She hadn’t answered my questions however. Which was awesome and didn’t at all make my stomach churn. Warm fuzzies all around.
I jolted with a jangle of chains when the platform jerked, then started rising with a deep rumble of moving stone. It stopped with a thud at maybe twenty or so feet, giving me an excellent vantage point of the arena.
Horns thrummed… and the crowd absolutely lost their minds. The roar of the cheers overwhelmed the horns and the sound of huge stone gates sliding open, pulled by nearly naked males, revealing a corridor shrouded in darkness. I had to focus every ounce of my energy into keeping my mind on the chill of Imma’s emotions somewhere above me.
My focus wavered and my heart pounded in my chest as two goddamned fell beast* looking motherfuckers trotted out of the blackness, their fangs catching the light of the sun, drool dripping to the ground. Smoke rose from wherever the drool touched the stone, and when their great heads swung in my direction, I shuddered at the sight. They were black all over, but had such thin black skin on their skulls that it looked like bare bone, like an elongated bear skull headed monster. Their mouths opened wide to release a piercing screech, like a horribly warped eagle cry, and goosebumps spread as it rose in volume until even the roaring of the crowd was pushed to the background.
Their hollow, all consuming hunger that tasted of ash with the coppery tang of old blood overloaded Imma’s cold, and it made my stomach roil in protest. Saliva flooded my mouth and I had to swallow hard several times to avoid throwing up in front of the crowd.
When their screeching ended they moved forward. The animals had a back covered in rust colored spines that looked from my position to be at least wrist thick, and dagger sharp. Long whip-like tails snapped back and forth like a hunting cat as they prowled on too long legs in opposite directions, heading to flank the platform I was chained to.
“O…kay. Not good.” I jerked at the cuffs around my wrists, twisting to look up at the ring that secured the chains to the post. It was thick as hell, and there was no way I was going to be breaking it anytime soon. I sighed, trying to keep the pout off my face, and faced the beasties again. “Any time now, Rema.”
The crowd roared again, shifting like a wave, most pointing at the arena wall behind me. I twisted again on my tiptoes, just enough to peek behind the post.
My jaw dropped, eyes widening enough to strain.
Rema was standing just inside an open doorway, short swords in his secondary hands, and a long spear in his right primary hand, the glint of the narrow spearhead catching the light like a signal mirror. His wings were spread wide in a power display… revealing that he was wearing what was essentially a speedo, only it appeared to be leather, and hung looser over his crotch. Sweet baby Jesus, he was wearing a loincloth!
God was real, and I was his favorite.
All of Rema’s muscles were on display, from his well shaped calves, to his thick thighs, up to abs I could wash my clothes on. He had the chest and shoulders of a fucking god. I had done something in my life to deserve this, but I didn’t know what it was.
“Bless me Father, because I am going tosin,”I whispered to myself, eyes searing into Rema’s loincloth from across the arena. The bulge was impressively large.
My intense focus on trying to develop X-ray vision was interrupted by a screech and scratching sound from below me. I jerked forward as far as I could on the chains, tiptoeing to gain a little more height to see over the rim of the pillar, and caught a glimpse of a swirling black tail just below me.
“Uh, Rema. Any time now would be nice, thank you.”
Not that I couldn’t kill the little beasties with my vines, but this was his show. I was going to be a proper damsel in distress. I wish they’d let me stay in my nightgown or thrown me into some flimsy dress. It would have really set the scene.
Rema’s grin halted the breath in my lungs as he shot into the air with a single powerful flap of his wings. A flower bloomed on my cheekbone, just below my eye, the petals hitting my bottom lashes. I shook my face, trying to blow at it to get it out of my eye, but to no avail. Stupid ass flower. I rubbed my cheek on my arm, tearing it off. It pulled at my skin a little as it went, and I grimaced at the feeling. Other flowers had bloomed on my collar bone, and I could feel a few more on my legs and arms, saturating the air with my scent while I was being actively hunted. Damned inconvenient, being a plant monster.
I kept my eyes on Rema, even when he flew into the light of the star, and gasped when he folded his wings and shot down like a rocket, impaling one of the fell beasts with his spear. I couldn’t actually see where he’d hit it, only that he had by the death cry it gave. I was straining to see over the rim of the pillar as Rema grunted in surprise, and the other fell beast roared in pain.
I jerked against the chains in frustration, about to have my vines snap them when Rema shot up into the air again, landing several feet away from me. He pointed his bloodied spear at me, wings spread wide and muscles glistening, with a shit eatinggrin plastered across his face. Spicy chocolate drifted to me from him—pure male arrogance— and then his face hardened as the remaining fell beast charged him with an ear splitting shriek of rage. The crowd roared, coming to their feet and waving red flags in the air like football fans.
“Whooooo! Kill it! Kill it, Rema!”
A flash of a smile, and then his sword cut through flesh and bone, severing the beast's head from its body, and spraying him in nasty looking yellow blood at the same time. The arena shook with the sound of Neldres screaming. Rema took the moment to raise all four arms in the air and shake them, swords and spear still in hand, playing to the crowd. Then he dropped his arms and looked at me. I damn near spontaneously caught on fire from the heat of his gaze, the scorching chai flavor potent even with the distance between us. It promisedsoon.
We didn’t have time to make out though, which is really a terrible shame because I was chained to a pole and wanted to experiment with that, but the chanting of the crowd drew my attention away from Rema and to the doorway where the beasts had come from.
My eyes narrowed to slits when I saw ten Neldre males gliding out on flared wings into the arena. They touched their feet to the ground in a semicircle, walking with purpose towards us. They were wearing full armor to Rema’s mostly naked body, and at least two that I could see had a firearm strapped to their hips. That was cheating! I bared my teeth at them, jerking forward on my chains until my body was a bow.
Rema looked over his shoulder and then back at me before shrugging with a lazy grin and a wink. Teaching aliens human expressions was seriously coming back to haunt me, because this was an outrage. He turned to face the new threat with his wings spread wide as if he was blocking me from their view even though I was a good two or three feet above his head. The spreadwings made way for a perfect view of his broad, heavily muscled back, obstructed only by the loose curtain of his dark hair. His pearly skin glistened with sweat and the yellow blood of the slain fell beasts, and his luscious backside was on full display for me as well, the leather of his gladiator loincloth hugging each curved ass cheek like a lover. Man, what I had been thinking about? Something, something, bitch ass cheaters… Oh yeah!
What in the actual fuck? I’d told them I didn’t want other challengers. I was so not interested in any other male but Rema. Heads were going to roll over this.
“Hey! Queen scary lady! Get your tall ass down here.”
I couldn’t see where she’d gone, but suddenly she was in front of me, the winter chill coating my tongue and damn near making my teeth ache from the cold. She folded her wings closed behind her with a snap, and the wind from her arrival buffeted me back against the pole.
“Scary? I don’t believe I’m scary. Tall, yes, but scary?” The Queen huffed, her secondary hands on her hips with her primary hands crossed over her armored chest.
I snorted. “You are so full of shit. But we’ll discuss your nightmare visage another time. The fuck is up with that?” I said, leaning to the side to point with my chin at the males closing in on Rema, who was standing before my pillar in a casual stance, twirling one of his short swords in a lazy circle.
The Queen glanced over her shoulder. “Ah, yes. The challengers. There were strict instructions that none were to come forth, as per your preference. But it would seem someone is trying to cause mischief,” she said, returning her six eyed gaze to mine.
