Kane's Fate 4 Chapter 4

“A fight ring?” Charlotte asked with a hint of worry in her big green eyes.

“Owned by Auden’s dad, though,” Demi reminded the redhead. “He would never put Kane in any real danger.”

“Is this even legal?” Indira wondered as she took the leaflet from me and peered at the fine print on the back.

“There’s no way this huge of a place isn’t legit, it would’ve been shut down forever ago,” I told the gray-eyed shifter. “Besides, I’m more focused on that one hundred thousand dollar prize pool.”

“I’ve always wanted to lay on a bed covered in cash,” Demi said with a wistful sigh. “Like in the movies.”

“Then I’ll make it happen.” I smirked. “Come on, let’s go find Mr. Lowrey.”

We finished our drinks at The Bar, tipped the blue haired waitress after she told us where we could find the fight ring, and then made our way back out into the bustling subterranean version of San Francisco.

Having magic so brazenly out in the open was still a pretty foreign concept to all four of us, and I found myself consciously trying not to stare. Pushers didn’t walk on the ground at all, they floated an inch or so above it as if they had repelling magnets in their shoes, and fire naturalists lit their cigarettes with just a click of their fingers. Feras roamed freely, with no fear of being caught, and charmers flogged their wares as if they were selling fruits and vegetables at a local farmer’s market.

The entire concept of the runes that marked the fallen asteroids was that magic had to be kept secret at all costs, and the humans absolutely couldn’t know, otherwise the world would erupt into all out war. So it had been even more hammered into us that we needed to keep our magical abilities under wraps, and yet down here we could just authentically be who we were born to be.

It felt liberating, and I was eager to get myself into a fight and give these guys a show.

I noticed a distinct charge in the air as we approached the fight ring, as if we’d timed it perfectly. Everyone in the immediate vicinity seemed to be headed toward the club, just like we were, and the various stalls and vendors in the marketplace started to pull down their shutters and pack up their wares.

“So, this must be a usual thing then, huh…” Demi muttered as she watched a group of pushers float ethereally past us, and they chatted animatedly amongst themselves about how one of their friends wanted to get into one of the fights.

The entire underground black market had packed up for the day in anticipation of the night’s events, and we followed the crowd and headed toward Auden’s father’s fight ring, which was full with a sea of people by the time we even managed to get in.

It was the largest building in the subterranean carbon copy of a magical San Francisco, and with the surrounding darkness and over the top signs, it was easy to forget just how close the ground was above the marketplace. The fight ring headquarters was the only building that actually hit the ceiling, and it was three stories tall and covered in huge graffiti masterpieces, flashing signs, and smooth twists of shining neon.

“Woah…” Charlotte whistled as we stopped just outside.

Everyone milled around us and sidestepped our group as they made their way inside, and I stared up at the huge bends of neon that displayed a charmer with sparks flying from their fingertips going up against the fera of a huge python.

“Oh, I’m gonna enjoy this,” I chuckled, and my girls all turned to me.

“You’d better be careful,” Charlotte warned with a pout.

“Who says Auden dad even wants you to fight?” Demi teased. “Maybe he needs a janitor.”

I pinched her ass as she tried to jump away from me, and the Komodo dragon shifter squealed as she hid behind Indira.

“Let’s go find Mr. Lowrey.” Indira smiled as she took Demi’s hand. “I’m as curious as you are.”

“Good idea,” I replied to the gray-eyed shifter. “Let’s see what I’m in for.”

We followed a group of charmers as they shared a bottle of homemade potion, which genuinely looked and smelled like shimmery shampoo but was under the wraps of a brown paper bag, so the contents had to have at least been something homemade and intoxicating.

Then we entered the magical fight club.

It was sheer chaos inside, and that was in comparison to the craziness of the underground market itself.

We entered into a foyer, a circular room with desks that lined the curved wall and were covered by rusty metal bars. Tellers sat behind the bars and took bets from the patrons, and there was a massive screen up in the center of the wall with the fight details and odds on each battle.

It was like a far dirtier, way punkier version of Wall Street.

Tellers called out new odds and new fights, betters eagerly yelled back, and there were pusher bartenders who floated through the crowds with trays of potions and cocktails so people could either drown their sorrows or celebrate in style.

I was just about to go and ask one of the tellers where I might find Mr. Lowrey, when a booming voice called out above the ruckus from several speakers welded into the walls.

“The fight between the panther shifter Alison Beck and the seer Domenica is about to begin at the main ring. Place your bets accordingly.” The speaker crackled as the announcement ended, and there was a beat where the words hung in the air before the foyer erupted into a mess of crazed betting and money swapping.

“Girls in the ring?” Demi smirked.

“And a panther shifter,” Indira added.

“Yeah, we should definitely go and watch this,” Charlotte immediately agreed with a grin. “Come on, Kane, let’s go.”

The girls dragged me eagerly through the foyer and into the building itself where we followed the stragglers toward the main fight ring.

The corridor we walked through reminded me of a jail because it was lined with cells covered by the same metal bars as in the foyer, except these bars weren’t meant to protect tellers from betting patrons. Each cell had two magical beings fighting inside of it, and there were small crowds around each fight.

There was a petite female pusher with pixie white hair and dark red lipstick who couldn’t have even been more than five feet tall, , and a burly mountain of a man held her up against the wall in a telekinetic chokehold, but she used her other hand to casually wave to her fans outside the cell.

Then we passed a cell with a fight going between two shifters, one who took the form of a mighty bald eagle and one who shifted into a tiny scorpion. Due to the cramped confines of the fight cell, though, the scorpion was actually winning because the eagle couldn’t fly or extend his wings properly, nor could he get a hold of the scorpion in his huge talons.

“This is crazy,” Charlotte murmured.

“This is awesome,” I countered with a chuckle. “Come on, I wanna see this panther shifter.”

We hustled our way through the crowds until eventually we came to the main fight ring.

It was laid out like a Vegas boxing match, with a huge ring in the center of the room and seats going up and around it. The ring itself was made of tempered glass a meter thick, and the glass formed a giant cube separating the fighters from the viewers. It was lit from within with long runs of pale blue, pink, and white neon, and directly below the glass cube was a square-shaped bar selling the same style of cocktails we’d found in The Bar outside.

“I think we have to buy tickets to get a seat,” Indira said as she pointed to the first security guard I’d seen since being below ground.

He was a giant of a man and guarded the walkways, and I watched as he took small silver coins off people before he let them pass.

“It’s free down here, sweetheart.” The tiny white-haired pusher we’d seen in one of the cages slowly slinked past us and brushed her hand down Indira’s arm with a grin.

“Oh!” Indira whipped around in surprise and smiled down at the petite pusher.

She was obviously the victor, because she had a wide smirk on her face and a small entourage of whispering fans, though she’d gotten a split lip that had rubbed her red lipstick against her cheek, and her shirt was a little torn at the waist.

“Congratulations on winning.” Demi grinned as she looked the pusher up and down. “We saw you fighting that huge guy.”

“Ahh, Darryl’s a teddy bear really,” the white-haired pusher chuckled. “But thanks. Maybe you should put a bet on me next time.”

The pusher winked flirtatiously at Demi, blew Indira and Charlotte a kiss, and then went to sit at the bar beneath the glass fighting cage.

“Think my biggest battle down here is gonna be keeping you three for myself,” I laughed as we also headed toward the neon lit bar.

“We won’t play unless you are there with us,” Demi purred. “It’s not fun unless that nice cock of yours is inside us.”

“Agreed,” Indira laughed.

I watched as the victorious pusher hopped onto the bar across from us, gave the bartender a long kiss, and then tipped her by wedging a coin into her cleavage before she’d even gotten a drink served.

“We can watch the fight from down here,” Indira said as she caught eyes with the pusher again.

“Wait ‘til you see me up there,” I muttered into Indira’s ear as I wrapped an arm around her from behind and pulled her close to me.

“Oh, I can’t wait,” my shifter girlfriend murmured in reply and pressed her ass up against my jeans.

The petite pusher watched us from the bar, and she raised her glass with a lopsided grin and took her shot with her eyes still on Indira. Then her gaze drifted to me, and her grin widened until I just knew she was picturing the three of us in bed.

Maybe another time. Tonight, I would just get my bearings in this crazy fight club.

And possibly win a little money.

My girls and I found a spot on the opposite edge of the bar, ordered a round of drinks, and waited for the fight to begin.

A huge screen on the north side of the cube suddenly burst into life, and the mini arena erupted into thunderous applause and whoops and cheers as a booming voice called out to the crowds.

“Welcome to California’s biggest and meanest magical fight ring!” the announcer yelled, and the hordes of fans in the paid seats above us became somehow even louder at the disembodied voice.

Then the screen crackled, and an image began to form amongst the pixels. The virtual announcer was a young guy with tanned skin and dark eyes, and his hair was dyed a muted pink color but shaved into weird zigzags on either side of his head. He had a thick silver septum ring hanging between his nostrils, and a throat tattoo similar to Dax’s, only the announcer had a black and white moth inked onto his neck instead of a spider web.

“It’s the event you’ve all been waiting for!” the announcer continued. “Domenica, with her all seeing eye, and the sexiest black panther that we know, Alison Beck, are due their long awaited rematch!”

The crowd went insane at the names being called, and even the flirtatious pusher across the bar couldn’t quite keep her gaggle of fans to herself as all eyes eagerly went to the big screen above.

“Last time you saw them fight, it was bloody!” The announcer waited for another roar of the crowd. “It was crazy! But it was oh, so short!”

The crowd screamed with anticipation as the pixelated announcer spread his arms wide.

“Both ladies courteously agreed to spar once again for your viewing pleasure, but only if it was held right here in sunny California!” The pink-haired announcer spread his arms again. “So, let me hear some noise!”

The crowd above us was deafening, and the petite pusher at the bar opposite us eventually gave up in her attempts to keep her fans occupied. She eventually noticed my gaze and tilted her head toward me with a small smile, and then she sipped at her drink and watched the big screen along with everyone else in the place.

“In the red cornerrrrr…!” The announcer extended the last syllable and waited for the excited screams and yells from the crowd to hit their peak. “The seer, Domenica!”

A curvy blonde sauntered down the runway toward the center ring and raised a slender arm up to the crowd. Her fair hair was split into two braids that swayed against her shoulder blades as she walked, and her round hips and ample chest were accentuated by the black leather catsuit that clung to her body like a second skin.

Domenica the seer hopped into the glass cage with a flourish, and she waved to the crowd with a wide smile on her face that revealed perfectly straight white teeth. Her eyes were a pale gray, almost colorless, which added to her all-seeing eye seer vibe.

“And in the blue corner…!” The announcer’s voice crackled over the speakers as the door on the opposing side of the ring slid open, and the crowd erupted with screams all over again. “The powerhouse panther herself, Alison Beck!”

The panther shifter walked purposefully down the ramp toward the glass ring with a mean look in her almost black eyes. She was dressed in nothing but a black crop top and the world’s tiniest short shorts, probably to make sure everyone could see the lean muscles that rippled beneath her smooth chocolate skin. Alison Beck’s hair was pitch black and tied back into a sleek ponytail, and her brow was furrowed determinedly as she approached her foe in the glass fight ring.

Her opponent didn’t look fazed at all, and Domenica the seer smiled widely as Alison stepped into the huge neon covered cube.

“As all of you know, it’s been a year since these two formidable fighters last faced each other!” the pink haired announcer declared. “This will be a one round, total knockout fight, with no time cap and no breaks.”

The panther shifter stretched her neck and started to wind her arms around as she hopped from foot to foot to warm up, but Domenica the seer simply stood at the opposite edge of the ring with a serene smile on her face.

“This is like… Legit,” Demi marveled, and her eyes were glinting with the reflection of the neon above us as she turned to meet my gaze. “And you’re gonna fight in this thing?”

“If they will let me.” I shrugged and shot my shifter girlfriend a wink. “I’ve gone up against worse.”

“We don’t know who your opponent is yet,” Charlotte commented pointedly, and she grinned up at me as she stood on the tips of her toes so she could kiss my neck.

“It wouldn’t matter,” I chuckled. “You guys had better bet on me.”

“It’d be easy money,” Indira said in a low voice, and she pressed herself against me again with a grin of her own.

“That’s true, you guys placing wagers on me would probably go against terms and conditions,” I laughed again. “You know me far too well.”

The girls laughed until the announcer pulled our attention back toward the illuminated glass cube suspended above us.

“All bets are in, ladies and gentlemen! The best of luck to both Domenica, the third eye!” The announcer with the moth tattoo waited for the crowd to roar its approval. “ And to the black panther, Alison Beck!”

The panther shifter raised her arms as the crowd screamed to the sound of her name, and Domenica the seer just smiled demurely up at her fans as if she were at a book signing.

“Round one!” the pink-haired announcer called. “Fight!”

Neither woman moved at the ring of the bell, and it was as if they were suspended in time within the confines of the glass fight ring. They just stared across at each other, locked in a steady gaze, as the crowd started to fall quiet.

Domenica the seer seemed at total peace with this development, probably because she’d already seen it coming, but the tendons in Alison Beck’s throat became more prominent the more her jaw clenched, and her ample chest started to heave from the deeper breaths she took.

“She’s gonna shift,” Indira murmured from where she stood in front of me.

“For sure,” Demi agreed with eager anticipation in her voice. “Any second now.”

Domenica the seer watched her shifter opponent intently, along with every other pair of eyes in the stadium, and Alison Beck finally let out a guttural roar as her shoulders hunched. Then her limbs extended, and a sleek black panther thudded its paws against the reinforced glass cube with saliva dripping from its bared teeth.

“And Alison Beck completes her shift!” the announcer shouted, and the weird stillness in the air broke as the crowd exploded into shouts and cheers of encouragement as Alison growled loudly inside the fight ring.

“Look at Domenica!” Charlotte gasped and grabbed the sleeve of my shirt with excitement.

The blonde seer had started to manifest what must have been her secondary ability. She stood in her corner of the fight ring with that same serene smile she’d worn since she appeared, but she began to artfully twirl her hands in the air around her.

As her fingers danced and weaved through the air, her eyes slid closed, and her hips began to sway.

The black panther shifter didn’t want to even give Domenica a chance to present her secondary ability, so Alison Beck closed the gap between them in two full strides. The panther let out an angry roar and leapt into the air above the blonde seer, but Domenica simply sidestepped the huge black jungle cat, still with her eyes closed and her hands dancing artfully around her.

The panther almost made the glass cube rattle with the weight of her landing, and she snapped her teeth angrily at the seer.

Alison the shifter was pissed off already.

The force of her four paws against the glass made the people in the bar below it, us included, let out shocked shouts and nervous giggles as the nuts and bolts rattled, and one tube of neon started to flicker.

“You got this, Alison!” the petite pusher on the other side of the bar hollered skyward.

“The panther has this, surely,” Demi scoffed.

“I don’t know…” Indira said slowly with her eyes fixed on Domenica. “Let’s see what this seer has up her sleeve.”

As if on cue, Domenica suddenly stopped moving her hands, and her pale eyes shot open to stare determinedly at the black panther that paced across the ring from her.

The calm smile reappeared on Domenica’s face, and the blonde seer extended her hands out toward her shifter opponent, as if coaxing the huge black jungle cat into a warm embrace, but before Alison Beck could move a muscle, inky black smoke suddenly shot out from the tips of Domenica’s fingers.

The fog was thick and soupy and quickly filled the glass cube so nobody could see inside, but those of us in the bar below could just about see feet and paws moving around the glass fight ring.

There were no sounds, no commotion of battle, but we could see four cat paws and two bare human feet moving around the ring in a deadly dance.

“What’s going on?” Indira asked as she tried to peer through the thick black fog.

“It’s Domenica’s secondary ability,” the petite pusher answered my shifter girlfriend. “That fog of hers muddles your mind, makes you see things that aren’t there.”

“So, what’s Alison seeing?” Demi wondered out loud.

“Who knows?” The pusher shrugged and ordered another drink with a casual flick of her fingers. “Give it a minute, there’ll be a thud, the smoke’ll clear, and then we’ll see.”

“So much for watching a show,” I muttered to the girls, and they all giggled as I caught the attention of the bartender and ordered the four of us another drink as well.

The seer’s secondary ability was cool, and it would’ve been even cooler to see whatever misinformation she was filling the panther’s head with, but since we couldn’t watch that, I didn’t understand the excitement of staring at a glass cube full of black smoke.

It just made me want to put on an over the top performance for the crowd even more.

I was just about to take a sip of my drink when I suddenly heard a voice behind me call out my name.

“Mr. Turner!” The voice was excited and wrapped inside of a grin, and I turned in my seat at the sound of my name.

A short stocky man with olive skin and sharp eyes grinned at us with his arms spread wide by way of a welcome. He was dressed in a dark gray three-piece suit, fixed with a silver pocket watch and a champagne colored silk pocket square. His hair was slick and dark with not one strand out of place, and he wore round horn rimmed spectacles that partially hid his beady black eyes. I also noticed a metallic glint in his smile and realized one of his incisor teeth was silver.

Or maybe not even silver, it was probably platinum.

“Hi,” I replied with a smile of my own.

“Allow me to introduce myself,” the well-dressed man chuckled and clapped his hands together as his beady eyes took me in. “My name is Mr. Lowrey. My son told me he was going to send me a true fighter.”

“You’re Auden’s dad?” Demi asked with her mouth hanging open a little.

“I understand we have quite a jarring difference in style.” Mr. Lowrey laughed loudly. “But yes, I am Auden’s father. It’s a pleasure to meet you all, he’s told me all about you.”

“All good things I hope.” I grinned as I took Mr. Lowrey’s hand and shook it firmly.

“He told me he’d found the best fighter I could possibly hope to have,” Auden’s dad said with a wry smirk. “I wasn’t expecting a school kid.”

“I’m far from it,” I scoffed, and I noticed the petite pusher chuckling at us from across the bar.

“Shall we go to my office?” Mr. Lowrey offered. “We can discuss my offer in further detail.”

“Sounds good,” I said as I hopped off the bar stool. “The girls come with me, though.”

“Yes, my son told me all about your entourage.” Mr. Lowrey’s grin widened, and the platinum tooth inside his mouth glinted against the neon of the bar. “This way. Unless you’d prefer to watch the fight?”

I glanced up at the smoke filled fight ring and shrugged.

“Not much to watch ‘til I get in there,” I answered with a grin of my own, and Mr. Lowrey’s laugh echoed around the bar as he led us through a door in the back.

Mr. Lowrey’s office didn’t match his aesthetic at all, because it looked more like Auden’s bedroom than a millionaire’s business room.

The four concrete walls were heavily graffitied, and some of the choicest pieces of artwork depicted everything from a pirate ship wrestling a kraken, to a portrait of the wizard Merlin sprawled on a couch like Hugh Hefner while half out of his blue robe and surrounded by a gaggle of gorgeous naked sorceresses and witches.

There was a huge burnished metal desk at one end of the room, and it was lit from beneath with the same neon tubes as the rest of the establishment. The surface was almost empty, aside from a bowl of tumbled crystals, a gigantic shark tooth with strange carvings on either side of it, and an antique gumball machine.

Mr. Lowrey took a seat behind the desk, in a tall metal chair with plush leather upholstery, and then smiled up at me with his platinum tooth glinting in the low light.

“So, Mr. Turner,” the well-dressed man addressed me with his smile widening into an all out grin. “What have you got for me?”

“Uhh…” I faltered in confusion at his question. “Auden said you had a job for me, I--”

“And I do,” Mr. Lowrey assured me with a chuckle. “I wanna know what I’m working with.”

“Oh,” I laughed to myself. “Right. Well, I’m a shifter.”

“From a family of charmers, is that correct?” Mr. Lowrey, whose hands were covered in thick silver rings, wedged a white tipped cigarette into an empty socket in the ring that was around his index finger.

“Err, yes sir. That’s correct.” I nodded with a shrug.

“Which makes you unique,” Mr. Lowrey said and pointed his cigarette finger at me as his other hand scooped up an antique lighter.

“More than unique,” Demi quickly commented behind me.

“Prophezied.” Charlotte nodded.

“Prophezied?” Mr. Lowrey raised one sharp eyebrow as he lit his cigarette and blew out a plume of gray smoke from the corner of his mouth. “How so?”

“He’s a white tiger shifter,” Indira told Auden’s dad, and the pride in her voice was mirrored in the way her chest puffed out and the smile that spread across her face.

Mr. Lowrey studied me for a moment, took another long drag of his cigarette, and slowly nodded.

“Show me,” he said, and from anyone else it would’ve sounded demanding, but Auden’s dad had the same air of childlike earnestness that just made him sound over excited about literally everything.

The apple certainly didn’t fall far from the tree.

“In here?” I huffed out a laugh.

“I trust you have your shifts well under control?” Mr. Lowrey shrugged. “Just don’t break my desk.”

“Yes, sir,” I chuckled, and I motioned for my girls to take a good couple steps back.

Then I shook my head to loosen the muscles in my neck and stretched out my shoulder blades. The very middle of my back was always where the heat of a shift seemed to travel from, all the way along to my extremities, and I hunched down as I let the warmth of my fera take over.

My white tiger roared in my head as I let him have the reins, and I shook my head as four white paws thudded to the ground in the middle of the graffitied office.

“Holy shit,” Mr. Lowrey breathed as his black eyes traveled over the huge white tiger that now stood in front of him.

“Told you,” Charlotte said smugly.

I let a gravelly purr rumble through my chest at her words, and my redhead girlfriend giggled.

“I most certainly have a job for you, Mr. Turner,” Auden’s father said as he stubbed his cigarette out. “If you can, please shift back so I might hear your response.”

I packed my fera back into the box in my head and shifted back into my human form with a breathless laugh.

“I appreciate you keeping your clothes on,” Mr. Lowrey commented with a wry smile, and the girls giggled.

“So, what’s your proposition?” I asked with a smug grin.

“I have another jungle cat that has cost me millions of dollars in both winnings and wagers,” Mr. Lowrey explained. “It is the twin brother of the black panther you saw fight earlier.”

“A panther?” I scoffed. “Easy.”

“Alison, maybe,” Mr. Lowrey said with a shrug. “Though she is a talented fighter. But her brother is a cut above professional status. He’s the world champion, not just in the shifter stakes, but across every single magical being that has gone against him.”

“So, you need someone to take him out so the hype dies down?” I confirmed.

“Precisely.” Mr. Lowrey nodded. “Though, if you do beat him, you will still receive every penny of your prize money.”

“That’s how Auden sold it,” I chuckled. “Your son has been far too generous with his own funds.”

“You mean my funds,” Mr. Lowrey replied swiftly. “Which is precisely why it’s in both of our interests that you fight for me.”

“Will he be safe?” Charlotte asked from behind me.

“There is a no kill policy,” Mr. Lowrey assured her. “And I’m sure your beau here is a fast healer.”

“I’ll be fine,” I promised them all. “I can do this.”

“You’d better get a contract drawn up, Mr. Lowrey.” Demi said as she waggled her eyebrows. “Everyone’s gonna want Kane when they can see what he can do.”

“I have no doubts.” Auden’s father grinned. “But we’ll see how the first fight goes.”

“Holding out on me, sir?” I asked the man with the platinum tooth.

“You’ve been hanging around with my son far too much.” Mr. Lowrey laughed loudly and clapped his hands together as he stood and reached a hand out across his metal desk. “Let us shake on it.”

“I still get my prize winnings if I win,” I confirmed.

“I’ll even throw in a night’s stay at the Four Seasons,” Mr. Lowrey offered. “So you can rest and recuperate after your fight before heading back to Meloria.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal, sir.” I shook Mr Lowrey’s hand firmly and fixed him with a grin.

Then Auden’s dad briefly explained the rules as he ushered the four of us out of his office.

Alison Beck’s twin brother was named Alfie, and though the name made him sound like a cuddly teddy bear, Mr. Lowrey wholeheartedly assured me he was exactly the opposite.

“He’s mean, he holds nothing back, and he’s eager for blood,” Auden’s father explained as he led me and my girls through his offices and toward the locker rooms.

“Eager for blood?” Charlotte asked nervously.

“It would be an immense surprise if Mr. Turner made it out of the ring with no blood shed,” Lowrey said, and then his expression became pensieve. “Although, I should certainly talk to the bookies and get them to add that on as a wager.”

“There’ll be blood spilled,” I muttered. “Mostly his, though.”

“Don’t be cocky,” Lowrey warned as he showed us the way to a private locker room. “Let him underestimate you.”

“Everyone always does.” I grinned and shook Mr. Lowrey’s hand again. “I’ll beat him.”

“I’m betting on it.” Auden’s dad chuckled heartily.