Ripper(131)

As the king walked away, I sat back on a bench and my uncle opened the box he was holding. Lying in the box was what looked like twin gloves with silver blades embedded on the back. The blades were long and wickedly curved. Cestus, Zack told me as he held them out for me. Claws, I thought dully as Zack started to pull them on me. They fit over my hands and up my forearms. He was right. They were too big.

Marcus sat down beside me. “You are all right?”

I sucked it up. I hadn’t cried about Gray. I sure as hell wouldn’t cry over him. I promised myself I would learn. I wouldn’t let another one in. “I’m fine.”

He sighed and his eyes had darkened, his mouth curving down. “I’m sorry, cara mia. You don’t understand the situation. It’s best for everyone if I remove myself.”

“It’s not best for her,” Zack said under his breath as he wrapped tape around the cestus to keep it on my hand.

“The king will never allow me to train her,” Marcus argued.

“Hey, no big deal.” I concentrated on the feel of the leather on my hand as Zack went to work on my other hand. “I don’t intend to let anyone train me. I intend to sit my ass in a cell until the king either kills me or lets me go. You weren’t going to change that. I don’t buy the crap you’re selling, Vorenus. I never did.”

“I do not want to leave you,” the vampire insisted and I got the feeling he saw right through my defensive posturing.

Zack finished taping my left hand and I stood up, ignoring the vampire. The light from the arena glowed in front of me. I would go out there alone. A picture of Gray crossed my mind and I felt tears gathering. He would never have allowed it. I wondered what he would do if he knew. Would he rush in to save me or let it happen because he didn’t want me anymore? I would have given anything in that moment to feel his arms around me one more time.

“No one fights for you, do they?” Marcus stayed close to me as I walked to the edge of the large entrance.

Even from where I stood, just outside the light I could see them. Some I recognized from various places like Liv’s school or the clubs I’d been to the last few nights. Some were total strangers, but they had one thing in common. They’d all come to watch me die. All in all, it wasn’t how I’d thought my day would end.

“I can fight for myself.” The beast inside was starting to twitch again. She was starting to call me a whiny fucking pansy who deserved everything she got if I walked out there all pathetic and ready to die.

The beast inside me isn’t polite. She’s kind of a bitch, but she did have a point. Was I really going to give them what they wanted? Was I going to give them my life? Was losing Gray so overwhelming that my poor little heart couldn’t take it?

“Let’s make a deal, you and I. If you live, I’ll take you with me,” Marcus promised. “We will go to Venice and there is nothing the king can do about it. You’ll like Venice. I will teach you. Anything else that happens between us is up to you.”

“I don’t need your pity, Vorenus.” The floor was cold under my feet. I wondered if the sand would be warmer.

Marcus put his hands on my shoulders and spun me around. His face was savage as he looked down on me. “I have no pity for you. I have affection. I have desire. I have gratitude because you’re the first thing that has made me feel alive in years. I’m not offering to take you with me because I feel sorry for you. I’m begging you to come with me because I’ll feel the loss if you do not. Please, cara mia. Have mercy on a man. Come to Venice and allow me to soothe you. Come to Venice and allow me to teach you. Come to Venice and give me the chance to seduce you.”

I nodded because there wasn’t a place in my life anymore for turning down a good offer. I hugged the vampire, his touch immediately flooding my senses with his will. He wanted me to live. He wanted me to come to Venice with him.

He wanted…me.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about the last part, but I liked the rest of it and I trusted him. He would never force me into anything. I could go with him and he would wait until I decided what I wanted. The thought of being far away from everything seemed like heaven. In Venice, I could find out who I really was. There would be no king, no Castle, no Nate or Liv to deal with. There would be me and my teacher.

Yes. Yes. Yes. The beast inside liked that idea very much. She longed to be close to Marcus. And all we had to do was kill three creatures who outweighed us by a hundred pounds of muscle a piece and had years more experience killing than we did. Yeah, she liked that idea, too. I never said she was smart.