by Brenda Trim
He parked his SUV and went around to her side. She was out and heading to the barn before he reached her. The stiff set to her spine told him she was pissed at him and it wasn’t the irrational rage the demons incited. This was personal and he had no idea what he’d done.
He heard the shouting from inside the building as he hurried to her side. The crowd was large and boisterous. When he reached her, he placed his palm around the back of her neck, in a possessive move. There would be no doubt that she belonged to him. He expected her to melt into him, but she remained stiff and distant and he didn’t like that one bit. Too bad he was at a loss for how to fix it. He would never fucking understand females.
The barn appeared rundown on the outside as they approached and he noticed the two huge males guarding the doors. They were bear shifters if he wasn’t mistaken. The one closest stepped into their path. “What is your business here, warrior?” he asked, glancing at the tattoo on Gerrick’s forearm that clearly marked him as a Dark Warrior.
“Santiago invited us,” Gerrick responded. “Is he here?”
The male nodded to the interior of the barn. “Yeah. He’s fighting in ring three.”
“Thanks.” Gerrick was shocked as he entered the infamous fight club. What the hell was Santi doing here, of all places? Gerrick pushed his way through the crowd and pulled Shae close to his side. He wasn’t letting her go far.
No one paid any attention as they made their way to the inner circle. The outside may have appeared rundown, but the inside was anything but. Where he expected a dirt floor he found it was concrete. In the center of the open space were four rings that you would typically see at a boxing match with the padded floor and ropes. And, there were fighters in each one.
The crowd roared as one of the males in the closest ring flew into the ropes. Blood flew from his mouth and he shifted into a leopard before he landed on the mat. The other male bared his fangs and crouched ready to catch the rapidly approaching animal.
Gerrick glanced at Shae and noticed that the sight of the leopard sinking its teeth into the vampire’s side transfixed her as it shook its huge head back and forth. He lifted his head and a chunk of flesh was dangling from its jaw. “I knew this place existed, but we didn’t know of its location. Zander is going to be pissed,” he observed absently.
The copper scent of blood overwhelmed the air, but the injury didn’t stop the vampire. Gerrick scanned the other rings for Santiago and tugged Shae with him when he found him a couple rings over.
The fervor of the crowd agitated Gerrick. These people were slavering for bloodshed. They were drinking and egging on the fights. He noticed several males walking around exchanging money with some of the spectators. They were betting on this shit, he thought, incredulous. And, the females were just as involved as the males.
He stopped a few feet away from where Santiago fought. Santi was vicious as he double-tapped his opponent’s face, making blood spurt from his nose. They danced around one another, landing blows every now and then. Santi looked like he was barely breaking a sweat as he danced around the ring. Where he had a small cut to his lower lip, the other male was beat to shit, wounded and bleeding.
Gerrick felt Shae lean forward and he glanced over. She was perched on her tiptoes, her eyes lit with excitement. She was glued to the sight. In fact, he sensed her anticipation through their bond, as well as, the relief. She believed this was the answer she was looking for. She wanted to beat the shit out of an innocent in hopes of ridding her demons. Over his dead fucking body was he going to allow that to happen. He knew her well enough to know that she may want that now, but she would never forgive herself if she hurt someone.
He glanced back to Santiago and watched as Santi half-shifted into his wolf, claws extended from his fingertips and sliced through the male’s stomach. He fell to his knees and a referee jumped into the middle of the ring, lifting Santi’s hand into the air and proclaiming him the winner. Gerrick wondered how far his friend would have gone if there hadn’t been a referee.
As a Dark Warrior, Gerrick was no stranger to fighting and violence. Hell, his life was filled with death and destruction. Difference was he didn’t go out and beat on someone for no reason. He eliminated evil in an attempt to protect humans and the realm. What he was witnessing bordered on slaughter. Being a Dark Warrior and human cop, Santi had an unfair advantage. This wasn’t what they were about. In fact, it went against the oath they had taken.
Gerrick didn’t see the appeal of any of it. It reminded him of human cock-fighting. The illegal activity pit animals against one another and what his fellow warrior was engaging in was no better. Worst of all, it was activities like this that placed the realm in the most danger of being discovered.
Gerrick turned and began walking to the exit, but Shae didn’t budge. Snarling, he had her arm in his grip a second later. “We’re leaving, now.”
“Go ahead. I’m not leaving. I need to talk to Santiago and ask him to get me in the next fight.”
Gerrick stepped into Shae’s space and got right in her face. “You aren’t fighting here, Red.”
Tears brimmed her eyes and she recoiled as if he’d slapped her. “I knew you wouldn’t understand. You want me to be something I’m not, someone I will never be!”
It was his turn to wince against the sudden pain. He opened his mouth to deny her words when she interrupted. “Don’t you dare deny it! If you hope to have any future with me, don’t stand here and lie to me. I deserve that much respect, at least.”
“I’ve never asked you to be something you’re not. I brought you here, didn’t I? This isn’t your answer, Shae.” He understood for the first time that whatever was bothering her hadn’t begun in the car.
“How do you know what will help me? You don’t know anything about me.” She wasn’t holding back any longer and her strength only attracted him to her even more.
“I know more than you think. You’re in my soul, Red. This place is filled with nothing but animals. Is that what you want to become?” He refused to allow her to sink to this level.
“I am an animal!” she spat in his face. Her chest heaved with every indrawn breath and her eyes were black with fury. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not your perfect little mate.”
He cupped her face between his palms and forced her to look at him. “I don’t know what is really going through that pretty little head of yours, but all I’m trying to do is save you from doing something you will regret. If you climb into that ring, you will seriously injure an innocent female and you will never forgive yourself. Not to mention that doing so will be giving into the demons. They want you out of control and wild in your rages, that’s why they threw you into a cage to fight. I don’t know exactly what, but they get something out of it when you do, and I refuse to have you in that situation again.”
“This isn’t the same,” she protested, but he saw some of the fire was dying.
“No, it’s so much worse. Before you killed demons.” He turned her in his arms and wrapped one around her waist, pointing to a female across the way. “What do you think it would do to you to unleash your beast on her?”
He felt her body shake and knew she understood his point. “You will never come back from something like that Shae and I’ll be damned if those bastards take anything else from you.”
She turned in the cage of his arms and he hated how she’d gone pale. “I hate having their voices in my head and just want them to stop. I understand the term insanity because I feel like that’s what I am.”
“If fighting helps, then I will spar with you, but you aren’t doing it here.”
She quirked a corner of her mouth. “Think you can take me?” she challenged.
His answering smile came easier now. “No, but I’ll take my beating as long as you promise to play nurse afterwards.”
She ran her hands up his chest and wrapped them around his neck. Just like that, the chaos of the arena disappeared and it was only the two of them. His hands landed
on her lower back and pulled her flush against the erection pounding in his pants. “I like a male who can admit defeat. I’ll kiss all your boo-boos.”
Her eyes shone with mischief and he couldn’t help but imagine her teasing him as she kissed and licked her way across his chest and down his abdomen before she sucked his shaft into her mouth. “Can we spar naked?”
She threw her head back and laughed at him. “There’s good naked and bad naked. Jumping around fighting would be bad naked.”
His hands slid south and latched onto her ass. “There is no such thing as bad naked where you’re concerned. I have never in all my life seen a sexier female.” He leaned down and meshed his lips with hers. She tasted of ambrosia and he loved how she responded. He stroked his tongue across her lips, seeking entrance. She toyed with him until he shook the ass he held firmly.
The way he rubbed her against the steel of his cock made her gasp and he took full advantage. He thrust his tongue in and out of her mouth demonstrating what he planned to do to her when they got home. She fisted his hair and pulled it, making his scalp tingle. He broke the kiss and ran kisses along her slender jaw. Reverently, he placed his lips over her scars, wanting to show her he loved every inch of her.
“You say the sweetest things. Let’s get out of here and test that theory,” she panted, pulling him to the exit.
They couldn’t get home fast enough, he thought.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Shae’s body was humming after her session with Gerrick. He had stuck to his promise and taken her down to the training room when they’d returned to Zeum. They had barely stopped kissing long enough to get into the house and she’d enjoyed teasing him and running from him once they hit the mats.
She hadn’t imagined him quite so playful as he had been during his pursuit of her. She’d leapt onto the middle of a climbing rope and he had used his magic to snap the rope above her head, catching her as she fell. He’d kissed her like crazy while managing to get her shirt off. She discovered a new love for magic that she hadn’t had before meeting Gerrick.
It had been fun to wiggle out of his arms and jog backwards as she removed her bra. When he’d finally caught her, he loved her so thoroughly that she had passed out from the pleasure. And, for those all too brief minutes there had been nothing but bliss. No archdemons trying to exert control over her mind and no dead mate haunting her. It had given her a taste of what she wanted.
“Thank the Gods you two are done in there,” Nate called out as he descended the stairs above them. She blushed furiously and Gerrick growled at the male.
“My job description does not involve cleaning up after you two.” She didn’t miss the sarcasm in Nate’s comment.
“From the looks of it, your job description doesn’t involve cleaning at all.” She stifled her laugh against Gerrick’s shoulder.
“Ouch, Scarface, that hurts. I thought I was doing a bang-up job around here.”
She couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Nate, there is a difference between banging the staff and doing your job,” she quipped, making Gerrick chuckle and kiss her temple.
“She’s got your number, dragon-breath.”
“What can I say? I’m a lover not a cleaner. Zander is looking for you two. He’s in the war room,” Nate replied, continuing down the hall.
Gerrick paused and looked over his shoulder. “Oh and Nate, you need to restock the training room with clean towels.” Nate didn’t disappoint when a second later he responded by giving Gerrick the middle finger.
“What do you think he wants?” Shae asked, hoping she wasn’t causing more problems for Gerrick because she had no doubt that the request had to do with her. It seemed she was the cause of all the troubles since she’d come Zeum. She chanced a glance Gerrick’s way and noticed his easy, sated lope hadn’t changed. He clearly wasn’t bothered in the least.
She wouldn’t have guessed that they had spent the past couple hours making love the way her hormones reacted to the sight of her mate. He cocked his head to the side and gave her that half-smile of his. “We could always ignore him and go to our room.”
She gasped and smacked his shoulder. “Gerrick, I can’t believe you’d ignore an order from the King.”
“He knows what it’s like to be in the middle of the mating dance, Red. You should have seen him when he was all twisted over Elsie. He was impossible to be around and they were constantly found in compromising positions in the kitchen.” She laughed at the way he scrunched his face in disgust. “Still are, actually. They don’t seem to get that our food is prepared in that room.”
“What was it like here before the mating curse was lifted?” She couldn’t imagine Zeum without the females.
“We spent all of our time patrolling and fighting skirm. There wasn’t a lot of down time and there wasn’t nearly as much laughter in the house. Looking back, we were stuck in the status quo with very little spontaneity. I wouldn’t want to go back to how things were before the mates came along. They challenge the way we think and offer much needed perspective.”
He held the door open and stood aside for her to pass. “I never imagined life was like this here. The Vampire King and his Dark Warriors were untouchable for us normal civilians so I always saw you guys as larger than life.”
“And now?” They continued down the hall, past the ballroom that was busy being repaired after the damage during Winter Solstice.
She glanced meaningfully at his groin and raised one eyebrow. “You’re still larger than life.” She squealed and twisted away from him as he tried to tickle her.
They came to a halt as Jace and Zander stared at them when they practically fell into the war room. “Nate said you wanted to see us,” Gerrick said, oblivious to the tension.
She didn’t understand what was going on, but the pressure in her head was suddenly unbearable as if a switch had been flipped. The archdemons seemed to sense when she was close to Zander and were always more active when she was in his presence.
“Aye, Jace was just updating me aboot the progress on the serum.” Gerrick went still and took a step to the side, placing himself between her and the others. She tried to step around him, but he refused to allow it.
Finally, she tilted her head and looked around his arm, meeting her King’s gaze. “What did he learn, Liege?”
“I thought we were stopping that line of research. We can’t risk another female’s death,” Gerrick added before anyone responded.
“Sit doon, both of you. Jace, tell them what you’ve told me.” Zander sat back in his chair with his palms crossed over his stomach and was the picture of ease that did nothing but make her nervous. Gerrick led her to a chair opposite the two males.
Jace leaned his elbows on the table and blew out a breath, running his fingers over a silver cuff he always wore on his wrist. “The scientists and I isolated the element we believe was responsible for the death and eliminated it from the serum. Shae still has the highest concentration of venom in her system and when we injected a sample of her blood with the serum that number was cut in half.”
Gerrick surged to his feet, causing his chair to fall over. “You are not using my mate as an experiment. I don’t give a shit what results you get. I will never place her in that danger.”
Shae scented the blood before she saw it dripping from his clenched fingers. She stood next to him and wrapped her arm around his waist. “Let’s just hear them out, Gerrick. I need to hear what they have to say.”
“Don’t do this to me. Don’t make me go through this again,” he told her, turning haunted eyes her direction. She held her breath, praying he was finally going to tell her about Evanna and how he’d lost her.
Jace broke the silence after several seconds. “I don’t want to be responsible for another death, either, Gerrick. We don’t have to try this on her right now, but I will tell you that her numbers are the only ones that have increased since she’s been here.”
“Gerrick. Listen to him. I can’t continue to live
like this. He has access to my mind whenever he wants. He knows when I’m in Zander’s presence and I want him out of my head. I refuse to be his pawn any longer.”
“Jace tested this thoroughly and then retested it a hundred times. And, he has a theory that he can hold her to us.” Zander ran his hand through his shoulder length black hair. “I willna force you to do this. It is your choice, Shae.”
“No. She’s mine. It’s my choice, too. You want to take her from me?” Shae felt the fear and rage through her bond to Gerrick and wanted to save him from this, but she couldn’t live like this anymore. In fact, she’d rather end her own life than become a weapon that destroyed him or anyone else.
“I have to do this, Gerrick. I wish you would understand,” she pleaded with him.
He wrenched from her embrace and was across the room before she blinked. “I will not stand by and watch you play Russian roulette. This is not only your life you play with, Red, but mine, too. Have you considered what losing you will do to me? I will never forgive you for this.” She’d never seen him so angry and it was directed at her.
“I’m sorry…” her voice trailed away as he stalked from the room. Moments later, she heard the slam of the front door. She stood there stunned that he’d left her.
“We doona have to do this, Shae.” She turned and met Zander’s concerned gaze.
“No, we do.” There had been no other answer and instinct told her this was the closest she was going to come to a cure. “What do we do next?”
Jace stood up and crossed to her side. “Sit down and Zander is going to give you the injection while I connect with you. I am going to hold you to me with my healing powers before the serum hits your system so that I can pull you back from the edge should things go wrong. I wasn’t prepared before and it acted too quickly.”