by C Zinnia
Viola went through some unarmed self-defense moves while Mel was standing. Viola went over blocks and bobbing and weaving with Mel. Viola also taught her how to strike with her elbows and knees. Viola went over the same moves over and over and over again. Everything was done slowly. Viola nitpicked every move Mel made.
Mel was becoming irritable, especially because she knew for a fact her elbow and knee strikes worked due to her confrontation with Bill.
“Why do we keep doing the same things?” Mel asked. She was fed up with doing the same moves, especially when the critiquing didn’t seem to lessen over time.
Viola could tell Mel was cross. “Because you need to incorporate the moves into muscle memory. If you are ever attacked, you should be able to react automatically. You shouldn’t have to think about it first. If you have to think, you’re dead,” she said.
“Geez, that seems a little extreme,” Mel said. An image of Trixie’s body flashed into her mind and she suddenly realized Viola’s viewpoint wasn’t as extreme as she originally thought.
“There are sick people in the world,” Viola said. “And they will try to do things to you that you could never think of because it’s not in your nature. But it’s in their nature.”
“You think there are people who are evil in the world?” Mel asked.
“Absolutely,” Viola said. “And you need to be ready to defend yourself against them. What if Bill was still out there running rampant? How would you defend yourself?”
“But he’s not and I wasn’t completely defenseless when he did attack me at the B&B,” Mel said. “And I saw him when he attacked all of us in the woods.”
Viola frowned. “You got lucky,” she said. “Can you guarantee you’d get that lucky again?”
“Then I should be working on controlling my gifts, shouldn’t I, so I can replicate exploding the bullet again?” Mel asked. “And so I can get better at knowing when someone is about to attack me so I can mentally prepare to physically protect myself.”
“We’re not working on your gifts,” Viola said. Her energy showed her aggravation. “We’re working on your training. Understand?” Her tone let Mel know she wasn’t to be questioned.
Mel didn’t understand, but she didn’t want to argue either. “All right,” she said with a heavy breath. “Let’s go through the routine again.”
Viola went through the moves one more time with Mel. She hardly made a correction the last time. “That was good. Now, you need to learn how to get up from the ground and onto your feet,” she said.
“But, what about my shoulder?” Mel asked.
“I know your shoulder hurts, but we have to go over these moves. Right now, if someone were to get you on the ground, it would be over for you. Your attacker won’t have mercy on you because your shoulder hurts. In fact, they would take advantage of it,” Viola said. “You need to try. If anything causes unbearable pain, then you won’t do that move, but you at least need to try. This is important Mel. You are going to be around werewolves now and I’m a constant target because of my skill. Unfortunately, because I’m a target, that makes you a target. And that’s not including any hunters. Now, do you know how to do a bridge?”
“Yes,” Mel said.
“Good, that helps,” Viola said. Viola and Mel got on the floor. Viola showed Mel how to perform hip thrusts then Viola had Mel perform a bridge one time to see how good Mel’s range of motion was. The movement hurt Mel’s shoulder, but she pushed through the pain.
“Relax,” Viola said. “I know this is uncomfortable and painful, but the bridge is a crucial part of a kip, which is what you need to learn how to do to get up faster. To do a good bridge, you need back flexibility and strength. You have a lot of flexibility. That’s going to help with the next couple of moves.” She taught Mel how to perform Turkish getups without a weight. She focused on Mel using her left arm so Mel’s right shoulder could rest. From there, Viola went over the basics of how to perform a kip without her hands. Mel kept failing and hitting her back on the floor. It jolted her shoulder every time.
This is stupid, Mel thought. I’m making myself worse.
“Oof!” Mel groaned. “Am I ever going to get this? Why do I have to do this?”
“You’re not going to get it in the first session, but your body needs to get used to the motion. You need to build up the muscles for it,” Viola said. “The kip is crucial. It’s going to help you get off the ground faster and explosively compared to just standing up. You could throw an elbow at your attacker while you do the kip and it would be devastating to your attacker. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Mel said.
“That’s enough work for our first session. We need to try to do a couple of sessions a day at least of self-defense. And you can do basic classes I teach and do your own workout during the more intense sessions.” Before Mel could protest, Viola said; “Let’s get back home. I’m sure you’re starving. I know I am.”
“A little,” Mel admitted. She decided they could discuss Mel’s workout routine later. It bothered Mel that Viola hadn’t even asked her if she wanted to work out so much. It was like Viola had decided it for her. Mel didn’t like someone making decisions for her. “What about the tour of the rooms in the back?”
Viola waved it off. “We’ll do it next time,” she said. She picked up Mel’s shoulder sling and helped her put it back on. “How’s your shoulder feeling?”
“It’s throbbing a little bit,” Mel said.
“We’ll ice it when we get back to the house,” Viola said.
A stocky older man came in. “Hey, V,” he said. “How was training today?”
“Great as always,” Viola answered. “Mel, this is Jacob. A member of our pack. Jacob, this is my mate, Mel.”
Jacob smiled at Mel. “Nice to meet you,” he said. “I had heard the gossip. I’m glad to see it is true. How was your first day working with V?”
“I can see why she wins fights,” Mel said with admiration. “Viola is fantastic. She has a great comprehension of the human body and how to work it efficiently without causing harm.”
Viola beamed at Mel’s response. “I knew you were perfect for me,” she said.
“Yeah, V is pretty cool,” Jacob agreed. “Though if you pump V up too much, we won’t be able to fit in the room with her.” They all laughed.
“Jacob is a good trainer as well,” Viola said. “And he teaches a great kickboxing class. Well, we better get going. Enjoy your day, Jacob.”
“You do the same,” Jacob said.
Viola and Mel left. On the car ride back, Mel tried to keep track of where they were and how to get back to the village.
By the time they reached the parking lot, Mel still didn’t have a firm grasp of where she was in Ferrum. Viola and Mel went onto the porch of the main house to find Bruce and Silvia sitting with Dana and Lee. They were all smiling as they surveyed the world around them.
Mel admired Dana and Lee for their tenacity. They had lost so much, but the way they appeared gave the impression nothing was amiss. The only hint was the slight anxiety within their energies. They also held hands in a way that showed how close they had been to losing each other.
They were all surprised to see Viola and Mel.
“Where did y’all go?” Dana asked.
“To the gym,” Viola answered.
“You didn’t overwork Mel, did you?” Dana asked.
“Of course not,” Viola said. Dana gave Viola a look that suggested she didn’t believe Viola. “Did I Mel?”
Mel hesitated. “I’ve never worked out that much before,” she admitted. “I feel a bit sore.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Viola said. “You need to build up your endurance.”
Dana made a displeased noise.
“She does,” Viola insisted. “She needs to be able to protect herself.”
“Isn’t that what her abilities are for? No amount of training will make her able to contend with a werewolf,” Dana said. “She’d be better
off working with Eli if she needs to learn to protect herself. Build up her gifts and power.”
Viola didn’t like Dana’s opinion. She focused on Bruce. “Did you find anything out about the hunter?” she asked.
“Yes,” Bruce said. “Bill’s part of a small group of paranormal hunters. The leader of his group had given Bill the mission to date a werewolf from one of the packs around the New River Valley so Bill could find all of the packs in the area and eliminate us.”
“Who’s the leader?” Viola asked.
Bruce shrugged. “Bill never met the leader. He called him the Master Hunter though. Their communication is all through texts and phone calls,” he said. He sighed. “I have already contacted the other packs about this. They were glad to be alerted about the hunters. There are at least five hunters out there, but Bill didn’t know what their missions were or where. We think the hunter one of the West Virginia packs eliminated was part of the group, so we may be down to four hunters. Apparently, their leader doesn’t allow the hunters to contact each other or know each other’s mission in case they are captured. It’s concerning because they’re changing their methods of hunting so dramatically.”
“How so?” Mel asked.
“We’ve noticed an increase in hunters and them attacking werewolves over the years. Hunters used to pair up when they would hunt. They always had heavy firepower, but they were terrible at trekking through the terrain so they were always disposed of before they would reach the village. Over the years, we’ve had an increase in casualties, which means their skills are getting better. We never had a hunter work alone and seduce one of our werewolves. And we’ve never had to deal with bombs before. They’ve never masked their scents before. And Bill wore a necklace that was laced with magic to make his breathing and heartrate nearly undetectable. Eli is studying the necklace now. They’re getting more devious and more dangerous,” he said.
“You said paranormal hunters,” Mel said. “How many paranormal things are there?”
“I’m not sure. It’s not like there’s some sort of mystic network. The only reason we know about witches and psychics is because we have members in our pack that have these talents,” Bruce said. “Some would argue that we are shifters and not werewolves because we aren’t forced to turn during a full moon. And, of course, there were other kinds of animal shifters in the world.”
“Other shifters,” Mel repeated. She shook her head to try to get of the image of random animals transforming into people and vice versa. “Why would that happen? What would the point be from an evolutionary standpoint? It seems like it requires a lot of energy to change.”
“You’re right,” Bruce said. “We have to eat more than humans because of the high energy requirements to shift. I don’t know why we can shift into wolves and there isn’t a logical explanation in our histories.”
“Your histories are written down?” Mel asked.
“Some of them, but mostly it’s passed on through oral tradition,” Bruce answered. “It’s not safe to write things down. With humans, we can pass it off as fiction, but if the hunters got hold of it, they would know too much and could easily wipe us out.”
“What happens next with Bill?” Mel asked.
Bruce raised an eyebrow. He was amazed that she was bold enough to ask so many questions. “Normally, I wouldn’t discuss things like this even with a pack member, but I understand that you’ve had to deal with this hunter personally. We will interrogate Bill again tomorrow and dispose of him after.”
Mel wasn’t alarmed. She felt Bill more than deserved to die. “That seems fair enough,” she said.
Bruce was shocked. “You don’t find it barbaric?” he asked.
“I’ve had a lot of time to think about how I feel about capital punishment because of a discussion Daren and I had early,” Mel said. “At this point, I feel that the moment one person intentionally threatens the life of another, they don’t have the right to demand that their life is spared. I feel like some of the concept of not having people face the consequences of their actions was written by the people who kept harming others. You get a murderer crying foul about two wrongs not making a right because he doesn’t want to face the repercussions of his actions. But you know full and well that murderer would murder again in a heartbeat.
“Bill killed Trixie. He tried to kill Viola, Lee, Dana, Daren, Samuel, and me. I’ll be honest, I don’t wish torture on him, but I do think death is the only way to ensure he won’t hurt anyone again,” Mel said.
Dana smiled. “You’ll do just fine in this pack,” she said.
“We don’t believe in torture to get information,” Bruce said. “We use other tactics. Torture hasn’t been shown to be useful. In fact, a person will say whatever he can just to get the pain to stop, so it’s not valid information. That’s how you end up with people confessing to acts they didn’t commit.”
“Interesting,” Mel said.
“Why don’t we get something to eat?” Viola suggested to Mel.
“Okay,” Mel said.
Viola and Mel went into the kitchen. Viola rummaged through the cabinets to pull out a pot. She grabbed pasta, vegetables, and tomato sauce.
“Can I help?” Mel asked.
“I would love for you to,” Viola said. “But you need to ice your shoulder again. We want it to heal and, as you’ve mentioned, you’ve been really active.”
Mentioning Mel’s shoulder made her aware of how much it ached. “You’re right,” Mel said.
Viola handed her the frozen bag of peas. Mel sat down and watched Viola make a delicious pasta lunch. The smell of tomato sauce mixed with garlic and fresh basil filled the kitchen. Viola added broccoli, mushrooms, and onions to it.
“I’m not big on vegetables, so I try to find ways to eat them while enjoying it,” Viola said. “Dana made this for me when I first came to the pack at fifteen. It was the only way I would eat veggies.”
“How did you end up here?” Mel asked. “Where are you from?”
Viola’s energy shifted. She didn’t like the questions. They brought up sad memories for her.
“I’m sorry,” Mel said. “Forget I asked.”
“No, it’s okay,” Viola said. “You can ask. I’m from Cuba. I grew up there until I was fourteen. When my pack found out I liked women, they beat me and left me for dead. A friend- a woman who was the first person I was ever attracted to- had me smuggled out of Cuba. It took a year of travelling around to find a pack that would accept me.
“The Countryside B&B is where I first met this pack. Dana and Lee were running it. They took me in without hesitation and made me feel like I was part of the family. Dana and Lee have never made me feel bad or uncomfortable for being gay. They have only shown me love.
“Dana was the one who encouraged me to go to school and get my degree. She backed me up when I told Bruce that I wanted to open up a gym. Dana was the one who told me to move in with Bruce and Silvia,” Viola said. “It was difficult for all of us, but it was for the best.”
“Why did Dana tell you to move?” Mel asked.
“I was winning so many matches that werewolves were coming to the B&B to challenge me. They thought because we were away from the rest of the pack, they could try to intimidate me and gain the upper hand. They quickly learned they were mistaken in that assumption,” Viola said. “The problem is a guest witnessed my strength and speed, so it was decided me living away from humans was the best thing for everyone.”
Viola and Mel fixed their plates and sat down together.
“It must have been hard to leave the B&B,” Mel said.
“It was,” Viola said. “I consider the B&B my first true home. It hurts to know it was destroyed. In some ways, I’m glad because I can see Dana and Lee more. I’ve missed them. I get to spend time with Daren because we train so much together, but I hardly get to see Dana and Lee.”
Lee came into the kitchen. “Who have you been missing?” he asked Viola.
“You,” Viola said.
> He tried to subdue his obvious joy at her answer. “Nah! I’m just some old fart who can’t keep up with you,” he said.
“We’ll have to get you back in shape, especially since you’re going to be chasing around a toddler soon,” Viola said.
“That’s true,” Lee said. He patted Mel on the shoulder. “Thank you for telling Dana. We had given up hope. We’re going to do the pregnancy test in two weeks to confirm.”
“You’re welcome. You both are good people,” Mel said. “I’m glad I was able to provide good news.”
“I could see that you don’t always have the best news for a person,” Lee said. “Did you know about Bill?”
“Not that he was a hunter,” Mel said. “But I did know he was going to kill Trixie. I told her to be careful with him, but she brushed off my concern.” Viola froze at Mel’s admission. “I also knew if I tried to warn her and blatantly say that he would kill her, it would only cause issues because you all would assume I had a mental breakdown.”
Lee hesitated. “I can’t honestly say that I wouldn’t have thought that,” he said. “It must be rough when you know something and no one believes you.”
“It used to be hard when I was little and didn’t understand why I knew and sensed things that other people didn’t,” Mel said. “Now, I’m used to it.” She tensed up. “Like I know who is coming toward the house right now to see Viola.” She could feel Jesse’s rage. Jesse was desperate to talk sense into Viola about how stupid this whole “mate” concept was, especially with some weak, pathetic human.
“Who?” Viola asked. She had an idea due to Mel’s reaction, but she didn’t want to assume.
“Jesse,” Mel answered.
“Do you want me to tell her to leave?” Lee asked.
“No, I’ll handle it,” Viola said. She kissed Mel. “Let me introduce you to her.”