Page 55 of Taste of Forever
Kal’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, his body slumping in unconsciousness. The Marrower grinned as he cradled the top and bottom of Kal’s head in both hands, the motion looking like he was going to…
“Oh fuck.”
I released Cy and we both started forward, pushing through the crowd like our lives depended on it. More like Kalix’s life depended on it. He might have been honorable enough to not fight to the death, but we couldn’t expect the same from anyone else here.
Just as we reached the barrier separating the spectators from the cage wall, a flurry of escort vampires rushed inside.
“Fight’s over!” one yelled, spreading his arms to the sides. “Stop. Release him!”
The Marrower grimaced, looking thoroughly peeved. He had no intention of releasing Kal’s head and every intention of snapping his neck.
But he was distracted just long enough to not notice one another escort injecting something into his neck.
“You won’t deny me my…kill…” was all he got out before he slumped to the ground.
“Fights are done!” the first escort yelled, this time to the crowd. “Collect your money and get the hell out.”
Cyan and I lingered just long enough to see Kalix rouse, rubbing his neck before the metal collar was snapped back into place.
“Come on.” I squeezed Cy’s shoulder, urging him toward the exit tunnels.
He followed reluctantly, without saying anything. Neither of us said a word as we collected our phones and made ourway back through the tunnels, but my mind was reeling with revelations and questions.
Kalix was alive. And someone — probably his captors, Carpe Noctem — wanted to keep him that way, despite entering him into illegal fights and torturing him. All the chains, filing down his teeth, putting him on drae. Fuck, it was unimaginable. And he’d lived through it for twenty fucking years.
The heaviness of what we’d just witnessed weighed on Cyan and me like an avalanche. Neither of us knew what to say, how to process it. We shuffled over to our bikes while I checked my phone, filled with pissed off calls and texts from Thorne since we hadn’t provided updates. Backup was probably already on the way for us.
“I’m calling Thorne back,” I said, bringing the phone to my ear.
Cy didn’t respond. He just stood and stared as blank as a zombie.
Thorne’s ass-chewing over the phone was just as severe as I thought, but I happily took the brunt of it for Cy. That had been his best friend, his father figure, in that cage. Not to mention Kal had willingly agreed to be taken prisoner in Cy’s place. That had to be a special kind of painful, knowing he’d be the one in that cage if it weren’t for Kal. That Kal had done that, gone through all that, to protect him.
“How’s Cy?” Thorne asked once he calmed down from verbally reaming me.
“Not great,” I admitted. “I think he’s in shock.”
“Can he ride?”
“Not sure, but I’ll bungee-cord him to me if need be.”
Thorne let out a grunt that was probably meant to sound sympathetic. “I’m not getting Tavia involved, but I’ll let her know he’s going to need her when he gets back.”
“Good call. I’ll let him know she’s waiting. That’ll probably snap him out of it.”
“Watch out for him. And I want a full rundown as soon as you get here.”
“You got it.”
We hung up and I went up to Cy, clasping his shoulder and shaking gently. “Hey buddy. You gonna be able to ride home?”
He blinked several times like he was holding back tears. “What did they fucking do to him, Laith?”
“A lot of really fucked up shit. That’s why we’ve got to get home?—“
“We can’t leave him!”
“We gotta be smart, Cy. We need to do this right. We’re gonna tell the others and come up with a plan to get him out. We’re gonna make them pay for this, Cy. You know we will.”
