Ileus staggered and stumbled. A tangy taste in the mouth and he spat blood on the floor. With a smile that didn't reach his eyes, he looked at his opponent. A snarl ripped from his throat and the next he knew was that he had leapt at the man and punched the right side of his face. His ear started bleeding. And chaos descended in the ring. The man lunged at Ileus and knocked him to the ground. He tried to straddle him but Ileus was too fast. The next moment the man was kicked so hard that he was hurled across the cage and thrown on the iron mesh of the walls. He howled and ran to Ileus but the prince was ready. Before the man could even touch him, struck him on his chest.
Ribs cracked and he stumbled. Black stars marred his vision. He shook it off but the prince didn't give him a chance.. Ileus punched him harder on the abdomen and yet another one fell beneath his jaws. Blood spluttered and the man fell on the ground. Ileus straddled him and punched him hard on his face again and again till the man was nothing but a pulp. Still there was so much anger in him that Ileus didn't stop. He roared to the ceiling and picked up his bloodied fist to give him one last deadly punch when he heard the clank of the door of the cage. It opened and he found two pairs of powerful hands dragging him away from the man.
Ileus bellowed to the crowd as Kaizan and the referee dragged him out of there. He challenged them all to come and fight with him. The fury in his chest was still bubbling like molten lava. How could she leave him? How could she not feel the bond? Pain… So much pain…
Kaizan was rich. By the time he pulled Ileus out of the cage and called it a night, all those who had placed the bet against Ileus were now paying up to the ring referee. Kaizan shouted at Ileus as he pulled him away from the crowd to tend to his cuts and wounds and bruises. He took Ileus to a shabby room in the back where he made her sit in a chair and stood in front of him with arms crossed.
With blood trickling down his forehead, he stared at Kaizan from under his thick eyelashes. A lethal smile came on his lips. "Are there more opponents?" he asked arrogantly. "I can take more."
"And kill them in the process?" Kaizan snapped.
"Don't you blame me!" Ileus said as he plucked the canteen from Kaizan's belt. "This game doesn't have rules." He opened the canteen that was freshly filled and chugged down its contents. Then he leaned back in the chair with his head resting on the board. He closed his eyes and the next moment soft, red lips that trailed down his chest, appeared. He laid his arm over his eyes and whispered, "Anastasia…"
"You can't kill your opponents, Ileus!" Kaizan barked. "You are the prince of Draoidh and they all know you!"
He chugged more whiskey. "Who cares?" he said.
"We all care!" A female voice from behind snagged his attention, but he slumped back in his chair. Darla entered the room with Aidan. She looked at Kaizan, as tension rippled in the air.
"Get lost," Ileus retorted. He addressed Kaizan again in a dangerous voice. "Go tell them that I can take one more bastard tonight."
"There will be no more fighting," Darla hissed. She had come with a wooden box full of medicines.
"Fuck off, Darla!" Ileus snarled and dismissed her. "Don't get into this."
"Hold this bastard!" Darla said to Kaizan and Aidan. Then she opened the box and took out a bottle with blue salve. "I am going to make you count your words!" she said and splashed it all over his face.
It stung so hard on his wounds. "Bitch!" he shouted against the restraint of his friends who had to use all their power to hold him back and not lunge at Darla. "I will make you pay for it!"
"Oh really," Darla said, as she took more salve from the next bottle and poured it on his chest and abdomen.
Ileus roared with pain. "How dare you?" he said in between his breaths. "I will snap your neck in two! Dis—"
Aidan let out a frustrated sigh. Not able to take any more sharp words from Ileus towards his lover, he simply hit Ileus on his neck with a sharp blow, which made him unconscious almost immediately. The words that were about to come out of his mouth tumbled back inside.
"We have to take him back to the palace," said Darla, as she poured more salve on him. Her voice was now filled with worry as she checked his wound on the side of the belly. It was infected and smelling.
"Gods, I so want to!" Kaizan replied with exasperation. Over the past two days, they were holed up in a filthy tavern on the outskirts of Silver Vales. Ever since he had returned from Galahar, ever since he had last seen Anastasia, he hadn't been the same. His mother had informed that he could visit her during Yule's week-long celebrations. Áine and Ian had invited them during that time, and that was when they should go. Though he had listened to his mother's long lecture, the separation didn't bore well. The bedroom suddenly appeared so massive that it was stifling. The small room in the fortress at Galahar where he had spent the last month with her was warmer and lovelier as compared to this palatial room. And so he left it the next day and holed inside a room in the tavern far away from the palace. And yes, the occasional bouts helped his temper.
"He is one arrogant dickhead!" Kaizan grunted as he pulled Ileus out of the chair along with Aidan who supported him on the other side. They took him out of the room into the alley, only to be confronted by a group of five men, the leader of which was the trainer of his last opponent.
"You seem to be in a hurry," he said, baring his yellow teeth in a snarl. "Give the money to us or we will gut all of you in this alley and no one will even come to know that this was the prince and his underlings." The others snorted and chuckled.
"Don't you dare to take a step more," Darla hissed. "Or—"
"Or what, bitch?" the trainer growled. The men surrounded them from all sides. "Don't you worry but. We will cut you all into so many pieces and feed you to the wild beasts that no one will come to know where you all disappeared."
"Give them the money," Aidan said almost preternaturally.
"Why will I?" Kaizan countered. "We earned it the hard way!" He shook his head.
"Shut up and give it," Aidan hissed. Why did he have such friends?
Darla pursed her lips. She searched for the money bag in his pants and dug it out. She chucked it at the trainer and said, "There. Now get lost!"
