“You ready?” Elyse said.
Ladon nodded as he got up from the table. “Where are we off to?” he asked as he put on a jacket over the dark red T-shirt he had chosen to wear out today.
“I have a local club just around the corner,” she replied, looking him up and down. “Not sure you’ll feel very comfortable. They’re kinda rough, opposite of you.”
“Did you just call me a skirt?” Ladon asked, faking a surprised look.
“If the kilt fits.” Pushing him outside, she switched on the security system and locked the door behind her. “Come on, pretty boy, it’s this way.”
Ladon grinned at her teasing him. It was progress and felt better than her yelling at him. He walked slightly behind her for a safety barrier. His ears were open, and any change in her emotional status or energies around them would easily be felt. His brain was lit up and ready to react in a heartbeat’s notice. The route they were going on took them down to an unpopulated section of the industrial area. It was a virtual ghost town this time of night. The perfect place to lay a trap should their enemy find them. Ladon filed that away and increased his awareness around them. Elyse slowed as she came to a massive set of factory doors. They would have been at least ten feet tall and double that in width. She pushed a small black button to the side and waited. Ladon tilted his head with curiosity.
“It’s not open to everyone. I only got accepted because of Bill. He was a founding member of the ‘Fight Club.’ Cops keep trying to shut us down, so we tend to be cautious about who’s shown where it is.”
The large door opened slightly as a man’s face appeared. He looked at Elyse then at Ladon. “Evening, Doug. Who’s the fresh meat?”
“He’s with me, Pete. He’s okay.”
Pete opened the door wider to let them in. Ladon looked at the man and was taken aback by how huge he was. He was human and looked like he was pushing his body to the point of exploding through his skin. Didn’t he realize that bulk made you slower? Ladon nodded at Pete as he walked in. The factory was massive inside. It had a two full-sized fight rings on either side, plus an array of gym equipment. Ladon stepped in and saw a forest of punching bags down the back along with a peloton of stationary workout bikes.
“Impressed?” Elyse asked as she watched his head crane to take in all the facilities hidden behind the rust-colored doors.
Ladon shook his head and grinned with a shrug. “Seen bigger.”
“Sure, you have.” Her chin raised with a playful challenge. “Make yourself at home. I’ve got to get changed. Can’t fight in work clothes.”
Ladon watched her walk away and vanish through a door on the left of the factory. He really wanted to go with her to make sure it was safe but knew that wouldn’t go down well. So, he stood strong and distracted himself with the action. There was easily twenty men and half as many women in there. Some of the equipment working hard as the sweat poured off them. Some were standing and chatting, but what caught his eye the most was the fight rings. Ladon walked toward them. The one on the left was empty, the one on the right had two men sizing each other up as they walked around the perimeter. A few men were standing on the sidelines. Ladon assumed they were coaches by the way they were interacting with the men about to fight by giving pointers and strategies to bring about a win.
There was a bell, and suddenly the two men sprang into action and went at each other. Ladon was surprised by the ferocity in which they fought. When he and his brothers fought in the ring, it was always at seventy percent. Anything more was considered dangerous. These men were easily hitting the hundred percent—their fists and feet were flying with full intention to hurt and-or maim the other. Ladon walked up beside one of the men and watched.
“Someone is going to get hurt if they keep that up,” Ladon said quietly. He wasn’t sure how his opinion would be received, but as a fully trained master of hand-to-hand combat, he felt it his duty to at least try and prevent the inevitable.
“Who the fuck are you?” Speaking with a voice that reminded Ladon of gravel under his boot, the man turned to look at Ladon. His face wore the scars of many battles and beatings at the wrong end of the fist. His nose was no longer straight and sat at a crooked angle to his face.
Ladon held his hands up in a mock surrender. He was taller than most of the men here and would guarantee without a second’s doubt that he could beat any of them in a fight. They were merely human, after all, and it wouldn’t even be a fair fight. “No one,” he replied. “Nothing, and no one.”
He shook his head. The aggression rippling off this man was thick and so dry that any spark would surely ensue in a raging inferno.
“He’s mine, Gus.”
Ladon turned to where Elyse had spoken. She was standing in the other ring wearing a tight dark blue Lycra workout shirt plus a pair of black loose-fitting shorts, her support leggings peeking out from under the hem. She had changed into her workout shoes, her hair was all pulled up tight on top of her head, and her hands were strapped. Elyse was leaning on the ropes as she grinned at Gus and Ladon.
“You taking on pretty boy here?” Gus laughed loudly as he looked Ladon up and down. “Come on, he has the face of an angel. Why you want to mess that up?”
Ladon didn’t know what was more insulting, being called pretty boy again or being spoken about as if he had already lost the fight.
“He says he’s a fighter. I want him to prove it.” Elyse squared her shoulders toward Ladon. “Unless he is a liar?”
“Ohhh… a fighter, is he?” Gus grinned. “He certainly has the bulk. Doesn’t mean he knows how to use it, though. Hey, guys?” Gus turned to the other ring. “Take five, I got to see this. Doug is going to kick pretty boy’s ass.”
The buzz that hit the fight club was like a hoard of bees had suddenly descended on it. Every set of eyes were on him with a mix of pity, interest, and downright hunger for a good ass-kicking to be seen tonight.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Doug,” Ladon tried to whisper, but the ripple of hushed cackling that echoed out amongst the growing crowd said he hadn’t whispered low enough. He watched Doug open her arms as she visually taunted him to step inside her ring. Taking a few steps back, she opened the space for him to enter. Ladon had no choice but to keep face in front of her and her peers. He had to fight her. He wasn’t a liar and would fight to defend his honor.
Taking off his jacket, the crowd erupted into a cheer of an ensuing fight to watch. He took off his watch, dropped his wallet and cell phone in his jacket pockets and placed them on the side of the ring.
“You fighting in jeans?” Gus smirked as if it sealed his defeat before the first punch was thrown.
Ladon turned to look at him “On a true battlefield you don’t have time to pick an outfit. A true fighter will and can fight in anything.” Shaking his head as he looked back at Doug, he grabbed a rope and hoisted himself effortlessly over the top rope landing inside with a heavy thud on the canvass. “Doug, is this really needed?” He tried once more to get out of the corner he was being pushed into.
“You say you can defend me in a battle, then prove it. It’s simple, Ladon. If I win, you leave me alone and never cast a dark shadow on my doorway again.”
“And if I win?” Ladon asked as the crowd roared loudly at this thought. Obviously, by the support of this club, Elyse could fight. And if her family tree was to be believed, she was from a long line of fighters.
“If you win, you can stick around,” Elyse said with a grin.
Ladon took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. This was his test. If he wanted to continue to be able to be around his mate, he needed to fight her and win. The irony of all this was not lost on him and continued to flow. First, his mate was a dragon hunter. Now he has to beat her to win her. Ladon flicked off his shoes and socks. In a pinch, he preferred barefoot to dress shoes. His grip was surer when he was barefoot on the slippery canvas.
Elyse lowered her central point of balance. Bending her knees as she focused on his eyes. S
he alternated the low stare with bouncing on her toes in readiness of the fight.
Ding.
Elyse walked straight in, her eyes cold and ready to take him out. Ladon brought his hands up as she strode forward. He decided to play the defense while he worked out how to end it quickly with minimum damage to his mate. Without warning she jumped, her fist already locked back at her shoulder, and as she reached her desired height, Doug released her fist without hesitation. It made a direct hit on the side of Ladon’s jaw causing his head to flick back with the impact.
The roar of the crowd was sudden, loud, and filled every inch of that factory. The hometown hero had made the first contact, and the hyenas surrounding the fight bade for more blood to be shed.
Ladon lifted his hand to his chin and rubbed it gently. He was impressed that something so small could contain that much power. He grinned with a waggle of his eyebrows. “Tricky, I like it…” With a big breath in, he exhaled as he lowered himself into a fighting stance. He knew V had said no fighting, but push had come to shove, and now he had to win. “I dare you to do it again.”
Doug bounced on her feet as she grinned at him and launched, but this time he was ready. He stepped into her as she jumped, his hand grabbing her hip and flipping her over on to her back mid-air. Then with the speed of a truly trained master, his hand moved to her stomach and with only minimal use of his upper-body strength, he kneeled as he pushed her down into the canvas with a thud that stole the air from her lungs. He held her there for a few beats of her heart as she gasped for precious breath. Her eyes went wide looking to him as he smiled. “Can we stop this now?”
The crowd booed as he dropped her heavily to the canvas. He didn’t hear them—all he saw was her eyes. The blue of the ocean he swam in was contained in those eyes.
“Lucky shot,” she growled at him. Her pride had taken a hit with that one. He saw the flicker in her eyes as she pushed his hand on hers, clambered to her feet and looked out to the crowd. They cheered her on as she stood and lifted her arms showing she was a fighter and wasn’t giving up yet. She looked at Ladon and resumed her fighting stance.
“Doug, come on…” Ladon pleaded.
“Fight me.” Her words were full of anger. Ladon wasn’t entirely sure if the anger was even meant for him, or if he was not just the release for her recent emotional state.
“I don’t want to…” Ladon replied.
“I didn’t ask you what you wanted.” Doug launched forward. She bent her knees to jump again. Seeing Ladon ready himself to step forward, she chose to keep lowering down onto one foot, swinging the other out she managed to sweep him off his feet. Ladon saw the change a second too late as she went down. He curled up, landing on his back before arching it suddenly, causing him to spring back onto his feet like a piece of elastic returning to its original form. His feet braced as he stepped in. Doug was just rising as she saw him flip back up. He wrapped his arms around her, lifting her tiny frame, then he tossed her onto her stomach. Kneeling down, he placed one knee in the middle of her back as his arm came around her neck. Pulling her head back toward him, the knee in her back adding a light pressure that, if increased, would snap her spine.
Doug’s arms clawed desperately at his arm around her neck, trying to get some grip before the blackness engulfed her. Ladon released the pressure a tiny bit, just enough for her to take a breath. “Are we done yet?”
“Choking me out isn’t fighting,” she growled on a forced breath.
“You only said I had to win. This is winning.” Ladon leaned down and spoke into her ear, his hot breath caressing her neck as he spoke directly to her and only her. Reapplying the pressure to her throat slightly to reinforce the dominance he lost within the game of Warcraft. “Feel that darkness creeping on you? Feel the cold, icy tendrils of the reaper’s boney fingers, slowly snaking around your heart as it struggles to maintain its rhythm? That’s death, not a game death, not a death you can come back from. When I fight, that’s what I deliver. Cold, hard, and an endless pit of black death.” He loosened the grip as the blue tinge coated her lips, letting her gulp in a large breath. “I will fight to the death for you, but never, ever ask me to fight you again,” he said firmly, his voice was controlled and powerful. “Do we understand each other?” She nodded, and he released her. He stood, watching her rub her throat as he gulped in huge amounts of oxygen he had withheld from her. Ladon reached out and offered her his hand. She took it and stood beside him.
Ladon knew she didn’t want to lose face in front of her people, so he spoke up first. He did what he had to do, even though it pained him greatly. “I concede,” he announced. “Doug is the victor.”
The eruption of cheers that filled the factory was deafening. Elyse’s face as she looked at him, her eyes blinking back tears of gratitude, made his pain quickly forgotten. She reached over and laced her fingers into his and squeezed.
Right there and then, the world stopped.
He ceased to be him as of that single beat in time, he became us.
“Why did you do that?”
Elyse and Ladon were sitting on the cliff face overlooking the ocean in the wee hours of the morning. After the fight, she’d had a shower and changed. Ladon had stood to the side as the crowd congratulated her on the win. Her smile seemed empty as her eyes flicked to him. When she’d come out of the change room, Elyse had wanted to leave as soon as possible. Ladon nodded and followed her lead.
He had taken the jibes from her male counterparts. Telling him to pick on someone his own size, laughing because he had apparently had his ass handed to him by a girl. Inwardly, Ladon was baffled by this human behavior. It was obvious to anyone who had eyes that she had been the one to tap out, bar the actual tap of her oxygen-starved fingers on the canvass. Yet, they bought her win with him conceding hook, line, and sinker, even to the point to seek him out and add salt to what they preconceived as a gaping, open wound in his ego.
Ladon looked out as he pondered how to answer her question. The wind was whipping up, causing her red curls to bounce and dance in the ocean’s breeze.
“I’m not entirely sure. It just seemed like the right thing to do.” He lowered his head so as not to reach out and tuck the wayward curl bouncing on her forehead behind her delicate ear.
“Lying seemed like the right thing to do?” she asked him.
Raising his head to look at her, he tilted it at her accusation. “And challenging me to a fight where your only intention was to publicly kick my ass and humiliate me in front of your friends was somehow acceptable?” His brow creased. “Just so I can keep my bearings on your moral compass, I’d hate to overreact.”
“It wasn’t my intention—”
“Now who’s lying?” Ladon interrupted with a snort. “It was your exact intention. The game wasn’t enough for you, you needed to make it real in the flesh as well.” Her eyes lowered as she accepted his interpretation of her thoughts. A half-smile picked up the corner of his mouth. “One should really do some better research on their opponent before they enter the ring though.” A half-smirk bubbled up from his chest. “You have no idea who I am.”
“I know you’re arrogant, self-righteous, and smell so sweet you could give a girl cavities just by standing too close.” Her head was straight ahead as she let her words float out to the sea in front of them. She had her knees tucked up and her arms wrapped around them bracing herself from the cold of the night’s breeze.
“Harsh, but I guess it could be true.” He got up, took off his jacket, and placed it over her shoulders. She looked up in surprise but slid her arms quickly inside.
“Thank you.”
“Hopefully, it doesn’t smell too bad.” He winked at her as he sat back down next to her.
“You’re not cold?”
Ladon shrugged. “I run hot. It’s not too cold tonight. I’d rather you be warm. Kylee would kick my ass if I hurt you in any way.”
Silence hung in the air for a few seconds before she asked, “Would you hurt me
?”
Ladon looked at her incredulously, his head shook slowly from side to side. “I know you don’t understand yet, but hurting you would only hurt myself. When I told you in the ring, I didn’t want to fight you, I meant every word. When I said that I would die to defend you, I also meant every word.” He turned to face her. Moving up his leg, he bent it to touch hers. It was the time she knew. “I kinda like you.” The last words were blurted out so fast he was afraid she might have missed them entirely. She just sat and looked at him, her face void of any reaction. Ladon wasn’t sure what to do next when she smiled.
“I’m a likable person. You’re only human, after all, right?” She grinned playfully. “Thank you, though,” she said, her body shivered with a fresh wind that had just whipped up.
“We should go. You’re getting too cold,” Ladon said.
“Just a few more minutes?” she asked as she lifted his huge arm, shuffled back, and tucked herself into his chest. “Wow! You are hot.”
“That’s what she said.” He guffawed as he enjoyed the unexpected twist this night had given him. The woman who was destined to be his mate was presently tucked under his arm and felt like she was the missing piece he never knew he’d lost.
Elyse smacked his thigh lightly. “It’s such a beautiful, clear night, and the sky is alive with sparkling possibilities. I mean what I said…” She tilted her head to look up at him. “Thank you. I know what you did back there couldn’t have been easy. I do appreciate it.”
Ladon nodded as his eyes fell to her plump ruby lips. It was as if they sung a siren’s song, drawing him closer until he felt them on his. Tightening his arm around her shoulders, he let his lips roll gently against hers, and a soft moan came from her chest as she relaxed to his kiss. His hand came to her cheek, his palm open as it held her face tilted to his mouth. The tenderness of this shared kiss would be one they would talk about for decades to come.
Elyse was the first one to pull back. He watched her lick her lips, tasting him there. The way she sighed nearly had him undone right there and then. He wanted more. He desperately wanted to press his lips back to hers, invade her mouth with his tongue and devour her until the sun rose and beyond.
Submerge (Apalala Clan Book 3) Page 13