Chapter VII #3
“Garza,” Xan growled without looking at Sarah. “What is she doing here?”
“I’m showing her around the training area,” Sarah replied with deceptive calm.
“You do recall that the Arena is a restricted-access area, do you not?”
He watched Vic as he spoke, as if he needed to keep an eye on her lest she attack. Vic almost laughed at the prospect of causing this man serious trouble in that regard. She was good, but she wasn’t that good.
“You said this morning that Vic couldn’t be a recruit, since she’s human,” Sarah said. “I assumed you meant different rules apply.”
Xan shot Sarah an unimpressed frown, and Vic’s gaze slid to the watching crowd, which had shifted ever so slightly closer to the confrontation. May Lin wore a livid expression as she stared at Vic and Sarah.
“Oh, ‘Vic,’ is it?” Xan said, returning his ire to Vic. Something like anxiety ran up Vic’s spine. “You said Victoria last night.”
Here was a man accustomed to intimidating people. Vic assumed most people cowered when he looked at them this way, both because of his stature and because of the general aura of threat surrounding him. It rankled her.
“Vic is a fairly obvious abbreviation of my given name,” she said.
“And are you enjoying your tour of the training area, Vic? I would have thought you got a decent enough understanding of things sneaking around last night.”
“I wasn’t sneaking.”
“What would you call it? Hiding in the shadows, eavesdropping on private conversations.”
“Listen, asshole,” Vic said, and someone below her gasped. “What the hell is your problem?”
“My problem,” he said, drawing closer and sticking a finger in her face.
Vic fought the urge to step back. Or bite it.
“Is that you’re in my Arena. And before that you were in my load-out room.
You’re in my castle, which makes you my responsibility.
And I don’t like liabilities.” Each word came out staccato and bracing.
Xan turned to Sarah without giving Vic a chance to respond. “Get her out of here,” he demanded, before jumping over the railing and landing silently on the dirt floor.
As he strode back to the group, another voice spoke.
“No.”
May Lin had a deep voice, and it hung in the air like a command.
“No?” Xan asked, his voice so low it sent a skitter up Vic’s spine.
“No,” May repeated. “She wants to be here. Let her try.”
The witches shifted behind May. A few muttered sounds between concern and intrigue.
“No way,” Sarah said. “May, be serious. She’s not a Sentinel.”
“She wants to be here, doesn’t she?” Turning to Vic, May said, “You want to see how the other half lives?”
Her eyes—a brown darker and deeper than Sarah’s—looked mean from this distance. If May assumed she could frighten Vic away, she had miscalculated.
“You want to play. Don’t you, Vic?”
Fuck you. “Fine,” Vic said.
“No, Vic. You’re not trained. You could get—”
“I’m fine, Sarah.” Vic patted her hand where it grasped the railing, and the frown on May’s face deepened.
Vic crouched under the metal rail and leaped into the pit. Her feet hit the compacted earth and she stood, brushing dust from the tops of her thighs.
“Xan, I was only playing with you when I brought her here,” Sarah said. “You can’t actually let her do this.” But the man in question was watching Vic closely. Assessing her, Vic knew. Judging her, like everyone else here. She set her jaw.
“Lin’s right, Garza,” he said, gaze stuck on Vic. “She wants to be here.”
Vic stopped in front of May and worked out the muscles in her hands.
Her outfit wasn’t ideal for fighting, but at least she had sneakers on.
And her jeans were loose enough that mobility wouldn’t be a serious issue.
The knife she’d stolen was secure against her back and didn’t move when she did.
Vic could handle this, she knew. She’d seen May fight already. She had the advantage.
Xan watched her with a vague expression, as if waiting for her to balk. She narrowed her eyes at him before rolling out her shoulders and turning to her opponent.
“Go ahead and call it,” she told Xan over her shoulder. “Ready whenever.”
After a moment’s pause, Xan said, “Standard sparring rules. No faces. No nails. No permanent damage.” He directed all this at May, like she was the one hiding a knife. “And no magic,” he added, with emphasis on the final word.
“Yes, sir,” May said with a serpentine smile.
“Begin.”
May was fast—Vic would give her that. She lunged for Vic’s midriff.
But Vic was faster. She swung out of the way.
Vic landed an elbow between May’s shoulder blades, and the witch stumbled.
Righting herself, May wore an expression of such shocked indignation that Vic had to smile.
This made May, if possible, angrier, and her eyes darted to an unguarded spot near Vic’s ribs an instant before May struck.
Vic deflected the hit with the outside of her forearm.
“You’re confined by your sense of proper moves,” Vic observed, twisting out of another grab and circling May. “You’re not reacting organically.”
When May lunged again, Vic grabbed her hand, twisting to the side and pulling her arm behind her back. May tried to pull away, but Vic wrapped her left arm around May’s midriff, trapping her other arm.
“I can see what your boss meant,” Vic hissed in her ear, and May snarled. “You’re lazy.”
Vic let her go with a shove, and they circled again.
“You’re not used to fighting things that think, are you?”
“Shut up,” May ground out, her eyes flashing to different parts of Vic’s body in search of a weakness.
The angrier May got, the less rational her moves became. She got faster but dumber, acting out of blind rage. She wasn’t used to fighting things that goaded her, either.
Vic didn’t want to push her too far, so this time, when May reached for her, Vic let May get ahold of her arm.
Then Vic spun and brought the other woman down, using May’s forward momentum against her, and they grappled on the floor until Vic locked her knees around May’s hips and pressed her to the ground.
With Vic’s torso low and her elbows cutting into May’s arms, the witch couldn’t move.
“See, that’s what you should have done to Matthews.
” Vic smiled, and May’s gorgeous face twisted in anger.
Her mouth moved in fury, which Vic noticed a second too late was not wordless at all.
Sounds came from May’s lips in senseless syllables, and Vic pulled back from whatever was about to happen too slowly to stop it.
May spat in Vic’s face, and a force like a brick wall sent Vic flying backward.
She hit the dirt floor and rolled, her head pounding.
Blood poured from her nose. Her eyes teared up, and Vic couldn’t see through the wet haze.
Warm hands wrapped around Vic’s shoulders and pulled her to her feet, and she blinked fast, wiping the blood from her face.
“Are you hurt?” a rough voice asked. Xan’s face swam in front of her, eyes bright and concerned, and his hands hovered over her face. But her nose wasn’t broken, and Vic didn’t have time for this.
“Get away from me.” She batted his hands away. “What the fuck was that?” Vic twisted toward May, who was propped on her elbows in the dirt.
Though she’d expected May to look pleased, to flash another cruel smile, her eyes weren’t even on Vic. They were watching Sarah, who pushed past Xan.
“Are you okay, Vic? I’m so sor—”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Vic angled around Sarah to yell at May. “That was a fair and fucking square fight. Work on your grappling and try harder next time, asshole.”
“Enough,” Xan said, putting a palm on Vic’s shoulder. She smacked it away and rounded on him.
“Oh, now it’s ‘enough’?” Vic spat, poking the middle of his massive chest and ignoring the hard heat of the muscle under her fingertip. “Where were you and your fucking ‘enough’ thirty seconds ago?” Behind Xan, a Sentinel took a step back.
“Watch it,” Xan warned her, fire dancing in his eyes.
“Oh, yeah, I’m the one out of line here. I forgot. What is wrong with you people?”
“You’re the one out of place here,” he growled. “That”—he pointed at May—“should have scared the shit out of you.”
Vic rolled her eyes, and May—now rising—spoke. “I get why your brother insisted on coming early. Most recruits wait until they finish college, but I understand now. He needed to get away from you.”
Was that true? Vic’s body went cold, and her hands curled into fists.
“Enough!” Xan bellowed, and he moved to block Vic’s view of May. “Sentinels—out! Lin, Garza—I’ll see you in my office.”
Moving slowly like they didn’t want to miss anything, the Sentinels broke apart and left the pit. May stared at Vic with a hateful expression before storming after them.
Vic held Xan’s gaze as he considered her, blood and tears staining her face.
Adrenaline tore through her veins, fierce and wild.
She didn’t break eye contact, daring him to say something, daring him to look down on her for being here, for not being like him.
She had done well, dammit. She had won the fight before May threw magic in her face.
But Xan didn’t look judgmental. He looked surprised, and a little sad.
Something Vic couldn’t name passed between them.
Anger, maybe, or admiration. Her skin grew hot.
Xan broke their connection first, turning to follow the Sentinels out of the Arena.
“Don’t bring her here again,” he ordered Sarah as he walked away.