Page 29 of The Lost Ones

"Rebel, it's been a while." the first large bouncer with dark blond hair, cropped short and a body built like a tank greets me using the name Brent chose for me, I’m going to have to change that.

"Hey Tommy, I know it's been a long time. I had to take care of a few things." I reply, before looking at the guy with surfer style red hair who is somehow even bigger than Tommy.

"Hey Bradley. How's it going?"

"Good little Rebel, are you fighting?"

"Hell yes I am, it’s Nyx now though."I grin savagely as the name whispers through my mind.

We start walking towards the offices at the back of the gym. At the end of the long corridor we enter a door that leads to what at first glance appears to be a standard storeroom.Tommy moves some of the giant shelving units out of the way to reveal a steel door, with a keypad to the side.

He keys in the code and then pulls the doors open and as soon and as he does the noise level raises exponentially and a sardonic grin stretches across my face.The sounds of the jeering crowd make me feel sick. This is the type of crowd that are so filled with bloodlust that they cheer when someone loses a life.The smell of blood mixed with sweat and bodily odour has become incredibly familiar to me.We walk down the corridor to the locker rooms where Sam is already waiting for me.

"Rebel, good to see you back. Your opponent is Night Stalker. Since you've been gone, he's become the top fighter. I thought you'd like to claim that title back.” He looks at me and I simply nod once.

“It’s Nyx now.”

He's right. I may I only fight when I have to now, but I still pride myself on being the best, it gives me a sense of security.

"Good, you should know that Eric is here tonight."

I stiffen momentarily before continuing to wrap my hands. The fight is bare knuckled, but we are allowed to use hand wraps.Eric is my ex's right-hand man. If Eric recognises me, which he will since I am well known here, he will tell my dickhead ex where I am. I can only hope that he won't give a crap either way.

If I didn't desperately need the money I would leave right now but since I do I can only take measures to conceal my appearance and hope that Eric is too busy chasing pussy to pay much attention to what's happening in the ring. It's his fault I know about this place anyway. I've always taken self-defence and martial arts for as long as I can remember. I'm not sure why my mother insisted on them, but how could I question her? Her punishments would have been worse.

As soon as my ex learnt that I knew how to fight he brought me here. I'm ashamed to say he tempted me with money but more than that I wanted to make him proud, so I fought, and I won.I've only been back here when I have absolutely no other choice. Only twice since we split and not once were any of his men in the building.

"Thanks for the heads-up Sam."

He nods before leaving. I push all thoughts away; I need to focus. Any distractions and I'll be finished.I need to win in order to get my cut of the winnings.

I shake out my muscles before pulling my hair into a tight bun andpulling the hood up on my jumper to cover my hair and hopefully obscure my face.I search my bag and finally find some Bobby pins. I only find two, but it will have to do. I push the pins through the inside of the material of the hood and then secure them into my hair. It's not much but hopefully it will work.Seems like I'm throwing a lot of hope out there just to get booze for my mother.

Although I’m also doing it for the release of my emotions, that's how I knew what Kai was doing when he was beating the ever-loving crap out of that bag.

"Nyx come on, you're up!" Tommy informs me.

I walk through the locker room door and down the long hallway, the sounds of the crowd getting louder. I make it through to the end of the corridor whilst the announcer goes through the usual fan fair that accompanies announcing fighters.

I tune everything out as I walk into the cage.I eye up my opponent, looking for weaknesses, anything I can use against him. He's big, very well-muscled and about a head taller than me.In other words, I look even more tiny next to him than I do normally. I can, however, use his height and size against him. He may have a longer reach than me and be physically stronger, but he will be slower too.

The announcer yells 'fight' and we begin to circle.

He has an ugly sneer on his face and seems so self-assured, like he thinks he's already won.That will make him sloppy. Never underestimate your opponent.Tired of circling, he lunges for me, and I kick out whilst moving out of the way, getting a solid kick to his thigh. Not much but having a dead leg during a fight is a bitch.

Not waiting for him to recover, I jab him in the side and hear his rib crack.

He bellows loudly and swings around catching me in the stomach.

I circle him to give me time to recover from the attack. He charges me again and I dodge a kick aimed to sweep my feet out from under me.One of the most important things I've learned about fighting is that you never want to go down, especially when you're my size and fighting opponents so much bigger than you.

The more I dodge his blows the more erratic his swings and kicks become, frustrated that he hasn't been able to land a blow.I spot my opening and throw an uppercut to his jaw before quickly following it up with a roundhouse kick to his head.

He drops like a very heavy sack of potatoes, just before the ref gets to three and declares a knockout, I go flying through the air, my hood ripped off and taking some of my hair with it in the process.

The son of a bitch grabbed my ankle.

As I'm falling, I position myself so my elbow lands with as much force as possible on his face. I feel his nose crunch and wet sticky blood spurt out of it before I spin round and hit him in quick succession makingsure to go for pressure points, I know will knock him out cold.