by Layla Stone
“Okay, well I’ll see him when he gets back. Thanks,” and she ended the call.
In the kitchen she wanted to wait and let Cabute put away the dry food, but it had been almost twenty-four hours. The very least she could do was figure out what went were in their kitchen.
When it rolled past midnight Mali grabbed the blanket from her bed to sit on the couch and stare at the door. She didn’t want to miss him coming home.
A triple knock at the door made her throw off the blankets and dash to the door, worried that Cabute forgot the pin code to the door because he was so tired. Pulling open the metal door her smile faded. It wasn’t her roommate, but a tall ugly Red Demon.
“Hello, sweetness.”
She swallowed down her nerves and forced out a superior, “What do you want?”
He grinned. “You.”
Mali tried to slam the door in the male’s face, but he smashed a heavy fat hand against the slat, hitting it so hard it would have crushed her hand if she didn’t jump back. She whirled and ran into the apartment, hoping to reach the kitchen and the knives or something else she could use for a weapon.
The male grabbed a handful of her long hair and yanked her back. A shock of pain left her speechless as she fell back onto the hard tile floor. Twisting and scrambling onto her hands and knees, she arched her back, reached out and dug her nails into the skin of the Demon’s hand. Her attacker didn’t let go of her hair, jerked hard and ripped even more hair from her scalp, so much that actually she heard the strands breaking.
Once he got her outside the apartment and into the hall, she screamed as loud as she could. She hoped that by the time the Red Demon pulled her to the elevator that she would have woken someone, anyone.
The Demon didn’t drag her down the hall to the elevator. He took the left turn and opened the door to a little used stairwell. Inside that echo chamber she screamed for three steps, and then was throw down the flight, hitting the ground with her knees, hands and face.
She didn’t have time to get up before she was kicked down the next flight, not quite to the bottom. Her ankle twisted the wrong way, her hand caught wrong and she wasn’t sure what else was injured because her head was in so much pain she couldn’t see or move.
“That’s what I thought,” said the male as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. His shoulder was big and hard, and she could barely breathe.
She wanted to scream, but her breaths were ragged, and she couldn’t muster the strength.
The cold night air hit her skin like a slap. She shivered and she tried to cry out again when the Red Demon threw her in the back bench of his Grummer. But no sound came out of her mouth.
6
Mali limped down the hall, pulled by a thick black rope by the Demon. Her feet were bare, the shorts she had on covered very little, and her tank-top was nearly transparent. Her ankle hurt, and she was cold, but even those things didn’t matter.
What mattered was that she was walking down a hall lined with cages of people of all races shackled to the insides. The shouts, groans and the smell of defecation made her gag.
The Red Demon said, “This is going to piss our Gladiator off; he won’t have a choice but to fight.”
He had to mean Cabute. The Angny race was known as the gladiator race. They lived and breathed fighting. Calbute said he didn’t fight any more… he must have been taken and forced to fight.
The roar of a crowd filtered in from the double doors at the end of the hall. Each step brought her closer to the noise. It didn’t take much effort to assume that she was going to be thrown in a fighting arena. She didn’t know how to fight. Sure, she understood the mechanics, mainly, pull back your arm and hit an attacker with a fist, but beyond that – nothing.
The Red Demon pulled back the doors and the chanting crescendoed into a din she could feel in her bones. At first it was dark, and the smell of blood, piss and dirt wafted in her nose. The ground went from hard metal to a spongy soft dirt. It was harder to limp with the dirt and she had to hop to keep up.
They reached the second pair of doors and she was pushed inside ahead of the Demon. Light cascaded around her and the arena, countless people watched with greedy eyes.
The Red Demon jerked the rope hard making her fall hard on her elbows and knees.
“Oh, oh, oh! What is this? What’s happening?” an announcer called out.
A single roar, loud and terrifying, ripped the air. Mali found the direction of the call and gasped. Cabute was in a cage, stripped of his clothes except for a brown fur covering his waist and manhood.
Cabute shook the bars of his cage and screamed something she couldn’t understand.
He looked positively wild.
“Oh, luxury-men and luxury-females, are you seeing what I’m seeing? Gladiator is going crazy!”
The Red Demon pulled at the rope, and she was yanked like a doll.
She didn’t have to look up to know her male’s reaction to her treatment. Mali heard him bellow her name, and the banging like he was going to rip the metal bars of the cage.
“Looks like we have a great show for you tonight. A fight that is a once in a lifetime. Luxury-men and luxury-woman, let me introduce to you the final fight challengers. Our defending champion, the seven foot, two-hundred and ninety pounds Roth Demon… give a shout out for Troll.”
The room shook with encouraging cheers. Mali’s rope yanked tight to tie her to the wooden pole in the middle of the arena. The Red Demon tied the knot with a vicious yank. “Just think, if your mate loses, you will be our new arena welp. To use as much and as long as we want.” Grabbing her breast he squeezed until it hurt, as if he was giving her a preview of what to expect. “If he wins… well, he won’t. We won’t let him.”
She scowled at him with all the black-hearted hatred she could express. The Red Demon laughed.
“Our other fighter tonight is a guest fighter from The Pit.” The crowd booed and some threw drinks at the cage. The glass containers that held the drink shattered and from where Mali was watching, broken glass sprinkled to bottom of the cage.
“He’s a six-foot and a half foot Angny with a one-and-a-half-year winning streak. He has come out of a six-month retirement to fight for his life partner, and you get to see it live, right here, tonight!”
Mali moved closer to the pole and ignored the crowd as they started to chant for Troll. She tugged at the rope. It was a mess and she didn’t see how it was done, but there had to be some way to unravel it.
“All bets have to be placed in three…two…one! Times up. That’s all the bets we are taking. Now let’s give it up for our defending champion.”
The door on the other side of the arena opened and a large blue male walked out. His eyes had the glossy alert look of a savage who didn’t know anything but ripping flesh from bones.
Cabute’s cage crashed on the ground and the door, sprung open. Her Angny ran out, heading straight for her when the blue Roth Demon sprinted head down with a soulless war cry.
Cabute saw the male, turned to the side, twisted in a circle, rounded on the Roth and hit him in the back of the neck. The opponent went down, face first, but he didn’t stay down. His legs scissored and hit Cabute in the shin.
Her male took the hit, winced and stomped down towards the Roth’s knee.
Mali wanted to keep watching the fight but being tied down was bad. She traced the lines, back and forth and around and couldn’t figure out where to start so she started tugging on each one, testing them.
On her second round of pulling she started pushing and pulling at the same time. To her joy, she loosened the knot around the pole. Then she pulled the rope keeping her wrist together, with her teeth. It didn’t budge, but she didn’t give up.
Another war cry made her turn, and just in time to see a long spear heading straight for her. Mali threw herself back and rolled. When she looked where she had just been standing, there was a spear sticking up from the ground, still swaying from the impact.
&
nbsp; Mali pushed herself up and looked for the Roth and Cabute to gauge what was going to happen next. The Roth’s nose was bleeding, and Cabute was running with a limp.
They both hit each other with a loud crash and Mali didn’t want to waste the chance. She scrambled to the spear, knocked it over and used the tip to cut through the rope.
Free of her bonds, she picked up the spear and wobbled toward the fight.
Cabute was on the bottom and the Roth was on top, beating down on her life partner’s face. She didn’t know if Cabute saw her, but she was praying to Seth she had the strength to jam the spear in the Roth Demon’s back.
The closer she got, the more she thought about how she never killed anyone before, and how much it was going to hurt her to do it. Raising up the spear, she shouted a challenge.
The Roth Demon turned, saw her, and snarled.
Leaving Cabute lying on the ground, he lunged at her. She held out the spear, bracing it against the dirt. The Roth Demon’s running momentum thrust him onto the spear. It punctured his flesh but not enough to stop him from knocking her over, raising a fist and…
A dark grey arm thrust around the Roth Demon’s throat, raised a fist back and knocked the male so hard, the Roth’s face softened. Eyes dulled, the Demon’s body flopped down in an uneven lump.
Cabute fell down to his knees, cupped her face and pulled her head to his. The crowd around them booed and screamed and the announcer started, “A sad end to our champion. The Gladiator and his mate teamed up and I don’t know about you, but I didn’t see that coming. But maybe next time they won’t be so lucky.”
“What does he mean next time?” Mali said, grabbing Cabute’s hands and hoping that what she heard was wrong.
“Mali, shhhhh. Shhhhhh. It’s going to be okay.” He pulled her face to his chest and said, “Thank Seth, you moved in time. I stopped breathing, I thought I lost you.”
She pushed against his chest, but he was too strong. “It’s not going to be okay. The Announcer said we are going to fight again. And there is a dead Demon right there.”
“No, babe, we’re never going to fight again. I promise. And Troll’s not dead – unconscious. I wouldn’t kill one of my fighters…unless he touched you.”
The door she entered through opened and Cabute released her. Walking in was a Night Demon with long black horns, an exposed upper body covered in blood. He carried a severed head by the hair in each hand.
One hand held the Red Demon who attacked her and in the other was the dark-haired male who answered Cabute’s Minky earlier.
“What in the name of Seth…” the announcer said. “Is that… Charlemagne? Holy hell, it is. The hellbeast himself and he’s ….killed the…owners.”
The crowd gasped.
Mali recognized him too, except she knew him as Naff, the new apartment manager.
Naff roared to the crowd, “That’s right. I am Charlemagne, and I am finished with all of you gutter-sucking-keleping-whores. You come and feed your money to these two black-hearted-Demons encouraging them to kidnap innocents to entertain you. Well, today you’re finished. You want death and gore, fine – but not here in my city. Not on this planet. You want to be uncivilized, you go to Kirca or the moons. You’re done here.”
Naff whirled the heads and let them fly into the crowd. The audience split apart screaming and scrambling away, holding their hands up as to protect them from the splattered blood the head was spraying in the air. Groups pushed and shoved – every male and female for themselves.
“And,” Naff shouted when the screaming diminished a little, “just in case one of you idiots think I’m just going to send you off with a warning,” the Night Demon grinned, “think again.”
Door flew open around the arena viewing platforms and hordes of males and females in white Federation uniforms flooded the space.
The crowd scrambled. Some females were shoved screaming into the arena below and didn’t get back up. Many of the males were fighting the officers. It was chaos.
Mali felt Cabute’s hot skin wrap around her shoulders. He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. Naff made his way to them and said, “I’m pretty sure the Federation is going to be pissed that I cut off the head of the underground fighting boss, but if I waited any longer he would have found a way off the planet. Should have killed him the first day I met him, but I was drowning in my own blood.”
“What?” Mali sputtered.
“Thank you for your help, Charlemagne.”
The Night Demon narrowed his eyes, “We aren’t opponents anymore, Gladiator. I’ll call you Cabute, and you call me Naff.”
“I can do that,” Cabute agreed.
7
Mali was sitting in Cabute’s Helix Rover after hours of watching Federation officers, sort between detainees who needed medical assistance and those who were sent straight to Federation holding for participating in illegal activities.
Cabute leaned on the old condemned grocery building. The underground fighting arena took place inside. It was the only building still standing in a vacant part of town set for demolition.
He looked far too casual for someone who had fresh wounds on his face and torso. It bothered her that he declined medical attention. He should have at least taken the pain-tabs like her. Her ankle was still swollen, but the pain was gone.
One of the officers gave him a pair of pants, right before they asked him a series of questions.
Mali was asked the same questions.
Cabute’s lazy stance was the one she knew well. Mali mentally smiled at the idea of telling him, he looked snuggly enough to hug, but she didn’t have the heart to joke.
“There you are. I’ve been looking for you,” The Night Demon said to Cabute. “This is my mate’s doctor, he’s going to look over your wounds.”
Cabute looked over the slim male. “You can see to my life breeder. I’m fine.”
Mali didn’t object to her label but she did glance at him, letting him know she heard it.
The Angny raised an eyebrow as if challenging her to deny it.
She didn’t.
The thin doctor looked Terran until she caught the purple nails. Only one race had those. Numans. A diabolical race that enjoyed experimenting and torturing people. Her stomach dropped as the male leaned into get a better look at her ankle. He didn’t say anything and yet, she was terrified.
“I’m assuming they only gave you a pain-tab, not any blood thinners, right?”
She assumed so but didn’t have the heart to respond.
The male pulled out a small round device from his nice business slacks and placed it on her ankle. She expected pain, but only the cold from the metal was discernible.
She watched in awe as the ankle’s swelling reduced.
Interestingly, the rest of her felt better too. Looking at the doctor and his magical device she almost asked what it was, but thought he might want to keep his secrets. When he finished, he told, Cabute, “Hold this while I log this visit.”
Cabute took the device in hand with a pinched expression, but a second later he looked down at the device with a slack jaw.
The doctor, tapped his Minky watch and said, “Alright, that should do it, I’ve sent you a bill for my services, pay with in thirty days.” The Numan plucked up his device, slid it back into his pocket and nodded to the Night Demon before leaving.
“That’s one hell of a doctor you have, Naff.”
The large black horns on the Demon’s head moved as he nodded, “Yep, and expensive, so let me know if you can’t cover it.”
Cabute straightened with his shoulders back. “I can take care of my breeder.”
Naff shrugged. “Fair enough. So now that you’re healed, are you hanging around here any longer?”
“Only stayed because you asked me to wait. Didn’t know you’d bring your doctor. Good thing you didn’t tell me, I probably would have left already if you did.”
“Which is why I didn’t tell you.”
Cabute wa
lked around his Helix Rover to the main seat and sat down. “I appreciate what you did, but I’m not owing you a favor.”
Mali watched Naff’s head toss back and laugh. When he finished he said, “I owed you. Now we’re even.”
Cabute held his eyes for a moment. “Agreed.” Her mate started the hover vehicle and programmed it to their apartment.
“What did he owe you?” she asked.
“If he was an Angny, I’d say he owed me a life debt. Years ago, he was tossed in the gutter and left for dead. He won against a cyborg, but barely. The Pit owners left him to die, I stuffed him in a Nack Krawler and programmed it to the Fereway hospital.”
Oh wow. She had no idea fights got that bad.
“But he’s a Demon,” Cabute said leaning back as the vehicle drove itself. “And Demons don’t honor lift debts…but they do have a thing called a Demon favor. If a Demon gives a favor freely, they do it to keep you under their thumb. The fact that I did him a favor first, gave him a chance to do something without the added mess. Now we’re even.”
Culture clash. Being half Terran and Sennite she knew all about that. Which is why she said, “In the eyes of this Terran – Sennite hybrid, it didn’t look like he was returning a Demon favor or a life debt. It looked like he was being a good friend.”
The corner of his lip quirked. “Naff is a Demon. He thinks like one and acts like one. I doubt you’ll ever be around him without me, but if you do – don’t forget that.”
The rest of the ride was silent. Mali was exhausted when they arrived home, but she stayed awake because she didn’t want to sleep in the Helix Rover. She wanted a shower and her soft plush bed with silk sheets.
“How did Naff know about the underground arena? How did he know where to find you?”
“Naff used to fight at the Pit. When he retired he told me about a Silk Demon who had been setting up the fights and having contestants loose on purpose. When I bought the Pit, I met that Silk Demon. He wanted buy my fighters. I told him to go to hell.”