“Thank Kayleigh. I’ve gotta say, I really, really enjoyed that.” Ash giggled.
She was actually kind of shocked that she had enjoyed it as much as she did. Sure, she had always wanted to learn some kind of martial arts, but she had never been one for mindless violence. She had never been in a fight in her life. Never raised a hand to anyone, except for Jordan and he deserved a hell of a lot more than he got, so where all of those fighting moves had come from, and the instinct that she had been acting on, she had no clue. Perhaps it was the magic of the mark, who knew? Whatever it was, Ash was happy to embrace it.
This was the new and improved badass Aisline and she was loving it.
“I’ll leave you to shower. If you come and find me at the front desk, I’ll come and join you for some lunch when you’re ready.”
Walking in the cafeteria, everyone fell silent. Ash wondered what the heck was happening now, and then with a sinking feeling, she thought that this might be what she would have to face every day. Surely, the novelty of her and her mark had worn off already? Shouldn’t her fighting display this morning had shown there was something more to her? Great. She was still a goldfish in a bowl with the whole school gawping in at her. Was this ever going to stop?
Out of the blue, a cheer began to well up in the crowd of bodies, shouting her name. Aisline turned to look questioningly at Kayleigh, who stood back and smiled broadly with a raised eyebrow, letting her bask in the glory. Leaning over to whisper in her ear, Kayleigh muttered, “I think that this means that you’re seen as one of the guys now. A big compliment coming from this lot.”
Aisline turned and grinned at the rest of the guys, blushing from her boots up. Smiling at Jackson in particular. It was thanks to him and his fair sparring techniques that she had come out of it looking so good.
Grabbing a plate and piling it high with a ridiculous amount of food, she made her way over to the table where Jackson, Jase, Trey and Dylan and a few other guys were sitting. Once she reached them, she paused for a second, unsure of herself all of a sudden. Sure, they might have accepted her so far as part of their combat group, but how far did that acceptance go?
“Are you just going to stand there all day? Take a seat.” One of them said, she thought that it might have been Trey, but she wasn’t too sure. The only empty seat was between him and Jackson, so she squeezed in between them.
“Thanks.” she muttered and grinned shyly up at them all.
“Man, anyone who can put Denver in his place deserves a round of applause in my book. And the fact that it was a girl who put him in his place? Classic!” Said Trey. He’d introduced himself to her so she knew to remember that now and he was a complete sweetheart and she had warmed to him straight away. He was like a big, soft teddy bear - not that she would have ever said it to his face. That wasn’t exactly a compliment for a warrior in training.
She bit into the huge Panini that was on her plate surrounded by a frame of salad, and couldn’t keep the grin off of her face.
This was just how she had hoped that things would work out, that they’d accept her. This was the most awesome feeling in the world. She’d never felt quite so part of anything before and being part of this was the greatest thing that could have happened to her. Now, her life meant something. She would be doing something important.
Feeling a pair of eyes on her, she turned to find Jackson watching her closely. Blushing, he immediately turned away from her and for the first time ever, she felt her heart melt. It was just like she’d read in books and seen in the movies. Her insides turned to mush and her brain to jelly. She was about as far away as you could get from a bad ass warrior right now. She was a pure girl. A girl who might just fancy a boy, who might just like her back.
Smiling to herself, she remembered this feeling from when she was back in school. It hadn’t been like this before but, here she was - getting a crush! She wondered if she really might find more at this academy than just combat skills….
Not that she was looking for anything like that, but it was always nice to keep your options open…..
She’d faced off the boys this morning and had come out of the battle triumphant. She’d even been able to navigate her way around this confusing rabbit warren of a school to find the rest of her classes without getting lost too much. It was about the best start that she could hope for.
Chapter Nineteen.
Aisline paused for a moment - she could do this. She really could. She could do this. Hell, she’d battled against other trainee’s - she could do this.
Phase one of Aisline-the-warrior was complete. Kelton had taken her on as a proper, honest to god warrior in training. She’d turned around her life at the drop of a hat and hadn’t drowned under the pressure.
Phase two completed. She had started her combat training and had successfully held her own, and kicked a guy’s ass to boot. It was an awesome feeling, to know that the mark had chosen her for a reason and that she was fulfilling its purpose.
Phase three…
All she had to do was pick up the phone. That wasn’t so difficult. What was so scary about that? It was just one little, teeny weeny phone call. What was the worst thing that could happen?
Rejection. Cold, hard rejection. That’s what.
Shaking out her limbs like she was back in the sparring room and gearing up for a fight, she stepped into the ring. Or in this case, the phone cubicle.
She shouldn’t have waited this long. Waiting was the worst thing. She should have got this over and done with before now. The longer she waited, the harder it was becoming.
Blocking out all of the excess noise and ignoring the rest of the people that were milling about, she dialled the number with shaking hands. She knew that if she was knocked down by this call, she wouldn’t be able to get back up. A little piece of her would die. She had so much riding on this one call, it was scary.
Aisline held her breath. After three rings, she was prepared to chicken out and put the phone down, when all of a sudden, Lana answered.
“Hello?”
She didn’t know what to say. How was Lana going to react? Would she hang up on her? Scream and shout and deny her like her mother had? Now that the time was here, her voice had dried up and she couldn’t say a word. She’d frozen. That little piece of hope in her heart was holding on by a thread.
“Hello? Is anyone there? I’m going to hang up…… Wait a minute, Oh. My. God. Ash? Is that you?” Lana didn’t sound mad. She sounded concerned and a little excited. “Ash? You there?”
“Lana.” Aisline’s voice was barely a whisper.
“Holy crap! It is you! Oh my god! How are you? What happened? Why haven’t you called me? Why did I have to hear about all of this from your mother and not you? Who is going berserk, by the way. Where are you? What does it look like? What happened between you and Jordon?”
Aisline smiled to herself in relief. Lana sounded just the same as she always had, the excitable tone in her voice, her words tumbling over one another in a race to get out. She would never be able to describe the relief she felt at how normal her friend sounded. Finally, a little bit of her old life had bled into her new one, creating a union for Aisline to cherish.
“I’m sorry, Lana.” And she really way. She was sorry for everything, sorry for leaving it this long before getting in contact with her. They had spoken or text every single day for the last eleven years, so a couple of weeks apart with no contact was unheard of between them. And she had missed Lana so much. Even when she hadn’t realised it, she had missed her. What with everything changing, she really did need the anchor of her best friend to keep her on the ground. Her life had changed so much, and so quickly, that she didn’t want to lose herself in the process, and she knew that Lana would never let that happen.
“What are you sorry for? Leaving me out of all the juicy gossip? So you should be!”
Aisline laughed, this was just what she needed, a shot of normality.
“I guess that everyone knows about the m
ark, then?” she asked tentatively. Did she really want to know what her mother was saying about her? She wasn’t so sure.
“Hell yeah! It’s, like, the most amazing thing that has happened in years! So, what’s it like there? What are the boys like?”
And the conversation flowed from there as easily as it always had. They fell back into their easy routine, talking about boys, gossiping about family and friends, catching up on everything that they’d missed. It felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, Aisline was elated.
Thankfully, Lana had the tact to skirt around the subject of Aisline’s parents. They had grown up together and she knew better than anyone what their relationship was like, and their unreasonable expectations of her. She didn’t want to burden Ash with any more problems right now. She clearly had enough going on with her life to battle with and Ash appreciated that more than she could ever know.
Aisline filled Lana in on combat training, to which Lana was shocked and intrigued about. She wouldn’t ever dream of indulging in something that was so physical, anything that she could risk breaking a nail or two or, heaven forbid, working up a sweat! It just wasn’t ladylike behaviour. And when she told her about the guys that were in her class, Lana cursed loudly when she told her all about Denver, which made Aisline howl with laughter. And when she told her about Jackson, Lana encouraged her to go for it, which Ash just laughed off. No way was she going to get distracted from her training by flirting with the boy. Now she had some time to think about it, she planned on keeping her heart in one solid shape. No mush or jelly allowed. Love would only complicate her time here, so she was going to test out abstinence for a while longer…..
It would be a really, really bad idea to get involved with Jackson.
It really would.
It was a breath of fresh air, talking to her best friend. It proved something to herself. That she was still the same inside. That the mark hadn’t changed who she was but new and improved. It also proved that she could make that connection between her old life and her new, something which her parents obviously didn’t believe. At least she had Lana.
When they hung up the phone, Aisline felt a genuine smile spread across her face. Now that she had managed to make a bond between her old life and her new one, she once again felt complete.
She practically skipped her way back to her room and it wasn’t until she had flopped down on her bed that she realised quite how tired she was. An exhaustion weighed down on her, clearly from the days physical and emotional rollercoaster. Her brain was fried with the amount of Mortuorum information that had been shoved down their throats and her limbs felt like they were going to drop off from the training. But, she had never felt more alive in her life.
Without bothering to change out of her clothes, Aisline turned over and curled up under the duvet, closing her eyes and smiling as she fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty.
For the next few days, Warrior Kelton kept on with the physical torture. Putting them through their paces, circuits of the gyms, laps, weights, sparring, weapons techniques, and a whole lot more. Each day blurred into one long haze of exhaustion and the strain was showing on the faces of each and every one of the trainee’s in his combat group. Sure, the other warriors worked their trainee’s to the bone, but Kelton went the extra mile. He knew what they could do and wouldn’t allow them to hold back even an inch of energy. It was all or nothing as far as he was concerned, and the trainee’s gave it their all.
Aisline had never ever been so exhausted in her entire life. It was pure hell on earth. Up until now, she had been able to hold her own easily enough. The sparring and the combat training had come easily to her. She trusted her instincts and they hadn’t steered her wrong so far. It was sort of like an in-built radar or something. Like a special internal warning system that could anticipate her opponent’s moves. Everything Kelton taught her about combat, she soaked up like a sponge, taking it in and using everything he threw at her.
This work out today had been a whole other thing altogether. Warrior Kelton had split up their group, half of them were sent to work out until they were on the brink of collapse, while the other half worked in the computer suite researching possible Mortuorum activity in the Brandestowen area.
And this morning, Kelton had worked the living shit out of them. Aisline couldn’t wait to sit down and relax for a bit in the computer room this afternoon. He’d sure lived up to his promise. He didn’t treat her any differently to any of the other guys. Honestly, she wasn’t sure how much of this she could take. It was gruelling.
But, first things first, she had to pop back to her room to grab a quick shower and a fresh set of clothes. Bless her, she stank so bad, she was grossing herself out. Aisline didn’t feel the least bit feminine at the moment. She was in extreme pain. All she wanted to do was to sink into the shower and stay there until her muscles started to relax. She was afraid that once she got under the soothing water that she wouldn’t want to get out. That was sure to be a huge battle in itself. But, it was one she was going to have to endure.
Walking slowly back to her room, Aisline winced at the pain in her legs, and buried her nose in a book to take her mind off of her tired muscles. She was researching as much as she could about the history of the Sons of Satrina. She hoped that it would help her in her strategy essay if she had a little background knowledge on them.
She felt awful that she hadn’t had a clue about them when she walked in here for the first time, apart from the fact that Kelton was as hot as sin. She felt bad about that now, but really? Who would have thought that she would have been thrown right in the middle of these guys? If anyone had ever even suggested it even in jest, she would have laughed in their face. Yet, here she was.
But, reading the facts about them was totally awe inspiring. Obviously, there was a hell of a lot about Kelton in there and reading about him was insane after meeting and getting to know the guy. He was one of the oldest warriors in their history, which in itself testified to his immense capability as a fighter. So, now, he was more than just a pretty face to her. He was someone that everyone respected immensely. Especially Aisline.
If she hadn’t of been so involved with her book, and had been watching where she was going, she would have noticed that she wasn’t alone in the corridor outside her room.
Opening the door, she was surprised by a light shove from behind her and she stumbled into the room, dropping her bag and book. Cursing even before she’d turned around, because a true warrior would not have been caught unawares like that. It showed that she had a hell of a long way to go in this training business.
Spinning to see who it was behind her, her scowl deepened further.
Denver.
“What. Do. You. Want?” She emphasised each and every word, hoping that her tone alone would send him packing. She was busy. She was still making herself convulse with the stench rising off of her. She had to shower and grab a bite to eat before the rest of the days classes and she didn’t have time to spend even a minute of it wasting it with him. And if even she wasn’t busy, Denver wasn’t exactly someone who she would have ever chosen to socialise with.
“Hey beautiful.”
Beautiful? Really? He was deluded. She was dirty and sweaty and stank to high heaven. There was nothing remotely beautiful about her right now. False flattery would get him nowhere.
She could tell that he was trying to be smooth, smiling his most winning smile at her and lowering his eyelids seductively. Oh, no. No way was this ever going to happen in a million years. He could turn around and think again.
“Hey, assbutt. Why don’t you get yourself out of my room?” The only way to deal with people like Denver was to be as blunt as possible and she wasn’t in the mood to be polite, anyway. Who the hell did he think he was? Coming barging in here? And lying in wait for her? What a freak.
“Aw, come on now. Don’t be like that. I just thought that we could get to know one another a bit better.”
“
No.”
For a moment, Denver looked a little taken aback. She could tell that he was living along the same deluded lines as Jordon had been, thinking that they could get any girl that they wanted. Well, not this girl he wouldn’t. Did he really think that he could walk in here and she’d instantly drop her knickers? Not a cat in hell’s chance.
“No? Really?” he was back to grinning like a demented Cheshire Cat, thinking that he was seeing something in her that made him think he was still in with a chance.
“Yes. Really. Get out.” she rolled her eyes at him, “Denver, just go. I really can’t be assed to deal with you today.”
“Come on, Ash…” he said as he sidled over to her, placing a hand on her hip.
Something inside her snapped.
She’d been treated like this once before, only a matter of a few weeks ago and there was no way on this earth that she was going to be put in that position again. As he tried to snake a hand around her neck, Aisline quickly brought up her knee and connected in just the right spot. Denver howled in pain and doubled over. With a vicious shove from Ash, he fell to the side and curled up on the edge of her bed, half draped on the floor.
Stepping over him and kicking him with the tip of her boot as she went, Aisline moved across the room and opened the door. The corridor was still void of activity, which would have pleased Denver if he had been able to have a coherent thought. He wouldn’t have wanted anyone to see that he’d been floored by a girl, yet again.
Spinning around to face him again, she saw that he was still on the floor, curled up in apparent agony from the amount of moans and groans that were escaping from his lips. She gave him the evil eye and said, “I said no. No means no, asshole. It means get the hell out of my room. It means leave me alone. It doesn’t mean that you can carry on and do whatever you want. Get up and get out of my room before I do you some permanent damage.” and she put her hands on her hips, standing defiantly, watching over him.
The Sons of Satrina: A Sons of Satrina Novel Page 18