As I held my remaining dagger up to the light, my sleeve fell off. Gashes covered every inch of my right arm.
Damn.
I’d been hit a lot.
“Fucking Hades,” Luka growled.
I missed when he’d refused to speak.
“Swearing is the sign of a weak mind,” I repeated Jinx’s statement. In my defense, she was the scariest person I knew and had good sayings.
Luka snarled, “Fuck yourself.”
Someone was clearly not open to self-improvement.
Sad.
In a move no one was expecting, Luka reached down and pulled off his shirt.
I opened my mouth to tell him that now was not the time to act like a pervert, but he pressed the fabric down on my arm to stanch the bleeding.
A lot of smooth olive skin was on display.
Luka no longer looked identical to John.
I stared at the silver chain of skulls dangling between his pierced nipples. It attached to another skull chain that hung low and wrapped around his lean, tattooed abs.
I gawked.
Black wings spread across his chest, and a serpent trailed down his abs. A key, a skull, a pomegranate, a chariot, a mint plant, the moon, and a three-headed dog were scattered across his torso.
Oh.
Familiar pain streaked down my spine.
I’d seen John shirtless, and he definitely didn’t have tattoos or piercings. Now that I thought about it, when I’d thought John was Mr. Hyde, he’d always gone into the bathroom to change.
I’d assumed it was because he was in a bad mood and needed space. It was really because his body would have given him away.
Objectively, it was a nice body.
Subjectively, immediate smash.
“Concentrate, you dumbass. Pay attention to the other competitors,” Jinx’s voice sounded in my head and startled me out of my trance.
Great, I’d accidentally summoned the demon child.
“Are you even listening to me?” Luka snarled as he wiped my arm.
I grimaced as he pressed against a particularly deep lesion. “Not really.”
He made a rough sound that was somewhere between an animal snarl and a human growl.
“Nice piercings, bruh.” I slapped him on the shoulder with my limp arm.
The demons glanced over at me like I’d lost my mind.
Luka pressed harder on my wound and leaned forward. Where John’s natural scent was smooth and rich, his was dark and spicy. I shivered.
His stubble grazed my jaw as he whispered, “Keep staring at me like that and I’ll let you feel the rest of my piercings.”
It took a second, then his meaning sank in.
I cleared my throat.
My cheeks burned, but I didn’t look down at his boxers to see if he meant what I thought he did.
I kept my eyes forward.
Ever since I’d revealed I was a woman, I’d been getting a lot of disturbing comments thrown my way. I was 99 percent sure that my teammates were sexually harassing me.
There was only one thing left to do.
I cleared my throat. “Keep talking like that and you’ll get fucked.” Sexually harass them back.
I studied my cuticles like I was picking out a polish. Since I was missing three fingernails and my pinky was jutting out at a disturbing angle, it was going to take a lot more than a clear coat.
Luka choked.
I turned my back to him and surveyed the field. Most competitors were locked in combat with Xs floating above their heads.
Bodies moved quickly across the arena, and it was hard to tell who was left.
Luka wrapped his arms around his shirt and knotted it quickly to my arm like he was afraid to touch me too long.
I whipped my head to the side as something flashed in my periphery.
Either I was hallucinating or an assassin without an X over her head was headed toward us. “Straight ahead,” I warned the demons.
We backed up until we were pressed against Luka.
Since all three of us had marks, if someone drew his blood, we’d lose.
I crouched so I was protecting his legs. The demons shuffled close to protect his front and sides.
We formed a shield.
The assassin was disappearing into the wide shadows cast by the poles that surrounded the field.
She approached as a blur.
Closer.
I raised my arm back, but I only had one dagger, and she was zigzagging so fast that it would be almost impossible to get a good hit.
The demons pointed their ink swords forward, but their arms trembled slightly from fatigue and blood loss.
In her hand, a sharp bone sword gleamed white.
I prepared for a world of hurt.
Out of nowhere, an object slammed against the bony assassin, and she fell to her knees with an object protruding from her chest.
Sadie marched across the field with a blank expression. She’d flicked on the numb, the homicidal voice in her head that made her into a killing machine. My best friend was completely uninjured and didn’t have an X above her head.
“Stand up,” Sadie ordered in a monotone voice.
The assassin complied like a zombie, a blood dagger sticking out of her sternum and infecting her.
Sadie’s ruby eyes glowed against her golden skin. She looked like she was born from the eclipse.
Since they’d approved her blood dagger, she technically wasn’t breaking any rules. I think.
It seemed like it was kind of a gray area.
Sadie’s raspy voice cracked like a whip. “Hunt down your fellow teammates and stab them. Now.”
The assassin turned and sprinted across the arena with impressive speed.
Sadie watched dispassionately.
Behind her a devil sprinted across the field with his flame sword raised above his head.
“Behind you!” I shouted and pulled back my throwing arm.
Before I could act, Jax slammed into the devil like a truck. Braids flew around his head and impressive muscles rippled as in midair he hammered his fist into the devil’s face.
He tackled him to the ground and flung the flame sword to the side, then Jax tore at the man with his claws.
A menacing roar erupted from his chest.
Jax shredded his skin with a vengeance.
“Kill him!” Cobra screamed from the spectator section, and Ascher and Xerxes whistled and yelled in agreement.
“Pay attention!” Luka shouted in my ear, and I jumped with surprise.
Rolling my eyes, I crouched lower to protect his feet.
“The game is over,” Lothaire’s voice boomed. “The assassin legion lost.”
I made a sign of worship and thanked the sun god that my best friend had the power to turn people into mindless zombies.
A true blessing to us all.
I tried to stand up, but my knees gave out. Luka grabbed me as I stumbled, and my finger brushed against his nipple piercing.
Pain streaked across my back.
I pulled away roughly and turned my attention to the demons.
“Nice work,” Vegar grinned as he gave me a high-five.
“We make a good team.” I smiled back.
Zenith frowned, and the black lines retreated off his weapons and crawled back under his eyes. “I told you not to talk to me.” He looked angry, but the corner of his mouth twitched like he wanted to smile.
Vegar winked behind his back and gave me a thumbs-up.
“Whatever you say, buddy.” I tipped my imaginary hat at him.
It was obvious that he was suffering from low testosterone and didn’t know how to express his emotions properly.
He just needed to be handled with care.