Never Back Down Read online

  Her mother’s words rang in her head as the music died, the bell chimed, and the fury came at her, talons striking to remove one of her eyes. Erika deftly side stepped the fury, kicking backward to send her opponent straight into the metal of the cage. The fury shrieked in frustration and came back at Erika, who clenched her fists and waited as the fury telegraphed her punch. Erika reached out, grabbing the fist and stopping the fury in a skidding halt.

  The fury tried to yank back her fist, to flex her talons, but Erika had her in an iron grip. The crowd gasped in shock, and hopefully awe, at Erika’s display of strength. With a quick yank, Erika snapped the fury’s wrist, and the creature yowled in pain. Erika began to bounce from one foot to another as the fury’s wrist healed enough for her to try and punch Erika.

  Moving her head side to side, Erika flexed her foot, kicking out and landing her heel in the fury’s stomach, even as Erika dropped to her knee the next second and swept out her leg. The fury crashed to the ground as Erika wrapped her thighs around the creature’s head, grabbed her arm, the one that was already broken, and yanked it back.

  The fury tried to overpower her, but Erika had trained until she, the smallest of the Valkyrie, could make Danae, the biggest of her sisters, tap out of a fight. The fury had balls, Erika could give her that, but having balls only meant you got dead faster.

  Erika was hoisted up on the fury’s shoulders as she stood, Erika’s grasp on the fury’s head and arm not loosening an inch. Erika caught sight of Freya, whose power was a beacon to those who knew exactly who and what she was. She gave Erika a bow of her head, and Erika snarled as the fury’s free fist punched her in the face, blood sprouting from her nose and lip as the skin split apart.

  Cursing Freya for the distraction, Erika leaned her body downward and grinned, knowing she must look like something from Carrie with blood all over her face. Spinning her body in an inhuman way, her thighs tightened around the fury’s neck as she twisted. The sickening sound of bone snapped as Erika broke the creature’s neck. Their bodies hit the floor, and Erika rolled away from the dead body and snarled.

  There was a heartbeat of silence before the crowd erupted into rapturous applause. Erika, still crouched, wiped the blood from her mouth and spat on the canvas floor. The cage door opened, and Felix sauntered in as Erika rose to her feet.

  Raising her hand in the air, Felix grinned at her, even as he whispered. “You could have drawn that out a little longer, darling.”

  Erika snarled. “I did. Bitch was all claws and no bite. I didn’t even break a sweat.”

  Felix gave an exaggerated laugh as the gathered folks continued to clap. Erika’s eyes darted over to where Freya had been standing, but the woman was gone. Erika pulled her hand out of Felix’s grip, spat on the floor again, and grinned, showing him teeth.

  “Next time, give me more of a challenge.”

  “Oh, it will be my life’s mission to find someone who can take you down, Valkyrie.”

  Erika flashed from the arena and let out a scream of frustration in the confines of her room. She had far too much adrenaline in her veins. She needed to either fight or fuck. Her body clenched as she felt Loki’s eyes on her, but despite the lust circling in the air, the bane of her existence remained invisible.

  The door to her room opened and a scantily clad nymph came in, stripping off her bra as she closed the door with a snick. Erika rubbed the blood from her nose as the ruby haired nymph gave her a hungry smile.

  “The boss said you might need to work off some of the aggression.”

  The nymph was taller than Erika was, but that didn’t stop her from slamming the nymph against the wall, dragging down her head and claiming her mouth. The nymph opened her lips eagerly, and Erika assaulted her mouth with as much passion and fury as she had expelled during her fight.

  Erika felt his eyes watching as she broke the kiss and shoved the nymph to her knees, the woodland creature obeying with an eager lick of her lips. Glancing over her shoulder, Erika grinned into the air, her mouth speaking of its own accord. “You could join us.”

  An invisible hand wrapped around her throat, and Erika moaned at the possessiveness of the touch, even though it was just a brush of air against her neck. Erika let herself be stripped of her shorts, and then the nymph did something incredible with her tongue that had Erika jerking her hips forward.

  And not for one second, as Erika rode the waves of her climax, did the pressure ease off her neck. It only made her crave more.

  Ricky

  Leaning in the doorway of his front room, Ricky looked at the boy who was his son and tried to work out how he could get the kid to talk to him. When Fionn had left Zach with Ricky, the boy had clammed up and barely looked at him. Not that he blamed the poor kid; he’d just lost his mother and was saddled with an old man who didn’t know a thing about him. Now Zach sat on the floor, reading a battered comic book, as Ricky took him in.

  Hair of midnight black, Zach was the spitting image of Ricky, apart from the thick-rimmed glasses that kept sliding down his nose, emphasising the deep emerald of his eyes. When Fionn had brushed past him, heading straight into the house that Ricky had wrecked minutes ago, he barely looked at the mess. Fionn told Zach to go into the living room and watch TV. The boy glared at his uncle, causing Ricky to grin, because it was Ricky’s own face that looked at his uncle with contempt.

  Fionn had ushered Ricky into the kitchen and proceeded to tell him why Sadie had lied to him for five years.

  “That kid might be the spit of me, Fionn, but I’m gonna need a little bit more to understand why Sadie simply forgot to tell me I had a kid out there.”

  Fionn folded his arms across his chest, his mouth pressed into a grimace before he sighed and said. “Sadie made a mistake in not telling you, there’s no doubt about that. But I made a grave error in keeping her secret. We thought Zach might have been … not yours. Sadie came clean just before her fight and told me what went down before the wedding. I’m sorry. You should have said something.”

  Ricky scrubbed a hand down his face. “Not my story to tell, mate. It was between me and Sadie. But, that kid did not deserve to spend the last five years thinking he had no dad. I understand he’s a shifter, but I deserved to know he existed.”

  “I agree, but she told him all about you, Ricky, and he had a picture of you in his bedroom. Sadie did not want to tell you about him until we were sure he was yours, and that he was not just a shifter.”

  When Ricky said nothing, Fionn continued on. “Look, I know I’m dropping this in your lap, but Zach is not safe within the pride. Sadie lost a dominance fight and died because the females did not want an abomination in the pride. I was out voted, and he needs his dad now.”

  Ricky wanted to smack the shit out of those bigoted bastards, but asked Fionn, “Why call him an abomination? I can tell he’s a cat by the way he walks.”

  “Come with me.”

  Fionn strode through his house like he goddam owned it and went into the living room. Zach glanced at them as they came in, scowling when Ricky smiled at him. A marching band had started a merry tune in his head as Fionn sat down on his couch and said to Zach, “Hey Zach Attack, wanna show your dad your cat?”

  “No.”

  Ricky had to admit, he liked the kid already.

  “C’mon Zach, don’t be a brat. Show your dad your cat, please.”

  A shimmer of light, and then a small black jaguar growled at him, his clothes ripped down around his paws. Ricky came forward and reached out a hand to rub the cat, but Zach snapped his teeth and backed away. Another shimmer of light and a very naked five-year-old sat amongst the ruins of clothing, waiting for further instructions with a very bored expression on his face. Zach picked up his glasses and put them back on his nose.

  “Thanks, Zach. Now, can you show your dad some magic?”

  Ricky’s heart sank into his stomach. Please no, not his kid.

  Zach sighed and held out his hand, a flicker of flames sparking before it bla
zed to life. Ricky could feel flames, his son’s magic called out to his, and he stumbled back. Zach quenched the flames, picked up his comic, still starkers, and ignored them both. Ricky wished with all that he had in him that Zach had not been magically gifted, but the boy seemed to have more of a grasp on his magic then his dad did.

  Fionn ruffled the boy’s hair, got to his feet, and stood in front of Ricky. “That boy is very special, Ricky, and I am entrusting Sadie’s most precious gift to you. She might have lied, dammit we know she cheated, but that boy does not deserve to be treated differently because of what his mother did or did not do.”

  Ricky balked, slightly offended. “Fionn, I’m not petty enough to take it out on the boy, I promise. I’m pissed she didn’t tell me, no, scratch that, I’m fucking snapping. But Zach is mine.”

  Fionn reached out and clasped him on the shoulder. “Good. Before she died, Sadie asked me to tell you she was sorry and to bring Zach to you. I know right now, her words might seem empty and pointless, but I ask one thing from you.”

  Ricky waited, and Fionn continued. “Promise me you won’t let him forget her. Despite what she did, Sadie told him all about you. Dressed him up as a police officer for Halloween so he could be just like his dad. He likes music, comics, and documentaries. He is the sweetest kid you will ever meet. You and I, we didn’t have exactly great role models growing up, but you just be the best kinda dad you can for him, for Sadie.”

  “Christ, Fionn, way to make a dude feel like a complete and utter bollo–” Ricky paused, realizing that he would need to watch his mouth from now on. “You know me, what makes you think that I could be any sort of father to that kid.”

  “Because you’re the same man who let everyone think he ran out on his fiancé days before their wedding because he got cold feet and took all the shite we dealt without saying a bad word against Sadie. That’s the man who can raise a boy right.”

  Fionn had stepped away then, saying goodbye to his nephew with the promise to visit as soon as possible. Zach’s lips had quivered slightly as Fionn walked out the front door, leaving Ricky staring at the miniature version of himself.

  Ricky had tried to get the young fella to speak to him, but Zach had chewed on his lip, only stopping to ask in a small voice where he was going to sleep. Ricky showed him to the guest bedroom, stating Zach could tell him how he wanted it decorated.

  But his son had shifted into his cat form and curled up on the bed. Ricky told him he would be across the room and pulled the door, leaving it slightly ajar. When Ricky had woken the next morning, Zach refused to change back to human, and Ricky had spent most of the day banging his head against the wall trying to make conversation with a jaguar cub.

  Even cleaning up the mess Ricky had made on his path of destruction hadn’t even drawn a reaction from the little boy. Zach didn’t even bat an eye as Ricky chucked broken pieces of furniture out into the back garden.

  Now, as his son watched some documentary about a lost city or some shit, Ricky braced himself for more of the silent treatment. Zach knew the moment Ricky had walked into the room, ignored him when he set a glass of milk down on the ground, putting two cookies on the arm of the chair.

  “Your mom used to love a glass of milk when she’d been shifting a lot. Not sure why, but I…” Ricky sighed, not really knowing what to say next. “The cookies are just because who can have milk without cookies.”

  When Zach continued to ignore him, Ricky sank down into an armchair and grabbed his guitar. He strummed the strings softly, so as not to interrupt Zach, and closed his eyes, trying to push down the voice inside his head begging him to take some more pills, to stop the magic that was building inside of him. Ricky knew he needed to get help, because there was no way he was gonna be off his face in front of a five-year-old.

  Ricky shoved down his magic, using music as a crutch to ease his troubled mind. Maybe he should call Caitlyn, ask her what in the hell he could do with his kid. Ricky really wished he could call his mam right now, ask her advice. But his Da was dead, Sadie was dead, and there was nothing at all he could do to make it better for himself, never mind Zach.

  He played the first few chords of Linkin Park’s “Numb” with his eyes closed, the melody soothing his soul, popping his eyes open when he heard a distinct tap, tap. Low and behold, Zach was drumming along to the beat with him. Ricky continued to play a little bit longer, and then stopped.

  “You know, I have a drum kit lying around here somewhere if you want me to try and dig it out. But, if you like the drums, my buddy Donnie is wicked on the sticks. We could invite him over, but a little later, he is a vampire.”

  Zach’s head spun in his direction. “You know vampires?”

  Ricky glanced down at the strings of his guitar so that Zach would not see the grin the size of Texas kick up his lips. “Sure do. I know a few, work with them. I also work with a werewolf who is my best friend and a bear who is my boss.”

  “Vampires are so cool.”

  Who’d have thunk that vampires would get his son talking to him?

  “You can come with me later while I check up on things at work, and I’ll introduce you.”

  The boy’s eyes widened, a twinkle brightening the emerald in them. As his face lit with a brilliant smile, Ricky felt as if he had been punched in the gut. He wondered if his Da had ever felt this way, like his heart would explode simply because he had made his boy smile.

  “Really?” the little boy asked.

  “Sure, no hassle. I need to try and take a few days so I can sort you out with school and stuff. But, these vampires are pretty cool. They will love you.”

  Zach scrunched up his nose, and his glasses slipped down. Ricky reached out and pushed them back up the bridge of his nose. “We’ll go later. First, you gotta have a shower and change your clothes.” When Zach frowned, Ricky tilted his head to the side and tapped his nose. “Vampires sense of smell is just like a cat’s, if not better. You don’t want to meet your very first vampire and smell, do ya, kid?”

  The boy shook his head, heading for the door. “You need some help?”

  Zach shook his head. “I’m a big boy. I can shower by myself.”

  Ricky went back to strumming the strings as he replied. “No hassle, Zach. You need anything, you just shout, okay? I won’t play too loud.”

  Zach hesitated for a moment in the doorway and looked back at him. “Hybrid Theory was their best album, but I liked what you were playing. Not sure about the new material, so don’t play anything from that.”

  Zach slipped out of the room and into his bedroom, with Ricky’s jaw on the floor. If there had been any doubt before that Zach was his son, the niggling sensation had been smitten in that one sentence. Ricky began to play “In the End” from start to finish without singing. He played it until Zach came back out with his hair washed, dressed in black jeans, an old Metallica shirt Ricky was sure used to be Sadie’s, and a little leather jacket.

  His hair was a tangle of mess, and Zach had a brush in his hand. Ricky set down the guitar, and Zach climbed into his lap, giving the brush to Ricky. Ricky found that his hands were shaking, but this time it was in nervousness. Brushing the strands of his son’s hair was the most surreal feeling in the world, and his chest felt heavy as Zach handed him a black band. Once he had finished brushing the knots out of Zach’s hair, he stumbled as he tied it up into a ponytail.

  Satisfied, Zach hopped back down off his lap and went back to his documentary. Ricky wasn’t sure how long he simply sat there and watched Zach, but it must have been awhile, the sound of his phone ringing taking his attention away from his son. Glancing at the screen, Ricky cringed when he saw Sarge’s name on the screen, his boss no doubt having heard about his Da’s death, or maybe Sadie’s.

  Slipping from the front room, Ricky pressed answer on his phone. “Sarge?”

  “Ricky, how you holding up?”

  “I’m grand, Sarge.”

  “Don’t you go all Irish and tell me you’re grand. He
might not have been one of my favourite people, but Xavier was still your father.”

  Ricky rubbed his temple, sighing as he said in truth, “I haven’t had a second to think about him to be honest, Sarge. Things have been a bit …weird…”

  Ricky explained to Sarge about Sadie, and about Zach, and how things had gone down. The bear listened intently as Ricky ranted on for a good few minutes. When Ricky stopped yammering, Sarge gave a low whistle and said, “You don’t do things by halves, do you, son?”

  “Not a chance.”

  “Well you bring your boy to the station and introduce us. You bring him in now, Ricky.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The bear hung up with a grumble, and Ricky grinned.

  “Hey Zach? You ready to go, dude?”

  The little boy was next to him then. “Are we going to see the vampires?”

  Ricky brushed his own hair from his face, then patted Zach on the head. “Ya, we’re off to see the vampires.”

  Ricky made it to the car before realizing he did not have a goddam car seat for the kid. Glancing down at Zach, he put his finger to his lips. “Our little secret, just for today. Tomorrow, I’ll get a booster seat, ‘kay?”

  The small boy nodded and slipped into the back seat. Ricky triple checked that the belt was tied, earning a small puzzled look from Zach. “Safety first, kid.”

  Backing out of his drive slower than a fucking snail, Ricky was suddenly aware of how reckless he had driven in the past. Now, with Zach inside this hunk of metal, Ricky could hear every beat of his heart on the drive to the station. Zach seemed oblivious to Ricky’s panic mode, having pulled a hand-held console from his jacket pocket.

  Arriving at the station, Ricky pulled his Focus into his usual car park space and turned off the engine. He peered in the mirror and sad eyes peered back at him.

  “Ricky? Is my mom really dead?”

  “Ya, kiddo. She is. I’m real sorry about that. I loved your mom once.”

  “Can the vampires not bring her back for me?”