by J. G. Massie
“Me?” He paced around to my back, looking down at his wooden sword with great interest. “Oh, nothing special. Just looking to blow off some steam, same as you, I suspect.” Well, he didn’t have to blow it off by knocking my sword out of my hand. Pfft... I glanced up at Lindsey, who had already backed several steps, and suddenly remembered what I was doing before Isaac interfered. Oh, right... I guess it’s best that he did.
“So let’s see it.” Isaac flipped his practice sword and caught it behind his back with a flourishing spin.
“See...what?”
“You know, the killer, the human weapon. Why don’t you show me what you’ve learned so far? You want to run around out here in the sun and grind your body into dust? Well then, I’m going to help you.” I barely got my sword up in time as our weapons crossed right in front of my face. Okay, that was close. “Come on, then, I’m in the mood to play rough.” Face-to-face, he flitted his eyebrows at me.
With an angry shove, I pushed his weapon out of my face. I was tired, sore, but pissed enough so it all balanced out. I lunged forward, our blades clacking in a four-part high combo. He blocked the flurry, but still had to take a step back. He wants to play rough? Okay, we’ll play rough.
When I slashed low, he simply lifted his leg. He feigned like he was going to step back down, but then his foot came rising up fast and nearly clipped my jaw. I actually felt the air brush across my chin.
“Really? This is the mighty Keeper the world has been waiting for? Yaaawn... I was at least hoping to break a sweat.” His every word was like a barb in my side. Why was he taunting my like this? Why was he being such a dick?
With a primal roar, I burst into an offensive flurry from hell. Technique be damned, I swung my weapon with reckless abandon. I was going to dig a hole straight through his face and out the other side. He’ll get over it. He is a vampire, he will heal. But in the meantime...
“Come on, Keeper,” he kept taunting. “I came out here for a real workout, but now it seems like the real challenge is going to be staying awake.” Arms burning, chest heaving for air, I threw everything I had left at him. But my strength was fading fast, and even I knew I couldn’t sustain this pace for much longer.
“I thought you were the one who was supposed to save the world, right? How are you supposed to do that if you can’t even best a lowly vampire?” Our blades crossed again, and there was a brief lull in the action as we locked stares. “Heck, I’ll bet Turner could have done better than this,” he whispered.
“Don’t you say his name!” I pushed off, but only enough to create a tiny bit of space before I began hacking and slashing once again. My technique was a joke, but my intensity was through the roof. He parried each predictable strike, grunting from strain with every heavy collision. They were easy to see and straight as arrows. It was my tenacious aggression that was giving him a hard time.
“And why shouldn’t I say his name?” He mounted no offense, using all his concentration to fend off my blur of strikes. “He was my friend too. Am I not allowed to have an opinion on what that monster did to him?”
“Friend?” I reared back and swung my sword like a baseball bat. Slow and lumbering, but with my full weight behind it, I would have taken his head off if he hadn’t ducked in time. “He was my father, damn it! How many people in the world have had to watch both their parents get murdered? How many?!”
Isaac said nothing, his expression unreadable as his sword worked furiously to defend against mine. Still he offered no counter strikes while eating everything I threw at him. Sword working methodically, head dodging side to side as necessary, it was like he was begging for more punishment. And heck, I was more than willing to oblige.
“Twice now I’ve stood by while my loved ones were stolen from me. I’m useless!”
“You are not.”
“I’m weak!”
“Not even close.”
His words were measured and calm, stating simple facts as opposed to trying to force an opinion. Still, his face was unreadable as he parried and moved, ducked and dodged. Distant, despondent, he was right in front of me, yet seemed to be a million miles away. Sweat pouring down my face, my sword slashed feverishly. I thought I was going to pass out, but somehow still found the energy to go another second, claw for one more inch.
“Again I couldn’t do anything, and it’s not fair!” Throwing defense to the wind, I hacked straight down at him again and again like chopping wood. Isaac blocked blow after blow while still showing no signs that he might return the attack. The constant blows began to soften somewhat, each popping crack becoming more of a buzzing rattle.
Both our practice swords were starting to fray, appearing to grow hair in the form of splintered wood. “It’s not fair... It’s not fair.” Lost in emotion, completely unaware of my surroundings, I swung for the fences again and again. “I couldn’t do anything even though I swore I’d never let that happen again. I couldn’t stop him! I couldn’t stop him!”
A snapping crackle pulled me back from the void, and I looked down at what was left of my weapon. Frayed and bent, it looked like I was holding a horse’s tail. Isaac was down on one knee, his splintered sword only in slightly better shape than my own. He looked up at me with those dark eyes without the slightest hint of irritation or judgment. “There isn’t a person in the world who could have saved him. No one... Do you understand that? None of this is your fault. The only one blaming you is you, and it has to stop.”
Seeing him kneeling there with his broken sword raised above his head, I finally understood what he had been doing all along. He wanted to me to gush, to release all my emotions in a tidal wave of aggression, even if that aggression was aimed at him. He wanted me to face it, accept it, and then leave it behind. He knew I needed an outlet to let it all out, so he gave me exactly that. God, how I loved this man.
Exhausted, both mentally and physically, I dropped the broken handle and fell into his waiting arms. Pulling myself deeper into him, I wailed into his chest. I didn’t ever want to let him go. Fingers entangled in the back of my hair, he gently turned my head and whispered in my ear, “We only move forward from here, Tessa. Now let’s go get that bastard.”
