Beasthood (The Hidden Blood Series) (48 page)

             
She heard his growl rise from deep in his chest and shouted back so that anyone close enough could hear,“Pack Leader Kain has poisoned my Pack Leader and I
demand
a re-match!” The power and volume of her voice was surprising. It echoed throughout the arena like she was hooked to a microphone.

             
There was a moment of hush as the crowd settled down. The fireballs had stopped. Bodies had been left on the sand and most of the fighters had dispersed back into the crowd. Only Alf, Fraya and a four others she didn't know stood by the cage, trying to shield themselves there.

             
The hair-gel judge's speaking authority was taken over by another man, who's hair and beard were bright ginger; his face didn't look more than forty-five years old. He leaned into his microphone, his hands clasped in front of him. “You have proof he has been poisoned?”

“
Test his blood!” She called back.

“
The fight cannot be postponed.”

“
Why the hell not!? It already is!” She screeched.

             
Nik had collapsed onto the floor. He didn't seem to know where he was, or that she was even there. What could she do? Why wouldn't they just do the test and have a re-match? He couldn't fight. Did they want him dead?

Yes.
She thought with realization.
For whatever reason, they don't want him to win. That must be it.
“He cannot fight!” she shouted across the arena, her voice carrying to every corner. “Use your eyes and you can see that yourself!” she barked, holding her hand out towards him.

             
The judge thought for a moment. “Then, while you're so conveniently in there, because of your disruption of this fight, the least you can do is fight in his stead.”

“
No!” Alf bellowed.

             
The judge didn't look his way.

“
What?” Jaz croaked.

             
The judge smiled, his orange beard, suddenly not giving him the funny, Clown-At-The-Children's-Party appearance she'd imagined at first. He had eyes like a pouncing crocodile. “In Nik's condition, and your obvious inferiority,” she scowled at him, “the two of you just even out the playing field.”

             
The door of the cage was bolted shut mechanically and Alf stretched his arm frantically through the bars, roaring her name, but was drowned out by the frenzied, blood-thirsty crowd.

             
And then the fight began.

             
Jaz had a moment to whip her head back to see Nik on his hands and knees, his head down, before Beast Kain threw her across the cage. Her back smacked into the metal bars before she fell to the floor in a heap. She forgot her pains at the sight of the Beast looming over Nik.

             
She jumped up. Hurtling towards Beast Kain, she knocked into his muscular back putting him off balance from his standing position. He fell forward just missing Nik who had the good sense to lean to the side at the right time.

             
Beast Kain swung round, pounded after Jaz and hammered into her before she could move. She gasped unable to breathe before he had her pinned against the cage wall, his claws forking into her neck. The blood flowed freely from the wounds and she had stars in her vision. Her chest was constricted and of what little she could breathe felt like she was inhaling acid.

“
I'm gonna enjoy this,”
he growled frighteningly.

             
His head then suddenly jerked forward and he dropped her just before buckling forward into the cage bars.

             
Jaz focused on Nik as he barely stood there, his shoulders sagging, his fist bloody and clenched. She hurriedly crawled away from the momentarily unconscious Beast, not able to look Nik in the face. He was so weak she didn't recognize him, and she was afraid if she saw it in his eyes, she'd know it was the end for them both.

             
Suddenly, Beast Kain's claw cracked against Nik, slicing his cheek and sending him flying back.  The force knocked the wind out of him and made him throw up.

             
Jaz screamed after him just as Beast Kain was about to strike.

             
She jumped in between them, felt her right hand tingle, allowed it, releasing the sensation and letting it take over. Her fingers lengthened, the nails hardened and grew into razor sharp claws. The Change in her hand happened within the time it took her to dive in front of Nik, shield him, and when her face met Beast Kain's, she slashed him across the throat. He made a choked gurgling sound, clasping his hand to the blood gushing wound as he jumped back in alarm. Jaz smiled at him despite the voice in her head telling her it was a very stupid idea.

             
He took it badly.

             
His claws lifted up ready to maim, his long jaw opened wide, revealing blood-soaked, razor teeth. She held her ground, trying not to scream. Then came a whistle of metal. A spray of blood. Beast Kain stopped mid-stride, his eyes frozen wide, then glazed over, and he crashed to the floor like a rhino.

             
Jaz hid her hand but there was no need. It had morphed back.

             
She stared down at the body of Beast Kain. A bullet hole in his head.

             
What had just happened?

             
Then there was havoc. The crowd roared and cheered. It took a moment for Jaz to realize they thought she'd killed him. But then they must have wondered how she could have slashed his throat when she hadn't Changed? Right then, that was the least of her worries.

             
The clank of the cage doors as they opened caught her attention and then Nik's hand touched hers. She looked back to see him kneeling on the floor his head knocked back to look into her eyes. A faint smile on his bloody, pale face. She bent down to grab him, but a loud, bellowing bray that sounded like...

             
She turned and her eyes widened, filled with the light of the fireball about to hit her. Nik lunged forward, just pulling her down in time, but it didn't really matter.

             
The fireball had found a new target.

             
Alf stood in front of them as a human shield, the fireball smashed against the side of his fist and forearm. Whatever material the ball part of the fire had been broke off into several pieces, hitting the bars. Flecks of fire spat out just shy of the crowd.

             
Alf wasn't so lucky. Most of his hand and forearm were completely burnt to the bone, his face red and bloody like it had been hit with shrapnel.

             
He was about to clutch his face but the memory of the man's skin sliding off his bones made Jaz cry out, “Don't!” She sprang up holding the elbows of his jacket that weren't singed from the fire, away from his damaged skin. Choking on her tears she shrieked, “Why did you do that!?” She could barely recognize his face or her own voice. Underneath all the blood and burnt skin, she didn't know if he'd ever look the same again.

“
I made a promise,” he said in a hoarse voice riddled with agony.

             
Nik got onto his feet, which took a lot of effort. Carr was then by his side craning him up.

             
The sound of the fireball lighting up again made everyone flinch.

“
Turn off that fucking fireball, RIGHT NOW!” Carr blasted. Someone somewhere listened and the whirring sound of machinery halted.

             
Then the medics came. Nik and Alf were put onto stretchers. There was a moment where they were side by side, Alf's good hand was next to Nik's. Nik reached out and clasped it, tears in his pain-stricken eyes. Alf clasped back. And then they were separated. Taken away. And Jaz was left behind. Guided out of the bloodbath by Carr.

             
He stayed close to her, his hand round her shoulder protectively. Jaz wanted to ask him why he wasn't with Nik, why he was with her instead, when he whispered in her ear, “We have to get you out of here. I think that fireball was meant for you.”

~
Chapter 41-
Confess~

Saturday, July 2nd,  6:02 a.m.

             
Driver stepped heavily into the containment room, facing the triple glass proof window that separated him from his betrayer. 

             
She was standing, trying to contain the shakes that had moments ago taken over her whole body. A shiver escaped her tightly wound control and her back shook.

             
They regarded each other for a moment between the inches of glass before Driver roasted Fraya in a darkened voice, “Did you kill Lora and our unborn child?” He asked it so clinically and controlled, like a lawyer asking a serious but obviously vital question, as professionally as he could.

             
Fraya watched him for a long moment, opening her parched, bloody lips.“Yes... but I-”

             
Driver growled from deep in his chest and Fraya stopped with her mouth partly open. “Here's how this works. I'm going to ask you questions, and you answer them with either yes or no and nothing else until I say otherwise. Got it?”

             
She stared at him, the acceptance of her horrible fate became so resolute now, her eyes sunk as if the light had gone out of them. As if she were already a corpse. “Yes,” she answered softly.

“
You poisoned her with hemlock?”

             
Fraya gazed down at the floor and kept her eyes there throughout his questioning. “Yes.”

“
You acted alone?” She hesitated at his question. Driver clenched his jaw, his eyes burning with regret, fury and pain. “You were ordered by someone to do it?”

“
No. It was more of a test.”

“
An initiation?”

“
No.”

“
Explain,” Driver rumbled.

“
A test, not for me. But for her... he wanted me to prove she was a pureblood.”

“
Or to prove she
wasn't
a pureblood?”

             
Fraya closed her eyes. “Yes.”

             
He stepped outside without another word.

             
Jaz was waiting on the other side of the solid steel door. She could see the conversation on the one-way glass. Hear the words from the speakers. Now she was looking down at Njord's piece of paper. Reading it again and again.

             
Your sister was murdered. You suspect it, but I know it. I also know who did it. I hear on good authority you had a disagreement not so long ago.

             
And then the rest, that after a thousand times of reading it, still alluded her.

             
All was fueled by the encouragement of her lover. He is the real enemy.

             
A few minutes later, Nik entered the room. “She confessed,” he mumbled.

“
I know,” she said.

             
Nik gazed at her, then at the paper she was staring at. “You're still not going to tell me who gave you that?”

“
It doesn't matter. I believe what it says.”

“
Fraya admitted to killing my child, my wife. I won't take that lightly.”

             
Jaz looked up, tears in her eyes. The horror of what had happened in the past twenty-four hours had shaken her to the core. Alf's disfigured face. The dying man with the gaping hole in his chest. Fraya's pained, guilty expression. Nik's weakened, poisoned state. Her brush with death more than once.

             
Her words came out slow and with effort. “It says the real enemy is her lover. He pushed her to do it. You heard it herself. So who is her lover?”

             
Nik hesitated. His hand lifted up to touch her arm but stopped midway. He dropped it to his side. “I can find out.”

“
Ask her. If she doesn't say, ask around. Just don't do anything to her.”

“
Okay. I won't.” He turned and walked away. As he left he added, “Yet.”

                                                                                                  *

              It was a shock to everyone, including Fraya, when Carr came forward.

“
Please don't do this, Nik. I love her.”

             
Nik gaped at him, tortured, shocked. And then in a lightening bolt of anger he cracked Carr on the side of the face.

             
Then Roscoe, Garth and Leif were on Carr, dragging him away into a containment cell far away from Fraya. She didn't know about it until Nik strode into her cell and announced it; his expression grave and defeated.

             
For the first time since she'd been in that cell and had accepted her fate, Fraya suddenly cared. Her black eyes were shiny and haunting. “He didn't do anything.”

“
He's your lover,” came his acidic reply.

“
Yes. But, it wasn't him, I never said-”

             
Nik huffed. “I don't have time for this shit! He came in and practically confessed!”

“
He must have wanted to protect me. Please you don't understand!”

             
He launched for her, stopping himself from pounding her face in when Maria's voice came over the intercom. “Nik.”

             
He sighed, his shoulders hunched over. “This isn't over. I suggest you think
really
hard before you speak to me again.”

             
When he left the room, Arik, Maria, Erica and Jaz stood there gazing at him. The feeling of a recent, intense conversation between them was in the air. “What?” he snapped.

“
Jaz has just made a good point,” Arik announced.

             
Nik regarded her but she was looking at Fraya through the one-way glass.

“
She's telling the truth, Nik,” she said in a hollow voice.

             
He sighed, reining his anger in so he had enough patience to listen to her. “How so?”

“
Carr is her lover. But maybe she had another lover. Before or during Carr. And that was the one she was talking about. The one the paper mentioned. The one who used her to do that...
test
on Lora. Maybe she didn't know what would happen. Maybe Carr knows about it because she confided in him and he's merely protecting her.”

“
It could be possible,” Erica added.

“
We do not want to do anything rash, without knowing the truth,” Arik concluded in his wise, mellow voice.

             
Nik glanced between them. His fury leading way to reason. “Fine. I'll go and ask.”

“
No,” Maria interjected. “Let Jaz go.”

             
Nik gaped at Maria like she was a mad woman.

             
Jaz's expression was resolute. She'd already made up her mind. “I want to go inside. She'll open up more if I'm sitting next to her rather than on the other side of the glass.”

“
Absolutely not. I won't let you go anywhere near either of them without a six inch wall of glass between you.”

“
She saved me twice yesterday. She won't hurt me.  Neither will Carr. And you know it.”

                                                                                                  *

              Jaz sidled into the room, Leif was at her back. He leant against the door standing guard.

             
He still had hard feelings about being knocked out yesterday. Even though it hadn't been her doing, she was still going to get dirty looks from him for a while. But as long as he was loyal to Nik, who'd given him the order to protect her, she didn't care.

             
Fraya stood up, clearly surprised by Jaz's presence, and the fact she wasn't protecting herself behind a wall of glass.

“
Sit down, Fraya.” She tried to make it sound inviting rather than bossy. In the end it sounded more like encouragement. That would do.

             
Fraya slumped onto the chair obediently, resting her mucky, scabby hands on the table. Jaz took the other seat opposite and exhaled loudly. “Tell me what happened. And don't lie to me.”

             
Fraya nodded in a way that showed immense gratitude. Like Jaz was giving her air to breathe.

             
She began with her admittance to her dislike of Jaz's sister, mainly fueled by bitter jealousy. Because she'd had feelings for Nik. Because she was bitter about losing her mate, Thor, and couldn't stand anyone being happy. She was broken, and it had made her do stupid, reckless things.

             
And that's when she mentioned the man. The man who'd at the time, been there for her. Given her what she thought was the best gift in the world. Or so she thought.

             
It was something that he promised would break Nik and Lora apart. He'd said Lora wasn't a pureblood. And he said she had the power to prove it.

“
Who was the man?”

             
Fraya gazed at her, a glimmer of fear in her eyes. “They call him the Black Cloak. I never saw his face.”

“
How did you meet him then?”

“
I was jogging through the forest at night. I nearly knocked into him, he just appeared from nowhere. He knew so much about me. About the Pack. He told me about Lora. And asked me to do it.” she whispered.

             
Jaz shook her head. “You're lying to me.”

“
I-”

“
You knew him. You
had
to have known him, y'know why I think that? Because you're not stupid. You're bitter and jealous and a mean bitch most of the time but you had to have had more reason, more proof than that. You had to trust the man. There had to have been more to it than that. So you knew him.” Fraya looked terrified now. “Who was it?”

“
I can't... I can't tell you. I mean I was never sure.”

“
You were lovers right?” Jaz pushed. Fraya stared, then looked sideways. “So how could you not know?”

“
He never showed his face. He always wore a mask or something. And it was always dark whenever we met.”

“
What about his scent?”

“
He altered it or masked it somehow. Wore a lot of perfume or mud or something. I swear to you I never knew who he was. Not for sure. And if I'm right... I mean- he'll kill me.”

“
If you don't, we'll have no choice but to do the same.” Jaz couldn't believe the words coming out her mouth, but she was thinking only what Nik would have said in her position.

“
He'll kill you too,” Fraya whispered.

“
How do you know?”

“
Because he told me. And he wouldn't stop there either. I swear, Jaz, I didn't know it would kill Lora. I didn't. I didn't know it was hemlock. I thought it was wolfsbane.”

“
Wolfsbane?”

“
If we have it, it makes us Change. We can't control it. I thought she'd Change. But then she got sick. And then when I found out what he'd done I threatened to tell Nik everything. He said he'd kill Carr and Nik and everyone I care about. He doesn't know I suspect who he might be but if he did he'd kill everyone on that list and then me.

I-I'm so sorry. I was such a bitch to you. I saw Lora in you everyday and it just freaked me out. I still care about Nik, but I wasn't really jealous of you two. Not like I had been before. Carr changed me. He means everything to me. Please don't do anything to him. I swear he didn't play any part in this.”

              Jaz cared about Carr. He was her friend. Her mentor. But she had to ask the question that she knew would seal his fate. That she had a strong feeling would sway Nik's decision, one way or the other, as to what would be done about him. The thought filled her with dread. But the words came out. “Did he... did he know about Lora? Did he know how she died?”

             
Fraya froze and then with her eyes closed, tears escaping her eyelashes, she nodded. “But he doesn't know who it was that got me to do it. I never told him anything about the Black Cloak. And he didn't have any hand in it. I swear.”