Page 61 of Absolution

Maybe I could work it off. My hands itched with the need to rip something apart while my mind seemed to be coming apart at the seams. Which way was up? And why did everything look so goddamned red? Life everywhere, pulsing, screaming for me to release it with the ripping of a vein.

Fuck!

Would there still be fights? Luca said Max had been busy with business stuff. Luca had been fighting before I came back. It was my only hope now. Maybe they had a vampire I could fight. Someone to remind me of Gabe while I worked out all the aggression taking control.

And how angry did that make me to learn things tonight that I should have known right away? Saliva created a bond that could change a person into a vampire. Vampires used to go to ground every night. Vampires could mind rape a group of people with little effort. Vampires had blood sex clubs where people died and no one cared. The sire bond was some sort of magic. Vampires were monsters.

I’d known the last. Thought I’d embraced it. How dumb I’d been.

Don’t go,Seiran said through our bond.I’ll come get you.

I was too lost in the rage to see anyone fragile right that moment. I needed violence like I never had before in my existence. Something had to die. Maybe that would be me, and in that moment, that was okay too. Better me than Seiran.

I’m Father Earth, or so you keep reminding me, I’m not fragile.

But he was. Still breakable, and I really wanted to break something.It’s just a fight,I told him, as I arrived at the club and was let in by the same bouncer. Inside I found Riley, the guy who scheduled the fights and said, “I need to fight, anyone strong enough to match me?”

He looked at me, then at his list. “Hart said he’ll fund all your fights. We have a few other vampires in tonight, but none I’ve seen fight before. I can put you with one of the shifters.”

“No. A vampire.” I could pretend it was Gabe and smash them to bits.

“We have rolling rounds tonight. Beat the champion and we keep sending you another fighter until you get beat and they become the champion or we run out of challengers.”

That sounded like heaven. “No one fragile?”

“All level five and up fighters. They know what they are signing up for when they step in the ring. But you have to beat the champion first.”

“Done, point me in his direction,” I demanded. My skin begged for the fight, muscles aching, energy still rolling through me as I remembered Gabe’s arm almost disintegrating under Seiran’s power. I absently pushed the energy back at him.Put a lock on it, Ronnie. I don’t need your help to fight.

I staggered for a minute from the loss of Seiran’s energy laced over my own. The last grounding force, I realized as I blinked through the red haze. Someone was going to die. “If I kill someone?”

“It happens with vampires. A lot lately.”

“If someone kills me?” I wondered. Would someone tell Luca, Con, and Seiran at least?

“Your friends will be notified.” Riley pointed toward the dressing room. “Get changed. I’ll put you in rotation. They’ll call your name when you’re up.”

I found a pair of shorts and didn’t bother with anything else. Blood would ruin it all anyway. It didn’t take long before my name was called, though long enough that my vision was completely gone. Someone said something I didn’t quite understand but they led me to the cage. I could smell blood everywhere and once the door clanged shut behind me, the rank odor of another vampire filled my senses. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t see him, or that his stillness meant he was old. I envisioned Gabe and how he had failed Seiran. Him tossing me away like worthless trash wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t like I was worth much. He’d only saved me because Kelly had asked. Matthew and Roman had taught me the truth of vampires, they were selfish, heartless, and utterly ruthless when it came to power. I was probably the shittiest vampire on the planet because none of that appealed to me. But Seiran, who had embraced me as a friend despite everything I’d done to him, deserved better.

The bell rang. Pain came first. A blow to my head that sent me careening into the cage. People cheered. Another hit exploded my nose and sent black tendrils of oozing unconsciousness into my brain. That was okay too. The rage, hunger, and need for self-destruction would go silent if I was knocked out, or at least I hoped it would.

Only it didn’t feel like unconsciousness, instead it was something else that took over. Theother. He opened his eyes to briefly glimpse the crowd and the monster looming overhead, but in that instant, as he leapt to his feet, he shut me down. The rational, moral, and human side of Sam Mueller going dark as the revenant took hold. It was a strange thing, being locked inside my own body, unable to see, hear, or really feel anything. It was a lot like that dark place Seiran had given me a glimpse of, death without being truly dead. I fought it, trying to tear free of the abyss, but nothing seemed to help.

I crested three times, coming briefly back to myself in a glut of blood and screams. Nothing hurt. In fact all I could feel was hunger, anger, and a need to destroy. I fed, over and over, though it did nothing to satiate my bloodlust. Too much blood as I spewed each time, spitting out gallons of the noxious stuff, only to be rewarded with more hunger. What was taking them so long in sending me the next challenge?

The scent of others tickled my senses. The blood around me was old, stale, and dead. Vampire blood, I realized. It couldn’t satisfy me, no matter how much I might want it to. But there was living blood in spades nearby. I could smell the stench of shifters, a few others I couldn’t identify, and witches…

I licked my lips at the thought of tasting a witch right then. Drinking down the power of someone like Seiran Rou might satisfy the monster. I took a step in their direction, but met resistance. A wall of some kind, though I still couldn’t see straight. It looked like some sort of mesh, dripping with gore. It didn’t taste like anything living so I shredded it with my claws. The wail of metal tearing hurt my ears, but at least now I could continue my quest for that delicious scent.

What was that again? The familiar delicacy of smells that lit my senses and tried to pull back the weak side…the human side of my brain. I refused, too far gone in need to pursue the link. They weren’t moving, and I could hear their voices, though not make out their words.

Someone stepped in front of me, forcing a pause in my movement. That someone died a second later. I felt their blood run over me in a cold rush. Another vampire. Useless.

I needed real food, not this dirty mess of rot.

Yet another stepped in front of me. I reached for them, only they smashed me into the floor with so little effort it took a few extra seconds for the monster to realize we’d been temporarily immobilized by magic. But the real blood was so close.

The one who held me was a vampire too. Strong, yet weak. Made powerful by magic that wasn’t his own, instead it was layered over him, like unmatching condiments on a slice of toast. There were gaps in his magic, holes as though something had been ripped out of the grid. I could feel the pulse of his energy, recognized it vaguely as someone I’d met before, but couldn’t place. The monster didn’t care. It struggled against him. Reaching out now with something more than just physical energy. Little fingers of magic wove through him, finding a light inside, a different sort of energy than blood, digging into those little tears. It was a sort of unrestrained magic, old and unfamiliar, a shadow of change that brought the flash of my one flight as a bird, then a roll of people through my spotted vision. Some familiar, others just a crowd of faces.