No Mercy (Dark-Hunter 18)

All he wanted to do was kiss her, even though they were one step away from death.

"Incoming!"

Dev looked up as a pack of manticores launched out of nowhere to land all around them.

The men pushed themselves up, then put their backs to each other as the manticores circled them while barking and hissing.

"Why aren't they attacking?" Fang asked.

Ethon shook his head. "It's like they're herding us for something."

Yeah, but what?

Sam moved to hover by Dev's side. The manticores flicked their tails as they eyed them warily. She swallowed as she watched the arrows swim up their tails. The arrowhead would peek out of the ball of fur on the tip and then slide back down only to head back to the tip as if waiting for it to be flung at a target.

With the faces of men and women, they were creepy-looking.

"You should not be here," one of the females snarled.

"We'll be happy to leave." Ethon flashed a grin at her. "Just let us pass."

The female hissed at him.

Dev inched closer to the manticores until they turned on him. He stepped back and they retreated. "What do you want with us?"

"They want nothing with you."

Sam looked up to see a beautiful woman in the leather and gold armor of the Amazon nation. Her flaming red hair glowed in the overexposed light. Her hair was braided and held back from her face by a feathered leather headband. Matching feathers made up the white and brown mantle she wore over her armor as she eyed them with a warrior's gleam.

This was Aello. There was no doubt she was the girdle's protector.

"Why do you come here?" Aello demanded.

Ethon held his hands up. "The scenery. My God, have you ever? I mean really. I had a choice. Spend a day in Rio or come to the back door of hell. What can I say? Hell won out."

Aello angled her spear at his throat. "Are you mocking me?"

Sam used her powers to push the spear away. "Don't take it personally. He mocks everyone."

That brought Aello's stare firmly to rest on Sam. Her green eyes glowed in the strange light. "I know you."

"No. You died before I was born. I'm the granddaughter of Hippolyte and I'm told I favor her."

Suspicion hung heavy in her eyes as she measured Sam from the top of her head to the tip of her feet. "You want the girdle." It was a statement, not a question.

Sam nodded. "It belongs to me. It's part of my inheritance."

"And are you Amazon?"

She lifted her chin in pride and indignation that Aello would dare to question her heritage. "I was queen."

Aello lowered her spear. "Then you know nothing in our tribe is ever freely given. You must earn the right to wear your grandmother's girdle."

Ethon scoffed. "Couldn't we just buy a Playtex?"

"Silence!" Aello jerked the spear and would have beheaded him had he not ducked.

Ethon grabbed the lance and jerked it from her hands. "I'm not--"

Before he could finish, the spear turned on him and beat him down without anyone touching it. It swept his feet out from under him and once he was on his back, it kept slapping the ground on each side of him until he stopped moving. Then it hovered threateningly right above his neck.

Aello called the spear back to her. With a feral grimace at Ethon, she returned her attention to Sam. "Do you accept my challenge?"

Like she had any choice? "I do indeed, but I have no corporeal form, which puts me at a disadvantage." Something no self-respecting Amazon would accept. There was no dignity in winning over a lesser opponent. Only in defeating the absolute best.

Aello grabbed her and jerked her forward.

Sam's breath caught as she was transformed back into her body. Not just that, but she no longer wore a T-shirt and jeans. She was now in her warrior's battle armor.

She'd forgotten how heavy it was. Still, it was a good weight. A familiar weight. And it came complete with all of her weapons.

Oh yeah...with this she could do damage.

Bring those mutant lions forward now and she'd show them the business end of her toys.

Aello nodded in approval. "Now you look like what you claim."

The armor invigorated her as it reminded her exactly who and what she was. "I am what I claim."

"We shall see."

The manticores pushed the men back as Aello moved forward to pull Sam away from them. "The test is simple." She gestured toward the water.

The dark boiling waves receded. From the sand a pedestal arose. On top of it, in a glass case that held a nest of cobras, was Hippolyte's shimmering gold girdle.

Aello's smile didn't reach her eyes. "You race me to the girdle. She who dons it, owns it."

"And if I lose?"

Aello didn't hesitate with her answer. "You all die."

The manticores laughed happily.

Sam looked at Dev and she saw the concern in his beautiful blue eyes for her. She had no choice in this. If she refused the challenge, Aello would still kill her.

And them.

She met Aello's gaze without flinching and delivered the code of their people. "I am the steel and the hammer that forged a nation never defeated. My arm is without equal and my judgment pure. My heart is fierce and this challenge is met. I will not be defeated. Not by you. Not by anyone. I am Amazonia."

Aello smirked at her. "Spoken like a true queen. But let's see if your skills match your tongue."

Sam gripped her spear with her right hand and her bow with her left. And as Aello sprang forward into the obstacle course without notice, she remembered something crucial about her people.

Amazons always cheated.