The next three days were more of the same. Martial arts, the beginning of weaponry training and lots of team building with the leaders changing out, but more often than not we ended up with Vaughn, myself, or Chiquita leading a squad.
Stone was trying his damnedest to cull recruits until we were down to two teams of seven each. I wasn’t always sure why someone was cut or quit but was surprised to notice that Dyslexia hung in there, regardless of her continuing grumbles. But then maybe she only groused around her fellow recruits and played suck up when she got to Stone.
The good news for me was there hadn’t been any more magic attacks directed against me. I still smelled a whiff of magic now and then but not enough to pinpoint who was using.
It was the afternoon of the third day that things changed up. Instead of shuffling outside for our team building exercises, Stone had us rally in the gym, slightly warmer than outside but not by much. He was the one who divided us into two groups of seven each. Vaughn led one and I was in her group this time. Kelly was in the group, too. Downside? So was Dyslexia.
Reyes headed the second team with Jaylene Smart the Amazon woman, Serena, Brenda, and another three women. I hoped we weren’t going head-to-head in any physical competition because, except for Dyslexia, the Reyes team had all the muscle. In a bar fight I’d bet on them. On the other hand we had the smarts, which mattered in some battles.
I stared at Stone, waiting to see what he had up his sadistic sleeve.
“New session today,” he said, his tone very even and serious. It gave me goose bumps.
He continued, “Since we’re still in training, anyone who doesn’t want to take part in this exercise can opt out.” He nodded toward the door. “Exit is that way.”
Sounded very generous until he added, “But if you leave, you’re out of the program.”
No gray area with this guy. I glanced at the two huddles of recruits, noticing the wary glances ping ponging back and forth. Something was up. Something most, if not all of us, weren’t going to like.
Get on with it, I wanted to prod him along. Not that I wasn’t worried; I was. But waiting for a threat always seemed worse to me than facing one, patience not being one of my strong suits.
“What’s he going to do?” Kelly whispered next to me. I noticed she was dissipating tension by stepping back and forth and flexing her hands.
“Nothing we can’t handle,” I replied, aware of Vaughn’s quick look and cautious smile.
As team leader she had to think not about her own skin but the rest of us answering to her. Not a spot I’d like to be in with Stone being cagey.
As if waiting for the tension to get to a level between high-alert and run-like-hell, Stone finally nodded toward a set of other doors to the gym, those leading from the hallway.
“Come on in, guys,” he shouted, causing us all to straighten to attention.
The minute the first guy stepped in through the doorway, and before the woman behind him followed, I knew what we’d be facing. Shifters.
I could smell them, knew the way they moved, braced myself even though they were still across the room and acting as casual as a shifter can. Which wasn’t very.
If you’ve ever been around a bunch of military personnel waiting for or looking for trouble, you know what I mean. Testosterone radiated from them, muscles flexed, ready to spring into action, body language screaming bring it on.
The guy coming to a halt on Stone’s left side wasn’t as tall as I was, but his rangy build meant speed, strength, and trouble. The woman was broader, as if she had Viking forebearers, wide across the shoulders, big boned. and ice blue eyes. Running full tilt into her would be like smacking into a concrete wall.
Stone glanced at Vaughn and Reyes, then swept his gaze so it touched on every recruit before speaking. “We’re here to fight the good fight,” he said, adding, “With a twist.”
He glanced to his newest instructors. “Up until now we’ve been learning how to physically take down the bad guys. Human ones. Today we’re taking the game up a notch.”
He smiled, waiting for the low murmur sweeping through the group to subside. Wariness and fear. It wasn’t that every one of us recruits wasn’t different in some way, but possessing some abilities didn’t mean all of us had come up against non-humans. Besides we hadn’t practiced, or even acknowledged publicly what else we could do. Were we supposed to start here?
Being different growing up meant most of us hid our true natures so revealing them, even in an environment that theoretically appeared safe, was not easy. It was one thing to admit you were fae or a Were, and a whole other to morph into what humans considered a monster.
So what was Stone up to?
“Rolf and Bitsi are here to help us learn what it means to go up against beings stronger and more dangerous than the average human. They’re shifters.”
Bitsi? That’d be enough reason to be a ball-buster. Since shifters were born, not changed like many Weres could be, her parents must have thought giving her a foo-foo name might disguise her true nature. That’d be like giving a buffalo a poodle’s haircut and expecting folks not to notice they were being charged by an enormous shaggy beast.
So focused on the unlikely shifter’s unlikely name, I missed the first part of Stone’s next comment but caught the end. “… so if the leaders want to—”
“I think we should get Bitsi,” Dyslexia shouted, earning the swivel of everyone’s attention to her. She glanced around our team saying in a lower voice, “What? She’s a woman. She’ll be easier to fight.”
“She’s a shifter,” I snapped back, not caring who heard. And since shifters had better hearing than humans, Bitsi already was listening in on everything being said. “There’s no ‘easy’ in fighting any shifter.”
Stone gave me a small nod and I swear I heard Rolf snort under his breath. But he wasn’t the most immediate problem, being saddled with an idiot with attitude was.
Dyslexia thrust her hands on her hips, lowering her head to protect her vulnerable neck and rocked forward on her feet. “You don’t care about the team,” she snarled back. “You don’t care if we’re all torn to pieces.”
Kelly stepped forward to diffuse the tension, but I thrust my hand out and held her back, not glancing at her but staring instead at the woman itching to take a bite out of me.
“You’re wrong.” I swung my gaze to intersect with Vaughn, then the rest of my team. “No human wins going one-on-one with a shifter. We have to fight as a team or go down. Doesn’t matter if we get Bitsi,” I stumbled a little over the name, “Or Rolf, or Paris Hilton.”
Not that I thought Paris Hilton was a shifter, fae maybe, but she fit the point I was making. “And if you think the sex, or name, or outward appearance of a shifter is going to make fighting one easier than another, you’re on your way to a quick grave.”
“Says you,” Dyslexia almost spit the words. “Are you a shifter?”
“No.”
“Then you don’t know squat. You’re—”
“The sister of four shifter brothers,” I ground out, earning a quick step back from most of my teammates, all except Kelly and Vaughn. Even Dyslexia hesitated as fear washed over her face. Fear of the unknown. And since most shifters never advertised what they were, the fact I’d lived among them marked me as different and frightening. Nice way to paint a neon sign on my head. The first to come out. The group might not know what I was, but they sure as heck knew I was related to non-humans.
I stepped forward, closer to Dyslexia so she was very clear I wasn’t afraid of her stupidity, even if it could get us killed. “Vaughn’s team leader. She chooses. Not you.”
Not that Vaughn had a lot of choice at this point. If she chose Rolf the whole group, including Stone, would assume it was because Dyslexia forced her into a no-win situation. Right now the tail was wagging the dog.
Vaughn glanced at me, gave a what-the-hell shrug and cut her gaze to Stone, not the shifters, as she said. “Makes no difference to me. I’ve got a strong team. We’ll fight any shifter you have.”
Nice face saving move. We were still going to get trounced, but it looked like we could do so in style.
I gave Vaughn a thumbs up, moving the circle in for a huddle. Yeah, that was Vaughn’s call, but I had a few things to share before all hell broke loose.