Book of Curses (The Renning Chronicles) (31 page)

"Remember the fight... The people who nearly died, you and me, how bad everything was?" I looked him dead in the eyes, trying to plead with my own. "Tom, I don't want to be that useless..."

He just nodded his head at me. Tom was my twin, not just my brother but my twin, he understood me better than anyone ever could and ever would. "I understand, Ray." Smiling weakly at me for a moment, he moved over to me and tousled my hair up before chuckling. "We'll learn whatever we can, before it's too late."

Smiling happily at the fact that he was agreeing with me, I
peeked
behind him at the group of people by the door. Kai arched his own eyebrow, gazing at me, then the group as if he was asking me '
when
do we start?
’
I bit my lip, pushed Tom to the side and took in a deep breath.

"OK, so I'm going to leave all of this up to the
guys
who know the most, or
at least
," I nodded quickly to Talon, Eyloff, and then to Kailen. "I know you three do..."

Talon gave me a look of annoyance,
and then
let out a very loud sigh making sure that everyone could hear it. He was being overly dramatic
today that
was for sure. Moving forward he nodded his head once and spoke. "I'll help; I know what I'm doing." He said out loud,
and then
his eyes veered over to Eyloff and Kailen with more suspicion than anything. "I don't know about wolf boy, or pretty boy there."

Kailen just laughed at him, tilting his own head to the side slowly. "Of course I'll help. I did after all inspire this idea." His smile turned deadly for a moment,
and then
he looked over at Eyloff and everyone else in the room. He shifted uncomfortably from all the stares, and looked around quickly. 

"Does this mean I have to work with that bastard?" Eyloff let out a growl, staring straight at Talon.

"Not really." I said to him, smiling weakly. "
There are
enough of us here."

"Then, I'll gladly help." He told me, crossing his arms across his chest. He was being defiant as hell, and it was more cute than anything. 

Smiling brightly, I could have hugged them all right about now, but I would've died a horrible death if I did so probably. Kai moved forward in slow lethal movements, letting out a sigh and raised his arms above his head to get everyone in the
room’s
attention, I wondered what he was up to. 

"There are around twenty of us here, we're going to break off into three groups." He started to call out, then looked from himself, to Eyloff and then over to Talon. Moving his hands to point around as he spoke. "Mine, Talon's and Eyloff's, clear?" He asked aloud as if wanting an actual opinion on his idea. I heard a few mumbled yes's in return. It was like being in middle school PE all over again.

Kailen looked over at me, then to Tom. His gaze was piercing and frightening all at once, I wanted to wince but I held it. "You worked with Talon and Eyloff
both;
you can work with me now. Tom can work with
whomever
he wants, once we're grouped we'll go straight into fighting."

I nodded my head, and then walked over to Kai. He was so much taller than I was that it added to his intimidation factor even more. I was short enough as it was, and he was a good foot and a half taller than me, stick thin and probably stronger than he looked. How strong that was though, I wasn't sure, but I knew I'd probably find out soon enough.

*
**
**

It was a while later when we finally grouped off. The only people I knew in my group was Kailen and Dolphus, otherwise I was completely lost. I really needed to learn names, and put them to faces so I could remember these things and not feel like a total reject about it.

Kailen charged into the middle of the free for all that we were having. Whoever was knocked down had stepped out, and whoever was left standing was going to be the winner. It sounded easy enough to me, and no one else complained about it so far.

Taking in a deep breath I then charged into the fight, slamming into Nixon almost instantly. He tried to grab hold of me and missed miserably when I turned to the side away from him. Kai had told me earlier to go off of my instincts when doing this, if I felt I should kick, then I needed to kick it was as simple as that. If I needed to dodge and roll then do it, but I needed to learn hand to hand combat and this was going to be the easiest way to teach it to me.

Nixon came back at me, and I twisted while ducking so that his fist missed me. Lifting up my right foot I swung it out at him so that it reached and connected with his left knee. I my aim was perfect too, and I got to watch as he fell and hit the ground almost instantly. I smiled down at him for a moment,
and then
let my
attention
snap up to the rest of the people in the room once more.

That was one person down, and several more to go. I scanned the area and saw that a few were still on the sides. This was going to be a tough fight regardless, but it didn't stop me, it just made me that much more eager. I dove back into the group kicking and punching at anyone that got in my way. I felt the rattling of my bones each time I actually connected with someone.

Eyloff was the one that hurt the most to actually hit. He was like beating your fist against steel, and it only angered him if you touched him. I didn't care though, his bad attitude wasn't going to stop me, and the rattling of my bones right now was going to have to wait, because I needed to focus on staying in this fight.

Talon caught sight of me and began to smile darkly towards me. That was enough to set all my nerves on end, and make me want to run for my life. I watched as he closed in, and felt my heartbeat speed up. Having someone like him come for you really was like a bad nightmare come to life, his entire aura was scary.

Right as he went to strike, I moved to the side and my own fist went flying ou
t, only to be caught but his
hand. I let my other hand fly out and chopping into his neck, making him loose his grip on my fist. I moved away and watched him as he moved. I wanted to make sure he'd be preoccupied for a moment or two, and thankfully for me he was.

I lifted my leg looking as if I were going to kick him, and once he was ready to defend that I punched him instead. I heard him growl deep in his throat as I kept at him, kicking as hard as I could at his body, but he just kept blocking me over and over again. I wasn't going to give up any time soon though, that was for sure.

Smiling to myself, I then made it look like I was going to kick again with my left leg. At the last moment I switched it up, and swung out with my right leg kicking him in the side, and taking the opportunity to lung forward and slam my fist into his upper jaw. I heard something
crack
and I wasn't sure if it was my fist or his jaw but it was loud enough to make my insides twist.

He lost his balance, fell backwards onto his ass and looked up at me glaring. His eyes were bright red again and his fangs were causing small dimples in his lower lip. For once he actually looked pissed off. I didn't think he'd ever actually get mad at me like that, but then again I never thought I'd kick his ass at something like this, again.

"
Looks
like she's better than I thought." Kai said from beside me, chuckling.

Turning on my heel I looked over at him. He was smiling at me brightly,
and then
almost in a cat like motion he tilted his head to the side. "What do you
say
Magick and the Vampire at once?"

"I-I... Both of you?" I asked him, my eyes were bugging from my sockets, and I swallowed dryly.

"You'll have worse than us, its good practice." Talon piped from behind me. His voice was mixing in with the clanking metal that was vibrating off the walls along with screams, blasts, and the occasional string of curses that fled from
people’s
mouths before they could stop them.

"Fine." I said, looking from one to the other. I nodded my head slowly thinking it out and then came to a final conclusion. "I'll do it."

"Good, you didn't have a choice." Talon smiled devilishly at me, grabbing the lower edges of his shirt and pulling it up off his body. He revealed a tattoo of a sword across his side, and one that was intricate knots, twists and loops on his chest right over a now faded looking scar. Then the many tattoos and scars that lined his left forearm, I had to stare at it for a moment. 

Kai walked up beside him, whispered something into his ear and then looked back at me. I really was starting to regret accepting this challenge now. The regret was bubbling up as they looked at me, and I was silently wondering what had taken over my mind to convince me to go along with this. "Prepare
yourself;
we're not going to taking it easy."

*
**
**

I spend the next four and a half hours in there
,
from what Eyloff told me. Practicing with them, and enduring the pain and agony of each hit that I took. By the time I had actually finished and was ready to leave; I was limping badly. Covered in bruises from head to
toe
, and had scattered little cuts all over my body. Sweat was matted against my skin, and in my hair, and I just wanted a nice, hot shower.

Nixon ended up being the one that helped me back to my room, once I was there I managed to chase him off and limp my way into the bathroom. I almost broke down crying with happiness when I saw that this area didn't have windows anywhere, and for that matter they had an amazing bathtub that I could relax in. It was like I finally did something right, and was being rewarded for it. I couldn't help but smile happily.

Slipping off my clothes slowly I hissed and cursed as each bruise or cut was jabbed and bumped by a nail or finger. I took note of some of the bruises I saw, as the clothes came off. I didn't like what I saw, but it was my own fault, I wanted to fight, wanted to learn and I did. But I’m just human, not immortal and I bruise and get hurt easily.

I turned and started to let the hot water fill the tub, watching it with amazement and longing. It was enough to make me fall into a sort of daze, it looked so nice and I couldn't wait to get in there. In fact, I got in while the tub was still filling up, not caring if the water was still running.

I let out a moan of pleasure when the water splashed over my newly bruised skin. I was in heaven here, I had come to that conclusion almost instantly. My eyes slowly closed as I basked in the warmth of the water
;
that was before I was pulled out of my pure happy bliss by the clearing of a throat.

I let out a startled shriek then covered myself, almost instantly hoping that the hot water was enough to help cover me up. I looked over at Kerli, trying to figure out why the hell she was in here. She only smirked at me, and then shook her head slowly making her cascade of blonde hair bounce.

"I thought I'd come tell you." She stepped forward slowly, pointing at a third knob that I hadn't noticed on the tub. It was weirdly shaped too, with a symbol on it I'd never seen in my life. "Since the boy's wouldn't, turn this one for thirty
seconds
and let it mix in with your bath water. It's a remedy I help make that instantly heals cuts and bruises like yours, human or not."