Jack Templar and the Lord of the Demons (The Jack Templar Chronicles Book 5) (9 page)

In that second, Daniel’s hand hung in the air. I grabbed it and slid the Templar Ring onto his finger.

“It’s on!” I cried.

We all jumped away from Daniel. He howled and rolled around on the ground as if he were on fire and trying to douse the flames. He rolled all the way to the far wall and then curled up in a ball, his body vibrating.

The rest of us huddled together on the opposite side of the small room, waiting to see what happened.

After a minute of tense silence, Daniel sat up, his back to us. He stretched as if getting up from a long nap. He turned toward us, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. He was back to normal.

“Let’s get this over with,” he said, clearly disoriented. “Hold me down and take the ring. The sooner we get that door open, the sooner we can get out of here.”

I walked over to him. “We already tried,” I said. “It didn’t work for me either.”

He raised the hand with the Templar Ring and inspected it. “You got it back on me.” He eyed the others who were still keeping their distance. “Looks like it might not have been the easiest thing to do.”

“Piece of cake,” I said. “For a werewolf, you’re kind of a wuss.”

“Thanks, I guess,” Daniel said, rubbing his back. “Man, my back hurts. Anyone know why?”

I smiled. “That’s what you get for messing with T-Rex.”

Daniel looked confused. T-Rex performed some ninja moves in the air as if to prove the point. Everyone broke out laughing, and it took a while for us to get control of ourselves.

Slowly, the laughter died out until we all stood there in a circle.

“What now?” Will asked.

I looked at each of them.

“We’ve come a long way. And there are a lot of people relying on us,” I said solemnly. “We can’t stop now and we can’t fail. However this ends, the rest of you have to continue the quest. Ren Lucre must be stopped. Promise me you’ll continue.”

They all looked down at the ground in front of them.

“Say it,” I said.

The all murmured that they would.

“But you can’t fight Eva,” T-Rex said. “Not to the death. It’s impossible.”

I looked at Eva, but she wouldn’t meet my eye. “The choice is that one of us dies or all of us die. Eva and I will both fight. We will both try to win. And we will do our duty.”

Finally Eva looked up. I didn’t think vampires could cry, but I could have sworn there were tears in her eyes right then. She stared at me for a long time and then finally nodded.

“We will do our duty,” she agreed. “Come what may.”

T
he hour passed quickly
in our little cell. No one said much as we all wracked our brains for some way out of this mess. There just seemed to be no way to avoid fighting against Eva. Our only chance would be when they came for us; we might find some opportunity to overwhelm the guards and make our escape. I didn’t think it likely though. Since Will and Daniel’s effort had almost succeeded, I suspected that the Creach would take greater precautions the next time.

I was right. When the time came, goblins appeared, crawling on the cage above us. They pulled back their bows, grunting and squealing with delight. One of them dropped new shackles down and barked orders to put them on. I didn’t like the way the other goblins licked their lips as they looked down the shafts of their black arrows at my friends, so I picked the shackles up and put them on. As I did, I saw Tomas and Re’gan, the twin brother and sister vampires, walk out between the goblins.

“Sorry for the bindings,” he said. “You made everyone nervous by killing the minotaur. That was no easy task.”

“But there were six of you, so it’s not that impressive,” Re’gan sniffed.

“Actually, Eva did it by herself,” I said, drawing an angry look from Eva. If there was anything she hated, it was someone else fighting her battles.

“Well, some vampires have all the luck, I guess,” Re’gan said.

“Enough, sister,” Tomas said. “No need to mock them. They’re already on edge. Look at them. So unsure of themselves.” He shifted to a scared voice of a little kid. “
Do I fight? Don’t I fight?
”

Re’gan followed his lead, taking on the voice of a little girl. “
But if I don’t fight, big, old, mean Draxo will kill all my little friendies
.”

“
Even the little pudgy one
,” Tomas said.

The twins had a good laugh together.

I could tell that Eva had no interest in engaging the two of them. Until they insulted T-Rex, that was. “Too bad we’re not fighting the two of you,” Eva said. “But then Draxo wanted a good fight for his crowd, didn’t he? Not a slaughter.”

Tomas and Re’gan stopped laughing.

“You wouldn’t last two minutes against us,” Re’gan said. “We are the reigning champions of the Arena. No one has beaten us in a hundred years of fighting here.”

I understood what Eva was trying to do, so I joined in. “No wonder Draxo doesn’t want to let you fight us,” I said. “It’s bad for business to have his champions get worked over by a newly turned vampire and a hunter who didn’t even finish the Academy. Think of the embarrassment.”

Re’gan shrieked and stamped her feet against the metal cage, looking like a little girl throwing a temper tantrum. Then she knocked one of the goblins to the side and snatched away his bow. She started to pull it back, but Tomas grabbed her by the arm.

Re’gan snarled at him. “Let me kill just one of them. Please.”

“Draxo wants them both,” he said.

“Then one of their friends,” Re’gan said. “I’d feel so much better if I did.”

I stepped in front of T-Rex and Xavier, blocking them from view.

“You heard Draxo yourself,” Tomas said. “He wants all of them to watch. You know, so he can behead a couple of them if these two don’t cooperate and put on a good show.”

Re’gan smile menacingly. “Do you think he’ll let me do it?”

“I’m sure he will, sister,” he said. “Now put that disgusting bow down; it smells like a sewer.”

Re’gan threw the bow down and stalked off. When she did, the goblin’s black arrow fell through the cracks in the cage and hit the cell floor. Moving quickly, Will grabbed it and tucked it behind his back. The commotion from Re’gan had distracted Tomas and the goblins long enough that none of them noticed.

Tomas leaned down toward us and shrugged. “You’ll have to excuse her; she gets a little moody,” he said. “She was looking forward to fighting the two of you. I, on the other hand,” he said, nodding to Eva, “was looking forward to getting to know you better. There’s much I could teach you about being a vampire.”

Eva laughed. “Are you really flirting right now? You’re a real charmer, you know that? Prison cell, shackles, smelly goblins. What more could a girl ask for?” She turned away and muttered, “Idiot.”

I couldn’t help the wide grin across my face. Sure, I was about to face her in one-on-one combat to the death, but I still definitely had a thing for Eva.

Tomas wasn’t as happy. He scowled and then banged the cage with his foot. The door to our cage unlocked and swung open.

“Move,” he cried. “All of you.”

On cue, the goblins above us screamed and yelled as loud as they could, dripping gobs of drool down on us. Nothing smells quite like the inside of a goblin’s mouth; part decaying meat, part infected teeth, and part stomach acid. Needless to say, we cleared out of the room in a hurry.

Outside the cell, six minotaur guards waited for us. They glowered and lifted their axes into the ready position when we approached them. I wondered if they were friends with the minotaur we’d slain – if minotaurs really had friends to begin with. Regardless, they didn’t look happy to see us and appeared to be in no mood for any trouble from us.

We marched down the hall and quickly came to a fork in the path. Before I realized what was happening, the minotaurs steered Eva and me to the right and the others to the left.

“Jack!” Will called.

“Wait,” I shouted at the minotaur behind me. “Will. T-Rex!”

But the guard blocked the passageway with his ax, its nostrils flaring. The sounds of my friends grew faint as they were marched a different direction. A chill passed through me as I realized there was a good chance I would never see them again.

The minotaurs grunted at me, and I turned and walked back down the passageway. Now that it was just the two of us, I stared at the back of Eva's head as she walked in front of me.

As we walked, I realized that the only thing I knew for sure was that there was no way I could ever actually take Eva’s life. But I wondered, with the vampire blood in her, whether she felt the same way.

I didn’t have much time to dwell on things. In only a few minutes, I heard a rising sound of cheering ahead of us. Our guard detail slowed, and I felt the adrenaline pulsing through my system. I’d felt the same right before we battled the Boros for the Lord of the werewolves. I doubted that Draxo would have an arena even close to the ancient fighting arena that Kaeden had in his fortress in the Black Forest. A minute later, I was proven wrong.

One of the minotaur guards took a position between Eva and I. Then we started a long climb up an immense set of stairs. With each step, the sound of the crowd above us amplified. Soon the stone walls around us vibrated from the noise. Whatever kind of arena Draxo used for his gladiator games, he certainly had been able to fill it with a loud, rowdy group.

Finally, after what seemed an endless climb, we entered the arena. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a massive circular structure the size of a modern-day NFL stadium, stretched a bit so that it was more of an oval. The stone sides rose up into the air, taller on one side than the other where the upper walls had crumbled over time. Even though I’d never stepped foot in the place before, I’d seen so many pictures that I immediately knew where I was. Eva and I were going to do battle in the middle of the ancient Roman Coliseum.

“No way,” I whispered under my breath.

But it was true. There were massive lights positioned throughout the stadium, so I had a good look at the structure. Great archways surrounded the central field. Most of the spectator seating was worn down, leaving pillars and slabs of stone. But every square inch of sitting area was occupied by some kind of creach.

The side of the Coliseum that had fallen provided a view of the city lights of Rome twinkling on the other side. I wondered how the creach were able to pull something like this off without the regs knowing what was going on. It was another indication of how powerful Draxo really was and how embedded the creach were in the city. I guessed the outside was ringed by creach police and security to keep the regulars from looking in.

The hardest thing for me to wrap my head around was the fact that there was no arena floor. It was long gone, leaving a labyrinth of stone rooms and hallways that had once been under the fighting space. I remembered from my history lessons that these rooms once held the gladiators waiting to fight as well as wild animals like tigers, lions, and bears used in some of the more elaborate fights.

The area we stood on was the floor level of the original arena. It was a small viewing stand that had a narrow walkway stretching down the middle from one end to the other, sort of a road balancing over the subterranean level of rooms below.

It looked like a fight had just ended, the warm-up to the main event. A squad of goblins in the middle of the walkway dragged a body toward us, leaving a trail of black blood behind them. As they passed, I saw that it was Fangtrope, the ogre with the red X on his forehead. He’d gotten his wish and ended with death on the arena floor.

I knew my fight with Eva would start on the walkway, but I guessed it would end inside that labyrinth. I focused my attention as best I could on trying to memorize the layout in front of me. Whether I fought against Eva or later against other Creach – if we figured a way out of having to fight one another – understanding the maze could mean the difference between life and death.

The crowd roared loudly as Draxo appeared on a dais on the edge of the arena floor, the one reserved for Caesar back in ancient times. The sound was incredible – a mixture of screams, grunts, and howls from all types of Creech in the stands. Draxo soaked in the adulation of the crowd.

Our guards pushed us forward into the small tourist viewing area. Draxo acknowledged us with a nod of his head and then raised his arms to silence the crowd. There was so much excitement and energy that it took a full minute for Draxo to bring the mob under control. While he did so, I wondered for the first time who was really in control. Was Draxo ruling the mob? Or were they ruling him?

In the end, it didn’t matter. Either way he was going to give the mob exactly what they wanted – Eva and I fighting to the death.

“Welcome, my friends, to the highlight of this gladiator season,” Draxo said. “I promised you a battle unlike any you have seen before. And Draxo always delivers what he promises.”

The crowd interrupted with a roar of approval. A chant broke out.

“
Draxo!”

“Draxo!”

“Draxo!”

For a while, it gained momentum and then faded back into a general cheer. Draxo held up his hands again. This time the crowd fell silent quicker as if realizing they were the ones delaying the fight.

Minotaur guards appeared behind the dais, pushing Will, T-Rex, and the others into a corner next to Draxo. The ogre pointed at the new arrivals.

“These are the friends of tonight’s gladiators,” Draxo said. “If the fight does not amuse you, if the gladiators do not put on a good show, if they do not fight to the death as they have been instructed, I will begin to cut the heads off of these monster hunters one by one.”

It was hard to imagine that the crowd could be any louder, but with this announcement they went absolutely wild. I tried to lean forward to get a look at Eva around the body of the guard standing between us, but I could only see the side of her face. She stood motionless, staring at the arena floor in front of us.

I knew I should be doing the same thing, but part of me also knew the outcome of this fight was inevitable. Even before Eva had been turned into a vampire, she was my fighting instructor. There was no question that she was a better fighter than I was. And that was before she had the additional strength and powers from her vampiric blood.

Sure, I’d held my own against powerful, ancient vampires and the Lord of the Werewolves, but usually there was a strong streak of luck involved. Not only that, but all of those victories had come from a team effort with my friends as part of our success. Going one on one against Eva seemed to have only one possible outcome. And it wasn’t good.

The minotaur guard guided Eva down a walkway to the side. It connected to a wooden gangway that circled the outside of the arena. As she walked past the crowd on that side, they yelled and screamed insults at her. Spitting on her as she passed. She kept her head down and ignored them.

Re’gan appeared beside me. “Are you ready, Templar?”

I decided to follow Eva’s lead and didn’t acknowledge her presence.

“Which of you has the arrow I left for you?” she whispered.

I turned to look at her, certain the shock was impossible to miss on my face. “You dropped that on purpose?”

“Of course,” she said. “Do you really think I could be that clumsy? I’m insulted.”

“What game are you playing?” I asked. I looked down the length of the arena floor and saw that Tomas walked with Eva toward the far end of the walkway.

“Everyone has something they want, Templar,” Re’gan whispered, twirling my hair with her fingers. “Tomas and I want something very specific. And we want your help getting it. Now who has the arrow?”

My mind raced. I tried to piece together what the twin vampires might want from me, but I couldn’t grasp it.

On the dais, Draxo raised his arm in the air like a starter about to signal the beginning of a race.

“Gladiators ready?” he shouted.

Re’gan handed me my sword. I saw Tomas at the other end hand Eva hers.

“Tell me who has the arrow,” she hissed. “Don’t you see? We want the same thing. We want Draxo dead. We’re tired of serving under him. Help us and you’ll go free.”

Before I had a chance to answer, Draxo lowered his hand and the crowd burst out with the loudest cheer yet. I glanced over to where Draxo stood, my feet feeling like they were planted to the floor. Even from this distance, I saw him grimace. He picked up a sword from a table in front of him and pointed at T-Rex who stood nearest him. I got the point.

“Sorry, weird vampire-girl,” I said. “I’ve got to go fight one of my best friends to the death.”