Doru approached me like he would a skittish animal. Kudos to him for having a straight face, but the skin around his eyes crinkled in amusement, “I’ll make sure we add a short training session with Carlo each morning; he’s our fiercest warrior. Carlo, show them your battle face.”
Carlo whipped a sword off of a trainee strutting by and bared his teeth in a feral grin, madness sparking from his eyes. Then just as suddenly, he straightened and bowed, back to the stern silent man I met in the hallway.
Wow, okay, I totally wanted lessons with that guy.
Jari raised a finger. “I think all of Iss’ Lusty Legion would benefit from lessons with Carlo; just saying,” he looked around at his comrades, and all of my LL nodded their heads.
“We recognize a needed skill when we see one,” Sage whispered in my ear as he pressed against my back and gripped my hip.
“I didn’t say anything,” but I had wondered why they all wanted in on this.
“Before jumping right in, can you tell me where your skill levels are? We can assess you, but it would just be quicker to tell me where you are,” Doru braced a hand on Carlo’s shoulder.
Nato stepped up. “Since we’ve been here, we’ve been going through the Manno training. We are decent in hand to hand, but we each have our strengths. We’ve also been working on exercising our powers, and that has been easier since we’ve always tried to stay sharp.”
“And the Mazza?”
Nato grimaced, and I shot him the bird, but discreetly, as I traced my eyebrow with my middle finger. “She needs a lot of help, raised in the Earth realm, and with a human family, she never needed to be a fighter.”
All heads in hearing vicinity whipped our way. Jaws hit the ground; eyebrows slammed into hairlines. Were we not supposed to share that?
“How is that possible?” Doru said under his breath. I only heard him because he was so close to me.
I shrugged; this was not a conversation I wanted to have here. Or ever with these people. If I was going to have a heart to heart with anyone, it would be my Lusty Legion, and maybe even our closest friends like Mehki or Cabbie.
“I think that’s a conversation for when Yunez is here. What would you like us to do in the training yard?” Nato encompassed the yard with a hand gesture.
“Run your weaknesses down for me,” Doru snapped back into trainer mode.
After a short explanation, he assigned Sage and Jari to the archery station with Sims; Nato to sword training with Dein, and Egan went with Carlo to strengthen his Caen skills. That was odd to me since he was already so powerful, but Carlo must have seen the confusion on my face. “In battle, Caen skills are always needed, and can often times tip the scale into a victory. So that’s what his primary focus will be for the duration.”
Doru tipped his head toward the center, where a dirt ring took up most of the space. “And you, Mazza, will be with me. Let’s work on basic hand-to-hand combat. Weapons training is good, and so are classes on accessing and mastering your powers, but sometimes you will have none of those at your disposal. You need to have a basic knowledge of how to incapacitate your opponent.”
And so we started two hours of rigorous self-defense training. Doru showed me the basics of breaking holds and easy offensive moves to give me time to get away. Then Manno after faceless Manno, stepped up to take their turn attacking me. Salty sweat dripped into my eyes with every fight. I swore all of my sweat glands must be in my hairline above my forehead; this was getting a bit ridiculous.
For the hundredth time, I landed on my back. Doru peered down at me, “Let’s move on to simple weapon mastery. A warrior must first understand the weapon before they can wield it.”
Well into the night, I worked with different Mannos to understand the basic functionality of long swords, short swords, crossbows, throwing stars; Doru oversaw each instruction. The commander was probably trying to gauge my comfortableness with each one, to see what my preferred weapon of choice would be. But every time I dropped a sword, accidentally fired a crossbow at an unsuspecting Manno, or cut myself, his expression darkened a little more. He was wearing his frustration like a cloak that tightened around his neck with each mistake.
Cabbie, the lucky bastard, lounged on the stone wall, eating an apple and swinging his feet. Randomly, his boisterous laughter echoed through the yard as he watched us train like we were the hit comedy in theaters.
This last time when an arrow narrowly missed pinning a Manno to the wall by his crotch, Cabbie jumped off the wall and strutted over to us with all the grace of a top model on the runway.
He tossed his apple core in the trash without looking, and clapped his hands as he approached Doru. “I think you’re going about this all wrong; I’ve already found a weapon that Isolde kills with, get your sparring ring ready.” Cabbie snapped his fingers, then a group of his Cherries strode into the yard looking every inch the dangerous goddesses they were. Each one held a different sex toy weapon in each hand.
Damn it, I knew where Cabbie was going with this, and I did not want to be known as the Mazza that dominated battles with sex toys.
These Mannos must not have heard of their heroics because shock and lust fought for dominance on their faces.
“Farrah, give Isolde her nunchucks.”
The dark-eyed beauty who had been training me, handed over the sleek black weapon. I reluctantly took it from her hands, and pulled my courage around my shoulders; because I was going to need it. Since the moment the Cherries walked onto the field, Mannos had stopped what they were doing and slowly made their way over to box us in.
Oh, they were sly, pretending to be pulled over to talk to someone, or drop something off with someone already standing around us. They just never left; hell, my Lusty Legion even stood at the front edges of the circle with manic grins on their faces.
“Get your best fighter,” Cabbie ordered as if he were king of the castle.
Doru motioned for a burly man with two short swords to approach, “Are you certain? Ruk is our best fighter, and he’s not known for going gentle; I don’t even know if he knows how to temper his blows.”
Cabbie nodded sagely. “He’ll do just fine, Doll, just remember what we taught you.” Everyone stepped back to give us room.
Oh, fuck. Oh, shit. If there wasn’t such a thick crowd around me, I would have run away. My opponent looked like he ate criminals for breakfast, and slaughtered kittens for fun. If the guys valued my life at all, they would put a stop to this. They nodded encouragingly when I made eye contact. That answered that question.
Ruk dipped his head in greeting before he took his fighting stance. Whispers erupted from the crowd as we circled each other, waiting for the whistle that signaled the start of the fight.
“She’s a horrible fighter, should we really pit her against Ruk?”
“Whose idea was this? We need to protect the Mazza; Yunez will have our heads if she’s injured.”
“Is that… is that a sex toy?” That comment almost made me laugh, but I kept my focus on Ruk.
Doru whistled, and instantly, I started the swinging motion that Farrah taught me, keeping my balance and movements fluid. The nunchucks never stopped, not even when Ruk whooped with a battle call and charged toward me.
The first swing of his short sword was perfect. Perfect for me to wrap my nunchucks around it and sling it away from us. He must have really been trying to take it easy on me because now his face mottled with an ugly purple as he upped his speed and strikes.
Oh, shit!
It took everything I had to avoid some of his hits while catching him with the edge of the nunchucks. The metal nipple clamp caught him over his eyelid, tearing at his skin until scarlet blood poured over his eyes. While he was distracted, I used the nunchucks to pull his other weapon from his grip, spinning in a series of fast turns, beating him with the nunchucks as hard as I could. He fell to his knees, and I came out of my turns to double the poles and swing the nunchucks at the back of his head like a baseball bat as
hard as I could.
They connected with the back of his skull with a sickening thud, and after a beat, he flopped forward. I sucked in air, realizing I hadn’t been breathing; not good. Black dots swam in my vision.
My hearing must have been affected because it was dead silent. I sought out my LL, and they were frozen on the spot.
Suddenly, roars went up through the crowd. My LL scooped me up in their arms as they all crowded around me in a group hug, hiding the rest of the people from my view.
“Holy hell of Fennina. What was that?” Batse exclaimed somewhere close, “I think I’m in love, you think Yunez will let me join their bonds?” A slap sounded, “Ow! I was just kidding; kind of.” He muttered.
Sage pulled me around until I faced him, and he kissed the hell out of me. I groaned as he thrust his tongue in my mouth, sending sparks flying all over my skin. Kissing my neck with warm luxurious kisses, fanning the lust they were inciting within me, Nato replaced Sage. Then Jari, then Egan. By the time they were done passing me around, I was ready to tackle them to the training ground and have my wicked way with them. Who cared if Mannos were watching? Not this girl.
The guys opened up to allow Doru into our group, Cabbie behind his shoulder, grinning like a sexy madam who had recommended a specific sex position, and now watched the patron stumble down in obvious satisfaction; yeah, he was smug.
“I am so confused, how could you use nunchucks that way, and you couldn’t even hold a sword for ten seconds without dropping it?” Doru scrunched up his brow.
Cabbie slid an elegantly covered arm over Doru’s shoulders, “Not just any nunchucks. Those were nipple clamp nunchucks. All my Cherries fight with only the best sex toys; it makes them lethal because the men never expect it.”
Doru looked at Cabbie, “I agree, I would not have expected that.” He turned to me, “That is now your weapon of choice, and I want you to go nowhere without them. We will still continue our lessons with various weapons because you need to know how to handle them if that is all that is available to you. For now, let’s call it a night; I’ll escort you back to your rooms.” Doru studied the ever-darkening sky.
“What about Ruk?” I glanced back to see two of the Cherries helping him off of the training field.
Doru waved an unconcerned hand, “Don’t worry about him; they will take him to the healers, and he will be as good as new by morning.”
If he said so.
We had a very different feel going back to our rooms. The guys were joking and ribbing each other, even pulling the commanders into their teasing. That I could take down their fiercest fighter with a sex toy really seemed to pump them up and give them hope. It wasn’t until we barely entered the hallway that we heard the loud keening, filtering through the hallway with an eerie echo.
The commanders snapped out of their relaxed state and morphed into dangerous men before my eyes. Sims pointed down the hallway. “Get to your rooms, and someone will get you when we know more.”
They were gone in a flash, leaving us alone.
“Fuck, whatever that is, it’s not good.” Egan scratched the back of his head.
We hastened our steps, falling through the door and locking it behind us. Whatever was going down was serious, and I was now worried we hadn’t seen Rand since he took off after Mannos to help Ado.
I stopped pacing and faced the door as soon as it opened.
For the last hour, we did nothing but wait; pace and wait. It felt wrong to shower and relax when something bad had happened, even if we didn’t know what had happened.
Rand stepped through, eyes bloodshot as he searched the room. When his gaze landed on me, he rushed me, curling his body around mine and buried his face in my hair. I raised my hand to stroke the nape of his neck, cooing to him in an effort to calm him.
“It’s okay. Whatever it is, it’s going to be okay.”
He picked me up, and my legs automatically locked around his hips. The guys cleared out of the way, and he settled on the couch, leaning back with me covering him. My weight seemed to ease the turbulent emotions swirling inside him.
Nato approached and perched on the seat next to us, “What happened Rand? Is Ado well?” His words were soft.
The door opened again, and I was just able to turn enough to see Yunez walk in. The vibrancy that surrounded Yunez was gone, leaving behind a dull and weary man. Every step seemed a challenge.
He flopped into the chair across from us, closing his eyes as his head fell backward.
A warm finger along the underside of my jaw turned my attention back to Rand. He kissed the corners of my mouth, then squeezed my thigh. “Go to him; I’ve taken my solace from you for now,” that he would and did want more later, went unspoken.
Yunez was still in the same position, and all of the guys scattered around the room while staring at him. They were just as worried as I was.
I climbed off Rand’s lap and approached Yunez with as quiet steps as I could. The shwooshing of the carpet with each step didn’t help. When my thighs brushed his knees, I held out a hand to touch his shoulder.
“Yunez?” I whispered.
Without opening his eyes or otherwise moving, his hand shot out to tug me down over his lap until I straddled him. He didn’t move to pull me over his growing erection now straining his pants. It was like he was waiting to see what I would do. So, I bent forward, pressing my chest to his, and slid my arms behind his shoulders to bury my face in the crook of his neck. Eventually, his arms folded around me, and he smoothed his hands up and down my back. It seemed he was trying to soothe me instead of the other way around.
“Are you all right?” I whispered as my nose brushed his throat.
He blew out a harsh breath and pulled me higher on his chest, squeezing me tight. “No, I am not, but I will be.”
Another five minutes passed. Yunez seemed content to hold me, but eventually, he shifted me to his side, “I am sure I do not have to tell you that Ado is—was important to me.”
I sucked in a sharp breath and clutched his hand. He rubbed his thumb over the back of my knuckles and kept going.
“He was a cradle friend; merely a decade younger than me. Life took me down a different path early on, and we only recently connected within the last seventy-five years. Ado started questioning everything he had been taught when he met a Caen girl in Helfai. Once he looked into motives a little deeper, he realized that the foundation on which he believed was shaky at best, and riddled with holes and cracks at worst. So, he came to me and has been something of an informant.”
He paused, so I took advantage to ask a question that popped into my head as soon as he started speaking of Ado, “Was he part of the Shadow Society?”
Sad, amethyst eyes met mine, and he shook his head. “Yes, but not in the way you would think,” and he didn’t say anymore.
Rand sat up and leaned toward us. “You have to tell them, Yunez. With what we have to do, if you don’t tell them now, they’ll make mistakes. Huge mistakes that could cost them their lives.”
Yunez sucked in a quivering breath. “I can’t see the future, Rand. Whatever is blocking me from the Shadow Society is blocking our future because it twines so tightly with theirs.”
A heavy sigh, then Rand was on his knees in front of Yunez. He glanced at me, then pulled me down in his lap so I faced Yunez with him. “Look at Isolde. She’s the future we’ve been waiting for; you had a plan. A tight plan that was going to bring us to the future where we all lived happily ever after. Every decision you’ve made your whole life, has been in hopes of gaining that future. Now you’ve lost your sight, or at least where it intercepts with the Shadow Society. That means we are handicapped, but we aren’t defeated; not yet.” Rand’s hand glided to cover my stomach with splayed fingers. “We have to start acting like the fighters we are and equip them with the knowledge and tools they need to survive. When you look at Iss, I know you want her to survive; tell her what she needs to know.”
Yunez studied me so closely
with battered eyes, my heart started to pound. He scrubbed his face, then gripped his knees.
“Everyone come closer, you might as well sit at my knee as if this were story time.” He waited for everyone to scoot in around us. When we settled, he nodded as if answering some unknown question he had asked himself. “Ado was my cradle friend, and when we went separate ways, I came to the Fennin realm and he stayed in his. Because, I am not from here.”
Curses went up around me, but I could do nothing but stare at Yunez. He smiled sadly, “I did not want to keep it to myself, especially not from any of you. But, on the line of future possibilities, the best outcome would have been to tell you before our final battle. Now everything has changed.”
“Wait, wait, wait. You’re an extraterrestrial?” Jari blurted out.
Yunez chuckled under his breath, but it was a self-deprecating sound. “Not quite; remember when I mentioned that Mannos were essentially hunted and used for our abilities? While our numbers were great for the fifth house, we did not stand a chance when other houses aligned against us. So, we did what we Fennins do best; we created a new realm, and left this one. For two millennia we stayed gone. The Mannos who once left to avoid execution, are not the same as they once were. They have turned bitter and hateful, with only vengeance on their mind. I did not want to live that way, I wanted to know exactly what the worlds held, so I ventured to this one when I was still just a boy, maybe fifteen. By twenty-five I went to the Earth realm to see the cruel people that had pushed us from the Earth. And I realized there are idiots everywhere, but there are also people worth saving.”
“I’m shocked, Yunez. I mean, you’ve completely blown my mind,” Nato stared with wide eyes at our leader. Because he was, wasn’t he? The master puppeteer, skillfully trying to lead us into a beautiful future.
“I know. I knew when you found out, there would be no going back. I also wanted this place,” he said, lifting his hands to signal this castle, “to be your safe haven. Until the truth of the realms come out, you’ll need a place where you can be yourselves and discuss life as it is, without worrying about what you say. Everything I had carefully planned out,” he rasped, “has fallen down around my ears.”
Secrets of the Mazza: A Paranormal Romance (Mazza Series Book 3) Page 16
