She’s quite butch.

“Are you all ready to rummmmmmble!” the emcee asks and the crowd screams.

I blink rapidly, repeating all Damon’s words in my head. Focus, Jess. You can do this, just keep your eyes on her hands at all times. Focus on going for the parts she leaves open. You can do this. You can win this. You just have to get through this and Dimitri will be here—he’ll save you and things will be okay.

“One!”

My world spins and I can hear nothing but the sound of my own heart.

“Two!”

I can’t do it, I can’t fucking do it. She’ll kill me. I want to go home. My eyes burn.

“Jess, head up and fight,” Damon yells.

I lift my head, staring her right in the eyes. You have to do this—you have to.

“Three.”

I lunge before she does and I slide right to the floor. Her hand swings but it swings in the air, and I know it’s because she expected me to go high. Instead I did a baseball style slide right to her feet. When I get to her feet, I jerk my fist back and I punch her hard in the kneecap. She stumbles backwards slashing at my head. I roll to the side quickly, getting a vision of her before jumping to my feet.

She spins around, her eyes wild as she lunges toward me. Her hands fly out and her claws come right to my face. At the last moment I duck and drive my head into her stomach. She makes a choking sound and her claws come down, clawing at the bare skin on my back. I scream in agony as they scratch against my skin. I can’t feel any blood and I’m almost sure she didn’t break my skin, but if that’s how much it hurts to get “grazed” then I don’t want to know what the real thing feels like.

“Some amazing fighter,” I taunt her as I quickly roll and slide away from her. “You’re not a good fighter. If you were you wouldn’t be wearing those things.”

She scowls at me and lifts her foot, twisting quickly and so fast I barely see her. I feel her, though, when her foot connects with the side of my head. I spin to the left, crying out in pain as my vision swims for a moment. I can’t stay here—if I don’t move she’ll— Another kick, right to my back. I stumble forward, gasping for air as all the wind is knocked out of me.

“Twist, Blair!” Damon roars.

I twist my body just as a foot comes soaring through the air at me. She misses me but only by a second. It’s enough. While she catches her balance, I lift my own foot and I kick her so hard at the backs of her knees, she loses her footing and falls. She hits the ground with a thump and one of her own fingernails pierces her arm, sending a shrill screech across the crowd.

It goes wild.

I launch myself into the air and I land so hard on her back I feel something crack. She’s quick, though, and good. I made a mistake jumping on her. She tangles her legs in mine and with a strength I’ve never witnessed from a woman, she flips me over using her body until I land on my back. She raises her elbow and I scream as it comes barreling down toward my face, crashing against my cheek.

“Jess!”

I hear a sound, a familiar sound, but I don’t know where it’s coming from. I can’t focus on it, I have to think. When she raises her elbow again, I turn my head to the side and I bite down on her arm so hard I draw blood. She squeals loudly and stumbles off me, gripping her arm the best she can without doing more damage. I lunge at her, exhausted and sore, but needing to keep fighting.

I wrap my arm around her from behind and I jerk her backwards. She lifts her claw and stabs it into my hand. The pain is excruciating and I can’t hold on. I fall away, clutching my hand as blood pours out of a deep, ugly wound.

“Jess!”

Dimitri?

I spin around and stare into the crowd and there he is, standing at the side of the cage, staring in at me with fear in his eyes.

“Dimi,” I mouth.

“Watch out!”

I feel something smash me hard across the back of my head before everything goes black.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Jess

You fucking useless piece of shit!”

I hear someone roaring at me, and I blink my eyes open to see Roger storming toward me. I’m in the back room and I’ve clearly been tossed on the ground. My body aches, my head throbs and my hand is covered in dried blood. Before I can focus too heavily on my situation, Roger has hold of my shirt and is launching me into the air.

“You lost me a fuck load of money and for that you’ll pay.”

He shoves me back down, hard. I cry out and grip my head, trying to stop the pounding. I stare in horror as Roger pulls out a gun and aims it at me.

“You should have died a long time ago, Blair. I should have fucked you until you were nothing but a broken shell and then I should have killed you slowly.”

He grins at me. Oh God, he’s going to do it. He’s going to kill me and he’ll probably get away with it.

“You did kill me,” I cry, trying to distract him. Dimitri was out there. He was. I saw him. Where is he now? “You did break my body until it was no more than a shell.”

“And yet you’re still living, still fucking around like the whore you are.”

I feel my entire body begin to trembling with a fear I’ve never felt before in my life.

“You think I don’t know you’ve let Dimitri put his dick inside you.”

My face pales.

“You didn’t think he was going to save you, did you? Aw, poor sweet Blair. You’re forgetting something,” he murmurs, cocking the gun. “No one cares about you.”