Little Phoenix (The Census Book 1)

by Willow Dean

  My body relaxes as he slowly releases his grip on me. The whole altercation has drained me of any energy I had coming into the session, leaving me feeling weak at the knees.

  Noticing my predicament, he places a casual arm around my shoulders to support me against his body until I can get my feet under me.

  “Cadets. Please welcome our newest recruit, Mila Jackson. She kindly demonstrated for me the exact focus of today’s session. Emotive impulses. In combat, you must never lose sight of your goal or let emotions control your actions or you will endanger yourself and others around you.” Great, just fudging great. What did I say just the other day?! Way to screw up on your own morals, Mila. “Partner up and warm up. The session starts in fifteen,” he commands.

  My cheeks flush at the fool I seem to have made of myself, making me wonder if that was actually the goal of today’s lesson or whether he’s trying to cover for me.

  Everyone moves away with the exception of the dickhead who was in the ring. Running his eyes between the trainer and I with suspicion, he reluctantly turns and walks away. Sneaking a glance over his shoulder periodically.

  Squeezing my shoulder, the trainer moves us over to my team who haven’t moved an inch. As he lets go of my shoulders, I stumble slightly, but manage to keep my footing.

  Turning to fully face him, I wonder how it was even possible that I’d mistaken him for his brother. Sure, their facial structure and build are similar, but there’s one massive difference.

  He is most definitely not that butt-ugly, mutilated brute.

  Clearly my emotions are still running high as my cheeks flush even hotter with embarrassment at the fact that I just attacked a superior.

  For no reason. At. All.

  I’m such an idiot.

  22 Mila

  “Shall we start again, Mila?” The trainer teases with a large smile, extending his hand for me to shake. “I’m Deacon Wilson, but you can call me Deac. I’ll be your trainer and supervisor.”

  “Mila Jackson. It’s nice to meet you sir. Erm…” Rubbing the back of my neck, I avoid his gaze. “Sorry about how I reacted. I think I’m still a little, shaken about the whole thing,” I admit bashfully.

  Frowning, he chucks my chin, forcing me to look at him.

  “Mila. He is a brute. I know firsthand what he is capable of,” he pauses. Even if he’d never admitted that to me, the wealth of pain in his eyes at the mention of his brother speaks wonders.

  “The fact that you were able to break his hold and defend yourself long enough for assistance to arrive, says a lot about you. You are one of only a few who have managed to escape his grasp. We’re here now to make sure that you never end up in that position again.” He looks at me knowingly. “I see the need for vengeance in your eyes, Mila. But whatever you do, you are not to go looking for him. Do you understand?”

  My features must have shown just how stupid that idea sounds to me. There’s no way on God’s green earth that I will ever follow his advice. That man has some agonizingly brutal justice coming for him and I shall be the one to deliver it.

  “Promise me you won’t go looking for him.”

  Shaking my head, I reply honestly. “I won’t lie to you, sir. I can’t promise you anything.”

  All I get is a solemn shake of his head. Dropping his hand from my chin, he sighs deeply. “I respect your honesty. Even if I don’t like it,” he mumbles. “Jax, partner up with Mila today. She’ll need conditioning before she can actively participate. Show her the running track and do some calisthenics.”

  Jax nods as Deac looks back to me.

  “I want you ready to spar next week. You can also join in with self-defense at the end of sessions starting today. The rest of you boys, partner up and join the group,” he orders, effectively dismissing us.

  The others head over to the matted areas whilst Jax and I make our way over to the running track.

  “Try and keep up if you can,” Jax taunts with a cheeky wink as he sets off at an almost dead sprint.

  Wowzers, he’s fast!

  “Game on, Sparks,” I mutter before tailing his ass. I manage to keep up with him for a while, but I can already tell my stamina needs a lot of work. I start to lag after the first ten minutes and Jax slows down to keep pace with me.

  Even though my lungs burn and wheeze in exhaustion, I force myself to keep going. It feels good to push through that pleasant pain, allowing me to feel a little more like myself again for the first time in a long while. Smiling a true smile, I simply enjoy the freedom of running and not having to think about anything heavy.

  We carry on for a little bit longer, before I really have to call it quits. It’s frustrating not being able to just continue until I drop, but I know I need to be cautious.

  “Jax- I- I’m- I’m going to have to stop. I can’t- I,” giving up talking altogether, I come to a standstill and rest my hands on my head. Taking deep breaths in through my nose and out through my mouth.

  Glancing over at Jax, I find him barely even out of breath and not even breaking a sweat. Bastard.

  He looks at his watch and presses a button on the side. “Twenty-six minutes and fifty-five seconds. I say that’s pretty good for a first run,” he congratulates with a warm smile.

  My shoulders relax as my breaths come a little easier and I must admit, I feel pretty darn proud of myself. Jax follows me as I wander out of the gym to the venders down the hall.

  The system they have here is pretty cool to be honest. Each of us gets our own credit card -that’s not actually a credit card- to use around campus on vending machines and in the cafeteria.

  Everyone gets a standard budget for food on campus and the cards allow you access to that fund without having to worry about topping up or managing an account. It’s pretty sweet.

  Jax grabs two waters and tosses me one. After a few gulps of the cool refreshments, we head back in and migrate over to the weights section.

  “I’m sorry you’ve had to sit out with me, you should be over there training with the guys.” My gaze catches on Aus and Rick fighting whilst the twins sit on the bench, wiping their dripping faces with sweat soaked towels and talking quietly.

  “Don’t worry, I actually prefer it. The guys and I have been in this programme for the past six years so we’ve done everything they’re doing already. We’re allowed a bit more...leeway, in our training sessions. It’s usually just us sparring with each other or helping to teach the other cadets. It’s nice to be able to train with someone who actually appreciates what you are doing and doesn’t treat you like an arrogant know-it-all.”

  I snicker at the idea of someone thinking of Jax as a know-it-all. As the quietest and most inoffensive person I know, I find it hard to believe someone could perceive him in such a way. He’s an extremely smart and logical guy and could outsmart most people in this room, but he would never actively flaunt the fact.

  “People are just idiots sometimes. I don’t even know how anyone could feel threatened by you, Jax. No offence, but you are far too nice to fit into that stereotype. Aus on the other hand-”

  We both gasp as Aus lands a pretty hard hit on Rick. The twins wince, oohing and ahhing on the sidelines.

  “Yeah, he definitely rubs a lot of people up the wrong way. One session he ended up with four guys squaring off against him after he tried to correct them on self-defense moves. He refused anyone else’s involvement when they challenged him to a match.”

  Rick strikes back, delivering a hard hit straight to Aus’s face that has blood spurting everywhere. Not that it deters an enraged Aus in the slightest as he tackles Rick straight to the floor.

  “It was all false bravado, of course. They thought they had it in the bag until one was KO’d with a simple hook and another with a sidekick to the face. The third was spurting blood from a badly broken nose and the final one was in a choke hold after watching his pals get annihilated.”

  An image of Aus’s deadpan expression pops into my head, clear as day, causing laughter to e
rupt from my chest. “I wish I was there to have seen that!”

  Rick must have taunted Aus and taken it one step too far as they begin to grapple and snarl at each other in earnest. The twins jump out of their seats and step straight into the fray, hauling them off one another.

  “There is time yet,” Jax says with mirth. Nudging my leg, he finishes the rest of his water and chucks it into the bin at the side. “Come on, let’s do some more strengthening exercises. They’re a variation of the rehab ones you were already doing. We’re just going to make them more dynamic and use heavier weights.”

  Setting my water bottle down, I stand and take the weight Jax offers me, carefully listening as he explains what he wants me to do.

  I continue following his patient guidance for the next hour until Deac calls everyone over to the middle of the mats to demonstrate knife defense. Selecting a small knife from the weapons wall, he uses Rick to demonstrate.

  After going through a few techniques, he hands the knife to Rick and pats him on the shoulder, dismissing the group to go practice. I look around to find a spare area of mats when someone shoulder checks me. Pushing me off balance, I stumble straight into Aus, who catches me and scowls at whoever it is over my head.

  Righting myself, I turn back around to see Skunk-boy sauntering away with an arrogant sass to his step. Rick notices the exchange but doesn’t say anything, waiting to see what I’m going to do about it no doubt.

  Rick throws me a confused look when I calmly walk over to him. Distracted by my lack of reaction, he doesn’t notice when I take the knife right out of his hand.

  Wasting no time, I launch the knife straight at the jackass in front of me and it embeds itself less than an inch from where his foot just landed, halting him in his steps.

  It’s almost comical as he looks at the knife and then back at me with raised eyebrows. He tries to hide his nerves, but he ain’t fooling no-one. Worry marrs his features as his pallor whitens noticeably.

  A whistle goes up as the room quiets. “Damn, Larson. You made an enemy of her alright,” one of his teammates exclaims as they both laugh at his expense.

  So that’s his name. Huh. I think I prefer Skunk-boy myself.

  Sauntering over to him, I simply ignore the murderous glare he throws my way. “Sorry. Must have slipped,” I say nonchalantly, shrugging a shoulder.

  Exactly as I anticipated, he moves to stand over me as I drop to a knee to retrieve the knife. Clamping his hand down on my shoulder, I just about manage to hold back a wince as he tightens his grip.

  Without conscious thought, I grip his thumb and rip his hand away. Getting a hold of his arm in the process, I rotate it back towards him and out over his shoulder whilst holding the knife to his throat with my free hand. “Don’t ever touch me without permission again. You won’t like where it ends up,” I growl.

  The guys walk over to stand behind me. Not interfering. Yet. Their presence simply dares him to make a move.

  I’ll give him credit. He maintains eye contact with me and doesn’t even flinch at the intimidating group behind me.

  “On the contrary, smart ass. You won’t always have your little protective detail around you. You better watch your back,” he sneers.

  “I don’t need anyone to watch my back. I watch it just fine on my own, Skunk-boy.”

  He raises an eyebrow and I just shrug innocently as the guys try desperately to hold back their laughter.

  From somewhere else in the room his friends holler, getting impatient. “Larson, get your ass over here!”

  Leaning closer so that our cheeks are nearly touching, the knife digging into the soft flesh of his throat, he whispers to me. “We shall see about that when you are begging for one of them to come save you. I suggest you watch your back, fire starter.”

  I manage to suppress the flinch that was eager to be let out. He doesn’t scare me. The same cannot be said about that nickname though. It seems all too...fitting. Almost like he knew.

  Letting go of him, I step back and flip the knife in my hand as chills roll uneasily across my body. Staring at him coldly, I dare him to try something. Anything.

  Giving me what I can only describe as an appraising look, he turns and slowly strolls away in the direction of his team. Watching him walk away gives time for the shock of his words to slowly sink in.

  Is that just a nickname for me taunting him, or does he truly know something about what happened?

  Although my face is clear of emotion, my stomach clenches in fear at the uncertainty over the fact that anyone in this room, anyone that I meet, has potential to be the ones that killed my family.

  Even if his words created a sense of unease, I refuse to give him the satisfaction of seeing their effects. Besides, I’ve had bigger and much scarier people try that shit on me before and they haven’t been even remotely successful. Still, a part of me rebels and thinks I’m too vulnerable right now.

  Finally picking up the courage to face my team. I spin around to find a line of proud, yet cruel smiles. Even Jax and Micah.

  They enjoyed my threat, the sadistic fucks.

  Responding with a megawatt smile of my own, I chuckle away to myself. I probably seem a tad crazy, but who cares?!

  Aus wraps an arm around my shoulder and kisses the top of my head as he guides us over to a free space on the mats. “Didn’t know you could handle knives so well,” he purrs.

  “Dad used to take me through weapons training and we would hunt when we went camping. Survival training 101 he called it. Never thought it would come in handy,” I trail off quietly as the memories of my dad and me hunting in the wilderness fill my heart with warmth and anguish.

  Aus squeezes my shoulder gently, telling me in his own way that he understands, but he doesn’t push. His sweet concern has my heart swelling.

  Although I’ve done knife defense before, there are a few holds and attacks that I haven’t tried. All the guys are patient with me as they teach me the techniques. I finally get a good grasp on the last one just as Deac calls the session to an end.

  “Home time boys! I call shotgun,” I call out as I run off towards the changing rooms, leaving them all grumbling in my wake.

  Feeling refreshed and accomplished, I have a slight pep to my step. Today’s been a good day! I’m very much looking forward to working on fitness levels again and really getting stuck in here.

  As always though, all good things come to an end.

  Everything was going swimmingly until I walked into the changing rooms to be greeted with deathly silence. Super.

  Here we go again boys and girls! A slick pat on the back goes to the one who guesses what happens next correctly...

  Ignoring the scathing looks, I head over to my locker and feel more than one set of eyes following me. Their attention makes me feel slightly uneasy. Not threatened exactly, more exasperated than anything. No-one in here could hurt me. Not even as I am now.

  Deciding to skip shower time, I get straight to changing, not wanting to stay any longer than I have to. Reaching into my locker to get my shoes out, I manage to retract my hand just in time for the locker door to be slammed shut. Without my hand inside. Thankfully.

  Closing my eyes and counting to ten, I try to stop myself from doing something I’ll regret.

  I just don’t get what everyone’s problem is. Can I not go one day without some jackass trying to show off how big their boots are?!

  When I eventually open my eyes, I come face to face with a chick with long, blonde hair that’s scraped back in a tight ponytail. Sparkling jade eyes inspect me as she casually leans back against the lockers with her hands crossed over her chest.

  She would look pretty but…yup, you guessed it. She ruins it with an ugly scowl. Shame.

  “Can I help you?” I ask politely. At least I think I did. My patience is running thin so I could be wrong.

  “You think you are all it, don’t you? Strolling in and breaking up Larson’s fight. Trying to deck our supervisor and now you’re teaming
up with Alpha Race,” she leans in towards me. “Tell me something. Which one of them did you fuck?”

  What is wrong with people?! Why does everything stem from fucking or sleeping around? Why is that the default line for women when they feel threatened?

  You’ve gotten somewhere in life, who did you bone? Like seriously, y’all need to get a grip!

  A huff of exasperation leaves my lips and her scowl turns murderous. “You are...” I drawl, waiting for her to fill in the blanks. Taken aback, it takes her a second to realize what I was asking.

  “Kiki,” she all but growls out. Accompanied by the haughty, regal raise of her chin.

  Oh lord, please spare me.

  “Ah yes, Kiki. Well, if you must know…none of them. I am just a genuinely nice person who has their own merits and doesn’t need to jump peoples bones to get to where they need to be. Now are you done? Because I don’t much care for what you or others think. I just want some food and a warm shower and you are stopping me from getting that. Am I dismissed, your majesty?”

  I don’t even bother keeping my eyes on her as I bend down into a full, flourishing bow. Complete with the correct arm movements and all.

  She poses no threat to me.

  A couple of snickers sound out as her face turns even more thunderous. As if that’s even possible. She gives an inelegant huff before shoulder checking me, like an adult, and walking away.

  Expelling a long, frustrated breath, I try to extract my shoes for the second time. I just wish people would get a grip and mind their own business. We are in college, or more appropriately, a place of work for goodness sake. Not preschool.

  “Nice job,” a husky, feminine voice commends. I groan, letting my forehead thump on the locker next to mine. Really round two?! Can someone not just give me a god damned break!

  “Look, I really don’t care-” I start, but my words are cut off as a hand lands on my shoulder. Tensing up in case she tries anything, it takes me a second to realize that she isn’t doing it maliciously.

  In fact, she’s using me as a damn crutch to hold herself up as she doubles over in laughter. I just stand there gawping, trying to figure out what was so funny as she continues to piss her pants and wipe tears from her eyes.