by I. T. Lucas
"If you don't have the stomach for it, maybe you shouldn't be here. Even a friendly match may seem rough to someone that didn't see one before. We could go and come later when it's over and done with." Amanda grasped Syssi's elbow with the intent of turning her around.
Syssi crossed her arms over her chest and planted her feet firmly on the concrete floor. Someone had to look out for Michael, and as the only other mortal around, she felt it was up to her. "No, I want to stay and make sure he's okay. I know he is strong, but compared to these guys he looks like the little kid who got caught in the big boys’ playground."
Amanda sent her a measuring look. "As you wish. And anyway, if I pull you out, you're probably going to imagine things being way worse than they actually are." She shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest as well. "Just promise not to scream or faint on me."
Syssi slanted her an affronted look. "Don't hold your breath…"
"Are you ready for some ass whooping, little brother?" Yamanu smiled, flashing a gorgeous set of gleaming white teeth.
Michael grinned, his eyes sweeping over the faces of his witnesses as he crouched in a fighting stance. "Bring it on, big brother."
Watching the Guardians' expressions as they stood around the blue mat, Syssi was moved by the unexpected fondness and encouragement they showed Michael. It dawned on her then that taking part in this ritual, this coming of age ceremony, symbolized more than Michael's transition from one state to another.
These people were welcoming him into their club—into their family.
Someone sounded a whistle and the match began. Trading kicks and punches, Michael used his bulk to topple the taller man to the mat and even managed to get out of Yamanu's choke-hold-grips a few times. But he was seriously outclassed, and a minute into the fight the poor kid was sporting a bruised eye and a bleeding lip.
On the sidelines, Kri was making a fool of herself shouting and cheering Michael on. "Yeah! Go Michael go!" She jumped up and down excitedly, ignoring her fellow Guardians' amused expressions.
At first, it was obvious that Yamanu was going easy on Michael, but as it became evident he was not as easy to subdue as Yamanu had expected him to be, the guy got serious and in short order had the boy pinned face down on the mat.
With a knee between Michael's shoulder blades, Yamanu twisted the boy's arms painfully behind him, keeping Michael's struggling body immobilized as he bared his venom-dripping fangs. With a loud hiss, Yamanu sank them deep into Michael's neck.
Michael's body tensed and arched slightly off the mat before going lax as the venom hit his system. Slowly, as his grimace morphed into a euphoric smile, his eyelids slid shut and he passed out.
"Is he all right? Should we call for help?" Syssi made a move to run for the mat.
Amanda caught her arm. "Easy, girl, everything is all right. He'll shake it off in a few moments."
"Are you sure? Is this normal?"
"Yes, darling, this is a perfectly normal reaction for males. You have nothing to worry about. I've seen my thirteen-year-old nephews and grandnephews go through this ceremony. The boys get knocked out, black out and shake it off in no time. Our big guy is in no danger."
Coming back from the adjacent facilities with several wet washcloths in her hands, Kri knelt beside Michael's prone body. "I'll take care of him," she said, and turning him a little, began wiping away the blood from his busted lip and bruised knuckles.
With a wicked smirk curling the side of her mouth, Amanda leaned into Syssi and pretended to whisper. "It's usually the mother that does the aftercare, and although technically, Kri could be his mother, I don't think she's acting from a motherly place right now."
Kri flipped Amanda the bird and sat down on the mat. Cradling Michael's head in her lap, she wiped his sweaty forehead with a clean washcloth. "Jealous?" she taunted.
"Already fighting over the prize, ladies?" Anandur teased them over the catty exchange, then looking to his comrades for support, chuckled as the guys attempted nonchalance.
Evidently, fearing Amanda's wrath, they tried to hide their amused faces and pretended like they heard nothing. Standing at the edge of the mat and huddling close, they did their best to avoid looking at either Amanda or Kri.
Instead, they began discussing the match.
"The kid did well,” Brundar stated, his austere face showing the slightest nuance of pride.
"He's a natural fighter," Anandur agreed with a quick glance at Kri, making sure she had heard him, apparently trying to get back in her good graces.
"Yeah, Yamanu, you didn't expect him to get away that first time, did you?"
Arwel's comment had Yamanu grimace. "He surprised me, that's all. I didn't know he had any wrestling training, I would have held on properly otherwise." Yamanu crossed his arms over his chest with an affronted expression on his handsome face. "Didn't want to hurt him unnecessarily, you know."
"Yeah, suddenly you're a fucking Mother Teresa… Give the kid some credit, you arrogant ass." Arwel punched Yamanu's shoulder. "Like we don't know you're a merciless bastard."
"Alright, I have no problem admitting he has potential, but today he just got lucky. Maybe if I spent some time training him, he could become a decent fighter. At least against mortals."
"He’ll do better with my weapons training. Until he turns, he’ll need the advantage they provide," Brundar said.
With an amused grin, Kian interjected, "No need to fight over the bone, boys, you could both train him. Think how well he'll do, getting two great teachers instead of one." He glanced at Syssi, and with a slight nod, smiled.
Syssi smiled back before averting her eyes. Kian wasn't the only one uncomfortable with acknowledging the thing that was going on between them. Except, right now she wasn't sure there was even anything to acknowledge.
From the corner of her eye, she saw him look at her for a brief moment before turning to Onegus. "That's actually not a bad idea. The men are on to something."
"What do you mean?"
"The two fighting over who should train Michael gave me an idea. We could bring more young men to be trained by the Guardians. And young women…" Kian seemed to remind himself that times had changed. "With this new threat looming, the clan needs more Guardians, and the men seem hungry for some new blood in their ranks. I never gave it much thought before, but it makes sense that they would like to impart the knowledge and skills they've accumulated throughout the centuries to a new generation. With no sons or daughters of their own, I can understand their need to validate the importance of what they know how to do best."
"You're awfully philosophical today." Onegus chuckled. "You have a point, though. And I think something along the lines of a basic self-defense course for all members of the clan would be even better. It wouldn't hurt if everyone had some skill at defending themselves. And from the ranks of trainees, we could choose the best for more advanced training and eventually the Guardian force. What do you think?"
"I like it. We should do it, and the sooner, the better," Kian said, then glanced at Michael. "I think our boy is coming around."
Michael's eyes fluttered open, a huge grin spreading across his battered face as he saw Kri smiling down at him. Though, with his head and shoulders cradled in her lap, her heavy breasts were hovering barely an inch away from his nose, and it seemed he was having a hard time focusing on her pretty face.
Noticing his tongue dart to his lips, Syssi smirked, imagining what must've been going through his head. And if she needed additional proof, the loose gym pants he was wearing were not much in the way of hiding what was going on down below.
Face gone red, Michael sneaked a quick glance at his audience. Realizing they were all watching him, he jerked up to a sitting position and bent at the waist in an attempt to hide the evidence. "That wasn't so bad… Ouch!" He winced in pain as he tried to get up.
Kri offered her arm. "Take it easy, big boy. Slow down… I'm going to help you up."
"I'm good, thanks." Michael made anothe
r go at standing on his own, but swayed, having to hold on to Kri's shoulder to regain his balance.
"Hey, Yamanu! Next time I wouldn’t go so easy on you!" Michael attempted some bravado.
Yamanu grinned. "Yeah, I want to see you try… Come here." He pulled Michael into a hug and clapped his back. "Not bad. Not bad at all, kid."
"Let's go, Tiger. I'll take you to your room." Kri wrapped her arm around Michael and helped him limp out of the gym.
Heading for the row of treadmills, Amanda winked at Syssi. "Aren't you glad the process is so much more pleasurable for females?"
"Yeah, I don't think I could've gotten Yamanu even slightly worked up with my fighting skills."
"Oh, I'm sure you could get him worked up all right." Amanda chuckled. "Just not with your fists… Well, maybe you could do something with them…" She laughed a deep throaty laugh.
"Amanda!"
"What? I'm just saying… It's true!"
"You're bad-to-the-bone, aren't you?"
"Yes, that's me. Bad-to-the-bone-Amanda."
"By the way, I was wondering about how different it is for the girls. Kian said that being around your mother was enough to facilitate the change in them. What about the boys? Why doesn't it work the same for them? Was it tested?"
"Of course it was tested. It doesn't work for the boys. My guess is that it's easier to turn the girls because they are the ones that can actually transmit our specific traits to their offspring; they might have a stronger predisposition. But I can't say for sure that's the reason. It just works this way.
“Our children are born and raised at my mother's place, with the expectant mothers traveling to be with her as their time grows near. It's beneficial for the boys as well as the girls to spend their early years with Annani. And besides, she loves having them there. It's not like there are that many, and sometimes decades pass with no children at all, even centuries. So when they arrive, her greatest joy is spending time with the little ones, hugging and kissing the babies, taking care of the mothers.
"Her place is amazing, a real heaven—like a miniature Hawaii. The same perfect temperature year round. Pools and streams of warm water, waterfalls with slides… It's beautiful. The kids have a wonderful time with her and they are safe, protected." Amanda paused, a sad shadow crossing her beautiful face.
"The boys are mortal until they reach puberty and are able to put up a decent fight against a transitioned boy. Until they are turned, they're just as vulnerable to injury and disease as any other mortal. In order to keep them safe, most mothers choose to stay at Annani's place until their sons are old enough to transition. We did lose several of our precious little boys to accidents and illness over the generations. It's always tragic to lose a child, and we have so few." Amanda whispered the last sentence, struggling to breathe as tears glistened in her eyes.
Oh, God! No! The anguish in her friend's eyes could've meant only one thing. Syssi felt her chest tighten, Amanda's pain cutting straight to her soul. "I'm so sorry," she whispered.
"He was such a beautiful boy." Amanda's lip trembled as tears trickled down her cheeks. "I don't want to talk about it. I can't. It happened over a century ago, but it still hurts like hell… as if it had been only yesterday." Wiping her face with her hand, Amanda turned the treadmill on, and without bothering to warm up began running as if the hounds of hell were on her tail.
Turning her own machine on, Syssi began with a brisk walk. She knew how it felt. She didn't lose a child, which must've been even more devastating than losing her brother had been, but four years after the tragedy she still couldn't think about his death without a choking sensation constricting her throat and her eyes burning with tears.
After about fifteen minutes of running at a breakneck speed, Amanda finally slowed down, gradually coming to a stop. Fighting to bring air into her lungs, she bent at the waist, supporting her upper body with her hands on her thighs. "Hard to run when you're choking," she told Syssi.
Syssi understood all too well. Slowing, she brought her machine to a halt and stepped down. With a ragged sigh, she touched her hand to Amanda's shoulder, and choking on her own emotions, she whispered, "We carry our pain buried deep within our hearts, hidden away and securely locked, and when these raw emotions escape the prison we've built for them, it feels like acid is eating us from the inside. It burns… burns so bad."
There was nothing more she could say, no magic words that could ease Amanda's pain. Instead, she pulled the taller woman into her arms and ran her hands soothingly up and down her back. Sharing her body's warmth with her shivering friend was really all she had to offer.
Mortal or near-immortal, it didn't make a difference. The pain of loss was the same, and physical contact provided the only comfort to be had.
For a few moments, they commiserated in silence, holding on to each other, with Amanda leaning into Syssi and resting her head on her shoulder. Then heaving a shaky sigh, she disentangled from the embrace and drew in a calming breath.
Looking up into Amanda's eyes, Syssi saw in their depths the dark shadows of the woman's grief and her valiant effort to push against the pain. Tragically, Syssi often saw the same miserable expression staring back at her from the mirror.
And even though the loss they had shared had brought them closer than ever, it was a pity that what had helped strike this new kind of communion between them had been the result of anguish and grief.
Nevertheless, given the fact that she still had a hard time dealing with her own loss, Syssi was glad Amanda hadn't wanted to talk about it. So maybe she was being selfish and wasn't such a good friend after all, or maybe she was weak, or cowardly. But she just didn't have the strength to take that on; couldn't handle the added dose of grief.
"I'm okay now, I can breathe again…" Amanda shot Syssi a sad, thankful smile. "Let's run." She climbed back on the treadmill and resumed her breakneck speed.
Syssi maintained an easier pace on her own machine while going over the conversation in her head.
She wasn't thinking about what had made them both sad. Since her own tragedy had struck and changed her forever, keeping her mind off the depressing subject became a mental exercise she was getting better and better at as the years went by.
Instead, her head was buzzing with all the questions she was dying to ask Amanda, mainly about her mother—The Goddess.
What did she look like? What kind of a person was she? How powerful and in what way? What was their relationship like? And where was that heaven Amanda had described?
Except, now was not the time for it. With Amanda pounding away on the treadmill, trying to outrun her demons, Syssi figured she'd better save her questions for later.
CHAPTER 48: DALHU
About thirteen miles away, in a rented Beverly Hills mansion, Dalhu woke up to the sound of light snoring. Turning to look at the call girl sleeping beside him, he braced on his elbow and traced his finger over her puffy red lips.
Allowing a hooker to stay the night wasn't like him, except, after what he had put her through, the girl had been in no shape to go anywhere.
Not that she had voiced any complaints.
She sure hadn't expected to enjoy what he'd done to her so much. After he had sunk his fangs into her neck, the girl had orgasmed so hard her voice had become hoarse from her screams. And then he had her again… and she'd screamed some more.
He smiled. She sure looked like a woman well satisfied; her pretty face flushed and her bleached-blonde hair tangled and sticking wetly to her rosy cheeks. What a shame he couldn't allow her to remember any of it.
Still, even though she was a pro, she had passed out way before he'd been ready to be done with her. Unfortunately, there was a limit to what a mortal female could take.
Not for the first time, Dalhu wondered what sex with an immortal female would be like. For all he knew, she might be able not only to match his stamina but tire him out…
Or even bite him back…
Dalhu closed his eyes as the imag
e sent a shiver of lust through his body. His palm found his growing erection and he began stroking it in leisurely up and down strokes, building on that image. She would go wild for the pleasure he would bring her, remember every wickedly sensual thing he would do to her, and beg for more.
Nice fantasy… But it was not to be.
The only immortal females he knew of were Annani's descendants—his sworn enemies—and even though he had no problem overlooking that small detail, he didn't know where to find one.
Deflated, Dalhu lost his good mood along with his erection.
Pushing off the bed, he trudged to the master suite's luxurious bathroom, stepped into the waterfall shower and turned all of the jets on. With his arms braced on the marble wall, he closed his eyes and tilted his head back. The water sluicing down his hair, he once again allowed his mind to conjure the elusive phantasm of an immortal female of his own.
As pointless as it was, it felt incredibly good to indulge in the fantasy, and as he tried to envision his perfect female, the face he saw belonged to the beautiful woman in the framed picture he kept by his bed.
The professor…
He would hold onto a woman like that forever. There would be no more whores for him to share with his brothers; he'd never soil himself like that again. It would be just her for him, and needless to state the obvious; only him for her.
She'd bear him a son, maybe more than one. Or even a daughter…
With her, he could have the kind of life he only caught a glimpse of in the mortal world. The only thing he ever envied humans in their wretched existence was having a family.
Smiling, he imagined himself a proud patriarch; admired, respected, surrounded by his children and grandchildren. The head of his own clan. He would be a good leader, providing for and protecting his own.
Honorable. Appreciated…
Yeah, right.