While I grunted on the floor and struggled to get up, he moved from the top of me and went back to his corner. For a moment, I let myself wonder if I’d made a mistake pushing him away, but I stayed strong. He had a lesson to learn, and I wasn’t going to cave until I was certain he understood what he’d done wrong.
Spencer reached a hand to me, and I gladly took it. “Thanks,” I mumbled, then immediately regretted it as he tossed me back onto the ground.
“Don’t let emotions cloud your judgement. You fight to subdue or kill. Don’t ever let compassion get in the way of your safety.”
“You’re a prick,” I yelled after him when he walked away.
“No, I’m smart and alive,” he called back. He was also cocky.
Mason came for me next, but I refused his help.
“Oh, come on, Siren. I wouldn’t let you be insulted twice in a row. Or would that be three times?”
“Shut your mouth, Fae. Let’s fight.” Holding my hands out in front of me, I wanted nothing more than to begin our regular sparring. Sure, I’d finally gotten the upper hand, but they’d quickly knocked me down a peg or two and I was pissed the hell off.
When Mason stepped in closer, I slammed my fist into his jaw, and his chest rumbled. “You really wanna fight? Alright, then. Let’s do this.”
For the next twenty minutes or so, Mason and I traded blows until my chest burned so badly that I couldn’t stand straight. The positive ending was that Mason walked away limping and I’d made him groan in pain more than once. Though, I hadn’t kept him down a second time.
Nixie fluttered over to me as I laid on the ground, trying to recover. She placed her tiny hand on my forearm and zapped me.
“What the hell? Didn’t you just see the beating I took?” I asked.
“I did, and I told you when you were done, we’d be doing magic training. So, get your shit together and stand up.”
The damn fairy didn’t have an ounce of mercy in her little body.
When I didn’t move fast enough, she zapped me again, but this time, my heart beat harder and there was a boost of energy with it. Deciding not to say anything, I simply did as she requested and stood up with renewed strength.
Sure, my body felt like a semi-truck had ran it over more than once, but the bits of adrenaline pumping through me made it easier to ignore.
“Spencer, would you mind helping us out?” Nixie called, projecting her voice to the dryad across the room.
He reluctantly walked back over. “What do you need?”
“I need you to be a guinea pig. I need to know that Cara is conjuring the right magic, so she needs to test it on someone. How tough do you think you are?”
Shaking my head, I put a hand up. “No. I won’t purposely hurt him.”
“What’s the difference between punching the shit out of each other and using magic?” she countered.
“Uh, a big difference. I could lose control and actually hurt him.”
She turned back to Spencer. “Are you afraid she’d cause you harm you couldn’t recover from?” Spencer shook his head. “Good, let’s begin. Spencer, I want you to attack Cara, and Cara, I want you to fire off the spells I say, and only those.”
Whatever. If he wanted to be an idiot, who was I to stop him?
As Spencer took a step forward, I readied my hands and brought my power forward. As he lunged at me, Nixie yelled “sting”, and I proceeded to hit him with magic that was meant to hurt. Instead, he laughed and landed a punch to my already-very-sore ribs.
“Again,” Nixie demanded, and it happened several times over until finally Spencer grunted.
“She got it that time,” he moaned.
“Good. Next, go for numb.” The fairy paced the edge of the mat as we each recovered and started again.
Over the next hour, I’d managed to sting, numb, shock, put to sleep, and blind Spencer. More than once, I’d caught Jaxon paying closer attention to us than normal, but never once did he step in, which surprised me.
Spencer finally called it quits when the ringing in his ears wouldn’t stop. “If you permanently hurt my hearing, Siren, we’re going to have some problems,” he half-yelled.
I slapped him on the back. “You’re going to be okay, old man. Thanks for helping out.”
“Don’t ask again,” he murmured, and we headed back to the lair, leaving Blake and Jaxon behind.
The others were already showered and changed by the time we got back, and I told Spencer to do the same before I took over the bathroom, so I wasn’t rushed.
As I took a seat on the couch with Nixie, I realized it was already after dinner and we’d somehow missed two mealtimes during training. I tried to remember what kinds of snacks I had hidden in my stuff, and by the time I decided to get up, Nixie was already fast asleep in my lap. Moving her carefully to the table, I didn’t get far before Mason came over and pushed me back onto the cushion, leaning back and tossing his legs over mine.
“You did good today. Better than any day before it,” he said, his unexpected compliment distracting me from my hunger.
“Slowly but surely, you guys are killing my pain receptors. Good for me, I guess.”
He shook his head. “It’s not just about what you can handle, it’s also about what you give back. You’re ready to kick some serious ass.”
“Thanks, but not today. For the rest of the day, I want to rest until nothing hurts anymore,” I whined.
He laughed. “I think that can be arranged, but at least clean yourself first. We don’t need you stinking up the couch.”
A retort about how I’d already planned on it was on the tip of my tongue, but Spencer exited the bathroom and I decided arguing something pointless wasn’t worth my energy. By the time I emerged from my scalding shower, all of the guys were in the living room, dressed in regular clothes instead of the yellow jumpsuit I was currently sporting.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Rogue bear shifter in lower Manhattan. He killed a human, and we need to bring him in before the police find him,” Blake said, and my heart broke a little.
We’d brought other prisoners in since my arrival, but only two and with minor offenses, people who would be out within a couple months. But this kind of offense put someone behind bars at Mandora for life. Taking a human life was the worst law a supernatural could break.
Grabbing a different outfit, I darted back into the bathroom and changed into jeans, tennis shoes, and my sweatshirt. Nixie was still sleeping when I came back out, so I scooped her up and tucked her into my pocket like normal.
Once I was ready, we all moved for the door only to find Deacon standing at the entrance when Jaxon opened it. “Here’s the file. Be careful with this one. He has very little humanity left.”
Jaxon nodded. “Thanks. We’ll bring him in.”
“Dead or alive. The warden doesn’t care which. Just clean it up before attention is drawn to our area,” Deacon added before walking away.
Well, that made our job a little easier in case the shifter insisted on going psycho on us. Still, my stomach turned and reminded me all that I’d eaten during the day was a bagel, but the thought of possibly having to kill someone a little later snuffed out my appetite.