Kane's Fate 5 Chapter 3

“I’m gonna stay here, too,” Indira said with a slight smile. “I still have a whole bunch of school work to do for--”

“For Dean Canmore?” I finished her sentence with a question and brought her hand up to my lips so I could kiss the soft skin of her wrist. “That’s okay. You must be real busy with everything we’ve missed.”

“I’ll make it up to you.” My first girlfriend smiled and caressed my cheek with light fingertips. “I promise.”

“I’ll hold you to it,” I chuckled.

“You’re staying behind, too, Adi,” Dax suddenly interjected.

“Are you for real, I really can’t tag along?” Adi pouted across the cafeteria table and slumped in her chair.

“It’s definitely not the place for minors,” Demi giggled. “Hell, it’s barely the place for us.”

“Speak for yourself.” I smirked.

“Whatever, I’ll stay behind with you Adi,” Demi promised the teenager. “We can have a pamper day. I can do your nails.”

“I only ever get black manicures,” Adi insisted and held up her hands so we all got a view of her chipped black nail polish.

“Oh, I am not having that at all!” Demi said in a horrified voice. “We can keep the goth vibes, but I am offended by those chips.”

“Okay, okay.” Adi rolled her eyes again but looked secretly pleased at the prospect. “Like a slumber party.”

“Yes!” Demi clapped her hands together excitedly. “We’ll have a slumber party.”

“You can count me in, too,” Charlotte told them with an eager nod. “I’m quite enjoying our mini sabbatical.”

“If you girls are babysitting Adi, I’ll go with Kane to San Francisco,” Dax said decidedly. “Since I’m the only one who knows what ingredient we actually need.”

“That’d be pretty helpful,” I agreed with a laugh, and then I turned to my newest girlfriend, who was eyeing me eagerly. “Penny?”

“Can I come with you?” the dark haired seer asked and blushed bashfully. “I wanna see this underground version of the city you’ve told me about.”

“Absolutely,” I said with a wide smile. “It’s pretty cool. Auden’s dad is also pretty cool.”

“Speak for yourself.” Auden rolled his eyes and took another sip of coffee. “He’ll be looking to replace me with you I bet, Kane Turner prize fighter… I expect the emancipation letters any day now.”

“Shut up,” I laughed at my best friend and his constant melodramatics. “C’mon then, let’s go. We can take my car.”

“Good, I wanna see how my intermolecular transmutation charm holds up.” Dax said and rubbed his hands together eagerly.

“Dude,” I sighed as I clapped him on the shoulder. “It works like a dream, but call a spade a spade. It’s hyper speed.”

“If that makes you feel cooler.” My tattooed friend smirked and followed Penny and I as we said our goodbyes to the rest of the gang and made our way out toward the school garages.

It was another beautiful summer morning, with an endless blue sky and bright sunshine, and it was almost a shame that we’d be spending the majority of our day stuck underground.

I gunned my Ford Mustang down the gravel driveway and let Dax’s charm work its magic once we hit over the miles per hour threshold, and within less than sixty seconds, I pulled up outside Croak’s bar.

The stoop opposite the old magical bar was still habited by the same group of loitering teenagers, but when they saw me again, the main guy who had a constant cigarette wedged into one corner of his thin mouth just gave me a stiff nod of acknowledgement.

Guess that made me an honorary part of the crew.

“When you said underground, did you mean completely dilapidated?” Dax murmured as I motioned for him and Penny to follow me into the rundown public house.

“Trust me,” I hissed over my shoulder, and I failed at keeping the smile from my mouth as Dax and Penny slowly took in their surroundings.

The same old man with the whiskey was still in the far corner, and the bartender looked like he was still running his stained bar cloth over the exact same rocks glass he had been when I’d last seen him.

It was like the bar was frozen in time up here, and I just pointedly sidestepped everyone and headed for the back door to find the same rickety old elevator waiting for us.

“No way this is safe,” Penny scoffed nervously when she laid eyes on the rusty metal cage.

“Demi said the same,” I chuckled. “It’s old, but it works. I promise.”

“You’d better promise,” Dax muttered as he shuffled past the grating. “If I end up as a smear at the bottom of an old ass elevator shaft, I’m gonna come back to haunt you.”

“I would have thought you’d be coming back to haunt me regardless,” I shot back as I heaved the old metal grating across.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Dax snickered. “You’d deserve it, though.”

“Oh, I definitely would.” I grinned as I punched my thumb into the one singular button on the panel.

The elevator groaned into life and shuddered dramatically before it eventually started to drag itself down the old cable. Penny immediately clung to me as the cranky metal box bobbed its way down into the ground, and I wrapped a protective hand around her waist. Dax just glowered at me from the other side of the metal box, and he continued to do so until finally we hit the bottom.

“That was fucking awful,” Dax deadpanned as we stepped out.

Penny just shuddered and quickly followed him.

The subterranean version of magical San Francisco was still just as heaving as it had been on my first trip down, and the makeshift streets still bustled with commerce while all manner of magical beings roamed freely.

“Woah…” Dax murmured as his wide eyes took everything in. “This is insane…”

“This is great!” Penny giggled, but she clung to my arm as we moved through the crowd. “It’s crazy down here!”

“Wait ‘til you see the fight ring,” I told them with a smug grin. “Follow me.”

We pushed our way through the fray of the magical marketplace, and I definitely noticed a lack of Sharps beneath the surface of San Francisco now. The last time I’d traveled down to the magical underbelly, the marketplace had been crawling with the weird skeletal looking gang members, dressed in their black pinstripe suits with freakishly long fingers and nails, but I didn’t even see one as we made our way through the underground city.

I smirked to myself as we entered the magical fight ring, and the three of us walked up to one of the tellers in the main foyer.

“We’re here to see Mr. Lowrey,” I told the impish looking bookie sitting behind the old metal bars. “My name’s Kane Turner.”

“You here to fight again?” she asked me.

“You remember me?” I grinned.

“‘Course I do,” she scoffed. “You beat Alfie Beck.”

“Your reputation precedes you, Mr. Turner!” I heard Auden’s father behind us as if he’d materialized from thin air, and I turned to face Mr. Lowrey with a genial smile on my face.

“Is that a good or a bad thing?” I asked him as I shook his outstretched hand.

“Definitely good,” he replied with a grin.

Auden’s father was still dressed in a finely tailored suit, though instead of the gray he’d worn previously, he was now dressed in a rich maroon color, with a gold pocket watch chain dangling from his waistcoat and gold rings on his hands instead of silver. His spectacles this time were thin barely there wire frames, and his silk pocket square was a rich bronze color.

“So, have you brought me new fighters, Turner?” Mr. Lowrey asked as his beady black eyes curiously studied Dax and Penny.

“No,” I chuckled. “Well, that’s up to them, I guess.”

“I’m a pacifist,” Dax blurted out.

“You are?” I prompted with a smirk.

“No,” Dax admitted and scowled at me for calling him out. “I just don’t fight well.”

“That’s all you had to say, dear boy.” Mr. Lowrey chuckled. “And the lady? I don’t believe we had the pleasure of meeting last time Mr. Turner fought for me.”

“Nice to meet you, sir, but I’m not a fighter,” Penny giggled as Mr. Lowrey quickly took her hand and brushed his lips against the back by way of greeting.

“Well, Mr. Turner here certainly is.” Auden’s father grinned, and his platinum tooth glinted in the neon lights. “Shall we go to my office?”

Mr. Lowrey led us through the fight club until we eventually ended up in his huge expanse of an office, and he took a seat with a flourish and pulled a cigarette case out of his jacket pocket.

“So, Mr. Turner…” he started as he wedged a white tipped cigarette into the ring holder on his index finger and motioned for the three of us to take a seat opposite. “Do you have any more diamonds to sell me?”

“Sadly not, I was actually wondering if you had some information for us,” I explained as we sat in the plush leather chairs on the other side of his huge metal desk.

I noticed he’d swapped out the carved shark tooth for a perfect replica of the Death Star, the gumball machine had been replaced by a crystal bowl full of boiled candies wrapped in cellophane, but the tumbled crystals remained in the exact same place and exact same formation.

“Well, nothing is free down here.” Mr. Lowrey smirked through a ghostly plume of cigarette smoke.

“I figured as much,” I chuckled. “Why don’t you tell us what you need first?”

“Nothing major,” Auden’s father assured us as he expertly flicked the tip of his cigarette with his pinky finger so that the clump of ash was knocked into a huge crystal ashtray on the desk beside him. “Just another fight.”

“I still get prize money?” I asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“Of course.” Mr. Lowrey nodded. “Only a hundred this time, though.”

“A hundred dollars?” Penny asked suddenly.

“Multiply that by a thousand.” Mr. Lowrey laughed loudly and then took a long drag on his cigarette. “I like your new girl, Mr. Turner, she has a sense of humor.”

“I didn’t mean offense, I…” Penny shifted in her seat as she blushed, and I leaned across to take her hand.

“He’s just playing with you,” I said with a slight smile and squeezed her hand.

“You sure she doesn’t fight?” Lowrey asked curiously as he honed his gaze on Penny. “You look as though butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth my dear, and that could come in handy.”

“I’m only a seer,” Penny explained, and I sensed a hint of embarrassment in her voice. “And my secondary ability is just drawing.”

“It’s not just drawing,” I scolded her softly. “And you’re not ‘just’ a seer.”

“We all have our talents, darling,” Mr. Lowrey assured us before he focused on me again. “Speaking of, your opponent.”

“You don’t wanna hear what we need?” I asked Mr. Lowrey.

“No need.” He waved an airy hand and stubbed his cigarette out with the other. “You know I’ll gladly help you. I’ve already cut your prize fund in half, and I like surprises.”

“I see where Auden gets it from…” Dax muttered, and the comment made Mr. Lowrey laugh even louder.

“You’ll be going up against a pusher, Turner,” Mr. Lowrey explained. “She’s just perfected her secondary ability, and it’s formidable. She’s been eating through my odds.”

“She?” I asked curiously, and my thoughts immediately went to the tiny black-haired pusher that we’d seen in the lower cages on our first trip to the fight club.

“Sienna Cray,” Mr. Lowrey said. “She’s recently worked her way up to the main ring since she dominated the cages.”

“I think I know who you mean.” I smirked. “Petite, dark hair? What’s her secondary ability?”

“Invisibility,” Auden’s father said with a slight huff. “It doesn’t even make for a good show.”

“I can beat her.” I nodded thoughtfully and then fixed my boss with a wide grin. “And I’ll ignore the ‘halved prize fund’ comment if you help us source what we need.”

“You have yourself a deal, as usual, Mr. Turner.” Auden’s dad grinned widely so that his platinum tooth glimmered in the low glow of the neon on his desk. “I’ll show our guests to the viewing box. I’d like to see this for myself, too.”

Dax and Penny followed Mr. Lowrey as he left his office, and I waited to be collected by one of his lackeys to be taken down to the lockers and sign my usual non-disclosure agreement.

I felt the familiar buzz of adrenaline start to crackle away under the surface of my skin as I sat on the old wooden bench in the empty locker room, and I pulled my shirt off over my head as I stretched my neck muscles.

A rakishly thin girl with a blonde buzzcut came to ask me the same ‘fit to fight’ questions as before, and then she motioned for me to follow her toward the platform that would deliver me up to the main arena.

I heard the swell of the crowd before my head had even risen past the floor, and I raised an arm as I was swiftly delivered to the ramp on the far side of the neon lit glass cube that made the main fight ring.

“Aaaaand back by popular demand!” the pixelated announcer screamed from where his face was superimposed on the huge television screen above the ring. “The white tiger, Kane Turner!”

The crowd went insane, and I raised both of my arms triumphantly. My eyes sought out Mr. Lowrey’s box, which I could just about make out above the blinding neon lights and rows upon rows of crazed spectators, and I shot a pointed wink in its general direction.

“The feared white tiger shifter goes up against one of our most recent prize fighters!” the pink haired announcer called. “She battled her way through the cages below to dance in the main ring for you. It’s the pusher, Sienna Cray!”

Sienna appeared from across the glass cube, and I noticed she was already shaking her head with a grin on her face before we even started to walk toward the glass ring.

As I stepped through the gap in the glass, I heard her laugh.

“Knew you’d be back.” She smirked as she looked me up and down. “Nice to see you in less clothing.”

“Now, the last time I saw you, you had a bloody lip in the bar below our feet,” I commented with a grin of my own. “I’ll do my best not to bruise that pretty face of yours, okay?”

“You’d better not hold out on me.” Sienna suddenly frowned. “We fight for real or we don’t fight at all.”

“I admire the hustle.” I shrugged nonchalantly. “How’s your healing?”

All students at Meloria were taught basic healing skills, but everyone’s skill level was different. Shifters had it easiest, since our healing was almost instinctual.

“On point,” she insisted. “Let’s go, handsome.”

A bell rang and reverberated around the huge glass cube, and Sienna Cray immediately disappeared from where she’d been poised in front of me.

I let out a bored sigh and waited.

After about maybe ten seconds, I caught a whiff of her scent and felt a sudden force in the air knock me back toward the edge of the glass ring, so I planted my feet into the floor and let the familiar heat of a shift brew from the center of my back and out toward my extremities.

The warmth traveled through my veins until it took over every inch of my body, and with a roar, I morphed fluidly into my white tiger fera. I felt another pusher attack hit me in a sonic wave as my paws thudded against the glass, and I huffed out through my feline nose as I skidded away again.

She couldn’t quite get a grip on me yet, she could only shove me a little, and I knew this fight would be over almost disappointingly soon.

But at the very least, it would prove to the masses how little Sienna deserved to be in the main ring.

As cute as she was.

I sniffed through my tiger nostrils and pricked my ears. I could smell her scent, a mixture of sweet hairspray, mint body wash, and butterscotch, somewhere to the left of me, and my ears searched for the telltale thump of a heartbeat.

Sienna was crouched in the back left corner of the cage, so I stepped out toward the right to make her think I was moving away from her.

The moment I heard her take a deep breath, I leapt from where I stood in one fluid movement. Then I launched myself toward the left corner, and by the time her heartbeat had quickened in fear, it was too late.

I batted a paw out in a swiping motion as I began to land, and my claws came into contact with Sienna’s shoulder. The pusher yelled in sudden pain, and she materialized in front of me with her chest heaving and blood dribbling from two huge welts in her skin.

I snapped my jaw at her, and she held her good hand up determinedly as I rounded on her again. I huffed air out of my nose and leaned on my back legs so my two front paws raked at the air in front of her in warning.

She chose not to heed it and threw everything she had at me.

This time, her telekinesis hit me full force, and it sent me flying across the arena. I skidded to a halt by using my long claws to scrape against the glass floor, and I let a growl form in my chest.

I wanted to let her have one hit, partly for the show that I knew Mr. Lowrey desired, and partly so I didn’t feel completely guilty for actually hurting her.

Her invisibility kicked back in as I dug my claws into the glass, and I focused on the heat of her heartbeat. The sound was erratic, panicked in its fury, and I focused on its location within the glass cage.

To my right, three steps away.

I let a continuous rumble of a growl echo through my chest as I took a step forward, and I heard Sienna’s heartbeat shift a step behind me.

I kept my hackles raised and my ears pricked, and I did my best to drown out the drone of the crowd and the shouts of the announcer and focus on just that one singular sound.

She’d skirted to my left, and I immediately took my window of opportunity.

She had made the mistake of coming too close, and now she was in biting distance.

I let out a sudden roar, tilted my neck to the left, and opened my jaw around her arm. Then I immediately clamped down, and Sienna rematerialized with her wrist between my two rows of teeth.

I fixed her with a deadly stare, but she pulled once and grimaced as my teeth dug into her skin. Then, with a set jaw, she slowly raised her hand and patted me patronizingly on the head in defeat.

I loosened my focus on her heartbeat so the swell of the crowd reached my ears again, and I shifted back into my human form with a grin.

I was still close enough to her that I grabbed her wrist, and I wrapped an arm around her waist when she faltered on her feet slightly as the adrenaline began to wear off.

“Focus on your healing,” I muttered to her quickly. “Do it, now. You’re still bleeding a lot.”

Sienna grumbled something under her breath but closed her eyes and leaned against me for a moment as she focused.

Once I was sure the bleeding had stopped, I raised both my arms triumphantly once again with a wide grin.

The crowd went wild, and I took a few bows before I was shuttled back down to the lockers so I could retrieve my shirt. Within ten minutes, I was back in front of Mr. Lowrey’s burnished metal desk.

“You really do make it look easy,” Auden’s father chuckled as he lit another cigarette.

“That was an easy one?” Penny asked with wide eyes.

“You had me up against a pusher who was maybe a quarter of my size, if that.” I shrugged and smirk. “It feels almost wrong taking a hundred grand off you for that.”

“And yet, you will.” Mr. Lowrey pointed at me with a laugh. “And yet, you will, Mr. Turner. I’ve taken the liberty of setting up a bank account in your name, so I can deposit them rather than give you wads of cash.”

“Works fine for me.” I nodded appreciatively. “Thank you, sir.”

“Thank you,” Mr. Lowrey countered. “Now that Sienna is off the docket for the main arena, we can get some serious fighters in there again.”

“Yeah, give him a worthy opponent next time…” Dax muttered with an overexaggerated eye roll.

“Quite,” Mr. Lowrey chuckled. “Now, aside from the one hundred thousand dollars you’re about to be given… How is it I can help the three of you?”

“Dax is brewing a potion for us,” I explained delicately. “And there’s a particular ingredient…”

“That cannot be purchased from any old herb shop?” Mr. Lowrey finished my sentence with an understanding nod. “What are you after, exactly?”

“Powdered snowstone,” Dax said and coughed awkwardly. “The cursed kind.”

Mr. Lowrey whistled and immediately pulled another cigarette out of his pewter colored metal case. I watched him twirl the filter between his fingers before he brushed his lips to it, and then eventually he wedged it into his smoking ring. He played with his lighter for a moment before he finally used his thumb to flick the switch.

“You’ll be spending most of your winnings,” Auden’s father warned me in a low voice. “But I do know someone from whom you can buy such black market ingredients.”

Well, it was a start.