Chapter 16 Callie #3
I looked back and forth between my draft horse sized body guard and the fancy bouncer, my brain misfiring.
“No way. No. Way! This is your mate? This male right here? Seriously?”
The big pink male tossed his white curls over his shoulder and cocked his hip. “What were you expecting? A hideous Horik?” He scoffed, gesturing at Rixa. “She’s far too beautiful and deadly for just any mate?”
I gaped at the preening Rixa. She finally caught my flabbergasted stare and snorted out a laugh. “Surprised, Callisto Ramirez?"
I sputtered, pointing at her. “Surprised? Surprised! Not easy, you said. What’s not easy about this?” I asked, gesturing with both hands at the tall, muscular, pink icon in front of us.
Rixa shrugged. “Lor’ac was the champion of the Pit for twenty orbits. He had a certain reputation.”
I opened my mouth to ask if that reputation was panty dropper but a bigger, more lavender version of Lor’ac strode up behind him and draped a heavy arm across Lor’ac’s shoulders.
Hassa purred at the newcomer.
Purred.
The lavender male grinned with obvious delight at Hassa. He had double fangs.
“Hello, my deadly Dor’as. What brings you here tonight? I thought you were guarding Rathal’s hum—oh. Hello.”
I waved weakly at him.
Hassa bumped me with her body. “This is my mate Lor’az. He and his twin own the Pit.”
Did it count as twins if one was pink and one was purple?
Lor’az had the same stark white curls as his brother but he’d pulled his back in elaborate braids.
His swirls were such a dark purple they were nearly black.
He was dressed similarly to his brother but his skirt was nearly to his knees and loose, swirling around his thick legs like a diaphanous froth.
The boots he wore were orange. His makeup matched his boots with a wide thick line of orange over his eyes.
“Lor’az, meet Callisto Ramirez. We’ve brought her to cheer up. She’s having mate frustrations.”
The lavender giant’s eyes sparkled when he grinned. “Ah. We know all about that, don’t we, my love? Come, come. We will get your blood hot and your woes dead.”
A chorus of moans echoed from behind him as if to punctuate his statement.
Oh, god. They had better not have brought me to a sex club.
Hassa and Rixa jostled me forward with their mates leading the way further into the orange haze.
The roar of a crowd rose and fell in waves, with broken moans and groans in between.
My heart hammered a wild beat in my chest and my mouth lost all its moisture the further we walked down the darkened hall.
Fog swirled around my legs and flashes of orange light had spots forming in front of my eyes.
There was a rumble vibrating the walls around us and I prayed to every god I knew that I wasn’t walking into a massive orgy.
Light broke over us as Lor’ac pushed a door open and we stepped out into tiered stands. In the center—to my infinite relief—wasn’t a massive orgy.
It was a gladiator pit.
Recessed and surrounded on all sides by tall metal walls, with bright orange sand covered in splashes of blue, green, and red that I assumed was blood.
The room itself wasn’t all that big, probably close to the space provided for a college basketball game. Metal benches were packed with aliens all screaming in frenzied glee at the fight.
In the center of the arena, a thin alien with tall horns helped his fallen opponent up off the ground.
They slapped each other's shoulders before the announcer recognized the thin horned alien as the clear winner.
The crowd roared as he held his fist in the air.
The loser smiled, waved a final goodbye and exited the area through a rising door off to the side of the Pit.
“What in the actual fuck?” I asked, still following behind the twins.
They laughed but didn’t answer me.
Their mates led us to plush seats down at the very bottom row.
Two of the seats were more like raised dog beds big enough for four people…
specially made for the four legged females who’d dragged me here.
Hassa and Rixa jumped up onto the beds, settling in like two sphinxes overlooking their minions.
Their mates sat on either side of them, throwing arms over fluffy manned necks and… cuddled.
It was the most bizarre moment of my life. I kept waiting for Rixa and Hassa to bite the males' faces off but they just nuzzled in close, looking as content as kittens.
Lor’ac patted the seat next to him. “Well, don’t just stand there. Come sit and enjoy the show. Our champion is fighting next.”
“You’ll love it,” Hassa said. Rixa snickered. I narrowed my eyes at both of them while I took my seat.
“Just what are you two up to? I’m starting to feel set up here.”
“Wait and see.”
“You’ll thank us later.”
For some reason I didn’t believe them.
A short, round little alien with orange spikes on his otherwise bald head waddled out into the middle of the sand and tapped his link.
“Welcome! Welcome!” he shouted, holding his stubby arms up. “We have a special treat tonight! It’s Champions Choice!”
The crowd cheered, stomping their feet on the metal floors.
“Who will our champion pick? Which one of you lucky glas will get to test your mettle against the undefeated… Sooooreeeel?!”
The pudgy announcer jerked to the side, his short arms sweeping towards the entrance to the arena as a familiar spider lady ducked under the overhang and strutted her many legged ass to the center, her arms held up for the adoring clamoring of her fans.
“Okay. I am so lost. What about watching Rathal’s wannabe girlfriend beat people to a pulp is supposed to make me feel better?”
I didn’t have anything against Soreel. The spider lady had tried to be rude to me for half a second before Rathal dismissed her. The incident was barely a blip on my radar. So I wasn’t entirely sure why the twins brought me here.
“Soreel hates your guts,” Hassa said, a bloodthirsty gleam in her eye. “Tonight is Champion’s Choice.”
“And now you are here,” Rixa finished.
“And who should she find in the front row, right next to the prestigious owners of the Pit?” Lor’ac asked, his smile growing wider.
“Why, however shall she cope? You and your sister are devious. This shall be so fun to watch!” Lor’az said, glancing my way with his black eyes wide.
Oh. Fuck.
“Oh, you two are dead. Why’d you bring me here—”
“It looks like our champion has spotted her prey! Will the contender accept?”
Fuck me.
My shoulders drew up towards my ears as I slowly turned in my seat to face the pit and found Soreel pointing at me with her two upper hands, her face twisted in a mask of bitter anger.
Ew. Jealousy wasn’t cute. Especially when the male in question didn’t even like her.
Great. I couldn’t refuse with this many witnesses. No one would respect me afterwards and it would make living on Erral difficult. You know what? Fuck it. I’ve had a really bad couple of days. I needed this.
I stood and the crowd stomped their feet, chanting and shouting.
“Walk around to the left and there are stairs that will take you down to the pit entrance. Good luck! And have fun!” Lor’ac explained, pointing the way.
“Tension relief. We told you so,” Hassa called.
I raised my middle finger into the air even though I knew she wouldn’t understand the gesture. She must have got the intent though because her rolling laughter followed me all the way down the long path towards the stairs.
I had a few things thrown at me as I walked. Just a few pieces of trash or maybe cloth, but it was enough to raise my proverbial hackles.
Assholes.
I came to the end of the sloped walkway where an open door and a bouncer waited for me.
The female alien waved me through before shutting the door behind me.
I was in a tunnel. To my left was darkness.
To my right was the open archway that led onto the orange sand.
The announcer and Soreel were waiting for me. I walked to them.
Sorreel drew up tall, her maroon fuzzy spider legs covered in sand and shifted restlessly underneath her.
I stopped in front of her. “You know, this isn’t going to end the way you want it to.”
Her pretty face twisted in a sneer. “I think it's going to go exactly how I want it to, human. Rathal shouldn’t have embarrassed me.”
Oh. So this wasn’t a jealousy thing. It was a pride thing. I could understand that, sort of.
I shrugged, feigning nonchalance while my heart raced and my muscles grew tense. Adrenaline flooded through me. The announcer drew me to a spot a few feet across from Soreel and raised his hands again.
“Pit rules are as follows. No death. To submission only. No edged weapons. No energy weapons. This is hand to hand or blunt weapons. Armor is acceptable. Shields are acceptable. Cheating is encouraged. ”
Damn. I wish I had Bitchhammer with me. I’d left it on the shuttle I blew up.
“Ready?”
Soreel drew a bronze baton over her shoulder and smacked it into her palm.
I raised my fist, called up my armor, and grinned.
“Begin!”
Soreel was lightning fast. Her eight powerful legs propelled her over the short distance between us like a rocket.
I rolled out of the way of her swing a fraction of a second before her baton would have caved my head in.
I imagined I felt the passage of wind as it skimmed my armored shoulder, sparks flying off where metal grazed metal.
Popping to my feet and darting to the side to avoid the slash of one of her legs, I kicked out at the joint. It was like kicking a brick pylon. The kick reverberated up my leg to rattle the teeth in my skull.
Soreel trilled out a laugh and flicked me with her leg. I shot across the arena, my back slapping into the metal wall like a bug against a high speed windshield.
I shook my head with a groan, looking up just in time to see Soreel skittering towards me like a speeding train and I rolled to the side just as two of her front legs slammed into the wall where I’d just been.