What didn’t sit well with her was the sickening knowledge that had she been able to have sex with him, she would have. He wouldn’t even have had to threaten her. She’d have been his for the taking.
Gods, she was an idiot.
She looked around at the supplies scattered on the floor, some of them a result of her clumsiness, some from hurling them at Nate. How could he have turned into such a coldhearted bastard like that? The answer smacked her upside the head with a big, fat, duh-stick. What else had she expected from someone who was most likely pitting fighters against each other in death matches?
The reality was a welcome cold fist to the solar plexus. Anger and hurt collided, but panic quickly overshadowed the mix. She was out of time. If she didn’t find the fight club now, she never would.
Eschewing stealth, she crossed the dance floor, stalked down the hall to Nate’s office, and knocked loudly. No answer. She tried the door. Unlocked. So she didn’t need his keys after all.
She placed them on the desk, but before she did anything stupid, she made a quick call to Underworld General and left a message with the triage nurse. After hanging up, she tripped the secret door. It swung open with no more sound than a whisper of air, revealing exactly what she’d both hoped and dreaded to find; a passageway.
She took one deep, bracing breath, and started down the stairs.
At the base, she became aware of her surroundings, that they were nothing but a cold, claustrophobic tunnel of cement and stone. As she walked, the sound of cheers rose up, growing louder, until she couldn’t hear herself think, but she could definitely feel her stomach churning.
It was real. It was all real, and Nate, that . . . that . . . dick . . . was smack dab in the middle of it all.
Rounding a corner, she caught sight of an opening ahead. A mass of bodies blocked her view of whatever was beyond, but if the snarls, growls, and grotesque wet thumps were any indication, she’d found the fight club. Unwelcome visions of her brother being in the middle of all this assaulted her brain, and she squeezed her eyes closed and halted for just a moment.
Get it together . . .
She started moving again, pushing her leaden feet forward, and too late she noticed the two sentries standing just outside the entrance. Her heart tripped over itself, and so did her feet, but thankfully, even as she fell forward out of the tunnel, one of the big males merely grabbed her, smiled, and released her into the crowd. Apparently, they were there to prevent people from entering the tunnel, not leaving it.
The air was ripe with the scent of blood, lust, and fury. Quickly but carefully, she eased through the crowd, searching for the public entrance. Once she found that, she could get the hell out of here and back to Underworld General to report the location—
A hand came down on her shoulder, and she whirled, drew a harsh, startled breath when she came face to face with Fade, whose eyes were glowing crimson.
“You don’t belong here, little girl,” he grated.
Before she could say a word, he jerked her into him, squeezed her neck, and all went black.
Chapter 9
For decades, Nate had been dead, his heart little more than a desiccated knot of muscle sitting uselessly in his chest. But as Gladius’s manager, Budag, rubbed his bald head and told Nate about Vladlena’s foray into the fight club, Nate’s heart began to stir.
No, not just stir. It went mad with fear, worry, and dread. That damned shifter nurse had performed CPR on him, resurrecting his cold, undead self.
“Release her,” Nate ground out. He looked past Budag’s hulking shoulder from where he stood at the tunnel threshold between Gladius and Thirst. The crowd was wound up about something, and bloodlust was in the air.
“No can do, vampire.” Budag’s deep voice rattled Nate’s temper. “Fade already put her in the ring for a bait match.”
Nate lost it. He slammed the demon into the wall and got right up in his face, fangs bared, ready to take a chunk of flesh out of him. “You fucking lie! He wouldn’t have done that. She was going to be a sacrifice—”
“Since she stuck her nose where it didn’t belong, she was no longer desirable as a sacrifice.” Budag’s almond eyes crinkled with amusement. “At least, not a sacrifice for the new fight club. The Neethul twins are enjoying her plenty as a sacrifice.”
Nate didn’t waste another second. Heaving Budag aside, he plowed through the crowd, shoving people out of the way as he hauled ass to the ring. His heart, if it beat, would have stopped at the sight of Lena, her uniform ripped and bloodied, trying to fend off the two elf-like demons who were toying with her. And there was no question that they were toying. He’d seen the brothers fight, and right now, they were like hellhounds with a cornered cat.
Nate didn’t think. He acted. Acted himself right into the arena and caught the demons by surprise. Taking advantage of their temporary confusion, he punched his fist into one of the males’ neck and ripped out his throat. Blood and strings of gore dripped from his hand, and the audience roared.
The remaining Neethul barely cast his dead brother a glance as he came at Nate with a deflesher, a thick chain with a razor stirrup at the end. Wielded properly, the weapon could fillet a six-inch wide strip of flesh off the entire length of an arm and leave it bare to the bone.
The demon was an expert with it.
Shit. All around, the crowd hushed, leaving only Lena’s scream and the whistle of the chain as it cut the air. Nate dove to the blood-soaked sand and rolled, lashing out with his feet. The razor stirrup slammed into the ground next to Nate’s head as his kick caught his opponent in the knees. The Neethul fell but was up again in an instant.
So was Nate. Before the demon could do a rewind with the chain, Nate slammed into him, knocking them both into the cement retaining wall. Sharp teeth sank into Nate’s shoulder, and son of a bitch, that hurt.
Dimly, through the haze of pain, Nate heard the crowd go ballistic, their chants of, “Kill! Kill! Kill!” buzzing in his ears. His past came down on him in a shroud of memory, and just as it had been all those years ago, it would be that way again.
With a snarl, he gripped the demon’s head and twisted. The snap of spine was swallowed by the audience’s noise, which became deafening when Nate dropped the body and left it, twitching, on the ground.
Lena was standing a few feet away, her face bruised and pale, one eye blackened and blood trickling from the corner of her swollen mouth. She’d been battered to hell and back, but defiance burned in her eyes. Hate, too, and he didn’t blame her.
Still, she didn’t resist when he took her hand and led her to the gate used to transport both the dead and the living in and out of the arena. The giant iron rack rattled and clanged as it heaved upward, but Nate didn’t have a chance to be grateful that they were being let out.
Fade stood there, flanked by three burly rhino-fiends who worked in the “zoo” one level below, the dark, dank area where fighters and bait creatures were kept. None of them looked happy, Fade least of all.
“Obviously,” Fade rumbled, “you didn’t learn the first time you took a female from me.”
Nate tightened his grip on Lena. “I don’t want to lose a good medic,” he said, even though he knew his excuse was both tired and lame. If it hadn’t worked before, it wouldn’t work now.