Beasthood (The Hidden Blood Series) (47 page)

             
She crushed the paper into her palm, instinctively feeling that she needed to keep the nature of her exchange between Njord secret, not because he'd told her to, and stuffed it into her jeans pocket.

             
She then stood up scanning around the arena for Alf.

             
Where the hell was he?

                                                                                    *

“Has it worked?” Carr questioned.

“
It helped. But I can't keep this up for long. Kain is strong, and he's not tiring out as quickly as I'd hoped,” Nik wheezed.

             
Stephanie shook her head unhappily. “I don't understand why they don't have a cut off point.”

“
Oh they do,” Carr said to her. “If it loses its entertainment value, they'll mix it up with fire and booby traps or weapons. Or other Weres from the same or different Packs just to spice it up. They can be pretty creative.”

“
Why haven't they then?”

             
Carr shrugged.

“
They will,” Nik replied as if he was putting Stephanie at ease. It had the opposite effect. “Round four is usually where it gets... real... interesting.” He chuckled.

             
Stephanie watched him anxiously, knowing his slow speech was due to his inability to breathe normally.

“
Sometimes they do a different thing in each round. But, I guess, because this isn't an ordinary duel. It's between Pack Leaders. They like to drag it out,” Carr added, trying to uncrease his furrowed brow with his fingers.

“
Here.” Stephanie pressed another cup of coffee to Nik's chest. He gulped it down. “Need to be sick?”

             
He shook his head.

             
She checked his heart with her stethoscope whilst Nik wiped his mouth. The saliva was dripping out of it like rain. Both his head and chest felt like they were being hacked at with an ice pick. “You're pulse is low.”

“
That's good right?” Carr perked up, slapping Nik on the back.

             
Stephanie shook her head, dropping the ear piece of her stethoscope round her neck. “No. His pulse is abnormally low. It's weak. The poison is still going strong. Eat some more acorns, keep awake with the coffee. There's nothing else I can do right now.”

                                                                                    *

“Where have you be-?” Alf looked so furious Jaz cut off the last of her sentence to stare at him. “What happened?”

“
Those twats won't allow the duel to stop. Even though Nik's clearly been ill!”

“
Why!?” she charged. “It's cheating! It HAS to be cheating!”

“
It is. But until they have proper proof they can't halt the fight.”

“
Are they dense!? For fuck sake he might be dead by then! Are they gonna wait long enough to test the blood from his corpse! And if he doesn't die from the poison, will they even test him!?”

             
He shook his head -more at the injustice of it than in answer to her question- rubbing his fingers through his hair angrily. “Okay, look, for the past three rounds, it's been plain hand to hand combat. All in the cage.”

“
O-kay?” Jaz did not like the tone in his voice. He was treading on eggshells round her, which instantly set off alarm bells.

“
But they have to make it more interesting for the crowd.” Jaz gazed levelly at him. He squinted as if in pain, “So they basically told me that this round, they're gonna do just that.”

“
How?”

“
I don't know. But this round will end it either way.”

“
End it?” He gave her a solemn look. She exhaled sharply. “We need to do something, Alf. We can't just sit here.”

“
Nik told me not to put you in harms way. I already broke that promise bringing you here.”

“
Then
why
did you?” she demanded, her voice bitter.

“
Because...” And the roar of the crowd drowned out any words he might have said.

             
They both looked down as Nik appeared.

             
Kain strode out at the same time, looking cleaner, some of his less serious wounds had already healed, though his right leg had a hefty bandage wrapped round it, his collarbone looked questionable and his torso was black and blue. Jaz wondered what it had looked like before he'd started to heal and then thought with anger that she didn't give a shit.

             
Nik's minor wounds had also started to heal, Jaz noticed, though he looked very battered and bruised.

             
Alf explained as the two men approached the cage that despite Nik being the stronger fighter in most of the rounds, Kain had inflicted the most damage because Nik had been blocking more than attacking.

             
Kain hit whatever he could. His blows weren't very accurate and at times sloppy, but he was fast with them and the odds of hitting a decent spot were inevitable.

             
Nik never missed. His blows were always unerring and meticulous. He knew the anatomy, the weak spots, the places that hurt the most, that caused the greatest damage. But Alf had heard from others that Nik had seemed weak, out of breath and in a daze several times, which had gotten worse the longer he'd been in there, and that was when Kain's attacks had done serious harm.

             
Jaz gritted her teeth, trying to drown out Alf's commentary after that as she had to painfully endure Nik hobbling to the cage.

             
One guard on each side of the cage opened a door. Kain went through the furthest one, Nik through his. They stood at opposite ends, sizing each other up.

             
Then the voice of a judge; Jaz focused on the box to find the owner a middle-aged man with big teeth and dark wispy hair that was caked in half a tub of hair gel, announce,

“
For the fourth round, the judges have decided that the two opponents must face each other in their Beast form, starting now!” The crowd drowned out his rumbling voice and went manic.

             
Jaz stared in horror and disgusted awe as Kain's body contorted and twisted and crunched until it didn't look at all human. His roars and howls were spine-chilling. It sent shivers through every inch of her. But then she realized it wasn't because of him.

             
Something was wrong.

“
Why isn't he Changing?” Alf barked. “Why the fuck isn't he Changing!?”

             
Jaz gaped at Nik who was standing completely still. Not even attempting to Change. Kain's spine cracked and the dark brown hair began pushing through, covering his Changing body. His jaw crunched as it lengthened. Jaz was transfixed on two things at once that it took her a moment to react.

             
She jumped up. “He
can't
Change,” she uttered in a low voice, mostly to herself. Alf heard her and the air in his lungs felt like a ball coated in spikes. “Jesus Alf, he can't bloody Change! He must be too weak!” she cried in panic. She clamped her hands to her mouth just as the Beast Kain, now fully Changed, lunged straight for Nik.

             
Before she knew what she was doing, she jumped forward, tripping over the thigh-high barrier. She felt Alf's hand whip past her, just missing a grip on her arm before she saw the sand floor of the arena below her, rushing towards her. She held out her hands just in time to try to soften the fall before she slammed into the ground. The wind was knocked out of her and she wheezed loudly.

             
Half the crowd turned in her direction, some pointing at her, the other half who hadn't yet seen her had their eyes glued to the cage. She cocked her head up, saw the Beast's teeth about to shred Nik's arm to pieces when her view was blocked by someone's back as  they pounded towards the cage. One by one, five more jumped down from behind her,  dodging her as they raced towards the metal dome.

             
She saw two more spring out from the barrier containing the pulsing crowd on the other side. The two, followed by the others, caused an uproar in the crowd and Judges Stand. Jaz saw the two cage guards knocked out on the floor, and then Jaz felt an arm around her, yanking her to her feet. She thought it was Alf but when she saw him already at the cage fighting off one of four more guards, she wheeled round to face the cold, beautiful eyes of her enemy. “Fraya!” she barked, teeth bared.

             
She was so violently angry at her, after knowing in her gut, this cold-hearted bitch had killed her sister and her unborn child. She wanted to squeeze the life out of her and enjoy watching it. But the watery, suffering look of Fraya's eyes stopped her. Left her confused and stunned.

“
Need a hand?”

             
Jaz studied her suspiciously but urgency kicked her into action.

             
She ignored her, turned and bolted across the sand floor, jumping over and around people fighting, throwing punches at each other. She couldn't tell who was with her or against her. She didn't care. She just needed to see if Nik was alive.

             
Beast Kain was roaming around the cage, pacing back and forth. Nik was in the middle still standing.

             
Alf was pushing others back from the cage. The guards had been knocked out, the hair-gel judge was screeching into his microphone, calling for order.

             
It was then the balls of fire shot out from nowhere. Jaz screamed as one hurled in her direction. Those in front of her path ducked, and she dived to the side just in time. Then there was another from a different direction, coming from her left this time. She ran forward. Then another, and another. All from at least six different places. The fire balls were being shot from some kind of gun fixed into the stone barrier just below the crowd.

             
The heat of the balls turned the arena into Hell itself. She kept on running but was stopped in her path as more fireballs in quicker succession exploded out into the arena.

             
They seemed to miss the cage, aiming only at those who'd disrupted the fight.

             
Some of the people dispersed as quickly as they could. But others weren't so lucky.

             
Jaz cried out when a man next to her, not much older than she was, was hit in the chest by a fireball. His clothes were melted to his torso and the skin was burnt off like candle wax. He held his burnt flesh, and it was then Jaz saw the enormous hole in his body. His intestines, stomach, liver completely burnt away, his spine was visible, charcoal black and smoking. The stench was so unbearable she sagged over her bent knees, clutching her stomach as she retched acid water.

             
He was crying, trying to find parts of his body that weren't there. As his hands scrambled around his stomach, more skin slid away like red-hot melted cheese. And then he held up his burnt hands screaming because he'd rubbed away the flesh and muscle from them, leaving nothing but charred bone.

             
Jaz held her hand to her mouth not noticing the fireball hurtling towards her but before she was a human barbecue someone knocked her forward from behind, holding her down before it could hit.

             
She swung round to find Fraya again. She wanted to swear at her, come up with a nasty retort but the horror of what she'd seen stupefied her.

“
Go!” Fraya bellowed, pushing her up from her lower back.

             
Jaz jumped to her feet, avoiding the dead charred bodies, dodging past the five one on one combats still going on even with the raging fireballs shooting out. She wanted to scream at them to get out of there, but she needed them to be distracted. Because she knew at least half of them would try and stop her. Fraya included as she yelled at her to stop before Jaz pulled open the enormous bolt on the door of the cage and jumped in.

             
Just in time to catch Beast Kain slicing Nik across the stomach. Nik was already doubled over,  clutching his chest and breathing so weakly he sounded like a man on the brink of death.

             
The stench of vomit was overpowering. It was his. He was sweating, clearly in agony, with several claw slashes across his stomach, back, both arms and the top of his right leg that was shaking now as he struggled to stay standing.

             
She ran forward, forgetting the Beast Kain, his sharp claws, the fact he could kill her in one blow, and sprang in front of Nik, shielding him as Beast Kain jumped forward. He skidded on his hind legs, startled by the unexpected victim. Then she saw his jaws contort into a menacing grin.