The Rings Fighter Read online

  Say her name... say it, if only once... just let it go... let it go, lover...

  “Jet,” he groaned, arching into her. He started to come, and the sound building out of his chest deepened, turning into a panting growl. “Jet... fuck... Jet... Jet...”

  Emotion filled him, briefly wiping out her mind.

  She felt it intensify as he let go, heartbreakingly so. As he did, she felt him... really felt him, behind the mask. He hadn’t let himself feel anything in such a long time.

  Not for anyone. Not since before the Rings.

  Not since he’d come here, to an alien world, knowing he might not survive it.

  Somehow, that crack in his veneer brought Chloe a softer feeling of peace. Affection pulsed out of her in a warm cloud... affection for him, gratitude, a kind of heated satisfaction that he’d let that wall go, however briefly... that he’d let her be there to witness it. She found herself stroking his silk-like Nirreth skin as he lay there letting go.

  She was still caressing him when he lay there recovering, marveling at how the liquid-like covering moved over the Ringmaster’s rock-like muscle and bone.

  He was beautiful.

  He wasn’t hers... he never would be. But he was beautiful.

  Somehow, knowing that was enough.

  That love that rose in him, that almost innocent crush of longing, managed to even fill the hole in her own chest, however briefly.

  THE NEW DAY

  CHLOE STOOD ON top of a grass-covered hill, shielding her eyes from the Green Zone sun. It still hung only halfway in the sky.

  They’d left Trazen’s compound before dawn.

  She hadn’t been surprised when he woke her up. They’d been talking about this for the last week. Talking and having sex and eating between his bouts of work as he prepared for the next Rings match and did the rounds he had to do in order to smooth over Agnon’s death.

  The Queen had pardoned him once she heard the details, but still cautioned him to lay low for a few weeks.

  Other, more intense events had happened that night anyway... events which completely overshadowed the incident in the restaurant between Agnon and Trazen. Chloe saw on the news the next morning that an attack had occurred against the Royal Palace that same night, that a new First Son had been named. All of that pretty much overshadowed the death of a petty warlord over a disputed slave... even apart from the witnesses who backed Trazen’s story.

  Such regime changes happened fairly frequently in Nirreth society, Chloe knew.

  Even so, the swiftness of this one startled her. She also wondered about the implications for the girl Rings fighter, Jet Tetsuo, given who owned her.

  She hadn’t bothered to ask Trazen how he felt about any of that.

  Not because she didn’t care... more because she could feel it on him.

  He’d asked her for sex every night since that first night they’d been together. She understood why he wanted it, but it quickly became clear that their liaison could only be temporary, regardless of how good the sex.

  Trazen got sadder each time, for one thing.

  By the last night, Chloe almost couldn’t bear his sadness through the venom, even with what he’d done to her physically. She’d almost been relieved when he told her he’d found a new living situation for her, one that would force them to end this thing.

  With Agnon gone, he said, there was no reason for her to stay a slave at all.

  So Trazen wrote her a certificate for her freedom that very morning, right before he drove her up to one of the free settlements of humans in the hills above old Albuquerque.

  It turned out Trazen did a lot of this kind of thing.

  Buying humans. Setting them free on the outskirts of the Nirreth settlement when no Nirreth were watching. The only stipulation he gave her was never to return to the Center, where someone might recognize her from the confrontation with Agnon.

  It wasn’t exactly a hard promise to give.

  Now Chloe watched him as he paced the grass-covered hillside below, his long fingers clasped at his back as he watched the sun rise in the sky. The muscles in his dark blue arms stood out in the morning light, giving her a slight shiver of desire in spite of herself.

  She wasn’t touching him, but felt she could read his mind anyway.

  “Stop it,” she chided him, smiling when he turned. “Just cut it out.”

  “Cut what out, most honorable Chloe?” he smiled back.

  “Feeling guilty,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You’re being ridiculous. You’re not abandoning me. You set me free... remember?”

  He looked like he was about to argue with her, then exhaled in a rumbling growl. Walking up to her in a few strides, he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her against him.

  “I’ve never done it like this,” he confessed.

  She smiled. “Are you asking me for goodbye sex, Ringmaster?”

  He rumbled a Nirreth laugh. “No! You know what I mean! Confounding human!”

  She saw sadness touch his expression and nudged him with an arm.

  “I do know, dummy,” she said, dropping the teasing tone. “But I seduced you, remember? And I know how much you hate gratitude, but I am grateful... so deal with it.”

  He gave her a mock puzzled look. “For the sex?”

  She smacked his broad chest, laughing. “No, jerkface! For this. I’m grateful for this... so stop feeling guilty for giving me a new life. I’m happy about it, okay?” Letting a smile quirk her lips, she shrugged. “And, okay... maybe a little grateful for the sex,” she added, making him laugh. “I don’t suppose you do house calls up here? The occasional drive by?”

  He grunted, looking down at her before using his tail to brush the hair off her shoulder.

  “What will you do now?” he said, softer.

  She grinned, leaning into his chest. “Oh, you know... the usual human stuff. Learn how to fight so I don’t end up some asshole’s slave again. Learn how to program Nirreth machines. Maybe learn a few more colony languages, so I could work as a translator.” Shrugging, she said more seriously, “Basically all the things I thought about doing for my sister to protect her. I figure I may as well do them for myself now.”

  His eyes grew thoughtful. “I have people up here who could teach you some of those things...” he began.

  She laughed, then reached up to kiss him on the mouth. “I’m sure you do,” she mused, looking at him. Still studying his perfect features and those gold-flecked eyes, she added sharply, “You’re one of the good ones, Trazen. Stop being an ass to her, okay? She’ll see it. I promise you, she will...”

  His deep blue skin darkened perceptibly.

  Feeling the silence come over him, she shrugged, her arms still slung around his neck.

  “Or just sting her,” she said drily. “Then she’ll really see it. Along with your nice, big, fat Nirreth dick against her leg...”

  He let out an involuntary laugh, releasing her before he smacked her on the ass with his tail.

  “Be good, Chloe,” he said to her then.

  She grinned, folding her arms. “What fun is that?”

  “Be safe then,” he said more seriously. “I’ve grown very fond of you.” He hesitated, then added more awkwardly, “It wasn’t a mistake. That it was you, I mean. It wasn’t a mistake, Chloe...”

  Fighting a tightness in her throat at the sincerity in his eyes, she forced a smile.

  Of course he would know. He would have felt her mind and heart through the venom too.

  He would have known she’d lived for Kiji before now.

  But he was right. She couldn’t do that anymore. That door was closed.

  Whether it was a mistake or not, it was closed.

  “I will,” she said, the words a promise.

  He continued to study her face then nodded, giving his tail a satisfied flick. Smiling, he waved a hand over the valley. “It’s a new day.”

  “It is indeed,” she said, grinning even as she rolled her eyes at his corniness
.

  “Don’t waste it, Chloe.”

  She smiled back, and in that moment it really hit her.

  She was going to miss him.

  She was going to miss him a lot.

  * * *

  CONTINUE READING WITH:

  ROOK (ALLIE’S WAR BOOK ONE)

  Yanked out of her life by the mysterious Revik, Allie discovers that her blood may not be as “human” as she always thought. When Revik tells her she’s the Bridge, a mystical being meant to usher in the evolution of humanity––or possibly its extinction––Allie must choose between the race that raised her and the one where she might truly belong. A psychic, science fiction romance set in a modern, gritty version of Earth.

  * * *

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  THE ALIEN APOCALYPSE SERIES is a dystopian new adult romance about a tough girl named Jet Tetsuo who grew up on Earth following an alien invasion. Forced into living among her conquerors, she has to navigate a treacherous world full of enemies who pose as friends, even as she becomes their most famous fighter in the Rings, a modern day version of the coliseum.

  THE ALLIE’S WAR SERIES is a dark, unique and gritty psychic romance involving a young woman grappling with her role in bringing about the end of one world and the start of a new one. Follow Allie Taylor and her antihero partner in crime, Dehgoies Revik, as they fight terrifying enemies and one another in a passionate story spanning centuries, and filled unpredictable twists.

  QUENTIN BLACK MYSTERY is a dark, gritty paranormal romance and mystery series starring brilliant and mysterious antihero Quentin R. Black, along with his partner, psychic forensic psychologist Miram Fox. For fans of Sherlock Holmes and paranormal romance, the series spans continents and dimensions as Black tries to redeem himself by making the world safe for his kind.

  THE GATE SHIFTER SERIES is an unusual shifter romance centering on shifters from another world altogether, called morph. Earth humans remained blissfully ignorant of the existence of alternate dimensions until Nihkil Jamri tries to save private detective, Dakota Reyes, while he is surveying Earth. Part urban fantasy, part detective series, part paranormal romance, part science fiction adventure, the Gate Shifter series explores crime solving, interstellar warfare and alien romance with the least likely candidates imaginable.

  * * *

  Read More from JC Andrijeski

  http://jcandrijeski.com

  “Seeking Truth in Made-Up Worlds”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  I’m a USA TODAY bestselling author who writes paranormal mystery, romance and science fiction, often with a sexy, metaphysical and apocalyptic bent. My work has been featured in anthologies, online literary, art and fiction magazines as well as print venues such as NY Press. I travel extensively and have lived abroad in Europe, Australia and Asia and from coast to coast in the continental United States, but currently I live and work full time in Bangkok, Thailand.

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  THE RINGS FIGHTER

  An Alien Apocalypse Story

  Copyright © 2016 by JC Andrijeski

  Published by White Sun Press

  Cover Art 2015 by White Sun Press

  Connect with me at http://jcandrijeski.com

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.