Celine just waved her hand behind her, refusing to take her eyes off the fight. I would be a little offended if it weren’t for the fact the fight was getting good. This time, Wilson had Conick on the floor in a full armbar.
“Conick is a goner,” Dino called out confidently, but Celine scoffed.
“Are you using your eyes? That dark-haired kid is wily and has already made three almost-completed recoveries. He is going to turn it around in the next ten seconds.” Dino glared at Celine, but she didn't take her eyes off the fight. Literally six seconds later, Conick miraculously got out, and she threw her chin at the kid. “Told ya.”
I expected Dino to storm off, cuss, do something like normal. However, all he did was smile at her, almost like she walked right into his trap.
Conick threw a solid right hook and connected it with an uppercut, and Wilson was out. They screamed for Conick, but it was short-lived when they started to take the next fighters out.
“Say, since you are pretty good at this kind of stuff, what if you go in the ring and show these kids how it's done?” What the fuck was he doing? I didn't want her to go fight, even if she might kick their asses. What was up his sleeve?
She slowly turned towards him, her face doing the best impression of Gears as she said, “Does anything go, or are these non-magical rules?” Just as she asked that, two wolves growled and jumped at each other, going for each other’s throats. The three of us turned to them at the same time, watching the razor-sharp teeth snapping at each other.
“Anything goes...” Dino said, but then thought about it and added, “Except for your siren song. We can't have you winning just because they look at you, and you sing them to forfeit.”
She laughed, looking at him with fury in her eyes. “Don't worry your asshole little head about it. I don't ever use that unless the job calls for it, and two, I can't sing you in wolf form.” She snapped her head back to the fight as both Dino and I looked at each other. Well, that was new information.
“Okay. You’ll be up next,” Dino said as he tried to walk away, and I excused myself from Celine’s side as I caught up to him.
I grabbed his shoulder. “What the fuck are you doing?”
He shrugged me off. “It's what she wants.” I gave him a knowing look, and he rolled his eyes. “Just let her fight. I want to see how she does.”
“What is your angle?” Before he even got to answer that, someone behind us called the next fight, and Dino’s face instantly smiled.
“You know, she just jumped over the rope to get in, right?”
I turned and saw that she wasn't in the spot I had left her, and I ran back to the edge. My heart started to beat a mile a minute. My mind came up with all the ways that she was hurt and lying on the floor crying for me. I quickly looked down into the pit and saw her stretching her arm over her head. As soon as she saw me, she waved and gave me a thumbs-up.
Why the fuck was I so worried? She was an assassin, for god's sake. She could take care of herself against one fucking man. Then I saw the man that came out.
It was Duke. Duke was the only guy on the compound that could keep up with Rabid and Bricks. He was built like a seven-foot lumberjack, and Celine was a five-foot-five woman in jeggings. I didn't like this. I didn't like this at all.
I looked over at Dino, about to yell at him for starting this all in the first place, when his own eyes shined with regret. He was frowning down, eyes flicking from Duke to her, and I could see his hesitation. Before either of us could do anything, the whistle sounded, both of us looking down as they went at each other.
Duke, at first, tried to use a grab and take-down move, but Celine slid and ducked right under his arms. I don't know how she did it, but she looked like she was on an invisible skateboard. She turned around, smiling at Duke as he frowned at his hands and turned around.
She waved her hand in a come get me motion, and Duke did not like that. He growled out into the air before he launched himself at her again, but, this time, he changed into a wolf midair. I was about to warn her when I saw her confident smile.
She waved her hand in front of herself, causing a mirror of water to cover her completely. As soon as he jumped through, mouth wide open and ready to take her down, all he caught was air. She had used the water to not only hide but as a distraction for her to slide underneath him, grab on his hind legs, and slam him into the ground.
He landed with a loud flop, and she quickly got up and circled her arms around his neck, wrapping her legs around his body and squeezing with all of her might. He started to whine, trying with all his might to shake her off, but he couldn't. She was locked in on him.
It wasn't long before he shifted into human form and tapped her arm. She let go immediately and stood up. The whole pit was silent for a beat until she lifted her hands, and the whole crowd went wild. She fucking did it.
I looked over to Dino, prepared to gloat my ass off, when I saw him stiffly walking away. Whatever he was planning wasn't going to happen, and that, for some reason, made me happy.
People kept trying to snag her attention. Talk to her about the fight. About where she trained. About her life in general. After a while, she gave me a look that said she wanted out, and I obliged.
“Hey, do you want to go somewhere with me?” She looked around and nodded as she mouthed, ‘anywhere.’ I yanked her through the crowd, telling them all to fuck off, and they took the hint.
“Where are you taking me?” She asked as I took her back the way we came.
“Since it's starting to get late, I thought it would be nice to have the best view of the sunset.” My chest felt tight as I realized that I really wanted her to have a good time with me, and I was a little nervous for the first time since I was a young boy. This woman made me feel like that. Made me have feelings I had before my life was changed forever. It was like she was bringing the innocence back, even though we were both full adults that knew all the hardships and pain life brought.
I saw her face light up as she realized where I was taking her. “How do you know where I’m going?”
She flashed those angel blue eyes at me before she sucked in a long breath and, on the exhale, said, “Because I can feel it. I felt the moisture growing and the call in my heart being tugged.”
