Night Marks (3 page)

The crowd is joyous already, crying for the blood sport to commence. I have been involved in a lot of fights, but I have never been to an actual event like this. I have heard they can get pretty vicious.

“So, what are the terms?” I ask Alex. I figure he knows all the details, since he brought me here.

“No weapons, shifts allowed, tap out,” he replies.

It isn't a death match then. I imagine the opponent that taps out is probably knocking on death’s door. A loss in this division knocks you down to the bottom rung of the ladder and you have to fight your way back up. Most of that journey is paved with death matches. I like fighting a whole lot, but the whole to the death element has always left me queasy.

The countdown clock is ticking off its last second and a male werewolf joins the ring girl. He has a microphone in his hand, so I am guessing he is the ring announcer for this evening.

The lights in the arena dim and spotlights start circling the room.

“Ladies and gentleman, thank you for joining us this evening. Night Owl City Hall is proud to present tonight's match between Joe 'The Hulk' Murray and Trevor 'The Wolfman' Amonte,” he shouts to the crowd.

One of the contestant’s entrance music kicks on and the people get on their feet. I stand too, thinking about how these guys need to find themselves more original nicknames.

It looks like The Wolfman is the one making his way to the ring. Judging by the look of him, you wouldn't think he was in the right place. Alex looks more built. That might not be a good reference point because Alex is pretty large, but this contestant is way too small by my standards. Wolfman is only wearing a pair of orange trunks as he bobs and weaves his way to the ring. I can see some definition in his abs and arms, but he doesn't project a lot of strength.

A different entrance theme immediately starts and a giant of a man enters the arena. Now this is more like it. Hulk is wearing green shorts covering his tree trunk thick thighs. His biceps don't look much smaller and he has to be seven feet tall.

If I stood next to him, I would probably look like a child's doll. Definitely not someone I want to meet up with in a back alley.

As the music dies down the announcer picks up the microphone again. “The rules are simple. We will have three five-minute rounds. No weapons are allowed, but you can shift. We go until tap out or the end of the third round where we will go to a judges’ decision.

“On that note, please allow me to introduce our judges for the night,” the spotlights move to highlight a man in the audience. “First, we have Riley Mullins.” The man stands to wave at the crowd. I wonder how these judges are picked. The guy seems kind of random. “Our second judge is Trent Hughes.” Stand and wave repeated. “And our final judge is relatively new to the city, so I want everyone to give him a warm welcome. Put your hands together for Alex Monroe.”

More standing and waving happens while I sit next to him with my jaw hovering around the floor. Totally not cool. I am so not thrilled about having the spotlight this close to me.

The cheers finally wind down and Alex retakes his seat. He reaches for my hand and gives it a little squeeze.

“Surprise,” he says. That's it, surprise? This kind of information is something I tend to like beforehand.

“I don't think I am happy with you right now.”

“That's nothing new. Watch the fight, so you can help me pick a winner, if they last the full time,” he instructs.

Looking at the two contestants, I don't think it is going to be much of a challenge, but I settle in to watch. It's nice that these front row seat chairs are well padded. The seats we passed coming in were mostly bleachers. I would probably be more irritated if I was sitting on the cold medal.

“Round 1,” the little ring girl screams, interrupting my thoughts.

The opponents start circling each other trying to take measure. Hulk doesn't move around too well, while Wolfman is hopping and bouncing around as if he is part rabbit. I still think size is going to rule the match.

They finally get close enough to touch and the little guy tries throwing some punches. It looks like they are running into a concrete wall. Hulk just stands there grinning, showing everyone what little effect they are having on him.

Eventually, he gets bored and picks Wolfman up. He then throws him across the ring. Wolfman hits the cage hard and falls to the ground, but he isn't down long. He springs back up and goes after the giant again.

He picks up his pace and starts darting around Hulk giving body shots when he can, while trying to stay out of the bigger man's grasp. He keeps it up for the rest of the round, not letting another hit touch him.

I have to give it to him, his strategy is interesting, but he doesn't seem to be doing much damage. I think the judging is scored on the most violence or blood drawn for this type of thing and skating around giving jabs here and there is not going to go over well with the judges.

“What do you think, so far?” Alex asks during the wait for the second round.

“It isn't as violent as I was expecting. It actually seems pretty mild.”

“I think they are still trying to size each other up. The Wolfman is a relatively new fighter, so The Hulk probably doesn't have a full dossier on his moves.”

“I would call his move the bunny hop. He doesn't seem to hold still for a second.”

“Would you, if you were in the ring with the giant?” he asks.

“Not if I wanted to make it out alive.” The bell for round two sounds and I turn my attention back to the ring.

Things start out the same as the last round ended. Hulk is trying to move around more, working to catch the smaller man. Frustrated with failing his task, he finally gives up and changes to his wolf form.

He is a dark brown wolf with some scattered silver streaks. Humanoid size and wolf size do not always manifest evenly. Alex has the largest wolf that I have seen. I expected Hulk may be bigger because of his massive size, but he is quite a bit smaller. He isn't a runt or anything, just smaller.

He starts lunging at Wolfman, who is still in human form for the moment. Wolfman does some fancy flips to keep Hulk at bay. This only works to aggravate him more. After one of Wolfman's flips, Hulk takes to the air and leaps to the corner the humanoid is standing in.

With his opponent in the air, Wolfman sees his opening and shifts into his silver wolf form while leaping to meet Hulk in the middle. As wolves, they are almost even on their size, so the previous advantage Hulk once held is gone.

They meet with The Wolfman's jaw clamping around Hulk's jugular. He locks his jaw in place and The Hulk is stuck wiggling on the ground trying to get free. It isn't a hold you really want to rip away from an opponent because chances are your throat will go, too.

A torn out throat wouldn’t kill any of us, but it would sideline him for a least a week while it knitted itself back together. I have seen the injury happen before during my time with the Collective, so I am pretty familiar with it.

After some last tries to break free, The Hulk finally gives up and taps his paw on the mat. Wolfman releases and stands back allowing doctors to come in and work on Hulk. The injury shouldn't be too serious and both men will live to see another day.

The biggest lesson of the day for me is to not bet against the underdog. Small and mighty can win over big and slow. Being small and mighty myself, I never should have doubted it.

Chapter 4

My spidey senses are tingling

“That was awesome. Did you see how seamlessly Wolfman shifted into his wolf and went right for the jugular?” I ask Alex excitedly as we leave the arena. Of course, he saw it. He was sitting right next to me.

“I still can’t believe this was your first fight. As much as you like violence, I am surprised you haven’t joined the women’s division,” he replies grabbing my hand while we wait for the car to be brought around.

“Good idea. I wonder who I need to contact to get in on the action,” I say looking around the crowd.

“I shouldn’t have said anything. You do know you won’t be allowed to fight. You have enough threats against you. No need to add more. Those women on the circuit are nothing nice. They have been known to leave a lot of permanent scars.”

I wave my hand in his general direction. “That isn’t a problem for me. I have trained with men ten times bigger than me my whole life. Even the toughest female, would be a joke for me to fight. Maybe I should look into joining the men’s league.”

“There is no way that is going to happen. I will restrain you every way I can,” he insists.

Too bad I feel his threat is a joke. As it is, I am just trying to get a rise out of him. I don’t have time in my busy schedule to grapple around with sweaty men, or women.

The Camaro appears in front of us and as Alex goes to open the door for me, I stop him. All of a sudden, an immense sense of wrongness washes over me. It makes no sense, but I don’t want to get in the car. Something is different about it.

“Wait. Something isn’t right. Don’t touch the car and get everyone back from it,” I say dropping to the ground and looking under the Camaro as I hear Alex directing people away.

“Get to the arena, now,” I hear him yell. I am guessing he made a phone call.

Under the car, I see a red light blinking and a timer that says 00:05:27 and is counting down. Looks like it is attached to a couple bricks of C4. I haven’t worked with explosives, so I cannot really be sure what I am looking at.

“How much do you like your car, Alex?” I ask standing back up.

“It is one of my favorites. Why?” he responds.

“Because in about five minutes you won’t be able to recognize it. I am not a bomb expert, but I don’t think there will be much left to it when this thing goes off,” I tell him.

“Thankfully, Jonas
is
a bomb expert and he is on his way. It shouldn’t take them more than a minute to get here and maybe we can save her.”

Sure enough, thirty seconds later Sebastian arrives followed by Smitty, Jonas, and Jake.

“And you thought you guys were getting the night off,” I say to the guards as Sebby walks over and wraps his arms around me.

“Getting into trouble I see,” he whispers into my ear.

“Me? Never. Someone just doesn’t like true American muscle cars and is taking their hate out on this beautiful piece of machinery,” I reply like I am actually speaking sense.

“Jonas, would you mind taking a look? Do we have people scouring the area? I imagine the person that planted the bomb wanted to watch the show, so they shouldn’t be far,” Alex states.

“Yes, there are at least thirty of our people looking for anyone out of place or just in general suspicious,” Sebastian reports.

Jonas takes a look under the car and takes out a multi-tool. He starts fiddling around with something and I really hope he knows what he is doing. I go to take a step back, just to add some distance, but Sebastian is still behind me.

“It’s a decoy,” Jonas says carrying out the “bomb”. “The wires aren’t connected to the explosive.”

“Why would someone plant a fake bomb and how in the world did I sense something wasn’t right?” I ask.

“Shit,” Jonas says under his breath. “Thirty minutes ago our prisoner woke up. We brought most of our people out here for this threat. I imagine security for him is currently low. Do you think someone is trying to get to him?”

“Hey, I was supposed to be told the second he woke up. That little pipsqueak has some questions to answer and, hopefully, this time Sebastian won’t snap his neck before he tells me everything he knows,” I say and immediately stretch out my wings.

I haven’t really figured out the science of where the wings go when I am not using them. They aren’t there all the time and I don’t have any ridges that seem to hold them. The wings, by the way, are not black like the other vampires I have seen. They match my wolf and are shimmering shades of gold.

I bend my knees and take off into the air. I have to get to our holding area and make sure the captive is still there. Within seconds, I feel Sebby and Smitty pull up beside me.

“Alex is going to be pissed you just took off like that,” Sebastian taunts.

“Alex spends his days pissed, so it won’t be anything new for him,” I return. “Plus, it looks like he gets to sleep in my bed tonight. I am sure that will negate any hard feelings.”

“He told you I picked out the dress, didn’t he?” he asks as I start to make my descent close to our jail. The jail happens to be in the lower levels of my apartment building. It comes in handy.

“Why would you think that?” I reply.

“That’s the only way you would have put it on,” he says. “I didn’t, by the way, pick out the dress. It’s not fair that he is allowed to lie to you and I cannot. Of course, when you guys become fully mated his options for deceiving will be limited.”

“Really?” I ask landing on the ground. “What exactly will change to cause that?”

I am still working on learning what it means to be a vampire or a werewolf. The guys have helped explain some things, but I still have a lot to figure out.

“At that point, you will be able to read each other’s thoughts. So, if you think he may be lying, you can just take a look-see in his brain and find out,” he informs me.

I spin around to face him. “You are joking about that part, right? I know I don’t pick up emotions and stuff as strongly as you two do, but that guy is horny twenty-four seven. There is no way I want to know what he is actually thinking. I will have to give myself daily brain washes to get all the crud out.”

He smiles at me and opens the door. “After you, love. Since you don’t get the emotions, maybe the mind reading part won’t happen either.”

I still have problems remembering that Sebby cannot lie to me, so he must be telling the truth about the dang mind reading. Stupid werewolf genes.

We make our way to the elevator for this facility. Once inside, I press the secure level and we descend three floors. When the doors open, we are met with a destruction area. The guards’ station has been demolished. The video terminals are smashed and thrown towards the opposite wall. There are papers everywhere and there are three guards shaking their heads as if coming out of a fog.