Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Nina

S tepping out from between the storage stacks, Venn and I walk straight into chaos. I yank him back so we're not easily seen and take a peek, hoping to find an easy way from here to the elevator.

Some gladiators are already dead, their bodies strewn over the floor like discarded clothes, lifeless and limp and absolutely heartbreaking. Reke is standing behind the long-abandoned service desk, using it to create a low barrier between himself and his attackers. To reach him, they have to either climb over the desk or go around, which means they can't all get to him at once.

Reke. I clench my teeth on a scream, my instincts shouting at me to get him away from danger. But if I were to cause him to lose concentration, even for just a split second, the attacking gladiators might get past his defenses.

Venn's arm around my shoulders tightens. He's watching the battle with pursed lips, and he surges forward, as if he intends to help. I cling onto him, my arms around his waist, refusing to let go, and he's so weak I succeed in halting his progress.

"Don't," I moan. I can't bear the idea of Venn and Reke in danger, especially after the heavy toll that's been inflicted on Venn's body from almost dying and then from being in cryostasis. "Our best bet is getting to the elevators. Then he might be able to escape." Escape into the elevator with us, but surely the gladiators will just keep following us. And what if they were to make it inside the elevator too? Would Reke be able to fight in such a confined space? Or would we all be slaughtered?

"But—" Venn bites back on his words, a muscle in his cheek twitching as he tries and desperately fails to suppress his feelings. Pain lines radiate out from the corners of his eyes, and sweat coats his forehead, running down the firm bridge of his nose. He's still worryingly cold to my touch. Venn catching pneumonia is the last thing we need to happen right now.

"Come on." Urgently, I tug him forward, skirting around the edge of the room in an attempt to keep out of sight, for all that Venn's the second largest in the room, and his sheer size makes it virtually impossible to remain hidden.

The largest, of course, are the career gladiators, melded together to create one enormous monster. There's a rugged scar down the center of their face, exactly like they're the halves of two people someone has sewn together, a Frankenstein-esque monster. They look more like how I'd imagine a Hov laboratory experiment to be than Reke.

They could lift me with one arm. They could crush me with one hand.

They're standing a little apart from the other gladiators, watching Reke with calculating eyes, assessing the way he moves, the way he defeats his opponents. They're waiting for the right moment to strike. It's a markedly different tactic to when they lost their patience back at the banquet and assaulted me. Obviously, they don't want to ruin their chance at a redemption arc in the eyes of the Hov and the patrons. Undoubtedly their career (and ultimately their lives) hinges on this moment.

My whole body is as tight as a bowstring.

Ney is among the gladiators, without her usual four daggers. The Hov have sent her here to die, with no chance of saving herself against Reke. All she's wearing is a pain collar, and it glints maliciously in the fluorescent light.

Efficient as always, Reke dispatches more gladiators, thinning the crowd until there are hardly any left. A few seem to work as a team, coming at him from three different directions at once. They're hindered by the desk though, and Reke leaps from one gladiator to another, using their chests like a sort of springboard, as if he's a gymnast competing for gold at the Olympics.

Ney shields back, wiping splattered blood from her face and doing an even worse job than Venn and me of blending into the background. She's keeping one arm close to her chest; I think she's trying to cover the hollow dug into her pectoral muscle, where someone ripped a chunk out of her just yesterday. She's absolutely not in a fit state to be fighting, and I grind my teeth, silently cursing the Hov for forcing her, and everyone else, into this fucked-up situation.

With a guilty jolt, I realize Venn and I have practically stopped in our tracks, our attention caught by the fight. I tighten my hold around his waist and continue half carrying, half leading him toward the elevator. My knees are threatening to buckle under his weight, and he's leaning on me more heavily now than when he first clambered ungainly to his feet. Just being upright must be a massive strain on his already exhausted body.

The two of us are going to be completely and utterly fucked if more gladiators or Hov guards emerge from the elevator right as we're approaching.

A near-deafening roar reverberates through the storage room.

I flinch. Glancing over my shoulder, I see the career gladiators with their head thrown back and their mouth wide open, displaying teeth and tusks. Surging forward, they smash straight through the desk.

"Reke!" The warning scream is out of my mouth before I can stop myself. I think Venn might be yelling too. But it's not like either of us are helping. Reke couldn't have missed seeing the over ten feet of highly muscled alien tearing toward him. Reke darts first one way and then the other, using his smaller size and faster reaction speed to his advantage. But the monster isn't exactly slow, and he strikes toward Reke, catching him with a glancing blow to one side of his head.

I gasp as Reke is pushed backward. He crouches low, using the momentum of the strike to put a little space between him and his attacker, even as he shakes his head, like he's trying to shake away some of the pain.

Had a Human been hit like Reke just was, they'd most probably be lying on the ground, out cold—or dead. Dead is a genuine possibility.

I've never felt more useless, and I'm guessing Venn is the same because again he tries to break free of my hold. I don't let go of him though, and this time his knees really do give way, forcing the two of us to sink to the floor. I know I'd crawl, heaving his injured ass behind me, if I thought it would keep Venn away from the career gladiators.

I'm just getting into position to do exactly that when the monster catches Reke, lifting him bodily off the ground. I stiffen, like it's me who's been caught. Reke scratches his claws down his attacker's hands, leaving behind deep gouges through the muscle, but the monster doesn't let him go, not even when Reke kicks out with his back legs, cutting into the monster's chest.

The gladiator squeezes, so the near black coloring of Reke's face darkens further. He's going to die!

"Fucking hell!" Releasing Venn, I throw myself back toward Reke. But Ney gets there first. She leaps onto the monster's back, grabbing each of his shoulders in two of her arms and pulling.

The monster howls in pain, their grip loosens on Reke enough that Reke wiggles free. Instead of retreating, he lands on the monster's chest, digging in all four sets of claws into muscles and pulling too.

With an almighty tearing sound that embeds itself into my long-term memory, the monster splits down the middle, and four people tumble to the ground.

"Reke." I scramble over bodies (dead or unconscious, I don't stop to check) and crouch beside Reke. There's a bruise blooming across one side of his face, visible despite his velvet-like skin, flushed and angry looking. But his eyes are open, and he blinks slowly up at me as I lean over, searching for his pulse. It's beating steadily, thank God.

Is that the closest he's ever come to losing a fight? He almost died!

"Nina." He cups my face in one bloodied hand. "I told you I could protect you."

A hysterical laugh escapes me. "You're okay. You're really okay." I've no idea if I'm trying to reassure him, me or Venn. All three of us probably. I've just about enough sense of mind left to remember to check Ney's vitals too.

"Fek off." She tries pushing me away, but she's got about as much strength left in her arms as Venn has.

Reke growls, climbing to his feet, his tail flicking. He's staring at Ney with narrowed eyes and his lips pulled back from his pointed teeth.

Ney and I stand too, and I insert myself between them both. "Reke, she saved you."

"You are not escaping without me," Ney says. Her eyes are bloodshot, and her hands are shaking with the effort of keeping them raised before her body, a shield between herself and Reke. "I will not be left behind."

"See?" I glance between the two of them. We're all so splattered with blood, we look like extras in a horror film.

Reke doesn't immediately respond, but my attention is caught by the small screen. It's dangling out of the ruined desk, held in place by a few exposed cords. Its surface has been smashed, leaving it partially blank. What picture I can make out is a live feed of the storage room, with the career gladiators lying at our feet.

My hair is one tangled mess, and I look shocking skinny. It's not an attractive skinny; it's a she-hasn't-been-eating-properly type of skinny, with hollow cheeks and enormous, deep-set eyes. I'm a shadow of my former self, more ghost than solid Human.

I look up, and sure enough, there's a camera embedded into the ceiling almost directly overhead. "Is that all you've got?" I demand, my voice breaking. "I told you we'd win."

"What are you doing?" Ney grabs one of my arms, trying to pull me out of the direct line of sight.

Immediately Reke has a hand around her neck, not enough to kill her but enough to draw blood.

"The only way we're getting out of here is if the Hov know they'll profit by our escape." I wrench free of her hold and spread my arms wide, indicating all the mess—the dead gladiators, Venn doubled over with exhaustion, Reke and Ney and myself all bloodied and bruised and barely still upright. "Who of us will die first?" I ask the thousands of patrons I know are watching us. "I bet you can't guess."

From the corner of my eye, I see the feed change again, to display the rows and columns of betting odds. What I think must be the numbers are still increasing, getting longer and longer, until they take up much of what remains undamaged of the screen.

"You are scudding insane," Ney swears.

"So what?" I shrug. "Do you know where we can find a spaceship to steal?"