Page 8 of Pulse
“This place is like a fucking circus of pain. You’re coming with me. Right now.”
He went to grab my arm, but I twisted out of his way, my anger levels boiling to the top. “You’re not my father Dean.”
“Then maybe I should go get him,” he retorted. “He needs to talk some sense into you. You could get seriously hurt, you know. You could fuck up everything with the AUFC. If they got wind of this-”
“I know,” I interrupted. “I fucking know.”
He sighed, glancing away. “Is this what you want Ren?”
I stood sharply, totally over the conversation. I wasn’t nearly done with my downward spiral into numbness…oblivion.
“I have a fight to get ready for,” I declared and stalked off through the crowd, leaving Dean behind.
The guy had balls coming here, I’d give him that one, but when he saw me in that cage, he’d either blow a gasket or become just like everyone else. Afraid of me.
I was up against a fighter I’d fought a few times before, named Fury. We were pretty evenly matched, which should make for an interesting bout. For us and the crowd.
Shucking off my hoodie and sweats, I glanced up as the woman herself stood in front of me, a stupid grin on her face. We were the same height and weight, give or take a few notches, but that’s where the similarities ended. She was blonde with a healthy dose of freckles across her cheeks compared to my olive complexion and dark brown hair.
“I always know I’m going to have a good time when I’m up against you,” Fury said as I began wrapping my hands in red bandages. Red like blood. Red was totally my color these days.
“Light and dark,” I replied.
“Gets the boys hard,” she said with a laugh.
When I was ready, we walked out to the cage together. Dean caught my eye as we threaded our way through the throng of people and shook his head in disapproval.
“Who’s thehottie?” Fury asked. “Is he your new man?”
“No,” I replied, shaking my head. “He’s no one.”
The cage door slammed closed behind us, the chain-link rattling. The referee gestured for us to toe our marks and to get the fuck on with it. They didn’t screw around here and scratched fighters out of matches for much less. Time to punch on, not gossip like girls.
The referee raised his hand between us. “You know the rules, girls,” he said. “The fight goes on until one of you taps out or is KO’d.”
“Get on with it,” Fury said, rolling her eyes.
She wasn’t the only one foaming at the mouth. I needed to taste the adrenalin and feel the pain. I needed to numb out the heartache, one punch at a time.
The referee shook his head, not in the least bit surprised, and blew his whistle.
I wasn’t a fan of striking first out the gate and Fury knew it. I also knew she liked to hit quick and hard as soon as possible. The key to winning against her was to do something she didn’t expect. Letting her hit me was a good start. It instilled a false sense of hope that she had the upper hand.
She took a few jabs at me, and I evaded them all easily, but she was just testing my reflexes. I feigned left and struck right but she blocked with her forearm, pushing me back.
The crowd screamed for us to get the fuck on with it and I wasn’t getting any satisfaction from her, so I decided to put this thing right into top gear. With a roar I lunged forward, ramming a shoulder into the sweet spot right underneath her rib cage and slamming her back into the cage, the entire structure shaking. I pinned her with my left arm and punched with my right. My fist landed on her cheek, snapping her head to the side, but her own fist came from the other side, hurtling towards my face with startling accuracy. Imminent connection was coming and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
These moments always played out in slow motion. Like the exact second you trip over something and begin to fall, but there’s nothing you can do so you sit back and let the ride come to a complete stop. Well, this ride was still far from over.
Fury’s fist clipped me on the jaw and pain shot through my face, blurring my vision for a split second. While I was dazed, she struck at my right hand side, tripping me to the mat. Then she came down on top of me, drawing back for a strike to the temple. She was trying to knock me out and end the bout, but I still had plenty of go juice in me yet. I was just getting started.
I bucked underneath her, leveraging my weight and flipped her off to the side and we rolled, locking our limbs together. The crowd roared as the referee darted forward and blew his whistle. Deadlocked, we had to untangle ourselves and toe our marks for round two.
“You’re a tough bitch to crack, you know that Reign?” Fury said with a laugh. She was one of the more good-natured fighters, but that didn’t mean that the moment my back was turned she wouldn’t gut me.
“I won’t give up until I’m either dead or KO’d, you know.”
“I like a challenge.”
