“The King and I have both selected fighters,” the Prince continued.“Whoever wins shall determine your fate.Should the King’s fighter win—you will be found guilty of treason and sentenced to death.Should my fighter win—you will be found guilty of treason, yet kept at hand as an attendant.Is that to your liking?”
“No,” Flag-Staff said.
“We could, of course, immediately throw you to the Coliseum floor,” the Prince continued.
“You are a compassionate Lordling, I’ve always said,” Flag-Staff said.
“I have picked Victor Alsace, vampire, and necromancer as my champion.The King has selected Eduardo Gutierrez, vampire and mercenary as his fighter.Whoever so wins will decide your fate.”
“This has been coming for a long time,” Eddie said, from the ground floor of the Coliseum.He was bouncing back and forth on his feet, like a boxer.
“You don’t want to do this, Eddie,” Vic said.He was steadily carving something into the flesh of his right hand.
Eddie darted forward, like a streak of light, and Vic barely dodged in time, slipping and rolling, coming up with something that screamed from his hand like a phaser beam.Eddie bounced and weaved in and out of Coliseum pillars, all decked with carved seaweed.
“Come out and play!”Vic said.
“They may be a bit too into this,” Brother Al whispered to me.
“Maybe this will get it out of their systems,” I said, uncertain.
“How does it feel?To see two men you love fight one another for your affections?”
“I feel dirty,” I said.
“As you should, perhaps,” Brother Al said.“I do not mean to use the intimacy we shared to overstep my boundaries concerning your personal life.But these men are my colleagues and friends.They care for you, each of them deeply.I as well, if I’m being honest.You remember our conversation earlier about Virtuous Men?”
“Yes,” I said, uncomfortable.
“As a Virtuous Man rises to the roles he is placed in, I hope you as well rise to the role you have been placed in.Make yourself and your relationship worth the fight, and they will be happy to throw themselves at each other for eternity.But do not interfere with my brothers as a mere idle way to pass the time.Do you understand?”
“I would never do that,” I said.
“Good.Now, look on what you have wrought.The determination.The violence.You have a charisma that can move mountains, Stacey.Imagine if it fell into the wrong hands.”
Eddie darted around a corner—he was leaping from colonnade to colonnade, avoiding a shadowy tiger that was prowling around the floor, as if searching for some new meat.Eddie saw Vic pass by him below, and he struck like a cobra, with a kick to the chin.Blood flew and hit the ground, marble tile cracked, and the two stared at one another, panting hard.
Then Vic kicked him with a blast of black light that shot Eddie backwards, cracking a support column at the far end of the Coliseum floor.
“I’ll try to avoid taking advantage of it,” I said.
Both of my boyfriends got up, limping towards one another, sneering.Eddie lashed out with a punch.Vic caught it with his fist, which was amplified into a sort of Hulk-sized shadow glove, then cracked Eddie in the skull with his own forehead.More blood splattered to the ground.Eddie’s nose looked weird—squashed, sort of.
“My nothe,” Eddie said.
“Looks like a huge improvement to me,” Vic said.
“I’m so glad vampires have that miracle healing stuff,” I said.“This is not pretty.”
Eddie rallied himself, shaking his head, and then snapped a closed fist forward again, chanting and growling in Spanish.Vic froze as if speared in place.With an explosion of noise and a splatter of gore, Eddie’s fist came out of Vic’s back, clutching a beating heart.
I gasped.Vic began to fall to pieces, scattering into what looked like ash—and I watched, hands grasping onto Brother Al’s arm, a scream in my throat.This was not what I wanted—I heard someone else saying it, muttering it, hysterically, and realized I was talking out loud.
And then the ash began to coalesce again, swirling in the air around Eddie’s closed fist.Veins and a wash of nerves and gore spurted from the beating heart between Eddie’s closed fingers, and soon Vic had built himself a fresh body again.He was skinless—massive, like some sort of giant monster.He used his fleshy mass to pick Eddie up and slam him repeatedly onto the ground.One massive pseudopodal foot held him down, and the other that had swallowed his hand pulled and ripped.Eddie screamed as his arm came off—blood spattered all over.I screamed.Eddie screamed.Vic screamed.Brother Al screamed and nearly fainted.
And then the disembodied arm began to punch the shambling mound of Vic in the face, over and over again.The fleshy mass of Vic shambled backwards, tripping over a hunk of broken column.
It only got worse from there.Nearly a half-hour later, they were both little more than battered husks, collapsing in sync.
