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Maxwell Blood smiled down at him.
You don t deserve her, Black, Max said. He shook his head slowly, once, side to side.
She s more precious than you can imagine.
Victor noticed the blood at the side of Max s mouth, more under his nose, and a deep cut at
the corner of his slightly swollen left eye.
I put up a fight& Victor thought, vaguely. At least I die in battle.
Maxwell pulled his gaze off of Victor and nonchalantly perused the blood-smeared blade of
his sword. I ve thought about doing this for years. But Victoria has always had a thing for you.
Even when she was thinking of me I could hear her thinking about you. He made a face then,
as if the thought disgusted him. Then he sighed. She would have healed you.
Max glanced over his shoulder, toward something that Victor could not see, and a cruel
smile graced his lips. That won t be happening today.
- 245 -
The Game
He turned back to face Black and Victor could barely look up at him. There was a yawning
pain in his chest; a spreading emptiness. Something was very wrong. Things were messed up
inside of him. He could feel it, sense it, know it as the nauseating truth. Blood s blade had
wreaked havoc on his body.
But just to make sure, Max said.
Victor felt the words, more than heard them. A death sentence, both literal and figurative.
And then Max s sword was plunging once more through his chest, the impact jolting and slicing.
He heard it go in, louder than any sound anywhere around him.
Blood twisted the blade as it exited through Black s back and Victor heard muscle and
tendon pop and tear.
& this is it& he thought.
Max then yanked his weapon out of Victor s broken body and took a step back. Victor saw
the ground coming up at him. He raised his arms, barely managing to catch himself as he fell
forward.
The captain of the Red team said nothing further. Victor felt him leave; waning footfalls and
a receding shadow.
And then he closed his eyes.
* * * *
Victoria watched, wide-eyed and numb, as Max thrust his long sword into Victor s back. She
could barely believe what she was seeing. It shocked her to the core, slowing her reaction. She
hadn t been able to warn him. Astonishment left her no time.
She heard a woman scream and realized, only at length, that it was her own voice piercing
the wretched distance between herself and Victor Black.
Give her to me, she heard the Game Lord bark at his men.
- 246 -
Heather Killough-Walden
She realized that she was struggling fiercely, her only desire to race to Black and heal him.
She tried to call out to her captain, to order him to stop to beg him to stand down. But, the
Game Lord s arms wrapped around her, his gloved hand covering her mouth.
When Victor fell to his knees and Max slowly paced around him, dread unlike any other
crept through Victoria s shaking body. And when he pulled his sword arm back to strike again,
Victoria couldn t turn away. She was held too tight.
So, she closed her eyes instead, a miserable sob trapped in her throat, wracking her body
with grief. It didn t help. Her imagination filled in the blanks.
And when Max s sword pierced Victor s heart, Victoria knew.
No& she thought. No, no, no& This isn t happening.
Why she cared so deeply, she had no idea. Yet it honestly felt as if Max had plunged that
sword, not into Victor s heart but her own. She was breaking inside. Emptying out.
She was bleeding into her soul and she was fairly sure she would drown.
The Game Lord bent to place his lips beside her ear. It hurts now, but you ll soon forget all
about it, sweet heart. Trust me. He whispered, and then straightened again. She felt him turn to
the guards beside her. Leave the others.
He then released her, uncovering her mouth and moving to her side to take hold of her upper
arm. She didn t even wince when his grip became bruisingly tight. She didn t care; she could
barely feel the pain. Her golden eyes searched for Victor, but the guards beside her partially
blocked her view.
All she could make out were bits of movement, two men in black, one falling forward into
what looked like a spreading pool of blood.
She felt too numb to cry, then. Dazed, confused, dead inside.
- 247 -
The Game
The Game Lord hauled her beside him, his strong embrace dragging her easily toward a trail
that had been carved through the forest at the clearing s edge. His men surrounded her. Half a
dozen of them, at the least.
They took the trail and strode hurriedly, purposefully, through the woods as the storm that
had raged behind them quickly died down.
I ll always be with you, Rose&
Victoria blinked, her unshed tears released to roll down her cheeks. They came to an abrupt
halt as the trail stopped at the doors to a transporter cube. It was impossible. The cube shouldn t
be there.
But that wasn t what gave Victoria pause. The voice in her head hadn t been her own.
I m here&
It faded away again, but now Victoria recognized it for what it was. Her twin sister.
Andromeda was speaking to her telepathically.
* * * *
Simon kept his eyes shut. Even when lightning tore up the world around him, he kept them
shut. Even as his Team leader let out a piercing, mind-blowing scream, he kept them shut. Even
when the guard who had dealt him the dizzying blow followed up with a swift, hard kick to
Simon s unprotected gut, he forced his facial features to relax into a mask of unconsciousness
and kept his damn eyes shut.
He had to.
There was no other way out of this nightmare. In his closed fist, he held the regenerator. It
was the key to their salvation.
And he knew there were at least two more out there somewhere in that mess of a clearing
that was now a blood-baptized battle field.
- 248 -
Heather Killough-Walden
Dr. Jeannine Cure had given one to Simon and another to Victor and a third to Thor, who,
at the time, had been pretending to be human.
What had Thor done with his pill before the Game Lord showed up?
Did the regenerator disappear along with the god?
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