“Fuck off,” River sneered, and I mentally cheered him.
“Why that one?” Granny asked the beautiful psychopath, and the girl leaned in close to River, dragging her nose up the side of his neck.
“He's one of us.” The crazy girl growled. I mean, literally growled. River met my eyes over the top of her head, and I gave him a tiny head shake. He clearly wanted to do something, but I needed them to stay out of it. They needed to stay safe.
“We can discuss it after Bridget is dead, Chesca,” Granny Winter snapped, and the brunette girl pouted like a petulant child.
“Get the prisoners over there so they don't miss any of the action,” Granny commanded her men. “Then throw Bride in the middle. She's to fight Chesca to the death.”
The dark haired girl grinned like a fucking lunatic and smacked a wet kiss on River’s neck. “I'll be seeing you soon, lover.”
River visibly shuddered in revulsion, and I smothered a smile as I pictured handing this chick her ass. I had beaten this chick before, in the halls of Blood Moon, so I could do it again. Glancing at the other guys, I could see the tension had dropped ever-so-slightly from them as well, as they must have come to the same conclusion.
“I don't know why you're so happy, Chesca,” I smirked. “This could quite easily be the death of you, too.”
Her confident grin faltered slightly, then pasted back into place. “Don't make me laugh; Granny Winter knows all about how your strength works, and without your bonded guardians, you're nothing more than a weak, pathetic little girl.” She tossed her ponytail and sauntered toward the arena, sliding out of her jacket and tossing it aside as she strutted like it was fashion week.
“Bride,” Granny Winter sneered when it was just the two of us and my guards left. “I wish I could say it was a pleasure knowing you, but it most certainly was not. I hope Chesca makes this painful for you and you rot in hell for all eternity.”
Without waiting for me to respond, she stalked into the arena as well, leaving my guards to drag me along behind her.
“Family!” Granny shouted, garnering the attention of everyone gathered. “A lot of you will remember Bridget from her stay with us some twenty-three years ago!” There was an angry rumbling in response, and I wondered what the fuck my mother had done to piss these people off so damn badly. “Well, now she gets what she deserves! As decided by your council of elders, she will fight our chosen warrior to the death.” A cheer went up from the surrounding spectators, and my palms started sweating. Even if I could survive this fight, how was I going to convince this angry mob that I was not my mother?
Granny Winter smirked at me once more as she backed out of the clearing then yelled out, “Begin!”
32
RIVER
It felt like my heart had momentarily stopped as that psychotic bitch, Chesca, launched herself at Kit. She moved so damn fast, and Kit wasn't even looking. My girl was still staring after the old lunatic who had been speaking, so she probably wouldn't even see the attack until it was too late. Just as my mouth dropped open to yell a warning, Kit just moved. We'd seen her use her superspeed a handful of times in the past few months, mostly in training, but it was nothing compared to the way she moved now. One second she was standing there, her back totally exposed to the crazy girl's incoming fist, and the next she was just a blur as she darted out of the way and reappeared some half-dozen yards from her opponent.
“Holy shit,” Caleb whispered from beside me, and I was inclined to agree with him.
“Come on, Vixen,” Cole muttered from behind me, his shackles clinking as he most-probably clenched and unclenched his fists. “Why isn't she attacking her back?”
Cole was right; Kit was standing well clear of the other girl, her hands raised as she spoke in a voice too quiet for any of us to hear. Chesca prowled closer to Kit, her hands morphing into lethal looking claws, and the fading afternoon light glinted off the tips, almost like they were made of metal. Kit lowered her hands cautiously, and the older girl darted across the short distance at a speed only fractionally slower than Kit's, her clawed hands extended. Kit ducked and twisted out of the way right at the last second, but one of Chesca's claws must have clipped her because she clasped a hand to her arm and I saw red well up from under it.
“Shit,” I swore. “Careless. Why is she being careless?” The careful control I kept over my raging emotions was cracking, and I could feel it testing the barriers.
“She thinks she can still talk reason into that crazy bitch,” Wesley suggested. “I think she probably doesn't want to have to kill someone based on a misunderstanding.”
“She'd better fight back soon, or we will intervene for her.” Cole's voice was quiet but loaded with menace.
“Damn right,” Vali grunted, agreeing with his brother.
Kit cried out, mostly in anger by the sounds of things, but it cracked my control just that little bit more, and I felt rage sweeping through my body as the frantic beast in my mind tried to take over. Closing my eyes, I took a couple of long, deliberate breaths to regain my balance and reinforce my mental cage. After the many years I had spent practicing control, I would not let it break now while Kit's life was in danger.
“Yes, that's it baby girl; hit that bitch.” Austin's words were muttered so softly under his breath that I doubt he even realized he's said them out loud. It made me bring my awareness back to the fight at hand, though.
Kit had obviously landed a few blows on her opponent, as the darker girl’s nose was streaming blood and she was favoring one leg just the slightest bit.
“Why isn't she healing?” I asked Wesley quietly, but he looked just as puzzled as I was. Thankfully though, our guards seemed to have relaxed a bit since the fight had begun, and it was one of them who answered me.
“It’s her claws,” he grunted. “When she was kept captive in that testing lab, they did all sorts of weird shit to her. One of them was that they coated her claws in a silver-iron alloy.”
“How does that stop Kit from healing, though?” I frowned, hoping this guy was willing to share his information while he was so focused on the fight in front of us.
The guy turned to look at me with a frown of his own. “Fuck, you really are human, aren't you? Figured those two would have known this, though. They're sure as fuck not human.” He jerked his head towards Cole and Vali, who glowered back at him.