Fight For You
Fight for You
Kayla Bain-Vrba
Sold off to pay her father's debts, Cherry spends her nights dancing and her days longing for freedom. Determined to break free of her life, she transfers from the dancehalls to the stadiums where all the real money is made.
The only problem with her plan is that she does not know how to fight. In order to learn, Cherry approaches Berlin, one of the best fighters in the stadium. Berlin, however, wants nothing to do with her, and Cherry realizes the hardest fights do not take places in the arena…
Fight for You
By Kayla Bain-Vrba
Published by Less Than Three Press LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of reviews.
Edited by J. Ang
Cover designed by London Burden
This book is a work of fiction and as such all characters and situations are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental.
First Edition June 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Kayla Bain-Vrba
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 9781620040133
For Nate,
The only one who can make me write when I don't feel like it. Thank you for always being my biggest fan.
Berlin sighed and rolled her eyes as Cherry followed her behind the house, babbling about learning to fight. She ignored Cherry as she removed her leather armor in practiced motions, unlacing her tall boots until they slipped off and loosening the ties on the sides of her shorts until she could wriggle out of them. Despite the lacings between her breasts and the various straps across the front, she unbuckled the choker around her neck and undid the back laces to remove her cropped top.
Reaching for a bucket of rainwater, she poured it over her upturned face, letting the water run down her naked body. Goddess, it felt good. She poured more across her chest and shoulders to wash away the sweat and dirt and realized the babbling had stopped.
Finally.
She turned and saw Cherry frozen and staring at her. She set the pitcher aside and pushed her dripping red hair out of her eyes. "You want me to train you?"
Cherry nodded furiously. "Yes. I want to be a fighter. I want to get out of The Zone."
Without warning, Berlin launched herself forward, tackling Cherry and bearing her to the ground with no resistance. Wet body pressed firmly against Cherry's, Berlin pulled a face. She hadn't expected much from the pretty blonde girl, but she had assumed she could at least defend herself a little. How long had she been in The Zone? A week? "That's it?"
Cherry's breathing was shallow, and her heart was pounding. Her green eyes were wide, but she couldn't decide where to look—Berlin's face or the bare breasts right in front of her.
Berlin snorted, no longer phased by unabashed lusty looks. "There's just as much skin to distract you in the arena."
Cherry's brain kicked back in, and she squirmed out from beneat
h Berlin. She was pinned again a few moments later, but not before Berlin saw something that interested her.
"You're flexible," she commented, sitting casually on the grass nearby, arms resting on her updrawn knee.
In response, Cherry straightened out one leg and lifted the other—vertically and perfectly straight.
It was an impressive move; Berlin could admit that. She looked Cherry over, big green eyes and long waves of golden hair around a youthful face. She was short with a full figure, large breasts and a round bottom, but she looked young despite how mature her assets were. She was flexible, though, and in all her years of fighting, Berlin had never seen anyone quite like Cherry. She wasn't a fighter, not yet, but Berlin could make her one. If this girl really wanted to get out of The Zone, Berlin could get her there.
She got to her feet, shaking back damp hair beginning to dry in the sun, and watched Cherry scramble up as well. If Cherry failed, it was no reflection on Berlin. She didn't have anything better to do anyway.
"Fine." She stuck out her hand, and Cherry shook it with surprise. "There aren't any spare rooms in this house, but you can bunk with me." When Cherry opened her mouth to babble her thanks, Berlin held up a hand to stop her. "Don't thank me yet. You haven't seen what I'm going to do to you."
*~*~*
It turned out that the first thing Berlin was going to do to her was run her to death. Out before the sun was up, Berlin set a fast pace from the start—and outlawed talking.
"If you have enough energy to talk, you're not working hard enough."
As they ran through The Zone the village began coming back to life. The Zone itself was split into two parts—one for men and one for women. Mingling was allowed; some couples even moved in together. For the most part, though, the two groups stuck to their respective sections. They didn't trust each other, and they weren't looking to make attachments. They segregated themselves by occupation as well—fighters, dancers, and prostitutes—and they kept to their own.
Cherry had never been through most of The Zone. As a dancer, she'd spent most of her time with other dancers or with the one friend she'd had from another occupation.
By the time they had made their way deep into the men's sector, daily life was already under way. The men held the same occupations as women, and she recognized the stretches of a group of dancers. They passed a few other runners, some sweat drenched, others just heading out. It seemed that Berlin was a common sight in the men's sector; the occasional man nodded at her or even greeted her by name. Seeing Berlin with a companion, however, was apparently not the norm, and Cherry drew intrigued glances when they passed.
As a dancer, Cherry thought she was in good shape, but by the time they finally stopped back at the house Berlin lived in, she was gasping for air and drenched in sweat. She pulled off her shirt and shook out the lightweight material, glad that her tight pants were too dark to show sweat. A few feet away, Berlin had dropped her hooded shirt to the ground and was stretching out her leg muscles. A thin sheen of sweat swept across the dimples of her lower back, visible above the low rise pants she wore. She tugged off her boots to stretch out her feet and calves, and after a pointed look, Cherry did the same.
Berlin offered her a skin of water, saying, "You've got ten minutes. Then I'm going to kick your ass."
Kick her ass, she did. Cherry wasn't sure if Berlin was making fun of her, if fighting was a turn on for her, or if she just got off dominating Cherry, but every time Berlin got the opportunity, she always seemed to be touching Cherry: a slap or grab at her ass as she passed, a rough close-mouthed kiss when Berlin bore her to the ground, a firm thigh between her own as they wrestled. At first, the intimate contact startled Cherry off her guard, but by the end of the first day, her personal bubble was popped irrevocably.
As exhausted as she was at the end of her first day, Cherry walked to the north gate of The Zone. It was locked, as always; it was almost curfew anyway so there was no one trying to get in or out. She slung her arms through the iron rungs and looked out at the dirt road leading away from her home of the last six years. The sun was setting; in the capitol, families were sitting down to dinner together. She wondered what her father was doing just then, if he was happy, if he was even alive. For a moment, she wondered what she would be doing if she hadn't been sent to live in The Zone until their debt was paid.
Above her, the stars were beginning to appear. She supposed they looked the same in the capitol as they did within The Zone, but inside her cage, they seemed terribly distant and unreachable. Maybe in the capitol people looked up at the stars and didn't feel trapped and insignificant. When she was out there, she knew she would never look at the stars that way again.
Reluctantly, Cherry left the gate and made her way back to her room.
"You almost missed curfew," Berlin informed her when she closed the door of their room behind her.
Cherry didn't answer. It wasn't a question anyway.
Her pallet was on the opposite side of the room as Berlin's, tucked neatly into the corner beneath a single shelf that held her few possessions. Despite the hour, she could hear the muffled sound of conversation coming from the nearby rooms. She was used to the sound. As a dancer, she had lived in a house with twenty other girls, most of them as young as she was. She had fallen asleep more times than she could count to the sound of new girls crying and older girls attempting to comfort them—or telling them to grow up and get used to it.
"You should sleep."
Cherry glanced over at Berlin, lying naked on her belly and partially covered with a blanket.
"We're going running again in the morning before we hit the breadline."
Cherry nodded, suddenly more tired than she could fight. Without bothering to undress, she crawled onto her pallet and tugged the woolen blanket up to her chin, curling up against the corner.
*~*~*
The breadline was chaos.
It was early in the morning, the start of one of the worst mornings of the week. People from all over The Zone milled around in the square, waiting for the few vendors to open their stalls to sell overpriced, low-quality food. Cherry clutched a few coins in her fist because only an idiot came to the breadline with an easily stolen purse.
It was loud and crowded, and as the first vendor opened his stand, a mad dash began as the people hoarded around the food. Cherry pushed her way forward, holding her ground, shoving anyone who tried to cut ahead of her.
Something struck her in the face and she stumbled back. When she righted, she saw two men punching each other, and within moments, a brawl had broken out. There was only a little time left, so she pushed and shoved her way up to the vendor, trading him her three coins for the sack of meal things even as she was jostled and battered. She pushed her way through the crowd, fighting to stay up.
"Clear out! Clear out now! The breadline is closed!" The officials had arrived to put a stop to the fight—and to close the breadline. Cherry hurried back to Berlin's, clutching her sack to protect it from anyone who would try to take it.
Back at the house, Berlin defeated her soundly and left her lying in the dirt as she headed back inside.
*~*~*
"This from your boyfriend?" Berlin asked in a teasing voice.
Cherry glanced up. She was lying on her bed, reading the one book she owned, as Berlin trifled through her possessions. Cherry didn't mind Berlin digging through her things, until she picked up the necklace.
"Don't touch that!" Her voice was sharp and commanding; Berlin raised an eyebrow.
"Touchy."
"No—I mean—that was my mother's."
Berlin pursed her lips but said nothing, simply laid the necklace back down on the shelf, making sure the silver heart pendant lay on top of the coil of chain. Cherry waited for Berlin to ask the inevitable question, the obvious question, but she never did.
*~*~*
"Again," Berlin ordered as Cherry stumbled back to her feet only to be knocked back down. It was late in the week and so far, every day had been exactly the same. Berlin beat her soundly, gave her far less than enough time to recover, and then beat her again. When she had gotten permission from the Lord of The Zone to be trained as a fighter, she had expected more
training
. If she wanted the get the shit beat out of her, she could have gone anywhere. Instead, she had picked Berlin. She had seen what Berlin could do in the arena, saw her turn into a precise weapon, a skilled animal going in for the kill, and she wanted that for herself. Maybe she had made a mistake. She had thought Berlin had some form of honor, but maybe Berlin was just playing her. Maybe Berlin was toying with her, beating her up for her amusement, and then going to dump her aside. That's what most of the people in The Zone would have done.
All the air was forced from Cherry's lungs as she hit the ground. For a moment, she licked over the blood beginning to rise in her newly split lip and considered staying down.
"C'mon," Berlin ordered, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. "Back on your feet."
Cherry obeyed and moments later a kick and two punches sent her back down, Berlin on top of her. Berlin swooped in to kiss her mouth, blood and all, and then rolled off. "Again."
Cherry got to her feet but refused to get into position. "No."
Straightening, Berlin kept her eyes cool and careless. "You done now? Giving up on fighting with the big girls?"
"Fight with you? You mean, get my ass kicked! How do you expect me to learn if you won't teach me?"
"I
am
teaching you." Berlin's voice was flat.
