by Kate Hill
The hybrid groaned in protest and tried inching away from Matthew.
“A hospital wouldn’t work for him,” Gareth said. “He’s insane and would give himself—and us—away within moments. Just do what you can with him.”
Matthew forgot his hunger and exhaustion as he set to work, muttering about the stupidity of this weird community.
“I have to see if I can get some food for these people.” Paul glanced at the mortal families.
“Not only that, we’re going to need more supplies,” Vick said. “Storage is almost empty again.”
“We’re low on money, boys,” Geneva reminded them.
“We’re always out of money.” Jimmie shrugged. “Nothing new.”
“I have money.” Matthew cursed himself for volunteering again. His father had spent several years in the military and he’d always said, “Never volunteer.” But Matthew had never taken Buck’s advice.
As Paul and Vick approached, Matthew said, “My jacket, inside left pocket. Just leave enough for another month’s rent.”
Gareth glanced at him from where he bent over another burned hybrid. “You don’t have to do this.”
Matthew sighed. “So what was that job you were telling me about?”
“I really didn’t want to get you involved with that right now, at least until you’ve spent some more time with us. It’s only fair that you’re prepared—”
Matthew interrupted, “You know what they say, Gareth, tomorrow may never come.”
“God, you’re generous and beautiful.” Geneva reached for Matthew, but he moved backward, his gloved hands still bandaging his patient.
“Can you keep your hands to yourself for once?” he said.
She folded her arms across her chest and shrugged. “I’m surprised you could even keep a wife, you cold, heartless—”
“Geneva! Make yourself useful!” Gareth snarled.
She cast Matthew one last, longing look before assisting Gareth.
* * * * *
Several hours later, Gareth and Matthew sat in a corner of the training hall to finally get some sleep.
“So what’s so terrible about this job?” Matthew asked. “Not much can shock me after everything I’ve seen, and I don’t just mean since coming here.”
“I realize that.” Gareth closed his eyes and pulled his long coat up to his neck. The training hall was the driest, warmest place in the sewers. “I just thought you’d want to be better prepared, seeing how you are.”
“What do you mean, seeing how I am? You scarcely know me.”
Gareth smiled sleepily. “A person only needs to talk with you for a couple of moments to know you like everything done with precision. You like knowledge and preparation. In short, you have a perfection complex.”
Matthew glanced at his filthy jeans and ripped leather jacket. “I’m dressed like this and I have a perfection complex?”
“I have seen your picture in the paper and on television. If you hadn’t pulled back your hair on that first day, I never would have recognized you. Now that your beard is longer, it’s a better disguise, but before, you looked just like your brother. He must not have been too happy about having his picture all over the news as well.”
“Why was Adam’s picture in the news?”
“He’s your twin. They said you might be trying to look like him. I understand he was even picked up for questioning by the police.”
Matthew sighed. He hadn’t intended to hurt the people closest to him, but he’d managed to upset every one of them.
“Adam can handle it,” Matthew murmured. “He can handle just about anything.”
“Like you?”
Matthew rolled onto his side, kicked a rat away from his shoe and closed his eyes. “Are you going to tell me about this job? It’s not illegal, is it?”
“According to the Network it is. Humans aren’t involved at all. Hybrids and several Immaculates. That’s why I wanted you prepared.”
Matthew’s eyes opened and he turned to Gareth. “Enough with the secrecy. Exactly what am I getting into, Gareth?”
* * * * *
“I can’t believe I’ve agreed to do this,” Matthew said as he and Gareth waited outside an abandoned warehouse across town. The scent of hybrids and Immaculates was strong, even through the brick walls.
“You don’t have to,” Gareth told him. “You can wait until you feel you’re ready.”
“I’m ready.”
“If you can fight off the wolves, you can do this, even though Immaculates come from all over the world to practice here.”
“Practice and gamble.”
“There’s money to be made with this type of fighting. The Network has outlawed it.”
“Of course. Apparently they weren’t getting their share of the profits,” Matthew said bitterly.
The door opened. Two hybrids dressed in red T-shirts and red pants with black stripes down the outsides of the legs stared at them.
“Gareth,” said one of the hybrids, “Ms. Ferrer is waiting for you and your hopeful.”
Matthew raised an eyebrow. “Hopeful?”
“In order for you to be admitted to the competition, you have to pass some tests,” Gareth explained, “to ensure you’re of high enough quality. It measures your strength, stamina and such. You’ll have no problem passing.”
“This way,” said the other man in red.
Gareth and Matthew followed them down a short corridor and through a door at the end of the narrow hallway. They stepped into a large room with a high ceiling. Two ropes dangled from the ceiling, and two metal cylinders, like the ones in Gareth’s training hall, stood in the center of the room, which was divided by a smooth metal barrier. A tall, blond Immaculate male stood beside a short, voluptuous hybrid female. She wore clinging black pants, high-heeled boots and a tight black halter top that accentuated her firm, curvaceous body. Like Dulcie, Matthew thought, forcing memories of his wife out of his mind. He had to concentrate on the task at hand.
The woman’s straight, glossy black hair hung Cleopatra-style down her shoulders. Vivid blue eyes stared from beneath her sleek bangs. Burgundy blush and dark red lipstick brightened her full face. Her gaze swept over Matthew as he, Gareth and the men in red approached.
Her form was so much like Dulcie’s. Her nipples poked against the black material barely restraining her full, firm breasts. Her hips flared beneath like those of a Greek statue, and flowed into rounded thighs. Matthew’s cock twitched, then he reprimanded himself. This bitch was not Dulcie. Her expression was cold, hard and immovable as a glacier.
Gareth nodded. “Rosa.”
“Gareth, let’s see what you’ve brought me.” She circled Matthew. “Take off your jacket.”
Annoyed, Matthew slowly removed his jacket. Beneath, he wore a black tank top and black drawstring pants over his boots. Rosa’s pale eyes lingered over his shoulders and biceps and trailed up long forearms lightly dusted with dark hair. Her discerning look stopped at his hands and she smirked.
Taking one of his hands, she examined his scarred palms, then his long, elegant fingers.
“Graceful.” She dropped his hand and looked into his eyes. “Intelligent. Such a pretty mouth. You’re no fighter. Gareth, you’re wasting my time.”
Gareth smiled. “You’re so young, Rosa. Look deeper.”
She stared hard at Matthew. “Powerful? Yes. Skilled? Perhaps. A fighter who will win in this ring? Never.”
“I guarantee he’ll surprise you.”
“Who is this?” Matthew motioned with his head toward the woman.
She flung him a contemptuous look and said, “Darling, you must be from out of town.”
“Rosa Ferrer is the daughter of a Spanish crime lord, now dead.”
“Crime lord?” Rosa scoffed. “You do my father a disservice. He founded one of the finest martial arts schools in Spain. His fighters won tournaments all over the world.”
“Yes, but how did they pay for their training? He ran an u
nderground fighting ring where men—quite against the law—often fought to the death for his entertainment. He wasn’t careful, however, and was murdered by a hybrid vampire.”
“Yes, he murdered my father,” Rosa said. “Not any big loss, but this vampire was intelligent enough to realize the daughter was more worthwhile than the father. He made me immortal. I took all my father’s money and his idea for the competitions and moved to America. It’s been over eight years since I started with a single stinking ring in an abandoned parking lot. Now I run the finest training ground for Immaculates in the world. There was little fun in mortal men. Only one fighter stood out among my father’s pathetic crew—and he was no mortal, but a hybrid. Very beautiful. In fact, something about this one—” she nodded at Matthew, “—reminds me of him. Brett was his name. I was a child then—eighteen years old—but I had a mad crush on him. Of course, I didn’t know he was a vampire until after I was changed.”
Brett. Curcio Ferrer. No wonder the name sounded so familiar! Brett had often told the story of how, years ago, he and Jocelyn had first met while fighting each other in Curcio Ferrer’s underground games. He wondered what his biological father and Jocelyn would think when they learned that Curcio’s violent legacy lived on in New York City.
Rosa sighed. “Enough about me. We might as well test him and get it over.” She glanced at the blond Immaculate. “Alfred is our best regular. Now…Gareth, what is his name?”
“Matthew.”
Rosa glanced at him. “Now, Matt—”
“Matthew,” he corrected.
“Of course.” Rosa smiled wickedly. “You don’t have to beat Alfred, but you do have to keep up with him to be admitted. Otherwise, you’ll last all of two seconds and bore my audience as well as me. I don’t want that.”
“As you said, let’s get this over with.” Matthew’s harsh gaze moved from Rosa to Alfred, who sneered, his fangs exposed and eyes glowing.
“Start with the ropes.”
Alfred ran across the room and leapt, climbing the tall rope quickly.
Matthew, realizing the man had given himself a head start, felt the first stirring of anger. He tore across the warehouse, his fangs lengthening as he ran, and climbed the ropes. Within seconds he’d tied with Alfred. Together they touched the top, but Matthew beat him to the bottom.
Alfred narrowed his eyes at Matthew, who growled deep in his throat.
“Oh,” Rosa purred, “a growler. I love it. Gentlemen, the cylinders.”
Both Matthew and Alfred approached the metal cylinders. At a signal from one of the men in red, they attacked the metal with kicks, punches and strikes.
Rosa folded her arms across her chest, her fingers tapping her shoulders. “He’s not bad, Gareth. Not the greatest skill I’ve ever seen, but he’s fast and very strong. Maybe you’re right. He might just surprise me.”
The final test was to scale the barrier. This time, Alfred and Matthew started together, running across the room and leaping up the barrier. It took each of them several tries to penetrate the smooth metal enough for them to climb.
I feel like an idiot, Matthew thought as he bounded halfway up the wall and slipped down. Finally, he pulled himself over the top and leapt to the bottom, landing in a squat, Alfred beside him. For a long moment, both Immaculates glared at each other, their fangs exposed and chests heaving.
“You’re in, Matthew,” Rosa announced. She sauntered out of the room, calling over her shoulder, “Will you be fighting for blood or money?”
“Money,” Gareth replied.
Rosa paused and licked her lips as her gaze trailed over the tank top clinging to Matthew’s perspiring chest. “Maybe I’ll toss in some of my blood as a bonus. Maybe.”
She and Alfred left together.
Gareth whispered to Matthew, “Women always like your kind.”
“My kind?”
“Sweet face, body like a god. Don’t pretend you’re unaware of it.”
“I don’t really care about it.”
“I wonder what she’s like?” Gareth pondered.
“Who?”
“You told me never to mention her.”
Dulcie.
“I bet she’s beautiful.”
“Gentlemen, come with us,” one of the red-garbed men said. “We’ll bring you to the locker room where you can prepare for your fight.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The scent of excitement permeated the warehouse as Matthew and Gareth walked side by side to a ring in what had once been the loading dock. Rosa sat on a raised platform above the ring. Red-garbed hybrids stood at each corner of the ring and at the back and front entrances. A single light at the top of the thirty-foot ceiling illuminated the room. Matthew glanced at the small group of well-dressed hybrids seated in chairs around the ring or lingering at the bar at the far end of the room. The scent of alcohol mixed with blood wafted on the air.
Matthew felt many gazes upon him.
“They’re deciding whether or not to bet on you,” Gareth said.
“I can hardly wait.”
“Remember what I told you. Be careful in there. No rules apply, much like fighting the wolves down below.”
“What do you mean, no rules apply?”
Matthew paused as he neared the ring. The ropes were made of platinum-dipped barbed wire.
“How am I supposed to get in there?”
A shriek sounded across the warehouse as a tall Immaculate dressed in black shorts and a red T-shirt raced toward the ring. He leapt and somersaulted over the ropes, his ponytail snapping behind him as he landed. Fangs exposed, enormous muscles rippling in his forearms and shoulders, he snarled at Matthew.
“Gareth, I can’t do that,” Matthew said under his breath, glancing at the onlookers and Rosa, who awaited his entrance into the ring.
“I said you weren’t as ready as you’d like to be. You don’t have to somersault. Just jump in.”
Muttering under his breath about looking like as ass, Matthew ran and sprang over the ropes, animal-like. No sooner had he landed than the redhead’s foot lashed across his face, staggering him.
His opponent assaulted him with a relentless shower of kicks and punches. Matthew lifted his hands to protect his bleeding face, and a solid kick in the stomach sent him tumbling over the ropes.
The sounds of laughter mingled with boos. In the ring the redhead lifted his arms and shook his fists over his head, smiling. He hissed at Matthew.
“I lost?” Matthew asked Gareth as he stood, his arms scratched by the barbed wire. The platinum would leave scars that would take ages to fade.
“Not unless you give up. These fights are either three times out of the ring or until one cries mercy.”
“Mercy?” Matthew wiped his bloody nose on his sleeve. “Don’t bet on it.”
He raced toward the ring and jumped in. The crowd gathered closer. This time when he landed, he was prepared for the redhead’s onslaught. He blocked the barrage of powerful kicks, punches, elbows and knees. The other Immaculate possessed strength and experience, but Matthew finally saw an opening and landed a punch square in his face, sending the redhead sprawling onto his back.
Stunned by the force of Matthew’s blow, the redhead leaned back on his elbows, his eyes unfocused. Bloody saliva dripped from his fangs and the corners of his mouth.
Above the onlookers’ shouts of approval, Gareth bellowed, “Finish it, Matthew! Why the hell are you standing there?”
Matthew’s moment of hesitation allowed the redhead to regain himself. He kicked Matthew’s knee. Matthew dodged the first blow, but the man’s other foot kicked him in the groin. Pain staggered him. The redhead leapt up, his knee smashing into Matthew’s jaw.
To Matthew, the room suddenly went black. He felt himself tumbling.
“Oh, God.” He choked on his own blood as he landed flat on his back.
As his vision cleared, he realized he’d fallen outside the ring again.
The redhead growled from the other side
of the barbed wire as Matthew pushed himself to his knees, blood running in a steady stream from his lips.
“Edgar!” Rosa bellowed from the platform. The redhead glanced at her as she tossed a platinum-tipped stake at his feet.
Matthew took a step toward the ring, but Gareth grasped his arm. “That’s enough, Matthew. We don’t need her money this badly.”
Matthew’s vision blackened again, this time with utter rage. He snarled, “Fuck her and him!”
He leapt into the ring as Edgar lifted the stake to kill. After landing, he immediately sprang, kicking Edgar in the face. He landed, spun to the ground and knocked the redhead’s feet out from under him.
Edgar growled and flipped to his feet. He feinted a kick at Matthew’s abdomen, but lashed his foot hard across Matthew’s face. Matthew caught his leg in one arm and his wrist in the other before the stake landed. Still holding Edgar’s arm, Matthew kicked the man’s base foot out from under him and twisted his wrist. Edgar shrieked as his arm snapped. Matthew’s heel slammed into the redhead’s groin. The man clutched himself in agony. Retrieving the stake, Matthew threw back his head and howled, neither caring nor remembering where he was. Stake poised to kill, he dove at Edgar.
“No!” the redhead shouted. “I give up! Goddamn it, you win!”
Matthew paused, his hand so tight on the stake that his fingers ached. Once again he howled long and loud before gazing out at the silent crowd. He glanced up at Rosa, whose blue eyes stared at him from her frozen face. Matthew flung the stake up to her so it landed at her feet.
He cleared his throat and straightened his shoulders. “I think I’m quite finished.”
Leaping out of the ring, he met Gareth, who smiled and said, “Are you sure you’re quite finished?”
Matthew tossed him a vicious look. “I cannot believe what just happened here. Where do we get paid?”
“Her majesty approaches now.”
Rosa hurried to keep up with Matthew’s long strides. “I haven’t enjoyed a performance so much in years. I’ve never heard a vampire howl quite like that. Oh, I’ve heard my share of growlers and hissers, but that was an extraordinary sound. So sexual. When can you fight again?”