Page 147 of When Darkness Calls

The fight is brutal. Within the first seconds after the bell rings, Grayson and Ethan attack each other like rabid animals. Teeth bared, fists flying, kicks landing hard with resounding cracks. Grayson isn’t backing down, he almost seems to gain energy as the fight goes on, but Ethan…he seems bored.

With each blow, you would think he’d show some sign of life, whether it’s pain, or like Grays, that adrenaline is coursing through his veins. Instead, he just stares with a deadened expression.

As the bell rings ending the first round, Cade curses.

“I know what you guys mean now. What the fuck is wrong with him?”

“There are some illnesses that cause people to not feel sensation. No pain. At all. Ever. They don’t even feel if something is hot or cold. It could be that?” Keegan suggests watching Ethan intently.

“Or…” Nick adds, popping out from nowhere. “Or it’s something much worse.”

I look at Nick, noticing the slight darkness in his words. “What could be worse?”

He shoots me with a deathly stare. “A lot of things, Dani.”

Alex is by the ring, shouting to Grayson as he wipes the sweat off his face. Grays nods at his words but his gaze is strictly on Ethan on the other side of the ring. He doesn’t have anyone with him cleaning him up. He just sits on the stool that was placed by one of the guys working. Sitting there stoically, like a marble statue.

It’s vastly different from when we’re at school. When he has this mask of the good guy, boy-next-door. Sweet smiles, “Yes, ma’am”s, and “Thank you”s. This is the Ethan I had been catching glimpses of all semester. The Ethan that left a bad taste in my mouth and my heart racing in the not good way.

A girl walks around the ring, shaking her ass, and amping up the crowd as she waves a large “Round Two” sign above her head.

The bell rings and they’re back at it. It would almost be too difficult to watch, but the way Grayson moves, so smooth, quick, and lethal like water rushing in a flood has me captivated.

A particular left hook has Ethan’s head snapping to the side. The crowd takes a collective gasp before the cheers grow louder.

“I told him to give a hell of a show. Goddamn, he’s fucking doing it,” Cay breathes beside me.

“I haven’t seen him working this hard since he tried to challenge Bruiser,” Keegan states, and when I look at him, something flashes behind his eyes.

“Is—Is that a bad thing?” Fear stuttering my speech.

Nick huffs, crossing his arms. “It’s not necessarily a good thing, Dee.”

The crowd “ooh”s and we turn toward the fight seeing Grayson stumble against the ropes blocking it off the ring.

He shakes his head, sweat and blood flinging off him. He looks up, catching my eye in the crowd. There’s a wild hunger within them.

Grayson smiles at me, blood dripping from his mouth, tinging his teeth pink, and down his chin onto his tattooed chest. I suck in a sharp breath, heart skipping a beat, warmth sprouting in my stomach.

He spits on the concrete, and looks at me again, winking with a smirk before standing and charging Ethan.

I’m in love.

Grayson jabs and throws another right hook, making Ethan stumble back, tripping on the rope.

Ethan grabs a hold of Grayson as he falls, dragging them both to the stone floor.

They roll around before Ethan finally wins, straddling Grayson, punching him over and over and over.

A horrified gasp leaves me, my hand gripping onto Cade tight.

“Yeah, not really good at all,” Nick mutters, and I see his arm disappear behind his back. Keegan places a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head slightly.

“One more round,” he states as the bell rings again.

Alex’s excitement from before is gone as he tends to Grayson’s split lip and the bruises forming around his cheek and jaw.

But a cry erupts from the back of the crowd, doors slamming against the concrete and metal walls.