Whispers of Darkness (The Deadwood Hunter Series) (25 page)

After Lexia had eaten, with many eyes watching her, she was led down more corridors and into another large room. This one had elevated seating around three sides and the fourth was covered floor to ceiling in glass windows. She followed Derrick as he walked around the edge, watching the hunters train. Some lifted weights and others used the various gym equipment that was set up along one wall. Whilst others sparred, their grunts and the sound of their limbs hitting padding echoed around them.

“What are we doing here?” Lexia hissed, walking alongside Derrick; she looked behind her again at the large crowd forming outside the glass wall.

“You’re going to train.”

“What? Are you serious?” Lexia could feel her anger rising now.

“Yes, Lexia, deadly. When you are back up to full strength then you will train the new recruits.”

“New recruits?
You honestly think I’d help you by training my enemy?” She growled.

Derrick pushed her back against the wall, his chest rising and lowering in quick angry breaths. “Yes, I think you will because you are the one who killed off all our best fighters, you are the one in the enemy’s nest, you are the one with the psychotic mother who is hell bent on torturing you. I am trying to help you, Lexia. Lucy will be back in little over a week, you have that time to get back to full strength and prove to her that you are more useful alive than dead.”

Lexia matched Derrick’s anger and then some. She could feel it swirling, building, until it consumed her body. She was losing control of the darkness within her and she made no attempt to try to contain it. She hated him, hated that this is what he wanted her to do, train the Hunters so they’d be better, stronger, but most of all she hated that he was right. He was trying to help her, he was trying the only way he knew how but maybe she could use this to her own advantage. She could train them, show them enough so that Lucy could see an improvement but she could also learn all their weaknesses, memorize every face so that when the time came she’d know where to strike first.
Yes,
she told herself,
this could work, I may be in my enemy’s nest but maybe that’s where I was always meant to be, to destroy them from the inside out.

“Okay, Derrick, but I’m already at full strength.”

“Really?” he scoffed. “After only a week’s recovery, you’re just going to jump out of bed at full strength?”

Lexia let go of the last thread of self control she had, the smile that lit her face was twisted and evil. The smile belonged to the darkness within her, not Lexia, but she didn’t care. If she was going to survive in here, they had to fear her. “Really,” she said, pushing him and laughing as he flew across the room.

The room grew silent. Hunters rushed through the doors from outside, whilst others cowered back. Lexia ignored them and kept walking towards Derrick. “Really,” she repeated again. “Maybe I should give you a few pointers, too? Like never get in my face or you’ll end up on your ass.”

Derrick climbed to his feet and waved off the people crowding around them. “Back to training, nothing to see,” he said in his increasingly annoying calm voice.

He walked over to an area with a padded floor. “Shall we train here so I’m not black and blue by the end of the session?”

Lexia laughed, “Oh Derrick it will take more than a few mats to keep your skin pretty.”

An hour later Derrick had more than just a few bruises on him, Lexia had kept her hands from hitting his face but she knew by the way he now walked in front of her with his shoulder dropped to one side that he’d maybe bruised a rib. She struggled to hold herself back, knew beating him to a pulp wouldn’t help her case but she had so much anger and frustration circling through her that, it had tested her self control.

“Where to now?” she asked his back.

“Your room. I’m guessing you will want to shower before you train the new recruits later.”

“But this isn’t the way we came before, is it? I mean this place is pretty hard to keep track of but...”

“No, it’s not but I have put you in another room, next door to me.”

“Okay... Not creepy at all.”

“I assure you it’s for your safety only. Not everyone here is as welcoming as me.”

“I figured that out a long time ago, Derrick. You do realize I’ll never fit in here don’t you?”

“Lexia not everyone here is what you think, not everyone fits in we just learn to, to survive.”

Derrick led her through a few more corridors. They passed a few people but most of them only quickly glanced at her. He stopped in front of a door and brought a key from his pocket. Turning the key with a click he let Lexia into a room, it looked similar to the one she’d woken up in earlier. A bed sat made in the same white sheets in one corner, there was a wall with shelving, a wardrobe, and a door that led into a small bathroom. Lexia scanned the room again and then froze as her eyes spotted what sat beside the bed.

Her feet moved without her knowledge, her heart tried to beat from her chest and the nearer she got the more pain awakened within the numbness of her soul.

Her fingers ran over the worn leather of her boots before touching the silver panther that hung on the necklace Lincoln had given her.

“Pretty panther,” she whispered, tears stinging her eyes.

“I managed to save what I could. I have your ruby knife and the one that was strapped to your leg, too, but you can’t have them yet. I’ll be back in an hour.”

Lexia said nothing. She slumped on the bed, staring at the panther in her hands and welcomed the agonizing pain that ate away at her heart.

“Oh and Lexia? Don’t let your mother see the necklace. The boots I can manage to get away with but the necklace... Well, being Lucy’s favorite only lets me get away with so much.”

Lexia nodded. When she heard the click of the door locking, she let the pain consume her and sunk to the floor crying, gasping desperately for breath. She wondered if her life would ever get easier, wondered if she’d ever stop needing Lincoln like she needed her next breath.

Lexia followed Derrick back to the training center. He talked as he walked and Lexia tried to listen and memorize the way at the same time.

“No one really uses the center on an afternoon so it will be the perfect time for you to train the new recruits.”

“Derrick, you realize I have no experience training people, right?”

“Yes, but you can fight so I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

“Derrick, I think you’re putting too much on my abilities; abilities that are half instinct and the rest Lincoln taught me. I really have no knowledge of fighting.”

“Well, I suggest you try because this was the only way I could think to convince Lucy.”

Lexia shuddered at the thought of seeing her mother again. “So where is everyone else at this time of day?”

“Guard duty mostly.”

“What do they guard?”
Lexia asked.

“The compound, the science labs.”

“You are being very vague, Derrick.”

Derrick paused, his hand on the handle ready to push open the door to the training center. He turned and looked at Lexia an unreadable expression on his face.

“I told you I do not know every secret of the Hunters and you do not need to know what others do. You only need to know what you have to, to survive.”

“I’m not stupid, Derrick. You know far more than you let on and I will find out all there is to know about this place, but for now I’ll leave it.”

With a nod Derrick pushed open the door and led her into the center. At the far end stood fifteen Hunters, their eyes glanced nervously about as they fidgeted. As Lexia walked closer she took in her recruits; they looked nothing like she was expecting and most of them looked younger than she was.

Grabbing Derrick’s arm, Lexia pulled him sharply behind her as anger ignited in her blood. “They are nothing but a bunch of kids, Derrick! I refuse to show them the horrors of this world!” she ground out through clenched teeth.

As always Derrick remained calm and composed, he merely glanced at Lexia’s hand gripping tightly around his arm and then studied the recruits behind her.

“Yes, they are just kids but they are also Hunters that survived the programming and now they need to be trained further. Normally this is completed by several people but I’m hoping to show Lucy we only need you.”

“’Programming’?” Lexia asked with a gulp.

“Lexia, you do not need to know, nor would you want to know what ‘the programming’ is. As I said before all you need to know is that these people, kids as you call them, are new here and need help finding their way. They need to be able to fight well if they are going to last out the year.”

“Where the hell does Lucy get them from? Why would anyone in their right mind join up for this?”

Sighing Derrick answered, “They most likely signed up for the military and were offered to be part of a special project.”

“And they just signed up with no questions asked?”

“Yes Lexia, just like I did when I was seventeen. We follow orders, it’s not our place to question.”

“So the government is behind this ‘project’ then? And I plan on questioning a lot.”

“Regardless Lexia, these people need training. Half of them will still be confused as to what’s happening to them. I can assure you everything they have been through has not been a pleasant experience.”

“Neither is waking up one morning to find you’re a wack job’s experiment,” Lexia muttered, releasing his arm and walking towards the recruits.

Derrick muttered something unattainable back before walking to her side and addressing the recruits.

“Welcome, this is Lexia and she is going to help you train. She is new here, too, so go easy on her.”

Lexia stood frozen at all the eyes staring at her and suddenly felt as if she was back in school presenting some work to the classroom. Taking a deep breath and squashing her nerves she spoke:

Here goes nothing,
“If you could just pair up and show me what you can do, then we’ll go from there.”

The men and women in front of Lexia started to separate off in silence until the smallest of the group, a young girl with mousey brown hair and freckles splattered over her face was left standing alone, looking as if she wished the floor would swallow her.

“What’s your name?” Lexia asked her.

“Belinda,” she mumbled, her eyes to the floor.

“Derrick partner up with Belinda please... And Belinda go easy on the old man, hey.” Belinda glanced up to meet Lexia’s eyes, a small timid smile playing on her lips as her gold eyes warmed, the tension leaving her body.

Derrick threw Lexia a dirty look but never replied to her comment.

Lexia looked at the others staring at Belinda and Derrick. “What yah waiting for? I hope you can move quicker than this in a fight or you’ll not last long,” she snapped.

Walking between them Lexia could see everyone knew basic fighting skills, some more than others. She said nothing as she watched them and tried to focus on what Lincoln had said to her. She pictured him next to her, the words he spoke to her as he trained her, the way he’d watch her with his silent unreadable eyes and make her want to hide. Is that how these recruits felt now? Some cowered away from her gaze, whilst others met her head on. Did they know who she was? Did they know the things she could do? Did they trust her or did they feel the way she first felt when being trained?

If they did feel that way, as if being studied by the eyes of a predator, then they’d be right. No matter how sorry she felt for these people, for the fate that had been set for them, it still changed nothing. Lexia was in the enemy’s nest and as she watched them fight, she studied their weaknesses and their strengths, waiting for the right time to strike.

Cheeky gold eyes met hers as she passed. He smiled the cocky arrogant smile of a man that loved himself far too much. He blocked the punch coming his way without even looking and gripped the hand he’d grasped. Winking at Lexia he twisted the hand and brought his foot down on his opponent’s calf. As his opponent hit the floor with a yelp, he laughed and glanced at Lexia again.

“What’s your name?” Lexia asked.

“Miles,” he replied with a smug smirk.