by E. M. Moore
I shrugged. “Something like that. He doesn’t need it though. I have a feeling he’s about to kick some major vampire ass.”
“Do you now?” T.J. said, his lips curving into a smile.
“I might’ve seen you do it before up close and personal. There’s no way I would bet against you.” All the while I spoke, my stomach tightened more and more. I genuinely liked T.J.. I didn’t want him to die. I didn’t even want him to get injured.
Lex clapped him on the back. “He’s got it in the bag.”
T.J. looked down and shook his head. “The only one who’s got anything in the bag is you when it’s your turn,” he said, looking at Lex with a proud smirk. “There isn’t anyone better than you. I mean, I could be persuaded to think that I’m number two…maybe one and a half…” He held his fingers up in a barely there difference between the two and we all laughed.
A loud voice came from the doorway. “Please. We all know you’re number three, asshole.”
My head whipped around, and I stared straight into the face of Matthews. He sat in a wheelchair, his hands poised over the wheels as he stared at T.J.
“The only reason why you’re going in right now is because I can’t get out of this thing,” he said, kicking his foothold.
T.J. broke into a grin. “I still wouldn’t count you out, brother.”
Matthews shrugged.
“They let you out then?”
Matthews wheeled forward. “I wouldn’t miss the fights for the world. Have to cheer my people on.” He looked around the group, even smiling at me. After a moment, he looked back at T.J., all remnants of the reunion gone. “You good?”
T.J. nodded. “I’m good.”
They all did the same, an uneasiness growing, and a silence falling over us as the time neared. Even deep within the walls of the estate, the crowd outside could be heard.
Soren walked through then, his hands jammed into his pockets. I blinked, barely recognizing him. His coloring was much better, no longer the wraith-looking vampire from the dungeon, but a healthy one with a glow and fierce eyes. He caught my eye for a moment before breaking into the circle and standing in front of T.J.. “It’s Torrent. Remember, he—”
“He has a bad right leg, favors it sometimes. Prefers to wield the big, heavy weapons. Got it.”
Soren nodded. “They’re ready.” He turned. “Dumont’s just arrived, Gregor.”
Gregor wiped his face with the back of his hand and stood tall, his shoulders pulling back like the statue of a man he was. One of these days, maybe they’d even put a statue up of him somewhere. God knew we were in the middle of making vampire history. They sure as hell weren’t going to be making busts of Dumont’s sorry face. We all had to make sure of that. “I’ll give you a few moments, T.J.. The rest of us need to get out there.”
Gregor left the room and we all followed after him. T.J. held onto my arm. I turned back and looked into two soft eyes. “Can you give me a second, Ariana?”
“Of course.”
I looked around to see the princes leaving, uncomfortable glances back at me, but I smiled at them to quell any misgivings they might have. When everyone was gone, I turned to T.J.. His stare held mine only briefly before he started talking. “I’m about to go out there and fight, and there’s just one thing I wanted to clear up with you. I’m not sure who else they’re going to choose to go out there, but I haven’t held back on my feelings for you.” He looked away, his voice giving a little, before he turned to meet my eyes again. “Maybe it’s because I don’t know what’s going to happen out there, Ariana, but I just thought you should know, no matter how much of a lost cause it is, that I’ve never met anyone like you. I know your heart lies elsewhere, but at another time, I would’ve dedicated my win to you.”
I shuffled my feet. “T.J….”
“I know,” he said, his lips curling. “I just wanted you to know. Who knows? Maybe it’s some last, vain attempt on my part to show you that you can be with someone like you.”
I shook my head. “That’s not what you need to be thinking about right now.”
“I’m prepared,” he said quickly. “Thanks to you. You sent Soren to me. I know my opponent, which will make the fight that much easier. I’m not asking you to change your mind, I just wanted you to know that if something happens to me, I never got a chance to tell you that I’ve never been more impressed with anyone before in my life. You came into this world completely oblivious, yet you’ve grown into the guard you are. It was impossible not to feel something for you. Your strength, your power, your wisdom. In case you’ll need this talk and I don’t make it, my money’s on you, Ariana Stuart.”
I stepped forward and put my hand on his shoulder. “You can give me this talk, if I need it, later because you’re about to go out there and kick some ass. If I hadn’t…” I shook my head. There was no use saying that. It felt like a lie that would scar my soul. “I can’t say that,” I said, smiling to him, hoping he would understand. “All I can say is, I hope you do find someone who’ll feel the same way about you. When you win this match, the girls will be scrambling to be with you. You’ll have your choice, I’m sure.”
He looked down, nodding at the ground and my hand fell off his shoulder.
Footsteps sounded in the doorway and we both looked up to find Soren there. “It’s time.”
“I know you can do this,” I told T.J., but he was already in fight mode. His hands roamed over his black tactical getup. He walked toward Soren and grabbed a long, sword-like weapon that leaned against the wall. It was about three feet in length with the tip sharpened into a wooden point. I’d never seen the weapon before, didn’t even know what it was called, but I was instantly intrigued.
Soren turned and led us out the guard hallway and further to the makeshift arena in the open space I could look down on from my bedroom window. As we got closer, the crowd roared. Jolts of energy shot up my body until my fingertips tingled. We moved closer to the opening that led to the circular grassy area. Guards and vampires alike from our side touched T.J. as we moved through, their faces covered in earnest expressions, some yelling at T.J., others squeezing him as if to give him words of encouragement. My heart lodged in my throat.
When we were close, Soren stopped and moved aside so T.J. could continue walking into the center. He moved just off middle and I saw his opponent standing there. The vampire was tall, bulky, and muscular unlike any other vampire I’d seen. He was bare-chested with black and brown rope necklaces hanging from his tree trunk of a neck. His hair was scraggly, almost wet-looking as if he’d already sweat a gallon of water or had just gotten out of the shower. He wore a pair of cut off pants, the edges frayed and olive green strings dangling from his unhemmed cuffs. To me, he looked more like a man from the amazon than a vampire getting ready to fight. Fear struck my heart and I grasped the first thing I found. Luckily, it was Nicolai’s hand. “Holy shit, we’re not going to do this.”
I looked up to find that Nic’s face was white. Gone were his usual shadows, his darkness that barely let the light in. He was a ghost-like figure standing there. I wanted to run out to T.J., I wanted to tell Gregor to stop this thing. What were we thinking agreeing to this?
But before I knew it, a loud horn blew and then the tension in the air hit maximum overload, like a physical force swept over us and around us, like we were swimming through fear and apathy and turmoil.
The huge hulk of a man, Torrent, Soren had called him, ran toward T.J.. He started out slow, but his vampire abilities kicked in and he was on T.J. before I could even register that he was moving slower than I imagined. From behind his back, he took out a large, wooden-handled spiked metal ball. The tip was like a metal porcupine, bigger than T.J.’s head. He swung it and T.J. ducked, narrowly avoiding the crushing blow.
Heat shimmered behind my eyes. I felt all hope drain from me. Cursing myself, I realized I’d been a child-like fool with innocent thoughts. Look at that guy. He was going to crush T.J..
T.J
. turned and smacked Torrent on the back. The vampire growled, turning his back to us where I could see a welt starting, blazing across his backside from shoulder to hip. As encouraging as it might’ve been, Torrent just shrugged it off and came for T.J. again who was a lot closer this time. He struck out with the metal spiked ball, glancing off T.J.’s shoulder who grimaced in pain. His mouth clamped shut, and Nicolai’s fingers wound through mine. “He’s tough,” he said into my ear.
On my right, Soren bent over to whisper, “T.J. knew all this. Torrent comes out fast. He’ll want to wear T.J. out because he knows he’s got his vampire abilities on his side. I know it doesn’t…look good, but this is about what we expected.”
I turned an exasperated look toward him, but when a loud thwack echoed through the arena, I immediately looked back. The spiked weapon was inches away from T.J.’s foot. Flipping his weapon to the other side, I saw in T.J.’s choice what I hadn’t before, a blade about a foot long. He sliced it across Torrent’s chest and a trickle of blood immediately seeped through.
“What is that thing?” I asked Soren. “I’ve never seen it before.”
“Because of Torrent’s strength, we needed a strong weapon. It’s metal infused throughout with of course the wooden stake at the very end. If Torrent gets his hand on that, he’ll have a hard time breaking it apart due to the metal. If T.J.’s quick enough, he can wear Torrent down. Bleed his strength, his abilities, before he goes in for the kill shot.”
Soren’s hands gripped the the wood post before us. His knuckles tightened as T.J. moved out of the way, putting more space between him and his opponent. Closer to us now, I could see that he was favoring his shoulder though. His black shirt was wet there, making it almost shiny, and I knew he was bleeding.
Stephan moved past us, his face pale. He looked at me. “When he wins, he’s going to need care.” His hands trailed over my fingers as he walked away, and I saw true sickening sadness there. It was a wonder why Stephan had even come out to watch at all. He just didn’t have the heart for this stuff. He was too good. Too kind. I wanted to assure him, but at the same time, I knew I needed to be right here, no matter how badly a part of me wanted to be with another part of me somewhere else, reassuring him that though there was evil in this world, we weren’t all overcome by it. This was just a means to an end, and as soon as we defeated Dumont, we could go back to our everyday lives where death, and injury, and loss weren’t even on our radars.
The crowd erupted on the far side of the grassy arena when Torrent once again managed to hit T.J. with his medieval weapon. Their jubilant response was cut short though when T.J. kicked out at the bad leg of the beastly warrior. His leg buckled, and for a moment, he was off balance. T.J., again, struck out at him with the blade tip of his weapon. More blood seeped down his chest, and the vampire roared, a deafening cry that would’ve silenced the night creatures of the forest if they hadn’t already been silenced. He didn’t yell out of pain or agony, but out of exasperation. He fumbled forward, impatient swings of his weapon toward T.J.’s body, which he neatly dodged all the way across the fenced-off area until one last swing down when T.J. narrowly avoided the head of it. Instead of the spikes breaking his skull, it smashed through one of the wooden posts, wood splintering everywhere. The first row of Dumont’s clan reared away, hands shielding their faces and cries rising up until Torrent pulled the spiky ball from the Earth again, following T.J. into the middle of the arena.
Torrent charged him again and at the last second, T.J. dove and rolled out of the way, his weapon flicking out and catching his opponent in his bad leg again, a gash opening up on his calf, hobbling him. But T.J. didn’t get out of the exchange unscathed either. The weapon had hit his foot and he could barely put weight on it as they stood facing one another once more.
“Kill him!” a voice bellowed.
I looked across the grassy area to find Dumont, his face pulled into a mask of scowling rage. His nostrils flared as his barreled chest rose and fell with his quick, thunderous breaths.
That man, he was clearly furious, staring down his warrior as if he’d slighted him. It made my stomach twist in disgust, and the next attacks by Torrent were quick, and clumsy in his earnestness to end the match. By all means, he should’ve been a sure winner from the outside looking in. He had brawn, strength, paranormal abilities that T.J. could never have, but he lacked a few things we didn’t. A reason to fight. The understanding of a leader, who now, as I looked down past my princes and caught sight of Gregor and Isabelle, I understood even more. They stood stoic, their hands entwined with shock and horror pulling at their eyes and corners of their lips. Skin creases marred their usually perfect faces. A shot of pride overwhelmed me.
“Come on, T.J.!” I screamed, knowing full well that he probably couldn’t hear me, but did it even matter? He was putting his life on the line for the rest of us. “Take your time! Wear him down!”
“There you go, Young One,” Soren said. “All is not lost.”
At that, T.J. spun out of the way of another of Torrent’s attacks and thrust out with his blade. It sunk into the vampire’s bicep. A smile poured from me, but in the next instant, I winced as T.J. ran away without his weapon in his hand. He scrambled for a stake at his hip while Torrent pulled T.J.’s weapon from his arm and bent it over his knee. The stake portion splintered off, the metal core gleaming underneath as it fell to the grass in a useless heap.
Terror struck me, but as I looked on, T.J. faced Torrent with a curved smile. I held my breath and looked to my right. Soren’s knuckles had turned white. With both fighters broken and bloody, a thousand different things ran through my mind. I should’ve told T.J. I liked him. Though it wasn’t in the same way he liked me, I did care for him. He was a great fighter, a great friend. Moments should never be taken for granted. They should be lived to the fullest extent because you never knew when you were going to be facing down the likes of Torrent. A problem as insurmountable as one could seem. But still, as T.J. stared him down, he didn’t look like the hurt, broken warrior that he was. He still looked calm underneath the mask of blood and limping. He looked confident though he had but a small stake in his hand. All odds were against us. In some ways, they always had been, but I never stopped believing.
“Attack,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. My hands clenched at my sides as I saw Torrent take his first step toward T.J.. He brought the spiked metal ball down with a roar. Unlike the other times though, T.J. didn’t move fast enough. It crashed into the same hurt shoulder and T.J. tumbled to the ground. Torrent stood above him, smiling like he was a victor to his prey. T.J. scrambled backward, his hands and legs sinking into the trampled grass as he tried to get away.
Torrent was right on him though. He ran forward, sinking a heavy knee into T.J.’s chest as he pulled his weapon above his head.
I stopped breathing. My heart even stopped beating.
Everything moved as if in slow motion even though when we were talking about vampires, that simply wasn’t possible. Torrent swung his hands down like thick mallet heads grasping the very thing that could kill T.J. in an instant. Beside me, Nicolai tensed, still as stone as we both watched wide-eyed at the scene before us.
I leaned toward Soren as Torrent brought the crushing blow down. It was like watching something I knew would hurt like hell, but couldn’t take my eyes off anyway. The spiked metal was almost there now, but then, a quick movement. Torrent stilled. T.J. moved his head as the medieval weapon fell just a hair’s breath away from his skull and fell to the ground. I leaned closer, gasping when I saw T.J.’s hands move away from Torrent’s chest.
Torrent fell to the side and T.J. scrambled out from underneath him and got to his feet. He stared down at the broken piece of his weapon sticking out of Torrent’s chest. He’d grabbed the splintered wood and impaled Torrent with it at the last possible second. The crowd hushed at once. Torrent shuddered. His breaths became laborious. T.J. glanced at Gregor and whatever he saw there, just walked—limped—back
toward us, leaving Torrent in the middle. It was clear he couldn’t go on, was possibly fighting for life at that moment. I couldn’t even smile for T.J.’s victory because a harsh sadness overwhelmed me.
Then, a sudden blur. Soren ran forward, but it was too late. Dumont was already there, his foot on the splintered stake, pushing it further into Torrent’s chest. As soon as it sank all the way in, Dumont turned, a frenzy of clothes and darted away, his followers not far after him. A gaping hole filled their side of the circle, the leadership having all gone with their warrior’s death. Somber and slow, a few of the vampires from the other side walked to where Torrent lay and pulled him up by the shoulders to carry him away. I watched all this, slack-jawed, more surprised than I should’ve been.
I was instantly grateful Stephan wasn’t there. He would be…furious, and sad.
T.J. limped toward us and Lex, Samuel, and Soren rushed forward, taking away our warrior with the dignity he deserved, leading him away as the rest of the crowd stayed eerily silent, hands reaching out to him as T.J. made no emotion.
He wasn’t overjoyed. He wasn’t proud.
This had all been just a means to an end.
Chapter Seven
Stephan was waiting for him.
I stood back as he worked over him, watching as Lex and Matthews congratulated T.J.. Our eyes met a few times, and I nodded, but what was there to say really that anyone else hadn’t said? I was glad he was alive. I was glad he won. That just meant we were one step closer to putting all this behind us. One step closer to realizing that Gregor wouldn’t have to go in there to fight that lunatic Dumont.
I waited everyone out, until Stephan shooed everyone from the room and sent for aides to take T.J. inside. Hesitantly, I walked up. T.J. reached out and I squeezed his hand. Stephan tried to give us space while also clearly interested in the exchange.
I cleared my throat. “You did good,” I said. “I knew you would.”