Chapter 13 Champion
Chapter Thirteen
CHAMPION
Iwoke up with the scent of fish and lavender soap in my nose. I felt heavy, languid, like I’d fought hard and had no lingering tension from battling the constant need to fight, to destroy, to conquer. The battle was ended, and I was the champion.
The softest down tickled my cheek, and a woman’s hand curled against my chest. Kitten. She was safe, with me, and all was right with the world.
The world that was rocking?
I opened my eyes to see a steel ceiling in a room lit from one small window.
I was on a boat? With Kitten? She was wrapped in nothing but my arms. Her beautifully perfect skin bore dappled bruises of various depths, all of them carved by my hands, the traitorous ones that were holding her precious flesh like it belonged to me.
Images and emotions rolled over me, tinged in a haze of red hunger.
We took our prize. Now you can take care of business. Keep her alive.
The beast rumbled and then rolled over back to sleep until I needed it again.
Him. He hadn’t been like this before. He was always rage out there that I had to fight against, but now, we’d won the prize.
Kitten. She was ours. My beast wasn’t chained anymore, just sleeping.
She was the point of connection between me and my monster, and I had business to take care of.
Keeping her alive.
I sat up and Kitten slid down my body until she was curled up on my lap, all of her naked, except for the bruises she wore like an elaborate purple pelt.
“Nix? Why did you move?” she mumbled, nuzzling my stomach with her nose.
I blinked down at her. There was a blanket. How did I get her under the blanket and off me? Not that I could leave her. Ever again. The thought made me feel like I was in freefall.
I carefully laid back down and she curled automatically around me again, tucking her bare foot between my calves.
She nibbled on my chest, all of her so mesmerizingly glorious in the early morning light. She was naked with me. My wife. Safe. In my arms.
But still dying.
Panic flared in my chest and I cleared my throat. “Kitten, I need to get up.”
She stopped tasting me long enough to raise her head and frown at me. “Get up where? You said you were going to keep your prize.”
I caught her face before she went back to the sweetest nibbles designed to drive a man mad. I held her very carefully so I didn’t hurt her any more than I already had. “I came here for research. Tell me what happened. How long was I gone? I lost track of time.”
She sat up, eyes large as she stared at me. She chewed on her bottom lip and crossed her arms, shifting so her nudity was mostly covered. “Nix?” she said slowly, frowning at me.
Her frown made me smile. It was so serious. “Kitten. We’re on a boat. I remember carrying you onto a boat, but I have no idea where it’s going. That wasn’t the priority.”
“You remember carrying me? What else do you remember?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “All of it. You knocking out DuPre before I had a chance to torture him. I was irritated with you for that, but you were so adorable, I decided to play with you instead. What were you doing in that god-forsaken place, Kitten?”
“I came to rescue you. Obviously. When your mother showed me…” She started chewing on her bottom lip in earnest.
My own skin went cold. I touched her carefully, brushing back her hair, searching her eyes for signs of pain.
“I’m not supposed to say that I killed your mother, but I did, Nix.
I didn’t mean to, I just wanted to shoot her up with some morphine so she’d stop trying to kill me, but I cut her with Flower’s knife and…
” Her face crumpled at the memory. She’d killed my mother?
Accidentally? It wasn’t possible, but she was supposed to be the ultimate weapon. I guess she really was.
I should have been terrified, but instead a deep satisfaction welled up inside me. My mother had been the one who caused the accident, to trigger my full potential, and then she’d gone to take care of loose ends. Kitten. My wife. And the loose ends had taken care of her instead.
It was beautiful, except that the House of Beasts would be feral without the crocodile to hold them in check.
I shook my head, giving her a soft smile as I touched her cheek.
“It’s okay. It was an accident. She deserved to die a million times over.
You did the world a service.” I smoothed her hair and pulled her back against me, holding her so tenderly.
I’d miscalculated. I’d never expected my mother to move against me like this.
But of course she had. She’d agreed to the deal so that I’d be forced to be with someone who I could become attached to.
She’d always intended to manipulate that feeling to turn me into a monster that she could control more easily than she could control this part of myself.
To fulfil my potential. My potential for destruction.
“It’s not okay,” she mumbled. “Her army wants to kill me, but first they’re coming for you. The whole House of Beasts is going to attack the King’s fortress.” She rubbed her cheek against my chest. “You need a bath so bad.”
I kissed her hair while I panicked and planned in different parts of my brain.
“Truer words were never spoken. How do you feel? I wasn’t gentle with you.
” I hated myself for taking so much pleasure in her pain, but it wasn’t possible to touch her and not enjoy it.
She’d asked for it, and then she told me she loved me. Beast or champion, I was hers.
She poked my chest. “Of course you were gentle with me. Otherwise, I’d be dead. Your beast is no joke.” She squinted at me, searching for the monster. He raised his head at her perusal. He’d happily take over for me if I couldn’t muster the proper enthusiasm.
“Yes. He’s no joke.” I picked her up and carried her to the door before stopping in front of the massive metal locker that would be impossible to move unless I was a beast. The yellow ukulele was bizarre. I thought back on her singing and picked through her lyrics.
“Low Rider isn’t about pants.”
“Of course it is. Have you seen low-rider skinny jeans? Now that’s a look.”
I put her down on the dresser and went through the drawers. There was a pair of men’s jeans, and a black t-shirt. Would they fit? I could put them on Kitten and stay naked, but that seemed distinctly uncivilized. I pulled on the pants and pulled the shirt over her head.
“I have underwear over there on the floor,” she said once her head came out the top.
“I broke your clasp.”
Her eyes widened as she stuck her arms through the sleeves. “You’re such a beast. Like the time you ripped my perfectly frumpy nightgown down the front.”
“Yes, like that time.” I took a deep breath and shoved against the metal lockers. My beast came alive, burning beneath my skin, moving the metal slowly across the floor. “So pretty,” I growled as I looked at her in that too-large shirt.
She pulled her knees up under the shirt so I could see were the tips of her feet. The things I was going to do to those toes…
I blinked and the beast receded, leaving me with access to the outside world. I unbolted the door, and looked out at the empty hall. She grabbed my hand and followed me out of the safety of our little nest.
I sniffed and the scent of hot bacon came wafting towards me. Someone else was on this ship eating breakfast. My stomach rumbled and cramped. I hadn’t eaten for a long time, but Kitten was still more appetizing than anything else.
“The bearded betrayer ate the jerky,” she whispered behind me, staying close.
“Is that a code I’m supposed to know?” We edged forward to the end of the hall to the ladder that led on deck.
“He was in the haunted prison, one of the people there you didn’t…” She trailed off, not wanting to suggest that I’d murdered them.
Had I killed them all? It didn’t seem like it.
I’d broken those who came at me until they stopped, but killing was a different thing.
Then again, I’d had several extremely thorough death plans for Michael DuPre, who we’d left alive.
I should have at least ripped off his arms, but once I’d seen her, I’d needed to find the exit and take her with me.
We climbed the ladder and came out on a large deck with a breakfast buffet like the spread I’d had before the fighting began. I’d broken her precious ring.
The man sitting at the table raised a hand. His white Panama hat over dark hair was a punctuation. The boat wasn’t empty. I could smell the crew, at least fifty men, led by the King of Macao, who had lured me onto his ship and taken me out to open water.
I frowned at him. “What is your game? This isn’t poker.”
He flashed a smile and gestured to the seats opposite him. “Eat. You’re glad I made you stuff yourself before I let you in the cage, aren’t you?”
I grunted and sat, pulling Kitten on my lap. I filled a plate for her and then glowered at him. “The research.”
He smiled back, easily. “Eat and then we’ll discuss it. I never discuss business with hungry customers.” He turned to Kitten. “He’s like a shark. I love sharks, but you have to feed them.”
She took a forkful of hashbrowns, eggs and bacon and held it to my lips. “Eat, Nix, or I’m going to stab you with my fork.”
I glowered at the King of Macao and then took the bite.
It was food, and I was starving. I started eating in earnest while Kitten nibbled on the food I’d given her, watching me like I was a natural phenomenon.
After I’d eaten enough to stop my stomach from cramping, I pushed my plate away and nodded at him.
“Give me your research.”
“I’d love to. There’s only one slight problem with that.”
A high keening sound came right before the torpedo hit. I had Kitten down against the deck, covering her with my body until the ship stopped trembling. I scrambled to my feet, holding Kitten close while I scowled at King.
“That’s the House of Beasts. They’ll rip you apart if you try to take me prisoner.”