Skin (9 page)

Sure I
was. I knew how that line worked, I
’d used it before,
even told Victoria that same thing more than once.

“
You
don’t believe me do you,” Sveta said. “I can see the doubt on your
face.”

“
Let’s
just say, I don’t believe you yet. You’re going to have to prove
it.”

She took a
small step closer and touched her fingers gently to my still wet
hips.

“
What
would I have to do to prove it?”

I
flicked my eyes downward. Sveta
’s lips stretched into
a sly grin and she knelt before me. This didn’t mean anything, I
knew. But I would think about that later.

With Sanctuary
more than spotless, every machine serviced and every surface
polished, there was nothing for me to do.

“
You’ve
hired me to do a job that doesn’t exist,” I said to Sveta, leaning
against the door jamb of her office.

“
I hired
you to be a gym room attendant. It’s not my fault you’re so very
efficient at your job. Why don’t you just take advantage of the
space. Maybe make some friends?”

I had
spent most of my work day at Saturn
’s lifting, so
there wasn’t really anything that different in Sanctuary. Why then
did it feel like such an indulgence?

I slid
under the chest deck and steadied my breathing before the lift.
I
’d racked a bigger weight than I was used to. It was
a challenge, I told myself, that had nothing to do with the fact
that I knew Darius was lurking about somewhere, probably watching
me in the same way I watched him.

I needed to
focus and get back on my game. With everything that was happening,
I had slipped lately and my strength was starting to pay the price.
I was half way through working my pecs when Imogen approached,
setting up her yoga mat next to me. She waited until I was finished
the set before speaking.

“
Rumour
has it you’re shacking up with the boss,” she said.

“
Does
rumour?” I said, my breathless panting was a good hide to mask the
surprise.

“
The
latest addition to her menagerie. I’m sure Mariosa will be beside
herself with jealousy.”

From the
look on Imogen
’s perfectly painted face, I saw that it
wasn’t just the mountain lion who might be jealous that I was
moving in with Sveta. But I wasn’t, I reminded myself. It was just
a rumour that even I was starting to believe.

“
It’s
not true,” I said and set to setting up the dumbbells for a lot of
shoulder flies. “Where’d you hear that anyway?”

“
Cato
told me,” she said, twisting her body into a shape roughly
resembling a paper clip. “Darius told him. Sveta told
Darius.”

Why
would Sveta tell Darius of all people? I caught myself again, there
was nothing to tell. I wasn
’t moving in with
Sveta.

“
So
Darius and Sveta,” I panted between reps. “They’ve got a history,
right?”

“
Are you
jealous, Priest?”

“
Priest?”

“
That’s
what they’re starting to call you now,” she explained. I didn’t ask
her to explain who they was. “My money’s on that becoming your
arena name when you start on the cross.”

When
were people going to stop going on at me about appearing in the
arena? It wasn
’t happening. Sveta had said it was fine
for me to stay as a spectator, and that’s what I was doing. If
watching those ghoulish displays of ego was what it was going to
take for me to stay in Sanctuary, and all of the other perks that
offered, then that’s what I’d do.

“
Can we
get back to the topic?” I said, my voice hissing though a
lift.

“
Sure,
Darius and her ladyship have a history of a sort,” she said. She
pressed herself into an upside down position and lifted her legs
above her head so that she was standing pin straight upside down,
her weight balanced on her forearms. “Actually, now that you
mention it, I’m not exactly sure if they divorced formally or if
they’re still in separation mode.”

I sat in
the shower room, dressed in the standard Sanctuary post workout
sweats and ready to witness anther atrocious performance. Darius
was showering but otherwise, I was alone. I had seen the giant
lifting on the floor, racking a barbell squat that
would
’ve weighed as much as a house. They were
married? Even if it was past tense, it burned.

It was
eight o
’clock. Victoria would be waiting at Novo by
now. She’d be starting to check the time on her phone. She’d
probably be updating some kind of status line about the fact she
was waiting, uploading a picture of her drink, some outlandish
cocktail, to Instabook or whatever it was called. My phone was
probably going crazy with increasingly pissy messages right at that
moment.

Darius
’ cubicle was closed, but he had not
locked it. Concentrating on any change in the sound of the running
shower that meant he’d be coming out, I opened the door, half
expecting a wail of alarm sounds to start ringing as soon as I
stepped inside.

It was a tiny
room just like the rest of them, with a mirror, a few wall hooks
and a wooden bench. Darius wouldn’t have been able to turn around
in here. A gym bag lay unzipped on the bench. A towel, a t-shirt,
an empty water bottle, all very normal. What was I looking for? Any
sign that said he was still or even once married to Sveta? That was
stupid. Something, anything that would prove he was nothing near a
Natural. I moved the towel with the tip of my finger and saw a
white pill container. The shower sound continued. Presto.

There was no
branding on the container, just a while label with a hand written
scribble. OEMBNB93. I was just about to open it when I heard voices
coming into the change rooms. I slid the pill bottle back into the
bag and replaced the towel. Whatever this was, it was certain proof
Darius was no Natural man, and judging by the off label packaging,
it was likely black market and illegal and definitely not a
headache tablet. I slipped out of the cubicle and stepped straight
into Darius.

“
Can I
help you?” he growled.

“
You can
help us all by not leaving the shower running when you’re not in
there. Water isn’t free you know.”

Darius
sneered.

“
What
are you doing in my cubicle?”

“
My job.
I’m the cleaner, remember. Just making it nice for you, big guy.” I
patted his chest as patronisingly as I could manage, It felt like I
was patting steel. He didn’t move as I stepped past him.

“
I’ve
seen you all come and go before,” he said. “And I’ll see the next
one come after you. Just be ready.”

“
Every
champion falls eventually,” I said, matching him straight in the
eye. “I might not be the one who needs a warning to be
ready.”

The usual
arena crowd was starting to gather around the floor and I slipped
through the crowd looking for Sveta. I found her sitting on a swing
like contraption, reading something on her phone. It was unusual to
see her alone in this place, usually she was swamped by people,
hangers on, people wanting to be close to her. People wanting what
she was offering me. I sat down next to her without asking for an
invitation.

“
So, I
hear you were married once?”

Sveta did not
look away from her phone and kept her long finger swiping across
the screen.

“
To
Darius,” I added.

“
I know
who I was married to,” she said. “Does that bother you?”

“
I’m not
sure,” I said.

“
Does it
bother you more that I was married to someone or that I was married
to Darius?”

I
wasn
’t sure about that either. I didn’t
reply.

“
Have
you seen this?” she asked, holding her phone out. It was a picture
of Victoria smiling with a bunch of women I didn’t know. It looked
like they were out in a club or bar somewhere, obviously drinking
and having a great time. I passed the phone back.

“
What is
that?”

“
Your
girlfriend’s Funchat account. It looks like she’s having quite a
bit of fun.”

“
OK, but
why are you looking at it?”

Sveta
shrugged.
“Isn’t that what it’s for? Isn’t that why
she’s putting this stuff online? So people—and I’m guessing
specifically you, judging by her recent updates about being stood
up—can see what a great life she's living. I’m simply giving the
girl what she wants—a witness.”

“
These
are all happening now?” Our plans together tonight, didn’t involve
clubs or women and it wasn’t like Victoria to make sudden
unexpected changes in plans. Sveta passed me the phone and I met
Victoria’s smiling face again, her eyes were tired, turned down a
little at the corners in the way they always did when she’d been
drinking too much, but she did look blissfully happy alright. The
guy I recognised as Brandt Delaney was beside her, pressing his
lips to her cheek with his eyes closed.

“
Is she
cheating on you do you think?” Sveta asked.

“
Aren’t
I cheating on her?” I said. My jaw tightened as I stared at the
photo of what looked like a couple in love.

“
Is that
important?” Sveta asked, taking her phone out of my hands. “A level
playing field?”

I stood
and held out my hand for Sveta to take.
“Speaking of
playing fields, don’t we have a show to watch?”

The arena
seats were still half empty but the cross was set up and ready for
the show. I sat close to Sveta, staring ahead.

“
You’re
softening to the stage now, I can see,” Sveta said, stroking my
thigh with her palm.

“
I’m
just watching,” I said, not looking at her. “I like to understand
the things that I hate and the way to understand is to
study.”

The
seats filled and the stadium lights lowered. The spotlights
flashed, signalling the start of the show, and the end trapdoors
opened. The Guardians were dressed in loincloths, their naked
torsos oiled, shining and cut like diamonds, stepped onto the stage
wielding short swords, marching to the rhythms of the
crowd
’s chant. As before, another door opened. This
time a woman emerged. She had silver wings folded against her back
and moved with light, elegant steps, waving coyly to the cheering
crowd. I knew her from Sanctuary, from Cato's tales; Frida. I'd
also seen her flicking about on the gym ropes twenty feet off the
ground and been impressed with her form despite myself. Frida took
her place and the chant for the champion started like a brewing
storm.

Darius arrived
on stage.

I stole
a glance at Sveta, surveying her domain like a queen. No, she was
not
like
a queen. She was in
fact
the
queen of this
strange land I had stumbled into, falling headfirst tumbling into
the bizarre and the horrifying and the absolutely wonderful. If
only she wasn
’t just so god damned beautiful. I might
have had a chance of getting myself out.

The
arena exploded in light as the spots flashed and the centre
trapdoor opened. An old man was lowered onto the stage in the drop
cage and my belly flushed with heat. This was a human. He was naked
from the chest up and wearing a regular set of running shorts. He
was cut, for sure and looked like he was ready for the fight. And
then I saw. A speaker circle set into the man
’s
sternum. I looked again at the old guy’s face. It was him for sure,
the Mech from Saturn’s, one of the assholes who had wailed on me
the night Sveta took me to her house and this whole thing had
started.

“
You’ve
done this on purpose,” I hissed at Sveta without taking his eyes
from the Mech on the cross. “Is this meant to be for me? To get me
onside for this sick game?”

“
Just
another pest to clean up from the Guessing streets,” she said. “I
thought you’d be pleased. Mildly interested at least.”

Darius and
Frida closed in on the Mech from their respective ends of the cross
and the old guy looked ten times as wild as the werewolf had looked
the night before.

There
was no lead up like in the fight against the wolf. There was no
teasing flighty flips meant to confuse and disorient. No circling
of the opponent. Darius strode forward like a man going to battle,
clenched his boulder fist and slammed it into the
Mech
’s chest. The old guy fell, heavy and still.
Darius lifted his hand out of his chest, bringing with it a string
of wires and bloody veins and flesh. He held the speaker aloft in
victory as if he was holding the enemy’s heart. The crowd erupted
in a chaos of boos and cheers. Frida waved her arms about, yelling
something at Darius, her face screwed up, clearly angry. Darius
hadn’t played by the rules. He stopped his victory circling, facing
me, still holding up the Mech implant.

“
I
bested your enemy, Priest,” he bellowed. He flung his arm, sending
the bloody speaking flying toward the podium box where I and Sveta
sat. It hit the pole just next to Sveta’s head and fell with a
clang onto the metal floor next to my shoes. I would have been less
disgusted with a real human heart. Sveta had Darius fixed in a
black stare. This was not how her game was meant to be played.
People were turning, craning their necks to see into the podium and
I knew I had to respond.