I started out wanting to protect her, and the more I was around her, the more I realized that she was one girl who could take care of herself. I wasn't used to chicks being equals--and Claire was, and is. She's not that physically strong, but she's quick and smart and fearless, and if sometimes I get overprotective about her, she's the first one to remind me of that.
But I want to be ready, if it comes to a fight again--which it will. Not just against the normal human bullies and criminals; those were a piece of cake. No, I want to be able to defend her against the vampires, and that is a whole lot harder. Weapons are good, and I never turn those down, but the reality is I can't count on always having one. I worry. There have been a couple of times--more than a couple--when only the fact that Michael had vampire strength he could throw in with mine had saved us.
And that really bothered me. I couldn't depend on Michael, either. Or anybody else.
Mixed martial arts--that was the ticket. Hit your guy however you can, and put him down fast. My kind of fighting, and something that could work on vampires, if you knew what you were doing. I'd been itching to try it, and when the flyer came in the mail, it seemed like somebody up there liked me after all.
Michael had pulled me off to the side after Claire left to say he didn't think it was a good idea. I told him to stuff it, but in a nice way, because even though he's got fangs and a thirst, he's still my bro. Most times. Took me a while to accept that, but I'm almost okay with his whole night-stalking lifestyle now.
Doesn't mean I don't want to be able to kick his ass if I have to, though. The chance to learn martial arts from a vampire...that was way too good to pass up.
I know how to do the real kind of martial arts. I mean, I had karate until I was thirteen and decided I was too cool for it. So I know how to put on a gi and tie a belt and be formal on the mats. Turned out that was good, because the instructor--some dude named Vassily, with an Eastern European accent straight out of an old movie--wanted to start out that way.
I was okay the first couple of passes, when he got me up to spar. It was like fighting anybody else, no big thing, until he started using vampire speed and strength on me. I couldn't help it; that made me angry, and anger kind of makes me forget the rules. I went for his knee. He hit me like a wrecking ball smashing a wall, and next thing I knew, I was shaking it off with a giant ache in my chest. I'd been lucky. He could have caved in my ribs and Swiss-cheesed my heart if he'd hit full strength.
Then don't let him hit you again, loser.I could almost hear my dad's voice, dry and mocking. He was dead now, but in my mind he was always there, always watching, and always judging. He'd hated vampires. I didn't much like 'em, either. We'd always had that in common.
I didn't think about walking away. I went back to the mat and bowed, and the second I got a chance, I attacked with everything I had. Full-on blitz. I knew I was going to get hurt, maybe badly, maybe killed, but I wasn't going to be humiliated. Not by a vampire. No way in hell.
I got him. Hard. I could see the shock in his face, and the rush of rage, and as I stood there with the
bloody taste of victory in my mouth, I actually wanted him to go for it, come get me, because, damn, I felt alive, actually alive.......
But he shut me down, said something I didn't register, and bowed me off the mat. I don't remember leaving or kneeling down. I just remember thinking,Next time, next time, next time,regular as a bell ringing in my head and drowning out every other thought.
I watched him go through the rest of the class. He didn't hurt anybody else, but he could have. He wanted to; I could see it in flashes in his eyes. They're all alike, you know. Hunters. Even Michael's got it, though he hides it, and sometimes I pretend like I don't see it, either. You have to be ready for them to turn on you.
Because if you're not ready...somebody you love could get hurt.
I closed my eyes and imagined Claire. She always made me feel better. But although I could see her face, her smile, almost feel her presence, all I could think about was how easy it would be for them to take her away from me.
I couldn't let that happen.
It occurred to me that what the vamp had said to me was that he'd see me later. Some kind of special class? Hell, yeah. I could do that. I needed to do that.
I needed to understand how to fight them, one on one, without help or weapons or hope.
Only the vampires could show me that.
Still...sitting there, hands on my knees, breathing fast, I couldn't help but feel that even though I'd won, even though I'd done the impossible...somehow, I'd lost.
And it was first of a whole lot of losses.
Watching Shane kneeling there, so closed-in and so...cold, Claire felt a little sick. She didn't like it. She didn't like how he'd just fought, and she didn't like how he looked afterward. Shane was usuallyhappy after a fight, not...angry.
This whole thing is a bad idea,she thought. She didn't know why, but she knew it was true.
"Hey," said a low voice at her back, and Claire looked back to see Eve standing there. For the gym, she'd dispensed with the Goth makeup, but her tight T-shirt had a pink skull with a bow on it, and there were a skull and crossbones in rhinestones down the sides of her workout pants, too. She'd tied her straight black hair back in a shining ponytail. It was about as unadorned as Eve ever got, unless she was in disguise. "Did you see that? What the hell wasthat ? Did Shane just go all Wolfman, or what?"
"I don't know," Claire said, and jumped down from the exercise machine. "But--"
"Boyfriend's got issues," Eve finished. "Yeah, no kidding. So, you came to spy, too?"
"Too?"
"Really, come on. Do you see me as the heavy-sweating type? So very not." Eve looked her over critically. "And you aren't, either, but you can pass for it, probably. Did they make you pay the ten bucks to get in?"
"Yeah."