“What do we need to know?” Vaughn whispered, our heads so close it might be hard for the shifters to hear us. Hard but not impossible.
There were a hundred things I could say but no time, and I doubted that everyone in the group would listen so I cut to the chase. “Hit them with everything we’ve got. No holds barred. Two at a time, wave after wave, and—” I looked straight at Vaughn for this next part. “Fight as if you’ll die if you don’t win.”
Vaughn nodded, her expression all business. Beside me I could feel Kelly quiver, but she didn’t say anything as Stone announced. “Bitsi, you get Team Princess. Rolf, Team Reyes.”
That a-hole. The female shifter was just told we were lightweights. Compared to Chiquita’s group maybe but don’t count us out. Not yet. But we’d also dissed Bitsi to the group at large so now she had something to prove.
Vaughn directed us into groups of two. Kelly was paired with Dyslexia, who didn’t like the combo. Neither did I but for different reasons. Dyslexia would watch out for herself and sacrifice Kelly without a pause.
I started to say something but Vaughn caught my eye. She had a plan. I didn’t know what it was, but I could trust her or waste precious minutes publicly second guessing her.
So I bit the inside of my lip and nodded.
But if she was wrong and Kelly got hurt, Vaughn would pay for it.
Her look told me she knew exactly what I was thinking. Good. We understood each other.
Stone was calling both groups to attention. “Monroe, your team to the south end of the gym. Reyes, you take the north end. If you hear my whistle you stop fighting. If you don’t, you fight until your shifter sparring partner is pinned to the floor, both shoulders down for a count of twenty seconds.”
I noticed he didn’t say immobilized.
Bitsi swaggered toward us, taking her time, a smirk playing on her thin lips, her hands loose at her sides.
Nerves scampered up my spine like a horde of ants at a picnic. I’d been initially teamed with two women I didn’t know well. One was Skylock and the other Brianna or Brie something. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Skylock’s skin slip a little, telling me she was non-human, and didn’t have a lot of control over her otherness.
Not good news. Most of us revert to our base instincts when we get truly scared. If that baseness was non-human, a fight could quickly turn ugly. Think bar fight with everyone amped up on PCP or any other drug that made the fighters forget that there was a world of difference between broken bones and heads torn off.
Stone hadn’t given us any parameters of what we could or could not do. For me that meant the fall back position was ask forgiveness not permission.
If Bitsi badass here got out of line and stopped holding her punches, then I’d let loose with a few of my own. As soon as I could remember them. That was the other side effect of an adrenaline spike—a frozen memory.
Vaughn shouted directions for where we should stand. Seven didn’t divvy up into three groups evenly so Vaughn made me a roving member. We’d attack two at a time. If one of the team went down, I’d jump in. If two went down the next team would charge. That way Bitsi might eventually be worn down enough to take down.
I’d start three on one, then slip into my roving role. If we were lucky, we’d take down the shifter early.
It was a shaky plan.
A quick glance over my shoulder showed me the Reyes’ group was taking a different approach. Every team member was circling Rolf, a dog pile approach. Given their group had more weight and strength, their course just might work.
My team of three stepped toward Bitsi. We were first wave. I swallowed, deeply, knowing my two mates were just as scared, just as panicked as I was, but they were here. Good start.
“Come on, fur ball,” Skylock taunted, another part of our strategy. Most shifters had easily pressed hot buttons. A pissed person, human or non-human, reacted rather than acted. They might be the aggressor for a short burst, but emotional fighting used up resources faster. Once your anger waned, the levelheaded defenders became the bigger threat. The ones who could keep their cool the longest tended to survive.
Skylock stepped closer, “Here, kitty, kitty.”
None of us had any idea what Bitsi became when she shifted. Could be a cat-like creature but there was a huge difference between an enraged alley cat and an enraged tiger.
In a triangular formation across from Skylock I tried to get Skylock’s attention to tone it down a bit, but she was either totally focused on Bitsi or ignoring me.
“Or are you a bitch?” Skylock threw out, dancing way too close to the threat. “Here, Fido. Catch a bone.”
Bitsi lunged forward, so fast she was just a blur, swiping one meaty still-human paw toward Skylock and sending her ass over teakettle through the air even though I’d seen Bitsi pull her punch. I could feel the thud of Skylock landing on the gym floor through my own body. She didn’t move either.
“Now,” I shouted at my other teammate and jumped toward Bitsi’s back.
Bri remained frozen in place.
So there I was, arms wrapped around Bitsi’s neck, legs sandwiched around her waist, hanging on for dear life. Alone.
My dad had raised a few saddle-broncs for the rodeo and had always warned me to stay clear of them. Now I knew why.
Bitsi reared back, then forward, then sideways, her arms over her head, grabbing for my neck, doing everything possible to dislodge me. But I was Idaho-born and we didn’t dislodge easily.
Vaughn shouted something and Kelly and Dyslexia attacked. Or at least Kelly did. She head butted Bitsi in the solar plexus.
Smart move—low and hard.
The shifter oomphed and grabbed her middle which toppled us both over backwards.
Not so nice.
Dyslexia kept tap dancing just outside arm’s-length of the two of us, being as useful as a Band-Aid on an arterial bleed.
Kelly leaped on Bitsi’s legs, the three of us rolling across the hard floor like pigs in a blanket on speed.
If…we...could…just...hold...her…down.
But Bitsi wasn’t a lightweight shifter. With a roar that sounded part wart hog, part buffalo, she rocketed to her knees and threw me off.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kelly still holding on for dear life.
Then she disappeared.