JD had just stood up and was walking toward the door when she called out to him. “Before you go Jason, I thought I should let you know that I can’t train on Wednesday.”
The room went silent as everyone stopped what they were doing to watch JD’s reaction. He turned around, crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall. “This is going to be interesting. Why?”
“I have an appointment with my masseur.” She didn’t see Craig wince or the smile that appeared on Jonathon’s face. Her attention was focused on JD.
“Not a good enough excuse.”
“You don’t understand,” Sarah said. “I need this. After all you have put me through over the last few weeks, every muscle in my body is killing me. Besides, he is absolutely gorgeous and I need my monthly fix of eye candy.”
Jonathon took offence at that comment. “You’ve been seeing a lot of me. Are you saying I’m not good enough for you?”
“You’re not as attractive as you think you are.”
“Yes I am and you know it.”
JD interrupted the argument. “If you want a massage, do it in your own time.”
Sarah lost her temper. “What own time? When do I ever get any free time anymore?”
“You agreed to the hours.”
“Sarah, you may want to stop talking right now,” Craig said.
“No, please, carry on. I’m enjoying this.” JD’s face was stern, but his eyes were sparkling. He wasn’t lying about enjoying himself.
Craig leaned across and whispered into Sarah’s ear. “Remember rule 3.”
Sarah went pale. “Oh.”
JD could take a good guess at what Craig had just said. “Anything else to add?” Sarah shook her head, not daring to speak. “Good. Be here at your usual time on Wednesday and bring your overnight gear.”
“Why?”
“You will be training again the next morning.”
“I really hate you right now,” Sarah said, meaning every word.
“Good, then my training is having an effect.” He then left, went directly to his office, shut the door behind him and switched on the listening device.
“When did I sign over my entire life to him?” Sarah asked the room.
It was Craig who answered. “When you asked to be trained.” There was no sympathy in his voice. It sounded like he was trying not to laugh.
“This isn’t funny.”
“Yes it is.”
Craig wasn’t the only one laughing as JD heard Sarah stomp out of the room.
She was still mad at him when her one-on-one session started later in the morning. She did not, however, let her anger affect her focus. If anything, it made her more determined to hit him with her sword. She failed, of course, but he was impressed by how much she was improving. It was time to see how she handled distractions.
“It’s your own fault you know,” he said as he swung his sword at her.
“I know,” she replied, blocking and counter attacking.
“You were told the conditions around your training and you agreed to them.”
“I know,” she repeated as she blocked his next attack, pushed his sword backward and slashed up. Had he not stepped back, and had she been using a live sword, his stomach would have been sliced open.
“Good. Your technique is definitely improving. So why did you even try to get out of training?”
“I was hoping you would be reasonable.”
He smiled at her. “That word is not in my vocabulary.”
“We’ll see,” she said and attacked once more.
————————————-∞————————————-
The following Friday JD got caught up at work so had to delay the training session until after dinner. He was putting Sarah through her paces in the arena when an alarm sounded throughout the house.
“What is that?” Sarah asked as JD backed away from her.
“Hunt alarm. Sorry, but your training is over for tonight.” He replaced his sword on the wall and took down his live one.
In a surprisingly short amount of time, everyone had changed into their fighting suits and placed their swords in the scabbards on their backs. Seeing all six of them together was an impressive sight. It was the first time that they had been called on a hunt while Sarah was there and she was worried.
“You look good,” she said to Craig. And he did. He looked lethal. “Don’t get hurt out there.”
“Stop worrying. We’ve done this many times before. We’ll all be fine.” He kissed her on the cheek. “Don’t wait up for us.”
“What? You think I’m going to be able to sleep knowing you’re out there trying not to get yourself killed?”
Craig just smiled at her.
As JD watched the exchange, he felt the pang of jealousy which was becoming all too familiar surge through him.
Before leaving, he called everyone together. “You all know what to do. If anyone gets themselves injured, I will make damn sure you regret it. Now have fun out there.”
He picked up a set of keys from a bowl by the door and Scott grabbed another set. Before departing, JD turned around to address Sarah.
“Sarah, you look scared. Don’t be. Craig is an expert. We all are. If you worry this much every time he goes out, you’re going to make yourself ill. Find something to do to take your mind off it. We’ll be back before you know it.”
With that he left, shutting the door behind him. Sarah stared at the wooden door, unsure what to do with herself.
“I know how you feel,” Silvia’s voice sounded behind her. “I still worry every time Scott goes out. Trust me, you get used to it.”
“Are they really as good as they make out?”
Silvia nodded. “Yes, they are. But that doesn’t mean they’re invulnerable. One day one of them is going to get hurt. They know that so they don’t take unnecessary risks.” She glanced at her watch. “I’m going to watch some TV for a while. Care to join me?”
Sarah thanked her for the offer, but declined. JD was right; she needed something to occupy her mind and television wasn’t the answer. Instead she went into the arena and practiced some of the routines she had learned. She continued on until exhaustion forced her to stop.
She showered and changed then went to the TV room, but found it empty. Silvia must have retired to her suite while Sarah had been working out.
Choosing a film at random, she put it on and was soon dozing.
————————————-∞————————————-
The two cars pulled up outside an abandoned factory and the hunters climbed out. “Sanctuary 7 said there are only four of them inside,” JD said, “so no other Sanctuary has been called.”
Jonathon smiled. He preferred to have no other hunters present; they just got in the way.
JD signalled to Simon to take the lead. Darkness surrounded the factory, with not even a streetlamp to light their way. They headed to the rear entrance and, finding it unlocked, Simon eased it open and peered inside. He could see nothing, so cautiously entered the building.
They made no noise as all six hunters spread out. The sound of a scream ahead of them pierced the silence, providing them with a direction.
JD took the lead. He couldn’t see the others, but sensed them following him in their usual formation. As they moved further into the factory, the moon emerged from behind a cloud and sent its beams through the windows, illuminating the scene ahead of them.
Four vampires were feeding on two victims, one on the floor, her body twitching as her life was slowly sucked out of her, the other being held up, with one vampire on each side of her neck.
One quick glance told JD that the victims were past saving. All his team could do was kill their attackers.
The fight was short. It was six seasoned fighters against four, young, inexperienced vampires.
Jonathon and Katie ‘killed’ the two kneeling on the ground before they even knew that hunters were in the factory. As Simon decapit
ated their partially dead corpses, Katie saw that one was a boy, barely into his teenage years. She did not let the fact that she had just killed a child affect her. The boy had stopped being a child when he was turned and Katie had done him a favour by saving him from what he had become.
JD moved closer to the other two vampires, making sure his footsteps made enough noise to get their attention. While he distracted them, Craig and Scott crept up behind them. Scott thrust his sword forward and it slipped neatly between ribs, piercing a lung. He moved a fraction before Craig did and the sound of metal slicing through flesh caused the last vampire to turn and step back a little just as Craig slashed at his neck.
Instead of decapitating him, the tip of Craig’s sword sliced his neck, cutting the artery. Blood spurted out, covering Craig’s fighting suit and hitting his face. He wiped the red liquid away with his sleeve. It had happened so many times it no longer bothered him.
Simon walked over and finished the vampire off, neatly removing his head, then went over to Scott, who was holding his still breathing vampire in the necessary position for the decapitation.
“Jonathon,” JD said as his brother walked up to him. “Go out front and await Sanctuary 1. Give them a full report.” Jonathon nodded his head and departed. “Everyone else, spread out and search the place thoroughly. Sanctuary 7 said there were only 4, but others may have arrived after they gave their instructions. Watch each others’ backs.”
The last sentence wasn’t really needed; they would do that anyway, but there was never any harm in reminding them.
————————————-∞————————————-
The sound of the front door opening woke Sarah and she rushed out of the room.
JD, Craig and Katie entered the Sanctuary and, through the open door, she could see the other three walking up from the garage.
Sarah ran up to Craig and threw her arms around him in relief. Only when she released him and stepped back did she realise that he was covered in blood.
“None of it’s mine,” he quickly said to her.
“You might want to think about exactly what he has been doing before you hug him in the future,” JD said as he looked her up and down. She looked down at her clothes, which were now stained red, and shrugged her shoulders. Clothes could be cleaned.
“If you want to be useful,” Craig said, “go and get us all some energy drinks from the fridge. We need the boost after a hunt.”
When she returned with the cans, they were in the lounge listening to JD.
“You did good tonight. You were quiet, efficient, made all of the necessary kills without putting yourselves at risk. Well done. I’m letting you all off the 5 o’clock session in the morning. Catch up on your sleep.”
He heard Sarah approaching and, without turning around, addressed her. “That does not include you Sarah. 5am will be a one-on-one session.”
“That’s not fair,” she said as she handed around the cans. Her tone was flat and even. She was making a statement rather than a complaint.
“You’ve done nothing to earn a lay in.”
Sarah shook her head. “I meant it’s not fair on you. Surely you need to rest as well. I promise I will get up and train on my own. I know enough of the routines by now.”
All eyes were on JD, wondering how he was going to react. He thought for a while before responding. “Alright. I’ll trust you. You have given me no reason not to. Yet. But you had better not let me down. If I find out that you didn’t do as you have promised, and believe me I will, you are really going to regret it.”
Sarah had no intention of finding out exactly how JD would make her regret not following through on her promise and was in the arena before 5 o’clock the following morning.
She didn’t hear the door to the balcony open a short while later and didn’t see JD enter. He sat down, his back to the wall and his legs stretched out in front of him, and watched her work out.
She had no music on so it took him a while to realise which routine she was trying to do. It was one of the more complicated ones that he hadn’t yet taught her and she kept getting stuck in the middle.
He barely managed to control his laughter as she threw her sword down in frustration. His amusement soon vanished when he saw her leave the arena. He glanced at his watch. She had another half hour to go. He was disappointed rather than angry. He hadn’t believed she would let him down and he was not happy to have been proven wrong.
He stood up and was about to leave when he heard the arena door open once more and she walked in carrying her laptop. She placed it in the middle of the floor and sat there studying it for a while. He had no idea what she was watching, but she was concentrating on it very hard.
She then moved it to the side of the arena and tried again. This time she got past the part she was stuck on and almost got to the end without making any mistakes. Another quick viewing on the laptop and she fixed the part she was doing wrong.
Then she put the correct music on and went through the entire routine, over and over again, each time getting a little more accurate and a little less sloppy.
He was so intent on watching her that he didn’t hear the balcony door open and started in surprise when he heard a voice whisper beside him. “I thought you might need this.”
He looked up and Craig handed him a mug of coffee.
“Thanks,” he said as Craig sat down beside him.
“I figured you would be here. Did you doubt she would turn up?”
“Actually, no.” They both kept their voices low so as not to disturb her. “If I had any doubts I wouldn’t have agreed to let her do this on her own this morning.”
“So why are you here if not to check up on her?”
“I couldn’t sleep. Also, there’s a difference between not trusting someone and making sure your trust isn’t being abused.” He relaxed back against the wall once more. “At one point I thought she was giving up, but she just went to get her computer.” He glanced at Craig. “I presume she has videos of you on it doing some of the routines.”
Craig nodded. “That’s what she borrowed the arena for all those weeks ago. She made me go through as many of them as we had time for. With sword and Bo.”
“I thought you looked exhausted when you came out. Do you always do everything she asks you to?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
They sat in silence for a while longer, watching Sarah. 6am came and went, but she didn’t stop. When 6.30 arrived, JD called out to her. “Time to stop Sarah.”
“Jesus Christ,” she exclaimed. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack? How long have you been there?”
“A while.”
“Oh ye of little faith.” Then she spotted the time. “I didn’t realise it was so late. Why didn’t you let me know sooner?”
“I was waiting for you to stop turning the wrong way at the end. You need to work on some of those moves a bit more, but it’s looking good. Now get out of here.”
JD and Craig left the balcony together. “She’s doing better than you expected, isn’t she,” Craig said.
JD nodded his head. “I think I’m going to have to start increasing the intensity of our sessions. And the length.”
He did just that, changing some of the sessions from one hour to two as he concentrated on getting Sarah as fit as possible. She was constantly tired, but never once complained. He also moved the lessons away from being about the basics and made them much more technical. Like a sponge, she soaked up everything he taught her.
————————————-∞————————————-
Everything was going well until she called him one Friday night to tell him she wasn’t going to make training.
“Why not?” he asked.
“Sally has a date and I’ve promised to babysit for her. This is the first time she has gone out with someone since she split with her husband and I won’t let her down. I know I’m going to be punished for this and I’ll take wha
tever it is you decide to dish out, but this is just something I have to do.” JD could hear the conviction in her voice and couldn’t face the argument that would ensue if he insisted that she tell her friend she wasn’t free to look after her son.
On the other hand, could he justify letting her off? Sally counted as her family and he had told her that she could skip training for family reasons, but he wanted to see her. He found himself looking forward to Wednesdays and the weekends so much these days that the thought of not seeing her caused him actual pain.
Then an idea occurred to him. “Bring the boy with you. There are enough people here to look after him for a couple of hours.”
He had been expecting her to protest, but she didn’t. “Let me speak to Sally. I’ll call you right back.”
He watched his phone, waiting for it to ring. When it eventually did, he snatched it up, glancing at the number as he did so.
“Well?” he asked calmly, hiding his feelings deep down, as he always did when he was talking to her, or about her.
“Sally is okay with it, but I have a few rules of my own. Firstly, Tommy does not get to see the arena. At all. Secondly, nobody is allowed to talk about vampires, hunting, fighting or weapons while he is in the Sanctuary. As far as Sally and Tommy are concerned, you’re just my fitness instructor and I want it to stay that way.”
“That sounds fair,” JD said. “Leave it with me. I will speak with everyone. They will not dare to disobey if I make your request an order.”
“One other thing.” This time he noted a trace of unease in her voice. “I will have to bring him home after training so I can’t stay the night. I’ll miss the 5am session.”
JD had already worked that out for himself. “Stay to dinner and I won’t insist on you travelling here early Saturday morning. However, you can make it up to me by staying Saturday night instead.”
“Alright,” Sarah said. “See you soon.” JD stared at his phone in surprise. He had been expecting her to try to negotiate. Her instant agreement to his terms made him like her even more than he already did, which, until that moment, he didn’t think was possible.
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