Page 64 of Trapped to Tame
Fie looked back, giving Priest a venomous look. ‘You don't even know her.’
Priest barked a laugh. ‘As if you do. Look at you, falling in love with the first female who doesn't want you back? He ground out another laugh. ‘And you,’ he said to Drax. ‘I lost leadership of this unit because my magick got us trapped here in the first place. As far as I’m concerned, I just saved us all. I want my command back!’
‘It takes two of us to make that decision!’ Drax roared, ‘What say you, Fie?’
Fie didn’t even look at Priest as he left the room. ‘Your power games have torn us apart,’ he ground out. ‘Fuck you both.’
Priest threw the plate of ashes to the floor with a curse.
‘She's not here,’ Fie said from down the hall.
He heard his Brothers stomping down the stairs and followed at a distance, not wanting to admit he was worried. Where was Eve?
They went down to the kitchens, finding them deserted, and Priest frowned. He’d have bet good coin that she’d be here stuffing her pretty face.
‘She's not in the house,’ Drax said, coming in from the parlor. ‘Where could she have gone?’
They turned on Priest who threw up his hands. ‘I don't know.’
He didn’t see Drax’s fist before it hit him. He slammed into the wall. Putting a deep dent in the painted plaster. He righted himself and lunged at Drax but was pulled back by Fie. Both his Brothers were attacking him.
No, he realized, they werepunishinghim the Brothers’ way.
‘I did what was best,’ he ground out as his head was pulled back and his arms locked behind him by Fie. He struggled, but his Brother was strong and imbued by a righteous anger the likes of which Priest had never seen before; not in Fie at any rate.
Drax stood in front of him, striking him in the abdomen and again across the face. He didn't stop hitting him and Priest didn't say a word. He didn’t beg for release or for Drax to stop. He took the beating and, finally, when Drax was finished, Fie let him go and he dropped to the floor, coughing up blood. Fie kicked him hard in the face and he fell back into the stone floor on his back, groaning.
* * *
Drax
Drax didn’t sparePriest another look and they left him prone on the flagstones, bleeding.
How could their Brother have done such a thing to them? Drax knew Priest didn't like the female, but he never thought he’d do that. Breaking a bond was not something done lightly, and it definitely wasn't something one did without anyone's knowledge. Drax didn't know if he'd ever forgive Priest for this. How far was his Brother willing to go to get his command back? Perhaps their unit was already too fractured to ever be whole again. He leaned against the wall as his head began to ache. A vision. He hadn't had one since before they'd found Eve. Fie stood next to him.
‘What do you see?’ he asked.
‘I see nothing,’ Drax murmured. ‘It's a feeling only. Eve is in danger.’
‘Where would she have gone?’
‘The fights,’ they both said in unison.
‘Where's the closest one?’
‘Down by the docks.’
They donned their cloaks and left the house, practically running down to the river. The day was grey and soon it would snow. Drax knew this realm well enough to deduce that much. The wind had started to howl through the streets and the day had gotten darker though it was still early.
They reached the rings, a fight already in progress, but Eve was nowhere to be seen.
‘Where else could she have gone?’ Fie muttered.
‘Come. Perhaps I'll get another vision,’ Drax said quietly as they moved around the ring, listening to the fighters and the spectators alike.
Drax noticed a man looking at them, a fighter; thin and sinewy – weathered if the scars were anything to go by. The man had the sight. Drax could usually tell such things, so he was not surprised when the fighter approached them.
‘You search for a female,’ he said. ‘She fought me earlier. She lost.’
