The Arena Wars

  Chapter Fourteen

  In the morning, I woke to find freshly healed skin on my arm and neck. The bite marks disappeared overnight. My higher temperature would burn out any infection that had been left by the mouths that bit me. Being a werewolf definitely had its advantages.

  After our breakfast consisting of a hard-boiled egg, cold bacon, and slice of cheese, Quinten and I spent the rest of the morning practicing for our third fight. His movements were slow and hesitant. I could tell he was still thinking about the boy that he’d killed.

  Around lunchtime the door to our holding cell opened and Eli walked in. He was flanked by the two armed vampire guards, who sneered at me, as usual. Eli motioned at me with his hands. “Come. Join me for lunch.”

  I didn’t dare refuse. Not with Quinten so close and in danger of bearing the brunt of Eli’s anger.

  So, I nodded and followed them from the room. For a minute, Eli was silent, and I wondered what he was thinking about. Finally, he decided to speak. “Alanna, I was lying alone in my bed last night, and I had a thought that just wouldn’t go away no matter how long I thought about it.”

  “And what thought was that?”

  “I kept thinking about your relationship with your friend Quinten. I wondered if it came down to it, would he sacrifice himself for you? Because if you lose a fight, but all of you are still alive, I have to choose one of you to sacrifice, but I have to keep my loyal fans happy. They like Quinten; he’s become quite the warrior.”

  “And?”

  “I realized something. If you lose, I’ll have to choose you to be sacrificed. If I don’t, the fans may very well turn on me. Not that I have much to worry about, considering I’m far older than all of them, but still. It would be a shame to have to flee this place. I do so enjoy being here.”

  “So you’re saying, if we lose, I die?”

  He nodded solemnly.

  “Why do you care that it’s me that’ll get sacrificed?”

  He smiled, which did nothing to make me feel any better. “Alanna, my darling, I have plans for you, remember? If you lose a fight, you’ll die, and I’ll lose my chance for revenge. I plan on keeping you here for a very long time.”

  His words sent horrified shivers down my spine, and I fought to keep from gagging. So, there were other nights like our dinner in store for me. I should have guessed that it would become a regular thing. He wouldn’t stop at one dinner.

  He frowned. “Don’t be alarmed, I won’t take so much again, I promise. My goal now is to prolong your stay here, not to cut it shorter.”

  I bit my lip to keep from crying.

  “I know you probably think that I’m a cruel, heartless monster, but I assure you I’m not. It won’t be so bad, I promise. In time, I think you’ll come to even enjoy my feedings.”

  Feedings.

  The word disgusted me to my very core. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eyes. “How would your mate feel about those feedings?”

  It was a chancy question, and the second it left my mouth, I realized I should have kept quiet. It was too late to take it back though.

  He snarled, baring his large, sharp fangs, and slapped me so hard he knocked me to the ground. “You will never speak of my mate to me, do you understand?”

  Had he actually loved someone once? The thought was a very strange one. Of course, if I thought about it, Ray had been a different man when mom was still alive. He hasn’t turned into a complete psycho after her death, but he was never the same.

  Maybe Eli had always been evil and deranged. His mate had probably been the only woman to share his passion for pain and madness. What was it like, knowing that you’d have to spend the rest of eternity without your mate?

  Lunch started out fairly tame. Eli merely sipped at a glass of blood while I forced myself to eat everything on my plate: turkey sandwich, fruit, roll, and pudding. Knowing why it had been prepared disgusted me, but I couldn’t ignore the fact that it was healthy, nutritious food, and it would possibly give me an edge in our next fight if he kept feeding me.

  I could afford to lose even less now. If we did, I’d be sacrificed, and Quinten would be forced to fight with someone who didn’t care whether he lived or died. No matter what, I couldn’t let that happen.

  When I’d finished everything on my plate and in my glass, a waiter in a black and white suit came in to take the dirty dishes away. The second he was gone, Eli put down his glass and stood.

  I knew what was coming next, and I tried not to cringe. He stopped in front of me, grabbed the side of my head, and turned my neck until it was fully bared to him. There was a soft click as he extended his fangs, and then he sunk them into the tender flesh at the side of my neck.

  I tried not to fight it, hoping it would make the pain lessen, but it didn’t. The pain was excruciating and instead I focused on not screaming. I clenched my jaw tight, closed my eyes, and prayed for it to just end.

  True to his word, after a few minutes, he pulled away. This time he didn’t force me to drink his own blood. Instead, he let me slump against the chair and catch my breath. His eyes were unfocused, and his cheeks were red, signs of having recently fed.

  Finally he sent me on my way with the vampire guards acting as an escort.

  Quinten was lying on his cot when I returned. His hands were clenched tight, and his face held unmasked anger. When the door opened, and I was thrown back inside, he was up in an instant.

  I wobbled and he caught me. “How dare he do this to you?”

  “He didn’t take as much as he did the first time.”

  “He shouldn’t have taken anything!”

  “Shut up!” Someone yelled. “I’m trying to rest.”

  Quinten glared in their general direction. “Go to hell, asshole! My girlfriend just got fed on by a fucking leech.”

  Girlfriend?

  It took him a moment to realize what he’d said, and his cheeks turned bright red. “Alanna, I–”

  I leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, trying not to show him how dizzy that slight movement made me. “Quinten, it’s alright.”

  He frowned. “Am I wrong? I mean, I know you said you wanted to be my mate, but…what does that make you now?”

  I hugged him, nuzzling his neck. “Yours.”

  He smiled faintly. “Are you sure?”

  I nodded once. “Positive.”

  He seemed satisfied with my answer, but I wasn’t entirely sure that I was. If we could die at any moment, what was the point of waiting? Should we just do it and get it over with, or wait and hope it could be a special thing that we’d want to remember for the rest of our lives?

  Quinten seemed fine with waiting until later, but would we regret that decision?

  The rest of the day passed and my strength returned enough for us to continue training. By nighttime, I was as good as new, and was even able to get a decent night’s sleep for the first time in a while. For once, it wasn’t me that tossed and turned all night, it was Quinten.

  In the morning, the two of us ate our horrible breakfast, and I tired not to think about our third and possible final fight. Looking at Quinten, I realized something. He was losing steam. He wouldn’t be able to keep going like this for much longer.

  Eventually, he’d get burned out, and it would cost us.

  I immediately shoved that evil thought to the back of my mind. I wouldn’t talk about Quinten like he was a liability. I couldn’t. He already thought of himself as the weak link in our partnership. I didn’t need to think of him that way too. Just before noon, the guards came in for Tyler and Dennis.

  We’d been waiting for about ten long minutes when the door slowly opened again. The sight of familiar cattle prods scared me, but what scared me more was the fact that both Tyler and Dennis weren’t with them.

  Oh, my god. Something terrible must have happened to them if the fight got done that fast.

  I bit my lip and thought of Tyler, lying broken and bloody in the arena field, being dragged away by thoughtles
s monsters, and wondered if that would be what happened to us.

  The vampire guards ushered us out the door and down the hall, and our third fight began.

  The tunnel approached, and I silently prayed for the fight to go over in our favor. I prayed for Eli to get what was coming to him. I prayed for there to be no children involved this time. I prayed for Quinten’s safety. I prayed that Ray would find us in time to stop this fight.

  We arrived in the arena and when I saw the two other fighters waiting, I gasped.

  “What’s wrong?” Quinten asked.

  “It’s Tyler and Dennis. That’s why their fight only lasted ten minutes. They hadn’t even started yet,” I said, trying not to cry in front of all the people that were watching expectantly.

  “We’re fighting Tyler?”

  “Quinten, Dennis is a werewolf. He’ll be stronger and faster than me, and he has more experience. I don’t know if I can keep us both safe.”

  “So don’t,” he said so quietly that I almost didn’t hear him.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “If it’s a choice between my life or yours, yours had better be more important to you.”

  “What?”

  “If you can’t save us both,” he growled exasperatedly, “save yourself.”

  “How can you even ask me to do that?”

  He didn’t have a chance to answer. Eli cleared his throat. “Ladies and gentlemen, let the fight begin!”

  Dennis never hesitated; he threw himself at me, knocking me to the ground. He seemed to like me and Quinten well enough, but if one of us had to die, it wouldn’t be him. I didn’t like it, but I didn’t blame him. I had the same attitude when Quinten was involved; anything went when it came to protecting him.

  Dennis’ hands scrabbled for my throat, trying to get a decent grip. Reaching up, I hooked my leg around Dennis and twisted, sending him to the dirt with me on top of him. I slammed my hand down into his face as hard as I could once, twice, and a third time.

  He worked a hand free, and hit me on the side of the head, sending me rolling into the dirt. I forced myself to sit, trying to ignore Quinten’s grunt of pain. That was when I remembered that Tyler knew the secret of Quinten’s success in the arena. He knew to make as little noise as possible, and it was working. Quinten was unable to get a grasp of where Tyler was until he was right up alongside him, close enough to attack.

  Quinten was already bleeding from his nose and lip, and two of his fingers looked broken at odd angles. How much longer could he keep going before he fell and couldn’t force himself to get back up?

  Dennis grabbed the back of my shirt, and hauled me to my feet. He threw me to my back, and viciously kicked my ribs. I gritted my teeth against the pain as I heard a crack. He raised a foot, and I threw up my arms to block the crushing stomp that was aimed at my head.

  I swung my leg out and it connected solidly with his kneecap. He yelped in pain, and went down hard. Raising my foot again, I kicked him in the face, and his nose started gushing blood.

  I jumped to my feet and, while he was busy fixing his knee, ran to help Quinten. I wasn’t sure how ruthless I could be with Tyler, but if it was a choice between him or Quinten…

  Quinten was on the ground with Tyler straddling his waist, raining punches down on Quinten’s face and upper torso. His knuckles were bloody and bruised, and it looked like Quinten hadn’t even gotten a single punch in yet.

  Tyler was good.

  I was better.

  I reached over and hauled him off Quinten and flung him away, like Dennis had done to me. Tyler slammed into the wall of the Arena, and crumpled to the ground in a heap. Quinten stood shakily, and I tried not to wince. His face looked like hamburger. I couldn’t imagine how much pain he had to have been in.

  “You ok?” I asked, hating how out of breath I sounded.

  He nodded. “Yeah, you?”

  “Perfect. We can do this, just stay close to me. Then you’ll at least have an idea where everyone’s at.”

  He nodded again. “Alright, let’s go.”

  Dennis had recuperated and he and Tyler were side by side like Quinten and I were. Tyler looked scared. But that wasn’t all I could see in his eyes. There was something else: reluctance. He didn’t want to do this. He considered us as friends.

  Was there a way for us to make it out of this alive?

  No, it didn’t seem that way.

  Dennis and Tyler moved in. Dennis swung for my head and I raised my arm to block. When his other hand slammed into my throat, I realized too late it was a feint.

  My throat collapsed and my eyes started to water, and I began to choke. Dennis didn’t give me a chance to heal; he was on me in a heartbeat. I landed face-first in the dirt, and he grabbed me by the hair, and braced one arm around my throat.

  This was bad.

  My vision was turning black around the edges and my throat and lungs ached. I was fading fast.

  We could lose.

  Suddenly, Quinten was there, throwing himself on Dennis’ back. They rolled away, and I sucked in a deep lungful of air. I’d come so close to dying just then, it was a miracle to be breathing still.

  Tyler was face-down on the ground and was slowly coming to. I turned and went to help Quinten with Dennis. How Quinten could even breathe with so much blood pouring from his nose was beyond me, but he was still standing, so he couldn’t have been too bad.

  I grabbed Dennis’ hands and twisted them behind his back. Quinten punched him over and over again, but I could tell it wasn’t really doing much. Dennis was healing almost immediately. Being a werewolf was awesome.

  Fighting another one was not.

  Another hour later, and Quinten and Tyler were getting tired and sluggish. The blood they’d lost was starting to get to them, and if we went much longer, they’d be dead and it would just be me and Dennis.

  Finally, when I thought it would never end a shot rang out, startling the four of us. The vampire guards came into the arena, four in total, and two went to stand by Dennis and Tyler, and two stood behind us. Eli stood gracefully, and addressed the people watching from the stands.

  “If this fight goes on any longer, we’ll lose our human contestants to exhaustion, and our werewolves will be forced to fight to the death. I don’t want that. So, I will be choosing a member from each team to sacrifice, and the remaining two will form a new team.”

  No!

  My worst fears had been realized. Either Quinten or I would be sacrificed. The thought of living without him was too much to handle. Did he feel the same way?

  He reached over and grasped my hand. I squeezed it as tight as I could without hurting him, taking comfort in the familiar warmth of his hand.

  Eli smiled, and looked at the two of us. “I’ve made my decision. As much as it pains me to do this, Alanna, I’m sorry. The prospect of watching your warrior fight blindly without you is just too much to pass up,” he raised the gun straight at my chest. “I’m sorry.”

  “I demand the right of substitution!” Quinten shouted, releasing my hand and stepping forward.

  Everything went quiet, and my heart stopped.