by Noëlie Frix
“I’m stronger than you are,” he said softly.
“No, yo…” Heka stopped herself. “Fine,” she admitted. “In sheer muscle strength, you are. But that doesn’t say anything about technique…or brains.”
“Your technique’s not gonna help you now,” he countered. “Not when you can’t even move.”
“I can barely breathe,” she grunted in agreement. “You’re crushing my bones and I think you may have dislocated my shoulder!”
“Sorry, but you started it,” Chaos said playfully. “And shall I finish what I started?”
“Not a chance! You may be stronger, but I am strong enough to keep you from raping me!”
“So what do you propose we do? Beat the hell out of each other until I get my way?”
“Why don’t you just leave?”
“You really are in no position to bargain…literally,” Seth reminded her.
“Well then, what do you suggest?” she groaned weakly.
“I’m not leaving empty handed. What do you have to offer?”
“Just one kiss,” she whispered.
“You realize you’re the first to refuse me?”
“I do, because others would already be crying from the pain!” she gritted her teeth.
“Not exactly the reason why, no,” he chuckled. “Fine. A kiss. Then maybe you’ll change your mind.”
The gorgeous Demon let himself off and sat next to her on the bed as she popped her shoulder back into its socket and felt her bones grind back into place. Heka groaned and Seth smiled brightly, looking down at her, his dark purple eyes meeting her cold green gaze. She sat up in bed and said,
“Let’s just get this over with.”
“Not so fast. A real kiss. Then you’ll know why no one’s ever refused me.”
Warrior rolled her eyes and sighed, “Fine, a real kiss, then I can go back to sleep…alone!”
Seth smiled knowingly. He took her face in his hands and delicately stroked back the curls from her face. His lips grazed hers, his breath hot against her face. It was a long, passionate, burning kiss. And part of Heka didn’t want it to end. But the rational and still functioning part of her brain reminded her of Chaos’s power and she reluctantly pulled away, breathing raggedly.
“Definitely not your first time,” she blushed.
“Not yours either,” Seth looked exhilarated. He inched his way towards her and pushed her back down urgently, but tenderly this time. Before she had time to react, he kissed her again. She let him, enjoying the feeling of his body pressed against hers, of his lips on hers, but when she felt his hand crawl down to her breasts, she pulled away harshly.
“One kiss is all,” she panted.
Seth beamed, knowing he had won this round. He stood up, “Goodnight then, Heka,” he walked out, closing the door behind him. Warrior lay there a long time, unable to fall back to sleep. She knew full well Chaos had played his first hand and won. She also realized that he could drive away rational thought and basically appear out of thin air. Tomorrow she would try to regain the upper hand.
Back in his room, Seth stared at his smug reflection. Like Heka, he couldn’t stand defeats, and after the way dinner had gone, payback had felt wonderful. In more ways than one. And now he waited impatiently for the next day to come, for the opportunity to face her again…and win.
*****
“Does anyone have any idea what the hell happened to her?!” Jason asked for the millionth time.
“Jason, calm down,” Electra groaned. “Yes, we need her, but I doubt she’s in any real danger.”
“It’s not like her to get captured easily and there was no sign of a struggle,” he countered.
“I know my sister, thank you!” she exclaimed, exasperated. “Right now, if she saw you, she’d be furious because you think she’s incapable of taking care of herself!”
“Frankly, I pity whoever it is that’s with her,” Trélig added. “He’s in for quite a treat.”
“Plus, we caught a short break today with the human officers’ training,” Désirée added. “Not having to suffer through her drills was nice. And if you ask me, it’s not going to last long.”
When Heka hadn’t shown up that day for training, Damien’s human General had taken over. Normally, Jason should have overseen training, but he had been busy trying to find her. They hadn’t heard a word as to her whereabouts, and Wind’s spying revealed that Marcus had nothing to do with it.
“Right, we caught a break, but we’re gonna lose the war. It’s a wonderful tradeoff,” Jason mumbled, incapable of thinking straight, his mind full of worry.
“Hey! Will you stop with the sulking, already? Try to show a little optimism! You’re her second-in-command, we can still win this, and she will come back!” Electra was losing patience. Jason wasn’t normally like this, and she knew he had good reasons to be freaked. Without her sister, the war efforts and outcome basically rested on Shadow’s shoulders, and while being second was fine, he had no desire to lead an army against War. A huge weight seemed to press down on his chest due to the enormity of his newfound responsibility.
“How does she manage it?” he whispered almost to himself. “I’m sorry,” Jason apologized to the members at his table: Trélig, Electra, Désirée, Venthae, Aquae and Damien.
“Yeah, we get it. It’s not your fault,” Désirée sympathized. “Love,” she sighed dreamily. “It makes people do and say crazy things. Losing one’s true love is the worst kind of pain that exists.”
In a corner of the vast room, Aapol and Myegi were whispering fiercely.
“It has to be that,” Myegi argued. “Who else could have gotten her captured without her so much as throwing a punch in self-defense?”
“There are plenty of Immortals out there who could have done it,” the Sun Spirit protested, not willing to entertain the idea Myegi had suggested.
“She held her own against me! Heka is the Warrior. Of course it’s a Demon!”
“Shush! If it is, she might not stand a chance.”
“She stands a chance, as long as she thinks to use her cunning rather than strength.”
“So you want us to tell them?” Aapol pointed to the king’s table. “Reveal this closely guarded secret? If there are any prying ears around, someone might try to convince the Demons to come back to the surface.”
“Well then, make sure there are no prying ears,” the Moon Spirit said definitively and walked over to Jason.
“I think I know what may have happened to Heka,” she declared quietly. “We should talk in the war room, though.”
Jason looked at her, hope in his eyes. But at that moment, Sembor appeared right next to them. Within seconds, Jason’s owl, Electra’s eagle, and Trélig’s long green snake showed up. Heka’s tiger had asked them to come, and he quickly told them as much as he could about Warrior’s situation. The companions communicated with their soulmates whatever the tiger was telling them.
Myegi had quickly reached the correct conclusion that what she had been about to tell them was now known by at least three of the Immortals.
“So…” Trélig began.
“Not here,” she snapped. “All of you at this table, come with us to the war room,” she ordered. They all obeyed quietly. The Moon Spirit regretted telling them all to come, for she had a hard time getting along with Désirée. But she decided to push aside petty jealousy and concentrate on the first human war she’d decided to join.
“We need to go find her.”
“We can’t go after her,” Aapol said at the same time.
“What?” Jason glared at him.
“Jason, I know you’re nervous, but you have to take her place as commander for now,” Damien said calmly. “She chose you and that was good enough for me. Don’t make her regret that choice.” The comment stung him, but it was the right thing to say. He drew in a sharp breath, slowed the beating of his heart. Heka was okay. Sembor wasn’t worried and, apparently, neither was she. “Jason, the men are ready to train. I�
��m sure they won’t mind seeing you instead of Heka…I want you to try to be almost as harsh as she’d be,” the king commanded.
“I’ll try, but I still think they might prefer me to her,” he smirked.
“Oh, for sure! But still…they don’t have to be too happy about the change. After all, we’ll see Heka soon,” Damien declared optimistically. “Can you tell us what happened exactly, though?” They relayed the information communicated by Sembor to the others.
“Demons are tough adversaries but she can beat him,” Myegi said confidently matching the king’s positive outlook. She then told them what she knew about the evil creatures.
“How do you know about Demons?” Désirée asked suspiciously.
“Because we’re related,” Aapol grimaced. Seeing Electra’s questioning stare, he added, “It’s complicated. And to answer your next question, we weren’t going to tell you about them because all that would do is open the gates of hell. If anyone wanted to call them back from their underground hideouts, they’d ruin the world…and War, Death and Disease would look like pathetic, innocent, cute little children next to them.”
“Oh,” was all Désirée managed.
“No one outside this room will know,” Venthae assured the Spirits.
“Now let’s go train,” Jason got up and led the others out of the room, decided to act how Heka would want and expect him to.
Chapter 27: Seth and Heka
“Good morning,” Seth greeted as Heka walked into the dining room, dressed in a comfortable short-sleeved shirt and tightly-fitting pants —she’d found most of her clothes had been moved to her closet at some point the previous day.
“Morning. As far as ‘good’ goes, we’ll see later.”
“How so?”
“It depends on how today goes.”
“So if you make up for last night, it’s a good day, otherwise it isn’t?” he guessed.
“Congrats, you actually have functioning brain cells today.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Chaos faked offense, actually enjoying the quips enormously.
“Try making that gray matter work, maybe you’ll figure it out!”
Seth smiled widely and Heka smiled right back—a big, fake, scornful smile. “You still think I’m an idiot for wanting to marry you?”
“A mentally disturbed, masochistic idiot, yes. What’s for breakfast?” she went to sit down and he joined her. He wore a similar outfit: a loose green shirt opened at the neck and tight black pants.
“Whatever you want, sweetheart,” the nickname made her cringe which was the desired effect.
“Wonderful, darling.”
As she picked at her plate of fruit and nibbled on some bread, they kept conversing.
“So what do you want to do today?” he inquired sweetly.
“I suppose you have a fighting arena, somewhere?”
“Indeed. Several of them. Sand, mats, grass, pretty much anything you can think of.”
“Well, what do you say we go settle the score after breakfast?”
“Oh, my sweet, I’m afraid it won’t tie up the score.”
“We’ll see. I’ll set the parameters for the match, okay?”
“Sure. As long as they’re fair.”
“Since you know me so well, I suppose you’re already aware of the fact that I only fight fair.”
“Mostly,” he countered.
“Whatever. And after lunch, I’d like to spend some time on my own.”
“Looking for an escape,” he guessed.
“As per our agreement, yes.”
“Very well. We’ll see how the rest of the day goes,” Chaos said with smugness.
“Yes. Yes, we will,” it was Heka’s turn to smile slyly.
About an hour later, they both found themselves walking into a training area eighty feet long and forty-five wide, covered in a red and black mat. Heka stepped onto it and bounced a little, testing the ground she’d be fighting on. She figured when she would fall—which she knew she would—it wouldn’t be too painful.
“No powers and no weapons,” she set aside the dagger tied to her belt, and Chaos did the same. “Three rounds.”
“How do we decide when a round is won? Holding down the other for ten seconds?”
“That would give you an undeniably unfair advantage,” she countered.
“So how do we make it ‘fair’?”
Heka thought about it for a moment. “We do it in set times. Whoever has the upper hand when the clock reaches its end, wins,” she suggested, braiding her hair back tightly.
“Works for me.”
“Do you have someone who could tell us when to start and stop? And who could decide who’s winning with impartiality?”
“Sure. I’ll be right back.”
Heka didn’t wait to watch him go and started warming up. She jumped up and down, did a few sit-ups, bent down to touch her toes…When Seth walked back in, she was doing a perfect splits. She stood up easily, “You ready?” Warrior couldn’t help joy from creeping into her voice at the prospect of a tough fight, even one she might lose…though if she learned anything, if she managed to make him feel pain for even just a second, she would be happy. The stocky, muscled servant who’d been brought in sat down on one of the wooden benches that lined the walls, a small clock next to him. He obviously used this room for his own practice and seemed surprised to see someone would willingly fight his master. But his professionalism led him not to question it.
“How long shall I set the clock for, master?”
“Do you want to do first round ten minutes, five minute break, twenty, seven break, and fifteen last?” Chaos suggested.
Heka shrugged, “Sure.”
The room was kept fairly cool, and the door remained opened; if anyone wanted to come watch, they could. The two opponents drank some water then walked to opposite sides of the room. They both wore tightly fitting shorts; Seth was bare-chested, showing off his perfect abs—in an attempt to seduce her, no doubt, Heka thought—and she wore only a strip of dark cloth wrapped around her chest, also showing off her own no-less-than-perfect abs.
Their corresponding grins turned into grim, determined expressions, and when the signal to start was given, they were both ready.
Heka and Seth cautiously approached the center, sizing each other up. She easily deflected his first punch. Her outstretched palm flew toward his midsection, but she barely grazed him. A series of jabs and kicks ensued which were used by both as a way of figuring out respective strengths and weaknesses. Chaos, as she’d already found out the night before, was strong and robust. He wasn’t easily destabilized or hurt. But she was quick and agile. She managed to pass under his guard and avoided most blows. So far, neither seemed very affected. That is, until they truly started to fight. Then things got a lot more interesting.
The usually impassive man who oversaw the duel, Thomas, watched, mouth gaping, eyes riveted unto the combatants. Chaos grabbed Heka’s arm and twisted back harshly. She cried out in pain, gritted her teeth and threw her head back, hitting his nose. She heard a satisfying crack and felt the pressure on her arm lessen. Warrior slithered out of his grip. Her side kick caught him in the chest, but he barely stumbled back. His own roundhouse kick, however, connected solidly with her jaw, and she fell back unto the mat. She twisted to the side at the last second; she had to avoid getting stuck in his grip at all costs, if she was caught beneath him, she knew she would be overpowered. Heka quickly stood up. Her sharp elbow found his throat, and she was rewarded with a chocking, gurgling sound as his air supply was cut short.
That moment of victory was short lived, unfortunately. Chaos caught his breath before Warrior was able to knock him down. He yanked her hair back, grabbed the back of her neck and forced her down onto the ground. Her head held down by his hand, his leg pressing deeply into her back, she struggled in his grip, to no avail.
“Time!” Thomas called just seconds after she went down.
Chaos lifted himself off
her and offered Heka his hand which she took gratefully.
“I win…this round,” he gasped, out of breath.
Heka nodded, panting. “Yeah…One out of three for you.” She went to the bench and emptied out an entire bottle of water. Seth did the same, though he sat on the opposite side of the room.
“May I say something?” Thomas asked Heka politely.
“Huh, huh,” she grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat out of her face.
“That was incredible. I have been overseeing fights my whole life, but I have never seen anything like this before!” the excitement in his tone was barely contained.
She smiled, “I would imagine. What’s your name?”
“Thomas, madam.”
“Do you really think the term ‘madam’ is appropriate after what you just saw?”
“Um…”
“That answers that question.”
Seth walked over to them and sent Thomas out for some more water. Chaos and Warrior were both drenched in sweat, though they’d caught their breath already.
“How much time left before round two?” she asked.
“Three minutes. That was fun,” he grinned.
“I was just about to say that,” Heka smirked. “People don’t usually think so.” Then she frowned, realizing what she had just said—she’d agreed with him!
“Still think you’ve got a chance at winning?” Seth’s voice had the same sarcastic tone Heka often took.
“I’ve already won.”
“How so?”
“Because I’m learning, because I’ve managed to hurt you.”
“Only a little…but you are the first, aside from my siblings,” he admitted. “And by that standard, we both win.”
“How so?” she mimicked his question.
“You’re teaching me things too, and I’ve hurt you more than you did me.”
“Doesn’t matter,” she shrugged. “You mentioned your siblings. How many do you have?”
“Eleven.”
“Oh. All Demons are related, then?”
“Yeah, but we’re not exactly close, not fans of family reunions,” he laconically replied.
Before she had time to ask anything else, Thomas walked back in with four bottles of water. He gave two to each and went back to sit by the clock. A dozen servants walked in to watch the second round. They sat next to Thomas, not entirely sure what to expect, but leaning in favor of their traditionally unbeatable master.