Fighter Read online

  Two Brutes bearing giant bones through their noses, carried in a body between them. They each held an arm, and there was a hood on the person’s head. Same build as Dakota, and he had tattoos peeking out from his bicep just like her love did.

  Fuck, please no. She nearly screamed it, but bit back. She would not show fear, and when she got out of here, there would be no mercy for her captor.

  The Brutes tossed their hostage to the ground at her feet and Vincent pulled the bag off his head.

  “No!” she screamed, her earlier promise to not show fear forgotten.

  “Ana,” Dakota choked out. His face had been badly beaten—bruises and cuts marred the surface, and his eyes were nearly swollen shut. Vincent kicked his back, and he crumbled to the ground on his stomach.

  “You bastard!” She yanked at her chains until fresh blood dripped down her arms from new gashes in her wrists.

  “I told you that you would join me—willingly or otherwise. I will break you.” He growled the last words and pulled out a blade from his waist.

  Vincent gripped a handful of Dakota’s hair and whipped his head back, exposing his throat.

  “No, please don’t,” she cried. Pain gripped her chest, tightening a vise around her heart. “Dakota,” she cried, willing him to fight back.

  “You will obey me, Anastasia. Or this will be just the beginning.” He pressed the edge of the blade against the skin of Dakota’s neck and a drop of blood welled up on the surface.

  “Stop!”

  “Stop me, Anastasia! Use your power to save him!”

  “I can’t,” she cried. She tried to access the power in her blood, but nothing came to the surface. Her body was too exhausted from trying to heal itself.

  “Too bad,” Vincent sneered, then drew the blade across Dakota’s throat.

  “No!” Anastasia screamed and yanked against her chains as she watched him bleed to death on the ground.

  The shape below her began to shift, morphing from dark brown hair to ashy blond, from tanned skin to pale. The body shifted from Dakota’s strong build to a wiry, thinner frame until Dakota no longer lay dying in a puddle of his own blood.

  Instead, a stranger lay dead at her feet.

  Anastasia gasped, searching the room for Dakota.

  “Oh, not yet, my dear.” Vincent laughed. “Although that was fun.”

  “You fucking monster!” She lunged for him, but he was just out of reach. “I will kill you!”

  “Unlikely.” He gestured to the two Brutes waiting off to the side. “Get him out of here.”

  Anastasia watched in horror as they dragged the body from the room. Relief filled her chest with warmth even as guilt pushed her stomach to the floor. That man wasn’t Dakota, but he hadn’t deserved to die just so Vincent could torture her. His death was senseless and cruel.

  But it wasn’t Dakota, and she clung to that fact.

  “You will use your power, Anastasia. Sooner or later, you will. Or I will kill hundreds of Dakotas in front of you before finally slaughtering the real one.”

  He stepped from the room and flipped off the light, leaving her alone in her prison.

  16

  Terrenia

  Dakota

  “We have to find her, Tony.” Dakota began to pace the small cottage. A week had passed since Anastasia sent him through the portal. He couldn’t get the image of her standing in that clearing surrounded by Brutes out of his head. When she smiled at him, he’d seen her, but he could see she’s only been hanging on by a thread.

  “You think I don’t know that? She is like a daughter to me. We will find her, but it has to be the right way. He will kill you; do you not understand that?” Tony shouted.

  “What the fuck does it matter, Tony? Anastasia is gone!” Shane yelled from the counter. “None of this matters without her.”

  For once, Dakota agreed with the jealous bastard. “There has to be a way to get back to Seattle. Are there no more of those vials?”

  Tony shook his head. “We’ve searched everywhere. There are no more.”

  “Fuck.”

  “We wouldn’t be in this predicament if I’d just gone,” Shane growled.

  Dakota glared at him. “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me.”

  “Boys!” Elizabeth hollered.

  Dakota continued to stare at Shane. “You have no fucking clue how much she means to me.”

  “You think I don’t love her, too?”

  “Then how about you stop attacking me, and we find a way to bring her home.”

  Shane’s jaw twitched. “Fine.”

  “So, first step, how do we get to Seattle?” Elizabeth asked.

  A portal opened and they stared in surprise;. the familiar swirling blue light gave Dakota hope. Maybe she was coming back! The room filled with a bright light, but instead of Ana, an older woman stepped out, carrying a cat and a small bag.

  “This must be where I come in handy,” she said as she surveyed the room.

  “Who are you?” Shane asked.

  “Carmen,” Tony said, stepping forward to greet the old woman. He crossed the room quickly and wrapped his arms around her. “Been a long time.”

  “Too long, Tony.” She smiled and hugged him warmly.

  “I'm so sorry about—”

  “It’s okay, Tony.” She patted him lightly on the arm. “I know that you did what you could.”

  Tony turned to face them. “Elizabeth, Dakota, Shane, this is Carmen. She is Annabelle’s mother and Anastasia’s grandmother.” He turned, looking down at her. “And I do believe you showed up at the perfect time.”

  “You know what’s happened, then?” Shane asked.

  She nodded. “I spoke with Anastasia for a bit in a dream.”

  “You can talk to her?” Hope surged through Dakota again.

  She shook her head, crushing Dakota’s optimism. “Vincent has since blocked me.”

  “But you can open portals?”

  She nodded. “That I can.”

  “Can you send me back to Seattle?”

  “And me?” Shane stepped forward.

  “It would be futile, as Anastasia is no longer being kept in Seattle.”

  “Where is she?”

  “I’m not sure, but that was the first place I checked. I cannot sense her there.”

  “Sense her?” Shane asked.

  “I’ve tried to get a read on her, but he’s put up blocks against my magic.” She said.

  “Is it possible she is in Seattle, then?” Tony asked. “And that you just can’t sense her?”

  “No, she is not there. Honestly, I don’t sense any magic there anymore. Whatever Vincent is doing, he is no longer using his power to do it.”

  Someone screamed outside, and they ran out into the hot sun. Villagers scattered, racing toward their houses, and Dakota bolted to Andrew who was leading a group of children inside a cottage.

  “What’s happening?”

  “We’re under attack.” He spoke quickly and released the children to the woman who was inside before turning and running back to the gate.

  Dakota looked toward the gate and swallowed hard. A handful of Brutes stomped through the trees toward them. “Let them fucking come.” The need to take his rage out on something overwhelmed him and he drew his blade.

  Shane and the other Fighters did the same, bracing for the attack.

  Dakota lunged for the nearest beast. Using all his strength, he sliced across the beast’s stomach, then swiftly brought the blade down on its neck. It crumpled to the ground, and he turned just in time to see a Brute sneaking up on Shane. He charged, driving his sword into flesh, then watched the beast fall to the ground.

  Dakota and Shane fought side by side—two men who lost someone they loved—with a vengeance. As if somehow, the clashing of blades could bring Ana back.

  “Agh!” Andrew yelled.

  Dakota looked over as a Brute wrapped its fat hand around the Fighter’s neck.

  Shane reached Andrew
first, throwing his body weight into the monster before driving his blade through the skull.

  “Thanks,” Andrew said.

  Dakota pulled him to his feet. They looked around to see Fighters ready for another attack.

  The Brutes lay dead on the ground, and yet Dakota felt no sense of satisfaction. “We need to get these bodies burned,” he told them, and they went to work stacking the dead.

  Dakota sat on the sentry tower staring out at the darkening sky. The whiskey in his glass was doing little to dull the ache in his heart, but shit, he had to try.

  What else was there?

  Someone began the ascent on the ladder, and Dakota turned as Shane climbed over the ledge.

  “Want some company?” he asked.

  Dakota shrugged. The tower shifted slightly with the extra weight, then Shane stood beside him.

  “You fought well today.” The other man held up a bottle he’d carried, and Dakota held out his glass.

  “Thanks. You too.”

  “I’ve been training my entire life with a blade. Is that what you use back in Seattle as well?”

  “No, we use guns.”

  “Guns? Those things in the crates Vincent was bringing through?”

  Dakota nodded.

  “Fascinating.” Shane paused, taking a sip of his drink. “Listen, I apologize for the way I’ve acted toward you.” Shane took a drink from his cup.

  “I get it; you are in love with Ana.”

  “I am. Have been for a long time. For about a year, I thought she loved me, too. As it turned out, she never did.”

  Dakota stayed silent, not wanting to interrupt.

  “Every time we were together, I knew her mind was somewhere else. And it hurt. Then, seeing you here with her was another kind of pain. She looks at you the way I’d always wanted her to look at me.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Shane drank deeply and shrugged. “The only thing that matters is getting her back.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Until then…” Shane held up his cup. “We kick the asses of as many Brutes as we can.”

  “I’ll cheers to that.” The two men clinked cups, and went back to sitting in silence.

  17

  One month later

  Anastasia

  Time no longer held meaning. Hours blended into days, and days into weeks, and nothing but unending darkness surrounded her. She couldn’t even remember what it felt like to stand in the sunshine; what did a breeze feel like as it brushed her hair back?

  The dampness of the room seeped into her bones, and the chill made it so she couldn’t feel the warmth of her own blood. Anastasia wasn’t even sure she was alive anymore. On some level, she hoped she wasn’t.

  But at least the fucking dripping had stopped.

  They had stripped her clothing from her, allowing her only the bra and underwear she’d been wearing when they had taken her.

  Her mouth was dry and her lips cracked from the lack of water. Her stomach burned with a hunger that she knew would never be sated. At least it was a feeling, something to indicate she was still alive; but was that a good thing?

  The door to her prison scraped as it opened, and she bit back a scream, not willing to show any emotion. The Brutes had come for her again, just as she knew they would. Was it possible that this was the end?

  They pulled her to her feet, the fingers on their large hands biting into her raw skin. They enjoyed causing her pain. So far, she had been able to push through the torture, but one question stood out in her mind as they pulled her down the hallway now: would she survive it this time?

  “We have good plans for you, baby bird.”

  The large Brute to her left grunted. “Big plans,” it repeated.

  “Are you ready for some fun?” the other asked as it dragged her down the hall.

  She tried searching for any clue as to where she was being held, but it was simply a concrete hall that could have been anywhere in the world.

  They tossed her into a room and she fell to the ground, scraping wobbly knees that were already marred with cuts and bruises.

  Vincent stared down at her, disgusted. “You look like shit.” The edges of his irises turned an odd shade of blue. “Why are you making me do this?” he screamed. “I don’t want to hurt her!”

  Anastasia coughed, and eyed him suspiciously. Her? “Then stop and let me go.”

  He stared down at her and his eyes returned to silver. “Not a chance.” He waved his hand and a portal appeared.

  “Where are you taking me?” Would he take her back to Terrenia? Maybe she could finally escape!

  He grinned down at her. “Don’t get your hopes up. There are more worlds out there than this one and Terrenia.” He looked up at the Brutes. “You know what to do.”

  They wrapped their large hands around her biceps.

  “Vincent!” she screamed loudly as they carried her toward the light. “I will be back!”

  The beasts stepped into the portal and Anastasia felt herself being carried away. To where—she had no idea.

  But it wasn’t like things could get any worse.

  18

  Terrenia

  Dakota

  A month had passed since Ana sent him to Terrenia alone, and they still had no leads. Not one fucking shred of evidence as to what had happened to her. Where the hell was she?

  Although they hadn’t given up hope that they would locate her, some of the villagers didn’t believe she could be rescued even if they did find her. Rumors that The Phoenix had gone dark floated throughout the village, driving Dakota insane.

  Ana would never go dark.

  “It’s going to take time, Dakota,” Carmen assured him as he continued pacing the floor in the small cottage.

  “It’s been almost a month,” he snapped. “Why can’t we find her?”

  “I told you, Vincent is blocking her. Although his magic is strong, it is not nearly as practiced as mine. He will slip up, and when he does, you will be the first to know.” Carmen lightly touched his shoulder.

  He looked down at the aging woman and smiled lightly. Ana looked so much like her grandmother. She was strong, and there was still hope lighting up her hazel eyes. There was no doubt in her mind that they would find and rescue her granddaughter, and Dakota allowed himself some hope. If Carmen was this confident, he could be too.

  When they found Ana, they would put an end to this war, once and for all.

  “Dakota, we need you.” Tony opened the door to the small cottage and peered inside.

  “Coming. Let me know if you find anything.”

  “You know I will,” Carmen said as she took a seat at her table.

  “How is the tracking going?” Tony asked as soon as they were outside. He was trying to be strong for his people, but Dakota knew that deep down he was just as scared that they may never find Anastasia.

  “Nothing yet.” He shook his head as they walked the short distance back to the village. “Why hasn’t she opened another portal and come home?” he whispered loudly to Tony.

  “Carmen said that Vincent is blocking her, correct?”

  Dakota nodded.

  “Then he may have her somewhere she can’t use her magic. He could be blocking her powers just the same as he is keeping us from tracking her.”

  Tony’s reply did little to soothe the growing fear in Dakota’s chest. Deep in his bones, he knew they had to find her soon, or they may never get her back, and that was something he wouldn’t survive. Hell, none of them would. Without Ana, they didn’t stand a chance against the dark. Without her, no one else held the power that would be needed to end this war… not even Carmen.

  Even now, the evidence of Vincent’s destruction of this world was visible. Plants were not nearly as vibrant in color as they had been, dying off as if they were in the middle of a drought.

  The last scouting mission had recovered a slew of dead animals, although their bodies showed no visible sign of injury.

  Terrenia was
dying, and soon there would be nothing left for them to save.

  They walked into Tony’s cottage, which had become the new headquarters for the war. Maps hung on the walls with markings and pins tracking where the Brutes were moving in this dimension, as well as where they had been in Seattle. Dakota’s best guess was that they were continuing to bring more weapons through, and it seemed as though the more Brutes they took down, the more they just continued to pour into Terrenia.

  “There’s been an attack at one of our outposts.” Brady came through the door directly behind them. He was covered in dirt and bruises, and Dakota gave him a quick once-over to make sure there were no severe wounds.

  “Shit,” Tony cursed, turning to the map of Terrenia. “Where?”

  Brady stepped past him and pointed to a spot just east of the village. “The scouts must have not even seen it coming. When we arrived to get the activity report, there was no one left. We ran into a few Brutes on our way out, but none of our people were there.”

  “Shit,” Dakota said, repeating Tony’s response. “We have to develop some sort of advanced warning. Man, what I wouldn’t give for an alarm system and some electricity right about now.”

  “Alarm system?” Tony asked.

  “Back where I come from, people can install alarms in their houses, so if anyone enters who isn’t supposed to be there, the alarm goes off, alerting anyone who might be inside. They can even be set up to notify the police.”

  “That would definitely be helpful,” Tony agreed.

  Terrenia had no power or running water, something that had taken some adjusting at first, but now Dakota found that he’d grown accustomed to and rather enjoyed the silence that surrounded the village. There were no bright lights to drown out the view of the stars, no traffic noise or horns blaring from the cars of angry drivers.

  The door opened and they turned as Shane stepped inside. Over the last month, Dakota had grown to respect him, despite the fact they were both in love with the same woman.