She noticed the other Lupi had fallen to their knees, their bones slowly breaking and skin tearing as they began to transform. The glass ceiling above them showed the full moon high in the sky—a deadly omen for those Lupi who had not yet broken free of its curse.
The crowd began to quieten down as Rook stood from his wooden throne, holding his hands up to address his followers.
“It seems our Norman has organised quite the treat for us tonight! Not only do we have the surviving monsters from this year’s tournaments…”
Adriana stilled as she realised these poor Daemons had been imprisoned for months, perhaps longer. She winced as the audience began to cheer, stomping their feet and spitting down on them all.
“We also have a newcomer this evening, an abomination of humankind, a cross breed Lamia Incantrix. The Blood Witch, turned by the leader of the Lamiae himself!”
Several of the Liberators gasped, but the majority of them only cheered louder and continued to spit down to where Adriana stood. The two Lamiae in the pit backed away from her, eyeing her brands on her arms. She paid them no attention, she only stared up at the poor excuse for a man on his pathetic throne.
Rook gestured to Norman to proceed, who stepped forward and beamed at the crowd.
“I thought you might like this one,” he laughed. He turned his attention to the two mortals in the pit, waving his hand towards them. “And of course, we have our two little blood bags right there, in case our contestants need a boost—”
“How dare you!” Adriana screamed at him, cutting him off. “How can you side with him, with all of them? You’re a Daemon, you’re his brother!”
Norman narrowed his eyes at Adriana, dropping his charming act. His face began to redden to match the colour of his hair, his fingertips burning bright with sparks, ready to conjure a flame.
“Alexander Duran is no brother of mine, he made that very clear when he forced me to leave my position! That fucking idiot can’t ever seem to see when he’s fighting a losing battle. He even fell in love with an Incantrix years ago and believed he’d have a happy ending, that's the type of fool he really is. So I just made sure to pick the right side this time, a side that understands equality in this world is nothing but wishful thinking. A side that wins.”
Norman nodded to one of the guards who activated Adriana’s collar again, making her drop to the floor. She clamped her jaw shut, refusing to let them hear how much pain she was in. Her only silver lining was that Norman clearly did not know who she really was, only what she was.
“And besides,” Norman continued. “I have all the blood I could ever want. Anyone who stands against the Liberators isfree game. Maybe if you survive this fight, you’ll understand and want to join us, Blood Witch.”
Adriana wanted to laugh at him, to tell him where to shove his offer, but her body was still shaking from the effects of the electric shocks.
Rook stood and placed his hand on Norman’s shoulder. “You’ve done us a great service over these last few months, Corley. And when we take control, you will have all of our enemies to choose from.”
Norman smiled at him before stepping back, allowing Rook to have the platform to himself. Adriana shivered at the cruel smile he gave her as he took his seat and waved his hand to the guards. Almost instantly, she felt the electricity from the collar die down, as did all of the other prisoners. Except they weren’t her fellow captives anymore, they were her competition. And the unspoken rules were simple: you fight until you die, or you fight until you’re the last one standing.
The male Lamia ran straight for the Lupus who had already shifted, tearing apart the wolf with ease whilst it was still too distracted by the collar around its neck. He shredded the fur from its body, his talons cutting through flesh and his hands ripping apart its bones until it was just a bloodied carcass on the floor.
The four other Lupi were howling on the floor in pain, still in that torturous place between their human form and wolf form. But Adriana knew it wouldn’t take much longer for them to fully shift, and so she brought the mortal woman and her son behind her, shielding them from any incoming attacks.
The female Lamia seemed to know this, too. Without hesitation, she pounced on one of the Lupus men writhing on the floor as his broken bones began to reshape and fur sprouted from his skin. She sank her teeth into his throat below his collar, her talons cutting into his sides as she held him down and drankdeeply. Adriana could see she was starving, but she wasn’t just drinking to feed, she was drinking to kill.
The crowd went wild, clearly enjoying the bloody chaos. She had to put a stop to it; she knew what Daemon conflict meant, she knew what chaos it could bring.
Adriana turned to the mortal woman and harshly told her, “Stay back, keep your son hidden from them,” before she ran at the female Lamia, grabbing her round the waist and tackling her to the floor.
The Lamia growled at her, her talons coming to slash Adriana across the face, but she rolled away just in time so she only scratched her cheek and nose. Adriana quickly got to her feet, remembering her sparring lessons from Xander from when she was mortal about how to take down bloodthirsty Lamia, and waited for the woman to make her move.
Hunger could make a predator deadly, but it also made them desperate. And desperation was a weakness to be used against a Lamia.
As the woman ran towards her, talons held high in an attempt to slash her throat, Adriana dodged to the side and grabbed the woman’s arm, snapping it backward until she heard a sickening crunch. She had to stop herself from apologising as she grabbed the woman’s head and smacked it against the bars of the pit.
Her body dropped to the floor, unconscious but still alive. The Lupus she had attacked was bleeding profusely, and wouldn’t last much longer.
Two of the Lupi had fully shifted and were fighting one another, their snapping jaws tearing at each other’s flesh. Adriana noticed one of them was becoming sloppy as exhaustion and hunger attacked their body, but they’d managed to tear a chunk of flesh out the other’s side. It wouldn’t take long for them to bleed out.
She turned to the mortal woman, only to find she had been pinned up against the bars by the male Lamia as he ripped through her chest with his teeth. Adriana ran towards them but was knocked to the side by the final Lupus who had just shifted, its teeth getting far too close to her. She knew the Mordet bite was toxic to Lamia. If she was bitten, she wouldn’t turn into a Lupus. Instead, she would die a slow, painful death.
As the Lupus went to charge at her again, she timed its pounce and ducked beneath it, grabbing its hind legs and throwing it over her head. It landed on its shoulder, howling out in pain as it struggled to get up before passing out. It must have been weak to have lost consciousness from just one fall; all of these Daemons were weak. They weren’t meant to win this fight.
Adriana looked up to Rook who was still smiling down at her, realising that he wantedherto be their champion, he wanted her to stay as their prized fighter. The great Blood Witch.
She tore her eyes away to help the young mortal boy who was screaming for his mother as she lay twitching on the ground while the male Lamia fed from her torn apart chest. As the woman stopped convulsing on the floor, the Lamia slowly stood and approached the boy, his talons and fangs dripping with blood.
