Volumes of the Vemreaux Complete Collection: A Dystopian Adventure Trilogy, page 60
Next came the boxing gloves and punching bag, which they all took ten-minute turns with, beating it repeatedly while Baird commented on form and thrust (the latter of which brought out several lewd comments from Brody).
This day was different than the previous, because Baird gave them a meter-long piece of wood. “When you’re out there, you’ll have all of your weapons on you to start, but you never know what’ll happen to them. You’ve got to be ready to fight with whatever’s handy. Find a solid stick or something, if you can.”
Sam cringed as the brand new punching bag was beaten with the makeshift weapon. Beautiful bags like the one that hung in front of him were not made for abuse from wood; they were meant for padded boxing gloves and feet. He boxed while in the service and, therefore, received no correction from Baird on his advanced capability.
Blue was berated once for having Sam’s arms snaked around her middle – a sight Baird wished could be permanently scrubbed from his eyes. “Sam’s in this to get ready for a dangerous mission, Blue. Distracting him by letting him hang on you isn’t gonna help either one of you.” He shook his head. “I want thirty one-armed pushups so you remember to keep your hands off each other. Come on, now. I want them as fast as you can crank ’em out. Go!”
While thirty was an easy number for Blue, it was difficult for Sam, who was accustomed to exercising with both hands. She slowed her pace to keep time with him, so as not to make him feel bad that this caused her very little effort.
Baird walked over to his sister when she stood up and frowned. “You’re going soft,” he pointed out. “That’s not gonna help you out there. You want this one to stay alive? You push him harder than that. Go, Vemreaux! Go! You’re dragging!”
Blue nodded, now feeling guilty that she’d kept Sam up so late with something as frivolous as kissing.
Several more training stints came and went, energizing the men as time wore on. Blue was allowed to participate in some of them after her obligatory three hundred additional one-handed pushups. They all knew what the big finish would be; it was becoming their favorite part of being in the sound-proofed basement room. The balance beam for dueling was the apple of each masculine eye, and they all waited excitedly for the chance to spar again with the Light.
“Hold up. Blue.” Baird tossed the thinnest of the long sticks to her, which was still good for use as a weapon. “Today you spar with weapons, but the rules are different. If they land a hit on you or what you’re guarding, they win. You still have to knock them off the beam, though. Got it? And don’t leave any visible marks. They’ve all got a long night of running ahead of ’em.”
“What am I guarding?” she asked, looking around the room for a sack or something that could serve as provisions. She hopped up on the beam as she twirled the stick in her hands.
“Sam, get up there behind her,” Baird instructed.
Sam raised an eyebrow at the man, but he knew better by now than to question him. He stepped up to her back, leaving just enough room for him to stand with one foot in front of the other.
“I don’t like it,” Blue protested, clutching her stick with more of a grip than was strictly necessary, given that there was no one to fight yet.
“You know I really don’t care.” Baird’s calm face suggested just that. “Since you two insist on being together and Sam’s going with you to the island, you’re gonna have to learn how to fight with him around. Learn how he compensates for you and how best to guard him from attacks, Blue. Trust me. This is necessary.”
The tranquility with which she walked into the session was now gone. In the back of her head, Blue knew that his friends would not seriously hurt him, but Alec’s aim was sometimes off. A swing that was meant to tap Sam’s side could end up bashing his head instead. Brody was no better. His somewhat more predictable aim did nothing if he was even the littlest bit emotional. His fists did not exhibit the control they needed to when he was upset.
Brody grabbed a long stick and stepped on the other side of the beam to face her. She backed into Sam like a momma bear protecting her cub. “Watch your temper,” she warned. “And your left arm moves faster than your right, so you don’t need to put so much force behind it. It throws you off balance sometimes. You get sloppy if you’re not careful, which you never are.”
Narrowing his black eyes at the girl, he chose not to respond to the advice. “Hope you don’t mind if I literally bash your boyfriend’s pretty face in. Don’t worry, Cherry, I’ll leave one of his arms unbroken so you can still do your naked tango at night.” He smiled wickedly at Sam, who returned his goading with a rude hand gesture.
Blue looked murderous, so much that Brody faltered in his bravado. Sam held up his finger to Baird to indicate that he needed a minute to talk to the girl before it all started. His arm wrapped around her waist, and she began to loosen her grip on the stick and her angst as his lips moved on her ear. “Shh, tesoro. It’s just Brody. This is easy for you. I’ll be fine back here. Your brother’s right; this is important. You’ve got to know that we can work together out there. Don’t you believe in us?”
Her eyes fluttered shut as goosebumps tickled the nape of her neck.
Baird rolled his eyes and grumbled, turning away from the grotesque sight and staring at the opposite wall obstinately.
Sam kissed her neck and she nearly dropped her stick, bringing her back to the present from the deliriously blissful memories of last night that bombarded her mind. “Okay.” She stiffened from him and gripped her weapon to ready herself. “Just be…I don’t want…” Blue could not figure out how to finish the sentence.
Sam removed himself from all contact with her so she could concentrate better. Baird turned back to face them when he was sure the sickening display was over. “Let him stay up for thirty seconds, Blue,” he reminded her.
Suddenly, the same thirty seconds she’d had to give them the morning before seemed an eternity.
Baird harrumphed. “Go ahead, guys.”
As soon as Baird gave the okay, Blue lashed out with her stick, attacking fiercely to get him as far away from Sam as she could without pushing him off the beam prematurely. Brody’s eyes were wide at her aggression. Usually she let them feel like they had a fighting chance. The further she moved from Sam on the beam, the more clearly she could plan her next move. Time crawled by, but when her count hit twenty-five seconds, she had no doubt that Brody would not get a hit in. Swinging the stick at his knees, she predicted that he would jump backwards and fall of his own accord off the edge.
Blue breathed out her fear and turned to find Sam untouched. He grinned at her with pride as his hand found hers. “See? Nothing to it. We belong together.”
“Aw, barf!” Baird groaned, rolling his eyes at the two. “Alec?” He motioned for the second man to take his turn on the beam after Brody cleared with his pride barely intact.
The reassurance Blue felt at her victory was short-lived as she sized up Alec. “Watch your aim,” she cautioned, spilling out the instruction Baird had yet to give him. “You keep using your upper arm to determine your hits, but it won’t work unless you connect your forearm and hand to the movement. You have to hit with your whole arm, Alec. If you take shortcuts, someone’ll get hurt, and I’ll make sure it’s you.”
“How long have you been holding that one back?” Alec readied his arms for the fight as he absorbed her instruction.
“Since you threw the first knife,” she spouted off, not bothering to pad her words for the benefit of preserving his feelings. Her back was pressed up against Sam’s chest, but she drew no pleasure from it. The weapon in her hands felt feeble and almost laughable. “Can I get a thicker stick?” Blue’s face contorted with discomfort and worry.
“Quit stalling, or I’ll take the weapon away altogether,” Baird warned, showing no mercy for his sister’s fear.
Alec’s expression softened. “Don’t worry, Blue. No one’s going to…” But he did not finish the sentence. The girl lunged at him, putting him at a disadvantage. He backed away step by step as he parried her attacks, trying to match her efforts as quickly as they came. Usually she allowed them to try their hand at hitting her, but Alec realized that she would not play games with Sam’s safety at stake. He upped his game by using his full strength against the girl, swinging hard at her small body.
In her periphery, Blue noticed a sudden movement that brought her head around to see what it was. Baird had a long stick and had wound up to strike at a confused Sam from his position on the mat. Blue shrieked, revealing that underneath the muscle, she was truly a girl at heart.
“Baird, no!” she screamed as black wisps crawled into the edges of her vision. Unable to turn her back on Alec, she backed up into Sam to shield him from the blow that Baird threatened. “It’s happening!” she warned.
In one clean movement, her stick swept in front of Alec in a down-and-around motion that came so close to his most vulnerable and cherished area that he jumped back. The stick did not stop as it rose in the air, but kept its arc going strong as she pivoted on the ball of her foot and brought the weapon down hard on Baird’s menacing piece of wood. “Help me, Baird!” she pleaded. Blue dropped her stick to clutch her temples, attempting to force the darkness out before it took over. “Get Liam out!”
Discarding his weapon, Alec grabbed Blue from behind. Knowing she would turn to face him, he caught his leg between hers as she attempted to twist on the beam. Cocking back his elbow, his palm encircled the back of her head. In one swift push, Alec shoved her face-first over his knee straight, down toward the mat.
The crown of Blue’s head smacked the mat hard. Her torso and legs folded over in a crumpled mess until she was flat on her back. She did not bother landing gracefully; the shock of being overturned was too great, and it chased the black spidery fog away, restoring her to herself. She stared up at the overhead light on the ceiling without blinking as she pondered how she went so wrong.
Blue had no idea how long she lay on the mat, nor how long Baird, Sam, Liam and Alec were bent over her trying to bring her back to the present. When she realized she was being spoken to in urgent tones, sound came back to her along with sensation. “Tesoro, say something! Talk to me, Blue.”
“I’m sorry, Blue. I shouldn’t have thrown you over like that. It was too rough,” Alec fretted.
“You think?” Sam growled. Then his voice melted back into anxiety-laced concern. “Blue, can you hear me?”
“Guys, give us some room, will ya?” Baird rolled his shoulders and popped his elbows outward to nudge the others away. Liam and Alec scattered back, but Sam held his position to keep himself in her unfocused vision. “Hey,” Baird said, getting in Blue’s face. “Do you know where you are?”
Blue could not think to respond.
Baird only just put together that she had been warning him about an encroaching blackout, so he did the only thing that worked in these situations. He pulled back and smacked her hard across the face.
All four men shouted at Baird, but Baird paid them no mind, even as Sam shoved him. “Alec and Brody, you need to guard Liam. If I say so, get him out of here as fast as you can,” he instructed without taking his eyes from his sister’s unblinking stupor. “Blue, do you know where you are?”
Blue nodded as his words began to make sense to her, which was a mistake. Her head swam with dizziness, threatening to make her vomit all over the men attending to her so sweetly.
“Where are you?” he demanded, showing her no compassion. There was a fear lurking beneath Baird’s blue as his eyes bored into her.
She responded, but the words came out all jumbled. “Haffelsbenny.” Baird’s shoulders relaxed in a huff as he let go of the apprehension he’d been holding onto. He watched his sister blink away the last vestiges of shadow and meet his eyes with more lucidity. He made a show of breathing deeply, so she would mirror his effort.
“Did…did I sleep?” she asked hopefully. “Was that sleeping?”
Baird shook his head.
The long drags of air became shorter and shorter as Blue came out of her haze, entering full-on panic. “Liam?” she croaked, terror strangling her as her mind returned. “Did I…”
“No. Liam’s fine. You didn’t kill anyone. You stopped it in time.”
Blue choked out a tearless sob. Baird gave her a stern look that cut her cry short. “Liam’s fine. Alec knocked you out before you cut loose.”
Her brow furrowed as her mouth popped open. “Am I…did I get thrown off the beam? Did I lose?”
Baird nodded seriously while Brody laughed in the background. “Can you feel your arms and legs alright?” Baird was crouched over his sister, and refused to let anyone else touch her.
“I’m fine,” Blue assured him. “Just a little stunned, that’s all. How did I lose?”
Sam chimed in. “Don’t worry about that right now, amorosa. Just take it easy.”
Baird ignored Sam and made sure his sister’s attention was on him before he spoke. “You were tossed off the beam by a move you should’ve been able to counter. You can’t fight with Sam on the island, Blue. If Alec can catch you off guard, the predator’ll have no problem.”
Blue’s lower lip quivered. “I failed the test?”
“Yep,” he answered, drawing hateful looks from Sam and Liam. “There’s a first for everything.” He despised the feminine weakness he saw emanating from her, threatening to erupt in the form of weeping or something equally horrible. “Don’t you dare cry about this. You’ve never been a crier, and I won’t let you pick up the bad habit on my watch.”
When Sam reached to touch her cheek, Baird intercepted the advance with a slap. “Don’t,” he warned. “I won’t have you turning her into a child. Do what you want on your own time, but in this room she’s a warrior, not a woman. She doesn’t need consoling. Brody gets knocked off every time, and he gets right back up. Alec did the right thing. Do you think the predator’s gonna go easy on her?” He turned his attention back to his sister. “Are you weaker than Brody?”
“Hey!” Brody protested.
“Do you belong on the floor?” He watched his sister shake her head, her mournful expression turning defiant. He stood up, daring Sam to object. “Do not help her up. The predator won’t stop to offer her a hand if she falls down. Stop wallowing, Blue. When real people fall, they pick themselves back up. You want to be a regular person and not the Light? Well, this is what it feels like. When you decide to join the rest of humanity, we’ll be back on the beam.” He snapped his fingers to Sam. “Come on.”
If Sam had ever hated anyone before, it was nothing compared to the utter loathing he felt towards Baird. Though what he said had some truth to it, Sam despised the way Baird treated Blue when she showed a single moment of weakness. Sam did not rise, but sat at Blue’s side, determined that she would know real love, even if Baird killed him for it.
Blue lifted her head, but laid right back down when the room started tilting. Sam’s hand reached to steady her, but she shirked away from his touch. “Don’t,” she begged, refusing to meet his hurt expression.
“What?”
“Don’t touch me. Don’t look at me. Just don’t,” she muttered miserably. “You have no idea what I almost just did.”
“But you didn’t!”
“But it’s in me, and I don’t want it near you. Go away,” she ordered. “I mean it.” The ice in her eyes froze the rest of her features from exhibiting any vulnerability when she was able to right herself. “Okay, Baird. Where did I go wrong?”
“You left Sam wide open by going on the offensive like that. If you were fighting one person, that might work, but chances are, you won’t be. People say ‘the predator’, but it could be more than one person or thing. You can’t leave whatever or whoever you’re guarding so exposed. If there was one more of me on the other side, Sam would be dead by now.”
Blue’s mouth fell open as she scrambled to her feet. “I’m sorry!” She put her hand to her forehead to check that her head was, in fact, still attached to her shoulders. How could she have missed something so obvious?
“Sorry isn’t gonna cut it out there.”
“I know,” she admitted, hanging her head shamefully.
“And you almost lost control because you were worried about Sam. Sam doesn’t matter out there, Blue. And he was never in any real danger here. Killian and the predator are all that matters. You almost lost it in this safe room because I poked at him with a stick. Do you understand that you could’ve killed Liam?”
“I know! I’m sorry!” she exclaimed, hugging herself around the middle. She saw Sam’s arm reach to wrap around her, and she jumped away from it. “I said don’t touch me!”
“I don’t care if you’re sorry! I care if you can get the job done, and right here, you failed.”
Blue met Baird’s eyes as if they were the only two in the room. “This isn’t going to work! I can’t do what I need to if I’m worrying about protecting everyone. They’re gonna get themselves killed because of me, and I won’t have it!” She stomped her foot down, wishing it sounded as firm as she meant it to. “I should go to the island alone, Baird, and you know it!”
“Right now, yeah. They might get themselves killed. If the predator goes for Sam, it’s safe to say you’ll probably slaughter everything near you, including the guys. But you’re not going right now. You have time to work on this, so do it. Just because something doesn’t come naturally to you doesn’t mean you can’t learn it. This is important, here.” Baird pointed his finger to the beam sternly, and she knew that he was unmoved by her plea. “Whether Sam goes or not.”
Sam bristled at the insinuation that he would be left at home babysitting Liam while the others fought for Vemreaux everywhere. “I’m going!” Sam spat in the man’s direction.
“Right now, none of you are ready, and the deal was I wouldn’t send you off until you were. So if you want to go, you’re all gonna have to work harder.” He was firm in his rule. “Sam, grab a stick.”
Blue reached for the handle of the door, but Baird was not willing to let her off as easily as the day before. “Not so fast, Blue. Yesterday was a freebie. If your boy’s gonna travel with you, there’s a possibility you’ll see him take a few hits. If you can’t handle it here, you’re useless out there.” He readied himself to spar with Sam. “Now, I won’t make you fight him, but you have to at least be able to watch. He’s stronger than you give him credit for.” Sam postured at the unmistakable compliment. “Relax, Vemreaux. I didn’t say you were strong enough, just better than the little girl she treats you like.”
