Blood Warrior (2 page)

“Look, guys,” Riley said. “Two losers in love. Hey, Kane, did you give her that black eye?”

The class erupted with snickers and giggles, and Riley sat back with a smug little smirk on his face. I felt Jackson stiffen beside me and had to keep a tight grip on his arm to keep him from going after Riley.

Riley hated Jackson because three days ago, Riley’s girlfriend asked Jack if he would escort her to the girl’s choice dance this weekend. I had been right there when she’d asked him. Jackson and I had taken our lunches outside to eat, so that we could sneak a cigarette afterward. Or, maybe just so I could sneak one. But, anyhow, Riley’s girlfriend, Jenna, walks over to where Jackson and I are eating in the shade of a large tree, and she says, shooting a rude glance at me, “Um, Hi, Jackson. I was just wondering if you would like to take me to the girl’s choice dance next weekend.”

I’d raised an eyebrow at her audacity to look at me rudely. Jackson just looked at her like she was stupid. And, eventually, after what must have been many awkward seconds for her, she’d stalked away. We’d laughed about it afterward, and didn’t think much of it until we encountered Riley in class the next day. Up until this point, Jack had been letting it slide, but Riley needed to watch what he said. I knew Jack would only take it for so long. They were both big boys and that would not be a pretty fight.

Not only that, Riley was starting to gain ill thoughts from me. Very ill thoughts.

“Not today,” I whispered to Jack. “You can’t get any more suspensions.” It seemed to take a minute for this to register with him, but finally, I felt him relax beside me. We took our seats on the other side of the room, with Jackson giving Riley a look of death the whole time. I could swear I saw Riley cringe a little, but he quickly recovered. I couldn’t blame him. I would have been scared too if Jackson had looked at me like that.

Just then, the teacher walked in, and I was thankful that Riley wouldn’t be able to continue his ridicule. It’s not like I was scared to fight, quite the contrary actually, I enjoyed fighting. Good thing too, with all the “preparations” my Mother put me through. It’s just that I didn’t feel like it today. Things had been going pretty well.

“Miss Montgomery, would you care to enlighten us with you thoughts on the book?” My teacher said, looking at me expectantly.

Great. What book were we even talking about? I wracked my brain as the whole class waited for me to speak. What were we supposed to be reading this week? Oh, yeah,
The
Scarlett Letter
. I had read this book before as I had every other book she assigned us. I read a lot. It’s one of my favorite things to do. Still, it pissed me off that she always called on me first when we were discussing our readings. I don’t like being singled out.

“Not really,” I replied.

She shook her head, as though she expected no less, and marked something down in her grade book. Probably a zero. Whatever. Just add it to my list of problems.

Eventually, that class ended and I headed to my second period class: gym. I received another zero for refusing to run the mile. I’m not terribly defiant, it’s just that I didn’t want to do anymore running than I already had to. I still had to run the three and a half miles back home. I wasn’t sure my body could take it.

Thankfully, the rest of the day passed without incident. The final bell of the day rang, signaling it was time to go home. I was relieved, but at the same time, it’s not like I really wanted to go home. My Mother would be waiting for me. That was never something I looked forward to.

Stepping outside of the school, I glanced around, looking for Nelly. Where the hell was she? I hated it when she made me wait for her, but I wouldn’t dare return home without her. Scanning the area, I caught sight of her over on the other side of the parking lot. Annoyed, I started off toward her.

But, as I got closer, I realized she wasn’t alone. She was talking to someone. I could tell by her posture that she was uncomfortable. When she saw me, her unease grew visibly. I picked up my pace. Before I got too close, I picked up bits of the conversation they were having.

“I really can’t. I’m sorry. I just have other things to do that evening,” Nelly was saying, “Maybe some other time.”

As she started to walk away, the guy she was talking to grabbed her arm. Nelly’s unease grew once more but she didn’t resist. I was moving faster now. The guy had his back to me, but once I heard his voice, I knew who it was.

“Wait,” he said. “I wasn’t finished talking to you.”

At last, I reached them. I grabbed him by the back of his jacket, jerking him away from Nelly.

“Yes, you are,” I said, stepping in between them and shoving him hard in the chest. He stumbled back several feet.

Riley’s face showed pure hatred. “No one was talking to you, freak,” he spat.

I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Leave her alone. Unless you want everyone to see you get knocked out by a girl.”

My tone was casual, but my blood was boiling. Nobody touched Nelly.
Nobody
.

Disturbing thoughts raced through my head, every one of them intriguing. Riley definitely was bigger and stronger than me, but I was pretty confident I could hurt him. That thought alone erased any possibilities of fear. I guess my Mother’s trainings were good for something. I was no stranger to battle. I was conditioned for it. And mostly, I just wasn’t concerned with the consequences.

“Watch it,” Riley said, through gritted teeth, “unless you want to end up with two black eyes.”

Again, I shrugged. “You are most certainly welcome to try.” True to his word, Riley lunged for me. I had been expecting this; I’d learned long ago to anticipate the attacks of others, and he had nowhere near the amount of combat skill my Mother had. My respect for her grew a little.

I managed to side-step his attack and push Nelly out of the way in the process.

This was not something
he
had been expecting, and he stumbled a little before regaining his footing. As he spun around to face me, the anger that had been on his face before had turned into rage. I flashed him a toothy grin, egging him on.

This time he stepped forward and swung his fist out toward my face. Again, I had been expecting this. And, in my mind, the fact that he would hit a girl justified my next actions.

A hazy sort of anger came over me. It was so intense that I felt it thrum in my veins; like it was vibrating under my skin.

Resolved, I made my decision. I wanted very much to end this circus show he was putting on. I moved so fast I don’t think he ever saw it coming. I slammed my fist so hard into his face that he literally lifted off of his feet and fell back on his butt. His head hit the pavement with a sickening thud, and I stood frozen to my spot. I had known I could fight, but the strength it must have taken to knock someone down twice my size impressed even me.

I felt myself move forward, and then I was standing over Riley. My mind snapped back to the blackbird. His nose was sitting at a funny angle and deep crimson was flowing out of it. He was unconscious. My left eye twitched. I felt one side of my mouth pull up into a crooked smile and just barely managed to stop it before it turned full-fledged. And, my mind snapped back to the blackbird.

Then, Nelly was tugging on my arm, her voice was panicked. “Alexa, we have to go. Now.”

I looked up at her and finally began to take in the scene around me. Students were standing all around us, dumbstruck. No doubt they had just seen their all-star receiver get knocked out by a girl. A relatively small girl at that. I took one last look at Riley. My mind snapped back to the blackbird.

I heard myself say, “Run, Nell. We have to run.”

We did.

Chapter 4

By the time we made it back to the house we were both panting and covered in sweat. We’d taken the long way home, going through the woods instead of following the road that led directly to our house. I shut the door once we made it inside the house and slumped back against it.

Nelly stood directly in front of me, with a look on her face that I had never seen before. She looked both proud and… scared. Was she scared of me or of the trouble I was going to be in when we returned to school tomorrow? I didn’t know. Probably both.

Still breathing heavily, I looked down at my hands to see that they were trembling. Now that we had stopped running, the reality of what I had just done hit me. What was wrong with me? How badly had I hurt Riley? More importantly, how badly would I have hurt him if Nelly hadn’t pulled me away? I would like to say I would have been able to walk away on my own, but some small part of me knew that that was a lie. Another part of me was disgusted by this. And, yet, another small part of me was left feeling disturbingly unsatisfied.

Glancing back up at Nelly, I got the feeling that she was aware of this. I’m not sure what my face looked like, though I did my best to keep it reasonably void of any expression at all. But, Nelly knew me. Sometimes, I felt like Nelly knew me better than I knew myself.

She came forward and took me into her arms. I let her hold me, and actually took comfort in the embrace. My mind seemed to relax a little.

“Girls? I’ll have dinner ready in a few minutes if you want to go wash up and-“ Upon seeing us, my Mother stopped abruptly. Her eyes narrowed slightly and my back went rigid in response. I tried to prepare myself for what was to come. No point in lying to her. She would find out from the school soon enough.

“What happened?” she asked. The threat was clear in her voice.

“I got into a fight.” I didn’t know what else to say. Besides, I kind of felt like I deserved whatever punishment she gave me.

My Mother remained deathly still, waiting for me to elaborate. I was so shocked that I couldn’t even think past that initial thought. I honestly thought I wouldn’t have to. I had been expecting her to drag me outside right then and there.

It was Nelly who came to my rescue.

“There was this guy at school who was messing with me,” she began. “He grabbed me and Alexa yanked him off of me. She tried to tell him to leave me alone, and then he attacked her… so she… stopped him.”

Okay, that may have been a little bit skewed, but it sounded better than:
Alexa
may have just seriously injured someone with an extremely badass punch to the face
.

Nonetheless, I was glad she spoke up.

My Mother’s gaze snapped to me. I met her eyes and nodded. And then, to my utter astonishment, she gave a small nod and… walked away.

Chapter 5

Later, I was sitting in my bedroom staring at the wall, when someone knocked on my door. Opening it up, I expected to see Nelly standing there.

Except it wasn’t Nelly.

It was my Mother.

“Mom, I didn’t mean to-“

“I know, come with me,” she said.

I grabbed my shoes and followed her. Some part of me had been expecting this. I had known she wasn’t going to let something like this slide, but from her reaction earlier, I guess I was just
hoping
she would.

She led me out to the backyard of the house, and I knew what was coming. Time for her to teach me a lesson. I pushed my chin out and wiped my face clear of any expression, refusing to showcase any fear. The effort had me clenching my teeth.

But instead of stopping in our usual spot where we did our training, she just kept going.
Oh god
, I thought,
maybe she’s taking me somewhere to kill me
.

I laughed out loud at this morbid thought, and my Mother turned her head, giving me a slightly confused look. I shook my head and mumbled an apology as I continued following her to this unknown destination.

We walked for a little over an hour through the woods that encased the back of our house. With every step my unease grew. I felt like I was on some impromptu death march.

To make things even weirder, my Mother kept pointing out certain markers, telling me to commit them to memory. I did. I was never sure why my Mother did the things she did, and by this point in my life, I had learned to just roll with whatever she threw at me.

At last, we emerged at a small clearing. It was beautiful. The ground was packed with wild honeysuckle and dandelions. And straight ahead of us was a small hill that was surrounded on all sides by tall trees. It also had what seemed to be an opening at the foot of it, like it housed a small cave.

“Wow.” I didn’t know what else to say. I almost smiled. Maybe I’d been wrong.

Maybe she just wanted to spend some time with me. As happy as that would have made me, the thought alone made me suspicious.

But, when my Mother turned to face me, she had the same expression on her face that Nelly had had earlier, when we’d first entered the house. It was a mixture of pride and fear. A second later, it was gone, replaced by her usual, serious expression. I decided I must have been mistaken. I doubted this woman even knew what fear was.

“Do you remember how to get here?” she asked.

I nodded.

“Good, it’s very important that you do. This is where I want you to come if anything ever happens to me.”

“Why would anything ever happen-“

“Why is not important,” she replied. “What is important is that if anything ever happens, you run, you run and you bring Nelly with you to this spot.” I gave her what must have been a weary look, because she was in front of me, faster than anyone should have been able to move, and she was gripping my shoulders. It was an unpleasant, tension-filled touch; much like the rub of denim on badly sunburned skin.

“Alexa, I need you to tell me you understand. I need you to promise me that you’ll do as I say.”

I looked her straight in the eyes, refusing to let her scare me. I wouldn’t be scared of her anymore. She had to know that. “I understand.”

What I thought looked like more pride flashed behind her eyes, and this time, I was certain I saw fear. “Good,” she said. “Let’s head back. It’s time to practice.”

Chapter 6

When we made it back to the house Nelly was sitting on the back porch, as if she’d been expecting us. She probably had, considering that this was the time of day our Mother always made me “practice”.