CHAPTER 08
Pretty With A Pistol


DISCLAIMER: I do not own Twilight or anything associated with the Twilight Universe. I'm just playing around and no copyright infringement is intended. The only things that belong to me are my original characters and the plot.

PREVIOUSLY, ON HOUSE OF THE HUNTERS: Everyone has participated in the awkward meet and great and eventually the groups started to get to know each other a little better. Edward and Bella were approached by Carlisle, Charlie, and Edward Senior about joining their two groups together for safety reasons. The two leaders were reluctant, but offered to give it a 'test run', so to speak, by showing off their skills at Rosalie's gym, Thorn in Their Side.


EPOV

Jasper and I were helping Rose open up the gym a bit earlier than normal, anticipating the arrival of the Swans. It was just after eight in the morning and, even though I didn't exactly hate mornings, I wasn't very chipper either.

A fucking morning person, I was not.

Once everyone had reconvened in the sitting room last night, it was agreed that we would wait until the next day for our family feud. We were all pretty beat after a day full of unwelcomed socializing and party-going so we split for the night, agreeing to meet up the next morning at the gym, TITS, which we gave directions to.

Thorn in Their Side was the gym my cousin opened up after the attack that lead to the birth of Riley. She realized, after Royce's impressive torture session by yours truly, that it wasn't his first attack and he surely hadn't planned on it being his last.

He was definitely a sick fucker.

Her mind had wondered how we could help possible future victims aside from donating obscene amounts of money to charities. Finally, she decided to open a gym and offer self defense classes.

It's not like the three of us weren't qualified for the job.

Rose bought the entire building that housed the gym, including the floor above it, which is where she and my niece lived when we weren't staying at the estate. We spent months repairing and renovating and, eventually, we were rewarded with what came to be known as the second best gym this side of Chicago.

The only reason it didn't rank first was because the man scoring the businesses made a pass at Rosalie. She didn't take too kindly to his advances and forcibly escorted him from the property. He was a perverted old bastard and, in my opinion, deserved much worse than what he got.

Still, the nasty fucker should have had the decency to be fair. TITS was immaculate. The interior felt more like a dojo or yoga class, with its padded, light gray carpeting and the entire length of the walls lined with mirrors. She liked to keep the equipment, such as the mannequin dummies and punching bags, out of the way until a class was in session, but left a handful of actual machines and gear, like a couple of treadmills, ellipticals, ropes, and such out on the floor at all times.

It was small, but it was fierce and put truth behind the saying of big things coming in small packages.

Jasper pulled me from my musings with a light bump against my shoulder. I jerked my eyes forward and watched as a large, red Jeep Wrangler barrel down the city street. The Swans sure knew how to make a fucking entrance.

It skidded to a stop at the curb in front of the building and Emmett immediately appeared from the driver's side. He wore a big grin that shed years from his face, making him appear more adolescent than adult. As he rounded the jeep, Bella and Alice stepped out of the passenger sides.

Everyone seemed to be in good spirits, which was fortunate. Let's just hope they stayed that way because our sessions could get a bit… tense. Even while training alone, the three of us could get ridiculously competitive. It was a blessing and a curse, I supposed, but one of us always walked away with four extra Benjamins lining our wallet.

Alice sent a too-cheerful-for-the-morning smile in our direction as the trio approached us. "I've heard great things about this place, Rose. Could we get a quick tour before we start?" She wrapped her arm around Beauty's and followed my cousin inside.

They received a quick walk-around, seeing how there wasn't much to show off without everything pulled out and set up properly, but the Sprite didn't seem to mind. She 'ooh-ed' and 'ah-ed' in all of the appropriate places while making comments on the 'lovely' color scheme of black and charcoal grays with bright red accents.

Eventually we made our way to the back office. I wasn't going to lie. Showing them where we trained, where we conducted most of our family business, was a large leap of trust on my part. This was completely off the grid, even in the city's floor plans of TITS; a sanctuary of sorts

The entire group was silent as I stepped in front of a large painting. The artist did a magnificent job on the grayscale lion with a single red rose gently placed in his mouth and it was Rose's favorite due to the symbolism behind it; a lion for the Cullen family-line and a red rose as her own self interpretation.

I leveled my eyes with the regal creature's gaze and stood nearly stock-still. If one were watching carefully, the lion's right eye highlighted faintly with red. It could have been a trick of the shadows or a play of the light, but it was truly some of the best technology we had ever invested in hard at work.

The retinal scanner took mere seconds to detect and identify me before we heard the lock disengage and witnessed the seamless wall next to the picture push in and slide to the side. The silence held across the group as Jasper and Rosalie entered first, leading by example, and I took up the rear.

The door snapped close behind us just as fluorescent lights lined the stairwell we found ourselves on. Our decent was short as we came upon the Cullen's version of a playground.

And it was definitely my kind of playground.

Anything you were looking to do could be done in the gym beneath the gym. We spent twice as long preparing this space than we did the actual business and it was completely fucking worth it.

There was a single room, which was more of the size of an actual gymnasium, full of obstacles with alternating goals. Not to mention the vertical obstacle course, authentic rock wall included, the boxing ring, or the quarter mile track that ran around the entire perimeter.

But my favorite would have to be the shooting range. It was a fairly simple two lane, one hundred yard range with adjustable targets and two walls full of weapons. It was where I always gravitated to have fun or simply relieve stress.

I couldn't wait to set my fucking sights on the target at the end of the lane.

As if the creepy twin telepathy suddenly extended to cousins, Jasper stopped the group directly in front of the plexiglass stalls. "I know this is a lot to take in, so let's start off small and, if we feel like continuing, we can. Sound good?" My cousin didn't even bother to wait for a response as he side stepped the area. "This, here, is Edward's domain, so we'll let him go against whichever one of you choose to accept."

I smirked at him and stepped pass the flock of Swans, Bella following directly behind me. She matched my cocky expression as she eyed the wall of weapons on one side. "Is this where I step up and declare, 'challenge accepted'?" Her eyebrow cocked as she plucked a satchel of throwing knives and a basic Beretta from the collection.

A low chuckle rumbled through the group, my family included, at my Beauty's sassiness, but I just smiled. My mind was too wrapped up in imagining her firing the weapon in her hand. If I thought she was beautiful alone or straddling the amazing rocket she owned, then she was fucking stunning while easily clutching a pistol.

I shook my head and took the second set of her choices from my side of the plexiglass so we would be more evenly matched.

I couldn't have her saying I cheated when I kicked her fine ass.

"If you would consider this a challenge, then by all means, Swan, declare your acceptance." My fingers quickly went through the motions of checking the Beretta and loading the magazine. "What distance are you comfortable with?"

She copied my movements yet somehow made them sexual as her nimble fingers slid across the guns components. After checking and deeming everything up to par, she slid the oversized pair of noise suppressers on.

"Highest setting, Cullen!" Her voice rose to near shouting from the muffs covering her ears. I grinned at her and nodded at Jazz, knowing he would set the controls for us, before I slid suppressers over my own ears and released the safety.

What my Beauty didn't know was that our highest setting wasn't just the one hundred yard distance; it was a full blown course. Targets and civilians would maneuver around the individual lanes at random with varying speeds. It was a true test of your skills as a marksman and demanded a clear head.

This was going to be fucking fun!

Jasper counted down from three, loud enough for us to hear from our muffled worlds. I locked gazes with Bella, plastered a cocky smirk on my lips and sent a wink in her direction. "Three," She grinned in return and sent a wink back, nearly catching me off guard. "Two," I raised my gun and watched out of my peripheral as Bella did the same. "One!" Let the fun begin!

Targets began to appear in rapid succession. I didn't bother to check on Bella as I pierced the paper hearts and heads of the attackers, sparing the civilians just as easily.

The round was going quickly and I glanced up in time to watch Bella release her magazine and insert a new one. Before she could bring her gun back up, a target appeared nearly forty yards away. I jerked my gun to the left and shot the make-shift attacker twice in the chest and once in the head.

I half expected her to be pissed, but, if I was being honest with myself, I was going for impressed. Impressing a woman was one of the easiest ways to get her into bed, pissing her off… not so much. Her expression didn't give much away, but she eventually grinned and nodded.

Her reaction threw me, but I quickly realized her intent as she shot one of my targets directly in the heart. So we were sharing now? That was like the shooter's version of crossing streams.

Regardless, I humored her and began to put down the targets on her side as well as mine. If I missed one, she would handle it and vice versa. For two people who hadn't known each other for more than twelve hours, we were incredibly in sync.

Eventually, my pistol had run out of ammunition. I replaced the magazine and cocked the gun watching as fate turned the tables and a target placed itself in my lane. The timer sounded, buzzing obnoxiously loud, just as a knife flew from Bella's side of the lane, landing directly in the paper-man's head.

I shifted my gaze over and immediately wished I hadn't. Bella was standing there with another dagger twirling between her fingers and a sexy grin across her lips.

My cock would fall off from this much exposure to the real life version of my own personal wet dream.

I was fucking sure of it.

We replaced the weapons and removed our safety gear, causing the whoops and whistles from the group behind us to grow louder. I couldn't help locking my gaze with hers any more than I could help the fact that my southern friend seemed to instantly harden in her presence.

The traitorous bastard! But who could blame him?

She was sex on legs and it only intensified when she sent me that little smirk. Not to mention she was obviously a skilled marksman… extremely skilled. Her petite fingers could pull the trigger rapidly and accurately. Now I wondered what the rest of her toned body was capable of… in and out of the sheets.

"I'm next!" Emmett's boisterous voice echoed around the space as the cheering quieted down. "Who wants to go up against 'The Beast'?" As he spoke his self-given nickname, the brute of a man flexed his muscles in overly-exaggerated ways.

Alice rolled her eyes at her brother's antics and scoffed. "Pah-lease, Em. 'The Beast', my ass. More like 'The Teddy Bear'." She then proceeded to bend her thin arms in muscle-men poses, mocking the man's earlier movements.

He chuckled deeply and the smile that spread across his face caused his dimples to reappear. "Alright, short-stuff, I'll remember that the next time you need these guns," he brought his arms up, flexing the muscles on his biceps, "to pull you out of another hole."

I swore I heard Alice muttering under her breath something along the lines of, "fall down one fucking hole that's twice as tall as you and he won't let you live it down," but I wasn't certain. Either way, Rosalie decided to step up to the plate and take on the hulk of a man.

They were fairly matched. Rose was an amazing shot. It must have been genetic or some shit because we all were, but Emmett obviously possessed a greater knowledge of the weapon they had chosen because he seemed to have won their round.

Up next were Jasper and Alice. My cousin kept sending side glances toward the small brunette. I wasn't sure if he was genuine or if he was following his dick radar, but it was obvious he was interested in something.

The Sprite was an excellent aim, but she lacked the speed I would prefer someone who was supposed to be covering my ass to have. Regardless, and even though Jasper's score nearly tripled hers, she sent a large smile in my Beauty's direction, which was returned. Bella looked proud.

Once the safety gear was wiped down and everything was replaced, Emmett clapped his hands loudly. "Alright, boys and girls, what's next?" I rolled my eyes at his overly excited tone, but couldn't help the small smile tugging at my lips.

He was definitely the loudest of the Swans.


AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hope you enjoyed your dash of 'action' and a big thanks to those of you who answered my previous question about possible point of views. Remember, I nom-nom-nom reviews!

OH YEAH!, I ALMOST FORGOT: House of the Hunters was featured on Fic Diving over at A Different Forest and is now up in the voting for Fic Dive of the Month. Thanks to whoever recommended it. If you'd like to vote for it, head on over to poll-maker dot com /poll134976x2559479d-6 minus the spaces or you can find a click-able link on my profile. Voting closes on September 15th.