The Assassin and the Soldier

by Carly Morgan

  To know it wasn’t a dream, and Callan had been lucky enough to walk into something so profound that he never had to wake up from, nearly astounded him. It filled up places inside he hadn’t known existed, but was glad that they did. Holding Kaelia in his arms was the best feeling in the world right now, and he almost couldn’t imagine ever letting her go, even briefly.

  They stayed there on the couch, resting in each other’s arms, until Kaelia eventually seemed to doze off. Callan couldn’t recall a time when he’d ever felt so good, and he didn’t want to go to sleep and miss any of it. Eventually though, he began succumbing to the heavy slumber that overcame him, though just as he had slipped into that dark, heavy place; Kaelia bolted upright in his arms, wide awake.

  “What was that?” she said, her voice full of alarm.

  “Mmm,” Callan mumbled sleepily and tried to pull her back into his arms. “What was what?”

  “I heard a noise.” She shook him off her and padded to her feet, heading directly towards the front door. Callan took a long, ragged breath as he begrudgingly shook off sleep, sitting up on the couch and watching as Kaelia bent down to pick something up off the floor by the door.

  When she straightened again, Callan saw she had a piece of paper in her hands, and he realized her heightened predator senses must have heard it being slipped under the door. Like a letter, it was folded twice, except there was no envelope. Kaelia didn’t hesitate to pull it open, holding it tautly in her hands, unnerved.

  He didn’t become alarmed himself until he saw the blood drain from her face, her newly tanned skin becoming as ashen as it was when he first met her.

  “What?” he demanded impatiently. “What does it say?”

  She seemed too beside herself to speak. Instead, she dropped the piece of paper in his lap, letting it flutter over the back of the couch like a leaf shaken free from a tree. Callan snatched it up and held it open, crumpling the sides in his giant fists. He read the words aloud.

  “There are dangerous people looking for you. You need to look out.”

  Chapter 14

  Kaelia

  The next morning, training out on the water with her board, Kaelia watched everyone with a new sense of leeriness. She felt nervous and unhinged, wondering who had slipped her that note. To her, everyone was a suspect, though the most likely candidate seemed to be Emmanuel Kant. After watching the episode of Zip Line Adventure last night, and seeing just how she had jumped out of a tree and knocked him out, he was probably mad, and wanted revenge. Even if he didn’t really know who she was, he could have sent that note, just to scare her.

  “Hey hit girl, watch out!” Grady Lair knocked into her board with his own just as she was about to catch a wave, causing her to slip off and plunge into the current. Damn it! She was so on edge about the note, she hadn’t been paying attention. She kicked her way to the surface of the foamy water, spluttering and mad as hell.

  “Hey asshole!” she shouted after him, as the waves carried her towards him. “How about trying not to cut me off! That was my wave!”

  “Oh, yeah?” he taunted her, laughing. “What you gonna do about it? Knock me out too? Like to see you try. You got lucky with Kant. He’s a pussy.”

  “I’ll do more than knock you out, I’ll kick your teeth down your fucking throat!” Kaelia screamed. She’d been wound up all morning, and now she finally had someone to take her aggression out on. It was almost a blessing.

  “Yeah?” he goaded. “Why don’t you go suck off your boyfriend for another surf lesson? We all know that’s what you’re really good for.”

  Kaelia was seething mad as she advanced towards him, gaining her footing in the water now, her hair dripping down her chest. “Why don’t you go suck off your…” she started, yelling so loud she’d attracted the attention of several of the other contestants out on the water.

  “Kaelia!” Suddenly, she was interrupted by Callan, out on the shore with the other trainers. There weren’t many waves today, so the trainers were trying to be helpful by leaving them for the contestants by kicking back and sunbathing.

  Kaelia turned towards her name, her body tensing and her expression a dark glare. She didn’t answer him, didn’t go to him either, just stood there in the water with her board tethered to her wrist bobbing nearby, as if the both of them were busy deliberating.

  “Get over here!” Callan yelled again with his hands cupped over his mouth, after she’d apparently deliberated a few moments too long. “Right now!”

  She slunk off, away from Grady and the others, ridiculed at being beckoned like a trained pet. “What?” she spat, when she finally reached Callan at the shore, her eyes gazing off to the distance, refusing to meet his.

  He didn’t waste a second before inserting two fingers under her chin and swiveling her face up until their eyes met. “You know what!” he scolded her, and Kaelia could practically feel the other trainers looking away in embarrassment for her, although still secretly watching them out of morbid curiosity. “What the hell do you think you’re doing out there?”

  “He cut me off and stole my wave!” she defended herself vehemently, her eyes flashing with rage.

  “I don’t want to see you behaving like that again,” Callan ignored her explanation as if it didn’t even warrant acknowledgement.

  “I’m sick of being out on the water with these jerks,” she complained, her voice rising into a whine. “There’s barely any waves today anyway. Why can’t we take a break today? Lux is.”

  Callan narrowed his eyes at the mention of Lux’s name, who Kaelia hadn’t seen all day. Undoubtedly, he figured he didn’t need to train in something he’d done all his life, and was up in his suite with Maddie, or lounging by the pool.

  “Just because No. 69 is irresponsible enough to blow off training, doesn’t mean I’m going to let you do the same. Now get back out there. Ignore the jerks. You got this.”

  “No,” Kaelia dropped the word out stubbornly, her eyes daring. “I don’t want to.” Yesterday, she had enjoyed surfing. Loved it actually. But today, after getting that note, and knowing there was an enemy in her midst – well, let’s just say it had put her in a foul mood.

  Callan gave her an austere look, and Kaelia felt something inside her wilt and grow smaller. That was usually the look she got right before he threw her over a knee for a spanking. But today, his face went soft again, and he gave her a gentle hug, leaning over her to speak in her ear.

  “Look, I know you’re nervous. It’s okay. Just two more waves, and then we’ll go in. Deal?”

  Kaelia sighed, feeling as if she didn’t have much choice in the matter, not without getting her bottom warmed anyway. Hiking her board back up under her arm, she headed back to the water, throwing it down on the surf and paddling back out to the line-up on her belly. And then she waited. And waited, positioned between two of the lesser assuming contestants, so insignificant Kaelia barely knew their names. She sighed dramatically. All the waves were small and choppy; it was too windy, too hot. She wanted to go back in. Just two more, she told herself.

  Finally, she felt a swell, but Grady and Elgren took it, though Elgren didn’t even get off his belly and Grady fell off into the drop. Nonetheless, they paddled back out to the line-up slamming each other high fives as if they’d just done some cool tricks. Another wave rolled in, but it was too small. Kaelia knew not to take it, but the two contestants on either side of her decided to go for it. They both slipped off their boards, and then seemed to give up the fight entirely, heading back out to the shore.

  “Where’s your boy toy today?” Grady paddled up alongside her. “You wear him out last night?”

  Kaelia gave him the side-eye as her board bobbed her up and down. “If I throw a stick, will you go away?” she asked, her voice tight and even.

  “Sorry, you can’t train me like a dog like you do your boyfriend,” Grady sneered. “What’s it like anyway? Strapping on that dildo and…”

  Kaelia could feel the water swelling behind he
r, though luckily Grady and Elgren both seemed too intent on tormenting her to detect it themselves. She smiled sweetly at them as she started paddling, and then said, “You know, acting like a dick won’t make yours any bigger,” just as she popped up on her board and caught the wave.

  It was a good wave, almost perfect, and Kaelia felt glorious as she tried out her new surfer moves as she rode on top of it, carving in and out, dropping in just to jump out again, making her board spin and kick. Suddenly, a shadow loomed nearby. Grady was riding beside her, but instead of keeping to his own territory, he rammed the head of his board into the side of hers. The motion was enough to make her lose her balance and slip, and all too quickly she lost the sensation of mastering that glorious wave as she plunged once again underneath.

  She got caught in the riptide, her body slamming into the gravelly sand at the bottom of the ocean and then tugged back and forth. Kaelia swam through it, staying underwater, deft and swift as the animal DNA she was spliced with. She didn’t need to breathe, and she could see quite well in the clear blue depths, which allowed for the perfect sneak attack.

  When she grabbed him, she sensed his fear like a trembling, tight ball of tension, and the blood curdling scream he let out was pure satisfying perfection. She yanked him underwater and socked him in the face, so that when she allowed him to come up again blood was spurting from his nose, tainting the clean, foamy water of the surf. Then she elbowed him and pushed him back, knocking his legs out from under him so that he went crashing under the water again.

  “What the fuck!” Grady was too caught off guard by her attack to even defend himself. “You crazy bitch! What’s wrong with you?”

  She grasped his shoulders and held him under water, and then kneed him in the stomach when she let him back up. He grabbed her, but she easily wrenched free, screaming back at him.

  “Steal my wave again and I’ll fucking drown you, you miserable excuse for a human. And by the way, you’re surfing sucks anyway! You might as well not even try!”

  He went for her again, but she dodged him, and then there were two of them; Elgren had joined his friend. A crowd had gathered in the water now; Kaelia noticed Jessamine Bellagio, Lauza LaRue, and a few others. A couple of the guys tried to hold Elgren back, and she caught the last snippet of, “C’mon, man, she’s a girl.”

  “I don’t care what she is,” Elgren broke free and swung at her. Kaelia ducked and kicked him back, and then elbowed Grady in the face when he came at her from behind. This seemed to go on for quite a few minutes, her deflecting their advances one at a time, until suddenly the crowd around them parted, and there was a terrible splashing in the water as all the trainers rushed to break them up.

  Callan took her by the waist and pulled her back, but Kaelia couldn’t be subdued. Gripping his strong forearms in her fingers, she braced herself against him and continued shouting threats. “Come at me, you big tough idiots. I’ll still take you out even while I’m being held back.”

  “No you won’t,” Callan said, nearly sing-song as he emerged with her from the water.

  “Yeah, let your trainer protect you!” She could hear Grady yelling, making her blood boil even hotter. “Next time you try that, I’ll tear you limb from limb!”

  “I’ll tear you a…” Kaelia started. Callan plopped her down in the sand.

  “Enough,” he snapped. “That is enough.”

  “He pushed me off my board!” Kaelia practically whined in defense.

  Callan promptly took her by the shoulders and whirled her around. “You’re through with training for the day!” he barked. “Get back to the hotel.”

  She instantly spun back around, her eyes flashing, ready to do to him what she’d done to the others for trying to ground her to the hotel like a child. But then she remembered. She couldn’t. The thought was humbling, and her body drooped as she crossed her arms across her chest.

  “We’re not through with training,” she protested anyway. “You said two more.”

  “Yeah, well, now I have to deal with that horrid display of misconduct,” Callan snapped. “So get back to your room. Now!”

  He turned her around again, this time keeping hold of her arm and shoving her forward. Kaelia’s bottom, soaking wet and in little more than a scrap of fabric that was her bikini, felt horribly vulnerable all of a sudden. Her face flamed as she felt everyone looking at her, undoubtedly wondering what was going to happen to her back in the hotel room. Letting out an indignant huff of displeasure, she stomped forward, doing her best to ignore them.

  “He can take me back to my room.” She turned at the voice. It was Lauza LaRue, her hair dripping down her busty chest, smirking at them. Kaelia wanted to tear her hair right out, but just as she was thinking about it, Callan straightened her out again, and shoved her forward until she tripped.

  The walk back to the hotel felt like it took about two days, though Kaelia knew it was little more than a five-minute walk. She caught a glimpse of Maddie and Lux, out by the pool like she thought they’d be. Lux waved them over when he saw her, but Callan pressed his hand deeper into her shoulder, inconspicuously keeping her on course. Kaelia could only manage a tiny wave back before she was pushed rudely into the hotel. She yanked her arm free then, done with being led around like an aggressive pit bull.

  “I’m not a wild animal, you know,” she hissed in the lobby of the hotel. “I’m not going to kill anyone.”

  Callan cocked an eyebrow at her. “You sure about that?”

  “You saw what Grady did to me!”

  “I saw you jump out of the water and attack him. For a while, the other trainers even thought he’d been bitten by a shark.”

  Kaelia smiled fondly, pleased with herself. A shark. Now that was a good one. If only Grady really had been bitten by a shark. Or eaten by one.

  Callan pulled her inside the elevator, not quite as pleased. “Wipe that look off you face,” he warned her. “You shouldn’t be proud of yourself.”

  “Why?” she demanded, suddenly petulant.

  He appeared flabbergasted. “Someone slips a note under your door warning you to be careful, and you respond by almost drowning not one, but two huge guys, not more than twelve hours later?”

  “That note was just to scare me!” she exclaimed. “There’s no one really looking for me!”

  “Hush,” Callan hissed, as the elevator doors slid open. He grabbed her arm again and hauled her towards her suite, fumbling for the key in his wallet. Kaelia felt her heart bounce up and down like a rubber ball, not at all very eager to be alone with him.

  “You hush,” she spat back at him. “It isn’t fair. I’m used to being able to do whatever I want, whenever I want. If someone messes with me, they pay! And now you’re telling me I can’t?”

  “You think I like this any better than you?” Callan didn’t waste any time sitting down at the edge of the bed. Kaelia swallowed hard as he patted his knee. “Come here.”

  She balked at the foreboding tone behind his words. “Aren’t you going to lecture me first?” she asked meekly, almost as a joke. Really, she was stalling for time. She had a feeling this spanking would hurt; like the first two times; when he had dragged her out of bed, and when she had teased him up in the tree. The few times after that had been lighter, shorter; more of a warning than a real punishment.

  “Don’t you dare sass me, Kaelia,” Callan’s voice deepened with stern force. “The longer you make me wait, the longer you’ll be over my knee for your spanking.”

  Kaelia trembled, an odd sensation for her. The spankings he’d given her in the past had always taken her by surprise, which was in a way horrible in itself. But to go to him knowing what was waiting was something much worse. She took a slow step forward, though every muscle in her body seemed to be pulling her back. Step by step she went to him, the anticipation building up in the pit of her stomach tortuously.

  “I didn’t mean to sound sassy,” she backpedaled when she inevitably got close enough to him to touch. It couldn�
��t hurt to go for a last-ditch effort to redeem herself, after all.

  “Get over my knee for your spanking like a good girl,” Callan commanded. He regarded her with a hardened expression, though there was something like disappointment behind his eyes. Kaelia didn’t like that look at all, and she felt something inside her crumple in sorrow. Suddenly, she knew she deserved this spanking, if only to wipe her slate free from sin in Callan’s eyes, though she still couldn’t bring herself to bend over his lap herself. Something in her body wouldn’t let her, no matter how hard she fought against it.

  “I’m sorry…” she managed to choke out, though her pitiful attempt at contrition was brief as Callan took her by the arm and hauled her over his lap himself.

  “Not as sorry as you’re going to be!” he promised, striking her hard and square against the center of her buttocks. Kaelia gasped out a yelp from the smarting sting, her hands automatically flying back to protect herself from further blows. Callan flung them out of the way and went on spanking her, scolding her loudly all the while. “For that, I’m going to get the bath brush out of the shower and paddle you with it after your hand spanking. Cover your bottom again, and I’ll strap you with my belt after the paddling. Are you sensing a pattern yet?”

  Kaelia’s eyes flew open wide, not only from the pain spreading across her bottom as he spanked her, but from the surprise of receiving additional punishment for covering herself with her hands. In the past, Callan had simply held them out of the way.

  Kaelia began to whimper and writhe. This spanking hurt much worse than the ones she’d gotten in the past, and Kaelia suspected it was due to her still very wet bottom. Though the rest of her skin had dried off fairly quickly after her failed surf session, the material of her bikini was less quick to do so, so the skin beneath it remained damp. The moisture was conducting extra heat, which made her bottom not only hurt worse, but faster, as if every smack were like doing a belly flop in the pool from twenty feet up in the air.