A Life Of Shadows

by Kristen Banet

  She nodded and looked towards her opponent, Brick. He was short, maybe five and a half feet tall, but he was built like a truck. She made a quick judgement based on how he was carrying himself. Slow but he probably was a knockout champion. She couldn’t afford to take too many hits from him.

  “Fight!” Charlie stepped out of the way and she moved towards the center of the ring. Brick met her and took the first swing. She jumped back from it and grinned.

  “Brick, huh?” She dodged another swing, and he glared at her.

  “You going to dance around all night?” He asked, and she chuckled.

  “I normally get to talk to all the fighters before getting in the ring, but I didn’t see you in the locker room,” she shrugged and looked out to the crowd. They were pressing to the side of ring, and she noticed they were nearly all cheering for her. “And you don’t want me to stop dancing around.”

  She got hit with a blast of wind and raised an eyebrow at him. Wind manipulation. Well, if he had any finesse, he may cause her a problem.

  “Why’s that?” He grinned viciously at her. He was definitely going for the villain persona. Even if he wasn’t trying for it, he was going to gain a reputation of being rude to the other fighters, and people would talk about it.

  She sighed and blinked behind him. She no longer bounced on her feet as he turned around, wide-eyed, to face her. When he took another swing, she ended up behind him again. Blinking was instant, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop her from doing it. She couldn’t blink through shields, though, and if someone got their hands on her, they would go with her for the ride until she could end the contact. She also needed line of sight. Cool ability, lots of stipulations to stop her from killing herself using it.

  This time, she didn’t wait for him to turn around. She put a punch into his kidney and kicked out the back of his knee, making him stagger.

  “My fights are always a bit longer,” she told him as he turned to face her after regaining his balance, “since I try my best not to use my powers too much. They seem a little much, don’t they? But you want to rush things, so let’s just get this over with.”

  He swung at her, roaring in anger. She didn’t blink and let the hand pass through her. She had a lot of control over her sublimation ability, and when he was about to make contact, she had started the change into smoke. She solidified as she made her move. Two right jabs into the gut. Left hook into the jaw, and his head snapped to the side, blood and spit flying away from them.

  She didn’t wait for him to recover, pulling his head to her and sending her knee into his gut twice, making him grunt in pain. Hitting him was like hitting a brick wall, and she laughed at her realization. Brick.

  She threw him back and blinked behind him before he could hit the side of the ring. Her elbow connected with the side of his head, and that was it. He fell to the mat and the crowd cheered, but Sawyer felt deeply unsatisfied with the win. The fight just didn’t work it out for her. It was too short, too easy. This guy had wanted to rush it and she wanted more time in the ring.

  She let Charlie raise her arm in victory, but her mind was elsewhere as she smiled out to the crowd. She didn’t know where she was mentally or what was eating at her, but the distraction was there, taunting her.

  She got out of the ring and sank into her seat, letting people come over and welcome her back. She laughed and tried to shake off her bad mood, but nothing seemed to help until Charlie sat down next to her and let another guy handle the ring.

  “You need to have a drink and loosen up,” Charlie chuckled. “I know you don’t like Italians, but I hear there’s one who thought you were pretty hot in the locker room. The one that asked about your hand.”

  “Wow,” she snorted. “Really, Charlie?”

  “Seriously,” Charlie elbowed her. “Think about it.”

  “No,” she shook her head with a grin, her eyes finding the new guy. He had a small fight and won. He hadn’t used his magic, but he was obviously a Magi. She met his eyes, and even she could admit he was handsome. His voice might have been suave, but he had a ruggedness to him. A five o’clock shadow accented dark green eyes that seemed to bore into her. She looked over his cut abs and finally just shrugged at him. She saw his eyes go a little wide before she looked back to Charlie.

  “Well?” Charlie started laughing softly.

  “Still a no.” Sawyer grinned. “I don’t sleep with the fighters.”

  “I’ve never understood that rule of yours. I sleep with the ring girls when they offer.”

  “You old pervert,” Sawyer laughed, slapping Charlie’s arm. He only shrugged with a cheesy grin.

  “My wife wouldn’t want me to stop living life just because she was gone,” Charlie reminded her. Sawyer knew that since she was the one who had convinced Charlie to live his life in the first place. He’d been a wreck when she showed up, at least emotionally. If he was going to force her to continue in this world, she had decided she would do the same to him.

  “But a ring girl? Those girls are my age,” Sawyer continued to laugh until tears rolled down her cheeks.

  “I ignore that part,” Charlie huffed. “Don’t make it weird.”

  “Oh, I’m going to make it weird.” Sawyer elbowed him. It was actually a little gross, but Sawyer was going to make fun anyway. “Which one?”

  “I’m not telling you that,” Charlie narrowed his eyes on her. She didn’t back down and broke out in a triumphant laugh when he relented. “Susan.”

  “Seriously? She’s twenty-one, Charlie,” Sawyer howled, delighted with the news.

  “Deal with it,” Charlie grumbled.

  After that, the night moved along quickly. Fights were intense, everyone trying to give their best show. She cheered and even got in on the gambling, going from a hundred dollars in her wallet to a thousand. She poured everyone shots at one point because of her good fortune. Everyone except Charlie, who had just lost a bet to her and was pouting over it.

  When they got inside the apartment after cleaning up, she and Charlie were laughing about a fight where some noodle-armed guy decided he had what it took and won. He had ten to one odds against him, but he got in a lucky hit. It was the clumsiest shit Sawyer had ever seen, but he’d done it. She and Charlie hadn’t bet on that fight, since they thought it was too one-sided, but they were already making plans to bet on the kid’s next fight.

  “Good night, Charlie,” she called to him as she staggered, a little drunk, to her own room.

  “Good night, kid,” he laughed, waving her along.

  She collapsed into her bed and drifted into a deep sleep. For the first time in weeks, it was dreamless.

  8

  SAWYER

  Sawyer straightened her hair slowly, preparing for another Fight Night. Three weeks of day-in and day-out life had done a lot to ease her concerns over what had happened in LA a month before. Once she was done, she went downstairs to find Trevor and his mother waiting in the main area. The gym would be closed in twenty minutes, so she frowned and walked over. It was late, and the teens were normally out of there around seven, it was nearly nine.

  “Can I help you?” She stopped near them, careful not to get too close and in their space. Alicia smiled at her and nodded, extending a hand. Sawyer shook it and was pleased to notice that Alicia gave her a real handshake and not some dainty, weak-wristed one.

  “Yes, actually. My son takes classes here, and I was hoping to join, myself.” She elbowed her son, and Sawyer grinned.

  “We have adult classes on every night of the week for those parents with busy schedules. You can pick any days you want come, and your first five classes are free of charge.” Sawyer ran over to the desk and grabbed a flyer. She handed it to Alicia when she got back. “Any reason you want to learn?”

  “I’m recently single and thought that it would be a good idea to learn to protect myself, since I don’t want Trevor to feel that he needs to do it all,” she pulled her son closer into a hug, “We’re a team, h
e and I.”

  Sawyer eyed Trevor and gave a knowing smile. He nodded a little. He was telling her that the step-dad was officially out of the picture. She had contacts with a few divorce lawyers and tried to help them expedite the process. Alicia had no idea, but Trevor did.

  He’d been the first kid to call her out about his missing step-dad, and she had chosen to be honest with him. Yeah, she beat the shit out him and chased him off. Since then, they had been as thick as thieves about getting his mother free of her now-ex. Sure, the other teens she trained knew what she did, but there was a general rule that it wasn’t talked about. Trevor had confronted her after his first day in her class, right in front of everyone, the little shit.

  “I’m glad. He’s a good kid around here, we’ve been happy to have him,” Sawyer heard Charlie come in and looked over to him. “Right, Charlie?”

  “Huh? Trevor? Yeah, good kid, but needs work on his right hook. He’s a leftie so it’s to be expected,” he shrugged, and Sawyer rolled her eyes to Alicia, who was laughing.

  “We won’t keep you any longer. I just wanted to grab some information, and we were passing by and saw you were still open.” She waved to them, and Sawyer waved back. She fist-bumped with Trevor and watched them walk out.

  “Feels good, doesn’t it?” Charlie walked up to stand next to her, and she nodded.

  “Yeah, it does.”

  “There’s no money in it…”

  “I have enough money,” she laughed. “You said it yourself. Retire with what I have and just live life. I’m following your advice.”

  “You have a bug though, Sawyer,” Charlie chuckled. “I give it another month, and you’ll be itching to go back out and get a job, break into something, or cause some level of general mayhem in someone’s life.”

  “So much faith.” She rolled her eyes, but the smile didn’t leave her face. He was probably right. Sawyer didn’t have it in her to settle down and never had. Once she got out of Georgia, she started traveling the world. New York was her home base in a sense, but she loved picking up sometimes to see a new place. Jobs did that for her.

  “Let’s get this all set up,” he thumped her arm and began to walk off. She started pulling out chairs and prepping for Fight Night. Tonight was special. Liam was coming in for the first time. He was old enough, and it was going to be fun. This would be the first time she did a fight with him in the building.

  A chime from the front door told her Liam was there.

  “I’m here!” He called, and Sawyer grinned over to him.

  “Get over here and help me set up!” She laughed, pulling him in for a hug. “You excited?”

  “Yeah, and you sure seem to be,” Liam laughed. “It’s not like I haven’t been asking for a year.”

  “Well, I figured, since you know all of the rest, why not let you in on this, now?” Sawyer shrugged. “I also think you’re the only one interested in this.”

  “Well, I did spend four years listening to it from the stairs,” Liam chuckled.

  “Yeah, I know,” Sawyer elbowed him. “I remember Charlie and me chasing you off every time, too.”

  “What about me?” Charlie walked by and frowned at them. She just grinned until he narrowed his eyes and shook his head before leaving.

  “People are going to get here in like, ten minutes,” she whispered to Liam. “Let’s get this done.”

  They worked for nearly an hour to set up, even as people started filing into the gym. Tables were set up for the makeshift bar where people could put their alcohol for anyone to drink. Sawyer nearly couldn’t finish her work when the ring girls started hitting on Liam, who had never had a girlfriend, as far as she knew. Liam kept his secrets when it came to those relationships, and she didn’t blame him. She and Charlie were nosy.

  “I need to get ready.” She could barely speak without cackling, and Liam tried to hide his face as a girl sat on his lap. “Behave.”

  By the time she made it to the locker room, the first fight was being called into the ring, and most of the fighters were out in the main area to watch. A couple girls hung around outside the locker room door, trying to get some private time with any of the men left, and she only nodded to them. She didn’t hold it against them for looking for a night with a hot fighter, and she never would. A girl had needs, and those needs had to be met, which only reminded Sawyer that she hadn’t gotten laid in two long months. Between the job in LA and getting back into the groove in New York, she hadn’t gone out hunting for her own night of fun in quite some time.

  When she got inside, she stopped at the scene in front of her. She quietly recited the most important rule to herself. What happened in the locker room, stayed in the locker room.

  “Baby,” a woman whispered, tears running down her face, “please! I ain’t cheating on you!”

  “Yet, you seemed real interested in Carlos,” the fighter snapped at the woman, who must have been his girlfriend. Sawyer quietly put her bag down and watched. She wouldn’t get involved in a break up, which this obviously was, until she felt it went too far. She had a line where she decided to step in, and she couldn’t do it earlier.

  “He’s an old friend from high school!” She cried, and the fighter pinned her to a set of lockers between his arms. Sawyer narrowed her eyes. He wasn’t touching her, yet.

  “One you used to fuck,” he snarled. “Don’t fucking lie to me. You’ve been seeing him behind my back.”

  Sawyer wished she could say she rarely saw scenes like this one, but when someone was involved in more… criminal activities, they didn’t exactly see the shiny gold stars of society. This was all too familiar to her.

  “We just met for dinner before coming here! He’s an old friend, that’s all. I promise,” she begged, and the fighter lost his patience at that. Sawyer didn’t wince at the sound of his hand connecting to the girl’s cheek. It was Sawyer’s sign to step in.

  “Girl, get the fuck out,” she growled. Both looked over to her. “Girl, leave. Find Charlie. Tell him to come back here in ten minutes.”

  “You don’t get to order my woman around.” The fighter turned to Sawyer fully, and Sawyer slowly pulled off her tank top. “If I think this whore needs some di-”

  Sawyer didn’t wait for him to finish. She blinked forward and connected a swing to his jaw, causing him to recoil back. Sawyer had a lot of patience for a lot of things, but this had never been one of them. It was why she went after abusive parents and spouses. People didn’t deserve to get beat on by people who were supposed to love them.

  The girl screamed and started running out. The fighter wasn’t a Magi, but Sawyer didn’t care about that as she used her powers to get behind him and kick his legs out from under him. When he hit his knees, she kicked him square in the face. Sawyer was brutally efficient and efficiently brutal, and she never pulled a punch.

  He fell on his back. She straddled him and grabbed his shirt, pulling him up just a little to get close to his face.

  “You must be fucking new here,” she snarled. “No one fucks around like that when I’m in town, asshole. I don’t give a damn what you think or feel. I don’t give a damn if the other guys here don’t care. What happens in the locker room, stays in the locker room, right? Well, you better start praying to whatever god you believe in that I decide to leave you breathing, because no one is going to stop me while we’re in here.”

  She kept hold of his shirt and punched him. Bone crunched. Once. Twice. Three times. She lost count at four, but always made sure he was still breathing. She couldn’t kill him, no matter how much she wanted too. Her temper was cold. Her magic had the room frigid. Her face gave away nothing. She went to the place that had once made her the best assassin on the planet. The place that desperation had created in her mind, so she could handle the violence that her life had been soaked in at the time.

  When she felt it was over, she stood up and threw a towel on him.

  “Now clean the fuck up like a good boy and get the fuck out of my locker room,
” she told him, her voice matching the chilly temperature of her temper. He groaned and tried to stand. Instead, he just sat up. He tried to stand again, but fell back over into a bench.

  She waited patiently, looking at her watch. Her right hand was covered in blood, but she was able to hold herself together as Charlie walked in slowly.

  “What happened?” He asked quietly, pointing to the groaning man on the floor.

  “He slapped her,” she whispered. “I saw it, and I handled it.”

  “Okay. Go clean up. Remember, once you walk out there, this didn’t happen. Carly was taken home by one of the regulars.”

  Carly. That was her name, huh? She should have asked before sending her out.

  Sawyer turned away and went to the small bathroom. She stared blankly at the woman in the mirror. Blood had spattered over her right cheek. Well. She washed it off quickly. This wasn’t the place for her to go into total freak mode over the sight of blood.

  When she stepped out of the bathroom, the guy was no longer on the floor. Charlie was still waiting for her though, watching her carefully.

  “This can’t keep happening,” Charlie whispered to her. “Since LA, you’ve been different. You’re trying to hide it, but you are failing miserably. I’ve never seen you behave this… cold before.”

  “I’m fine, Charlie. This guy just… scratched an old memory that been a little close to the surface,” she met his eyes, and he shook his head.

  “They all scratch old memories for you, but you never-”

  “I always do this to them, Charlie,” she smiled ruefully. “It’s why I don’t tell you about it. Not the gory details. Liam’s dad was a one-off.”

  She stepped around him as he put a hand on his chest and rubbed his heart. She grabbed her bag and changed as he just watched her.

  “One of them is going to call the cops on you one day,” he told her, quiet and stern.