Page 27 of Gladiator's Captive
Rager growled, the sound deep and low. Full of wrath. The guard on his left, the one further from him, took a step forward, then stopped.
“Don’t look away from that animal for a second.” He shot a warning glance at his colleague. “I’ve seen what the Muharib can do in the arena. Kill him at the first sign he wants to fight. Better to have a lower reward for bringing him back dead than no reward at all.”
The guard moved toward me and I stood still, too aware of my tattered dress, of the bruises on my skin no gentle, noble lady would wear. I did my best to stand straight, not to flinch as he got right there in my space, his foul breath on my face. His dirty blond hair fell on his forehead and his disillusioned brown eyes twinkled with amusement.
He doesn’t believe me. I swallowed.What do I do now?
Bluff. Bluff was all I had left.
“Let Rager go,” I said again, but this time, using my best version of a high-born, angered lady. I had been on the receiving end of the teachers at the boarding school often enough to know how to act. “I won’t repeat it.”
For a brief moment, the guard looked uncertain. His shifty gaze slid to the other guard, whose eyes were reduced to slits. Wordlessly, the other guard shook his head once.
My stomach fell to my heels. Bluff was all I had left and it had failed.
“You won’t repeat yourself, hey, whore?” The guard’s mouth lifted in a cruel grin. “Who do you take us for? If a man as important as Arenius had his daughter kidnapped, we’d have heard about it. Heck, half the Imperial forces on Villea would be mobilized if the lady Serena went missing. No, you’re just a slave who thinks she’s lucky the champion of Valcan took a shine to her. Well, let me tell you something, your luck is about to take a turn for the worse.”
As the guard’s eyes trailed down my torn dress, I understood the magnitude of my mistake. They would never believe that Arenius had let Rager steal his daughter to insure a business deal. Would never believe that I was a rich heiress. All they saw was a slave who found a way to escape. It was no use arguing.
I ducked, intent on escaping back to the dark hallway, take one of the guards with me, give Rager a fighting chance, but I wasn’t fast enough and the guard was used to combat.
His hand closed on my long hair, dragging me back mercilessly. I screamed in pain and fear, but the guard only laughed. From somewhere behind me, Rager’s growled turned into a feral snarl.
“Oh, you’re sweet on that whore, are you, Rager?” The guard forced me to turn, ignoring my cries of pain as he dragged me by the hair. As I looked on Rager’s turned back, I saw the telltale signs of tension running along his arms, the way his shoulders heaved in deep, long breaths. He was preparing to attack. “Turn around. Look at her.”
Rager obeyed under the vigilant stare of the guard to his right. As he faced me, his features were barely recognizable. His handsome face was contorted in lines of pure fury, eyes shining with the promise of violence. The markings were dark and prominent against the copper of his skin, highlighting his alien features. Even in the midst of combat in the arena, I had never seen Rager prey to feelings this strong. But neither of the guards were paying him enough attention. They were too busy looking at me.
“She’s pretty, I’ll give you that.” The guard lifted me closer, the pain blinding as his hold on my hair turned purely cruel. As I stood on my toes to alleviate the pain, he ran his tongue along my jaw. I cried out, both in horror and disgust.
“Don’t worry. We won’t break her, we’ll just sample her a bit. Then, both of you can die together.”
Despair filled my mind at the guard’s words.
“Let her go.” Rager’s voice was a growl, his feline, predatory eyes shining like beacons of death in the low light. “And I may allow you to leave with your life.”
The guard holding my hair laughed, the sound crude in the enclosed space. The hand holding my hair pulled some more, forcing me to bend my back. Pain spread up to my spine and I couldn’t hold back the whimper of despair out of my mouth.
“You plan on defeating the both of us? You and what army?”
The guard at Rager’s left chuckled, but there was nervousness in his stare now as he eyed the kneeling Muharib. Rager straightened, turning his head to look at the guard straight on. There was no fear in his eyes as he stared down the electric prod, only pure, unadulterated rage, as cold as the heart of hell. The guard visibly shied away, terror and doubt as clear in his eyes as the way his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.
Rager. The Breath of Death. The man who killed hundreds under the cheers of the crowd. They might boast and laugh, but they’re terrified of him.
And scared men were dangerous men. Unpredictable.
“Don’t move,” the guard said. “Stay where you are.”
Rager obeyed, his face unreadable in the low light, his eyes missing nothing of what the guards did.
“You know who I am.” This was no question. Rager eyed them as the guards moved nervously. Even the one who held my hair had changed his stance. I could feel the tremors in his arms, running along his limbs as terror made its way into his body. “Then you know you should surrender now.”
The guard holding my hair moved, shielding himself with my body. I could smell his fear in the air, acrid and foul. In the span of a few seconds, Rager had reversed the power play in the small space, with nothing more than the ice-filled hatred in his gaze.
“You will regret this.” Rager’s mouth reduced to a thin line, but he made no move. “Just remember, as you pass into the next world, that I gave you a choice.”
And then, the world descended into chaos and violence in all the shades of blood red.
