**Quick Author's note: I haven't updated this story in... well years honestly. But I recently started another story on fanfiction and that has me inspired to ACTUALLY start writing this one. Yes, believe it or not I remember where I was going with the story! If any of you are interested my other story is about the anime Fairy Tail so please read that one too! A quick note about this story, it will involve a lot of OCs in the beginning and might be considered slow but I promise it will be worth it for the story I want to tell! (At least I think it will be). I want to draw this one out a bit so it will be a longer story but it is starting shortly after Shadow Kiss but before Blood Promise. I will be updating this story as I re-read through the novels! (Don't worry it shouldn't take too long because I will read through them pretty quickly.) Anyway! Really Sorry for taking about a billion years to update and I hope that you are still interested in reading! Also sorry because this author's note wasn't quick. End Author's note.** **Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Vampire Academy characters and I super apologize if you don't like the way I write them.**
"Hey, after your last table leaves you can go."
"Thanks," I smiled gratefully at Adam, my manager. I headed into the back area through the black swinging door and pulled out my phone again. I had exactly forty-four minutes left to get there. I shifted anxiously from foot to foot and glanced out the window on the black door into the dining room. "Come on," I mumbled quietly to myself. I knew I was being impatient but the, what could only be assumed was a couple, was had been sitting there talking for ages.
"Are you in a hurry?" I jumped at the sound of another voice. I turned to see Josh standing behind me with one eyebrow arched up.
"You scared me!" I grinned playfully hitting him in the arm. "Yea, kind of, I've only got –"I checked my phone again. "Forty-two minutes to get across town and registered, Not to mentioned warmed up and changed." I explained. "And my last table is taking forever." I stressed the last word needlessly. I glanced out the window again and scowled. They were holding hands across the table now.
Josh smirked in that knowing way he had. "So, you've got a fight tonight." It wasn't a question. "Scott won't like that you are fighting again, especially after what happened last time." I knew he was intentionally trying to get me riled up but I couldn't help falling for the bait.
"Fuck Scott." I snapped, glaring at Josh for bringing up bad blood. "And I'm better now, so that shouldn't have anything to do with what happens tonight. Plus, it's not like it's really any of Scott's business anymore is it?"
"You know he regrets how things turned out between you. I mean, I know he regrets what he did. I'm not defending what he did by any means!" Josh added when he saw the look on my face. "I'm just saying that it's really obvious to everyone that he's torturing himself every time he looks at you. The guy is miserable without you." Josh said.
"I don't care. Now, can we move on to a new topic please?" My tone was probably a bit too harsh but I was tired of hearing the same old crap again and again.
"Alright, well, the real reason that I came back here was to tell you that the buy at booth twenty-seven in the bar requested you." Josh shrugged and began filling cups with various drinks from the soda fountain.
"Damn it! Adam just told me I could leave after my last table goes." I checked my phone again. Thirty-eight minutes to go until show time. I turned back to Josh with my signature pleading look on my face.
"Fine, fine!" He threw his hands up in surrender. "There's no need to give me the puppy-dog look." I grinned, pleased that it hadn't taken any more convincing than that. He had a smile on his face. "I will tell the guy that you are already gone for the night. And, if you want, I will close out your table in the dining room too." Josh winked as he picked up all his glasses from the soda fountain.
"You will? Thank you!" I grinned throwing my arms around him.
"Whoa, watch the glasses here!"
"You're my hero." I laughed as he disappeared through the door and into the bar side of the restaurant.
I hastily gathered my receipts and adjusted them for tips. I was punching out on the time clock when I heard him.
"You leaving?" I turned slowly to see Scott leaning against a wall a few feet behind me, watching. I stiffened involuntarily.
"I have somewhere I have to be. Josh is covering the last two tables for me." I was intentionally being vague and I could tell by the look on his face he was picking up on that. "I thought you didn't work tonight." I said, trying to throw him off. It didn't work; a dark expression crossed his serious face.
"You are fighting again aren't you." It wasn't a question. My silence confirmed his fears. "Oh, Eli, you are going to get hurt again." He groaned, shrugging away from the wall towards me.
"Don't." I snapped coldly. "I don't really see how it's any of your business what I do anymore. And besides, I don't really think you're all that concerned about what is going to hurt me either." I glared and shoved my way past, ignoring the look of pain that spread over his features.
I took one last look across the bar on my way out the back door. That was when I saw him. The man that was sitting at booth twenty-seven was wearing a trench coat. His back was too me and he was sitting alone. He had long hair, pulled back into a pony tail at the base of his neck. He appeared to be watching the football that was on the big screen. There was something about him that sent chills through me. There was a part of me that felt the sudden urge to stay, to go talk to him, to sit with him. I was frozen, in the doorway.
As my internal conflict raged on, he turned and looked directly at me. I was positive I had never seen him before but a fresh wave of chills ran over me as we made eye contact. Despite knowing I had never seen him before, he seemed oddly familiar.
In the shallow light of the bar it was hard to tell but his skin seemed pale, unusually so. Some strands of his brown hair had come out of his pony tail and were framing his face. I wasn't close enough to see any detail of his eyes, but they held me captive nonetheless. A smirk crossed his face, as if he was completely aware of the effect he was having on me. It was as if the entire world had melted away. The gentle roar of the restaurant faded into silence as our eyes remained locked. I took an involuntary step forward, away from the door.
Suddenly I shook my head and everything came back into focus and the noise of the rowdy bar crowd filled my ears once more. I was supposed to be doing something. I only just caught an expression of puzzlement on the man's face before it turned back into a smirk and his back was to me again.
"See ya, Eli!" Someone called from the bar. Shit! The fight! I waved good-bye to Adam who had taken over for the bar tender and scurried out the door without even truly seeing the concerned look on Scott's face as he watched from the doorway.
In my truck I shook my head again, trying to clear the image of the man, the guy really, out of my head. He couldn't have been that much older than me. I had only just pulled out onto the street when my phone began buzzing in the cup holder. I looked down and saw the name Seth Green flashing on the caller I.D.
"Hey," I said, readjusting my phone and me hands so I could better grip the wheel.
"Are you on your way?" Was my greeting from the other end of the line.
"Ramanov?" I asked, confused. "Why are –"
"My phone died. Are you on your way?" He asked with characteristic impatience.
"Yea, I will be there in fifteen. Why? What's going on?" Ramanov was always calm, cool, and collected, but on the phone he sounded jittery and excited.
"Guess who showed up for this one, Eli."
"I don't know?" I said, growing impatient with the secrets game already. "Just tell me."
"Jake."
"I'll be there in five." I said with a vengeful grin creeping over my face. I dropped my phone, not even bothering to end the call. Within seconds I had my favorite pre-fight album blasting from my speakers. My foot pressed on the gas as fast as I dare go as I took the fastest route across and then out of town.
Jake was my big competitor. Well, he was the guy that had delivered the soccer kick to my head that had not only given me a concussion but also knocked me out of the fights for four months. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal except he did it so that I would be forced to miss the biggest fight of the year. But I was back. I'm better, faster, stronger. I hope you are ready asshole. It's your turn to pay.
I jumped out of my truck the second it was in park and ripped my bag from the backseat. I shoved my way through the crowd to where I knew my team would be waiting.
Blake, Seth, Bo, and Ramanov had been my best friends for the past six years and now they were my fight team. When we were younger and our fathers had all been stationed at Fort Jackson in South Carolina we were devastated when we had heard the news of the transfer. It wouldn't have been the first time that I had said good-bye to friends in the army, but they were certainly the closest. When everyone found out where they were going we had exchanged names at the exact time. On the count of three everyone had screamed Fort Lewis. We had sat, frozen in shock for an entire minute before the triumphant cheers had begun.
I saw them now, six years older than the twelve year old kids I knew back then and I couldn't help but smile. I waved to them and once they saw me they began waving cheerfully.
"Hey guys!" I said clapping Blake's hand and giving Seth a hug. "Hey Bo" I smiled.
"'Sup?" He managed through the mouth full of cheeseburger he was chewing on. I turned to see Ramanov, who was standing, shirtless next to me.
"You fighting tonight too?" I asked, peeling off my own work shirt to reveal my fighting bra beneath. My fighting bra was black and printed on the front was the letters EKO in capitol font.
"Yeah, I think I am." Ramanov said through the mouth guard he was chewing on. He clapped his gloves together and bounced on his bare toes.
"Well then, I will see you in the champion ring." I said with a wicked smirk.
"Fuck that! I'm not getting in the ring with you again. Plus, we are going to make sure Jake is the one in the ring with you." He grinned.
Ramanov was nearly a foot taller than my five foot five inches and easily had eighty pounds on me. Despite that, the number of times that he had truly beaten me in a fight could be counted on one hand. None of the others had ever done it.
I laughed aloud as I wrapped my gloves tightly around my wrists. I wiggled and flexed my fingers, checking for dexterity and grappling maneuverability.
"Umm… Eli?" I turned my head towards Bo, who had magically produced a second cheeseburger. "You can't fight in jeans." He laughed while unwrapping his meal. Everyone joined in.
"Shut up!" I snapped. "Make a circle." I gestured half-heartedly. They twisted into a circle around me. I was successfully, or at least mostly successfully, blocked from the view of the general public with wide shoulders and broad chests.
I quickly pulled off my jeans and pulled on my favorite knee length black 'Tapout' brand shorts. "Okay, I'm decent." I announced, tapping Ramanov on the shoulder.
"Shit!" I burst out suddenly remembering I hadn't actually registered.
"It's already done." Blake said nonchalantly as if he could read my mind. I sighed in relief.
"They let you register me without me being here?"
"Yep. Roulette is the announcer tonight." I nodded in understanding. Roulette was the nickname of a common announcer at this venue. He had known the boys and I since we had first moved to Washington three years before.
I was pulling my hair back when the music that had been playing over the loud speakers cut out and the familiar voice of Roulette boomed through the microphones overhead.
"Ladies and Gentleman! Are you ready for some brawling?"