I dove, driving myself down with my wings. I was injured and nearly at my limit, the high I’d received from taking his blood almost gone, but I wouldn’t stop. I didn’t know howmuch damage the fall might do to Artol, so I vowed to be there to finish him off when he landed.
He hit the ground with his feet, sacrificing his legs to absorb the impact. Bones crunched.
Good. The asshole deserved as much.
I hit him hard, driving him to the ground, even as he tried to claw my already torn up legs. His head cracked against the earth and his eyes rolled back. He went limp, but I didn’t stop. I followed up with punches, driving my fists into his face and didn’t let up until Essyma called the fight.
“Spirits!” Essyma said to me, wide-eyed. “Now that’s the sort of thing I want to see from you every fucking day!”
“Getting my legs shredded so I can’t even walk?” I hissed in pain as I flopped to the ground beside Artol. “How’s that useful?”
“You won, didn’t you?” she said simply. “We’ll work on not getting torn up later, for now, it’s that level of spirit I want to see in you every time you fight.”
“Got it, boss,” I said, panting.
“You’ve earned the right to see that dominion match. I’ll even chip in for a healer to get you on your feet again, but only just. You need a reminder of how far you have to go.”
That was unusually kind of her. Shifters rarely got magical healing.
A healer was summoned, for myself and Artol, since I’d nearly killed the wolf.
Artol wouldn’t forget this. He’d be out for blood even more the next time we faced off.
Let him come. I had to survive, for Izzy. That bond-driven imperative had made the difference today. Perhaps I could use it every day.
And I had to hope he’d been talking trash during thatfight. Between that damned nose of his, and my own reactions to his words, he’d guessed at something which was far too close to the truth. I had to hope he’d forget about it…
…because if he didn’t, and he told the wrong person…
…I’d be in deep shit.
AMARHUK (ROOK)
This wasthe last place in the entire world I wanted to be. I still couldn’t believe my master had forced me to help Izzy. I’d been trying to stay away from her, for my own health and sanity, but here I was, by her side, facing down a psychopath. Not that I wouldn’t have ended up here eventually. As much as I wished to avoid her, I still couldn’t let anything happen to Izzy. I wanted her away from me, not dead. Just because I couldn’t let myself fall for her, didn’t mean I wouldn’t help her if she needed it.
Still…
Now my life was on the line and my relationship with her out in the open. Well, not exactly how I felt, but that I’d sided with her. I’d have a huge fucking target on my back after this.
Assuming I survived.
And that was far from a given.
Our plan was sound, but what was that human realm saying? Something about no plan surviving contact with the enemy? Exactly.
Saldrea was powerful, as were each of her companions. Iknew exactly how powerful Hana was specifically. I’d had a fling with her a couple years back. Well,I’dthought it was a fling, but she’d gotten attached and kept dragging me back to her, dominating my mind to make me love her. She was a truly sick little woman, and I didn’t like the way she was grinning at me now. Luckily — if I could say anything good had come from our horrid time together— I could resist her mental domination now.
Concubi fed off lust and sex. We drained it from our partners, not enough to harm them, but enough to feed ourselves. What most people didn’t know was that if a concubi fed off the same partner for a prolonged period, they’d start to take more than just their lust, they’d learn their partner’s powers.
From Hana, I’d eventually gleaned how to protect my mind, and I’d acquired a limited telepathy. That was how I’d been able to speak into Izzy’s mind. It was limited in that I could only connect with one person at a time, and oddly, ever since I’d connected with Izzy… I hadn’t been able to let go.
I still got stray thoughts from her from time to time… especially when they were screaming loud… like last night… twice. I hadn’t needed to know how good of an orgasm that damned seraph could give her.
I pushed those thoughts aside. They wouldn’t help me now. I needed to focus on the fight to come. It would take everything I had to win this.
“We can do this,” Izzy whispered to each of us. “Keep to the plan.”
A dominion match started with the ringing of a massive bell to one side of the field. The ringing of that same bell would also signal the end of the match; it was something loud enough that everyone should hear it.
