by Amelia Jade
He looked over at Peyton. “You don’t have to watch this, if you don’t want to.”
The human woman considered his words for a long moment, then nodded. “I know. But it’s okay.”
Kiefer didn’t know what to make of her reaction. She’d seemed terrified the day before when his anger had come rushing to the surface, showing his true side.
Perhaps, but she didn’t bat an eye at the fact that you taught that punk a lesson. It was only when the anger was presented to her that she was fearful. Not when you used violence.
So she was okay with violence, but was afraid of what his unrestrained power could do?
Probably a smart thing, but why was she okay with violence? Most humans preferred to avoid it at all costs.
Kiefer didn’t say anything, but those thoughts occupied his mind as the trio approached the strip club.
“Stay out of the way,” he told Peyton. “If this gets ugly quick—and with Langdon there’s always a high possibility of that—I don’t want you getting hurt.”
He turned and headed inside, but paused before he was more than two steps. “And whatever you do, do not stay between us and the door. Got it?”
She nodded once slowly and then proceeded to follow him inside.
Apparently the prospect of nudity didn’t bother her either.
Peyton was definitely one intriguing woman. He wished he could get to know her past better, to find out why she wasn’t bothered by these things. It was likely an interesting story.
The interior of the club was dimly lit, as was to be expected. Neon lights flashed here or there, but as it was only slightly past noon during a weekday, the place was rather…well, bare didn’t begin to describe it.
Kiefer walked inside, followed by the veteran Green Bearet, and then Peyton, who followed cautiously, but without hesitation. There was a coat check immediately to the left, with tables straight ahead. Off to the right in a semi-private area were several pool tables, and in the back right corner was a sign labeled Washrooms.
He didn’t see his target. Striding ahead he realized the club took a hard left and extended back, forming an L-shape. There were some more tables on the right before it transitioned into chairs around a stage, followed by a few more tables. To the left was a long bar, followed by steps up into what he could only assume was the VIP room, for private dances and the like.
The entire place was painted a dark shade of red that seemed to absorb more of the light than it reflected, without actually darkening the room any further.
He paused, scanning the entire open room. Perhaps half a dozen patrons were in the establishment, scattered across the various tables. His eyes were immediately drawn to one table where several dancers were gathered, moving with slightly jerky movements, their eyes downcast, avoiding any looks.
“Langdon,” he growled.
It immediately became clear to him what was going on. He could see the human bouncers conferring with each other near the bar, trying to decide what to do. So far it seemed they were just begging with the dancers to go along with the giant brute, in hopes that he might get bored and leave.
“Get them out of here,” Kiefer growled as he strode past the men in black polo shirts.
They immediately began to gesture at the dancers, who made scared little noises and then took off toward the exit.
“Hey!” a voice boomed from behind them, still obscured from view until the half-naked women moved around him. “Come back!”
“Get up,” Kiefer said, gesturing at the person manning the DJ booth to kill the music.
The thumping bass died with a sad whirl.
“Aww, come on, Lieutenant,” Langdon drawled. “I was just having some fun.”
“Fun?” Kiefer said, fixing his steely glare on the rogue shifter. “You call harassing and forcing humans into doing your will, ‘fun’?”
Langdon didn’t reply, though he returned the glare as best he could. It simply hit Kiefer and bounced off.
“Outside. Now.”
“I was enjoying myself.”
“I don’t give a shit. You’re abusing your power, and causing trouble not only for me, but for the rest of us.” Kiefer paused for a moment, then decided to continue. “You’ve been here a few days, and you’re already making a disgrace of yourself.”
Anger burned in Langdon’s eyes, rising up to match the flames Kiefer knew were evident in his own face.
“Now, sir, I—”
“I don’t give a shit, Langdon. Outside. Now,” Kiefer said, cutting him off.
The other shifter rose languidly to his feet, but his relaxed body language didn’t fool Kiefer for a second. Things were close to going off. Langdon was a walking powder keg, but even he hadn’t expected the young shifter to act so rashly already. Did he not realize that relations between Cadia and the humans were balanced on a razor’s edge? Anything could tip the scales into the favor of humans interfering within Cadia as they were rumored to be doing with Fenris.
“I’m not ready to leave,” Langdon said.
“And I’m not going to ask again,” he snapped back.
“Are you threatening me?”
“You want to fight, Langdon? Fine. Let’s fight. Outside.”
The recruit rocked back on his heels.
Guess you weren’t expecting that, were you?
Kiefer had hoped to avoid violence, but it seemed that the girls had gotten Langdon’s blood flowing, and he wouldn’t be sated until something happened.
“I have a better idea,” Langdon replied.
“I’ve yet to see you have a good idea, so this oughta be good,” Kiefer laughed.
“Let’s fight in here.”
Kiefer had been expecting something of the sort, and even as Langdon hurled a surprise left jab at his face, he let his knees go limp. The fist hissed by his face, missing by no more than an inch or two.
Even as he was falling, Kiefer re-engaged his leg muscles, stopping his downward progress. Langdon wasn’t off-balance and couldn’t shift his weight in time to deliver a kick that would hurt Kiefer badly. That gave him the time to drive upward, plowing his shoulder into Langdon’s stomach.
He wrapped his arms around the big man and turned, heading back down the aisle and around the corner, heading for the exit. Langdon recovered and began to rain blows down upon his back, twisting the muscles there into knots of agony, but Kiefer kept his grip until he dove through the swinging doors and outside.
The fall resulted in him landing on top of the recruit. The weight combined with hitting hard concrete served to stun Langdon for just a moment. It was long enough for Kiefer to roll off him and leap to his feet. He delivered a swift kick to the side of his renegade soldier, hearing at least one rib crack as the steel-clad toe of his boot impacted heavily.
The other shifter bellowed in pain, but he rolled away from Kiefer, and with a stiff flex of his arms while he was face-down flung himself to his feet, landing on his toes perhaps five feet down the sidewalk.
“I’ve been waiting for this for so long,” Langdon sneered, advancing on Kiefer.
“You’re not the first arrogant recruit I’ve dealt with,” Kiefer replied calmly, letting himself become devoid of emotions.
It was tough, because he could see Peyton in the background watching. She was far enough away for him to realize she wasn’t in danger, but his bear was more practical than that. Peyton was near a fight, thus Peyton was in danger. That made it angry, and it wanted to protect her.
But if he was going to win this fight in convincing fashion, Kiefer needed to keep his wits about him.
Langdon closed the distance rapidly, moving swifter without warning. He feinted left and flicked out a right, aiming where Kiefer’s head should have been.
But Kiefer wasn’t there. He’d seen the false attempt coming and slid into the path of the false punch. The real blow didn’t connect and left Langdon overextended. His right hand connected with Langdon’s face, breaking his nose.
Blood be
gan to flow down his face, over his lips, and dripped from his chin onto his chest, staining the white Green Bearet T-shirt a deep red color.
“Ow,” Langdon snarled, his voice nasally.
“You’re an idiot,” Kiefer taunted, trying to provoke the younger man’s emotions, to get him to act recklessly.
The young man roared in rage and charged right in at Kiefer, all pretext of coordination and training gone. His bear was running the show now, and it just wanted to beat Kiefer with brute strength.
Bears really weren’t well trained for combat with a human.
Kiefer spun to the side and lashed out, catching his recruit in the temple. Langdon’s eyes went blank for a moment, but he turned with a rapidity that caught Kiefer by surprise and forced him to jump out of the way of a swift flurry of punches.
He avoided the first, then the second. But the third was too close. He threw up a forearm, blocking the blow and redirecting its force away from him. Then his left forearm came up and did the same.
With both of Langdon’s arms falling away from him, there was nothing blocking Kiefer from Langdon.
Dammit.
It was the only thought he had time for before he rammed his forehead into Langdon’s face not once, not twice, but three times.
The young shifter stumbled backward, and despite the stars in his vision Kiefer spun and delivered a spinning kick that connected with the side of Langdon’s head and dropped him like a sack of bricks.
“Get him out of here,” he said woozily to the veteran Green Bearet, whose name he’d never even gotten.
The other soldier nodded and bent down, picking Langdon up over his shoulder and trotting off down the road.
“Was there any damage?” he asked, turning to face one of the bouncers who had come up to him.
“Just minor, I think,” the man replied. “We can handle it.”
“No,” Kiefer replied sternly. “You will send a bill to us, and we will ensure you’re paid for any damages wrought by his dumb ass. Understood?”
“Understood, uh, sir.”
Kiefer smiled. “However, if you have it, might I avail myself of an ice pack? Or some ice in a glass?”
“Sure,” the young man replied, gesturing for Kiefer to follow him back inside.
Peyton joined them inside. The other patrons had recovered it seemed, and the girls were back dancing on the stage.
“Here, let me have a look at that,” Peyton said, taking the ice pack from the bouncer and pressing it gently to Kiefer’s forehead.
Kiefer sank back into the chair and let the hottest woman in the entire establishment tend to him.
Chapter Thirteen
Peyton
“I hate doing that,” he muttered.
“What, fighting?”
Kiefer laughed, then groaned and grabbed her hand, mashing the ice harder into his forehead.
“No, using my head to hit something. It hurts, you know. Even for a shifter, that move freaking sucks.”
Peyton laughed. “I bet. You’ll be seeing stars for…” she trailed off. “Actually, I have no idea how long you’ll be seeing stars for,” she finished. “You guys heal so much faster than we do.”
“It’ll be a few minutes more,” he told her. “I hit him hard enough to hurt myself.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s the only way to hurt him,” Kiefer replied dully. “Trust me, I didn’t want to.”
She smiled. “Yeah, I think I can believe you on that one.” Peyton glanced over her shoulder toward the exit. “Who was he anyway?”
“One of mine,” Kiefer growled. “A troublemaker since the beginning. Unfortunately, he’s also really good. But I might have to kick him out for this one.” He shrugged. “We’ll see. I’ll talk it over with Captain Korver.”
“Ah.”
Kiefer looked up at her, his eyes still somewhat glassy, but she could see him focused on her easily enough.
“Can I ask you something?”
She frowned, nodding at the same time. “Of course.”
“I noticed that you don’t seem overly bothered by the idea of violence. Both at the motel, and then just now. You didn’t go looking for cover, but insisted on being around.”
Peyton hesitated. He was right. The only time she’d felt scared was when Kiefer had nearly lost control of his bear right in front of her. But when he’d laid into the idiotic shifter at the front desk, she’d not even flinched, now that she thought about it.
Nor had his fight just now with Langdon made her feel uncomfortable. But without her memory, there was precious little that she could do to tell him why that was.
There was one thing that left her intrigued, however. Once he was better, she intended to ask him.
“I don’t know,” she admitted at last, addressing his question first. “But you’re right, now that I think about it. It didn’t really bother me. I wasn’t frightened. In fact…”
Kiefer pulled the ice pack away from his face as she stopped talking. Peyton glanced away, not willing to meet his gaze.
“In fact, what?” he pressed, his voice gentle but strong.
She waved it off. “Once you’re better.”
Out of the corner of her vision she could see his eyebrows narrow in suspicion.
“I’m fine,” he said, brushing it aside as he rose. “What is it?”
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to steady herself. “Come,” she said, taking his hand and pulling him outside.
“Okay, what now?” he asked as they stood on the sidewalk out in front of the strip club.
Facing him, Peyton shifted her weight and shuffled her feet slightly, until she settled back into a stance that she’d seen him adopt during his fight with Langdon.
One of Kiefer’s eyes rose.
“Throw a punch at me,” she said. “A light one.”
“What?” Kiefer’s eyebrows rose, but then relaxed as she clarified. “Oh. Why?”
“Just do it,” she ordered firmly.
The big shifter looked around, shaking his head in disbelief. “Okay.”
His right hand lashed out at her.
Peyton’s body automatically moved. Her weight shifted backward slightly even as her left hand flashed up, arm bent almost ninety degrees. Her forearm intercepted his wrist and redirected his blow away from her body.
Kiefer reacted swiftly, and even as his right arm was pushed farther away from him he moved with it, replanting his feet and letting a left fist come at her.
But Peyton hadn’t been standing still either. She kept turning with her block, spinning on her toes and ducking beneath his blow. Her right fist came up at Kiefer as she rose, and he was forced to jump away from her.
Peyton saw her blow was going to miss and killed her momentum to it. Instead she simply rose, bent at the waist and kicked out with her foot instead. The move caught Kiefer by surprise and connected with his stomach.
But he was smooth, and his hands tightened on her ankle, holding her in place.
“Gotcha,” he smiled.
Then his expression sobered. He let go of her foot, and it fell easily to her side. He gave her a quizzical look.
“Yeah, I guess I know martial arts,” she said dully. “Though I have no idea why.”
A number of reasons came to mind.
None of them pleasant.
“Plenty of people take it up as a hobby,” Kiefer said with a shrug. “You’re good though. Very good.”
She bowed slightly. “Thank you. Though I know I wouldn’t stand a chance against you in actual combat.”
“Perhaps not,” he said, flashing a smile that made her knees weak. “But that’s because I’m not completely human. Not your fault.”
Conceding the point, Peyton nodded slowly. “A hobby, eh?”
She looked up at him, wondering if he believed that line.
Because she certainly didn’t.
Chapter Fourteen
Kiefer
It was plain to see.
<
br /> The knowledge that not only wasn’t she bothered by violence, but that she also knew martial arts, and at a rather high level at that, was bothering Peyton. A lot. She was unhappy the entire time as they wandered back through the streets of Cloud Lake.
Kiefer had unfortunately had to cut short their wandering session, as he had to get back to fill out forms in regard to Langdon, and decide what sort of punishment the man would get. By rights he was entitled to end his life, but the Green Bearets tried to avoid that punishment if at all possible when it came to their own. It was possible that Langdon could still become a useful part of their organization.
But his antics had destroyed what had been turning out to be a good afternoon with Peyton, and Kiefer was mad about it. He did everything he could to contain that anger for the time being. He needed to be there for Peyton, as she dealt with both her newly recalled memory, and the knowledge that perhaps there was something about her unknown past that was…less than savory.
“You needn’t be so harsh on yourself,” he said softly. “You have just as much idea as me what it’s about. Just because you know these skills doesn’t automatically make you a bad person.”
“True, but it makes it less likely that I was, that I am a good person,” she said bluntly.
Kiefer paused as he thought that over. “There are many more people who learn martial arts as a hobby, than those who use their skills for evil.”
Peyton considered his point. “And my being okay with violence and bloodshed?” she asked.
He frowned. “A result of your training, I’d wager. Not because you’ve been overly exposed to it or anything.”
“Maybe. But there are still so many unanswered questions! I just wish I knew the answer to some of them. Even if I could figure out where I’m from, then I could perhaps start to track down my former life.”
He looked at her. “You’re not from Cloud Lake?”
“I don’t know,” she said in a small voice. “If I am, nobody has reported me missing, nobody came forward to say they knew me when news of our rescue was broadcast to the town. So it seems likely that I’m not from here.”
Kiefer hadn’t realized that. How painful it must have been to realize she was being rescued, only to come to the conclusion that she didn’t have anybody waiting for her, at least not here.
