“Fair enough,” Kae said in a calm voice. “Tell us what you want us to do.”
“Will you stop being so calm and collected about everything?” I shouted.
“What happened to that vampire that scared Skiles away? That's what we need right now, not Mr. Everything's Cool vampire!”
Dropping his hands to his sides he looked at me. Then he nodded and took off his glasses, handing them to Remy.
“Let's go outside, Finnegan. I want to see how strong you are.”
Finally!
I walked next to Kaeden into the front lawn. Today it was raining so the sun was still blocked out and we were safe. Everyone had followed us out and scattered out to watch. Cody got comfortable on the stairs with a boyish grin on his face.
When he saw me looking at him, he gave me a thumbs up. The vampires had taken up residence by the front gate, so I knew they thought that this mock fight might turn serious. The gypsies stood by the trees in the front yard.
Kaeden took a step forward and motioned me to attack him. It took me a split second to react as I ran at him full fury in swing. His persona immediately changed into a cold blooded enraged killer as he caught me in midair and brought me back down to the earth with a bone shattering slam. The wind got knocked out of me and by the time I recovered, he had me by the throat and was tossing me across the lawn. Before I had a chance to land, he already had me by the throat again, only this time I was able to yank his legs out from under him. Frantically my mind was screaming at me to check myself for any permanent damage, but my body was already swinging into action. I grabbed him by the legs and spun him around in a circle before I let him go. His body went through one of the trees where the gypsies were standing. I was actually slightly amused when Ryker sidestepped to let Kaeden fly by.
I ran toward him at animalistic speeds while he lay there trying to recover from the blow. He sat up, a hand to the side of his head, and waved his hand. The next thing I knew, Ryker was coming at me with every intention of taking me down.
Since I hadn't seen him fight at the fairgrounds I had no idea what he was capable of. He came at me slowly taking his time and sizing me up. Walking in a circle, half crouched around me when he finally leapt at me.
Ryker was as every bit strong as he looked. Once he got a hold of me, he was able to take me down easily. I struggled with him to get him off and found it extremely hard to do. That's when I heard the sound of a whip breaking the sound barrier behind me and I knew that this was going to get a lot harder. Managing to get a foot into his stomach I tossed him past me as violently as I could, throwing him next to Kaeden.
Before I had a chance to catch a breath, Remy had already tangled me in her whip. Damn that stings! I thought as it made contact with me. She gripped it tightly and yelled something to Ryker who was charging again. Knowing full well that they had me beat, I closed my eyes and grit my teeth, awaiting the impact. Only it never came. I heard Ryker grunt and I felt the whip tear away from me as Remy was pulled violently away from me.
When I opened my eyes, Cody was standing there looking scarier than I had ever seen him. Those beautiful blue eyes of his looked completely dead and serpent like. His face wasn't the carefree Cody that we were all used too, it was completely hard and full of hatred. I involuntarily took a step away from him and he whipped his head to look at me. His gaze was focused but it looked like he was in a trance.
“Cody?” I asked cautiously.
He took a step toward me, then his face turned angry and he leapt at me. I dropped to the ground ready to bring him down, but he had actually meant to jump over me and he took Kaeden to the ground. I didn't realize that he had been sneaking up behind me to attack me again.
I watched in stunned silence as Cody rolled Kae over him and let him fly toward the gate where the other three were waiting. Shane jumped up and caught him setting him to the ground. In an instant Ryker was on Cody's back trying to bring him to the ground and it looked like he was succeeding until Cody took a deep breath and thrust out his powerful arms with a deafening roar. I jumped up and caught
Ryker by the throat and slammed him so hard into the ground that his body made an indentation.
“Enough,” Kaeden called from the front gate.
I looked over at him and saw that he was walking toward us looking normal again. His eyes had returned to their 'normal' color and he seemed to be calm.
Ryker and his gypsies joined Kae and the vamps around me and Cody. I looked at Cody who still had snakelike eyes.
“Cody, it's me. Finn,” I said touching his arm. His lips curved into a smile I didn't recognize but he didn't move.
“Cody,” I repeated again, “It's over.”
His body shivered for a moment and he let his breath out in a shaky puff of air. Shaking his head he looked at the ground for a second.
“Hey dolly,” he said smiling and looking at me out of the corner of his eye.
“Oh thank God,” I said in a relieved voice, “What the hell was that?”
“Exactly that,” he said laughing, “hell. Didn't think I was gonna come out of it for a second there. I guess seeing you in trouble was enough to force me to control it. Thanks,” he said punching me on the shoulder.
“Um. You're welcome?” I said with an unsure laugh.
“You did well, Finnegan,” Ryker said. “It would be an honor to challenge you again soon.”
And for the first time since all of this crap started, Ryker smiled a sincere, friendly smile. I couldn't help but smile back.
“I want in on the action next time,” Drake said with a grin.
“Yeah, well the point apparently was all of you,” I said staring hard at Kaeden who just smiled. “Next time. I promise. Even if I have to attack you myself.”
Cody slid his arm around my shoulders and we all laughed. Kaeden whispered something to Ryker who looked at Cody and me and nodded. Then he whispered to Remy, the gypsy girl, and the three vampires who all turned to look at us as well.
“We’re going to try something new,” Kae said clearing his throat.
“What’s that?” I asked suspiciously.
“It’s obvious by what you said that you have control problems as well,” he said to Cody. “It’s also obvious that you think being able to protect Finnegan is the reason you can control it. So here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to be restrained while Finnegan fights off our attacks.” He then turned to me, “I know that was not your boiling point. I need you to reach it and unleash. When it comes time for you to face Skiles he isn’t going to be easy on you so we can’t be either. The difference is we’ll stop before we kill you. Your rage protects you from being injured. Use that to your advantage,” he said with a sly grin.
I reached up behind myself and ran my fingertips over my back. No way. There wasn’t a mark on me. My back wasn't indented like I had been afraid of. Who knew that the anger made me pretty much impervious?
“Before we all reengage, maybe you should go upstairs and put on actual clothes,” Kae said looking pointedly at my bra and denim shorts.
I looked down, “Oh yeah. Ha ha ha. I’ll go grab some towels for us too so we can dry off and go again.”
I jogged off toward the stairs and disappeared into the house. Instead of running downstairs to my room, I decided to go up to the second floor and bathroom and grabbed a towel. I vigorously wiped myself dry and tossed it into the hamper. Now I had a reason to do laundry and it kind of made me happy. Grabbing an armload of towels, I ran downstairs and set them on the bottom stair. Then I ran down to the lower level of the house, into my room, and changed my clothes. I figured for what I was doing a black tank top and blue jeans would be sufficient. I grabbed some socks and slid on my snow boots, I knew the grip on the bottom of them would give me a little bit of help.
When I got outside I saw that everyone had been scattered around the front porch. They all came towards me and each grabbed a towel to dry themselves off before we began again. I noticed that I had o
ne towel left in my hand and looked up at them. Everyone there was already dry and had made a heap of wet towels by the door.
“Where’s Cody?” I asked finally realizing who was missing.
Shane looked at Drake who grinned back at him. The next thing I knew I had Chase on my back trying to knock me to the ground. He caught me off guard, so I stumbled but I didn’t ‘properly react’, as Kaeden put it, until I saw Kaeden’s demeanor change once again. Like I had done with Skiles I gripped his arm and shot off through the woods.
Little did poor Chase know that he had just volunteered to be my shield. As I bobbed and weaved through the trees with Chase on my back I decided to take this back to Kae’s. But on the way there, Ryker cut me off. I tripped and fell hard on my face, and Chase tumbled over me laughing as he rolled into a boulder.
“Now!” Ryker yelled.
In an instant every member of my group flanked me. As they circled in slowly on me I saw the looks of evil on all of their faces and had to remind myself that they weren’t really going to hurt me. At least I hoped not, I wasn’t so sure anymore. In the trees I heard a rustling sound, which distracted me. I was really hoping that it was Cody because I could use his spaced out demon back up right now.
And it was Cody. But not how I expected. The gypsy girl had dropped him from one of the higher layers of three, in a straightjacket and chains. Where they had gotten that straightjacket from was beyond me but for the moment I took to look at him, I couldn’t help but think he looked kind of cute in it.
I heard his familiar laugh as he struggled to get out of it and when we locked eyes he smiled and rolled his eyes. But then his demeanor changed when he saw the potential danger that I was now in. I turned back around and saw that the circle had gotten tighter and they were going to pounce at any given second.
I was right; in the time it took me to blink they all piled on top of me crushing me to the ground below. I became frantic. I struggled to push them off but I couldn’t muster the strength. I lay in the bottom of the pile and heard the sound of one of my ribs snap. I started to cry, it was the only thing I could do. I knew that was something that couldn’t be repaired.
Faintly I could hear the sounds of Cody’s anger. He was yelling and screaming at them to get off of me. I felt another rib snap.
Your rage protects you from being injured. Kaeden’s words came back to me and I took a deep breath. Then I closed my eyes and forced myself to channel my rage. I felt it boiling inside of me. I felt the hatred for myself and the hatred I felt for Skiles. In my fit of anger I shoved with all my might and wound up rocketing them all off of me like an explosion.
Standing up, I wrapped an arm around myself. I was so angry. So very angry.
The sweat was pouring out of me now and as I thought of the permanent damage that they just did to me, I leapt at them all in a blind rage. Most of them were able to get out of the way but I wound up catching the new gypsy as she tried to run.
With a strength I didn’t even know I possessed I grabbed her by the arm and flung her violently into the backs of my vampires. Kaeden sensing it however, had managed to sidestep the throw giving me a smirk.
That only pissed me off more than I already was. I ran at him as he disappeared back toward my home. From behind me I heard the running footsteps of the rest of our makeshift army trying to catch me, but my anger was in full swing and I was running as fast an F1 tornado. I knew that Kaeden couldn’t outrun me so I decided to take to the trees in an effort to sneak attack him.
Quietly I jumped to the nearest tree and started to leap from one to the other trying to get in front of him as quickly as I could. When I finally did I jumped down and landed a foot in front of him, which surprised him for a moment. I was crouched down ready to engage him, which with the way I was feeling, I might kill him. Since his eyes were the color of shining onyx, I knew that I was facing the monster inside of him and that I most likely wouldn’t be able to make a dent on him. Nonetheless I jumped at him. Kaeden, being famous for sidestepping moved to the right, but I was ready for him and moved with him. In surprise that I knew his fighting technique already, his eyes flashed back to their normal color and he started to laugh as I crushed him into the ground.
“Gotcha,” I said in a voice I didn’t recognize as I held him down.
I sat on his chest while he laughed, my legs stretched out to the left side of his body. I heard someone running toward us but stay seated. I mean if I took out the leader the others would see it and concede the fight, right?
Boy was I wrong! The blur of the body coming at me knocked me off of Kaeden so hard that we tumbled back about fifteen feet before slamming against a boulder. I felt a rib snap. But this time, it seemed to be snapping into place. I got to one knee grinning. Didn’t know I could do that.
I waited for my attacker to stand up and face me and my grin got wider when I saw that it was Cody. In his distress of seeing me in pain and hearing me in pained anguish, he managed to escape from his man made restraints.
I looked at him expectantly and saw a grin cross over his face. He had that snake look to his eyes again and he still seemed like he was in a trance but this time it seemed different.
“Shall we dance?” he asked formally, bowing.
Then in one quick motion he brought his fist down as hard as he could toward my head. Copying Kaeden’s dodging techniques, I shot to the right and he missed. I heard the shattering of the boulder behind me and took off running. Cody was going to test me now but I had a feeling that he wasn't going to be as easy as the rest were being on me. I knew that we were going to earn each other’s beatings.
Taking a deep breath, I decided to go to my comfort zone and jump up for the trees when he grabbed me by the ankle in mid jump, slamming back to the earth with a guttural cry. I rolled over to the side, stars exploding in front of my eyes. I filled my lungs again with air and got to my feet but he was already coming at again.
This time as he approached he pulled both of his arms back to his right and brought both fists at me like a battering ram tossing me into a tree. My body hit it hard and my head bounced off of it. He’s really trying to kill me, I thought grimly.
Good, that’s what I wanted anyway. So I used the tree trunk to push myself off of and ran at him with incredible force and tried to knock him to the ground, but I barely moved him. Grabbing both of my arms and thrusting them up toward the sky he kicked me hard in my stomach causing me to collapse where I stood. I sucked in a long pained breath trying to get air into my lungs. Around me the world seemed to be going black, but I refused to let it. Using a hand to hold myself up, I looked up at him with tears of pain streaming down my face. He stood there looking down at me with those serpentine eyes and a curious smile on his face. I was waiting for a moment, a flicker of the Cody I was used to, and then I was going to beat the demon out of him.
He crouched in front of me and ran a hand down the side of my face. My body went rigid. I knew something bad was going to come from this; I felt it. He let his hand go down to my neck, trailing his fingers gently down it then travel to my shoulders. In a swift movement, he grabbed my arm and lifted me off the ground.
Then he reached over where my mark was hidden behind the tattoos on my arms and he gave it a long, slow lick. That grossed me out. But it was also the opportunity I needed. As quickly as it takes to blink an eye, I pulled my fist back and smashed it into his throat. He dropped me and grabbed his neck but it was only out of surprise.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” he said shaking his head slowly.
I braced myself as he started to come at me, his face losing its friendly grin.
Come on, I thought to myself. I dug my feet into the ground, which was easy to do since the woodlands had mostly turned into mud from the constant rain that was falling.
I saw him take a deep breath filling his upper body with air and making himself look way bigger than he normally should of. As he approached me I saw his eyes were transfixed on me and starting to come into focus,
which I knew, wasn’t a good thing.
Suddenly he was tackled to the ground by a tremendous force. It was the gypsy girl and she was holding him down.
“Run! Get out of here,” she shouted at me waving her arm. I took a step closer to her wondering how she was able to hold him down. “Go!” she screamed frantically as he started to stir under her.
Well, if she can knock him over, she should be able to take care of herself, I thought as I ran back to my house. As I jogged around the side of the house the sound of enthusiastic voices was loud and joyful. Turning the corner, I noticed that everyone, well mostly everyone, had regrouped and were lounging around enjoying the rain.
Kaeden came over to me and gave me a hug, “That was excellent! I’m very proud of you.”
“Thanks,” I blushed.
Everyone else crowded around me clapping me on the back and congratulating me on a job well done. Kae did a quick headcount of everyone there and looked around as if he were trying to see if Cody and the gypsy girl were around.
“Huh,” he said turning back to us.
“Sorry about that guys,” Cody said casually as he slung himself up and over the side of the porch. I watched as the gypsy girl climbed the stairs and went over to Ryker who was looking at her questioningly. Cody on the other hand, leaned back against the railing with crossed his legs, holding himself up with his hands.
Kaeden was looking at the gypsy girl like he was seeing her for the first time.
When he caught my eye, he gave me a look as if to say who is that? Slightly I just shook my head to tell him I didn’t know.
“Come here, dolly,” Cody called to me. I stood there with my arms crossed staring at him like he had lost his mind. He laughed at the look on my face. “Come on, I’m not gonna hurt ya. See? Normal eyes,” he said batting his eyelashes at me. I was trying so hard not to grin.
“Please?” he asked holding out a hand.
Sighing I looked at Kaeden who went back to eyeing the new girl. I glanced at her again then back at Cody. That grin was back on his face again and he wiggled his fingers at me. Shaking my head I went over and slapped him five then sat next to him on the railing.
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