“I have no idea who you are.”
He wasn’t focused on me like he should be, giving me the perfect opening to rush him, using my momentum to smash right into him, sword first.
It cut through a gap in his shirt, piercing his chest. I couldn’t easily get to his heart, not from this angle, but I hurt him badly.
He threw me off, and I rolled effortlessly to end up across the ring. Noise exploded, and it was like my ears had just started working again. I’d been so focused on the enemy before me that I’d completely forgotten we weren’t alone here.
“Get up,” Rafe snarled, his face down near mine. “Stop playing with him, V. Finish him off.”
I blinked at him, and in that stare, I realized what he was saying. He was giving me permission to kill Brandon, and he’d help me cover it up. All that power and the resources I didn’t have… Rafe was going to lend me his.
Some girls wanted flowers, but this… this was my fucking date material.
With a nod, I flung myself up, fingers tightening around the handle. But Brandon was halfway across the fight arena, bleeding everywhere and hunched over like he was barely able to stand.
“The Dean forfeits the match,” the announcer calls. “He is henceforth blacklisted from participating or watching these nights. Strip him of his weapons.”
“No!” I shouted, rushing forward. “Finish, you fucking coward.”
Brandon spun around, and I wished I could see his face to try and figure out what his endgame was here. I mean, he didn’t have to forfeit and give up all rights. He could have just tapped out once I had him down. Or he might have expected I’d knock him out. That was what usually happened, so there was no way he knew...
His lips curled, and I had a flash of insight. He did know...
He’d figured out who I was, and he knew I planned to kill him.
This was a bitch move to save his own neck.
A smile tilted up my lips, and I deliberately swung my blade around, letting his blood fly off it in a pretty arc. “I don’t need an organized fight to finish you,” I said, low enough that only he would hear over the noise of the crowd. “There’s nowhere you can hide.” I leaned in really close, and he flinched. “I’m really going to enjoy this. Good luck, Brandon.”
A pained moan left his lips, and his hands pressed to his injured side. No one helped him from the ring, and I stared him down the entire ten minutes it took him to haul his ass out of there and disappear through the tunnels.
“Come on, V,” Nolan said, appearing out of nowhere. Those green eyes of his were sparkling—he’d enjoyed that fight. “Time to watch the master at work.”
Ah, that could only mean one thing.
It was the main event.
Fallen Angel was fighting.
Chapter 21
When I watched Rafe move about the fight ring, I marveled at his skill.
How the fuck was he even real? No one, and I mean no one I’d ever seen in my life, moved like he did. He fought with dancing, fluid strokes of his body, using it as a weapon. I saw no blades on him, even though his opponent had a pair of short throwing axes, which were pretty much useless against someone as fast as Rafe. That was Goat God’s first mistake. His second was calling himself Goat God, and his third was fighting at all tonight.
Rafe dispatched him in about forty seconds, leaving the Goat bleeding and broken with one of his own axes embedded in his thigh.
“I mean, if people are paying money for these fights, they really should find someone better for Ra—uh—Fallen Angel,” I murmured to Jordan and Nolan, who were lingering near me.
Nolan snorted. “They’ve tried. It’s reached the point where no one decent will sign up to fight him, and he’s left with the idiots who want to prove themselves.”
That was a problem because I had to admit, watching Rafe fight had my body wound up tight, and I really wanted to see more than half a minute of action.
Although there was a remote possibility I might orgasm from that, so maybe this was safest.
“So, it’s over now?” I asked as people started to move. Quickly, without acknowledgement of each other, the crowds dispersed. It was much less insane than the last couple of times when guards had broken up the fight.
“Do you think Rafe meant it when he said he told his guards not to come looking for this again?” I couldn’t think of what reason he would have given, but he’d seemed sure they wouldn’t show up.
