by C. J. Cooke
“How much money are we talking about” someone at the back of the class asked.
“That’s none of …” I started before Caleb answered “Over two hundred thousand in human money.”
“Rude!” I scoffed. “Haven’t you heard of privacy” I turned to my guys about to rant about the lack of teacher student privilege and if that was a thing but the look on their faces stopped me. “What? I know it’s quite a bit for my age but it’s not a huge amount.”
“What’s human money compared to Drakons?” someone else asked.
Caleb looked thoughtful for a minute and I was honestly shocked that we were even having this conversation but part of me was curious as well.
“Well humans calculate their currency based on gold equivalency and there are about twenty Drakons to your dollar, give or take a few.” Caleb said drifting off.
“Four million!” someone gasped. I was pretty shocked too. Huh, so I was kinda rich on this side! That was nice.
“Anyway,” Caleb said looking around him clearly realising that he had maybe overstepped the mark, “I want the rest of you to start warm up while we talk about where to place you Aria.” The rest of the class started to grumble before setting off at a slow jog around the gym. My guys seemed to be the only ones taking it seriously whereas everyone else was just dragging themselves around clearly hating it. “Well clearly you’re top of the class” He laughed. “I think you would even be top of the second-year class at this stage. You’ve got two options, you can either stay in this class and we can do some one on one training while you help out with the others, or I can move you into the second-year class It shouldn’t affect your other classes too much. I think the headmaster said that your schedule was pretty light at the minute.”
“I think I’ll go with option one if that is okay with you. And can I ask you a favour?” I said watching the class run their laps.
“Go for it” Caleb said.
“Maybe keep the personal questions for when everyone isn’t watching the Aria show.” I quirked.
“Yeah sorry about that. It was inappropriate and I shouldn’t have said anything. The whole assassin thing had riled me up and I didn’t expect you to, you know, have some life saving superhero type job.” He said rubbing the back of his neck with one hand and blushing.
“I can’t believe you thought I was some badass assassin for hire” I laughed.
“The scars …” he started
“Let’s leave that for another day.” I cut in, watching the class and refusing to look his way. I saw him out of the corner of my eye nodding slowly.
“Why don’t you move over to the weights and punching bags. I assume you have some form of training routine you can work through while I take the others through some of what we’ve been working on.” He stood up and strode away without saying another word.
I wandered over to the punching bags and found some tape lying on a bench to tape up my knuckles. This is the weirdest place I have ever been. It’s kind of like being on a soap opera. These people need to learn boundaries. Yet, I feel like I might belong here. It’s strange. Alfie’s is the only place I ever felt like this before but I feel a bit like maybe I’m meant to be here. I settled back into my old training routine and was absorbed in the moves that were like second nature to me. Next time I would have to bring my ear buds and music with me. Whilst the steady thud of the bag helped settle me into the routine I much preferred having something with a heavy beat to lay into the bags with. Time drifted away from me with the steady thud thud thud. It wasn’t until I saw a grinning Sykes on the other side of the bag in my eyeline that I realised everyone else had taken a break. I stopped my routine and glanced around me as everyone else was sitting or lying on the ground taking a break. These guys were seriously out of shape. My three at least looked like they still had some life left in them. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and Sykes handed me a cold bottle of water which I placed on the bag of my neck to cool down a bit. I plopped down on the ground next to Kyle and Sykes collapsed next to me.
“How are you not half dead by now?” Liam huffed out. “You’ve been wailing on that bag for nearly an hour and you’re not even out of breath.” He complained.
“Alfie” I said taking a swig out the bottle.
“The guy that calls you kitten?” Kyle said frowning.
“Yep,” I sighed. God is everything we talk about going to have to include my life story. I am not a person that shares and today is getting pretty taxing. “He’s basically trained me since I was twelve years old.” I could see Kyle frowning and a look passed between all three of them as they shifted uncomfortably. “Urgh, just ask! I can tell you want to know something.” I sighed.
Kyle at least had the sense to at least look a bit embarrassed but the other two just grinned at me. “Is he, like, I don’t know, someone you care about?” Kyle stuttered.
“Of course I care about him. He’s trained me for over eight years and I live at his gym.” I said. I knew where this was going but no point giving in right away.
“Right” Kyle said. There was a range of looks passing between the three of them. Sykes seemed to just be really intensely staring at the floor, Liam looked like he was chewing on a wasp but Kyle was the worst, he just looked sad.
“Oh, stop it! You’re breaking my heart over here,” I huffed, “Alfie is like eighty and is like a grandfather to me. Don’t think you can pull that sad puppy look and get everything you want all the time.” I joked playfully shoving Kyle’s shoulder.
The grin he gave me seriously made my mouth water. God this man was beautiful. It was also contagious and I couldn’t help but grin back at him. I am in so much trouble with these three.
“Right you lot stop laying about,” Caleb shouted from the other side of the room “off your arses and run, twenty laps for your warm down.”
A collective groan rose across the room “Why running? Can’t we learn some cool flippy things like Aria does?” someone moaned from somewhere on the floor.
Caleb actually stood there and just laughed at him. I didn’t see that it was quite as funny as he did but it was nice to know that my skills had made an impression and I grinned to myself. Why yes, I do feel pretty smug right now.
“You think you are in good enough shape to even think about doing any of the moves you saw her doing” he laughed actually wiping tears from his eyes. “Aria?” he shouted across the room at me while he strode across to whoever had moaned in the first place.
“Yep” I shouted back. Time for another lesson in how bad ass I was apparently.
“How many times a week do you go running?”
“Everyday.”
“How far do you run?”
“Around fifteen miles.” I saw Sykes flop back in exhaustion.
“And how much fight training have you had?”
“About every day for over eight years.” I shouted grinning across the room at him.
By this time Caleb had reached his victim and squatted down in front of him. “So, you just have about 3000 more sessions with me Callum before you can consider yourself anywhere near the same level as doing the moves that she can.” Then he just patted him on the shoulder, got up and walked away. “Now run!” he shouted.
Everyone silently got to their feet and started the slow shuffle of trying to get the energy to run again. My three guys just looked at me before Sykes whispered “You are such a badass” then pulled himself to his feet and started off around the gym. The others gave me soft smiles and got up to follow him.
Caleb was watching everyone start to run again and I’m a little uncertain where I need to be. I got to my feet intending to join the others, a quick jog around the gym should help my muscles cool down and I haven’t had time to go for a run today anyway. It’s not my usual run but one day off won’t kill me. I start to run the track and gage my classmates skills who are ahead of me. They are really out of shape. Some of the guys look to be fairing better but no one is really giving it any real commi
tment. The girls are lagging behind and it’s clear that none of them have ever had any training before. As I draw level with Caleb he calls me to a stop to come over to talk to him.
“You’ve definitely got your work cut out for you” I laugh. Most of the class have slowed down to more of a fast walk. There’s only about six of the guys still running laps.
“Yeah, they always find it hard to start with. The pack doesn’t train like it used to. Don’t get me wrong they’ve got more fitness than the average human and they can hold their own in a fight if they channel their animals but other than that this is the sorry excuses I‘ve got to work with. The witches rely on their magic, the vamps and demons have a head start because they have natural muscle and speed but we don’t have any in this group.”
“What’s the purpose of this class?” I ask watching him from the side of my eye while pretending I’m still watching the others basically give up because they are most definitely not working out.
Caleb grins and gives me his full attention. “What do you think it is?”
“Depends, how long has the academy been open?” I asked looking around the gym at all the shiny new equipment and the barely scuffed lacquered floor. The gym is definitely only a year old at most. Either that or it has seen a major remodel recently. There are no scuff marks on the floor that you would expect from a room where fighting takes place on a daily basis. No marks on the walls from missed throws or anything else. The punching bags I were using were definitely new because they lack the give in the leather that a well used bag gives you. But that could just mean that it was recently replaced.
“The academy has been running for around one hundred and twenty years in one form or another.” Caleb informed me taking a pull from his water bottle.
“Always mixed races?” I ask.
“No, it used to just be for the pack. The other races weren’t invited to attend until last year. They have their own academies.”
“You’re building a unified fighting force.” I state, there’s no question in my mind. “Something is going on and you are banding the races together by bringing the younger generation together, in an environment to form bonds, and training them to be able to fight together.” It’s a good idea if you think about it. Trouble on the horizon. Make sure that your younger generations will fight together because they’ve already formed a unit. Better that than everyone dying trying to stand on their own.
“Come on, we need to go and talk with the headmaster.” Caleb started off towards the door of the gym before shouting over his shoulder “Stop pretending you lot are even trying and go get showered.”
I waved goodbye to my three as they watch me exit with Caleb and followed him through the corridors back to the office that I got thrown into yesterday. When we walked in the headmaster was sat behind his desk apparently waiting for us. “Is there a problem here?” He asked arching an eyebrow. I just smiled and slinked into the same chair I sat in yesterday.
“Someone was holding out on us” Caleb smiled over at me with a laugh.
“I wasn’t holding out as such, merely testing the water before deciding if I was going to commit.” I relaxed back into the chair.
“Hmmm testing the water” Caleb turned to the headmaster, “She has the most developed attack magic I have ever seen. She may even be able to beat me.”
The headmaster looked at me with clear interest on his face. “It takes years to develop magic to that level.” He was clearly unconvinced.
“Yep” I said popping the p.
“So, you developed your magic with an inherent ability to use it?” he queried clearly looking confused.
“Nope” I said popping the p again.
The headmaster started to look more pissed than confused now and I decided being unco-operative was clearly not a good move here. “I’ve always had it in one form or another, I suppose I was probably about thirteen when it started truly developing into what it is now. It’s been there since I was about nine, I think. I’ve trained since I was twelve so I’ve pretty much got as much of a handle on it as I could on my own.”
Now he just looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head. He opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out my gold test tube. “Bit creepy that you’re just hanging onto that you know” I said. He smiled over at me then glanced back down at the tube with his forehead crinkled in thought. “Surely that’s not possible” he whispered.
“She can make swords!” Caleb cut in clearly excited about something. “She doesn’t even need a spell or anything they just pop into her hand.” I laughed, was Caleb about to turn into my fan-girl.
“I need to look into this a bit more. Obviously, seems as this has come out in class there is no chance of keeping what you can do quiet, but let’s not advertise that you have had this ability all your life until I can find out a bit more.” The headmaster said looking concerned. He turned to Caleb. “Are you planned on moving her into a more advanced class?”
“Actually, I was going to keep her where she is. I could do with some help with the group that I have and it will give me a better chance to work with her one on one while the others run through some drills.”
“That would be acceptable as long as Aria is happy with that,” the headmaster said looking at me for confirmation.
“Yeah sounds good. I was meaning to ask, if it would be okay for me to use the gym outside of class hours. I can’t train just two days a week. I need to have more of an outlet than that.”
“Of course, the gym is free every morning and evening, you can use it as much as you like. If you’re wanting to run outside, once around the building is a five mile lap, there’s a path that runs the full circumference you can use like a track. If you want to use the simulator let me know and we can set up some times. You need a second to work the pad.” Caleb offered.
“Thanks, I appreciate it” I said a bit taken aback by how helpful he was being.
“We are here to help you Aria, no matter how bad your admission here felt, you are always going to be welcome here.” The headmaster smiled. “I will start looking into your magic and see if I can help find out something about your background for you. I have a feeling that I know where to start. Tell me, how does your magic feel?”
“What do you mean?” I asked confused.
“I am a mage, a male witch. When I can feel my magic inside myself or when I use it, it feels like a rush of tingles that runs down my arms.” The headmaster filled.
“I’m a shifter,” Caleb filled in “when I use my magic it feels like a warm breeze running over my skin.”
I could see where this was going. “It feels hot,” I said, frowning as I tried to put the feeling into words, “sometimes it feels like there is too much inside and I need to get it out of me. It’s like red hot rage, burning lava that runs through my veins. Training and fighting is the only way that I feel like I can keep it under control” I explained. I could see from the looks on their faces that this was not normal. I never felt like as much of a monster as I did right now.
“Is she a type of demon?” Caleb said looking at the headmaster.
“No demon magic is more subtle, it’s said to be similar to my own, cold and icy. I think I know what this might be but I need to make some more investigations. If I’m right, you are going to be a very important person in the coming fight Aria.”
“Yeah, about that, why are you building yourself your own little army anyway.” I said crossing my arms and leaning back in my chair. I could wait on the information they were gathering but I wasn’t going to drink the Kool-Aid without knowing what was going on here.
“What do you know of the problems in the human realm?” the headmaster asked.
“The media says that halfblood kids are losing control of their magic and destroying everything and everyone around them. But I’m guessing that isn’t true.” I eyed him wearily.
“It’s not. When the reveal took place and the gates were opened we didn’t realise the impact that it would
have upon the veil that holds the realms apart. Not all of the gates were opened. Only the gates between this realm and the human realm. In truth, we don’t know where all the realm gates are hidden but it was felt that the demon gate specifically should not be opened. It was felt that they should not have access to the human realm for fear of the harm that they could bring. They weren’t always segregated in their own realm. When they were allowed to roam free there was nothing but chaos and destruction. The demons did not agree with our decision to keep them locked where they are. They have been trying to break through. The veil was weakened unintentionally when we opened our gate and some have slipped past us. We believe that what is being blamed as halfblood’s losing control is actually a form of possession by the demons who have escaped. Because they have never been trained in their magic, they are susceptible to possession and the potential that their magic has makes them formidable weapons for the demons to wield. At this stage we don’t know if what is happening is a few demons celebrating their freedom with what they do best or if it is part of some greater plan.”
