by Lena Lee
“But you’re… how old are you?” I didn’t really care if I was being rude, I needed to learn about these people fast. I was trusting my life and Kyra’s to them after all.
“I am just over a century. How old are you?” My eyes went wide and I turned forward quickly before she could see the look on my face. What were these people, vampires? A shudder ran down my spine as I thought about how old the brothers must be.
“Almost twenty.” The elevator dinged and slid open onto a rooftop terrace that was covered with an atrium of clear glass.
“You are quite young, it is not surprising you are so remiss with your words.” Grandma was scolding me. I sighed and followed her down a walkway surrounded by flowering plants, lightly touching the bright buds as I walked.
We entered a large area with couches around a fire pit and a rectangular table with ten chairs, three of them already occupied. The three brothers already had plates piled with food in front of them. My mouth watered as the smells met my nose.
Laura bowed her head to the brothers before depositing me in a chair next to Rex. I had so many questions after my conversation with Grandma, but my attention was drawn to the food in the center of the table. The colors were so vibrant and aromas so strong that I felt drool forming at the corners of my mouth.
“For breakfast we serve ourselves.” Wyatt interrupted my staring. I guess my gawking at the food was taken as me waiting to be served. This life was going to take some adjustment.
“You don’t serve yourself at other meals? You have a lot of Lauras, don’t you?” I served myself a little bit of everything, besides bread. I had enough of that to last a lifetime.
“Lauras? Do you mean assistants? This is a castle, of course we have a lot of assistants.” Alex hadn’t touched his food yet, but had not put down his cup in the few minutes I had been at the table. Was he already boozing it up?
“You don’t call them servants?” I looked at Alex who gave me a funny look. I guess not.
“Do you want some coffee?” Rex grabbed a metal pitcher and poured its hot contents in a white mug in front of me. The steam swirled out of the cup before disappearing. “You seem a little on edge this morning.”
“I’m fine. Just a normal day.” I looked in the cup to see a brown liquid. “Alcohol?”
“You’ve never had coffee? That’s a shame. It’s not alcohol, but wakes you up.” Wyatt reached over to my cup and poured milk and a spoonful of sugar in it. “That will make it taste better. Alex is a complete buzzkill without coffee in the morning. He calls it his lifeforce.” It seemed Alex needed coffee all day long.
“So tell me, how old are you three?”
They looked at each other. Crap, they were old as dirt too. I grabbed my coffee and took a small sip. It had a slightly bitter nut taste to it, but tasted delicious.
“Keep in mind we live for a very long time. I’m 75, Rian is 98, Wyatt and… Wyatt is 67, and Alex is the baby at 49.” Rex answered before popping a piece of fruit in his mouth.
They all had their eyes on me, waiting for my reaction. I had already had my reaction to Laura so I just took a bite of my food to distract myself. It wasn’t working very well.
“How long of a life do you have?” If only Kyra were here to hear this and freak out with me. I thought thirty was a nice long life.
“The longest was 1,300 years or so.” Rex shrugged as if that length was no big deal.
The coffee I had just drank spewed out of my mouth, luckily, I managed to turn my head. I was not expecting that large of a number. I couldn’t even fathom living for that long. Life was hard, having so many years would only mean even more hardships and pain.
Rex cleared his throat. He did a lot of that, as if he had more to say but was holding back for my sake. “We have sent word to Queen Sienna that we have important matters to discuss with her, we should hear back this afternoon. In the mean time we have a training session you are welcome to watch. That’s when I’ll be kicking Alex’s ass, probably Wyatt’s too.”
“I could probably kick Alex’s ass for you,” I declared.
Rex threw his head back and laughed. It was a good look for him, he often seemed on edge. Wyatt patted Alex on the shoulder.
“Is that a challenge, Princess?” Alex sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. “I am not above fighting a girl.”
“Kyra and I were about to graduate at the top of our enforcer class. I am not scared to fight a man, especially a middle-aged one.” I wondered if he had ever fought a girl. They seemed like a legit monarchy and probably thought women were weak.
“You aren’t serious are you?” Rex stopped laughing and turned to look at me, worry on his face. “We are all skilled fighters. Alex may seem like a pansy, but he is an award-winning martial artist.”
I shrugged. “Why would I not be serious? I didn’t train to win awards, I trained to protect myself and others.”
“You’re on.” Alex reached across the table to shake my hand.
It was for sure on. Now that I had ample energy from the food they had been feeding me, I was ready to go. I hadn’t fought in over a month, not since I started on my missions to the city. Before then I had fought outside of training weekly, more for the fame and glory than anything else. We never won anything besides bragging rights in Blight.
After breakfast we went to the ground floor and walked across the large property to a large building that looked like a glorified warehouse. I entered the large room that had a massive gathering area with large screens, chairs, maps, and weapons. There was also a large section that looked like a fighting arena. It was similar to the training area back home, but definitely nicer.
“We’re going to get changed, Sara doesn’t train so…” Rex looked me up and down. “I think our pants might be too big for you.”
“I can fight in this.” The pants were stretchy and would give me even better range of motion than what I was used to wearing.
While the brothers changed, I tied a knot on the side of the shirt to make it fit closer to my body. I wouldn’t put it past Alex to use the looseness of my shirt as a weapon against me. I certainly had used loose clothing on my opponents to my advantage. An ill-fitting shirt can go a long way in hand to hand combat.
I approached the wall of weaponry and ran my hands across some of them. I had never seen such beautiful craftsmanship. I had been anxiously awaiting the day I graduated training so I could have a longer blade. Not that we ever needed blades much in Blight. Enforcers were highly trained in hand to hand combat, but also trained in knife skills in case The Establishment got sick of us.
“You probably shouldn’t touch those. Would hate for you to lose a finger before I even had a chance to fight you.” My adversary had arrived at last. I turned to find the three brothers dressed in head to toe black, the same as they had worn in Blight. I bit my lip, they were too attractive for their own good.
“I don’t think this is a good idea at all. Before allowing you two to fight, I’m going to need to see what you can do.” Rex was dragging a large human looking punching bag out from the side of the room.
“Allowing me to? I don’t need permission.” I grabbed a roll of tape from a box in the corner. Rex eyed me with approval at the move to wrap my hands. Did he think I was making my skill up?
Wyatt walked over to Rex and slapped him on the back. “You are looking at the commander of our military. Alex can’t fight without his permission. What he says goes.” We’d see about that.
I gave him a dismissive glance before sitting on the mat and wrapping my hands. I was used to using cloth tied tightly, but this was even better. I would be able to punch harder than usual and not risk breaking something. Although if something broke, Alex could just heal it. Hopefully.
Alex and Wyatt had already started practicing on each other and from the looks of it, Alex preferred to take his opponents down to the mat. With his size advantage over me, that was the last thing that I wanted to happen. I would need to be strategic in my warmup
. I needed to show Rex I could hold my own, but also downplay my skills.
I stood and approached Rex, who was waiting by the dummy he had drug out from the wall. I started punching, warming up my muscles. I let a few kicks fly, but didn’t show all I had at my disposal. Rex eyed me suspiciously the whole time, still seeming unsure of my skill level.
“So what do you think?” I lifted the hem of my shirt and wiped my forehead. Rex watched me, his eyes on my half-bared stomach, heat flaring in his eyes. I felt myself blushing slightly at catching him looking at me. I was so confused by my recent instances of blushing. It was not something I did.
“Um well, you definitely know how to fight, but Alex is one of my best at hand to hand.”
I nodded. I had been watching him mess around with Wyatt out of the corner of my eye. He was fast and calm as a fighter. He probably used his healing on himself to keep his nerves locked down and to keep himself strong during a fight. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
“Are you sure it’s not just you not wanting to see me bleed?” I pushed the dummy back against the wall. “I’m ready, let’s do this. It will be fun.”
Alex and I took our places in the middle of the mat before touching knuckles. It was interesting to see that much of the same fighting etiquette from Earth was here on Scintilla too.
“Anything goes?” I looked at Rex, who would be the unofficial referee. I tasked Wyatt as being secondary referee to keep Rex from unnecessarily interfering. He was way too invested to be unbiased. He would probably stop the fight the second I took a hit.
“Stay clear of the family jewels. Otherwise, anything goes.” Alex answered before Rex could. In a real fight that would be the first aim. Men were sissies when it came to their most prized body part.
We began by circling each other. Both of us seemed to be calculating our first move. I didn’t like to make the first move, I preferred to see what my opponent had to offer first.
“What’s wrong Princess, not sure of where to start?” He was the shit-talking type. My favorite, since I was the complete opposite. Talking was a sign of fear and insecurity in my opinion.
He lunged at me then, aiming for my waist to take me down to the mat. I sprang to the side, dancing on the balls of me feet. I heard Rex curse under his breath. I hadn’t even been hit yet and he was already losing it.
“You aren’t going to be able to do that all day,” he taunted. We circled each other again. I could tell he was going to try to get me to the ground to use his body weight to his advantage. I hated grappling on the ground. Men always liked rolling around on the ground like buffoons.
I came at him with a few kicks and punches, which he blocked. He was toying with me, I could tell. He could have easily taken me down with those few blocks. He hadn’t even tried to grab my leg.
“Not bad Princess. A few more hundred of those and maybe you’ll hit your mark.” He needed to stop calling me Princess. It was irritating. I made like I was going to punch again but this time I swung at his mid-section, which he sprung back from, but not before I dropped and swiped my leg out to trip him.
I didn’t hesitate before jumping on top of him in his unbalanced state, sending us to the ground. I planted my knees firmly on his sides, digging them into the mat. I squeezed hard with my thighs and started to punch at his head. I heard Wyatt laughing his ass off in the background, but stayed focused. I managed a hit or two before he did a hip thrust which flung me off of him. I needed to learn that one.
I landed on my ass and he now had the advantage of being on top. Crap on a stick. I shielded my head and let my forearms take the brunt of his punches. He was holding back, they barely hurt. Seeing my opening, I quickly dropped my arms and let a punch connect with my face. Alex instantly looked like he had broken his mother’s favorite vase and I rolled out from under him, kicking around with my legs to take him down to the mat sideways.
As he started to get up, my legs wrapped around his neck from the side and I swiveled to bring him back down sideways where I pulled back with my feet, torqueing his neck at an uncomfortable angle. His hand slapped the mat twice and I let go.
“That’s bullshit!” Alex stood and started unwrapping his hand quite violently. “You can’t just take a hit on purpose and-”
“And what?” I whipped my shirt over my head and held it against my split lip which had started bleeding profusely after I stood. I laughed as all three sets of eyes immediately landed on my lacy bra and then traveled to my tattoo on my torso. “Your punches were weak, next time don’t hold back. You have a weakness. Hurting a woman.”
“There won’t be a next time.” Rex sounded resolute in that. “But she’s right, that’s probably a weakness for us all.”
“Are you talking about hitting women or me without a shirt on?” I raised my eyebrows.
“What is that exactly?” Wyatt was eyeing my ink like he’d never seen anything like it. I turned to the side so he could see its full extent. The tree tattoo took up my entire right side with the roots spreading along the top of the curve of my hip and the trunk swirling up my side. The branches fanned off in various directions. The branches that curved slightly in front of me were alive with leaves and small flowers. The branches that curved onto my back were devoid of leaves and flowers, but on a branch was a single bird staring up at a moon on my shoulder blade.
Alex stalked over to me with a frown and moved the shirt from my face. He touched my lip with his finger and I felt a slight tingle as I felt the large crack that had been there mend itself.
“It’s a tattoo.” They all looked at me with confusion. I would have expected them to be sporting their own tattoos, but I guess not. “An artist takes a needle and permanently puts ink under your skin.”
“You permanently draw on your skin? Seems a little masochistic. Put your shirt back on or something.” Alex grumbled as he sulked out of the training room. I guess losing to a girl sucked all the fun right out of him.
“So, I have this appointment I need to get to. Great fight, can’t wait until it’s my turn.” Wyatt quickly left the room, leaving Rex and me in all my shirtless glory.
“How convenient,” I mumbled.
I started unwrapping my hands, dropping my shirt on the floor. It was a bloody mess, besides, a little skin never hurt anyone. If men could walk around shirtless all the time, why couldn’t women walk around in a bra?
Rex cleared his throat and I stopped halfway through my second wrap. He was staring at me with those dark emerald eyes again. I probably should have put my shirt back on since he had some kind of extraordinary reaction to me with a shirt on.
“Here,” he said grabbing my hand, “Let me help.” I didn’t really want his help, but he seemed to be in a state of some kind so I let him. “You really showed us a weakness today. All of our militaries on this planet are dominated by males, but what if…” I could see his brain working while he finished unwrapping my hand, still holding it when the wrap dropped to the floor.
“A strong military should have men and women. We both have strengths and weaknesses that compliment each other. In Blight, the enforcers do not discriminate. A fighter is a fighter. You probably have tons of women here who would love to throw some punches. It could give you an advantage if you ever go to war.”
There was nothing I disliked more than being treated differently because of my gender. As if a penis gave men more power than a pair of boobs. As much as my home sucked, at least it had been all about equality and pulling your own weight.
“The military is more of just a safeguard. We mostly argue about who will hold the annual winter festival.” He laughed and brought my hand to his lips, gently kissing my knuckles. Did he just say winter festival? I couldn’t be sure since my thoughts left me as his soft lips grazed my knuckles.
“You don’t have a girlfriend or wife?” I blurted. It was completely the most inappropriate timing considering he was trying to seduce me by acting chivalrous. He was old, surely he had a wife or a whole harem of wo
men. “Concubines?”
His face scrunched up like he ate a bad apple. What male wouldn’t want a harem of women? “No to all of those. When I turned 18 long ago, I knew I’d have a soulmate. I’ve certainly had my fair share of romances, but the women always knew it could never be more than it was.”
“That’s kind of tragic. And here you are now with a broken soulmate.” I picked up my shirt and wraps from the ground before realizing Rex was staring at me. He needed to stop doing that because it had turned from creepy to endearing and that was the last thing I needed. My eyes briefly examined his lips. I was going down a dangerous path way too soon.
“I am a patient person. I’ll wait for you.” He followed as I made a beeline for the door. No more staring at his lips. Or anything else on him for that matter. We walked in silence back to the castle to wait for a response from my mother.
Chapter 8
The next morning, I awoke to several people in my room. Hadn’t they heard of knocking? One was opening all of the blinds in the room, causing me to pull the covers over my head. Was I really in a castle or a torture chamber?
“Good morning! Queen Sara has requested we prepare you for travel to Ardor to take audience with Queen Sienna. What a splendid day it is!” I was not a morning person, and the chipper assistant was already grating on my nerves. “We have brought you your breakfast as well.”
Now that I could get on board with. I felt like I had just eaten, but if they wanted to give me food at regular intervals, who was I to complain.
I slid out of the warm bed and stood to find not just one chipper woman but three more, all with large smiles plastered on their faces. Didn’t it hurt to smile that much? Even worse was they had wheeled a whole rack of bright clothing into the room as well as cases of makeup and hair styling items. Definitely torture.
“What exactly are you going to do to me?” I made for the food, which was just as splendid looking as usual. The smell of coffee was calling to me. I could see how Alex loved it so much. The second it touched my lips it was as if my brain instantly defogged.
