Kindling (18 page)

I moved to the dummy and did a right elbow hook and then a left elbow hook. I felt kind of foolish - I had been doing that move for years. It was simple, a basic technique that I didn’t feel like I had to re-learn. But, I wasn’t about to fight with The Rabbi, so I did what he asked without question.

“Your stance is good. Make sure to protect your face with your other arm,” he said. He moved my left arm to cover my face. “Try again.” I obeyed and moved through the punch again. The Rabbi nodded and I could tell he was impressed by my form. “It’s a dangerous move because you have to get so close to the vampyre. Their jaws are like a bear trap and they won’t be afraid to bite. We’ll add in more moves later, but right now, do this one until I tell you to stop.”

The rabbi sat down with a water bottle and watched me. I hit the dummy over and over again until blood dripped from my raw elbow down the mannequin's chest. I paused and looked at The Rabbi. “Did I tell you to stop?” He asked. I shook my head and continued connecting my elbow to the foam jaw. I winced as my arm ached and burned. Thick drops of blood splattered the dummy and the walls around my as I propelled my arm around to meet the dummy, but I wouldn’t let myself stop. I felt like everyone was expecting me to fail and I wasn’t about to let myself.

“Stop. Switch sides,” The Rabbi said. There was no clock in the room, so I couldn’t figure out how long I had been elbowing the dummy, but it felt like a very long time.

I changed my stance and began elbowing the jaw, again until blood ran down his chest. This time I didn’t stop until he told me to. “Stop,” The Rabbi said. “It’s your first day, so I’ll make today a bit shorter. Don’t expect my training to stay easy. Tomorrow will be hard on you, but today run 15 laps and you’re done.”

I nodded and followed him outside to the track. I was in a lot of pain. My shoulders and elbows ached and my back burned from over use. My elbows stung as the air hit the open cuts. Blood ran down my fingertips and dried in little streams along my forearms.

By that time, it was well into the afternoon and the trainees were all over the lawn. I felt like they all stared at me as I walked with The Rabbi to the track. He seemed a little nervous. “Do you have something you can run with? Like headphones or something?”

“Yes, master,” I said.

“Bring them tomorrow. They’ll say things to you but you must ignore it. Don’t speak to them, Katherine, just do not speak to them. Understand?” I nodded. “Good. Wait a minute.” He took out a cell phone and made a call.  “Allo?” He said. And then he spoke in French for a minute and hung up. “Excellent, my friend, Jean-Luc, will be joining you on a run.” We waited a few minutes and then I noticed The Rabbi smiling. “Ah, he brought Braith with him.” I looked to where The Rabbi seemed to stare and saw Braith and a very tall and lanky man, presumable Jean-Luc.

“Allo,” Jean-Luc said, in an amazingly gorgeous French accent. Jean-Luc had pale blue eyes set deep under his dark brow. His face and head were scruffy, like he shaved them at the same time that morning. He was very handsome. “You are Braith’s friend, no?” Jean-Luc asked. I nodded. “He did not tell me he was with such a beautiful woman for two years.” I blushed but Braith sighed.

“Enough, gentlemen,” The Rabbi said. “The lady has 15 laps to run. Make sure she completes them and then allow her to return to the town.”

“It will be my honour,” Jean-Luc said. He winked at me. For some reason, his winking didn’t bother me as much as Braith’s did.

The Rabbi looked at me. “I’ll send you home a supper. Eat as much as you can. You’ll need the energy.”

“Yes, master,” I said.

I started running the track with Braith and Jean-Luc trailing close behind. After The Rabbi disappeared, I began hearing the boys. At first it was just whistles and catcalls, then it moved on to death threats and really, sexual jeers. I couldn’t help but wince - some of it was just awful - and any reaction I showed just made their taunts louder. I wouldn’t look at them, though, I didn’t want to humanize them - I just wanted them to remain animals in my head - so their words became just like voices on the wind. Now I knew why The Rabbi told me to bring my headphones. All I could do that first day is concentrate on my feet slapping against the pavement, the movement of ponytail, and the breeze against my sweat.

“You understand, it’s got nothing to do with you?” Jean-Luc interrupted me from my concentration. I nodded, but didn’t look at him. It would be too much to break my concentration. “These boys don’t like change, you know. No one here is very good with change. And you, my love, are a very big change.” Jean-Luc said. I could hear a little smile in his voice and glanced at him. He was looking ahead and had a strange look on his face, some weird mixture of revenge and anger. I nodded, finally.

We were running quite steadily and he and Braith were hardly panting. My body ached from my first day of training and my hours of travels and my fight three nights before, but the running felt good. After a few miles, the yelling became invigorating. I set goals: could I jog a mile before the next boy made a pun about rape? I pushed myself.

Braith and Jean-Luc, however, did not see the energy the mocking and threats gave me. It was not pleasant, no, and I would have preferred to listen to birds singing than boys make animal noises, but I tried to block it out as best I could. I could feel Jean-Luc and Braith, though, get angrier by the moment.

“Jean-Luc,” Braith began.

Jean-Luc cut Braith off. “I was thinking the same thing,” he said. “I will take care of those boys. Such little boys,” he growled. He fell behind but I couldn’t watch where he went.

After those first few cringes, I would not let myself show any emotion. Showing emotion would give them power. Even so, a lot of what they said was really graphic and profane and, frankly, embarrassing. I’m kind of a naive prude, I know, but there was a lot that I couldn’t even bring myself to repeat in my head. It was awful. And some of the things they said made no sense, but I recognized them saying the same words over and over and over again. I assumed they must have some sort of slang that I wasn’t yet privy to.

“Hey, princess, I’m going to rip your hair out!”

“Gonna rip your throat out and feed you to the vamps, you tossin’ cake!”

“You worthless binner should be tossed about like a whore!”

“I’ll rape and murder your sister and make you watch!”

I almost snapped with that last one, but Braith put his hand on my shoulder. He could tell how much it bothered me. “Ignore them, Kit, as much as you can.”

I wiped my face - sweat mixed with tears - and then I noticed Jean-Luc had not returned. “Where’s Jean-Luc?” I asked.

“Up ahead,” Braith said. I could hear the smile in his voice. “He’s the furry one.”

I looked ahead and there was a giant, grey wolf attacking a group of boys on the lawn. The boys didn’t seem to be hurt, but the wolf seemed to be pretty vicious. “Holy shit,” I panted. “Is he . . . He’s a wolf!” Jean-Luc trotted up next to me and, I swear, he gave me a dog smile.

“Told you I’d get you a puppy,” Braith said. Jean-Luc growled.

“No, seriously, he’s a ... “ I began.

“A werewolf, yeah,” Braith finished. “He’s also a cocky stubborn jackass. You’ll get to know him.”

“He can’t be worse than you,” I joked.

“Oh, he’s much worse,” Braith grinned. “Jean-Luc is way older. He taught me how to be an asshole.” Jean-Luc glared up at Braith and ran in front of him, causing Braith to stumble. I’m sure I heard a laugh come out of Jean-Luc, which was so weird because he was a giant dog. A giant, laughing, human-like canine.

Braith stopped running around lap seven. He collapsed on the grass and waved me forward. Jean-Luc kept pace with me until the end. Every so often, he would run into a group of the students and attack - by the end, though, most of the boys had gone in for supper. I don’t think he drew any blood, but he seemed to scare away most of the hecklers. After lap 15, Braith met us at the door to the town.

“Lucky can’t come. He frightens the ladies, doncha Jean-Luc?” Braith said. Jean-Luc growled. I bent over and gave Jean-Luc a kiss and he licked my face.

“I’ve been watching out for you for two years and never got a kiss,” Braith said. as we walked through the streets.

“Maybe if you were as cute as Jean-Luc ...” I teased.

“Oh, that breaks my heart,” Braith said. We were for awhile quiet as we walked to the house. Well, Braith walked. I limped. My 25 mile run and sparring caused some bad blisters and wounds from my birthday night fight were aching. Some of them reopened and I was a bruised and bloodied mess. “I’ll be here tomorrow to bring you to The Rabbi,” he said.

“You don’t have to,” I replied. “I know the way, now.”

“Kitty,” he smiled and moved his hand up like he was going to put his arm around my shoulder, but he quickly brought his arm back down. “I can’t let you walk alone when those arseholes are out there.”

“You don’t think I can fight them off?”

“Not if they all jump you at once,” he said. I must have looked scared, because then he tried to comfort me. “They won’t. I promise. Jean-Luc will meet us tomorrow, too. We’re terrifying, being the only Dhampir and werewolf most of these boys have ever met.

I nodded and smiled. “Thanks, Braith.” I leaned in and kissed his cheek. He may be a masochistic jerk, but sometimes he could be really sweet. “Goodnight,” I said. I got really embarrassed and fumbled a minute with the lock.

Inside waiting for me was a girl, maybe a few years older than me. She was beautiful, bright red hair down past her shoulders, slender arms and legs, porcelain skin. I presumed she was my roommate, Poppy. She was deeply engrossed in a novel, but tore herself away when she heard me shut the door.

“You Kitty?” she said.

“Kit, is preferable. Are you Poppy?”

“Yeah, that’s me. School sent over your dinner a good two hours ago,” she got up from her seat and began to mill about the kitchen. “Don’t think it’ll be too warm, now, but it looks good. Chicken and potatoes.” She fixed me a large plate.

“Oh, thank you Poppy!” I sat down and inhaled the food. I was starving.

She laughed. “Don’t eat too fast you’re going to puke!”

After dinner she brought me some toiletries and I took a long shower. The soap and water burned my fresh cuts and I noticed the blisters on my toes had burst into bloody lesions. It took a few minutes for the stinging to subside but, once it did, it felt so good, like I hadn’t showered in months.

When I was done, I climbed into the twin bed opposite Poppy. She was so kind, and we talked for quite awhile, until my eyes couldn’t stay open any longer.

My days at the coven were a horrible sort of repetition that I had previously thought only existed in hell. In the mornings, Braith came and brought me to The Rabbi. The Rabbi met us on the other side at the track and then ordered me to run anywhere from 10 – 18 miles, depending on The Rabbi’s mood. After the sprint, he taught me some new, fighting technique used to damage vampyres. I repeated that with both my right and left side, usually until I began to bleed. We usually sparred after that for a bit then he ordered some conditioning. I usually did a few hundred push-ups, chin-ups, and sit-ups and then he made me do the one where you bounce from side to side under the rope, whatever that’s called. After that was all done - sometimes he kept me until close to midnight - I ran another 12-15 laps with Jean-Luc at my side.

As for my fighting, I guess I felt like I was learning but it was slow. Day two was a swift kick to the stomach. I kicked until the tops of my ankles began to bleed and then switched sides. Day three was a clear cut punch right on the bridge of the nose. I punched until my knuckles began to bleed, then switched sides. Day four was a stomp to the ankle. I did this until the side of my foot grew raw and bled, then I switched sides. Day five was a slicing, stiff chop with all four fingers to the chest. I did that until the tips of my nails broke off and my fingers were bleeding. Then, I switched hands.

After day five, The Rabbi gave me different ways to change up the routine. After five days of this I began to spar with The Rabbi. Over and over and over again we practiced the same moves, the same strikes, the same repetitions. Sometimes he gave me a spear or machete to use, but most of the time I just used my bloodied and bandaged appendages.

I couldn’t really visualize using these moves against a vampyre, as most of them required me to get fairly close to my sparring partner. Wouldn’t I just get bitten if I was so close? The Rabbi said, no. During our sparring sessions he would show me how to move like a vampyre, snaking around a person and sometimes climbing on top of them. The only way to defeat a vampyre would be to fight like a vampyre, he said. Eventually, I noticed my speed and agility increasing. My body twisted and contorted automatically to take down my opponent. I could tell The Rabbi was pretty pleased: I fought like a vampyre. And, I noticed after about two weeks, I was becoming terrifyingly fast, running a mile in under four minutes! I ran much faster than Braith and noticed he gave up trying to keep pace with me after only a few miles.