Chapter 251

“You can sit there, Ariel’s boy,” Blaze says, waving a general hand towards the wall by the door as Luca follows me into the small gym and pulls the door shut behind him. “You are not to interrupt. Read your book, if you would, or watch. But no talking.”

Luca raises his eyebrows at me, I think a little baffled and intrigued by this bossy little man, but he nods and does as he’s told, taking a seat by the wall and settling his bookbag on the ground next to him. As I drop my own bag by the door and head to the center of the room, Luca pulls out the same book he was reading in the hall and opens it in his lap, starting to read it. Or at least, pretending to.

“Hands behind your back,” Blaze says, taking his familiar, relaxed fighting stance across from me and raising his own hands. When I exhale a deep breath and knot my hands behind my back, he nods once. “And we begin.”

Blaze is instantly moving, as he always does, his hands like knives in the air coming for me so quickly that I can barely see them. I move backwards, dodging his blows as best I can. When I run out of space on the mat, I move swiftly to the left – which is when he gets me.

“Hahaa, princess,” Blaze says, smacking me hard on the shoulder. “Got you.”

I scowl a little, glaring at him. “You always get me.”

“You are getting faster though, little bird,” he says quietly, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and leading me back to the center of the room. “I see your progress. Soon, when you can get all around the room without a touch, I will teach you how to block.”

We continue like this for a long time – what feels like hours even though I know it’s less. And honestly, even though it seems basic, it’s all that we do. On our first private meeting together I was surprised when Blaze made me put my hands behind my back – told me that I wouldn’t learn to strike at all until I could learn to properly dodge.

“You cannot hit,” he had said, his cheerful smile on his lips, “if someone is already punching you in the face.”

And then he’d smacked me across the cheek, pretty hard, to demonstrate his point that I really, really needed to learn how to evade the kinds of blows that would take me out.

Unfortunately, I’m not very good at it yet. But like he said – I am getting better. When we first started a few days ago I could barely get one step without Blaze smacking me. But he taught me some techniques about how to watch for movement, how to predict the direction of the next blow – how to even control my opponent’s next actions, in part, by how I move my own body in response. The work is fascinating and engrossing, engaging my mind as much as my body.

And I have to admit – I love it, and I’m improving. By the time the class ends, I make it nearly halfway around the room before Blaze gets a touch in.

“Very good, little bird,” Blaze murmurs, stepping forward and giving me a big hug even though I’m all sweaty and gross. I laugh a little, hugging him back. “In a few short months we will teach you how to do it with a knife in your hand, and then you will be a dangerous little animal indeed.”

“Cool,” I say, panting a little and grinning as I pull back. “I’m excited for that part.”

“I am too,” Blaze says, giving me a steady nod. Then, to my surprise, he turns to look at Luca. “And what does the creature think?”

“Me?” Luca asks, looking up at us and pointing a thumb at his chest.

“Yes, you,” Blaze says slowly – perhaps a little too slow, like he thinks Luca might not understand. I laugh and Luca grins.

“I think it’s cool,” Luca says, closing his book and looking between the two of us. “I’ve never seen a technique like that before – it’s really interesting.”

“And you are a fighter?” Blaze asks, his eyes sweeping expertly over the well-muscled set of Luca’s shoulders, well-formed by years of boxing.

“I am,” Luca says seriously, pushing up from the floor as he intuits that the lesson is done.

“Well then,” Blaze says, looking at him for a long second and then shifting his eyes to me. “Perhaps you can put our Ariel through a different set of paces. See if her dodging skills adapt well to a different fighting style, or if she’s only able to dodge me because I’m the one that taught her.”

My eyes go wide a bit as I start to understand Blaze’s proposal. “Wait, you want me to fight Luca? Do you – do you know who he is? What he can do with those fists!?”

“You said he is your creature,” Blaze says, shrugging, I think a bit pleased with himself as he turns quietly and heads towards the other door in the room – though I don’t know where it leads. “I doubt he will punch you very hard, Ariel. See you tomorrow!”

And with a little wave, Blaze disappears through the door.

“What do you say, gorgeous,” Luca says, grinning at me and moving to the center of the room. “Wanna fight me?”

“Um, no!” I say, even though I follow him to the spot at the center of the room where I always start with Blaze. When I get there, Luca raises his fist into his boxer’s stance, his muscles smoothly settling into it in a way that suggests he’s done it a hundred thousand times before. Which, of course, he has.

“Oh, come,” Luca says, smirking and giving me a cheeky wink. “I won’t hit hard.”

I groan a little even as I fold my hands behind my back, taking up my own much less threatening stance. “Don’t hit me in the face, okay?” I say with half a sigh, looking up into his brown eyes, my own pleading. “I want to stay cute.”

“You looked pretty with a black eye too, when we first met,” he says. “But, sure. Body blows it is.” Luca shifts his fists almost imperceptibly lower, but then suddenly he’s moving – starting to swing. I gasp a little, taking my first step back, but Luca’s fist and long arm is already there, coming from my right. I gasp a little as his fist takes me in the arm, knocking me to the side so that I stumble a few steps.

But, as promised, he was gentle. Or at least, as gentle as a six-foot-something Alpha can be with fists the size of small melons. Still, it was light enough that there’s no chance that I’ll even bruise – except, obviously, my pride.

“Gotcha,” Luca says, still grinning at me, I think kind of loving this. “That was easy – honestly, Ari, is he teaching you anything?”

“No fair!” I whine, starting to get pissed. “I wasn’t ready. Set up again.”

Luca does as I ask, taking a step back to the center and raising his fists again. I bend my knees, getting ready, and then we’re off again. I duck under Luca’s fist this time but Blaze was right – I was getting used to his method of fighting. With Luca, I have to completely adjust. He gets me on the second blow and I bare my teeth at him, making him laugh, and then I shove him backwards, making him start again.

We go on for a further thirty minutes and I fall completely into the practice, concentrating hard and finding new ways to predict the blows, moving back faster than I do with Blaze to stay out of Luca’s reach, dodging lower and feinting different directions to confuse him. The result, I’m pleased to see, is that I finally make it to the back of the mat without him touching me.

I give a shriek of victory when I get there, throwing my hands up, but Luca – scoundrel he is – snarls roughly and dodges forward, wrapping his arms around me and yanking me up into the air. I shriek with laughter, pounding my fists against him, shouting about how he’s a cheat and needs to put me down immediately.

“I made it!” I pant, still smacking at him a little, “admit it! I made it, I won!”