Taken (Breaking the Darkness) (18 page)

The door buzzed and the boy rushed to open the door. Anton just laughed and pushed the boy aside, closing the door in his face. The boy looked relieved and scurried back down the stairs. I noticed Graven grab something from his desk drawer and attach it to the back of his pants. I wasn’t sure what it was, maybe a cell phone or a gun.

Anton’s arrogance showed in his swagger. I could tell Graven wasn’t impressed by him. He continued to fiddle with the cameras and type on his computer before he really acknowledged Anton.

“I didn’t expect you would be joining us tonight.” Graven reluctantly stood to greet him. He gave him a pat on the arm and they bumped elbows.

“You told me I should come. That the party is always happening here.” Anton looked out over the crowd. “Not exactly the kind of party I was hoping for, Graven.” He stood there looking out the window.

“Indeed. The club is packed as always, Anton. The guest performers we have booked have made Black Reign the hardest club to get into tonight. I told you to call Maritza if you were coming.”

Anton looked down at his hands and examined his nails. He proceeded to pick something from under his fingernail. It was probably the flesh off of my back. I shuddered at the reminder of how much pain my physical body was in. He had no problem showing Graven his level of boredom. He started to do that annoying head rubbing thing again. I think he was trying to make it shine enough to match his pointed imported leather shoes.

“The kind of party you’re looking for doesn’t just walk in off the street. You should know it takes time to find just the right accommodations for you.” Graven walked over to the window and stood beside him—well, over him, really. His back was almost twice the girth of Anton’s.

Graven stood over Anton with his chest puffed up a bit. I wondered if he knew what Anton was. Maybe if he knew, he wouldn’t have been so sure of himself in speaking to him that way. Yet he held his ground, overlooking his club.

After several minutes of silence, Anton turned on his feet and patted Graven on his back. “It is of no consequence tonight.” A smug smile plastered across his taunt lips. His teeth looked more ferocious in this lighting. “I did not call because I was busy at a party of my own. Well, not really my own. I was invited, by a mutual friend, in fact.”

“Oh really? I was unaware you had any friends, let alone mutual ones.” Graven looked down at him in annoyance, but I could tell he was trying not to show it. Never once did he turn his back on Anton.

“The Taker’s call girl has a special guest, a nice warm-blooded redhead. She tasted… different… light and refreshing.”

I saw his eyes flash orange and green. He relished in remembrance of our encounter. His tongue slithered out and slid across his lips.

“I’m glad you got to have some fun before you got here. I hope you can find the rest of your evening to be enjoyable even without a private entourage. It sounds like your appetite is in check from your earlier run-in with this redhead. I would hate to have to clean up after you in here. I don’t take to kindly to bullshit, Levi.”

“Oh, this one is for savoring. She got quite the taste of what it is like to party with this guy. Soon she will be begging for me to give her more.”

Listening to him talk about me like that was crippling my concentration. I could feel myself falling into the room. I didn’t worry too much because I knew already that Anton couldn’t see me in this form. My insides physically weren’t there so it was more my essence that felt like it was being torn to bits just by being in the same room with him again.

Graven looked over and met my eyes. I couldn’t keep the connection. I looked down toward my feet. They were as bare as the rest of me felt. I wanted to run away and hide. But all I could do was hover there, looking defeated.

Graven’s eyes went wide and his eyebrows furrowed. “Who did you say was our mutual friend?” He continued to keep his eyes on me. He saw right through everything I tried to hide.

“Ziona. She invited me to her desert compound. She has a lovely treasure there that needs some more convincing.”

Graven’s voice was all but steady. His words came slow and controlled. “Convincing? Of what, exactly?”

“Who knows? What do I care? I am just along for the thrill of it. I am looking forward to giving this one the ride of a lifetime.” Anton smoothed out the creases in the sleeves of his jacket, polishing his crown once again. What a gross habit.

I was feeling very exposed. It was hard to do, but I let my eyes fall in line with Graven’s. He looked at me without having to question. He didn’t ask me to confirm that Anton was referring to me, but I couldn’t help but gently nod my head once in verification. And then I let my eyes fall off to the right in embarrassment.

Graven’s shoulders started to lift and bulge forward. His eyebrows collided. His breath started to blow heavy through his nose. I could see the anger rising up inside him. His fists were rounded in tight balls at his waist, and the skin tightened around his jaw as he clenched his teeth.

Anton looked at him with bewilderment. “You all right, bro?”

“I am not your bro!”

“Whoa, take it easy, Graven. What is your problem?”

I could see Graven’s muscles tense beneath his tight white tee. His skin started to get ashy and grey. “You are the problem. I am so sick of catering to you and your slimy ways.”

“How dare you speak to me with that tone!”

The blacks of Anton’s eyes started to narrow into slivers of glowing green and orange. I saw his eyes do this before. I knew what was going to come next. Graven didn’t seem fazed by it; he must have been well aware of the fact that Anton was some sort of dragon hybrid.

How could Graven consider this a fight worth starting? He didn’t know me enough to consider defending my honor. Perhaps he was just looking for a reason to stand up against Anton.

The two men locked eyes on each other in hopes that one would back down. Neither considered it a possibility.

“So, Graven, you are gonna take it there, huh? You will regret even considering challenging me. This will not be fun for me to have to explain to Ziona or The Taker, but I will enjoy tearing you to bits. I might even consider giving this place a makeover for you.” He tore off his jacket without the same care he gave when he used me as his plaything.

“Someone will come in here and turn this place into a sausage factory when I am finished with it.”

“Is that so?” Graven pushed the chair into his desk.

His office wasn’t terribly large. The presence the two men took up seemed to be growing by the second. The duel had been initiated; I wasn’t sure there was a way to stop it. I wanted to tell Graven no—to stop him from getting himself killed over me. But I knew it would only insult him if I did.

“If you’re feeling froggy,”—Graven signaled him to give it a try—“lizard boy.” Graven’s tone was more than condescending.

Anton started to laugh, but there was no amusement in his tone and it started to turn into a wailing roar. “I am no lizard! You will feel the strength of my blood!” He pounded a fist against his chest.

In an instant, Anton began to shift. His skin puffed and shrank into scales all over his body. His eyes widened and his lids thinned out while his nose spread into a snout. Smoke billowed out of his nostrils. I was glad I couldn’t smell his hot, putrid breath. His anger quickened his shift.

He hunched forward and the back of his perfectly pressed shirt began to split open. I could see the black scales stacked on top of one another. His torso and neck elongated, his body resembling a human less by the second. The hump on his back broke free from his blouse and spread out behind him. He looked more like a serpent than a dragon, but who was I to compare? It wasn’t like I’d ever seen either in person before.

Graven stood there watching him with a sour look on his face. His distaste of the creature before him distorted his handsome face.

Anton propelled himself in Graven’s direction. He moved fast, but not fast enough to avoid the arm that clotheslined him. Anton fell back on the floor, slamming his head against the concrete. I watched him spin onto his belly and kick out a foot. It connected hard against Graven’s thigh. It was just enough of a hit to allow Anton to get back to his feet.

Anton’s talons, not yet exposed, allowed him to strike Graven with a tight fist. He wasted no time and began to pound on Graven’s face. It was hard to watch one of the first people I had disdain for about to smash the head of my only chance at safety.

Graven’s face handled Anton’s fist quite well. He raised his forearms in protest, and after blocking Anton’s most recent attempt at bashing in his face, he lowered his right arm. Graven’s knuckles cracked forcefully against Anton’s ribs twice. His eyes went wide from the shots. He pushed against Graven and grabbed him by the elbow, making it hard for him to counter the blow.

Anton’s force sent them both tumbling over the desk, crashing against the glass window. It was amazing it didn’t shatter. Their bodies hardly made a sound beneath the beating of the music that blared out on the dance floor.

Anton scrambled back. Graven looked at me for the briefest of seconds. His eyes darted to the floor before they took aim on his target. His chest was heaving. One hand on his knee and one on his chest, Graven’s head hung low.

“Had enough already, beast?” He polished his now bumpy skull. He licked his tight, thinned-out lips, his tongue long and precise. I watched the rise and fall of his back with each heavy breath.

Graven’s eyes were sharp. He snarled at his opponent. A vein that shot across his forehead began to bulge. The color now completely washed out of his skin, and his perfectly symmetrical face started to contort. The bones in his face looked like they were breaking apart and reforming to create a new, more ferocious profile.

His ears lowered and grew larger, pointing out to the sides. His body hair started to shrink away. His kissable lips began to take on a canine appearance and his teeth grew larger and sharper. Two short horns extended from the top of his skull.

A roar came from his gut as the muscles on his back began to bulge and tear away his tee. The muscles all over his body grew so large that the skin seemed stretched thin, allowing every muscle to be easily identifiable.

His skin was now void of color. He started to resemble the statues perched in front of his home. As his shirt ripped away, two huge wings unfurled behind him. He looked like he was carved out of stone, a giant sculpted muscle.

Although his body just transformed into a fierce-looking creature, his eyes never changed. They remained as human and inviting as they were from the second we first took sight of each other, albeit, filled with crazy angry rage right now. The bottom of my jaw just fell open.

It all happened so fast; there was no time to process what just happened to this person. I wasn’t sure if he’d completed his transformation, but he was out of time. Anton didn’t waste the opportunity of Graven’s momentary delay.

Lunging forward, he spat red-hot saliva onto Graven’s leg just before slashing at it with the claws now jutting from his paws. It was hard to hear Graven’s cry, but it showed on his face.

I could see through the torn denim that the flesh on his leg was still pink. The wound on his thigh was bubbling around the edges and blood poured down his leg. Graven looked down at it, and this lapse in judgment landed him a kick to his other leg and then one to his cheekbone.

After landing the kick, Anton stepped back to regain his footing. Graven took the chance and plowed headfirst into his adversary. I could see his smoke-filled breath knocked from him as he slammed into the wall of monitors. Anton tried to push back, but Graven took two hands to his chest.

Anton must have seen it coming; he quickly hoisted his right arm into the air. It plummeted down on Graven’s straight left arm, disconnecting Graven’s advantage. He was ready with a left hook, but Anton parried with a block. Pushing Graven by the arm, he spun him around just enough to chop him in the Adam’s apple.

Graven flew back, reaching up to his throat. Anton grabbed at him by the back if his wings and chucked him head first into the wall. He bounced back, still with his hand around his throat.

Anton gloated in his success. He had Graven on his back, struggling to get back to his knees. Again, Anton lifted his distorted arm. He released the claws to which I’d succumbed earlier. I wanted to turn away but couldn’t. I wanted to call out to him, but I did what I could to will Graven to get back up.

I heard a loud, thunderous noise come from where Graven resided. He suddenly shot straight up in the air and spun toward the serpent, planting his knee in Anton’s face. Taking flight into the air, the two men collided. Anton’s head knocked back, but not enough for him to lose focus on his prize. He grabbed Graven by the foot and slammed him down onto the ground. The hit was so hard that stone went flying into the air. I prayed it was from the floor and not Graven.

Anton grabbed a cord from one of the many electronic devices in the room and wrapped it around his neck. Graven tried to grab at it but struggled beneath the cord’s grip. His body flailed around until he got an elbow high enough to reverse into Anton’s abdomen. It looked like it would be enough for him to spin out of Anton’s grasp.

Just as he was about to break free from the cord, Anton swung him down to the ground and held his foot over his chest while reining the cord upward. I thought he had a good enough grip to rip Graven’s head right off the top of his body. Graven’s entire torso arched into the air, and he scrambled to get one of his hands around to the back of his body.

He pulled something from the rear of his pants. At that moment I vaguely remembered him grabbing something and placing it there just before Anton arrived with the boy toy. It took him a few attempts to reach it.

I couldn’t see what it was, but I saw his hand slam into Anton’s foot. When Graven’s hand came back into the air, I could see the shiny piece of metal. Anton released his grip just enough for him to start to break free.

Anton dropped his knee onto Graven, preventing him from getting up. He held him down but was surprised nonetheless. Before Anton had time to assess his foot or what Graven wielded in his hand, Graven took another swing at Anton’s back. Although the blows were doing some damage, the blade wasn’t penetrating the scales on his back.