Jack Templar and the Lord of the Demons (The Jack Templar Chronicles Book 5) (10 page)

I turned and saw Eva running toward me down the wooden walkway that cut across the center of the arena. Her sword was raised and her lips pulled back in a snarl. I raised my own sword and, with a yell, sprinted right at her.

W
e met
in the center of the walkway, sparks flying when our swords struck. I’d expected that she would be strong, so I gripped the sword with both hands. Even so, she hit it so hard it was all I could do to hold on to the thing. In fact, the impact spun me around and knocked me off balance enough that I had to grab the railing to keep from falling.

Eva wasted no time. Another snarl came from deep in her throat as she swung a second time, going right for my head. I barely dodged as I managed to slide to one side. Eva’s sword gouged the wood railing, and the crowd rewarded her with cheers of approval.

I held up my sword in a defensive posture. I knew from countless hours of sparring with Eva that I could effectively play defense and survive. It was when I tried to press the attack that I usually made a mistake. And with Eva, one mistake was all she needed.

“Come on, Jack,” she said. “Fight your best.”

“The sad thing this is that I am,” I shot back.

Eva stopped for a second and looked me up and down. “You’re right, that is sad.” Then she lunged at me, trying to stab one of my feet. I danced away just in time.

“So we’re really doing this?” I asked, circling her.

“What choice do we have?” she asked.

Eva feinted left, then dropped low to the ground, aiming an upward stroke of her sword at my midsection. I parried it away.

“I won’t kill you,” I said.

“You have to try,” she said. “If you don’t, he’ll kill the others. Now fight!”

She unleashed a flurry of blows on me. Her power was unbelievable. I was on my heels, backing up down the wood path with each sparking clash of our swords. Hers aimed for my neck and heart. Mine simply braced in front of me to take her blows.

She stopped and circled me, her sword poised for the next attack. The creach crowd cheered, but I also heard some catcalls and boos. I knew they were meant for me and my defensive-only posture.

The boos didn’t bother me, but I didn’t want to give Draxo any reason to make good on his promise to chop off any heads. I glanced to the dais where the giant ogre stood with his arms held across his chest. He didn’t look very happy.

With a yell, I spun around in a three-sixty and swung my sword as hard as I could. It was a clumsy attack, and the spin was just to look good for the crowd. I knew Eva could easily fend off the blow.

She did and lunged forward with a counter that nicked my shoulder, giving me a small cut. I grabbed the wound with my free hand and felt the blood there. It stung, but it was only a small wound. The Coliseum erupted with excitement at the sight of first blood.

I expected to see at least a flicker of concern on Eva’s face from having injured me. But it was the opposite. At that moment, she looked more like a Creach than I’d even she her look before. Her eyes were fixated on the blood seeping from my shoulder and covering my hand. She licked her lips hungrily, and her vampire incisors hung down from her mouth. This wasn’t Eva my friend any longer. This was Eva the vampire. And she meant to kill me.

“Eva, snap out of it,” I said.

As she circled me, she hissed and twirled her sword in her hand. Her nose lifted, smelling the air, and she groaned with delight. I shuddered as I realized she it was the smell of my blood she was enjoying.

“Re’gan dropped the arrow in our cage on purpose,” I said. “They want to overthrow Draxo. That might be our only hope.”

But Eva wasn’t listening. Her body was tense, every muscle twitching. It reminded me of a cat readying to pounce on a defenseless bird. Only I wasn’t defenseless.

“Okay, if you won’t snap out of it,” I said. “I guess I’ll have to do something to wake you up.”

I crouched low to the wood floor of the walkway, sword in front of me, tensed my body for action … then turned and ran away from her as fast as I could.

The stadium filled with boos. Without looking, I knew that Draxo would grab one of my friends to start his incentive program to make me fight, but pushed that thought from my head. I needed to concentrate.

Three … two … one …

I spun around, knowing that Eva would be fast on my trail with her supernatural vampire speed. When I turned, she was almost on me. My sudden reversal took her by surprise, and that was all I needed.

I jumped to the side as she raced past me. There was a sickening moment when I felt my sword slice the flesh of her stomach.

She screamed in pain and doubled over, holding her wound. When she turned to look at me, I saw the real Eva there, shocked out of her blood lust by the pain.

The creach roared their approval, now understanding that my running away had been a trick to get inside Eva’s defenses. And the trick had worked.

I felt terrible for causing her pain, but the thing that made it bearable was what happened next. In only a few seconds, the wound closed and healed on its own. Eva stood upright and stretched out like she was trying on a new body for size. She smiled, completely healed.

“Not bad,” she said.

“I had a good teacher,” I replied.

“Let me force you over the edge of the rail,” she whispered. “We can buy more time in the labyrinth to make a plan.”

I felt a surge of excitement. It was the first time Eva had entertained the idea of solving the problem we were in without one of us killing the other.

Then again, there was always the possibility that she was tricking me.

“Wait a second,” I said. “How do I know this isn’t just an act? Maybe you’re just trying to get me to let my guard down so you can run me through.”

Eva grinned. “I guess you’ll just have to find out.”

She rushed at me, striking me over and over with her sword. I barely kept up as I retreated. The railing poked me in the back. I waited until I fended off one of Eva’s blows, then rolled up and over the railing, falling down fifteen feet into the level below.

I hit hard and rolled forward to break my fall. As I scrambled to my feet, I got my bearings and ran for one of the hollowed out rooms. I knew it had an opening at the other end. The last thing I wanted was to back myself into a corner and have Eva go back into her vampire-bloodlust mode.

Because the old arena floor used to be the roof for this level, everything was still open at the top, and the Creach horde still watched our movements.

Another cheer went up, and I figured it meant Eva had jumped down into the lower level. I realized the spectators in the stands were able to see both of us inside the maze.

I ran through the back of the room I’d entered and took a right. Closing my eyes for a second, I tried to recall the layout of all the rooms. I ran hard down a long corridor. The creach cheered.

If Eva was hiding in wait behind a corner for me, the spectators would know it before I did. It was good theater but it made it even more nerve wracking.

From my angle, I couldn’t see Draxo. I hoped he was pleased and that all my friends still had their heads on.

“Keep walking straight,” I heard Eva say. Her voice came from the other side of the stone wall to my left. It was crumbling in areas and small holes appeared in it.

I crouched low as I walked, pretending to be on the lookout for an attack from Eva from any direction.

“Did Tomas say anything to you?” I asked.

“Same thing Re’gan told you,” she said. “They want to overthrow Draxo.”

“Do we trust them?” I asked.

“No, but what choice do we have?”

I resisted the temptation to nod. From the crowd’s perspective, Eva and I were unknowingly walking side by side on opposite sides of a wall – a wall that ended abruptly in an open space twenty feet ahead. I didn’t want to give any indication that we were communicating.

“Will has the arrow,” I said. “But it’s T-Rex who’s right next to Draxo.”

“We have to trust the others to figure that part out,” Eva said. “Follow my lead. And fight hard. I don’t want to kill you by accident.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that,” I replied.

The wall ended. I purposely left my back exposed to where Eva would soon appear from her side. I knew how to play up the drama to the crowd, and I hoped it would help fool Draxo into thinking I had no idea where Eva was.

The crowd hushed. They were eating up the tension of whether Eva would get the drop on me. The big stadium lights cast shadows in multiple directions, so it was easy to see when Eva struck. I spun just in time and blocked her downward thrust.

The crowd burst with cheers and applause, releasing all the tension.

Eva and I fought back and forth. This time she gave up ground as I pushed her through the ruins of this lower floor. It took me a while, but I realized what she was doing. Slowly but surely, she was making our way toward the dais where Draxo stood watching the fight.

When we got close, Eva climbed up onto a pile of crumbling stones and leapt up until she stood on top of the wall. I followed her up just in time to see her jump to the top of a pillar, balance there for a second, and then jump to another. I clambered up after her, launching myself onto the nearest pillar to cut her off.

We crossed paths near the dais. As we jumped past each other, we locked swords midair. The crowd loved it.

We jumped to the wall closest to the dais and faced each other, both of us out of breath from the exertion. The wall, made of crumbling stone bricks, was narrow so we had to work hard to keep balanced.

A gap less than ten feet wide was all that separated us from Draxo. Tomas and Re’gan stood off to the side behind him, a minotaur guard between them and their master. It seemed the ogre didn’t much trust his prized gladiators, for good reason.

He didn’t seem to trust us either. With us standing so close, he reached out and grabbed T-Rex, dragging him over to stand in front of him like a human shield.

I froze. We’d gotten close but with T-Rex held hostage Draxo’s hands literally around his neck. There was no way for us to attack the ogre. I wasn’t sure what our next move was going to be.

“Attack!” Draxo commanded. “If one of you isn’t dead in the next two minutes, then this one will be.”

I realized that my sword was hanging limp at my side. Chasing Eva through the labyrinth of rooms and fighting her with enough intensity that a single mistake could have meant a severed limb had given me an adrenaline rush. Not only that, but it felt like we were working toward something, a possible way out of this situation.

Now, it felt like the unavoidable conclusion was back on us.

I lifted my sword and danced over the top of the wall, nearly slipping as rocks tumbled from under my feet. Eva did the same, her face contorted into a snarl.

The crowd erupted as we met in a clash of metal. Balanced on top of the wall, we surged back and forth. A big chunk of wall toppled over, and I almost went with it, causing the crowd to gasp in surprise.

Eva tried to appear to attack me while really helping me stay on the wall. But she as too obvious. Draxo stamped his feet and bellowed at us. “Cheaters! You’re working together. And now your friends will pay the price.”

“Now,” Eva yelled. She lifted her sword with two hands over her head and then chucked it with all her might at Draxo’s head.

The ogre dodged the sword by dropping to a knee, pushing T-Rex down with him.

In unison, we turned and launched ourselves at Draxo. I had my sword over my head, and Eva had nothing but her teeth and her hands stretched out as claws.

This was our one and only chance. But midair, my heart sank. There was blood between the ogre’s hands where he held T-Rex.

“No!” I shouted.

When we landed on the dais, the ogre raised his head too slowly. Something was wrong. His eyes drifted past us and then fought to refocus.

“Impossible,” he said through bloody clenched teeth.

He looked up to the sky, and I saw the black arrow sticking out from under his jaw.

The blood on Draxo’s hands wasn’t T-Rex’s. It was his own. Will must have given the arrow to T-Rex when it was clear he was going to be the first in line for the ogre to grab. When the ogre bent to dodge Eva’s sword, T-Rex had landed the blow.

The Coliseum fell silent as I ran to him, my sword at the ready. The ogre staggered sideways, his hand clawing at his throat. Even though I knew he was a despicable beast, responsible for the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of humans and creach, it was hard to watch any creature in pain.

He collapsed to his knees, his head hung low, his chest heaving. Slowly, he looked up at me.

“Perhaps you are the One,” he said, his face contorting in pain. “But you will never find the door to the Underworld. I hope you wander the Earth and never –”

The ogre’s head fell from its body, landed on the dais, and rolled to my feet.

The creach horde roared in delight. They’d come to see blood. It turned out they really didn’t care much whose it was.

Re’gan stepped from behind Draxo’s body and wiped her sword clean.

“What have you done?” I said. “I needed him to tell me how to get to the Underworld.”

Tomas walked up and looked at the ogre’s body, which was, oddly enough, still kneeling on the ground as if it hadn’t yet gotten the message that its head had gone missing. He placed a boot on Draxo’s back and heaved him over. The ground shook when the ogre’s massive body hit the floor.

“We know where the gate is located,” Tomas said. “You performed a service for us. We pay our debts.”

Eva picked up the sword she’d thrown at Draxo and held it toward the twin vampires. Will, T-Rex, Daniel, and Xavier ran up to us. We were free of Draxo the Butcher, but we were all too aware that we were still in the middle of a stadium filled with bloodthirsty creach. The cheering grew louder as they stirred themselves up into frenzy.

In fact, there was a new chorus building in the crowd. A single word repeated in unison.

“More.”

“More.”

“More.”

Tomas looked worried, but his sister basked in the chant. She walked up, put her foot on Draxo’s head like a conquering hero, and raised her sword to another roar from the crowd.

Tomas pulled me close. “There’s not much time. Your bags and the weapons we took from your friends are there by the archway. Exit that way and go fast. Don’t stop until you’re out of the city. Go.”