But Max wasn’t in his right mind. All he could think of was Sophie and the very sharp point of the sword whistling through the air at her. The crowd surged to their feet when he sailed across the mat and grabbed the rapier before it even touched the barrier. The cheering would have lifted the roof if there had been one.
“Max!” I kept screaming.
He couldn’t see what I did from this angle. While he was distracted with the big blade, he didn’t see the needles Chanelle whipped out from the armguard. She teleported right in front of him and drove one, two, three needles into his throat.
Sophie would have shot out of her seat if Diana hadn’t had her in a vice grip. Charles roared at the top of his lungs at the same time Max did. The arena became saturated in the rumbling, primeval rage of lions. Until Max’s voice abruptly cut out. Smoke billowed from his mouth. Chanelle disregarded it all and pressed needle after needle into the joints under his arm, into his gut, and through his thighs. Everywhere the silver needles touched him, Max’s skin began to blister and burn. He was bleeding out of his throat. His right knee gave way.
Still, Max didn’t lift a finger against her. I elbowed Andrei in the face when it looked like Chanelle was going to drive a needle into Max’s eye. I was halfway to the mat when he grabbed me by the back of my shirt and dragged me away.
Kai appeared in front of Chanelle. He snatched her arm and teleported them away. Bradley tried to get at Kai once more. Tired of playing this game, Kai tossed Chanelle aside and rammed his fist into Bradley’s face. Bradley flew six feet into the air. Kai teleported above him, grabbed Bradley by the throat, and slammed him headfirst into the mat. Only one Nephilim got to his feet.
“It’s over,” Kai screamed. The elite guard must have agreed because the barrier went down. Kai crouched over Max’s body. Green light glowed from his hands. Sophie arrived a moment later with me following hard on her heels.
Nephilim guards approached. They tried to take Max away. Kai’s green eyes blazed. His hands became fists. He was in the middle of trying to heal Max’s skin over the needles. Idiot. Somebody else was going to get a punch at this rate.
I snapped my fingers in front of his eyes. His brows were knitted so tight when he glared at me, it was a wonder he wasn’t cross-eyed. “You’re doing more damage, jackass!”
I was going to slap him myself when he shook his head as though throwing off a compulsion. He stared down at where his magic was embedding the needles further. The green light cut off abruptly. He moved away and let the guards take Max so they could tend to his wounds. Though they might be painful, Max’s injuries weren’t life threatening. Once the silver was cut out, he would be able to heal on his own. Sophie went with them. She threw me a look that was simmering with a single message. I nodded at her.
Sophie didn’t get angry often. At her core, she was too nice a person. She wanted to see the good in everyone. That was why she put up with all my insanity. But even for Sophie there was a line. That line was all golden lion shifter.
Chanelle showed me her teeth as I made my way back to Andrei. Smile now, I told her in my head. If I had my way, she’d have no teeth left by the end of this.
54
The hum of the crowd died down a little. The elite guard allowed additional time between the bouts to smooth over frayed tempers. It just wound my nerves up even tighter.
“Still think we’ve got a chance?” I asked Andrei. He’d become monosyllabic since I’d told him I would honour my agreement with Kai.
“Maybe.”
I stamped on his foot. “Hey. We’re supposed to be a team here. If you’re going to throw a hissy-fit, I’d rather go out there on my own.”
“You’d die in a second.”
“At least I would die knowing I have my own back.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
I gave him a hard stare. “I get that this is important to you,” I said. “It’s important to me too. But you chose me for this, remember? You don’t get to tap out just because you don’t like something I’ve said.”
“It’s not what you say. It’s what you’ll do. Why honour something when he’s not going to change?”
“Why stop drinking blood if you don’t care about living?”
“Stop throwing that in my face!”
“No! Not until you realise that getting your family out of the Book of Beast isn’t going to change a damn thing. Take a look at Sophie. Her great-grandfather is in that thing. She had to live with the stain of it for years. Her whole family were forced to move into a shifter compound to make sure they toe the line. Do you see her storming around raging at everything?”
“It’s not the same. She’s still got family.”
I scanned the front rows until I spotted a wrinkled prune in a thick, black velvet dress that might have been fashionable hundreds of years ago. “Last time I checked, that withered crone tried to help you. Aren’t you related to her?”
He scowled, but I caught his lips pressing together to stop from smiling. “Removing your family from the book without actually knowing the truth is meaningless,” I said. “I would have thought you of all people would understand that. I can help you find out the
