Torch (11 page)

Torch thought about everything the courtesan told him. This prince was not someone who would be faithful to Isis. For Isis to run away showed that she didn’t have strong feelings for the other male. Torch really needed to talk to her, hear her out. He only hoped he had not pushed her away with his anger. Sometimes being a hot-tempered Voltan halfsie had its downfalls. He turned to watch Isis’s fight on the TV.

Chapter Fourteen

“Welcome back everyone to the beautiful sports arena here at the North Eastern Gamma Region. I am Poland and this is my fellow commentator, Johann. We have been witnessing some spectacular sportsmanship this evening. Alana has proven once more that she is more than just a beauty and Maxim demonstrated his half-computerized abilities. Simply amazing. But our current match has some surprising results after the first round. Isis the Ice Queen is fighting Jara the female Priman and not doing a good job of it. The reason behind this might be because this is the first time since rumors have spread the quick romance between her and the Torch has suddenly fizzled out.”

“That’s right, Poland. Sources say that Isis believes Torch has been cheating on her and Torch supposedly accused Isis of being too clingy. There is rumored to be another male involved as well. Seems Torch has asked that they call a halt to their relationship. Isis is coming fresh off a breakup and from the expression on her face, she is not taking it well. If she doesn’t get her head back in the fight, she is not going to win this match. Let’s see how things play out.”

*****

Round Two…

Isis is already out of breath. She had been holding back using her Isian abilities until the last moment. But her biggest issue was that her head wasn’t on the fight. Which was a big mistake. She took a direct hit, which knocked her to the fence. She tried to push off coming back with a combination. She landed a few shots but the Priman wasn’t letting up.

She took a hard liver shot and it almost brought her to her knees. She wasn’t going to be able to hold back any longer. She got her footing and prepared to freeze her opponent, but the Priman took to the fence propelling herself enough to knock Isis back. If it wasn’t for the bell, Isis would have been out for the count right then. But the bell sounded, signaling the end of the round.

As she stood she looked out into the crowd and locked eyes with Ishop. He was sitting in the VIP section with her cousins. He was watching her, giving her a smile.
Fuck!

The bell rang signaling Round Three. She came in and circled the Priman. She managed to get the other female in a clinch. But the Priman broke free easily giving her a right hand. Isis tried to get some kicks in but she was much shorter than the Priman who seemed to dodge them then throw a few back kicks that hit their mark on her.

She allowed herself to get distracted by looking over at Ishop once more. The Priman took advantage, charging at Isis, hitting her legs, and taking her down hard. Two hard hits and an elbow. Isis was out.

*****

“Johann, the Ice Queen has lost her match! Can you believe it?”

“I am shocked, Poland. She seemed to let herself get distracted. She is going to kick herself when she wakes up in medical for this night.”

“This break up must have really gotten into her head.”

“I agree. Well this has turned into a very interesting night. We will see you all at the next event. Have a good night.”

*****

Shit!
Torch threw his money on the bar and headed out. Isis should have had that Priman. What was she thinking? She looked pretty beat up. She wasn’t even moving.

Torch went down to the lobby of the GCFA ship and out the main entrance. He wanted to be there when the healers brought her on board the ship for treatment. Hopefully there wasn’t anything that required a hospital. He paced back and forth waiting.

He was so worried about Isis that he didn’t see the weapon until it was too late. He heard a shot and then he felt incredible pain in his side. He fell to the ground and the last thing he remembered was thinking about Isis and wondering if she was okay.

*****

Isis frowned as she heard a commotion outside of medical. The GCFA healers brought her back to the GCFA ship to treat her. She was bruised and swollen, but in a few hours' time those would barely show, halfsies healed quickly and the healing boost the healers gave her would speed up the process. She was more upset that she allowed Ishop to distract her during her match.

She had worked too hard to make a career out of fighting. She was a respected fighter. But one look from Ishop and he reduced her to that young scared girl who fled her home world almost a year ago.

Another commotion outside the medical room had her sitting up and cringing. She had cracked a rib too. Fun. “What is going on out there?”

Alana was also in medical having her bruises from her match healed. “Let me go and check. The healers said you are not to move for a couple of hours still.” She walked to the door and opened it stepping out into the hallway. A few minutes later she came back inside and she looked pretty shaken up.

“What is it?” Isis had a bad feeling.

“Security is trying to keep the reporters out of medical. Specifically, they are trying to keep them away from you.”

“Why? I’m not that badly injured. It’s mostly my ego that’s bruised.” Isis was confused.

“That’s not it. Honey, there was a shooting here tonight. Right outside of the GCFA ship. It was Torch.”

She felt weak headed. “Oh God no.”

“They had to rush him to a hospital to be operated on. The reporters are trying to get in to ask you how you feel about the shooting.” Alana was disgusted with their attitudes.

“I need to go…” Isis tried to stand but a sharp pain in her ribs sent her curled up on the bed.

“Easy, honey, easy. You can’t go anywhere right now. I’ll go and see if I can get information on Torch for you. You just stay here, okay?”

She nodded. Tears were about to spill. She prayed he would be alright. The healer came in, saw her clutching at her ribs, and gave her a sedative. She fell asleep.

When Isis woke again she was confused. The lights were dimmed but she didn’t remember right away where she was at. Then it all seemed to rush back at her. She was in medical and Torch and been shot. She sat up reaching for the call button but a hand reached out and stopped her.

“Not so fast, my sweet,” a male’s voice said.

Oh shit. “Ishop?”

“That’s right. I came to get you like I promised.” He kept hold of her hand.

“I’m not going anywhere with you.” She yanked her hand away from him.

“Oh, but you are. If you do not, I will make sure your Voltan halfsie doesn’t make it through the night.”

Her heart sunk and she felt fear she had never felt before. “You shot Torch?”

“Of course not, I paid someone to do the deed.” He stood and motioned for two males to approach her bed.

“What are you doing?” She looked around frantically.

“I have my royal healers on standby. These paramedics will transfer you to my private ship.”

“I’m not going with you.” Isis crossed her arms over her chest.

“Yes you are, or I will give the order for my guy to finish the job he started,” Ishop said it like having someone killed was no big deal to him.

Isis looked around the room for help. “Security won’t let you remove me.”

“Actually, the Isian Council has petitioned the GCFA to release you from your contract because you are obligated to return to our home world and fulfill your obligations.”

“They can’t do that!”

“They have. The GCFA lawyers are fighting it, but by the time anything can be done, you will be my mate on the Isle of Isia.” Ishop was very sure of what he was saying.

“Please, Ishop, I don’t love you. Let me go,” Isis was begging. She never thought she would do that. But the thought of never seeing Torch again was making her hurt.

He looked at her coldly. “What does love have to do with this? I need an heir, or I can never be king. Stupid ancient rules won’t let me,” he snorted his frustration. “So what will it be, my dear? Cooperate and come with me willingly, or be responsible for the death of the Voltan halfsie.”

“Fine.” She allowed the paramedics to place her in a wheelchair so they could wheel her out. She hated Ishop with everything she had. But she couldn’t risk Torch’s life. She loved him. She hoped one day, he would be able to forgive her.

They wheeled her out of medical and a few of the reporters were still there and took her photo. This was going to look bad. No coming back from this, Torch would never understand. Her life was pretty much over.

She saw Alana and was afraid they would hurt her friend. “Take me the other way, less people to see and interfere.”

Ishop nodded at the paramedics to follow her directions. They made it off the ship and to a waiting shuttle. As they shifted her into the shuttle, she frowned noticing the female sitting across from her.

“Why is she here?” Isis asked.

Clovis smirked, “Honey, you and I going to get to know each other very very well. Just like I got to know your Torch. He is quite the lover.”

She glared at Clovis. “You did not sleep with Torch.”

“Such innocence, Ishop. We will have to take care of that. There was no sleeping involved.”

Isis went to lunge at her but winced when her ribs acted up again. The paramedics injected her with another sedative and she fell back against the seat as darkness took her. At least Torch was safe.

Chapter Fifteen

Twenty-four hours later Torch was sitting up in his bed complaining to the healer that was in the room. “I am fine and want to leave.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but the head healer has to release you first.”

Zen walked into the room and shooed the medic out. Zen crossed his arms and stared at Torch.

“What?” Torch bellowed.

“Why are you being an ass to the medical staff?”

“They won’t let me leave,” he groused. But it was more than that. He hadn’t been able to get Isis on the phone. Something about that bothered him. “Is Isis okay? I know she got hurt in her fight and had to go to medical.”

“I guess she’s okay.” Zen shrugged, walking over to stand by the window.

“You guess?” Torch frowned.

“She’s gone,” Zen told him plainly.

“What do you mean she’s gone? What the hell are talking about?”

“Her people came to take her back to her home world,” Zen said.

His heart felt like someone had ripped it out of his chest. “She left? To go back to mate with the prince. But she didn’t want to mate with the guy. She left her home world to avoid it.”

“She told you this?” Zen asked.

“Yes.” He needed to get out of this hospital and go find her. He tried to stand but his side where the bullet went in hurt like a mother fucker. “Fuck!”

Zen glared at him. “Easy, man, I have a couple of people checking on the situation. You aren’t going anywhere until the healers say so.” His phone rang. “Hello? They did what? Can the GCFA fight it? Okay, thanks.”

“What?” Torch asked.

“That was Nigel. He checked into the Isian’s claims. They had petitioned the GCFA to release Isis from her contract so she can go home to fulfill her mating obligations, which technically superseded her contract.”

“Can they do that? The Isian Council doesn’t own Isis, she’s not a damn slave!” Torch wanted to pound someone.

“Nigel is going to help the GCFA fight the petition, but Isis has left the GCFA property. So it is going to be hard to get her back without starting some kind of war with the Isian people.”

“I can’t believe Isis would leave. She ran away from Isia to avoid this mating. I want to talk to her.” Torch tried to reach for the phone again.

Zen shook his head. “I have tried, the assholes who call themselves her guardians say she is recuperating and cannot be disturbed at this time.”

Torch looked up as Trig walked into the room. “What is the human doing here?”

“Shut it, fireboy. I wouldn’t be helping you at all if it wasn’t for Angel. She seems to love you for some reason. Since you’re her uncle, I’ll do this favor for her.”

“What did you find out?” Zen asked.

Trig waved a small disc in his hands and placed it in the disc player. “I borrowed the video feed from the GCFA medical for the last day that Isis was on the GCFA ship.”

They watched the video feed as the healers prepared for the different fighters that came in. Zen fast forwarded until he saw Isis being brought in on a stretcher. A tall blonde haired male walked into the room right before the video feed went fuzzy.

“Who’s that?” Zen asked.

“That’s the prince that Isis was promised to when she was a kid. She ran away almost a year ago to not have to mate him. Is there any sound?” Torch managed to sit up without hurting himself.

Trig worked on the TV and turned up the volume. “Hit play now.”

Torch hit the play button on his remote control. It was quiet when the prince came in and then the video feed went fuzzy but their voices had been recorded. They listened.

“Not so fast, my sweet.”

“Ishop?”

“That’s right. I came to get you like I promised.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Oh, but you are. If you do not, I will make sure that your Voltan halfsie doesn’t make it through the night.”

“You shot Torch?”

“Of course not, I paid someone to do the deed.”