Destruct: The Guard Trilogy

by Sheridan Anne

  “Oh seriously?” she beams. “That would be so cute,” she says almost gushing, then turning on me in an offended voice, “You didn’t tell me you like Daniel?” she demands.

  “What? I don’t like him, we’re just friends,” I say, suddenly on the defence.

  “Who’s just friends?” I hear from a familiar, curious voice behind me, turning to find Daniel joining our group with a tray stacked high with food. Oh, FFS!

  “You and B,” Jacinta says with a cheeky smile.

  Daniel flashes me a seductive smile, placing his tray down on the table. “Come on, baby. You know you and I will never be just friends,” he says stepping into my personal space, nearly whispering in my ear, but speaking just loud enough for the whole group to hear. “Besides, you can’t resist this body,” he adds gesturing up and down his lean, muscular frame. “And I sure as hell can’t resist yours.”

  Stepping forward, I press my body up against his and say in a low tone, “You know, I think you might be right, I’ve always been a little curious about you,” I say, putting my hands low on his waist. Resisting the urge to feel him up.

  He winds his arms around me pulling me even closer, tilting his face down to meet mine. “I’d kiss you right now if you weren’t so full of shit,” he whispers.

  My act slips as my face cracks into a wide grin which quickly becomes uncontrollable laughter. “Hey, I saw an opportunity and I took it,” I say, inwardly debating if I should be taking a bow for my brilliant performance.

  Daniel, still holding onto me leans into my ear. “Be careful, I might not be able to stop myself next time,” he murmurs, shifting ever so slightly that puts his lips directly in line with mine. I’m frozen in place, considering what it would be like to close the small gap and feel his lips on mine and I’m suddenly nervous. Daniel pulls back. “One day, you’ll see,” he promises as he pulls away and sits down at the table.

  I shake off the strange feelings coursing through my body and look over at Jacinta who has her jaw hanging open, looking completely dumbfounded. “Ah, come get some lunch?” she says indicating to the table filled with all the lunch options.

  “Yeah, sure,” I say following her lead.

  “Um … what was that?” she asks, curiously.

  “Nothing,” I say. “I was just messing with him. Though, I didn’t expect him to take it quite so far,” I explain.

  “Yeah, well that’s what happens when you play with fire,” she laughs. “I thought you were about to start making out in the middle of the cafeteria.”

  “Yeah, to tell the truth, I was a bit worried about that too,” I confess, not letting on that I was considering what it would have felt like. We both grab a salad and head back to our table, thankful to find no awkwardness when we return. Wow, today is shaping up to be a strange day, making myself a promise to decode what has just happened as soon as I get some time to myself.

  Lunch goes by way too quickly and before I know it, it’s time for Combat Training. Trey, Daniel and I walk into the oversized room to find Rylan and Tessa already here. Rylan’s casually lounging on the stairs of the stage looking just as sexy and bored as he had the day before while Tessa stands front and center waiting on the rest of the students to arrive for the day’s sessions. Rylan picks himself up and walks forward as the rest of the students saunter in.

  Rylan stands beside Tessa and starts with an explanation of the day’s session and I try my absolute hardest to concentrate on the words he’s saying rather than the way his black leather jacket hugs his strong body, the same way I’m wanting to. All thoughts of kissing Daniel are completely forgotten.

  The small group of ten students stands in a rugged line facing the stage. Rylan stands before us, looking hard and intimidating. “Yesterday, you all worked hard, now today you will work smart,” he says stiffly. “Tessa and I will take you through a demonstration and I want you to take note of each of our techniques. Then you will pair up and give it a go,” he adds.

  I think back to what Tessa said to me yesterday about having similar frames and realize that watching her in action is going to be a great advantage and make a mental note to take in as much as I can.

  Rylan and Tessa walk over to the closest sparring mat and the rest of the class immediately follow. It doesn’t take long for them to fall into their fight, each holding their own perfectly. I keep my eyes trained on Rylan, finding it physically impossible for me to look away and am shocked, I knew he was a good fighter, but didn’t know just how good. His moves are fast and deadly and I find myself captivated by his performance.

  Rylan avoids all of Tessa’s advances, striking out and landing a hit on her shoulder. She doesn’t flinch which tells me he must not be putting too much force behind his punch, though something tells me she would be more than capable of handling it. They continue fighting and it quickly turns into a beautiful dance.

  I realize I’ve been too busy watching how mesmerizing Rylan is when he fights, rather than focusing on their techniques. I steal my greedy eyes away from him and zone in on Tessa. She’s good and strong, though something tells me, no matter how good any of us are, there’s just no beating Rylan. Tessa has a relaxed posture, bent knees and feet apart allowing her to move quickly when needed, she holds her torso tight and keeps her arms up, one protecting her face and the other ready to strike. She launches forward with her arm flying out, missing Rylan’s face and springs right back into position. She doesn’t take her eyes off him as she prepares to strike again.

  The fight doesn’t last much longer, neither of them ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ just mutually agreeing that they had demonstrated quite enough. I watch Rylan as he steps away from the sparring mat when he suddenly looks up and straight into my eyes as if he could feel me watching him. He holds my gaze and I try to look away, but find it impossible. He tears his eyes from mine and gets on with the class.

  They pair us up and send us to get started on our session. I’m paired with this guy Alex who’s Luke’s best friend. He gives me a sly smile, clearly thinking that he’s got the upper hand on me and I’m desperate to get into training to knock that look off his face.

  We step up onto the mat and face each other, Alex still with his irritating grin on his face. I’m distinctly aware of Rylan nearby and can feel his eyes burning into me. I try to tune him out as I get myself into position, attempting to mimic the stance that Tessa was in earlier. I focus on Alex’s height and build and adjust my posture against his. Though, after taking basic combat training since I was young, most of it comes naturally.

  “You ready or what?” he scowls, looking down at me like I’m some sort of abomination.

  “Yeah, let’s go,” I reply, giving him the same disgusted look that he’s still shooting at me. I watch him closely and dodge his advances easily. His moves are slow and sloppy, though I can tell there’s a lot of force behind his punch. He grows frustrated as I continue dodging his advances and he continues to miss.

  I feint left as his fist comes towards me. “Oh, come on, Alex,” I chide. “You can do better than this.”

  As much as I enjoy his frustration, this game is growing old and I want to finish it quickly. I take the offence and strike out my fist hard and fast, hitting him square in the shoulder, following it up with a swift kick to his stomach. His face is clearly a mask of shock as his body doubles over.

  “Good,” I hear from close behind me, instantly recognizing Rylan’s deep voice. “Keep going,” he instructs. I try to focus my thoughts on Alex as he quickly recovers from my blow that clearly isn’t backed up with the power that the other guys in this room possess. He straightens himself out, his face full of fury. He advances on me fast, throwing punches, hard and sloppy and I get the feeling he’s out for revenge, his head isn’t in it. I watch his movements, but my concentration is off as I’m far too aware of Rylan’s presence behind me.

  Alex lunges wide and lets his fist fly, I attempt to dodge and lose my footing, allowing Alex’s fist to connect hard with my j
aw. Seeing the look in his eye, tells me that was exactly what he had intended to do. My body is thrown backward and I stumble into Rylan who grabs hold of my shoulders, quickly steadies me then drops his hands as quickly as he had thrown them up, leaving my body burning from his touch.

  My hand flies up to cup my aching jaw and I’m sure I’ll have a nasty bruise by morning. “Alex,” Rylan roars. “That was an illegal move,” he scolds sounding as menacing as ever.

  “She had it coming,” Alex sneers, giving me a look of pure hatred, clearly not happy that I got not one but two hits on him.

  “It’s not my fault you have no idea what you’re doing,” I taunt, rubbing at my jaw. By now, we have the whole class’s attention and I see Trey and Daniel, stop what they are doing, take in my hand over my jaw and immediately make their way over.

  Alex’s face turns bright red. “Screw you,” he growls in anger, preparing to hit me again.

  Daniel lunges towards Alex, reaching for his neck with Trey desperately trying to hold him back. “Let me go,” he hisses through a clenched jaw.

  “Control her,” Alex yells, but is cut off by Rylan.

  Rylan steps forward, fixing Alex with a nasty look. “Get out,” he orders. “I don’t have time for this shit,” Alex is smart enough not to push his luck further. He throws me one more final glare and I watch as he huffs in defeat then leaves to grab his bag. “As for the rest of you, get back to training,” Rylan demands.

  Trey turns away to get back to his fight while Daniel steps closer to my side. “You okay?” he asks with a nervous gleam in his eyes.

  “Yeah,” I nod, he gives me a look that suggests he doesn’t believe me, but turns away to get back to his partner. I look up just in time to see a furious Alex being escorted out of the room by Tessa and I can’t help but smirk at the sight.

  “What are you smiling about?” Rylan scolds from beside me. “You could have avoided that, but you were distracted,” he snaps, sounding irritated. “Do you think a vampire is going to sit back and wait patiently while you get your shit together?”

  I open my mouth to answer, but can’t think of anything smart to say. Rylan’s right, while Alex was definitely in the wrong, my loss of balance and my distracted thoughts were completely to blame which has my mood plummeting down.

  His hard look disappears and is replaced with something a little softer which for some reason has my heart racing. He raises a hand, indicating towards my jaw. “Show me,” he says. I slowly peel my hand away from my throbbing face and freeze as Rylan’s deep eyes look me over. “It will bruise, but you’ll be fine,” he says dismissively.

  “Y-yeah, sure,” I stutter, unable to string a proper sentence together and completely embarrassing myself while I try not to concentrate on his proximity.

  Rylan looks down at his watch. “There’s only fifteen minutes left of the session, you may as well finish up,” he says.

  “Ok cool,” I say, turning away and trying to mentally map out the easiest way to my bag through the groups of students still sparing.

  “Bianca,” Rylan calls after me making my name sound like the sweetest music.

  I turn back around to face him. “Yeah?”

  “Put some ice on it,” he says with humour that suits him well.

  “Sure thing,” I beam, wondering if maybe, he isn’t as much of a jerk as I had thought. His eyes widen briefly and I quickly turn away before I start thinking too much into it. I make my way to my bag, feeling happy that the day is finally over. I give my jaw one last rub as I bend down and reach for my bag, unzipping it to find my phone when I see the little pink slip reading ‘Detention’. Crap, I totally forgot.

  I zip my bag back up and head down to the cafeteria, grabbing myself a yoghurt before heading to an hour of torture at my after class detention.

  I walk into the classroom and sit among the other students who managed to get themselves in the same position as we wait for the on duty teacher to show up. I’m not surprised to see Alex sitting at the other side of the room. He scowls over at me, but gets straight back into doing whatever it was he was doing before.

  Two moments later, none other than Rylan comes strolling in through the door. Just great. He sits down at the desk, leans back in the chair and props his feet up. He looks out at the misfit students before him, scanning the room and taking in their faces. He stops when he gets to me and a disappointment that nearly kills me, flashes behind his eyes.

  I don’t hear it, but I can tell he is sighing. He presses his lips together and gives the slightest shake of his head before continuing with his scan of the room and studiously ignoring each and every one of us for the next hour.

  I sit in my chair in complete boredom and allow my thoughts to drift. I cross my arms over my desk and rest my head on top, accidentally bumping my jaw in the process and groaning at the flash of pain that courses through my face.

  My day runs circles around my brain. I find myself feeling confused which scares the ever loving Jesus out of me. I’ve never met anyone who has had such an effect on me. I mean, sure, I’ve had a few inappropriate thoughts concerning Daniel lately, which seem completely trivial compared to what Rylan is doing to me.

  First, it was his stunning good looks having me in a daze, then his dark, mysterious, gold speckled eyes, and now I struggle to concentrate when he’s around. I’ve got to get a grip. I can’t have a crush on my instructor. That seems so wrong and not to mention is completely inappropriate and strictly forbidden by The Guard. If anyone found out I was crushing on him, I’d be dead or worse; sent to a ‘normal’ school. Ugh.

  I finally come to the conclusion that I have no other option but to squish these stupid feelings for Rylan and give myself a little more time to figure out what the hell is going on with Daniel, which was the hardest conclusion I’ve ever had to come to, considering the man in question is sitting across the room looking like an absolute God. But thoughts like this and crushing on him is not going to get me anywhere good, and besides, I want to be an amazing fighter which I’m not going to do if I’m constantly swooning over him.

  Damn him.

  Chapter 5

  I wake up early and stumble out of bed before finding my way into the bathroom. I catch sight of the nasty bruise that’s formed on the side of my face overnight and groan to myself. Just great. I really should have taken Rylan’s advice and put an ice pack on it.

  I jump in the shower, allowing myself to take my time and enjoy the warm water rushing over my body. Not long after, I’ve rifled through my wardrobe and decided on a cute pair of shorts and a tank top. Jacinta is finally up and also taking her time in the shower, so, I grab my makeup bag and study myself in the small mirror outside the bathroom door, taking in the nasty bruise creeping its way over my jaw. Luke and his followers are going to get a kick out of this today. I pack on just a little more makeup than usual and survey my handiwork. Pretty good, if you ask me. You can hardly see it.

  Jacinta opens the bathroom door and I get smacked in the face with the hot steam from her shower trying desperately to escape. “Ever heard of the fan?” I ask with a grunt as I wave my hands around my face.

  “Shut up. It’s not like you’ve ever used it,” she says, strutting past me.

  I take my opportunity to use the bathroom and pull out my trusty hair dryer. I look up into the mirror and sure enough, it’s all steamed up. I hold my hair dryer up to the mirror and wait as it returns to its former glory, allowing me to start on the challenge of drying my thick hair.

  Confusing thoughts of Rylan and Daniel swirling around in my wonderful brain causes my day to drag by. It’s finally time for Combat Training and I’m suddenly anxious about seeing Alex, though if he tries something today, there’s no way I’m going to allow him to leave a mark on me again.

  I walk through the doors and curse myself at the small flutter my heart gives when I see Rylan at the front of the room waiting for the stragglers. Today it seems that I’m the last one to enter and I wait for the ine
vitable scowl that he saves for anyone who’s even the slightest bit late, but I’m surprised when it doesn’t come. His eyes simply linger on my bruised jaw before snapping back to the other students.

  As Rylan and Tessa explain what we’ll be focusing on today, I risk a quick glance over at Alex. An angry sulk lingers on his face and I wonder if Rylan had spoken to him before class, the thought makes a small smile wickedly spread over my face and I try my best to hide it.

  I turn back to the front of the room to see Tessa giving me a stern look that says I should be concentrating on the class. Not wanting to disappoint her, I tune out all the other thoughts and focus solely on the day's lesson. Rylan divides the class into pairs and I see a flash of something that I can’t quite place in his eyes as he pairs Trey up with Alex and Daniel with Luke.

  I get paired with this guy Tom, who I hardly know and I’m almost 100% sure I could beat him. I follow Tom over to a sparring mat, happy that I can have a normal session without the added drama. We step up on the mat, turn to face each other and get straight into our fight.

  About thirty minutes later, Tom has me flat on my back for the third time and it’s clear that I had seriously underestimated this guy. We take a short break and I make my way over to my bag and treat myself with a drink. I sit down for a few minutes and watch the fights unfold around me.

  “Nice bruise,” I hear Luke grunt, looking up to see him still mid fight with Daniel. Luke isn’t looking at me, but it was clear his comment was directed at me.

  I consider the many comebacks I could have shot him, but decide he just isn’t worth it. Luke mutters something under his breath, too quiet for me to hear, but apparently not too quiet for Daniel who suddenly gets through to Luke, landing a nasty hit to the chest followed by a kick that has Luke flying and falling to his back.