Page 28 of Double Shot

The gargoyle on the other side of me snorted, but I continued staring at Clarence, waiting to see if he would say any other nice things about me.

Maybe he wasn’t so bad.

“I’m so glad I approached you that day at Fauntastic Foods,” he said breathily, gaze roaming over my face. “I never do that, by the way. But I just had to. I just… had to talk to you.”

My smile grew a little pinched. “Oh. That’s… nice. But I think you said that to me on our first date too. Like… exactly that, actually. The exact same thing.”

“Run, sweetheart,” the gargoyle muttered to me, too low for Clarence to hear. “Too many red flags.”

“Did I?” Clarence let out a light but somewhat terse little laugh, releasing my hands. “Oh, look, the next fight is starting.”

“Is it?” Sufficiently distracted by that, I looked over at the ring. A small, wiry cyclops was half-heartedly mopping up the wet blood on the mat with a filthy towel, mostly just smearing it around before he slunk out of the cage and between the two big, hulking lizard shifters who were standing either side of the door that let the fighters enter and leave the ring.

A third lizard shifter, who’d been gruffly announcing the fighters before each match after shouting at the crowd to shut the fuck up so he could actually be heard, was gulping down the rest of his beer and picking up his mic.

“Last match,” he barked, voice echoing around the basement. “No more bets being taken.”

“You bet on this one, sweetheart?” the gargoyle asked me conversationally.

Around us, the energy from the audience grew even more frenzied and excited. I had no idea how the empyn in front could stand it. They could sense all emotions, exact and sharp and all at once, from everyone around them. All I could sense—better than most other species, to be fair—was the overall mood in the air, the tone of the energy pumping out of people. And even that was growing overwhelming.

My heart was pounding. The scents of the adrenaline sweat from the fighters and overexcited sweat from the audience were sharp and sour in my nose, but it strangely wasn’t unpleasant in the moment. It made this whole thing feel more… primal.

We were just a bunch of creatures reduced to our baser instincts, revelling in the chaos and aggression of watching people willingly beat the shit out of each other.

It was making me kind of horny.

The empyn up ahead glanced back at me again with a huff and a raised eyebrow. “You’re giving me emotional whiplash, bro.”

I flushed. “Sorry.” Realising I hadn’t answered the gargoyle’s question yet, I looked up at him with a smile. “No, I haven’t placed any bets. It’s my first time here, and I… um, didn’t really know what to expect.”

“Well next time, make sure you bet on Fenrir.”

“Oh. Okay. So he’s next? I keep hearing him being mentioned.”

The gargoyle nodded. “He’s an absolute beast. Fights like he has nothing to lose. Just doesn’t stop. I swear he gets more energy as the fight goes on.”

“Oh my.” I placed a hand to my chest. This Fenrir sounded so aggressive. “Who’s he fighting tonight?”

“Menoetius. Orc.” The gargoyle shook his head with a little chuckle. “Honestly, if anyone stands a chance of taking down Fenrir, it’s him. Just as long as he can control his temper.”

“Gosh, it’s all so… barbaric,” I breathed. The empyn in front snorted and glanced back at me again with a dry, knowing look.

Clarence, however, mistook my breathiness for disgust.

“I know, Niko.” He shook his head, reaching for my arm, then pulling back at the last minute to trace the air with his fingertips just an inch above my skin. Which was, in some ways, even creepier than if he’d touched me. “Why don’t we go, hmm? Buy a bottle of strawberry wine, find a quiet, romantic little spot in Tirnal Park, talk about our deepest desires…”

“Don’t dooo iiiit,” the gargoyle on my other side sing-songed to me under his breath, pretending to be inspecting his betting slip very closely.

“I think we should stay.” I gave Clarence a brief smile. “We don’t… want to offend the fighters.”

“How would we offend the fighters?” he asked blankly.

“If they saw us leaving right as their match starts!” I gestured at the crowd around us. “It’ll take us ten minutes just to get out of this. Let’s just… stay and watch. It’s the last fight.”

And then I would be going home. Alone. After bidding goodbye to Clarence for the final time. Even I wasn’t desperate enough for a third date with this guy.

I flicked my gaze to my left. Maybe the hunky, protective gargoyle, though…