Winning the Legend (13 page)

“If you came here to stop all this from
happening, what do you propose?” Thomas asked. Nessa had more
information, and they desperately needed it. Thomas was willing to
tentatively have an alliance with Nessa, even if Devin was not.

“We work together to make Arianna into the
bringer of peace, not war,” Nessa replied easily. That much was not
up for debate with the men in the room.

“And how do you plan to do that?” Devin was
still skeptical of the young sidhe woman.

“By me telling you how to get the power she
needs to defeat everyone,” Nessa replied, smiling at Arianna.

“And how does she do that?” Thomas replied,
moving over closer to the conversation. This was the key secret he
needed to know the answer to.

“The same way she took my power; she drinks
the blood of everyone competing, and she will have their powers.
The best part is-” Nessa paused for dramatic effect. All eyes were
glued to her. “She can give those powers to any night human that
drinks her blood.” Nessa waited a moment for it all to soak in and
then left after no one asked any more questions.

After meeting with Nessa and hearing her
explanations, the sidhe was escorted away so that all five men
could argue about what she had told them. Arianna didn’t need
proof; she trusted Nessa. The men, though, doubted that Nessa
actually intended to help them. Arianna knew, after Nessa explained
her blood could merge night humans, that what had happened was
correct. Arianna saw through any of the sidhe magic Nessa used
now.

“She’s sidhe, and that’s enough of a reason
to not trust her,” Devin replied, sitting next to Turner and across
from Gabriel, who was now seated beside Arianna. Only Thomas
remained standing.

“But then how do you explain that Arianna
can suddenly see through her sidhe magic?” Thomas replied. He
wasn’t really trying to play devil’s advocate, but Nessa’s logic
was sound.

“Arianna is special,” Devin replied.

“Sidhe magic is stronger and more ancient
than our little one,” Gabriel replied. He was old enough to have
heard the details Nessa mentioned, but he had never known such a
thing to happen.

“You noticed her, too,” Devin replied.
“Sidhe magic isn’t all-powerful.” Devin did have a point.

They all stared at each other. Thomas seemed
more inclined to believe Nessa. Gabriel was also sensing that Nessa
was correct. Andrew and Arianna didn’t argue as Nessa was telling
the truth. The only one left to be swayed to Devin’s side was
Turner, and he wasn’t taking sides yet.

“How do we know it isn’t true?” Turner
asked. He was inclined to believe Nessa, and that pissed Devin off
the most. Turner had been his best friend forever. “Wait, before
you start swinging,” Turner quickly added to Devin. “Haven’t you
always said Arianna’s senses are beyond that of a normal dearg-dul
or baku? She has an incredible sense of hearing, even better than
mine. And her sense of smell is almost as good as mine. Maybe it’s
because she’s been taking my blood for a year, and she has a bit of
lycan in her now.”

Everyone stared at Turner. He wasn’t one for
analyzing situations. His strength was usually more literal, but
now he was making sense. Even Thomas was nodding his head at
Turner’s very valid point. Arianna’s abilities were slightly
lycanish.

“And then what about transferring traits?”
Thomas asked everyone but Devin. “Do you think that works
also?”

“Only one way to find out,” Andrew replied.
“We test it out.”

Chapter 14

They spent the rest of the night trying
different amounts of Arianna’s blood on both Turner and Thomas to
see if they could pass on any other night human traits that they
didn’t already have. With Mori’s help, they established that they
needed at least 10cc’s of blood, which was more than they expected,
but less than feeding on someone. Nessa was correct. Not only did
Arianna now have more night human traits, but she passed them all
on to Turner and Thomas. After that the argument died down a bit,
even with Devin sulking over the rest of them trusting Nessa. No
matter what, he wouldn’t allow himself to trust her.

The next day, Arianna watched as man after
man entered the dining hall ready to begin the competition again.
She wasn’t happy to see any one of them now that she knew the
truth. Not one was here to actually win her. All they wanted was
her blood. They lined up and Arianna did her best to ignore them
all. While Rhys was one of the last to enter, first having stopped
at his room to bring Nessa with him, he was the one Arianna was
anxious to meet. He’d been at the competition the whole time as
Nessa’s retainer while she was pretending to be her brother.
Arianna had met him, but meeting the real him was different. There
was a new look behind his eyes. Arianna was beginning to trust Rhys
as an ally, but now she was unsure. She couldn’t trust Rhys now. On
top of her distrust, Arianna had to keep reminding Turner that they
had to play dumb. Nessa had not told her older brother about what
she had done, and that they could see through the illusion that was
now covering Nessa. She now entered behind Rhys in the disguise of
the older man Rhys pretended to be when he first arrived able to
observe everything without anyone knowing whom he was.

The contestants all lined up, with their
retainers behind them, anxiously waiting to see how Arianna was
doing. When they had left, she had attacked one of her own men.
While it had been frightening to see her unleash her desire for
blood, it just made them even more determined to win her over. They
had experienced the raw power that she normally kept under wraps.
She was much more than they ever anticipated, by far the strongest
night human any of them had ever seen, and this made her blood more
valuable than any gold they could get their hands on.

Arianna stood and faced the men with Andrew
right behind her. Her mind fluctuated between alternative scenarios
of how to get rid of the men. They were all plotting to keep her
caged like an animal, and she seethed with anger whenever she
looked at them. She could no longer shy away from their stares as
it wasn’t a desire for her that drove them to stare at her, but a
desire for her blood. It was a good thing Andrew kept a hand on her
back, keeping her calm, and from either attacking the men or
running. She couldn’t decide which would be a better plan at the
moment. He was used to the politics night humans played and was
there to keep her head in the game so that she could win.

“Sorry about the abrupt interruption,”
Arianna said to the men, not really feeling sorry at all. Her fake
apology was seen through by each of the contestants. She was
different since they left her. “I had been fasting too long.” With
her blood fully back to normal, Arianna couldn’t help but overhear
the words between the men that were not meant for her.

‘Why?’
one man asked his retainer

‘What does that
mean?’
another asked.

‘Does she do this
often?’
words flowed around her as silent
conversations broke out.

Arianna tried to listen into the thoughts of
the men as she waited for their murmuring to die down, looking for
possible clues to use to her advantage, but they all began to talk
over each other. Being able to follow just one conversation would
be hard with that many people in the room. She tried her best to
shut off her extra hearing.

“And you are feeling better now?” Rhys asked
with genuine concern. It was scary how much he sounded like his
sister when she was pretending to be him. Nessa had emulated her
brother to an extent that Arianna didn’t even feel that they were
different on an emotional level.

“Yes. Thank you for asking,” Arianna
replied, trying not to stare at him and analyze him more than the
others. Doing so would give away their secret. The other men
immediately stopped their silent conversations and began to study
Rhys too. He was a formidable opponent in strength alone, but more
so a mystery as the sidhe were the most isolated clan of them
all.

Arianna hastily got back to business. The
less time she had to spend around the men, the less likely that she
would snap and kill one or more. Their eager faces were hard enough
to look at, but the desire in their voices was just making her
anger worse.

“I am ready to begin the next trial. For
this round we will be testing strength. My family feels it is
important that whoever I end up with be the strongest out there, to
be able to protect me.” Arianna began explaining the revised plan
that Thomas was feeding her to say now. After listening to all of
Nessa’s details on how Arianna could transform with other species
blood, her team had made a new plan. If Nessa was right and Arianna
could transform into the ultimate night human, she would need the
blood of each man present.

“But the first thing will be that each of
you will need to submit a vial of blood for us to test,” Arianna
waited for objections, but none came. While she felt more like an
experiment while people tested her blood, it didn’t seem to faze
anyone else in the room. “We will rate everyone based on strength.
And then you’ll all be given a chance to demonstrate your strongest
attribute to earn more points. It’s nice to have the strength, but
if you cannot use it, it’s worthless.” All the men nodded. This
would be easy. Each man thought they were stronger and better than
their neighbors. “Along with the strength we will test honesty.
Each will judge the others on strength during the demonstration. I
will be looking to see how you judge, and those who don’t judge
honestly will be removed. Those ending the week with the highest
points, and who are able to honestly compete, will continue on.”
Arianna couldn’t help but emphasize the word honestly. Not a single
man there was honest.

“To keep any cheating from happening, we
will draw the blood now,” Arianna explained as several of Arianna’s
people entered with syringes. “It will be blind tested, and as you
can see, each of you will get a number instead of marking the vial
with your name. Only the people taking the blood, not the people
testing the blood, know who each number is. You have all week to
practice your moves, and Friday will be the exhibition. Make sure
you have something impressive to show that will convince everyone
else that you have great power.”

By setting up the competition to impress
everyone else, the men didn’t even hesitate at the idea. It was
very unusual for any night human to show another clan their power,
yet all the men were eager to do just that. They were each so full
of themselves they were easy to lure into the trap. Arianna walked
away from the room as each man started to transform to practice.
Thomas knew just as well as Andrew how to play the night humans
against each other. She didn’t ask to be a part of this world, but
all of this information would be needed if she hoped to survive.
She was grateful to get away quickly from the men. She was having a
hard enough time looking at each man, let alone seeing the monster
each was.

Luckily, Arianna made it back to her room
without lashing out at anyone and flopped on her bed. With her
super hearing, she listened in on the main hall. All the men were
having their blood drawn and none complained. Devin already left
the meeting since his blood would not be judged because he wasn’t a
night human. He was back in the library, going over Randolph estate
business.

‘Need any help?’
Arianna asked him from her room. Not that she
actually wanted to help, but she felt it necessary to offer
anyways.

‘No. I’m essentially all
done. I’m just double-checking everything Mori has been working on.
He has confirmed everything Vanessa McKinny said, and has told me
that the blood needs to be injected while you are day human or you
need to drink from them and turn day human immediately
afterwards,’
Devin explained. They had
left Mori to analyze everything after they tested the blood on the
guys.
‘It’s the day human in you that
makes this possible, not the night human in you. When you feed it
takes time for the blood to be absorbed, but when we inject it, it
will instantly be in your blood.’

‘And my power
levels?’
Arianna had not asked Devin about
this since she had left a month ago to train with Andrew. Devin had
feared for the past year that her power would spike and lead to
mental instability as it often did with night humans who grew too
fast. She felt a little unstable now with the anger she held toward
the competitors.

‘Mostly stabilized.’

‘Mostly?’
Arianna repeated his answer.

‘Yes, Mori said it’s more
stable now with the sidhe blood. He suspects that it will
completely stabilize with everyone’s blood. Vanessa knew exactly
what needed to be done. Now we just need to be sure she isn’t
trying to play us more. I have assigned Molina to keep to keep
track of her at all times. Gabriel is also watching over her.
Either she’s helping the sidhe get you, or she is helping us. I
just can’t tell which.’
Arianna
felt
Turner enter the room to get
Devin.

‘Maybe she’s helping
herself,’
Arianna suggested as Devin left
the library. Vanessa McKinny was just as trapped as Arianna was,
and Arianna knew exactly what she felt like.

Later that evening, Arianna sat, with Andrew
holding her hand, as the bag of blood was attached to an IV in her
arm in her bedroom. There was no going back once this was done. She
would become yet another night human, something new completely. No
one knew what traits would transfer and what would not, but they
all agreed this was the best chance she had at beating them.
Arianna held her breath as Thomas tapped the line and got it
flowing. The red liquid went down the tubing and into her arm.
Andrew reached up and pushed a strand of hair away from her face.
The worry poured off of her.