she’d fallen hook, line, and sinker for Rann’s bullshit. He’d taken advantage of her when she was hurt and wounded.
He was no better than Mikey. He just pretended to be.
I should have trusted my gut and stayed single for a while. I knew it!
Now she had to deal with yet more embarrassment.
Some luck she was having with men lately. What else was going to go wrong in her life?
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rann
Where is she?
Rann had enough attention focused on his opponent and the fight to ensure he didn’t lose it. His continued inability to eliminate the one remaining distraction, however, was ensuring that he was also not winning it.
The two shifters circled each other slowly, watching, waiting. Both were battered and bruised, but so far, no serious injuries had been inflicted. Plenty of minor ones, but nothing that would affect how the fight turned out. If he could just regain his last bit of focus, Rann should be able to end the contest. So far though, that was proving impossible.
Gayle had said she’d be at his fight, that she would come to watch it. With reluctance, yes, but she’d given him no indicator that she’d lied. Why would she? At this stage of their relationship, or whatever it was, he’d thought they could be open enough to tell the truth about those sorts of things. So, where was she?
His biggest fear was that something had happened to her. They were deep in the stronghold of the Atrox clan though. It was the middle of the day. The vampires couldn’t reach her up here. Not without someone noticing and raising the alarm. It just wasn’t possible. In fact that’s why he’d felt comfortable letting her go do her own thing. It was safe here.
Yet now…now he wasn’t so sure.
“Shit,” he growled, ducking to the side as a searing stream of fire shot past his head.
“Don’t get sleepy on me over there,” Linck taunted.
Rann glared at his semi-final opponent. “We both know you can’t beat me,” he growled. “Why bother trying?”
Linck snorted. “You must be more worried about losing than I thought if you’re resorting to blatant lies like that.”
“It’s not losing that worries me,” Rann shot back. “Because it ain’t gonna happen.”
“We’ll see,” Linck rumbled, closing the gap between the two of them in a flash.
Rann greeted him with a blazing ball of fire aimed right at his chest. Linck reached out and simply grabbed it before it could explode, injected his own fire deeper into its core and flung it back at Rann, while still charging forward.
“Uh-oh,” Rann muttered, bringing both hands up.
He could deal with one of the oncoming objects. Not both. Not in time, at least. He slashed a bladed hand down through the fireball, splitting it down the center and sending both halves searing out around him.
The move dropped him into a crouch, and he immediately sprang up and at Linck. The motion canceled out some of the other fire dragon’s momentum, but Rann still ended up receiving the brunt of the impact. It drove him backward and down hard enough that he rebounded off the stone floor and flipped in midair.
His agility and training served him well, however, and he landed in a crouch. For his part, Linck came on in a blind charge, leaving himself wide open in a bid to end the fight. Unfortunately for him, it wouldn’t work.
Rann reached behind him, and fire blossomed out from his clasped hands, forming a spear of fire that blossomed into a three-foot oval at the end.
As it solidified and he lined up his target, he saw movement in the audience up and behind Linck. His eyes flicked over, and his spirit brightened as he recognized the short-haired redhead staring down into the ring.
It was Gayle! She’d come after all. Rann’s spirits were immediately buoyed, and he turned his attention to the fight fully for the first time, ready to end it and celebrate with her. Once he won, she wouldn’t look so mad, he was sure.
Mad? What?
In his confusion, Rann’s attention shot back to Gayle, confirming to his brain that she looked furious. At him.
Linck slammed into his midsection for the second time, and this time Rann went down hard, his fire weapon disappearing as the impact scattered his brain. He saw stars, each one filled with angry brown eyes and a tiny nose.
Why is she mad at me? What did I do?
A fist smashed into his face, scrambling his brains some more and also adding a dose