Winning the Legend (10 page)

‘He is going to attack
someone,’
Molina commented, closely
tailing him.

‘And when he does, he’s
out,’
Arianna replied while nodding to
Andrew. Andrew stood and joined Molina. They figured someone
attacking was inevitable, but they didn’t want them to actually
kill any of their staff.

Arianna ate deliberately slow. Most of the
men finished before she did and just sat around waiting with their
retainers. Arianna stretched and slowly began to walk to the
training room. Manuel still had not tried anything. Nelson and
Nixon flanked her sides as she walked away, leaving Andrew to exit
the room last. As they all filed into the training room, the men
lined up and waited for her to speak. Again she waited. All eyes
were on her as she watched the door for Andrew, who entered last
while holding Manuel. All the men abruptly turned to watch Andrew
walk into the room. Manuel had tried to bite someone as soon as the
rest of the people were out of the room. He had been careless and
didn’t even notice Andrew staying behind.

“Disqualified,” Andrew stated to the men who
all wanted to question, but didn’t know what to do. Molina followed
behind Andrew, helping a young maid who was applying pressure to
her arm. Molina lifted the girl’s arm to show teeth marks. No one
disputed it.

Several competitors were almost at the same
point, and transformed at the scent of the human blood. Luckily,
they restrained themselves. The fresh blood made everyone in the
room hungry, and so Molina swiftly escorted the girl out of the
room. Manuel’s retainer came from the next room to help restrain
him as they waited for Arianna to talk.

“If you are continuing to the next
competition, you will find a number in your room,” Arianna replied.
“Those without a number are no longer in the running. I’ll give
Manuel and those without a number the same offer I gave to Nate
Childs. You may stay and watch the competition and even compete
without a number in hopes that you can redeem yourself into the top
six for the last competition, or you may leave. If you stay, you
are to go by the same rules as everyone else.”

“Ahh,” Manuel yelled, raging while running
toward Arianna. “If I can’t have her-” he started but didn’t get
even within feet of her.

Devin and Andrew simultaneously stepped
forward and stopped him. Manuel tried to shift into his catlike
night human form, but was stopped. His claws swiped across Devin
and Andrew, standing between Manuel and Arianna, but neither gave
an inch. Next to Arianna, Turner responded by turning into his
lycan form, which was just as deadly as Manuel’s cat shape. Rhys
was the only competitor that moved who wasn’t one of Arianna’s men.
He stepped silently in front of Arianna to be the last wall between
her and the crazy brujo, who was trying to spew out hexes while
transforming. Arianna’s men subdued Manuel until he was restrained
by his now-injured retainer, whom he lashed out at first before
Arianna’s team restrained him.

“Remove him to his room and get him fed,”
Molina ordered, and several of Arianna’s guards and men moved in to
escort the furious Manuel to confinement. He was fine while fed,
but not when he wasn’t fed.

Molina nodded to Arianna, whose own focus
was now blurring. She had gone too long without blood both before,
and now during the competition. She had hoped to last until they
ended the contest since they only planned to take two and a half
weeks, but Devin had been cut during the fight. He wasn’t injured
badly, but the scent of his blood was pushing Arianna’s limits of
control. He had been her blood source for a year and the scent was
way too familiar. Sleeping next to Andrew was hard enough, but the
fresh blood wasn’t something she could handle at this point.

Arianna held her breath as she closed her
eyes to count to ten in order to get her night human under control.
“We will be taking the week off.” She needed alone time with her
keepers. She couldn’t deny the feeling within her much longer.
Blood drove the night human race to do extraordinary things, but it
also prompted them to kill if they didn’t maintain their blood
supply. Arianna didn’t want to be a killer.

‘What’s going on?’
Thomas asked about the deviation from their
plans. Only Andrew knew why she was changing things. He saw it
across her face as she still held her eyes shut.

‘Ari,’
Andrew tried to calm her; but his voice, even just in her
head, added to her desire.

“You may all leave the grounds. Be back by
this time next week, and we will continue with the next challenge.”
Arianna let her breath out slowly after turning to face the
windows, trying to get the men to understand they were dismissed.
No one moved. They all sensed something was happening with her.

“Ari,” Devin said quietly, and all the men
watched as she turned back to face them, fully transformed. She had
little control left as she stalked across the room to Devin. He
didn’t fear her as she drew close enough to touch him. He stood his
ground and watched her.

‘Sorry,’
she whispered to Devin as she lost control and
lunged at him. In an instant, Turner stuck his arm in front of
Arianna and she bit down, drawing blood.

Chapter 11

Since her night human abilities had
decreased over the weeks from lack of blood, the sounds she heard
now were louder than she remembered. Gabriel was across the room
with Turner, and from the smell of things, changing the blood in
his IV. Arianna lightly touched the surface beneath her head. She
was lying on something warm and possibly human. From the feel of
it, it wasn’t Andrew. Andrew’s strength was in his broad shoulders,
this person’s strength was in his core. Arianna felt a defined
six-pack. She lifted her head slightly but kept her eyes closed as
she examined the world around her with her senses. Instantly it
came to her; this was Devin, and she’d attacked him yesterday.
Arianna’s eyes snapped open to gaze at Devin lying in the bed
beside her.

Gabriel shuffled back to his seat, not
nosily, but not his usual silent self either. He was making sure
Arianna knew he was there so as not to scare her when she opened
her eyes.

‘What did I do?’
Arianna asked Gabriel, looking across the room to
him. Several empty packs of blood were beside the sleeping Turner.
More bags were by the fireplace, waiting for a fire to be
lit.

‘How long?’
Gabriel asked in reply. He didn’t move from his
chair, but sat across the room watching her

‘Did I hurt them?’
Arianna looked down at Devin who looked to be
peacefully sleeping, but he never slept peacefully. He was always
on alert.

‘No, you stopped with both
before you hurt them. That’s why they don’t fear you. You cannot
hurt them,’
Gabriel replied, actually
sighing in her mind.
‘Now how long did you
go without feeding?’

‘Mmm,’
Arianna had to mentally count in her mind.

Arianna wasn’t sure if she should tell
Gabriel the truth. He would be disappointed with her. Controlling
her need for blood was one of the lessons he demanded she
understand before he ever trusted to leave her alone with just the
dearg-dul estate. Arianna peeked across the room at Gabriel, who
sat waiting. He was not one you lied to.

‘We’ve been here a week, so
that would be just over three weeks.’
Arianna waited for him to reply. Shock filled Gabriel’s
face.

“Three weeks?” Gabriel was shocked and angry
at the same time. Andrew instantly appeared in the room.

‘Three weeks?’
Andrew asked, kneeling beside the bed to untangle
Arianna from Devin. He wrapped her arms around his neck as he
pulled her legs into his arms to cradle her and be able to pick her
up. She was not completely awake yet and able to walk on her
own.

Arianna would not meet the
eyes of either her uncle or Andrew.
‘Yes,
three weeks. We were sparring right after I drank blood from you. I
was able to scratch you and draw blood. I realized that you were
slower that day and knew that my taking your blood affected you. I
didn’t want to put you in danger, especially since we would be
surrounded by men who would love to do more than just rip you
apart. I couldn’t make you weak. I’m sorry,’
Arianna looked up and directed her apology to the two
sleeping men in the room also.

‘Ahh,’
Andrew replied, easily cradling her in his arms. “I’m taking
her back to her room to feed more,” Andrew told Gabriel. Arianna
tucked her head into Andrew’s chest and ignored the increased
sounds and scents around her as he marched her back to her room.
Curiously, as they neared the end of the competitors wing Arianna
sensed there were still one other night humans in one of the
rooms.

‘Someone stayed?’
Arianna asked.

‘Yes, Rhys refused to leave
with you like you were,’
Andrew
replied.
‘I doubt he isn’t interested in
you like he says. His retainer left, but he stayed. That guy may
say he wants you to be free, but I caught him staring at you all
the time. Even his retainer was eyeing you up like you were the
prize to win. I’m sure their whole ‘I want to help you’ is just to
win your trust.’
Andrew opened the door to
her suite with one hand and walked her through the sitting room to
her bed. Arianna held her breath, waiting for him to explode about
what she had done. It was dangerous for any of them to go without
blood, but even more so for a powerful night human to do
so.

“Okay, first off.” Andrew set her down
nicely and began to pace. He wasn’t actually mad. He was more
concerned than anything. “Never do that again. Night humans cannot
go without blood, ever. Got that? You need to feed. That’s why I’m
here. You can feed on me any time you wish. Please don’t be afraid
to.” Arianna stared at the lacy pillows that were still tossed on
the floor. It would have been easier if he were mad. Now she didn’t
know how to respond.

“Second,” Andrew continued, but stopped his
pacing to kneel between Arianna’s legs so that she was forced to
look at him. “Your drinking my blood doesn’t, in any shape or form,
affect my abilities. I either feed more before or after feeding
you, so it is just the same in the long run. Unlike you, I can feed
on any type of blood and there isn’t any limitation to how much.
The day you actually got me while we sparred had nothing to do with
blood but more to do with you.”

“Even I know I’m not that good yet,” Arianna
complained. It was true, even if she didn’t like to hear it said
out loud. Andrew’s fighting abilities were amazing. She needed more
than a month to compete on equal grounds with him.

Andrew shook his head in frustration. She
was better than she gave herself credit for. “Do you know how sexy
you are in just a sports bra and little shorts?” Arianna’s cheeks
were flaming red now. She hadn’t considered what she wore was the
reason Andrew hesitated.

“But I wore that every time I trained,” she
countered, wanting him to admit it was the blood taking
instead.

“And every time I trained I had it under
control,” Andrew replied. “Except for that one day. Maxim had been
more persistently trying to draw your attention, and had made extra
comments to me about how good you looked. Yes, I could see how good
you looked. And the more he talked, the more I thought about you
and not the fight that was going on. And he was there trying to get
your attention.”

“So I got you because you were distracted by
my body?” Arianna finally started to believe him.

“Yes.” Andrew let out a loud sigh as he
pushed her back on the bed and climbed next to her while removing
his own shirt. “I’m always distracted by you. Luckily I’ve had
years of training to ignore my more primal night human side, and I
can function normally. But you always bring this out in me.”

Arianna was thinking of a reply, but was
stopped as he pushed her shirt up and began to lightly kiss her
now-exposed stomach. He shifted up to her neck and kissed her more.
Arianna giggled at his light-as-a-butterfly touch on her skin.
Every touch now was magnified ten times from the blood she had
taken. Arianna threaded her fingers through Andrew’s dark wavy hair
as his lips met her own. Andrew’s feelings and her own merged, and
she experienced everything in the room with crystal clarity. She
pulled him closer. They weren’t even in their night human forms,
when they typically couldn’t keep their hands off each other. The
pull of Andrew’s love was greater than ever. There was no way she
would marry one of those other men. She only ever wanted to be in
the arms of the man holding her now. Andrew sighed and flipped to
his back beside Arianna.

“I need to catch my breath,” Andrew said,
but that was code for things were done. Andrew refused to let
things progress too far in case their plan failed and she was
forced to marry one of the competitors. Andrew planned just as much
as Thomas did.

“What if I don’t want you to catch your
breath?” Arianna countered, lying on her side beside him.

“Don’t tempt me.” Andrew instantly turned
and pinned Arianna to the bed. She was more tempting than ever now
that the competitors were gone and they were truly back to being
alone.

“Should I tempt your baku instead?” Arianna
asked, changing into her night human form. Andrew’s grip weakened.
Her night human form was irresistible. Andrew remained day human
and let her overpower him so that she straddled him on the bed. Her
night human form flickered but remained.