by Jane Cousins
“Work.” Fen met her scowl and matched it.
Okay, so the simmering sexual tension between them was practically giving off a palpable heat haze, still, that didn’t mean he got to leave her… she meant, negate on his promise. “You said you would introduce me to a suitable man to have sex with, remember?”
Fuck, he bit back a feral growl that wanted to tear its way free. “How could I forget? Oh, that’s right, maybe it’s because I have more important things to do, like catch your supernatural Firebug before they end up killing someone.”
“You haven’t verified the Firebug terrorising your Sanctuary has anything to do with me.”
“Please, you and I both know you are the one common denominator in all of this.”
“I know nothing of the sort. For all I know, you have maniacs flying around here all the time dropping superheated rocks for shits and giggles.”
“You-” Fen’s scowl, if possible, deepened. “Why would you say the rocks were dropped?”
Brodie swallowed her snappy comeback, hmm, why did she think that?
“Did you see something?” Fen pressed, this might be the breakthrough in the case they needed.” Brodie shook her head, he pressed harder. “Maybe something you smelt? Something you heard?”
Brodie snapped her fingers together as the memory came back. “Wings. I heard wings flapping right before the rock dropped into my living room.”
Fen smiled. They’d been assuming someone was throwing these things, but if they could fly, the suspect list just narrowed substantially. “I could kiss you right now.” Gulp, what the fuck was he saying?
Brodie’s eyebrow arched in silent expectation, her eyes suddenly on Fen’s mouth.
“Um, but that wouldn’t be very professional of me.” Oh, limp save Valhalla. A heavy air of awkwardness hung between them. What else could he do? “So, you said you wanted me to introduce you to some… um, candidates?” He swept his hand out, indicating the double doors leading to the training arena. “Let’s go.”
Shit, as he slapped open the doors, Fen’s mind was reeling even as his gut roiled. Was he seriously going to do this? He mentally ran through a list of his relatives and friends, not a single one of those bastards deserved to have Brodie served up to them for a scorching hot encounter of the naked kind.
It was like a replay of yesterday, only Elijah was in the gallery, his arms folded across his broad chest. He turned at their entrance, relief flaring in his slate grey eyes for a brief moment before settling back into Elijah’s usual hard, flat stare mode. “She’s back, and she’s not alone.”
“Gaia?” Brodie queried with surprise.
Fen looked over at the small group of women milling in the arena. All of whom he recognised. His cousin Tamara, who usually manned the Police Substation over at Reverie Valley. Another cousin Gigi, along with her mother, his Aunt Gwen. All were dressed like Gaia, yoga pants, t-shirts and sneakers. “Why are they here?”
“For the self-defence class.” Elijah supplied, his tone just short of a snarl.
“I didn’t think you offered self-defence classes?” Brodie countered.
“I don’t. It seems however, that you do.”
“No… I…” Brodie looked at Elijah in confusion and then at Fen, who was smiling broadly suddenly, ratfink, he thought this was funny. “I was going to train with the squad today.”
Elijah’s expression never changed. “They’re in the pool this morning and this afternoon we have an archery session. You can train with us tomorrow, today you have class.”
Brodie’s lips pursed in annoyance and disgust. “But… I don’t teach self-defence.”
“Just do what you did yesterday.” Elijah shrugged, seemingly unconcerned by Brodie’s lack of qualifications.
“Well, it looks like you’re busy.” Fen clapped his hands. “I have a suspect list to collate. See you back here this afternoon.” He felt immensely chipper all of a sudden, because he had a lead on a suspect, not because Brodie would be busy with a bunch of women all day and would have no opportunity to set her sights on a new fuck buddy.
“But… you… introduce…” Brodie stopped stuttering, Fen was long gone, the double doors swinging back and forth. Huffing a frustrated sigh, she turned her attention to Elijah. “I lack patience, have no tact, speak my mind, refuse to deal with tears, wouldn’t you be a better person to teach a self-defence course?”
“Hell no. Give me a big, burly, raging killer, and I’m your go to guy when it comes to channelling their rage and whipping them into shape. That lot down there they…”
“Scare you?” Brodie couldn’t help but ask dryly.
“No question. Freak me the hell out. We are talking civilians here. There will be whining, tantrums, not to mention all the cringing.”
“Cringing?”
Elijah rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. Scared they’ll break a nail. Scared they’ll get hurt. Worse still, they’re scared they’ll hurt someone else.”
Brodie stared at Elijah in genuine shock. “You think those women are incapable of hurting someone? Boy, you really don’t know women at all, do you?”
“What’s that crack supposed to mean?” Elijah looked genuinely puzzled.
“I’m going to let you in on a little secret, women, all women, have a well deep ocean of anger coursing through them. But they are taught from birth to tamp it down. Hide it. Suppress it. And you know who teaches them that? Men.” Brodie gave him a disgusted look. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, it looks like I have a self-defence class to teach.”
* * *
Fen walked out of the Portal closet later that afternoon, absently rubbing his recently healed frostbitten fingers. He’d spent a long day tracking down leads and verifying the whereabouts of every Southern Sanctuary resident who could fly.
All the Tong dragons were alibied. That just left a variety of residents who could take to the skies via other means. Not that he truly suspected them, but they might have unknowingly witnessed something whilst they were hanging around in the aether.
He had burned through the list quickly, until only one name remained, Great-Uncle Kenneth and his flying Aston Martin. Said car was in the shop for repairs, and had been for the past two weeks. Grrr, his pool of potential leads had been reduced to zero pretty darn fast.
So much for a break in the case.
Fen was distracted from his thoughts by the nearby ladies change room door opening and his Aunt Gwen emerging. Her light blonde, shoulder length hair with a bright aqua streak down the left side was damp, and she was dressed in a casual green summer dress and espadrilles. She looked perfectly normal, except for the fact she was limping and her right eye was blackened and swollen.
“Aunt Gwen, are you alright?”
Gwen smiled broadly, winced, reaching up to touch her bruised eye, winced again and then smiled again. “Fen. I’m great, how are you?”
“Fine. What happened to your eye? And why are you limping?” Fucking hell, had Brodie decimated the self-defence class in true Valkyrie style? When his father heard about this it was no doubt going to end up being his fault somehow. “Did Brodie do this to you?”
“Brodie?” Gwen smiled up at her nephew, despite the pain. “The black eye is from Gigi, ungrateful brat. And the limp is courtesy of Gaia and her sneaky roots.”
“Oh.” Fen didn’t know how to respond to any of that, or the strange happy look on Gwen’s face.
“I have to dash. I want to show Van my eye before Nell’s ointment starts healing it.”
His Aunt sounded almost proud, it was weird.
“Um, okay.” He watched as Gwen slapped her hand on the Portal door, pictured her destination and disappeared inside. Shit, if Gwen was hurt, how had the rest of the group faired? And what about Brodie?
Pushing open the double doors he sauntered into the viewing area. The gallery was empty, no, a noise had him swinging around. Brodie was in the large open weapons alcove off to his left, cleaning, and returning the weapons back into
their correct slots. Gigi stood beside her, watching her progress, practically bouncing in place, despite the fact her right arm was in a sling and packed with ice.
“Did you see my Mum’s eye?” Gigi grinned, absently brushing back a hank of mud encrusted hair. “So cool.”
Brodie didn’t seem to be participating in the conversation but that didn’t appear to faze Gigi. Fen grimaced as he eyed his cousin, she was a mess.
Her short blonde hair sticking up and out in weird spikes thanks to the mud. Dirt streaked her face, arms, and legs. Her lower lip was split, a streak of dried blood crusted down her chin and her once bright pink t-shirt was now splattered with dirt, blood and tattered with what looked like several holes. Despite her state, Gigi was smiling still, practically vibrating with enthusiasm.
Brodie heaved a practise dummy back on to a shelf, turning, she frowned, finding Gigi in her personal space. “The lesson is over, go home.”
Gigi’s smile turned into a broad grin. “Yeah, I just wanted to say thanks before I go. I had fun today. And I promise to practise.”
Brodie stared down at the blonde, then nodded grimly. “Good, because you need less fun and a lot more practise.”
Gigi laughed. “So funny.”
Brodie kept her expression blank. All day her students had been laughing at her… well, not at her, but they seemed to find her funny. It was strange, not a single one of them was scared of her, no matter how much she yelled at them and told them the brutal truth about how inept and out of shape they all were.
And no matter how many times they fell over or got hurt, they shook it off and stepped back up, looked at her to instruct them on what they had done wrong and tried their hardest to not repeat their mistakes.
To be truthful, each of them had won her grudging respect. Not that they were very good, or would ever be warrior material, but she wasn’t training them to be Enforcers or Valkyries.
Her class was about shock value. Surprising an attacker by not hesitating, by being ruthless, by playing dirty. By not holding back in those vital initial five seconds.
Five seconds to prove they were not a victim. Five seconds to incapacitate and hurt their attacker and make their escape. Self-defence wasn’t about hanging around to engage in a fight, it was about learning to be alert, to recognise danger. To react fast and hard to a threat. To reverse the roles, to no longer be the victim but the attacker. And once their opponent was down, hopefully hurt, to leave the scene and seek safety.
She should say something supportive, shouldn’t she? Praise should be earned, and if nothing else, Gigi’s willingness to keep getting back up again and again deserved some sort of recognition. “You were surprisingly almost adequate today.”
“Really?” Gigi bounced even higher in place, her violet eyes glowing suddenly with pride. “Thanks. Just you wait, Brodie, I’ll be even better tomorrow.” The small blonde twirled and shuffled off as fast as her aching muscles would allow, headed for the women’s change room.
“Wait.” Brodie finally processed what she’d said. “What do you mean, tomorrow?”
Gigi laughed, raising the arm not in a sling to wave goodbye. “See you about tenish, and be prepared, I heard a rumour that the Great-Great-Aunts want to sign up.”
“Sign up?” Brodie rubbed at her forehead, she was tempted to follow Gigi into the change room. This was not a regular thing, this class. She wasn’t a teacher, she was a Valkyrie, she led from the front.
Her whole body suddenly tightened, heat thrumming through every limb and swirling in her gut, Fen was here. She was so attuned to him everything in her practically hummed in anticipation of his touch… the taste of him.
And the damn man claimed he wanted nothing to do with her. It was his fault she was still here. His fault she was teaching self-defence classes to a bunch of civilians.
“I need to have sex with someone… right now!” She strode toward him, hands clenched into fists. “I need to get back to my life.”
Fuck, she was beautiful when she was all fired up and in his face. It was all Fen could do not to grab Brodie, back her up against the nearest wall and beg her to wrap those long legs of hers around his waist. Her shattered irises flared with anger, a blizzard erupting on a blue sky day.
He clenched his teeth, didn’t she know how damn tempting she was? He was barely holding onto his vow of celibacy by his fingernails, and she wasn’t helping things one little bit. “I don’t care if you sleep with every damn Enforcer on the training roster.” Man, he was such a liar. “You’re not going anywhere until we’ve identified and stopped this manic Firebug.”
Brodie was so close to him now she could almost touch him, her heaving chest only an inch away from his. “I’d like to see you try to stop me.”
“Like I did the first night we met, when I planted you on your ass?” Fen squared off, refusing to back down or give an inch. He was sexually frustrated and this woman was stabbing his last nerve.
Damn him, for rubbing her nose in his victory. And damn his eyes, made even bluer by the crisp navy short sleeve shirt he wore, that matched his work trousers. Men in uniform were annoyingly attractive. She breathed in, ready to give him a blistering reply when her nose twitched… she drew in a breath to get a better handle on the smell. She blinked and just like that all her anger drained away.
“You fought a fire today? Are you alright?” She grabbed him by the arm, her eyes travelling quickly over his frame, checking for any injury. Fire could be a tricky opponent, even for one who fought it daily for a living.
Fen exhaled slowly, one minute she’s yelling at him, the next she’s expressing concern for him. He would never understand women, least of all fiery, contrary Valkyries. “I was supervising a back burn this afternoon.” He noted Brodie’s questioning look. “During the hotter months we start controlled fires in areas of vegetation or bushland near properties. It lessens the chances of a bushfire causing any damage to livestock or property. Fire can’t go anywhere if there is nothing to feed it.”
Brodie noted suddenly the weary look in Fen’s eyes. Despite his innocuous explanation she could tell he’d expended a lot of energy today keeping the back burn under control. She also realised she was still holding on to him, oops. Letting him go, she took a step back. “Sorry for snapping at you… it’s just that this whole teaching thing appears to have gotten out of control.”
“Yet everyone seems to think you are doing a hell of a job.”
Brodie shook her head, her nose wrinkling in disgust. “I’m a Valkyrie, not a teacher.”
“From the sounds of things you’re a natural. You worked everyone hard but they still had fun. What about you? Did you have fun?”
Fun? It wasn’t really a word in the Valkyrie job description. Oh sure she enjoyed beheading her enemy, but when you’ve beheaded one giant blue horned demon, you’ve beheaded a thousand.
Training today hadn’t been fun, but it did have a surprising number of satisfying moments. Like when Gaia had defended herself this afternoon and for the first time the root she’d commanded had punctured the skin of her assailant. From the surprised, shocked look on Gaia’s face, followed by instant horror, the incident had clearly been an accident.
But it was a good first step for Gaia, and she would soon come to realise that hurting did not need to equate to killing. When it came to self-defence, the main aim was to put your opponent down fast, and flee to safety. You did not stop to apologise or ask if they were okay.
Huh, instantly her shoulders tightened, she was being sucked into this whole self-defence training arrangement. She needed to leave the Southern Sanctuary, and in order to do that she needed to find a man to have sex with and get back to her life. Except, Freyja help her, the only man she wanted was standing in front of her, refusing her advances at every turn.
Maybe the problem was she just wasn’t meeting enough fresh prospects. At every turn her chance to meet new candidates seemed to be thwarted by circumstances beyond her control. And it wasn’t as if
Fen were living up to the promise he’d made her. She thought about demanding he take her to the place the Enforcers hung out after training, there had been mention of a bar.
Hmmm, but Fen looked so tired, and knowing him, he’d insist upon accompanying her to act as bodyguard. Oh well, she supposed there was always tomorrow to pursue available men. “So what are our plans for tonight? Back to the cabin?”
Fen shook his head quickly, too many memories of tussling with Brodie on a large comfortable couch waited for them there. “I have some research to do tonight, and I know how much you liked watching Xena… so I came up with an idea, how do you feel about Thai food?”
Chapter Twelve
Brodie opened her eyes, stretching out her arms languidly. Hmmm, she’d fallen asleep watching Xena last night. A smile curving her lips as she noted her surroundings. The recently renovated Children’s Wing of the Southern Sanctuary Library had struck her as an unusual destination last night, but it had provided for all their needs. A large screen projector for her, and a pile of cumbersome research books on all manner of beings that could fly, for Fen. Whilst the takeaway food they had ordered in had been plentiful and tasty.
Brodie turned slightly on the too comfy beanbag she was lying on to look at Fen, still asleep on a beanbag right next to hers. His arms flung out wide, his broad chest rising and falling steadily. The dark prickle of a five o’clock shadow hugging his chiselled jawline, drawing her attention inexplicably to his mouth.
It was a rare treat for her to see him at rest. Usually when he was around her, his guard was up and he was careful to keep his distance. But right at this moment, with his long dark lashes resting against his flushed cheeks, he looked relaxed and temptingly touchable.
She automatically clenched her hand into a fist. What was she thinking? She didn’t have touching rights. And according to Fen there was nothing she could say or do to change that situation.
Problem was, the more time she spent with him - not having sex - the more she found herself wanting to touch him.
