Winning the Legend (14 page)

“Do you need a distraction?” Andrew asked,
bringing a smile to her face.

“No,” she replied, very aware of all the
people in the room. Turner, Devin, and Gabriel sat outside the
bedroom in the sitting room, while Thomas and Andrew were inside
with her. Thomas was in constant touch with Mori, who was directing
the situation with his vast knowledge of science.

“You may start to feel it within minutes,”
Thomas added, relaying Mori’s message.

“And then we need to test it,” Devin added
from the doorway. At the sight of his worried face, Arianna smiled
meekly at him.

“On the wolf,” Thomas added, smiling at
Turner, who was standing just behind Devin.

“And you,” Devin replied. “We already know
that the sidhe abilities transferred to you both. We need to be
sure it works the same for all species.” Thomas nodded his head, as
if he’d already expected that this was coming. Arianna looked up
and then across the room. Was it safe to be using her closest
friends as guinea pigs? She hadn’t thought about that earlier, but
now she worried.

Turner smiled at her sudden apprehension.
“You’re worried now?” he asked, chuckling to himself. “After we’re
testing this on you first? Don’t you think that if you survive,
then we’ll be fine?” Arianna smiled at the logic. She was actually
the guinea pig.

“See? All done,” Andrew replied, nodding to
Devin and Turner. They returned to the sitting room.

“You told them to come here?” Arianna asked.
She had assumed Andrew’s offer of distraction was more a physical
one.

Andrew grinned and traced a line down her
arm with just the tip of his finger, sending tingles to Arianna’s
toes. “Oh, this was more what you were expecting?” Arianna
playfully smacked his hand down. She needed only a few more minutes
before she would begin to feel the blood’s affect if Mori was
right. Andrew reached over, taking her face in his hands to bring
her lips up to meet him as they waited.

It didn’t take minutes. The pain began in
her arm and radiated through the rest of her body. The blood was
beginning to move and change her. She felt it even at a cellular
level as it raced through her system.

“Why does this always have to come with
pain?” she asked Andrew. Andrew reached up and stroked her face
before locking eyes on her. No one knew how long it would take to
transform her. A typical dearg-dul or baku transformation took less
than five minutes, but this was a transformation on such a great
scale. Altogether, she would be thirteen different night humans.
Arianna hoped Devin was right about her power stabilizing because
the pain would be enough to drive one mad.

“Do you want me to stop it?” Andrew asked
quietly. There was only one way he could really help. Even his
touch now wasn’t a distraction.

“Yes,” she whispered, shuddering more as the
pain increased. Maybe taking all eleven types of blood at once
wasn’t a good idea, but she couldn’t change it now. Arianna looked
up at Andrew and pleaded with her eyes when words wouldn’t
come.

‘Sleep,’
he ordered mentally, and Arianna fell instantly
to sleep.

Chapter 15

Arianna slept for three days while the
competitors practiced. After waking from the transformation, they
gave both Thomas and Turner her blood, and luckily their
transformations took less than an hour. The rest of the week was
spent watching the men as they practiced, and taking notes on what
they did. After the contestants went to sleep each night, Thomas
would coach Arianna through the new moves they studied from the men
as they practiced. All the new moves came more naturally than she
ever wanted to admit. Turner and Thomas would practice beside her,
learning how to do new night human tricks neither had ever dreamed
of. Arianna finally felt a bit of hope. The blood did make her
stronger.

At the end of the week, Arianna sat in her
chair of honor and watched each man sitting before her. Now with
their blood in her veins, she could enter their minds even more
easily than before. Arianna probed only a little before she
realized how depressing it was to know what they were thinking.
They were actually all worse monsters than Nessa had prepared her
for. The retainers all sat behind the one-sided glass while Gabriel
kept track of them. Arianna couldn’t wait for this all to be done,
but first she needed to play the game and get stronger.

“For this part of the competition,” Arianna
began, wanting to get it over with as quickly as possible. She
could already do the move each one would perform, unless they were
holding out during practice. “Each of you will be allowed to show
one move that demonstrates your power and strength that is above
all others in this room. You may do whatever you want within the
boundaries of being alone. No touching another person, and do not
destroy my house. If you need us to move outside to show us, please
ask before you come up to demonstrate. After someone shows us their
power, each of you will give them a score, one at a time. Be honest
with your assessment.” Arianna already knew the ones planning to
lie to get a better score.

Jan seemed the most excited about the test,
and she let him go first. His large size bulked outward, barely
being able to contain him in the room. He smiled a toothy grin of
achievement, knowing that no one would match his display of muscle.
Then to add to his display, he walked through the glass window,
leaving it completely intact as he passed through the wall. Once
outside the window, he doubled his size before sitting down outside
the manor. He was truly a giant. Once he entered back into the
training room, Arianna looked to each man for their scores.

As expected, the now more subdued Manuel
lied, along with two more contestants.

Manuel went next, but Arianna already knew
his strength. He partially transformed just as he had when he
attacked the girl at the end of the last round. Where Turner had
transformed into a more dog-like creature with a distinguished
snout and vicious teeth, Manuel was much more cat like—a jaguar to
be exact. His new features were tight against his face with two
sharp, fanged teeth that hung over his curled lips. His strength as
a were-animal wasn’t as great as Turner’s, but in his partial
transformation he was able to spew hexes at anyone who attacked
him. He used his time to demonstrate his powerful magic with an
animal he had brought, his attack caused it to bleed from the
inside out. Arianna wasn’t impressed by his savagery, but the
others were. Death was strength.

Arianna tried to sit still as they cleaned
up the bloody mess. She was grateful when Rhys offered to go next,
and with a sweep of his hand the mess was all gone. Sidhe magic was
good for something. Rhys stood before Arianna and gave her a curt
bow before causing plants to grow from the floor around him. Rhys’
magic was nature based, as was the magic of all the sidhe, but his
was inclined toward plants. The plants continued to grow until all
the competitors were on one side of the new wall and Arianna, along
with her people, were on the other side with Rhys. He smiled as
roses crept up the edge of Arianna’s seat. Slowly a bud formed and
bloomed before her eyes. Rhys wasn’t trying to impress the others,
but was focusing on Arianna. With a wave of his hand, the rose
broke off and floated to Arianna. Arianna reached up and took the
now thornless rose.

“I’d advise you all to not move,” Rhys
commanded of the competitors. Rhys smiled and nodded to the men
behind his wall of plants as it parted to let him walk through. The
wall wrapped down around all of the men. Arianna watched through
the mess as each man was parted from the next by a wall of
thorns.

“Would you like me to get rid of everyone
for you right now?” Rhys asked Arianna.

“That would disqualify you,” Turner pointed
out, but hoping at the same time that Rhys would try. He was happy
to fight through the mass of thorns if Rhys wanted to disqualify
himself in the process.

“I’d do anything the princess asks of me,”
Rhys replied.

“We get it,” Manuel grumbled. They had let
themselves be trapped, and Rhys was reminding them all of it. This
wasn’t a game to impress each other; it was a game to impress
Arianna.

After Rhys’ display of power with elegance,
one after one, the men stood to show their moves. Now that Rhys had
shown his intent to win over Arianna, most of the men modified
their moves to be more artistic than deadly. One chose to turn into
a ball of light rather than kill another animal victim by
possessing it, while another also turned into a ball of light.
Unlike the glowing green ball that was the first, the second was
more flame than anything and easily set objects around the room on
fire. The monstrous-looking night humans Lou Choy and Chet Barret
tried to limit their transformation to not scare Arianna and lose
their chances of winning her over. Arianna’s own competitors
demonstrated what she already was used to: Turner’s lycan form and
Ken’s large black wings. Arianna sat for over an hour as she
watched man after man displayed their strength, trying to mentally
note details she needed to try.

Everyone waited and scored each other
throughout the day. Most were anticipating Devin’s demonstration
more than anyone else’s. Each wondered what the day human would do
that demonstrated strength. He wasn’t a normal day human, and had
already proved that during the first tests. As morning was
approaching, and everyone was ready to retire, Devin took the floor
as the last competitor.

“Explain your strength,” Arianna said for
the last time. Even she didn’t know what Devin was planning to
do.

“I really don’t think I need to explain it
since everyone already saw it a week ago,” Devin replied. “My
strength is my blood.” The men all murmured. They seemed to all
agree that his blood was quite an attraction, but that didn’t
demonstrate strength. Devin moved to sit back down.

“Then we will move on. Tonight we will
figure out new rankings for everyone and the board in the training
room in the morning will show the matchups for our first fight,”
Arianna explained, letting Devin continue to his seat.

“That isn’t a demonstration,” Nik replied
angrily. He was going to lie about his score anyways, so it wasn’t
really worth him talking now.

Devin shrugged and stood up again. He walked
back to the floor and sliced a cut on the top of his arm. Blood
dripped down his arm to his hand. Arianna couldn’t help the warm
feeling coming over her. Her features changed, and she was in her
dearg-dul form. The dearg-dul half of her would always love Devin,
no matter what choice she had made between him and Andrew.
Unconsciously, Arianna stood and walked over to Devin. She took his
arm and licked the wound to stop the bleeding. Devin gazed intently
at her, watching her with his eagle eyes, taking in every detail.
And then the doors opened in his mind. His love seeped out, and she
had to hold herself back from jumping into his arms. Once he got
the reaction he was looking for, he closed the doors, and she was
back to feeling the normal Devin in front of her.

Devin demonstrated that no matter what any
of the men in the room ever did, he would always mean something to
her. Even without a night human essence, most noticed the way her
essence wrapped around him like a mate. Devin’s display of power
did exactly what he knew it would do, as each man aside from Manuel
gave him a ten. None of them except Andrew, no matter how hard they
tried, would ever be able to affect her blood like he could.
Arianna watched Devin cautiously as she returned to her seat. He
was carefully calculating something. Then it hit her. He was making
himself a target so that they wouldn’t go after Andrew. If they
thought Devin was her mate, no one would notice Andrew.

No one else said a word. They all had their
chance to impress her and each other. In reality, none cared about
the others, just about Arianna’s opinion. And many of them were
already having mental conversations with their retainers about
Devin. Arianna didn’t waste time sitting around listening to all
the private complaints. She didn’t need to hear what she already
knew. Their desire was now mixed with jealousy. She left the men
standing in the room, anticipating what would happen next. Most
didn’t return to their rooms, but met immediately with their
retainers. They would start planning based on the strengths each
man demonstrated.

Arianna couldn’t wait to get away from them
and into her own room. She was sick of seeing their faces and
needed time away, even if it was just for a day. She didn’t want to
see another one of them for at least twenty-four hours.

‘Ari,’
Molina said, as she followed Nessa around discreetly.
‘Mori said you need more blood to complete the
transformation. It seems you need more than 10cc like Turner and
Thomas needed. It didn’t completely change you. You need to drink
from everyone again.’
Alone time was going
to have to wait.

Chapter 16

Thomas paced the room as they waited for
everyone to pass out after dinner was served. They had no choice on
the matter but to drug the competitors and their retainers. While
dreading the thought of actually having to feed on the men she now
hated, Arianna was extremely fortunate to be born into a clan that
could make people unconscious. That would make it this whole ordeal
a bit easier. Gabriel would put those not completely drugged into a
sleep, and Andrew would go with her to collect the blood in case
someone woke up.

“Are you sure I can’t help?” Thomas asked as
he stopped pacing. “Devin and Turner are watching the hallways and
keeping you safe there. Andrew and Gabriel are keeping you safe in
the rooms. Maybe I can go in for you, and that way you can stay
here safe.” Thomas’ nervousness was cute, but it was just making
Arianna more anxious.