Chapter 176

"A MANTICORE!" someone shouted. Many of the prisoners that had been standing near the cages took a few steps back. It looked like a lion but it had dark red fur and wings. The wings did not have fur and looked like something that you would find on a gargoyle. It had a distored looking human quality to it's face which was alarming. The long, thick, powerful tail had fur with large spikes that were made up of many smaller spikes. They seemed to glisten as it tail moved and twitched. The creature let out a loud growling roar. The second one followed quickly after hearing the first, only it spun around and looked at the cage behind it to see its fellow creature. The soldier in the first cage decided to take advantage of the momentary distraction and moved forward to try and grab the key tied on a gold cord to the largest pike at the center of the upper tail. He reached out slowly eyes on the head of the creature. His hand closed on the cord and as he pulled the cord with the key up and away, the manticore spun. The spike that the key had hung on seemed to explode, and spikes shot out from the creature's tail. The soldier was hit with many of them. Some of the spikes flew out of the cage between the bars, and many of the soldiers that were still too close also were hit with the barbs. The room errupted with screams of pain. Amaris stood up. Some of the people in the crowd gasped, while the vampires and some of the guards cheered. The soldier held the key up in his hand and did not seem very steady on his feet, but the manticore had frozen in place. Amaris saw the resolve that seemed to come into the man's eyes as he had made up his mind. The wounded soldier leaned out the bars to his right and yelled to the other soldier in the second cage. The soldier tore his eyes away from his manticore to see what was happening. The man's eyes grew huge in fear. The wounded soldier simply yelled "Catch" He threw the key with all his might in a high lob. It flew up into the air and came down straight into the cage behind the soldier that watched in dread. With the sudden yell and movement from the wounded man the creature that he was caged with attacked. It opened its wide maw revealing a massive jaw with three rows of teeth. It looked like a shark was about to bite down on the man. It lunged at his mid section and bit the man clean in half. The two sections of his body ceased to move on their own and simply went limp and dropped to the floor as the creature backed up and tossed to chuck it still had in it's mouth into the air and swallowed. Amaris screamed and covered her face as she began to sob. Her cry was drowned out by the cheering of the vampires and that of the King along with Sveta and Adam on the dais. To her right Amaris saw movement as Jason moved to help his mate who had gotten sick behind her. Amaris still could not move to look up, but she could hear the creatures growling and snarling. She could also hear crunching sounds which she thought might make her sick as well. Amaris had an idea. She got up suddenly from her chair covering her mouth and hurried to the back of the dais and pretended to be sick also. Jason was now standing between the two girls. The smell of vomit was pungent, and Amaris thought that she might actually be sick. When she saw that Jason's mate was taking a moment to breath, Amaris spoke softly to Jason. "Why do the vampires have Gran, Ben, and Emily?" Amaris took a quick look behind them to make sure that no one was watching them. They were all too enthralled with the spectacle and did not even notice that she had left her seat. Amaris heard Sveta yelling, rooting for the second manticore to do the same to the remaining soldier, apparently even with the key, he had not gotten out yet. Jason looked at her surprised. With a quick look back at his mate, he kept his arm around her shoulder as she tried to breath and cry at the same time. He rubbed circles on her back with his other arm. Jason ducked his head some. "I do not know. The King has an agreement with the vampires. I do know that he is to turn over Christos and a few others after the ceremony. I don't know who they are." He leaned back toward his mate to say something. A hand reached down and grabbed Amaris' arm. "You like fine now. Come sit. You will feel better." Adam said as his grip tightened on Amaris' upper arm. He dragged her back to her seat and pushed her down roughly. He leaned in close and spoke in a low tone. "You will not wiggle out of this one. Of course you can mark me now and we can take them all out in one fell swoop. They would not know what hit them and you and I can rule." He leaned back slightly as if to give her a chance to mark him. He was still too close for Amaris' liking. Her face wrinkled up and she put her hand up and waved him away. "Get out of the way. I can not see what is going on." Adam looked briefly disappointed and then angry. He moved back and went to Sveta's side where she was chastizing him for getting to close to another she-wolf. Amaris also briefly caught the King looking at her with a smug knowing look. Amaris suspected that he had heard Adam's comments. He attention was brought back to the spectacle. Now that Adam was not in Amaris' line of sight, she looked back at what was going on, just in time to wish that she hadn't. The manticore in the second cage spun round and bit off the head of the second soldier. She quickly looked away again. She sincerely hoped that the next challenge was not as awful as this, but she was not getting her hopes up.