Chapter 66
SIXTY-SIX
KAOS
My hands twitched on my lap.
I was so bored.
Being kidnapped and forced to fight in the Blood Well was a pretty good gig, actually.
I never had to worry about being hungry or thirsty or dirty.
They patched me up after every fight and broke up the monotony a bit with Hugo’s training. I missed Ocean and Finch, but they probably didn’t want to see me again, anyway. They were better off without me.
But damn, at least in prison I’d had the electrical workbench I could use to pass the time.
I looked up as footsteps stopped outside my cell.
Were they here for me?
Was it my turn to fight?
Hope stirred in my veins as I watched them stop and flared higher as they unlocked my cell.
I could feel my aura burning inside of me, itching to be let out.
It’d been so long since I last got to release it, years, surely.
Or months?
Days?
Everything blurred together when I was waiting. The fights blurred together, too, but at least I felt alive during that time.
The sounds of the busy crowd got louder as we approached the Sink, and the bass from the music made the floor rumble under my bare feet.
I drank up the energy, adrenaline lighting up in my system as I was shoved into an ante-cage and freed from my cuffs.
They’d just finished hosing off the floor from the last fight, which meant only a few more minutes until mine started.
“Demon! It’s Demon!”
I craned my neck up to where I could make out the Ringside crowd—some people had caught sight of me and were chanting my name.
There was a gap in the crowd tonight, noticeable like a missing tooth. Opposite me, instead of the people crowding against the railing, there was a space holding only two people.
Thaddeus and his teenage daughter.
That was odd. They usually watched from the suite.
The smell of sweat and blood hung in the air, and I was tense as I waited. Any minute now.
Any minute now, and they’d trigger me to break my aura for the fight.
I’d come alive.
“They’re putting you on Blood Court.” Hugo’s voice was hoarse and strained, a far cry from his usual flat, gruff tone.
I wrinkled my nose. Blood Court meant I’d be against a beta or weak alpha, which meant the fight would be over far sooner than I’d like. I’d be left with a well of rage and frustration that I’d have to keep simmering until the next fight.
I heard the clang of a metal door directly opposite me and the sounds of a struggle. Whichever poor soul was being put into the other ante-cage wasn’t going quietly.
I cocked my head to the side as a lean, blond figure was shoved into view, landing on solid feet and turning with a snarl on his lips.
That was the other teenage Fairchild.
Huh.
Wasn’t expecting that.
No wonder Hugo sounded strained. After a second, Julius turned back to me and started ripping the side of the dress he wore, tying it up out of the way.
His face had settled in grim determination, as if he was planning to put up a fight.
It didn’t matter, though. I was a rogue.
Once I got into a rage, there was no stopping, even if I wanted to. There was only the urge to win.
The buzzer sounded, and I clenched my teeth as electricity sparked through the ante-cage, the pain rippling through my body like fire. My aura exploded out without conscious effort from me, and my alpha brain took over. The door to the cage opened, and I surged into the bright lights of the Sink.
I could taste blood in my mouth, and rage was clouding my vision.
I needed to prove myself.
Dominate.
My aura flared, demanding action, the energy almost burning as it urged me for an outlet.
My target.
A beta, tall and slender, with blond hair tumbling into his pretty face.
Challenger.
I was beside him in seconds, but he’d anticipated me, and I tripped over his foot, crashing into the ground. Pain burned across my face and arm, and I snarled as I turned on him again.
I couldn’t touch him. He was fast, calculated, and I found myself crashing into the walls or floor again and again.
I had slowed, prowling, trying to figure this puzzle out.
He was panting, a flush on his chest and face.
Sweat had stuck his hair to his forehead, and he had dark makeup smudged around his eye.
I had been pushing him, and he couldn’t keep this up forever.
I just needed to get hold of him once, wound him enough that he’d be incapacitated, then my game would begin.
So we danced again, continuing until he stumbled, missing his footing.
I was on him in a second, pinning him to the ground.
His eyes had been wild as he’d snarled beneath me. This close, though, I breathed in his scent.
At that moment, I’d stopped.
His pain and terror was so visceral beneath me, so real, it could have been my own.
I paused, simply holding him as my rage dissolved into horror, a whine tearing from my lips as I realized something.
I shouldn’t be destroying like this.
I should be protecting.
Julian took his advantage, slamming a blade into my shoulder. One he must have snuck in, or perhaps someone had slipped it to him. It didn’t matter.
I let him kick me off him, blood flowing from the wound in my shoulder.
I didn’t want to fight him.
The last thing I saw was his foot flying toward my face, and the world went black.