29. Onyx #2
Onyx loved sparring, especially right after he’d had his latest dose of vampire blood, and he could practically feel the blood singing in his veins.
It was great exercise, but more than that, it was one of the few things that made him feel powerful when his magic was beyond his reach.
He’d initially learned out of necessity, but he’d ended up having the knack for it.
Maybe he couldn’t do school things very well, and maybe he wasn’t as smart as he wished he was, but he could handle himself in a fight.
A lot of that was thanks to Shane these days.
If he was to go up against Paul Franklin or Marcos Sandoval now, he was pretty sure he would still have come out on top despite their years of specialized training.
It was a strange thought.
“Good,” Shane said when they paused to catch their breath. “What do you want to learn today?”
He pursed his lips, considering. What did he want to learn? Or was he just content to trade blows?
Instead of deciding, he said, “I’m sorry I got mad. You weren’t wrong, with what you said. I keep forgetting that things… aren’t like they were.”
“I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s not my business,” Shane replied gruffly.
Onyx sighed but nodded. He’d expected that much, really, and… Well, as much as he tried to be friends with Shane, it probably wasn’t a very good idea. Dominic definitely wouldn’t like it, though Onyx had been able to shield Shane in the past and could probably keep doing it.
“Ah, Dominic said I could give you weapons training. If you wanted,” Shane said after a pause.
That bombshell had him blinking and outright staring at Shane. “What?” Even Dominic wouldn’t be that suicidal, would he?
Then again, was it suicidal if Onyx wasn’t even trying to take a single shot at him?
Shane huffed a soft laugh. “Yeah, I’ve got practice knives and short staves to start with.” He shrugged one shoulder. “If you want. We can do something else.”
“No.” Onyx didn't even hesitate. “I want to learn. Either one, both, whatever.” His eyes shone with eagerness, with the need for more knowledge of how to make himself an even more lethal weapon than he already was. “Do you know how to use swords?”
Shane cracked a smile. “Some. I can teach you the martial arts styles of sword fighting, but I don’t have practice blades. If we start with staves though, I can teach you some of the moves that translate easily into swords.”
Onyx nodded. “Yes, please." He wondered what else he could talk Dominic into… and fuck, all of this was happening even before Onyx ever gave up his ass.
What sorts of things could he get away with if he went all the way?
No. No, no, no.
But he was starting to think Dominic really would hand him the universe on a platter if he asked for it. Anything at all… except his magic outside of a controlled setting.
At least learning more about defending himself and offense physically made the ache of missing his magic less profound.
Shane nodded, climbing out of the ring and going to where practice weapons had been left. He grabbed the two staves and climbed back into the ring. “These are hanbo staves, or short bo staves." He handed one to Onyx.
Onyx examined the staff when Shane handed it to him, and he tested the weight of it in his hands.
It was solid, and it seemed like it could deal a good blow to someone — probably Onyx himself for a while, as he learned how to use it.
Training had always been difficult, and he’d gotten hurt so many times until he’d learned his body better. This was going to be no different.
But that didn’t stop him from wanting to learn anyway.
“They’re used in several styles of martial arts, and many of the strikes will be similar in form to ones that will eventually be used with swords.
” Shane held his bo out in front of him, evenly balanced between his hand grips, which were at shoulder width.
“Start here, and I’ll show you the basics. ”
Onyx mimicked how Shane was holding the staff, watching him intently.
“The first three strikes are shin, hip, shoulder.” Shane made each motion clearly as he demonstrated each one.
“Keeping your hands in place, do the first three on the left, and then the same ones on the right; shin, hip, shoulder.” He put his staff down to circle around behind Onyx and adjust his form as he went through each of the strikes, making little corrections to his grip and stance until he had them right.
Shane always had new things to show him, but this delighted and amazed Onyx in new ways, too. He was eager to learn, eager to make those corrections and patiently learn how to hold it and do the basic strikes. “And now we do this forever until it’s instinctive?” he ventured.
Shane chuckled. “We start with these and then we keep adding new ones.” Picking his staff back up, he grinned at Onyx. “This is the first kata.”
He demonstrated the full set of moves; shin, hip, shoulder, upper diagonal, across at shoulder length, down, twist, down again, down diagonal the other way, opposite shoulder, hip, shin. Twist, repeat to the side.
It was fascinating.
When Shane was done, he turned back to face Onyx again. “So now add the diagonal. Shin, hip, shoulder, rotate here and then up diagonal.”
He repeated the movements more slowly, then went to help Onyx through the steps again.
This was, admittedly, a lot, but Onyx thrived on the challenge.
He might complain about the book learning, but when it came to anything physical — really, anything he already had an aptitude with — he was more than willing to start from the basics and work up.
It didn’t make him feel stupid, or awkward, or clumsy when he knew he’d pick it up soon enough.
He let Shane adjust his stance and help to guide him through more efficiently making each strike, concentrating hard on what he was doing.
“What’s a kata, anyway?” he asked a few minutes later as the unfamiliar word finally registered in his mind.
Shane smiled. “A kata is the name of a set of actions used to practice moves in Eastern martial arts. We’ve been doing them all along, with each of the patterns of moves that I’ve been teaching you.
This set of movements—” Shane went through a series of strikes, blocks, and kicks that he’d taught Onyx before.
“—is called the Danennsho kata, from Ryui Kai.” He picked the staff back up again, then went through the series he’d already shown.
“This is the Ha Po No Jo kata from the same.”
There was no way Onyx was going to remember any of that, but it sounded nice.
And he’d try, because it was sort of neat to be able to put words to a series of attacks.
“Danenn… What?” He’d already forgotten the name for the attacks, but he was fascinated by it all the same.
“Do they all have cool names? Have you been hiding that from me this whole time?”
Shane laughed. “I haven’t been hiding them from you, and I’ve been using forms from several different styles.
Some of them have cool names; some of them don’t, and they’re just called something like ‘fighting form seven, hand strikes.’ For someone learning a specific style, learning all of the names is part of the whole art form.
For just learning to fight, they’re useful patterns and forms for learning how to use movements, and the names aren’t that big of a deal. ”
“It’s totally a big deal,” Onyx insisted, grinning at Shane. “Now you have to teach all of it to me all over again until I learn what they’re all named. And the ones that don’t have names… You can make it up. I’ll never know the difference.”
And it wasn’t like he was going to be teaching anyone else.
Shane grinned. “I can do that,” he said. “So, we’re starting with the Ha Po No Jo kata.”
For the rest of the lesson, he worked Onyx through each of the steps for the kata, correcting each movement and motion so that by the end Onyx was able to do one full cycle slowly but accurately.
Onyx felt alive and happy, thrilled to be learning something that had measurable results.
“Okay,” Shane called the end of the hour. “That’s enough for today.”
Onyx let out a disappointed sigh, but he nodded. “Okay, okay. Tomorrow’s the warehouse, then… more the next day?” he asked hopefully. There would be so much to learn, so much to master, and then when he got bored of staves, there would be knives.
“More then,” Shane confirmed.
Onyx offered him a grin, then wandered off to the showers, rinsing off the sweat before getting dressed again. Dominic would be there or calling for him any minute, he knew.
And after this progress, well…
He didn’t want to go backwards.
Dominic was in the gym quietly talking with Shane about the plans for the next day’s trip to the warehouse when Onyx got out of the showers. He broke off of the conversation when Onyx approached, and he smiled faintly. “Shane says you enjoyed learning with staves today.”
Onyx stepped in close to Dominic. He’d been debating what he’d do when he saw the other witch since the moment he’d stepped into the shower, and he knew that it would work in his favor if he thanked Dominic for the lessons.
Dominic wanted him, all the way through and through, and the best way to thank him… He leaned up, brushing his lips lightly against Dominic’s cheek, not quite bold enough to kiss him on the mouth in front of Shane. “I did. Thank you,” he said, and those words were sincere.
“Good.” Dominic leaned in to kiss Onyx more firmly.
Onyx was a little uncomfortable at kissing Dominic like that in front of Shane, so he didn’t look in the wolf’s direction. Lucky. He was lucky. He had everything he could possibly want.
It only cost him everything.