Breathe Red, just breathe you’ll be okay,” I assure her.

  Tears fall freely down her cheeks.

  “I’m so sorry Red, so sorry that you were dragged into this. I’m going to make them pay, every last one of them.” Determinatio
n laced in every word.

  Feeling movement around me, I see Maverick.

  Maverick Miller is my current favorite person in this place.

  He has an oxygen mask which he places over Red’s face and a towel which he hands to me. I try to wipe the blood from my face but it’s a little difficult to get it under control, I think stitches are in order. Glancing down my chest, blood pours there too but not as bad as my face.

  “I’ve got her from here Luna, they’re waiting for you to address the room,” he murmurs and carries her away.

  Address the room? For what? What do they want me to say? Thanks for watching my soul burn to ashes?

  I climb down slowly trying to show as little pain as possible. Reaching the bottom, I see a top held out for me, looking up to see where it’s come from I find myself falling straight into Kai’s eyes. The love and admiration I feel in the air from him has me wanting to break down and let him console me, but I refuse to let that happen.

  I take the top with a nod, throwing it on without removing the sports bra.

  “Ladies and gentlemen I give you Miss Luna Steele the winner of The Death Pyramid trial,” Mrs. Dietrichson announces to the room.

  She’s trying to not sneer at me so openly but she’s struggling.

  “Miss Steele, how do you think you will fare in The Games in December after today’s experience?”

  I take a moment to look around me and process what she just said. So, The Games are in December, that’s three months away. Everyone is staring at me waiting for an answer, whilst also taking in my current state.

  I snatch the microphone out of her hand, done with her fake shit.

  Raising the microphone to my lips, I let the darkness continue to wash over me, needing it in this moment. I lift my other hand with my daggers gripped tightly and point them at Rico and my mother. They’re behind all of this I know it. They are part of the darkness and I’m sure there’s a lot more of them, but they are the ones who came at me. My own fucking mother and that vile piece of shit.

  I’m going to make them regret it. Make them all regret it, and I’ll start by making sure the weakness of my past is no more. Even if that means I stay in this current state of mind forever.