House of Cards (12 page)

She turned the paper upside down and then sideways, still no luck. It was like trying to read ancient Egyptian or some foreign language. Rae tilted her head and got up from sitting on the floor. She went over to the desk.
What if it’s a code? Maybe only some of the markings are the important ones.
She seriously considered taking the copy to Jennifer the next day, realizing having an ally would speed up the process of deciphering the code, but then decided against it. Riley would be there as well and she had no intention of letting him see it.

She told herself that the code had been in hiding for who knows how long. It probably meant nothing now. If it sat for another week or two, nothing bad would come of it. She stared hard at it again, trying to will the answer to come to her. “I give up.” She opened her desk drawer and
put in the printed copy and the blueberry organic book on top of it.

Her stomach growled.
The fish and chips!
The brown paper bag lay on the floor, dirt on the bottom of the bag and oil stains making their way through the thin paper. She pulled out the newspaper wrapped box, which contained the fish and made a face. It was cold and no longer had the freshly fried smell from the chippy shop. However, hunger was hunger. It just needed a little heating up. She put the fish and chips on a plate and warmed it in the microwave and also reheated the curry and poured it over top.

It didn’t taste as good as it should, but it wasn’t half bad. She put the
leftovers and garbage back into the paper bag and slipped down the stairs to throw the bag in the bin outside.
Not going to stink up my room
.

“Rae!”

She jumped at the sound and swung in the direction of the voice, the fennec fox tatù automatically kicking in. “Molly?”

Molly walked up the concrete steps. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. Just tired.”

“I thought so but I came back to check on you.” They walked into Aumbry House together. “What time we going tomorrow night?”

“Tomorrow night?”

“Yeah, to the Twisted Cork to see Luke.”

Shoot! Forgot about that. How bad is it that my best friend is more excited about the boy who hit on me than I am?
“Oh yeah. I forgot. I have to leave early Monday morning so I wasn’t planning on going.”

Molly linked her arm into Rae’s as they walked up to their floor. “You are not missing this opportunity.”

An image of Devon popped into her head. She wondered what he was doing right now. “I’m not—”

“We’re going.”

She didn’t have the energy to argue. “Fine. But we’re not staying late.”

“You still have Julian’s car?”

Rae nodded.
Devon said he came back with Julian
She should text Julian later tonight or tomorrow. Maybe she would talk to Carter about getting a car. She didn’t need something fast or fancy, but she would be needing one.

“Awesome!” Molly danced down the hall to her room just down from Rae’s.

Rae unlocked her room. “Molls, I’m heading to bed. I’ll see you after my morning training session.”

“Call me when you get in. I’ll help you pick out what you’re going to wear.”

Rae laughed to herself.
“Help” nothing
. Molly hadn’t changed since her first days at Guilder. She was still the fashion queen. Rae knew Molly would have all the control in the clothes choosing. Rae barely needed to be there for it.

In the gymnasium the next morning, Rae rubbed her eyes and yawned. She had slept lousy, woke early and decided to head over to the gym early so Jennifer had nothing to complain about, but once there, all she wanted was to go back to bed. She stretched her arms over her head and yawned again for the hundredth time. The clock on the wall showed it just past half nine.

As if on cue, Jennifer came through the doors that led into the PC building, and Riley walked through the main entrance doors. Both stopped short and eyed each other up and down.

Jennifer, wearing spandex instead of the usual leather, but still in black, spoke first, “What’re you doing here?”

Riley glanced at Rae so quickly, she almost missed it. “Rae asked me to come. She said she needed help.”

I did not!
Rae pushed away from the wall and walked so she stood in the middle of the two of them, but she quickly realized if she didn’t play along, she wouldn’t find out what Riley was trying to pull over. “The more the merrier, right?”

Jennifer flicked her hand. “Whatever. Let’s get started.” She turned and headed toward a storage room door that Rae hadn’t
noticed the last time she was in the gym. She realized some of the blue padded mats on the wall were down and behind two of them stood the steel doors. Jennifer went inside and pulled out a cart.

She obviously came here last night to get stuff ready
. Rae glanced at Riley who grinned and rubbed his hands together.

“This should be fun,” he said. “What kind of combat have you done?”

“Besides fighting Kraigan?” Rae asked.
And fighting to save Devon’s butt…
“None. I did some sparring with Devon and Julian a bit at the beginning of the year but haven’t had much else.”

Jennifer had gone back into the storage room to grab some other items and came back out with some wooden sticks that looked like bamboo
nun chucks.

Rae’s forehead furrowed in confusion.
Those things aren’t going to last five minutes.

Jennifer tossed one at her and one at Riley. “Button’s on the bottom, Rae.” She turned to Riley. “Don’t go easy on her. If she gets hurt, she can heal herself.” She grabbed a stool from the top of her cart and set it on the ground before sitting on it.

Rae turned the light bamboo stick over and shook her head. “It’s hollow and empty. What am I supposed to d—”

An odd humming sound came from Riley’s stick, cutting Rae off. He grinned wickedly at her. “Laser swords.” He held it with one hand and swished it through the air. “You’re holding it upside down.” As he spoke he began charging toward her, laser aimed right at her.

Rae’s tatù switched to match Riley’s and she began running away from him in a zigzag line so he wouldn’t slice her in half. The guy had a weird gleam in his eyes, like he enjoyed scaring the crap out of her. A moment of dread erupted in the pit of her stomach and it felt like Kraigan chasing after her all over again. 
Arrgghh! Riley! He probably likes scaring everyone. Psycho!

She quickly veered right before she crashed into the wall. She managed to turn the bamboo stick over and felt the nearly invisible rubber button with her thumb. She pressed it hard and felt a vibration down the stick as the laser sword slid out. She increased her speed, and concentrated on where she was heading inside the gym.
I wanted Riley here to exact payback from last year… not to be running away from him like a scared rabbit.

A waaa-vroom noise cut through the air close behind her. She didn’t have time to glance back, but knew he was closing in. She needed to be the hunter, not the hunted. Franticly she tried to figure out what options she had in the rapidly diminishing space between her and the corner of the gym.

She cut a wide right and curved back around to the corner of the gym. Riley snorted conceitedly behind her. She could almost picture the smirk on his face, and planned to wipe it off. She drove her knees high and ran three steps up the wall before rolling into a back flip. She landed just behind him.
Perfect.

Riley skidded and stumbled
as he tried to stop. Even with his tatù he couldn’t get his hand with the laser sword around fast enough. His wrist crashed into the corner of the gym and the laser sword went flying out of his hand from the impact.

Rae touched his shoulder with her sword. “Gotchya.”

He howled then dropped to the ground writhing and grabbing at his shoulder.

Jennifer pushed past Rae and dropped down beside Riley. “Calm down. Stop screaming like a little girl!” She moved his hand.

The smell of burnt flesh filled Rae’s nostrils. She gagged and covered her mouth and nose with the inside of her elbow, at the same time dropping her laser to the floor. It shut off instantly as if automatic.

Riley’s shirt was torn by his shoulder and singed into his skin. His wailing had
turned into moans, but he let Jennifer check his shoulder.
Oh crap, did I do that?

“I’m so sorry, Riley. I didn’t know these things were real.” She glared at Jennifer’s back. “You’d think the instructor would have warned the student.”

Jennifer effortlessly sat Riley up. She pointed to the cart she’d pulled out earlier. “Grab me a towel and the first-aid kit, will you?”

Rae stomped over to the cart and found the requested materials. She forcefully stuffed the towel into Jennifer’s hand and dropped the first-aid kit on the floor by her feet. “This kind of training has to be illegal! You told Riley to show no mercy to me!”

Jennifer had opened the first-aid kit and put gauze followed by some weird cream on Riley’s shoulder. She pressed the towel on top and pulled a roll of wrapping tape out. Using her teeth and one free hand, she unrolled a stretch and taped it diagonally from Riley’s shoulder, around his rib cage and over his back. She repeated it a number of times before tearing the tape and tossing the roll back in the first-aid box. Then, and only then, did she turn to face Rae’s anger. “Of course I did. You can heal yourself.”

“Not if he killed me! What if he stabbed me in the heart or cut my head off by mistake?” Her mouth dropped and her hands automatically
went to the sides of her face. “What if I had done that? I would have killed him!” She had wanted him to suffer for tricking her before, but not this kind of suffering.

“You didn’t. That’s not in your nature. You’re not going to the dark side anytime soon.”

“I had no idea these things were actually real! I could have done it as a joke and his bloody head would be rolling on the floor right now!” She realized she was beginning to hyperventilate, and she couldn’t stop picturing the other gruesome possible outcomes of the situation. She focused on slow inhaling breaths through her mouth and forcing them out her nose.

Riley chuckled and grinned at her. “It literally would’ve been a bloody head.” He raised his eyebrows when she didn’t laugh. “You know, you said bloody head and my stumping head would have blood gushing out of it.”

“It’s not funny!” Rae shook her head. “You people are crazy here.”

Jennifer stood, wiping her hands clean with a towelette-looking cloth. “I apologize. I guess I should have warned you. I didn’t think you’d get the first hit in, let alone corner him so easily.” She looked at Riley as if to ask him how he let Rae beat him, like he should be ashamed of himself.

Riley stood, favoring his injured shoulder. “I should have realized she wouldn’t be that easy to catch. It’s hard to get past thinking of her as anything but sweet, naïve, Rae. If you met her last year, you would never have thought of her as a Kerrigan, as
the
Kerrigan.”

“I’m not naïve, or sweet, and don’t you
ever
refer to me that way again.” Using her foot, she tapped the end of her bamboo stick on the floor. It flew up and she kicked it high enough to catch it. She flipped it on and spread her feet shoulder width apart, feeling her shock and anger still coursing through her system. She figured why not use it? “I see you’re feeling better. Do you wanna go again? I’ll even give you a three second head start.” Rae was shocked by the ferocity of her desire to keep going. Where was this ferocious demon inside of her coming from? Did it really matter? She liked the power she felt from behind it. It burned deep inside her.
I’m not afraid. I have nothing to lose anymore.

Jennifer moved from where she stood. It took Rae
a moment to realize she had done an aerial and landed mere inches away from Rae. With incredible speed, she grabbed Rae’s wrist and easily twisted the sword out of her grasp. “No need to show your skills off anymore. You’ve proven you’re ready to go out in the field.”

Rae rubbed her aching wrist. “I got lucky. I haven’t proven anything.” She knew it was the truth.

Jennifer smiled – a real smile.

Rae realized that little gem didn’t happen very often. She suddenly wanted to earn that approval more than once.

“You’re ready,” Jennifer said. “Either natural instinct guides you, or your tatùs do. Doesn’t matter which. It works.”

Riley cleared his throat. “If you don’t need me for any more training today, I’m going to shower and see if the ointment cauterized the wound.”

“We’re done.” Jennifer’s military, unreadable face returned.

Rae turned to follow Riley.

“Not you, Rae. I want to talk to you.”

Crap!
Rae stopped and touched Riley. “Sorry, again.”

He shrugged, grimacing and touching his shoulder. “Don’t be. I kinda deserved it. Think we can call it even now?”

“For now.” Rae winked.

Riley leaned close to her ear. “I’ll be fine. That salve stuff was made by the guy who created the laser swords. The cut and burn will be gone by supper. I’ll be a hundred percent for the Twisted Cork later.” He jogged away before she could reply and disappeared through the door.