Page 9

Kill.

Kill.

The metal bar on the other side of the door screeched in protest as the human guard slid it back. A red-headed man with a gun casually poised in his fist met me on the other side. With a sneer, he appraised me with amusement like the beefy man at the front.

Gracing him with a grin I was sure appeared manic, I headed into the crowd of criminals. There was a bar off to the right. The temptation to grab a glass of moonshine called to me, but I pushed it away, not wanting to silence the darkness tonight.

Scantily clad women leered at me as I passed through the crowd, and too often, one of them attempted to seduce me with a swipe at my arms or shoulders. Some nights, it’d work with the hopes to expel this unrelenting madness. This time, however, I didn’t need sex.

I caught a group of people snorting lines of white powder off of jagged mirrors. Another glimpse showed others nearby shoving needles in their arms and going slack in their seats. Their eyes rolled back into their heads from the euphoria. Women sat in men’s laps with tight postures and haunted eyes. Slaves.

Okay, there weresomehumans I wouldn’t mind killing. Slowly. Gruesomely. And in ways that made their torture tactics pale in comparison. The ones trading women and children in the sex trafficking circuits deserved me in my most depraved state.

Another surge of rage powered through me. Closing my hands into tight fists, I forced myself to walk past the degenerates, proceeding toward the back where the fight cages stood.

A deafening cheer went up in the crowd ahead. The prime-time cage sat in the center of the vast room, where the vilest of humanity watched with rapt attention, calling for blood—for death.

Silence quickly descended upon the crowd as bone crunched against bone. Nearing the cage, I caught a glimpse over the top of the crowd’s heads. One shirtless man beat another to disfiguration. Blood coated the cement floor they fought on. The one on the losing end of the fight lay unconscious, his face swollen and glistening in his ruby life force. The one on top kept swinging, not stopping as he pummeled in desperation to finish the job.

The human trafficking portion of this new world saw value in Kinetics and Elementals. They’d capture them and restrict their magic, selling their kind into the circuit as slaves to fight these underground death matches—usually against humans.

Judging by the crowds’ collective disgust, it appeared the Elemental won this fight.

I forced my way closer to the cage, hoping I’d recognize the Elemental slave. I didn’t, but it wouldn’t stop me from freeing him at the end of the night. Once the human was deemed dead, the Elemental dropped his head to his bare chest, bruises already forming on his skin. Remorse coated his expression as he despondently stared at his work.

The crowd came back to life, shouting jeers of hatred at the Elemental that claimed one of their own. They hadn’t come to watch their fellow man die—they wanted to see Elemental or Kinetic blood.

A burly man made his way into the cage, snatching the Elemental to his feet. Drained, he swayed, unable to heal his wounds. Who knew how long he’d had his magic suppressed by the black bracelet on his wrist, weakening him further?

Another man, clad in black—gloves included—entered the cage and dragged the dead human out by his ankle, leaving a nasty blood trail in his wake. A voice came over the underground scorse, echoing off the cement walls. “Number forty-two. Take your place in the main cage.”

Everywhere else in the world, with the exception of Kinetic Domains and Elemental Hollows who ran on magic, was void of electricity. These specific human activities functioned on rare solar-powered generators. It’s bullshit how the innocent suffered the most.

Posing as a human, I walked toward the main cage. People studied me as I passed, gauging whether I stood a chance in the fight. It didn’t matter what they thought—I wasn’t here for their approval. I needed something. And the only way to get it was to win. I’d kill a Kinetic as a bonus while feeding this unhinged affliction within me.

I was a fucking time bomb. And all it really took at this point was for someone to touch or look at me in the wrong way, and I’d go off. This fight was a necessity in more ways than one.

With each step I took, the darkness hyped me with promises of violence, retribution, and death. Promises to take, take, take. Kill, kill, kill.

Humans parted for me, shifting out of my path as I neared the cage, like they sensed something wasn’t quite right with me. If only they knew the truth about who they allowed to walk amongst them.

Climbing the cinder block steps, I ascended into the prime-time cage. Someone finished cleaning the pool of blood from the previous fight, leaving the ring as I entered. Like the last two men, I would be shirtless. It was a requirement in these venues to ensure there was no cheating or disguised Elementals or Kinetics amongst the humans—like me.

Before I’d entered the abandoned warehouse, I’d had to get creative with my magic-suppressing bracelet. Contact with skin was required to hide the physical traits and shut down our magic. My gilded skin and swirling silver irises would be a dead giveaway. I simply strapped it to my thigh beneath my pants with a scrap from a discarded weapons belt. Easy.

The cage was empty, so I picked a corner with a chair, stripped until my torso was bare, and began stretching. The tattoos marking my neck, arms, and chest were a mixture of Elemental sigils and normal human tattoos I had gotten a few years back. Thankfully, the bracelet hid the sigils and left the ink tattoos visible.

I wasn’t nervous—not even a little. Bending to one side, my hamstrings strained before I stood up and pulled my arm across my chest, feeling my back and shoulder muscles loosen. Curious chatter of “the new guy in the cage” echoed throughout the crowd. If only they knew.

The darkness ratcheted up tenfold the longer I waited, crying out for blood and death. The affliction’s bloodlust needed the tension.Ineeded the release. The anxious energy had me bouncing on my feet impatiently.

Too lost in my headspace, I didn’t notice the huge Kinetic slave brought into the cage. Must’ve been a captured warrior. Good. More of a challenge.

“Ladies and gents!” the male voice speaking over the loudspeaker announced theatrically. “Prepare yourselves for a match between disgraced Kinetic Warrior, Matte, and ex-black ops, Trevor!”

I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold off the intensity buzzing through me.

Kill.