Blood Prize (Bloody Dance #1) (12 page)

EIGHTEEN

Standing in front of the board in the Demon Hunter’s bar I rolled my eyes, not for the first time as Fang tried to convince the team to hunt me. Just as always my eyes found Ban on the board. My fingers reached towards the page that he rested on, but I clenched them into a fist before taking the page down.

Ban, one of these days I was going to collect the bounty on his head. One day I would have my revenge for all of the sins he committed against me. Sadly, today wasn’t that day. I didn’t know when that day would come. Maybe it would be another two hundred years from now.

Squeezing my eyes shut there was no need to get worked up over Ban. Sooner than later we would cross paths again. The Night of Demons was coming. I couldn’t allow Ban and Kenji to bring hell to earth. I couldn’t allow Soji to be killed in order for them to complete that task.

Grabbing another page off the board I turned around to see Emiko glaring at me. She had been doing that since last night. I guess someone was still upset that their shoulder was injured. Rai was glaring at me as well. She was mad just because she was a teenager.

“Children playing at Hunters. Why don’t you all run home?” A voice said and my eyes shifted to the man that spoke. Ignoring him I turned the page around making sure that we all were in agreement that this would be our next target. “I said go home.”

The man came forward and grabbed Soji’s shoulder. He yanked Soji around and the fact that he was touching Soji pissed me off. The man was a meathead, more muscle than brains. He was in the wrong bar. You didn’t need to be strong to hunt demons. You needed to be smart though. If he was messing with us, he already failed the IQ test.

“You will remove your hand,” Emiko said her voice was low and threatening. Tucking away the page I took down, our next target was going to be the Fear Demon Korku. He was B-Class and the price on his head was four hundred thousand credits. It would be enough to get us a car and back home to Amy.

Stepping forward I noticed that the idiot was still in front of us. He now had two of his friends that stepped up to join him. What were they doing behaving like this in a Demon Hunter Bar? Maybe they were Bounty Hunters that just decided to hunt demons. They would be dead before the day was out.

In Bounty Hunter bars, it was okay to get into senseless fights. You could beat your chest and wave your dick around. Shout to everyone willing to listen that you were the big man on campus. Things didn’t go that way in a Demon Hunter bar. You sat down, you shut up, you had your drink, picked your target. Then if you believed in God, you prayed you made it back home.

“Why don’t you go make me a drink, bitch?” The one touching Soji said. I chuckled just because I hated Emiko so anyone calling her out of her name was fine by me. Still I agreed with Emiko. He needed to get his hands off of what didn’t belong to him.

I grabbed the hand that was touching Soji. It didn’t matter how strong this man was he was still a human. I could have been in a four-year-old boy and I would still be stronger than him. I pushed the bigger man away before grabbing Rai. I pulled them towards the door. The last thing that we needed was an unnecessary drama that came with these types of people.

“Who said you could leave?” The big man asked as his goons blocked the path to the door. I sighed; were we really going to do this? He needed to go back to the Bounty Hunter bar with their big guns and their wee little brains. Demon Hunters should know better than to waste energy.

No one wanted to fight a demon with a broken jaw. It would be like swimming in shark infested tank with an open cut. Once the blood was in the water, you were fish food. These guys were just jokes if they were calling themselves Hunters and starting fights like jackasses.

“Ya’ll go on now. We don’t be wanting no trouble ya hear.” Fang mocked them by talking like some inbred idiot. My lips twitched to laugh at Fang’s teasing. The man who had touched Soji didn’t have the same sense of humor. He cocked his fist back punching Fang in the face.

I stepped to the side as Fang stumbled back knocking the board over. I could smell his blood again. Only this time it wasn’t the same scent that it held when I first met him. I could feel Fang’s magic boiling inside of him. It made his blood smell like something rotten. My stomach turned at the scent as I wondered what kind of mage Fang really was.

Soji went to Fang to offer him aid. His hand glowed white with his powers as he started to heal Fang’s wound. I could see the other men in the bar looking towards us now. A white mage was rare and very valuable. I could almost hear them thinking about the victory they would see if Soji were on their side. The lust in their eyes was . . . annoying. Soji was spoken for; he was mine.

“We have our target.” There was no need to stay here. Pulling Soji up to his feet Fang had started to rise as well. He rubbed at his nose but other then the blood that was on his shirt he was fine. “We’re leaving.” This time I spoke to the idiots that were in front of me.

The guy that started all of this nonsense gave us a crooked tooth grin. He was cracking his knuckles as if he was ready for this fight. I didn’t actually want to fight. It was just a waste of our time. We needed to get on finding Korku. “Are you opposed to fighting humans?” I asked and Soji face twisted into a frown.

“Of course I am.” Of course, he would be. He was a white mage. Soji probably never been in a fist fight a day of his life. He didn’t seem the type that would be. Stepping back his fingers curled into a fist. Could he feel the lust in the air as well? Could he tell it was aimed at him? “I will defend myself.” That was the answer I was looking for.

“We shouldn’t need your help.” There was nothing like a bar fight to boost teamwork. “Rai, Soji stay back unless you’re needed.” Emiko and Fang stepped up as I spoke. I turned looking at the both of them. They nodded their heads understanding that the only way out was through. How hard of a fight were these men going to put up?

The first wave of them came at us. I ducked under a swinging fist giving the leader a punch to the kidney. He crumbled under my attack going to his knees with pain. Emiko kicked another one; her boot slicing into their face and making them back away. Two of the men had Fang holding his arms as a third punched him in the gut.

Ignoring his misfortune I went at another one kicking, and punching my way through the lot of them. The ones of them that somehow got past us were tangled in vines still not allowed to touch the white mage they all lusted for. I smiled slightly proud of Rai for protecting her teammate, for fighting in this useless battle with me, with all of us. Shu would be proud of his daughter right now.

I caught a fist to the face as my attention was on Rai, and not the fight. Growling slightly I turned to the person that hit me sending a powerful kick to their chest. He flew backward only stopping after he crashed into a table

We were half way through the bar kicking ass, and taking names later. The ones that were holding on to Fang were finally pushed away from him. After taking a few hits, they went down nice and easy. The ones that weren’t out for the count were slowly getting back up to their feet, and coming at us again for round two. This fight was tiresome, and I could see Emiko losing her steam.

Her punches and kicks were getting weak and sloppy. She caught a fist to the face her head snapping back as she stumbled away. That punch was followed up by a kick to the gut. I admit I got a twisted sense of joy out of watching Emiko get her ass kicked.

“Emiko!” Soji yelled and I felt a shock wave vibrate through the place. I hissed as the pure power nipped at my arm. It burned the flesh that it touched. The ones that were surrounding Emiko was knocked away.

“Sorry.” Soji mouthed when I looked back at him. His face looked sorry enough for me to believe him. There was a loud banging sound, and I flinched pain drew me to my knees. There was a burning in my shoulder as I saw my blood darkening my shirt.

“Zero!” Rai and Soji yelled at the same time. My nails grew to their full demon length. I dug into my shoulder pulling out the bullet that was inside of me. It sizzled, and hissed angrily in my hand until I dropped the condemned thing. Of course Demon Hunter’s would have anti-demon bullets. It wasn’t going to kill me like it might have a lesser demon, but God damn it burned. I could feel the holy water they hold tainting my blood. My body rippled no longer able to maintain my human form.

All the hunters in the place backed away from me as they saw my true self before them. I looked up at them my red eyes glowing as I felt a need that I hadn’t felt in years. The pain brought the hunger and I knew with blood I could heal myself. I knew that I would be able to recover once I had blood. Rising to my feet once again I looked at Soji, and Rai. Once I gave myself over to the hunger friend or foe, no one would be safe.

“Run,” I hissed at them. “Run!” I didn’t know how much longer I could hold it. Soji backed away from me as I bared my fangs at them. The pain was intense, and the hunger matched it. Rai tried to come closer to me, but Fang grabbed her. Backing away they grabbed Emiko and started to make it to the back door.

“Zero!” Rai yelled trying to break free from Fang’s hold. Trying to get to me, but he picked her up and carried her away. I would have to remember to thank him. I stood still until I heard the back door shut behind my teammates. The other hunters were either standing their ground to fight me or trying to make it to the front door.

I saw a group of them trying to get out the front so I was there within a blink of an eye. They backed away; some of them pointing their weapons at me. I watched as they shook with fear from facing an S-class demon. Good, their fear only made my stomach growl.

I laughed at how pathetic these Demon Hunters were. Had Shu been in this bar he would have told them all to get out of his way. He would have shot me, and kept shooting until I no longer moved. That was Shu though; these people didn’t have that kind of courage. Closing my eyes, I allowed the fog to descend on me giving myself over to the hunger until I had my fill.

When I opened my eyes again, I smiled as I went towards the first of them. Grabbing a hold of the man by the back of his neck I bit into him. His blood was bitter but much better than the scum outlaws I had been feeding on. Not drinking all of him I stabbed my hand through his chest as I moved on to the next one.

One by one I listened to the choir of their screams as if it was a soundtrack to my meal. Everyone and everything that was in this bar blood were tasted before they were killed. Even after I drank my weight in blood, I killed the others. The blood bath was massive, the biggest fest I had since I meant Shu. My stomach started to hurt from all that I had taken in, the fog lifting as I kneel in a corner puking my guts out.

Coming back to my senses I looked at the blood, and bodies that surrounded me. I sighed looking down at my blood stained hands. My wounds were healed, but I still felt like shit. I thought I was better than this. I thought I was better than just some demon. I wasn’t that different from the others. I killed and fed just like any demon.

Sitting on the floor I folded up into a ball laying on my side as the weight of my actions crushed me. I was a demon; their lives meant nothing to me. I wasn’t sorry for their deaths. I would never care about something so petty and insufficient as the lives of a few humans. The guilt that crushed me was because of broken the promise I made to Kaleb. I drank from the innocent.

I could see night had fallen outside of the bar, and I was still here. I needed to get up, needed to move. The others were probably long gone by now, there was no way they waited around for me that long.

Standing up I made my way to the back door. I stumbled back when something solid crashed into me. I was ready to attack until I noticed it was Soji hugging me. His face was buried in my chest as the blood on me soiled his clothes. He pulled away but only slightly so he could stand on his tip toes and press his mouth to mine.

Quickly moving away he gagged and spit as he tasted blood in my kiss. I laughed slightly at his reaction and reached out touching the side of his face. He held my hand there smiling at me. I looked over at Rai, and she rushed to me as well. I could see tears in her eyes, but I hugged her still. She quivered in my arms, and I wondered if she was cold or just scared of me. I would understand if she feared me. Rai has never seen me so inhuman before.

“Rai . . . I didn’t mean for you to see that side of me.” The guilt felt like a fresh wave. I broke a promise; Rai saw the aftermath.

“I thought you were going to die.” She sobbed holding on to me as I returned her embrace. “I was so scared I was going to lose you. You can’t . . . You can’t die, Zero. Not after dad died, okay. You can’t . . . You can’t die.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I promised and it seemed that all this time I had been in a tug of war with myself. I didn’t know if I was going to leave after I returned Rai home or not. Just this quickly my mind was made.

I wasn’t going anywhere. I wasn’t going to leave her. She had been fighting me this whole trip. In the end, she was still just a scared teenage girl who just lost her father. I knew what fear was like. I knew what losing people was like. I watched my father die. At least Rai was spared from that.

Looking at the others I could see that Soji must have healed Fang and Emiko’s wounds while I was inside. They all had waited for me. I released Rai taking a deep breath. We had fought together, they had waited for me. Still I knew that nothing was fixed. I still hated Emiko and she hated me. We weren’t a real team. Not yet.

“You need to get cleaned up,” Soji said. I nodded happy that we decided before hand we would stay in this town one more night. Going back to the hotel I went to the bathroom of the private room brushing my teeth. I wanted to get the taste of blood out of my mouth before I took a shower.

Testing the water after it was just right I stepped in. It felt as if all my troubles were washing away along with the blood on me. I watched as the blood swirled down the drain when I heard the door opened to the bathroom.