Arena Shifters (A Paranormal Romance Novel) (18 page)

The
three trackers froze. “What was that?” Primo hissed.

Brother
One was just about to reply, but Primo held up his hand for silence. He was
pretty sure they were no longer alone. He motioned for them to fan out. He
pointed to himself and brother two, then to a tangle of dead wood and branches
not far from the steam. They would approach it from either end. It seemed like
the perfect place for a boy and a wounded gladiatrix to hide.

Lucius
heard them moving again, and this time they were taking great pains to move
silently, or nearly so. It was only a matter of time before they were caught.
He looked down at Petronia. She did not look up for a fight. That meant it was
up to him. Sadly, the only way they would have a chance is if he revealed a
long kept secret. He was pretty sure that what he was about to do was going to
alienate him from her for good, and he could scarcely think about that.

He
looked at her beautiful face again. Even with her burning with fever, and her
hair matted down with dried blood and twigs, she looked heavenly. And now he
was going to do the one thing that would forever distance them. It would keep
her alive, but as for him and her together, well that was a fantasy that was
about to end. He closed his eyes and listened to two pairs of feet drawing
closer and closer. This is it. He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers.
They were so soft and warm. He inhaled her sour breath and didn’t even mind. He
breathed in her scent, and though they hadn’t bathed for who knew how long, her
smell still sent shivers up and down his spine. A snap of a twig to his right
alerted him to the fact that it was time.

* * *

Petronia

* * *

A
sudden movement next to her startled her awake. One moment she had been lying
in bed enjoying the soft caress of another gladiatrix, then she was back in the
woods on fire with fever and a pounding headache. A cry of surprise and the
clash of metal caused her curiosity to get the better of her. She rolled over,
about to say something to Lucius, only to find him gone. Then it hit her. There
was a battle going on, and he was in the middle of it. She could not let him
fight alone for them. It sounded like more than one person was involved in the
melee from the sound and if he died because of trying to save her… She couldn’t
finish the thought. Despite their difference in age, and the fact that he was
younger, she discovered that the boy… the young man meant something to her. All
these thoughts were swirling around in her head as she stood drunkenly, drawing
her gladius and throwing down her sheath. What she saw just about made her turn
and run the opposite direction.

Standing
with its back to her, snarling viciously was a wolf with a coat of sleek black
fur, beginning to mat in places from what had to be blood. She glanced around
for Lucius half expecting to see him lying on the ground but he was nowhere to
be seen and she didn’t know whether to side with the wolf, or with Primo and
the two new gladiators who’d come, she expected, to bring her home. The men
hadn’t noticed her presence yet as they were too occupied with their wolf
problem. She was half tempted to side with the wolf and try to kill the men.
Problem was, soon the men were dead she was bound to become the creatures next
meal.

Having
made up her mind she advanced on the wolf who had not seen her either. Right
away she realized she was too slow to strike the frantically moving wolf.
Unless he just happened to run by, she would never land a blow. But as luck
would have it, the thing bounded away from the men, and noticing her for the
first time it leapt over to where she was standing. Now or never she thought as
she took a swing with her gladius. The move was almost more coordination than
she could muster she was surprised when she felt her blade connect with the
bone and sinew of its shoulder. Not much of a blow, but it was better than
nothing. Then the wolf did the strangest thing. Rather than attacking her, it
retreated a couple steps and stared up at her with its black eyes. She could
almost read its expression; one of surprise (she was equally surprised), and
one of sorrow? She could swear she had seen that expression before, and those
eyes, they also seemed familiar. Had to be her fever, she decided as she
readied her next attack.

Out
of the corner of her eye she could see Primo and the twins circling around,
trying to flank the beast. She could help with that. All she had to do was keep
it focused on her. No problem. She stepped in closing he distance and took a
swing at the wolf. She was just too injured to be effective and the beast
easily sidestepped her attack. The weird thing was, it didn’t attack her. She
was easy prey. It could dispatch her in a split second before the others could
bring their weapons to bear on it. But the wolf kept looking at her with its
sad eyes while keeping tabs on the men. Off to her left she saw Primo signaling
her to attack it. She correctly guessed that he wanted a diversion. She was beginning
to not really want to hurt the wolf for some odd reason, so she only swung her
gladius half-heartedly. But that was enough. In that instant that it was
focused on her blade, Primo made his next attack. He charged with surprising
speed considering his overall lack of skills. The twins chose that exact moment
to attack as well. Only theirs was well timed and born of actual experience.

The
battle was on!

The
wolf was amazingly fast. So much so that so far just about every strike only
found air for a target and pretty soon Petronia found herself rooting for the
wolf. A sudden hot, wet spray of blood in her face and she came to realize that
although it was blindingly fast, the wolf was not invincible. One of the twins
scored a direct his on the beasts left hindquarters causing it to go to the
ground in a heap. The brothers moved in for the kill while Primo hung back and
watched. The coward!

Suddenly
Petronia made up her mind. With Lucius gone and probably killed by these three
she was all along in the world and most likely this was her last day so might
as well do one thing right. It was a fortunate thing that he had sent the two
girls back to the Villa, else they would be dead as well. She always wanted to
die with honor in the arena, and she realized this was her arena. This was her
Primus and she was going to die here with honor protecting this wild creature
who, whatever it did, did not deserve to be carved up by these wicked men.
Brother one stepped within range of her blade, and with a great cry she struck.
Unfortunately he was able to partially deflect it and her blade only sliced
into his left upper arm where it struck bone. As he spun around to bring his
blade to bear on Petronia, her sword was wrenched from her fingers and fell to
the ground.

The
man shook off the wound and struck at Petronia’s unprotected head. Amazingly
she managed to duck under the swipe but it was doubtful her luck would hold.

“Wait!”

A
sudden sharp cry brought the 3 combatants to a stop. All three looked down
where the voice had originated, and laying there was Lucius, covered in blood
from multiple wounds and struggling for breath.

Petronia
stared down at him in shock.
How could this have happened?
She asked
herself.
How could this be?

* * * * *

CHAPTER TWENTY:

The Final Arena

* * * * *

Petronia
glanced down in horror at Lucius motionless form. She could not believe she had
just taken a sword to her only friend left in the world, and now it was looking
like he was dying or dead.

Then
she began to second guess herself. Was it really him? The gods know she’d had
her share of nightmares and hallucinations over the last several days so part
of her brain told her she couldn’t trust anything she saw. All she knew for
certain was that she was in the woods fleeing from the very man standing in
front of her leering. He was obviously pleased with this turn of events and
that alone was a pretty good reason to believe what her eyes were telling her
now.

Primo
finally broke his silence. “By the gods, woman, you’ve killed your little boyfriend.
What will his father say?”

Petronia
knelt down beside him. “Say? Y-you can’t t-tell him.” She stammered. “This
wasn’t all m-me either. You’ve done m-most of the damage.” She was feeling
weaker by the minute. The adrenaline rush that had returned her strength to her
in battle was rapidly draining out of her system. She could tell she was
nearing collapse…again.

Primo
thought for a moment. She was right, he couldn’t say anything.  Dominus would
never believe that Petronia had attacked his son. On the other hand he would be
all too willing to believe
he
had done it to remove any obstacle in his
way to becoming Lanista. The question was what to do with this annoying
Gladiatrix? Safest thing would be to kill her right then and there. However,
she was Dominus favored gladiator and biggest moneymaker. Killing her might
throw suspicion on him as it was well known that she loathed him. It was also
known that he had worked her over and even if he said she died in the woods
Dominus would know it was his fault. A fighter of her caliber didn’t just die
in the woods around here. There were no wild animals to speak of and no escaped
slave activity near here either. Her death for any reason would cast suspicion
on him. Best to just bring her back and marry her. Of course he’d have to watch
his back day and night. That didn’t sound too enjoyable either.

He
looked down. Amazingly the boy was beginning to move about. Perhaps he was not
hurt so bad after all. So what was he to do with the boy now? He was whispering
something in Petronia’s ear. She was nodding her head and looking at him with
venom in her eyes. That can’t be good, he thought. At last she straightened.

“You
and I have business to attend to slave.”

The
way she said the word slave, it was like a curse. She had stood up, gladius in
hand, and by the way she was standing, light of foot, and the tilt of her head,
he could tell she was spoiling for a fight.

He
drew his own blade. “Do you really want to do this Dove? You look like you need
a nap more than you need a fight.”

His
tone was mocking her, goading her into a fight. No good would come out of a
fight, but he just couldn’t help himself. He took a step in her direction and
the other two gladiators moved in for the kill but he waved them off. He wanted
this for himself.

Even
in her weakened state, Petronia knew she could take him, but him and the twins?
If she was strong it would not be too difficult for her. Knowing him, he would
make them stay out of the fight wanting the glory for himself. If she could dispatch
him quickly, then it would be two on one instead of three. And, if Primo died,
the twins might just let her go free. They didn’t really have any reason to
dislike her. This might work out alright after all.

He
struck first, using pure strength and zero tactics. Clearly he thought he could
just bulldoze her and gain a quick victory from strength alone. He struck first
with his sword, then his dagger. She easily knocked the sword aside and as she
parried the dagger she gave a little flick of her wrist and dug the tip of her
own weapon deep into the inside of his wrist.  He jerked his hand back in shock
and pain, simultaneously dropping his weapon. This was going to be too easy she
thought as she countered with her gladius. Where he used brute force, she used
tactics and finesse. She ducked under her blade and stepped to his left at an
angle. In a split second she was off to his side spinning. As she slipped by
under his extended arm she let the edge of her gladius slice into his ribs.

He
spun around to face her again. As he turned he struck out blindly with his
sword and nearly caught her in the face. She was prepared for a skillful
attack, not a wild flailing about. She would have to watch out for the
unexpected.

Despite
his two wounds, he was hammering away at her with his sword and she was getting
tired dodging inept strikes. Suddenly she caught movement out of the corner of
her eye. One of the twins was trying to get an angle on her. Apparently they
had chosen sides. This could not turn out well. If one twin was in the action,
the other one surely would be doing the same. Her spinning, ducking, and
slicing were serving her well, but she was bound to make a mistake; and she
did. She hesitated. She saw an opening and had she taken it, she would have removed
one of the brother’s head from his shoulders. She really did not want to kill
them. They had trained together for months on end and she had no hard feelings
towards them. Sadly, they didn’t share her sympathies.  She felt the bite of
the blade absent pain. It was just pressure in her side. She didn’t think it
was too bad though because when he withdrew his blade there wasn’t a lot of
blood on it. A surge of energy soared through her in response to the strike.
Her movements were frenetic. She was dodging, spinning, striking like she was
two instead of one and the joy of battle returned.  She could smell blood in
the air.
This was a good
place to die
, she thought to herself.
This
is my final Arena, and I am ready to die.