by PJ Schnyder
While Rygard didn’t feel better about the situation, at least it seemed as if Kaitlyn’s surprise shape shift had accelerated their progress through the tournament brackets. It significantly increased their chances of survival if they had to fight their way through fewer levels. And while they were surviving, Dev and Badger would be their eyes.
“Badger and I have been taking turns watching the matches.” Dev continued to keep his voice low. He might have been in a secluded location somewhere above, but it wouldn’t necessarily be secure. “We haven’t seen what we’re looking for yet, but there’s a couple groups coming up in the next hour that look promising. Once we find them, we’ll update you. In the meantime, don’t die.”
Easier said than done. Rygard leaned back against the cavern wall, seated next to Kaitlyn. If it hadn’t been for her, he’d have lost consciousness in the death grip of their opponent. Yeah, he’d killed the bastard, but she’d broken the hold and drawn first blood.
Once both their enemies lay dead and it became obvious no more were coming, Badger had been there, ordering Rygard to hand his weapons and harness back over. It’d taken a lot to hand over the combat knife. For Kaitlyn, it had been a nastier internal struggle. Naked and exposed, beautiful even streaked in blood, he’d seen the death in her eyes as she snarled at the crowd in her human form. She’d have killed anyone else who’d tried to disarm her.
Once Rygard had removed his harness, though, he’d yanked off his shirt and given it to her. The gesture seemed to snap her out of her rage.
“How’re you feeling?” The question seemed way less than adequate.
Now, her eyes had gone cold, blank. He wondered if she saw him at all or if she were trapped inside a nightmare. “I could be warmer.”
Not too much they could do about that. His shirt hit her at mid-thigh and covered most of her, but they had all come in with minimal clothing.
“I could...”
She shook her head. “Keep your pants.” Then the corners of her mouth turned up in a faint smile. “I appreciate the offer but they’d mess with my range of motion in the next fight. Besides, if I have to shift again, we’ll both be without pants.”
“You going to shift back to panther?” She’d be warmer that way. And safer.
“Dev doesn’t seem too worried currently.” She glanced at the entrance to their cave. “I’ll shift back to panther in a bit, after we’re sure we’ve done all the talking we need to do.”
He didn’t agree but it wasn’t like he could force her to shift. He’d seen the way the guards looked at her, the way their nostrils flared and their tongues flicked out to taste the air near her. They hadn’t done it when she’d been a panther. His body hadn’t responded to her either, but now, he knew she could smell his arousal and his proximity was probably keeping her on edge.
Heat seeped into his skin as her hand came to rest on his forearm. “Hey you.”
He met her gaze, the warmer brown he’d come to know. “I’m here.”
“It’s twisted, what I am.” Her words came in a whisper, her brows drawn together as she dropped her gaze to where her hand lay on his arm. “And you still want me for me. It means a lot to me.”
He cleared his throat. “Now’s a suck time to mention it, but looking at you as a big cat was kind of weird.”
She tilted her head to one side. “I’d be a little freaked if you weren’t weirded out by me in that shape. We never talked about it before.”
“The first couple of times you did it, it was quick. I barely spent time near you.” He shook his head. “It didn’t have time to sink in.”
“And later?”
He knew what she meant, their conversations and holo-calls when she’d been in human form. “I was talking to you, seeing you.”
It was easy to forget she turned furry.
“You can’t ignore it on this mission.”
Maybe he should think on it harder, what it might mean for a future with her. To him, at this moment, she was still his Kaitlyn. He could only see so far ahead and still keep an eye on what they had at hand.
“True.” He paused, searching for the words he wanted. “All the times time you’ve made the shift for me? Fighting for me or at my side, I’d be a complete ass idiot to be weirded out over it.”
“I wouldn’t blame you for your body’s reaction if you didn’t want me anymore.”
He covered her hand with his, the silken smoothness of her skin making him wish he could run his hand over other parts of her. “It doesn’t seem to be an issue, does it? We’ll meet that obstacle if it comes up. Let’s not borrow more trouble. We’ve got enough to survive as it is.”
“Not to interrupt an obvious moment, but I had a couple of questions.” Tracer stepped closer, his big dog moving to give Kaitlyn a gentle nudge at the shoulder. “I’m sure he has a couple of his own comments too.”
No need to ask who. Bharguest stood in the darkest shadows of the cavern, his eyes catching just enough of the light to reflect back like twin mirrors. Human eyes didn’t do that.
Tracer didn’t bother him, and they needed to do a team debrief. Rygard still had an issue calling Bharguest a part of the team regardless of the information the prisoner had been providing.
“You don’t have to like me, soldier boy.” Bharguest’s words floated out of the shadows. “But you need me. She needs me. And I came in here to play your game.”
The sick part was that it was a game to the man, not a mission and not loyalty to anyone. The prisoner would leave them all there if he took the notion to go find a different game to play.
Kaitlyn shook her head. “Having fun, are you?”
“It twists you inside, doesn’t it?” A flash of white teeth broke the shadows. “Because somewhere, in a little corner of your heart, you’re having fun too.”
Kaitlyn didn’t answer. Alarmed, Rygard looked at her long and hard and wondered about the truth of Bharguest’s insight. Rygard had worked with mercenaries before, but those men did what they did in the pursuit of creds. Bharguest’s actions had nothing to do with currency. Kaitlyn was better. He was sure of it.
“I survived.” Kaitlyn threw the words down. “We both did. And thank you for the tip. You want us to sing your praises?”
Bharguest chuckled. “Funny girl.” When the man stopped smiling, Rygard couldn’t see anything but the other man’s eyes. He wondered what Kaitlyn could see in the cover the shadows provided Bharguest. “I want to hear what the dog lover wants to know.”
Tracer cleared his throat, obviously unsettled. Max moved to stand between him and Bharguest, the fur across his back relaxed but his pose still watchful. “This fight, is this what we’re going to expect when it’s our turn?”
Rygard wanted to give encouragement, but he’d come back from his own bout looking like hell.
“No way to know who you’re going against unless Dev can give us a heads up on the way. You’ll have time to size them up while you’re waiting to get into the cages.” Kaitlyn gave a brief description of the layout and the octagon in which they’d been placed. Rygard remembered most of what she shared, but he marveled at the level of detail she remembered and how she parsed what was important to tell up front and then provided the additional supporting information.
“You think there are different places to hold the fights though.” Tracer hunkered down close, but kept enough of a space open for Bharguest to join if he wanted to.
“There are different floors for the various brackets in the tournaments,” Bharguest interjected.
Kaitlyn only raised her eyebrow.
“As you progress to higher levels, you’re matched against better fighters in different arenas. To keep things interesting, they might change from the generic octagon to a pit or a cage with water features. Fire is popular, so is sand. You might be given weapons aside from the
ones your handler gives you before entering the area.” Bharguest held his hands out to the side, spreading his fingers wide. “Anything to keep it entertaining.”
“Oh, joyful.” Her tone was anything but.
Rygard felt about the same way. If she hadn’t been sitting next to him, he’d have spit into the sand covering the cavern floor.
“You.” Bharguest stuck his chin out at Tracer. “You need to worry since we’ve been boosted in the brackets. The next fight will be a harder challenge. The dog’s smart, but smarts will only get you so far in the cages.”
“You think we’re not as strong a pair as Rygard and Kaitlyn?” No pride in Tracer’s voice, no fear either. “Don’t waste our time undermining our confidence. Give us something constructive.”
“I like you.” Funny how none of them seemed overly happy when Bharguest said that. “You and the dog move as a unit. You’ve trained together, seen combat together.”
“Yeah.” Tracer stood and Max moved into a position at his handler’s left. The big dog stood so his right hip brushed Tracer’s leg.
“You two are a better matched pair.” Bharguest stirred and the darkness around him seemed to swirl. “You’ll last longer than most expect, make some gamblers good creds.”
Tracer didn’t reply but the man’s surprise was obvious in his raised eyebrows and wide eyes. Any more shock and his mouth might have dropped open.
Disgruntled, Rygard had to admit he and Kaitlyn hadn’t fought as a pair. They’d divided to conquer.
“It’s as much my fault as yours.” Kaitlyn nudged him. “We’ve been in scuffles side by side before, but we’re going to have to think to make coordinated attacks.”
Stopping to think usually got a person killed.
From the small frown hovering around her lips, she knew it as well as he did. “We’ve got no choice. We’re going to have to learn or bleed.”
“Or die.” Bharguest sounded far too amused.
Predictable response but when Bharguest stepped out of his niche, the light caught his skin. It wasn’t smooth anymore, but almost scaled. His dark black skin had taken on an olive green...sheen.
Shapeshifter.
Having seen Kaitlyn shift, dealing with the primates back on the other planet, and knowing the man had been infected with the virus, Rygard still wasn’t prepared for the otherworldly aspect of Bharguest. He hadn’t completed a full shape shift, not even close, but he wasn’t static either. His shift took him far enough away from human to shake Rygard to the core.
The change didn’t make him look like the reptilians guarding them. Instead, Bharguest appeared mostly human, only increasing the unsettling effect of his reptilian skin and more prominent facial structures. Brow ridges and cheek bones had risen, stretching the skin of his face tight. His nose had receded until the nostrils were slits. He dropped his jaw again in a weird grin, his tongue pressed to the back of his top teeth to reveal an odd nodule.
Kaitlyn shuddered. “Snakes have a scent receptor in their mouths to analyze airborne chemicals. You haven’t had a weird tongue habit, you’re literally tasting the air. Why haven’t we seen others like you? All the rest have been mammalian.”
“I don’t play well with others.” Bharguest paused, a forked tongue slipping out. “I’ve killed too many of my partners in...cold blood.”
Had Bharguest been the first? Rygard wondered how long the virus experiments had been going on.
“Jeezus.” Tracer continued a streak of stronger curses under his breath. Standing next to him, Max didn’t make a sound but the big dog’s ears went back and the fur across his shoulders began to stand on end.
It was Kaitlyn who headed off the charge before any of them realized Bharguest had moved.
She met him straight on before he managed to reach Tracer, before Max could jerk free of his handler’s hold. The two of them crashed to one side, Kaitlyn twisting just enough to turn the bigger shifter’s back into the force field separating them from the adjoining area. The field flared, blinding them all for a fraction of a second as the acrid smell of burning flesh filled the cramped space.
Rygard lunged toward them. She couldn’t hold off the psycho for more than a minute; he was sure. But Bharguest was falling. Kaitlyn disengaged and leapt backward to land directly in front of him, still facing Bharguest. She had one arm out, signaling for the rest of them to stay back.
Farther back, Tracer had his arms wrapped around Max. The big dog raged, but stayed within the restraining hold of his handler.
“Excellent.” He was laughing. The bastard lay on the ground where he’d fallen, clutching his belly, laughing hard.
“Do it again and I’m going to forget you can help us.” A snarl rose up from Kaitlyn.
Rygard couldn’t see her face, but her fingers were curled and ended in claws. She’d partially shifted, faster than in the cage earlier.
What did it take out of her to shift so often, so fast?
He wouldn’t risk asking her in front of Bharguest but there had to be a reason why the other man didn’t shift until now and Rygard doubted it had to do with dramatic effect.
“But the looks on their faces.” Bharguest sat up, his back brushing the force field as he did. He reached over his shoulder and when he withdrew his fingers, they were slick with dark fluid. Touching them to his forked tongue, Bharguest took his time cleaning the blood away.
Psycho didn’t cover it.
Rygard sent a prayer then, to whatever powers on high, that Bharguest was the next to go into the fights on the levels above them. It just seemed like a hell of a good idea to direct the man’s at someone else, anyone besides their own team.
“You’re fun, I have to admit.” Bharguest shook his head. “More fun than I thought you’d be back on the ship. Others died before they ever knew I was coming at them. But you all, you’re even leaving me alive.”
Others. Team mates.
“You didn’t escape this place before, you always planned to come back.” Kaitlyn made the statement, rising up out of her crouch to slowly circle the other man. “You went looking for more gladiators to play with, here, in this hell hole.”
“The fights here got boring. I like to play more complex games.” Bharguest shrugged. “But no, I didn’t bring you all here to be a part of the livestock.”
“There’s an obvious question hanging, then.” Rygard kept his eyes on Bharguest, trying to track Kaitlyn at the edge of his peripheral vision. “Why did you bring us all here? I’m doubting you had a sudden charitable desire to help me save my men.”
The other man seemed to be watching only Kaitlyn.
“What I was doing doesn’t matter anymore.” Bharguest deliberately leaned back into the force field. This time, Rygard heard the sizzle. “What I found is more interesting.”
No need to ask what. It wasn’t likely they’d find out the more important answer yet.
Apparently, Kaitlyn had decided the same. She straightened from her crouch, brushing dirt from her pants. Her eyes never dropped though, never strayed from Bharguest. “While I’d love to go dramatic and wordy here, maybe start a speech on how we’re not going to play your game anymore, it’s not reality. We’re here. We’re playing.”
“And you’re learning.” Bharguest drew the words out, left them hanging in the air. “You’ll have to do better, though.”
“She’s good enough to stop you.” As soon as the words left Tracer’s mouth, Rygard knew they weren’t true. Saw it in the way Bharguest’s thin brow rose a millimeter and in the slow blink from Kaitlyn.
“As long as you keep improving, I’ll let them all live.” Bharguest spread his hands out. “Not just winning, not just surviving. Get better at being what you are and I’ll respect your charming loyalty to your team.”
Kaitlyn didn’t move, didn’t answer. Only blinked again,
her lids falling over her eyes in a slow drop. When they rose, they revealed slitted pupils.
Chapter Fifteen
“Your team is too damaged to continue in the current configuration.”
Kaitlyn stood in what passed for a triage and treatment center. Far as she could tell, it was designed to prolong a slave’s torment in this hell hole just by keeping him alive longer. Medical equipment and supplies were beyond primitive, enough to stop immediately life-threatening issues but without the sophistication to truly repair tissues or broken bones.
“Well, I’ve made plenty credits on this first trip. Might be wise to stop here, take my team back and patch ’em up.” Dev gave the smaller reptilian a closed-mouthed smile. Kaitlyn wouldn’t have had the self-control to forego showing teeth. “I do plan to come back another time.”
After swishing his tail, the overseer’s glance darted past each of them, his gaze lingering a moment longer on Bharguest and then on her.
“You have the option to reconfigure your team.” The Sketz’es allowed.
“Of course.” Dev nodded. “I had several recommendations from my fellow trainers. I’ll take it into consideration for the next time I make an entry. You’ve been gracious hosts.”
The reptilian’s tongue flicked out. Kaitlyn wondered if he could taste his own anxiety.
The overseer was obviously discomfited over the entire team standing in the triage area. Most trainers might have returned the uninjured, or at least less damaged, back to the caverns below. But Dev had stated his training included making sure his team saw the suffering of fellow teammates. Team building for the cold and heartless.
“You have other options.” A nictitating membrane slid over each eye.
That was new. She made a mental note to research the characteristic.
Dev scratched his growing scruff. “Options? That I might. But a man has to judge when the best time would be to step back. I like to keep my creds on the positive side, make a good impression.”