Page 96 of The Blackened Blade

The large shifter lunges at him, but Annex doesn't even try to dodge, he takes the hit, falling to the ground with the big guy on top of him. I unconsciously take a step closer toward the ring as I watch him fall.

A deranged laugh falls from his lips as he twists around easily and wraps the guy in a headlock, stopping his movements with his legs tightening around his waist.

The large shifter picks him up and slams back into the ground with Annex wrapped behind him, but the psycho’s laugh only grows louder.

The shifter begins to slam his elbows back into Annex’s side as Annex tightens his grip around him. The crazed glossy look in Annex’s eyes tells me all he sees now is the prey below him. His grip tightens further as another laugh peels from his lips.

A small sigh of relief leaves me. If he had a look like that in his eyes, then this wasn’t his first or second fight. The way he looks and moves with such surety and strength shows me that he knew what he was doing. Probably more than he should.

And now I feel bad for the asshole he’s against.

The shifter’s movements become more desperate, realising Annex’s grip isn’t going to loosen. He begins to lash out, extending the claws from earlier again, ones I now recognize as bears.

He slashes them back toward him, trying to catch Annex with them, but thankfully Annex notices, and before the bear shifter can catch him, he flips their positions. His movement is so quick and powerful, it leaves the shifter no time to react. Annex now sits on top of the shifter with his knee to the man's throat. He stares down at him with the most deranged expression I’ve ever seen.

The shifter tries to growl, and that's all it takes for Annex to start his onslaught.

His fists slam into the shifter's face, the force of it instantly breaking his nose, the sound of cracking bone heard even from where I stand as blood splatters all over the shifter and Annex.

It sprays over Annex’s face and drips down his chin, but he doesn't stop. Again and again, his fist meets the shifter's bloodied face. Until all I can see is the blood pouring from the man as small groans and whimpers leave his mangled mouth.

Annex’s face is frozen in a demented smile, a look in his eyes that tells me he’s not here anymore, lost in a world of his own and dealing with something other than the bleeding shifter in front of him.

And that shifter would have happily killed Annex if he hadn’t gotten the better of him first. Annex was just surviving in the way he knew how, even if it was a bit bloodier than necessary.

It was a kill or be killed world. And who was I to judge him?

What I had planned for my own demons wouldn’t be noble or heroic either. It would be bloody and painful, and nobody but me would understand the carnage or darkness that would be unleashed on those that had wronged me.

I watched on as Annex’s fists continued to pummel the shifter, his face resembling a chunk of meat more and more. If this is what he needed to fighthisdarkness, then so be it.

“I heard you're only nineteen…” A sultry voice calls from behind me, pulling me from my thoughts and from the fight.

I turn back to see a group of scantily clad women. They avoid Mallyn, keeping their distance from him as they slide closer to Ezra and Creed.

“But that's a lie, right?” A busty blonde woman slides next to Creed, pushing her chest into his side as her already skimpy red bodycon rides further up her thighs.

She giggles, brushing a red fingernail up his chest. “Either way, I don’t mind younger guys.” She bites her pink tinted lips as she leans in further. “I’m sure I could even teach you a thing or two.”

Creed turns his gaze from the fight and toward the blonde. “Is that so?”

I hear giggles from the other side of me and watch on as two honey blonde-haired girls, both wearing matching black mini dresses, pull Ezra toward a small room across the warehouse.

My brows furrow as he heads away from the crowd and goes with them readily. They head into the room, their gazes hooded and their arms linked with his as they enter. Does he know them? Or were they together?

I guess Ezrawasreally attractive. And with such a sociable personality andthoselooks, why wouldn’t he have girls throwing themselves at him?

The blonde behind me lets out a small hum, pulling my attention back to her as she leans further into Creed as his gaze flickers toward me, their lips meeting in a searing kiss as his hand wraps around her waist, her small dress pulling up toward her ass.

His eyes stay on me as small exaggerated moans leave her lips. His hand then reaches down toward her ass and squeezes it, pulling her even further against his front.

I roll my eyes and turn away from them and back toward the fight.

Whatever little voyeurism kink he had, he could show to the rest of the crowd.

I was no naive virgin…well not in my previous life anyway.

After I had graduated from the academy, I had a couple of one night stands, wanting to shed my inexperience. It was before I was taken by the Facility. They were shitty and short-lived, butexperiencesnonetheless.

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