Dead Girls Don't Run - fantasy version | 18+

17 | Fight Dirty

Sweat droplets crowd my hair line and I shake out my arms, feeling the heat of the fight swim through my blood, the roar of the crowd background noise. The creature inside me screams for more, demanding I show Lachlan exactly who the monster is here.

I blink out over the crowd, eyes catching Kades, who stare at me with a small smile on his otherwise blank face. He dips his chin when we make eye contact.

I return the gesture, fingers squeezing into a fist by my side to keep the blood pumping, keep me ready for the next fight and also to keep the monster inside from making an appearance.

Killian and Malachi stand behind Kade, like two guards on either side of his shoulders waiting for any misstep from any of the hundreds of people here.

Their eyes flit to the fighting ring every now and then but otherwise keep their distance. They hadn't attended many of her matches. Not as many as Kade had anyway.

It was a telling sign that neither of her friends had figured out it was her yet.

Malac's gaze slips to the bar, brows drawing in before he slips from his position behind Kade, Killian faintly noticing his brother stalk off towards the bar and to the woman behind it.

Candace looks up at him, brow raising as he speaks.

I step closer to the ropes lining the ring, trying to hear what it is Malac is asking but it's in vain, I can hardly hear my own thoughts let alone a conversation shortening ten metres from me.

The crowd gets louder and I pull my attention back to the fight, noticing a new opponent slipping in the ring, his familiar face and hair drawing a scowl from me.

Lachlan swaggers around the ring like he owns it, raising his hands up and down as if his very presence is the reason for the raucous crowd.

He's delusional.

He stops at one end, dipping low to deliver a smothering kiss to a woman dressed in an overly big and outrageous fur jacket - and that's when I see Sienna and her little posse crowding that side, looking up at Lachlan like he hung the moon, stars and the sun.

It's sickening and I can't wait to wipe the floor with his smirk.

I shake out the adrenaline and track him with my eyes as he finally turns to me.

There's no recognition in his eyes, no sign that he knows who I am at all. He's just taken this opportunity to show his prowess in the fighting ring, that's he's a winner.

Guess me being a girl helped with that delusion.

He shrugs, readying his muscles and bounces on the balls of his feet as the announced calls something over the crowd but my focus is just on him.

• • •

I give Lachlan a little smirk, taunting him with the knowledge that I'm winning this fight and there's nothing he can do about it.

Rage and embarrassment take over his face, his movements become erratic, anything to get the upper hand.

I keep my head, dodging and slamming my fist into his exposed side, feeling and hearing the breath leave him in a rough exhale.

I dance out of the way, counting down the seconds until I can end the fight, knowing exactly how I'll take him down.

I step forward, feint left and step up close enough to hug him before slamming my fist in an uppercut at the same moment sharp pain slices its way into my abdomen.

A grunt leaves my lips, eyes dropping to where Lachlan pulls out the blade and throws it to the side.

The bejeweled dagger slides across the floor, the gems glinting under the low lights of the bar, a pang of familiarity hitting me before it's quickly replaced by pain.