Chapter 24 #4
“Nina. If you truly care about him, you’ll convince Max to surrender. He’s going to die tomorrow. It’s not even a challenge now that I have his dice. But there’s still time to end—”
“Call off your goons,” I warned. “You’re protected under terms with Max. Not me.”
He laughed, a cackling kind. “Vicious little snake. But there’s no venom in you.
” He gripped my arm just to prove a point, drawing tears to my eyes.
I didn’t know how much blood he’d had already, but it was enough to grant him unparalleled strength.
If he held me any tighter, my bones would snap from the pressure.
One of his men sent a hard punch into Max’s gut, keeling him over. Damien leaned closer to my ear. “Look how weak he is without the dice to fuel him. He refuses to drink, Nina. Without all of his relics, he won’t stand a chance against me.”
“He doesn’t need them against you. You’re pathetic, no matter how much blood you binge.”
“Is that so?” he hissed. “With just one die, he’d at least be able to push my men back. Two? He could put them on their backs in a second. All three… and he’d be the monster the engineers designed him to be.”
Damien let those words sink into me before continuing. “Honestly, I expected a surgeon to understand the connection between essence and anatomy better.”
Watching them hurt him was a spark in a dry forest, and I caught fire all over. My Siphon slipped, drawing from the strength in the Vitalis die to shove Damien hard in the chest.
He landed on his backside on the ground, staring up at me with a slap of shock widening his eyes.
“I may not have venom, but your words are the only poison you possess,” I hissed. “Count your hours, Damien.”
He was quick on his feet, running with a supernatural speed. I had to flip the die quickly to draw speed from it and match his pace, dodging his pursuit just in time.
“How?” he roared, turning to face me after I’d made a fool of him.
I let the Siphon fall away, tucking the die into the fold of my pants before he noticed. Damien glared at me furiously. His gaze sharpened.
“What the hell is going on here?” Another voice. I looked up to see Elli with her hands on her hips. “Damien, what’s the meaning of this?”
“These two were taking more time than was agreed,” he answered. “I demand an additional hour!”
“Take the whole damn night,” she said. “Just let Max go. You’re both expected to show up in one piece for the fight tomorrow, or lots of people are going to lose their money—Cursed and bookies alike—and they’ll tear you apart.”
Damien wiped his face with his forearm, scowling at the smear of blood he left. “Just get the hell out.” To me directly, he said, “You know where to find me still, Nina.”
Max made a line to me when the men released him, at my side at once. “Don’t listen to him. Go to Elli.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I climbed over the wall and grabbed both our belongings while Max waited in the ring for me to make it up the stairs.
Andre appeared through the main entrance and joined us.
Once I was with his siblings, he turned his back on Damien and the ring, ascending the steps to join us.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” he spoke in my ear as we left.
“What?”
“Siphoned,” he hissed. He looked to Elli. “Damien has desired my powers since the day he found out about them. He wants my dice, my control, and you just proved to him there’s a way for others to use them.”
“But he can’t replicate what I have!”
“We don’t know that,” Max said, keeping his voice low.
He looked around us before opening the car door.
“The Cursed can use anything we drink from. He’s buying dead Archetypes, for hell’s sake, Nina.
Or working with whoever is doing it. They could find out about your power and demand your body next.
Even if I win the duel, the rumors about you will outlive him. ”
Apparently, it was possible to make a terrible situation worse. Rock bottom had a basement level. “Max, can you really defeat him without all of your artifacts?”
He scrubbed his face, ridding the frustration pinching his features. “Just get in the car.”
That was answer enough. The die in my hand told me as much as I listened to his pulse speed, his breathing shallow. He either needed to feed on every bloodline in the next twelve hours, or he needed his relics. Max was nervous about this fight, even when he wore a brave mask for my benefit.
Damien was preparing as any Cursed would by indulging in whatever bloodlines he’d stored in that flask.
Objectively, he was stronger than Max in this state, but if Max had all three of his artifacts, the odds would tip back in his favor.
While I still had possession of his last die, I had to do something about it.
I had to fix what I’d messed up, or he’d die trying to fight for both our causes.
The ride home was quiet as I flipped the Vitalis die over in my hand, memorizing the runes and their positions as I had with the others and deciding my plan.
I was thankful Max didn’t have his Glamour die to peek into my thoughts, because he would kill me if he knew what I was about to do.