Destiny Bewitched (14 page)

She hated that she was
forced to wait. They’d finally made it here in one piece and it
felt like she was no closer to finding her sister. But Geo was
right. And she did trust him. “Okay.”

“Good.” He took his
hand off her knee, leaving her cold and empty. “I’ll get us
breakfast.”

Breakfast? Her gaze
caught the blood covered dirt in front of them. Her stomach churned
and she looked away.

Geo grabbed her chin.
“No. You need to watch. It will help you prepare.”

He was right. Again.
Hell if she was going to say it though. The man’s head would swell
to the size of a beach ball – a big, colorful beach ball with
horns. She giggled and Geo gave her a funny look.

That’s it.
I’ve gone and lost my mind.

But now was the time to
pull up her big girl panties – it’d be nice if she had some – and
access the resilient Chapman side of her family tree. She eased
back from Geo’s grip and forced her gaze on the ring. An overly
large man – a giant? – dragged a broken, bloodied body across the
dirt while the champion raised his arms in the air. The crowd
clapped and cheered. A man wearing a hunter green jumpsuit wrote a
name on a large board to the right under a few other names. Keeping
score?

She spotted their names
a few rows down.

Geo and The Red
Phoenix.

She gulped. This was
starting to feel frighteningly real.

“We’re between
matches,” Geo said. “Stay here. Don’t talk to anyone.”

She nodded, fully
intending to disobey the order. There was a limited amount of time
she’d be out from under his watchful eye. And she’d never been good
at waiting.

When he was out of
sight, she scanned the people around her, looking for a friendly
face. A large tan-skinned man with a nasty scowl, wearing only
animal furs around his privates and shoulders sat to her right. A
long, lanky Asian man with a too thin, gaunt face, gray skin, and
dead eyes shifted on his feet behind her.

Maybe she should lower
her standards. A friendly-ish face? Someone who
didn’t
look ready to slit her
throat then bathe in her blood.

Two rows in front she
spotted a blonde woman dressed in red leather, looking like a
dominatrix at a costume party. Well, at least a female was less
intimidating. She’d start there.

Samantha leaned
forward. “Excuse me. Miss?” Or was it Mistress?

The woman turned
around.
Oh.
Sam leaned away, reflexively.
Hello, creepy cat eyes.

“Um. H-have you seen a
young girl who kinda looks like me? She’s small with auburn colored
hair and brown eyes.”

The blonde shook her
head. “No. Sorry,” she answered in a thick accent. Russian?

A dark man a few rows
away caught her gaze. He narrowed his eyes, searching her face. She
broke eye contact, but she could feel his heated stare. Did he know
something about her sister? She wanted to ask but his presence was
unnerving. Dressed in all black with a long trench coat, he wore
danger like a second skin.

A gong echoed across
the arena, giving her a little start. The man in the green jumpsuit
yelled something in another language. The guy who’d been staring at
her rose from the bench and walked slowly into the ring. For some
reason, she found herself curious about him.

On the other side of
the dusty circle, a man wearing a tunic and cotton pants strolled
into the center, eyeing his opponent. His long black hair was tied
back in a ponytail and a trim goatee gave him a sinister appearance
– like an evil wizard. He smirked when Trench Coat Guy sauntered
toward him like he hadn’t a care in the world.

Evil Wizard Guy didn’t
appear to have any weapons, just lots of pouches dangling from his
waistband. And in his hand he held what looked like a fabric
doll.

What in the world?

The gong rang again and
the two contestants stared at each other. Geo appeared beside her
and sat down, holding what looked like fresh baked biscuits in a
napkin.

“Here.” He handed her
one.

Her mind jumped back to
the bloody body the giant had dragged away. She looked at the
ground in the ring. Guts lay festering in the dirt. Her stomach
rolled and she grimaced.

“I can’t eat.” She
pushed it away.

Geo got that stern look
in his eye. “Samantha.”

“I’ll eat lunch,” she
insisted. “I promise. I just need a little while to get used to
the…gore.”

He sighed and pursed
his lips. “Alright. You’ll eat a full meal before we fight
though.”

“Yes. Who’s the Disney
villain in there?” She gestured to the wizard who looked like he
was chanting a spell over the doll.

“Ah, that’s a shaman.
Very rare.”

“And the other guy?”
She thought it best not to mention the staring incident.

Geo squinted as if
getting a better look. “Don’t know.” Then he bit into a piece of
the bread.

She felt a little
guilty he’d spent money on food for her and she wasn’t going to eat
it. But she’d meant what she said – it would take a little time to
get used to the violence. The last thing she needed was to upchuck
over the furry guy on the right. She had a feeling he wouldn’t be
too pleased about that. Vomit was a bitch to get out of fox
fur.

They both watched the
ring. Nothing happened for a few moments. The mysterious trench
coat guy was fiddling with something in his jacket pocket. The
shaman continued to chant over the doll.

“The rules are simple,”
Geo said close to her ear. “You can use anything you can carry into
the ring. The game ends when one contestant gives up or dies.”

Jesus Christ!

“See the white flag
hooked to their belts? Pull that off and it signals your surrender.
But I have a feeling the referees don’t pay close attention and
most of the defeated die here.”

Her stomach dropped.
Everything faded out except the beating of her heart.

Geo went on about the
multiple tiers of prizes and something about semi-finals and
finals. She stared ahead where the two men began to fight, but she
couldn’t focus.

Most of the defeated
die here.

It was kill or be
killed. No second chances. No wonder Geo wanted her in a protection
circle. This wouldn’t be like training with her brothers. What had
she gotten herself into?

She squeezed her eyes
shut.
For Nikki. For
Nikki.
Hot tears filled her eyes but she wouldn’t let them
fall. Not here, not now. She’d do a lot for her sister, but would
she die for her?

An arm wrapped around
her shoulders, hauling her against a warm body. Geo didn’t say
anything as she got herself under control. He just held her tight,
giving her the strength she needed to pull herself together.

After a few moments,
she drew in a deep breath, straightened her spine, and set her
focus back on the fight only a few yards away. By the looks of
things, the shaman was winning. The doll now had several pins in it
and Trench Coat Guy was limping and holding his stomach.

What
is
he?
He looked so human.

Then he ran toward the
shaman and leapt up in the air with beyond human agility. He landed
in a crouch just behind him and placed a thin tube at his lips,
pointed at the shaman’s back. But the shaman was quick and bent the
doll’s arm backward before his opponent could shoot him. A
strangled shout tore out of his throat as his arm twisted in an
unnatural way.

Sam cringed in
sympathy.

“I’m going to get some
water,” Geo whispered in her ear.

She nodded, distracted,
and he slipped away.

Secretly, she rooted
for Trench Coat Guy though she had no idea why. Maybe she had a
thing for dangerous-looking underdogs. With a sickening crunch, he
forced his arm back into place. Definitely not human.

He pulled a throwing
knife from his pocket. Again, the shaman was quicker. Trench Coat
Guy went soaring, flung by some invisible force, all the way across
the ring and over the small divider. He landed, hard, at her
feet.

He looked up at her,
his face bloodied and bruised. “I know the lass you’re looking
for,” he said in a thick Irish accent. “Help me and I’ll tell
you.”

The referee yelled
something in another language, the crowd hushed, waiting for him to
get up. She had less than a second to decide.

For Nikki.
She reached into her
satchel and pulled out a handful of Concealer – an invisibility
powder. She’d been saving it for an emergency. Payment for
information was good too. Pretending to motion him to get up, she
dusted him with the powder.

Then she whispered,
“Find me or I’ll sic my demon on you.”

The mysterious man
nodded then jumped up and hobbled back into the ring. Someone
grabbed her wrist from behind. Her stomach dropped, thinking she’d
been caught.

“What do you think
you’re doing?” came a familiar voice in her ear.

Geo released her hand
and she wiped it on her pants. “Nothing.”

He gave her a wary look
then thrust a canteen into her hands. “Drink.”

Obediently, she did. He
nudged her and she made room for him to sit. They shifted their
attention to the fight. But there was only one contestant. The
trench coat guy had disappeared. The crowd murmured restlessly
while the shaman spun around, looking for his opponent.

Samantha smiled
inside.

Suddenly, the shaman
cried out. Blood gushed from his neck where a throwing knife was
lodged. He sputtered and tried to grasp the knife, but his eyes
rolled back in his head and he fell to his knees, gasped one more
time then did a face plant on the ground.

The crowd roared and
Samantha clapped excitedly. Geo gave her a puzzled look and she
stopped herself, tucking her hands under her thighs.

A gong rang out. The
jumpsuit guy wrote on the board and the giant dragged the limp
Shaman out of the ring.

“Will he live?” she
asked Geo.

“No. Shamans are
mortal.”

Like witches
– the words hung in
the air unsaid.

The Concealer would
only last an hour or so. She couldn’t hunt down the mysterious man
until then so she sat tight and watched the next few fights with
morbid fascination. Geo talked in her ear the whole time, pointing
out what contestants did right or wrong, and giving suggestions on
strategy.

A couple hours later,
after a sorcerer defeated a vampire with balls of light thrown from
his hands, Geo stood up and stretched.

He looked her over then
commanded, “Lunch. No arguments.”

She wasn’t planning to
argue. Her stomach growled despite watching the violence unfold
around her.

“We’ll go outside to
eat,” he added.

After picking out a
bowl of rice with what looked like chicken on top, they walked out
of the corridor and into the hot Underworld air. She looked up at
the red sky and then out to the desolate desert. It had only been a
day since leaving that world but it felt like a lifetime ago. She
never thought she’d miss the desert, but compared to the bloodbath
and evil stench in the mountain, this was paradise.

They were limited by
the blood oath in how far they could travel outside the mountain.
Only a few other people had gone outside for the fresh air – if she
could call it fresh. Fresher than the sweaty underground arena at
least. They walked between the gate and the mountain until they
found a semi-secluded flat spot of dirt then sat down.

She scooped up a bite
of lunch. It didn’t taste much different than the take-out Chinese
place near Selene’s house in Salem. They sat in silence, each of
them eating ravenously, lost in their own thoughts.

A pair of black boots
appeared in front of her. She looked up. Two muscular legs were
encased in black leather. A black t-shirt stretched across a wide
chest and shoulders. The stranger’s scruffy beard gave him a rough
edge. Dark brown hair framed his face, hanging just below his ears.
The slightly disheveled appearance made him look bad-ass but the
amused expression on his face gave him a bit of charm.

It was Trench Coat Guy
– without the trench coat. In his hands, he held a container of
steaming food and a fork.

Geo jumped up and
glared at him.

Ignoring him, the
stranger’s lips formed a small smile as he fixed his gaze on her.
Feeling tiny and insecure with two large men towering over her, she
rose to her feet and dusted off her butt with her free hand.

“Thanks for your help
back there,” the visitor said to Sam.

Geo turned and raised
his brows in question.

“Uhhh,” she said by
brilliant explanation. “He said he’s seen Nikki.”

“Sure he has,” Geo
muttered.

Undeterred by Geo’s
unfriendliness, the man stuck out his hand. “I’m Aedan.”

She shook it. “Sam. And
this is Geo.”

Geo made a show of
looking the stranger over. Samantha rolled her eyes. If this turned
into a pissing contest, she was going to warm up her sword arm on
some male flesh.

“Pointed ears, small
fangs,” Geo said. “You’re fae.”

“Aye. Prince of the
Dark Fae,” he answered in his Irish brogue.

She shivered.
Sexy.
“You’re
a prince? What are you doing here?”

Aedan spoke around
mouthfuls of food. “I tried to usurp the Unseelie throne,” he said
unapologetically. “I’m down here learning my lesson. Repenting. All
that shit.”

“Hm.” She nodded.

Geo remained quiet.

Aedan stopped eating
then looked between them, eyebrows raised. “I said I’m a dark fae.
Tried to usurp the throne.”

Sam shrugged. “I’m a
merc. He’s a demon. If you’re expecting a lesson on morality,
you’ve come to the wrong place.”

Aedan stared for a
moment then looked at Geo. “I like this one.” He pointed at her
with his fork.