Cold Blood (7 page)

“
This is where we’re going to train?” I asked.

Alex walked further out into the field and turned to face me, his expression unreadable. “Yes.”

I wandered out to where he stood. “What do you want me to do?”

“
Touch your toes.”

I blinked. “What?”

“
Touch your toes. You need to stretch out before we start,” he explained.

“
Oh, right,” I mumbled.

I dropped my bag and bent down and touched my fingertips to my sneakers, holding them there until I felt the pull in the muscles behind my knees. Alex did the same.

I followed him through a few more stretching exercises and then straightened, waiting to begin.

For a long moment, Alex looked at me. His head was tilted to one side and even though his eyes never left my face, I had the feeling he was taking in my entire body, down to each individual muscle. When he spoke, his voice was brusque, and I wondered if maybe he didn’t like what he saw.

“
Before we can get into technique or positions, I need to see you move,” he said.

“
Move how?”

“
Attack me.”

“
Seriously?” I stared at him. “Are you sure?”

“
I’m sure. Come on.”

I took a slow step forward, unsure what to do. Alex watched me, his expression teetering on boredom.

That did it. I might not be able to move like the kids here, with all their power yoga and kung-fu kicks, but I’d taken down more than one Werewolf in my time. He didn’t have the right to look
bored
.

I squared my shoulders, bent my knees, and ran at him. The moment my body was in motion, Alex tensed. Not nervously, but in a way that said he was readying his muscles for action. He didn’t move forward to meet me, though; instead choosing to wait and let me come to him. When I was two steps away, I leapt, closing the distance in the air, with my arms extended in front of me.

I swept out with a fist, knowing he’d swerve to miss it, and came around quickly with the other.

He was fast. He managed to swerve and duck out of both punches.

I fell on him, the impact sending us both to the ground.

He tried to roll away from me, but I pushed hard against his shoulders and let myself become dead weight against him, pinning him momentarily in place. I raised my fist, ready to bring it down on his jaw, but out of the corner of my eye, I could see his free hand already coming around to knock me loose.

So I did the only thing I could to win.

I brought my knee up as hard as I could–into his groin.

His eyes rolled back, and he let out a guttural groan.

I rolled off, knowing the fight was over, and sat up, feeling incredibly guilty for the low blow. I wasn’t even sure why I’d resorted to it except that I’d needed to prove I wasn’t completely useless, and I knew if I’d lost the fight, it would permanently ingrain me as a loser in Alex’s mind. My self-respect–or temper–wouldn’t allow that.

Alex rolled away from me and writhed on the ground. He was groaning and making me feel even worse. “I’m really sorry,” I said.

No answer.

After a minute, he finally rolled back over and managed to sit up. He was breathing heavily and glaring at me. A vein in his temple stood out against his sun-tanned skin and it made me think of a cartoon character whose eyes were drawn like they would bulge out of their sockets at any moment. The image was enough to make me smile but I held it back, knowing that would be a mistake.

“
I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. Are you okay?” I asked.

“
I’m fine,” he said, through gritted teeth.

“
Are you sure? I couldn’t think of any other way to avoid your fist.”

His eyes narrowed, but some of the heat in his expression diminished. “You saw that?”

“
Your hand coming up? Yeah, why?”

He sighed, seeming to come to some internal decision, and slowly got to his feet. “I can’t fault you for doing whatever you could to win. And your instincts and awareness under pressure are good if you saw my hand coming up. Most people wouldn’t have from that angle. I know from personal experience. Let’s agree that from now on, a hit like that is off limits. Deal?”

I scrambled to my feet and faced him, relieved at how easy that had been. “Deal,” I agreed before he could change his mind.

We got to our feet, and Alex walked a few steps away, stretching his leg muscles carefully. I waited, not wanting to make it worse by asking if he was okay again. It was probably best not to bring it up anymore. And I was still distracted by his sort-of compliment about my fighting skills. He didn’t seem like the type to dish out praise very often.

“
Okay, I think we should work on technique,” Alex said, returning to the center of the clearing. He looked ready to go again which was kind of impressive. I knew my strength was more than that of a normal seventeen year old and he had to still be feeling the effects of my knee. But he didn’t show it. “You’re attack was basically head on, which is okay. I mean, it tells me a lot about you.”

“
Like what?” I asked, not quite sure I was going to like the answer.

“
Like the fact that you’re impulsive. You like to act first and think later. And you’re slightly overconfident. You don’t really care if I see it coming, because you’re convinced you can win.”

My chin came up, and the glow of his compliments faded. “But I did win,” I pointed out.

“
Which is why I said
slightly
and not
completely
overconfident. Your reflexes are good, though, and so are your instincts. We can build on that. And from what I’ve been told, that warehouse fight wasn’t your first encounter with Werewolves, and you managed to not get killed up ‘til now, so I have to assume there’s some raw talent there.”

He paused, eyeing me in a way that seemed to suggest he was planning what to do with me next. A ripple of excitement shot up my back under his gaze, and I clamped down on my muscles, mortified that he’d somehow see it and say something.

I mean, I wasn’t blind or dead, so I couldn’t help but notice that Alex wasn’t entirely disgusting to look at–okay he was drill sergeant hot–but I had a boyfriend. A boyfriend that I was in love with. But you couldn’t simply shut off your body; it reacted with a mind of its own. Still, I didn’t want or need that kind of distraction. Especially when I was here to learn about fighting and killing and how to fit in with all these crazy yoga kids. I was determined not to let anything get in the way of my goal.

“
Anyway, you’re not the worst I’ve seen,” Alex finished. He was, thankfully, oblivious to my silent argument with myself.

“
Thanks,” I muttered, pretty sure that most of what he’d said in the last five minutes had fully negated his earlier compliment.

“
Let’s start with the basics. You can’t win if your enemy is in better shape than you. But if you can outlast them in endurance and energy, you can find a way to outmaneuver them as well, even if they’re stronger and faster.”

“
Endurance,” I repeated, not sure if I liked where this was going. “How do we train for endurance?”

Alex’s lips parted in the first genuine smile I’d seen on him, so far. “We run.”

I ignored the way his smile lit up his eyes and grumbled incoherently. “Run? Seriously? I hate running.”

His smile twisted at the corners, and I realized the mistake I’d made in complaining. Maybe he wasn’t going to forgive me so easily after all. “Then this is going to be a long semester because my trainees run. A lot.”

“
Your trainees? So I’m not the first student you’ve trained?”

“
No. But you are the last.” He spun as he talked, and kicked off, jogging towards the clearing head, where the trees parted to reveal rolling green hills. “Talk and run. Come on,” he called out.

“
What about my bag?” I called back.

“
You better carry it,” he yelled, obviously not caring what happened to it.

I rolled my eyes and slung my backpack onto my shoulders. I caught up to him as he broke free of the trees, and we headed into the open space that made up the endless front lawn of the grounds. We were climbing up, coming closer to the top of a hill that would take us down towards the front gates. I was already winded by the time I matched my pace to his.

“
So why am I the last?” I asked.

“
Because I’m graduating at the end of the year, and with any luck, I’ll get placed on a strike team and won’t have to train anymore. Unless it’s in the field, of course.”

“
What’s a strike team?”

He glanced sideways at me and then shook his head. “I keep forgetting you don’t know anything. A strike team is assigned a specific area or region of the country. They are paid by the Hunter community to do nothing but search for Werewolf packs and take them out. Sort of like a SWAT team on a police force.”

“
So you just go in and kill them all?” I asked, shocked enough that I stilled my body, and stood staring after him. A rush of unexpected anger washed over me at the thought. It was barbaric. Inhuman. Genocide. At least it would be, if humans knew about it and labeled it. Apparently for Hunters, it was all in a day’s work.

Alex finally noticed I wasn’t beside him, anymore, and jogged back. He came to a stop in front of me, his eyes on mine in an expression of curiosity and something else…accusation? “If we determine they are a threat, yes, we kill them. If we find they are aligned with your little Cause group, then we leave them alone. If they are peaceable, we can’t touch them.”

I narrowed my eyes at his tone. “You say it like it’s a bad thing.”

“
The concept of peace is not possible for a Werewolf. It never was and it never will be. They were born monsters. We were born to eradicate them.”

“
You can’t be born a monster,” I said, in a low voice. I was tempted to be angry but I wasn’t sure what to think anymore. Alex was the epitome of a true Hunter to me. Strong, powerful, and obviously, completely prejudiced against Werewolves. If that was how they all were, who was I to try and change it, or judge it. Then again, where did that leave me? Did he think I was a monster?

“
Monsters are made through outside influences in their environment,” I said. “By definition, you could be labeled a monster, for hating someone because of their DNA.”

“
You really believe that?” He continued to stare me down, challenging me to continue the argument. A vein bulged in his temple, and we both breathed heavily, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t from the short run.

“
You’re relieved of your trainer duties,” I said. “I’ll speak with Headmaster and find someone else. I can only hope that all Hunters aren’t as prejudiced and close minded as you are.” Without waiting for an answer, I pushed past him and strode quickly across the lawn, heading for the main building that loomed up at the bottom of the hill.

I hadn’t gone far when a hand clamped down on my shoulder and spun me around. Alex’s eyes were no longer quietly angry, but blazing with fury. I opened my mouth to cut him off, to yell about equality and acceptance, but something made me stop.

“
What?” I demanded.

“
You think you’ve got me all figured out. You think you’ve got all of us all figured out. You don’t know anything about me.”

“
I could say the same about you,” I shot back. “You think I don’t see the disgust when you look at me?”

“
We all have our reasons,” he said, not even trying to deny it. “But this is what we were born to do.”

“
That may be true, for you. I’m not so sure I can fit into that mold. Either way, we definitely should not be working together. How can you possibly trust me, knowing that I’m half monster? That must bother you.”

“
It’s not the same. I won’t be going into battle with you.”

My eyebrows shot up, and I had to hold my hands behind my back to keep from hitting him. “That’s why it’s not the same? Because you don’t have to fight me? Aren’t you afraid I’ll turn on you in a training session and kill you?”

He shrugged. “Maybe. If you were capable.”

That did it. Maybe it was the events of the day, as a whole, that snapped my temper–the dog comments, and the note, and the threats. Maybe it was that Alex was way too cocky and condescending for his own good. Either way, I’d had enough.

I brought my fist around and connected with Alex’s jaw. His neck snapped sideways and from his profile, I could see the momentary shock on his face. I knew enough to take advantage of that, and that it wouldn’t last much longer, and I swung my other fist out, and smashed it into his gut.

Alex doubled over, clutching his stomach with one arm, and scrambled back a few steps, putting some distance between us. I didn’t try to close it. Not yet. I knew he was ready for it, now. It wouldn’t be that easy. Still, I was mad enough that I wasn’t finished.

“
What the hell was that for?” he growled.

“
To show you I’m capable.”

“
Message received.”

I took a step forward, eyes narrowed, hands fisted, letting all the tension and stress rise to the surface and boil over. “It’s clear we are too different to work together, much less be friends. I am half Werewolf, after all.”