Winning the Legend (17 page)

The match up was again a quick one. Manuel
was the far better fighter of the two and only needed two direct
punches to move Nate from the circle. Manuel didn’t have to shift
into his animal form, or cast a spell, as his kind were known to do
when confronted. Arianna was surprised Manuel hadn’t been more
violent, but easily saw the reason why as he turned back to her. He
was trying to please her and follow her rules. He smiled at her and
mentally sent her a message.

‘Anything for you, my
queen. I’ll kill anything that stands between us and follow your
orders, no matter what,’
he said as he
turned back, walking into the row of men. Arianna cringed and
quickly laid a hand on Andrew to keep him seated. Andrew couldn’t
hear the message, but he could sense the man’s intent.

‘Let it go,’
she ordered, as stray thoughts filtered over to
him. Andrew was finding it harder and harder to let it be. The men
who were salivating over the idea of winning such a weapon were now
sending mental messages and loving feelings to Arianna.

“Next, Loan, you may choose.” Arianna held
up the basket as the young man drew near. Loan winked at her as he
approached, almost sending Andrew into a complete rage. Andrew
wouldn’t last much longer around the newly-changed men.

‘Gabriel,’
Arianna contacted her uncle.
‘You need to get him out of here, or we will never
finish.’

Gabriel appeared at her side. Andrew saw his
leader and knew what she had called him for. Andrew stood and
sulked out of the room. Molina sat down beside Arianna as her
second guard. The competitors seemed overjoyed at the baku being
forced to leave. It brought Arianna no happiness to do so, and she
actually felt less safe without him around. She couldn’t let him
stay, though, if there was a chance he would attack someone.

‘Sorry,’
Andrew said mentally, as he was escorted away.
Even Arianna was forced to do what needed to be done. There was no
helping it. He was going to break soon at all the swooning each man
did at the sight of her. Each man was anxiously trying to catch her
eye, and it was driving him mad.

Loan waited patiently for Arianna to hold up
the basket of names. He didn’t even acknowledge Andrew’s leaving as
he only stared at her as he chose a name.

“Lou Choy,” Loan said, waiting for his
competitor to enter first.

Choy rapidly turned into his night human
form, which had a slight greenish tinge to it. Arianna was thankful
that her combined night human form wasn’t tinted like Choy’s. It
actually made him appear sick, and green was not her color. Choy
stood in one place and waited for Loan to enter the ring. Loan
stepped over the line, stood against the back side of the ring and
waited. Choy wasn’t quick, but very hard to beat, as his skin was
as thick as armor. Loan waited for his opponent to come to him.
Both Choy and Loan stared at each other from across the ring. The
one to attack would hold the disadvantage in this game. Neither man
moved for the whole two minutes as the time counted down as neither
wanted to lose the match, and both were happy with a draw.

Rhys stepped up next before Arianna even
called his name. He reached down and purposely brushed his hand
against hers as he took a name. He was doing his best to show
Arianna that he was a strong choice for a mate, and his night human
essence wrapped around Arianna’s, almost in a choking manner.
Arianna looked up at him and even though it was true that her night
human essence was with his, she didn’t feel the same as she did
with Andrew.

“Will Kparsi,” Rhys announced, not turning
back to the ring or his competitor that entered, but keeping his
eyes on Arianna the whole time.

“Darkness,” Rhys ordered as the lights in
the room all dimmed with his sidhe magic as he entered the ring.
Will’s eyes started to glow. Arianna expected a good fight, but was
quickly disappointed as a flash of light blinded everyone but her,
Turner, and Thomas as they saw through the illusion. With one
shove, Will opened his eyes to find he was outside the ring. Rhys
only needed one move to make Will fall to the wrong side. Again,
Rhys was trying his best to show his power to Arianna. While Rhys
was powerful, sidhe magic was full of trickery, Arianna wasn’t so
keen on that style of fighting.

“Four left.” Arianna wanted to move on as
quickly as possible. While she was a bit disgusted by Rhys’ essence
basically wrapping around hers like an anaconda, she was now
beginning to see this occur with each man. Rhys was correct. She
could choose any man there as her match. Maybe she wasn’t even
limited by that. If she drank the blood of someone new, it was
possible that even they could be her mate. The options for her love
life just expanded exponentially, and it wasn’t a good feeling.

“Turner,” she called out the next
competitor.

‘Ari, is something
wrong?’
Turner asked as he took the next
paper, hoping it would be Devin. They had never fought in such a
restricted space before. It would be a fun matchup.

‘Nothing,’
Arianna replied, but Turner saw through the
lie.

“Chet Barret,” Turner read out loud after
unfolding the paper.

Chet stepped into the ring and transformed.
His manly appearance gradually faded into a semi-womanly-shaped man
with a serpentine curve to his body. He was quite grotesque in
appearance. Turner had seen this already, and thankfully was
prepared. Chet closed his eyes, but Turner didn’t make a move. Chet
kept his eyes closed and nodded as if seeing a movie in his head.
Opening his eyes, he bowed to Turner and stepped back out of the
ring. Turner turned to Arianna and gave her a questioning
shrug.

“I’ve seen I will not win this match,” Chet
replied from the sideline, back to his more manly form with
bulging, tattooed arms. “I do not wish to fight a battle with an
opponent if I cannot win.”

“Okay,” Arianna replied. She was going to
have to note that ability. She wondered how he controlled it. “And
that leaves us the last two. Devin and Nik.”

Nik smiled and entered the ring. He had been
waiting the whole competition to meet up with Devin. Devin paused
outside the ring, removing a book about the size of a matchbox from
his pocket. Tearing off a piece of paper, he stuffed one strip into
his mouth and began to chew it like it was gum. Arianna and her
crew were the only ones that knew what was going on. Lord Randolph
had preserved blood for Devin, which he put on strips of paper for
him to use to increase his strength and quickness to that of a
night human. It was Devin’s trump card that would allow him to be
able to beat any night human there. On a normal day, as a day
human, Devin was close to the level of any of the fully-transformed
night humans, but with Randolph’s blood, Devin was unstoppable.

Devin crossed the line. Nik didn’t wait to
attack; he was immediately upon Devin. Devin dodged the first kick,
and was across the circle before anyone knew where he went. Nik
paused as he stared at Devin. No one in the room but Arianna was
sensitive enough to feel the change. They all sat and reevaluated
the day human. Each tried, in his own way, to see why he could be
better than a night human. Nik stared for a few more moments before
trying again. This time, Nik aimed low. Devin again dodged, and, in
the process, used Nik’s momentum to toss him from the ring. Nik sat
outside the ring, ready to enter again. He hadn’t been expecting
the day human to fight better than a night human.

“Devin’s win,” Arianna said quickly, to keep
Nik from continuing the fight. Nik paused and looked down to see he
was sitting a foot outside the ring. Shock was all that was
registered on all the faces watching. All the night humans had
discounted Devin when it came to the fighting.

Devin walked back to his spot next to
Manuel, who was now fuming at the idea that Devin was stronger than
any night human there. Devin ignored the other men. He’d grown used
to being underestimated, as he had been his whole life.

“We will be posting the top six contenders
for the fights that will be held next. The preliminary fights will
be held starting Wednesday, and the final fights will be at the end
of the week,” Arianna explained, dismissing the men. She wanted
them to leave so that she didn’t have to go anywhere near them and
feel them pull at her. They all stood still, shocked that Devin won
so easily.

Arianna rose and the men finally understood
that they were dismissed. Most turned immediately to their
retainers, who had entered, and were all now consulting, mostly
talking about Devin. Devin ignored the chatter and walked away from
the group, passing the men as he went. Each would stop their
conversation to stare at him as he passed. No one left the room,
and Arianna had to continue past them to leave.

Arianna held her breath as she walked by the
first man. The sickly feeling of Nik’s night human essence reached
out for her involuntarily. Arianna felt queasy as she passed, and
knew that the next one would do the same. Not pausing to deal with
all the emotional feelings storming her, Arianna ran by the men and
out into the long hallway. She paused at her own hall. Andrew was
in her room, pacing. She just couldn’t face him yet. What Rhys had
said was true. Arianna was never given a choice about with whom she
fell in love. Now she had one.

Chapter 19

Thomas was right behind her as she took off
running to the front door. She needed to get away. She scanned the
grounds with her now perfect eyesight, since she had been enhanced
with all the night human skills. Someone at the tournament had even
better sight than she once had, which was impeccable, or so she
thought. There was nowhere she could go to be alone. Just outside
the walls of the estate were groups of various night humans who had
arrived to wait, hoping that their leader would win.

Pausing, Arianna heard the hit before anyone
reacted, and she immediately ran back inside to the doorway of the
training room. Turner was already beside Devin, pulling him out of
the crowd. Gabriel was in full baku form, chasing the offender out
of the house. Ken and Patrick were close behind to back him up as
Gabriel tried to catch the person who had just stabbed Devin.
Manuel was lucky that Gabriel was too concerned about Devin to
pursue him any further than the wall of the grounds.

“Take him to my room,” Arianna ordered,
appearing beside Turner, who was now carrying Devin. A trail of
blood led down the hallway as Turner rushed to her room.

“What happened?” Molina asked, as Turner
laid Devin on the floor just inside the doorway.

Gabriel was already opening his wrist to
smear blood on the biggest wound. The flesh started to pull
together, but blood was flowing out quicker than the skin was
mending.

“He needs my blood,” Arianna said, kneeling
beside Devin and reaching down to cut open her own palm.

“Ari, no,” Devin replied, trying to talk,
but coughing up blood. The wound was through the right side of his
chest cavity, and was bleeding excessively into his lungs.

“Why can’t I?” Arianna complained, pushing
away Devin’s feeble protest. “You’re the only one allowed to save
anyone around here?” Arianna asked, certain that his pride was the
reason he was protesting. Gabriel stared at Devin, understanding as
did the other people in the room. Andrew pulled Arianna back and
quietly told her the truth.

“If you feed him, you will turn him into a
night human,” Andrew replied. “He doesn’t want to be one of
us.”

Shock hit Arianna immediately. It was
possible to turn day humans into night humans, but she was never
told how it was done. Arianna stared back down at Devin, who was
losing blood slower now, but still losing too much to live longer
than the night. His choice was die or become a night human with her
blood. He was choosing to die. Her way of life was something he
didn’t want.

“If you feed a day human blood from someone
powerful that has also drank from them, they will turn into that
type of night human. It might not happen with a normal night human,
but, Ari, you’re a purebred. Your blood will change him.” Andrew
motioned to Turner, who pulled her back.

“But then what? We just let him die?”
Arianna asked. Shocked that Devin would choose death over what she
was made her stand still. Turner didn’t even have to use any force
to hold her. Arianna twisted in his arms and begged him with her
eyes. He couldn’t let his best friend die.

“I can’t save him either,” Turner replied.
“Not since the first day I drank from you. My blood could do the
same thing to him.”

Andrew reached over and sliced his palms
with his own finger. Squeezing his hand, he dripped blood on the
wound. Skin began to knit back together, quicker than with
Gabriel’s blood, but still not as fast as Arianna’s blood would
have worked. Arianna watched from Turner’s arms as Andrew forced
Devin to drink some of his blood, too. Devin’s external bleeding
stopped. Reaching down, Andrew tapped Devin’s forehead, putting him
to sleep. Devin didn’t fight it, and knew it was best to be asleep
while he healed. Gabriel reached down and took the sleeping Devin
into his arms.

“Leave him here,” Arianna begged. She
couldn’t let him go back to the competitor quarters knowing that
they had all stood back and let Manuel stab Devin. Even though she
had felt the hit immediately, others there had to have seen what
Manuel was doing and had chosen not to stop him. “All of you stay
here,” she added, looking to Gabriel, Patrick, Ken, and Turner in
turn.

“Devin made me promise that if he were
injured, we would never use your blood to heal him,” Andrew told
her as he moved to comfort her by wrapping his arms around her. She
shrugged him off, as he reached for her. His night human form
pulled at her. While it was different in feeling than the others,
it reminded her of the competitors and their pull toward her. This
draw to her was proving to cause more problems than anything.