Gladiator (15 page)

Authors: Kate Lynd

Tags: #Post Apocalyptic Erotic Romance

BOOK: Gladiator

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“She heals people. She doesn’t tear them down. She’s willing to sacrifice everything so that the people she loves can have hope of a better future.”

Veronica laughed. “Very well. Have it your way. Too bad she’s going to die. I actually hate to see you suffer for nothing.” She turned on her heels and stormed out of the room.

The crowd outside roared. Over her shoulder, Veronica said, “It seems as if your little wifey has been introduced to the mob. Showtime. Guards!” Four men approached, each of them was wearing a mask, and all of them were armed to the teeth. “Whatever happens, make sure the Healer doesn’t walk out alive.”

Veronica walked away, and he headed toward his destiny. He could not, would not, fail on this day. He refused to fail.

* * * *

The crowd remembered him. And he remembered the electricity they transmitted. He looked into the arena, and saw Alex manacled by one wrist to the iron cage. The mob chanted his name even as Damien was introduced. Tristan looked up to the viewing box and saw Veronica relaxing and smiling, sipping a cold drink. He started toward Alexandra. “Tristan, watch out!”

He was startled as Damien charged him and knocked him to his back. They wrestled, rolling over one another, each trying to get the upper hand, to no avail.

At one point, Damien had the upper hand, and placed his sword to Tristan’s neck as he taunted, “She must be one tasty morsel to defy the queen over. I can’t wait until I’m between her legs, making her forget all about you.”

Tristan lifted both knees up together, kneeing Damien hard in the gut and throwing him clean off him. He rolled free and drew his sword. “You’re an idiot. She said to spare you.”

Damien got to his feet and snarled, “No woman is worthy of me.” He charged Tristan, who stepped aside. Damien stumbled forward and whirled around.

“Can’t you remember what life was like before the war?”

“It was miserable. And for you to glorify it is a joke.” Damien let out a savage battle cry, unsheathed is sword, and charged again, this time catching Tristan in his side.

Tristan cried out in pain, and fell. Alex screamed. Damien started to walk toward her. Tristan reached out and grabbed him by the ankle, sending him sprawling. Alex stood straight and began to chant.

Black clouds rolled in and the winds began to stir. Her chained hand began to glow, and the shackles glowed red hot, but she was not hurt. An unearthly light filled the arena and flashes of lightning lit up the air like strobes. The manacle fell from her wrist in a melted glob of iron, and the dagger was revealed in her hand. She looked up to the sky and stretched her arms out toward it.

Rain began to fall and terror filled Tristan’s chest. She gripped the handle with both of her hands and pointed it to her chest. Tristan leapt to his feet, striving to keep his balance as the ground began to shake and rumble. His screams for her to stop were swallowed up in the noises of the squall she had conjured up.

Mayhem ensued. The crowd began to scream and mill about in confusion. Veronica’s orders were swallowed up in the natural magic. The guards hustled her away to hiding—and hopefully, safety.

Suddenly Alex looked straight at him. A strange comfort replaced the fear he had been feeling. Her words translated onto his tongue. “
I am not gone forever. But only for a moment. Understand. I must make this sacrifice for us to have forever.
”

She plunged the dagger into her chest and blood gushed like a river from the wound as she crumpled. And as her blood touched the soil the arena collapsed. Rain washed away her blood. And miraculously, grass sprang up deep and lush. Tree saplings sprouted and bore leaves, as the skies cleared and the sound of birds chirping filled the air.

The wind died. And suddenly, Kevin was there, and so was his enemy Damien. Tristan wept uncontrollably, rocking Alexandra back and forth. He looked up at Damien and Kevin and shouted in the deepest and darkest of rages that had ever dared consume him, “Where is she? Where is Veronica?”

The men looked at him with sorrow. “I-I-I don’t know,” Damien stammered.

“Did you know this was what was going to happen?”

“No,” Damien said softly.

“Come back to me!” Tristan shouted pressing his lips to hers. “Come back to me!”

She was pale. Lifeless. Limp in his arms. Out of reach.

Suddenly a soft breeze blew around him, and he heard Alex’s voice.
The power is in you. The power to bring me back is in you.

Tristan saw her dagger still in her chest; he pulled it out and stared at it. Sensing what Tristan was about to do, Kevin shouted, “Dad no!”

Tristan held his hand out and slashed it, as he had seen Alex do once before. He slammed his wound down to hers, and shouted, “I can’t do this without you. I have to have you to make this work. I can’t heal without you. Without you I am useless to this world or our children.”

He began to glow as the two of them lifted from the ground enveloped in a light, glowing mist. Spirals of light whipped around them and surround them as Alex finally began to light up. Tristan held her close, and his hot, silent tears fell through his fingers and began to cauterize her skin and heal it shut. Beams of light suspended them in mid-air spinning them around and around as a gentle breeze blew around them.

“Come back to me, my love. Come back to me and you’ll never know pain again. You will only know passion, and erotic nights filled with the kind of passion only you deserve.”

Suddenly he heard her gasp for air. “Kiss me Tristan. Show me the passion. Make me feel. Heal me so I can heal you.”

He kissed her, tenderly at first, but as he deepened the kiss the mist turned into a blinding cocoon, shielding them from Damien and Kevin’s eyes. He plunged his tongue inside of her mouth as if to breathe his life into hers. Her response was slow at first. But as the heat built between them and he dragged his mouth and kisses along each side of her neck her voice gained strength.

“Make love to me, Tristan. I need your rock hard cock inside my soft pussy to make me whole again.”

He lifted his loin cloth and pushed her skirt up and got inside her as he covered her face with butterfly kisses. Their orgasm was as instantaneous as it was intense. They quaked in one another’s arms until he and she were satiated and as the light dimmed and they descended to the ground, he held her face and uttered, “Don’t you dare
ever
do that again.”

“Where’s Veronica?”

Damien said, “She’s fled, along with her sycophants.”

“Then it isn’t over yet.”

“For us and our children, yes it is,” Tristan said, holding her face.

“What about Lizzie?” Kevin broke in.

“We’ll find her,” Alex said, “I promise. But first we need to find Lucilla and Isaiah. They have our babies.”

Damien hung his head. “Do you think I stand a chance of winning her back?”

“There’s always hope. But they have our babies, and I don’t have the time or the patience for endangering their lives. First things first. Understood?” Alex said.

“Yeah, I get that. Before the war we had kids…teenagers. I have no idea if they’re even alive now.”

“Like Alex said, there’s always hope.” Tristan gazed down at his wife.

“I don’t understand who or what you are but, you saved my life. You make my dad happy. Everything I do from here on out, is in service to my family.”

Tristan gazed around him and then took Alexandra in his arms. He didn’t know what the future held. But he refused to be anyone’s Gladiator, except his wife’s.

About the Author

Kate Lynd lives in Kentucky with her own little wildcat. The author of
No Ordinary Love
and
Another Way To Die
from MuseItUp Publishing. Two more books are planned in the Gladiator Chronicles series.

Also Available at MuseItUp Publishing

No Ordinary Love

By Kate Lynd

Sci-Fi Erotic Romance

A human rebel against the Capturian Forces, Caliope was enslaved for five years and tortured. She never expects to meet James, a half-breed too human for his own good.

Their connection is electric.

Their love is forbidden.

Their daughter may be Earth’s only hope.

To my best friend Missy,

who has seen me through the writing droughts

and writing highs

and always believes I have another story in me,

even when I don’t think I do.

Acknowledgements...

…for a fantastic editor and line editor. Tanja Cilia for content work and Greta for fabulous line edits.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, or events, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

MuseItUp Publishing

14878 James, Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada, H9H 1P5

http://www.museituppublishing.com

Edited by Tanja Cilia

Copyedited by Greta Gunselman

Layout and Book Production by Lea Schizas

eBook ISBN: 978-1-77127-127-1

First eBook Edition *August 2012

Production by MuseItUp Publishing