Chapter Fifty-Four:

The day after my imprudent visit to Martino's lair, and making a distasteful – but very necessary – deal with my own personal devil, I thought it best that Angel and I stick close to home and out of public view for a while, at least a day or so on my part, possibly longer for her. The only thing we could really do now anyway was wait… and see if the coven leader would actually hold up his end of the bargain we struck.

The fact is, I personally was never a good one for leaving a crisis in someone else's hands and waiting, having always preferred direct action to solve a vampire problem. So to kill time and work off some nervous energy I fell back into the familiar routine of physically working out.

I had just done two hundred push-ups on my knuckles, mostly to help desensitize them to blows – especially against vampire flesh, and had switched to doing them on my fingertips when Angel came into the living room. She couldn't help but notice I had moved some of the furniture out of my way to make room for my regime.

"What are you doing?" she inquired with some bewilderment after a moment of watching.

"Push-ups," I responded, obviously without need.

The vampire girl rolled her eyes and tisked at me. "I can see that… what I meant is why are you doing them? Its not like it's going to make you stronger, or build any muscle… you're half vampire."

"I know that," I said. "But the activity helps me think."

And the mindless training usually did. In the past, I'd had some of my best ideas for fighting vampires while performing meaningless exercises… sort of like an impromptu meditation routine. It was a habit I had picked up while in Japan, when I had to cram educational lessons in along with the physical parts of learning my newest martial art.

I must have been somewhat out of practice because I wasn't coming up with much of use at the moment… but I at least felt like I was doing something slightly constructive instead of just sitting on my butt.

"Oh?" Angel said, and I can tell by her manner she thought this one of the times I was being a little impractical. "Let me help you then," she suddenly added. Her tone turned deeply mischievous.

She bounced over and straddled my shoulder and upper back, as she would have a horse. I felt all her weight settle on me as she picked her feet up and curled her legs to my sides.

"How's that? Better?" she wanted to know impishly.

"Just peachy," I told her as I briefly paused… wondering if the vampire girl was suffering from cabin fever only after a few hours of being told we wouldn't be leaving the house for a day, or possibly two. But I think I surprised her a bit when I continued on and kept going with my fingertip push-ups, as if her added weight hadn't mattered.

I neglected to mention to her that during my martial arts training, because of my unique condition, I had to perform pushups on my fingertips for several hours while over a bed of broken glass… and with a few hundred pounds of sand bags sitting on my back at the end of my time at the school.

Angel quickly grew tired of the game when she didn't get the obvious reaction of annoyance she wanted, but that didn't stop her from turning over on her back and using me like a moving lounge chair while she read one of her fashion magazines. She never complained about the continuing steady raise and fall motion, or lost her place on my back as I moved, even though she wasn't holding on to anything. I supposed that it wasn't a great big deal to her in the end as she could probably do pushups all day long with me riding on her and never even notice I was there. So I guessed now she was just showing off her perfect sense of balance by remaining where she was and casually reading.

I was saved from further vampire chick torture about a half hour later by a knock at the front door. Angel and I both stole curious glances at each other, because as keyed up as we both were, neither one of us heard anyone approaching the house.

I should have expected Gary White Crow would eventually show up early that morning on our front porch again, and he actually displayed some small surprise at seeing me still alive when I answered the door. I found his lack of faith in my hard earned skills just slightly annoying, but in retrospect… I guess I really couldn't blame him for his reservations. What I had done the day before was a bit on the suicidal side for anyone… living or half-undead.

Once over his slight shock, the old Indian was anxious to hear my report on how my task went, but he wasn't too happy to find out I actually reached an agreement with Benito instead of falling back on 'Plan B', and outright killing the coven master while I had the opportunity.

However the Were was more than thrilled with the information I was able to provide him on the layout of Martino's headquarters and security systems. The sudden gleam in his eyes warned me I might have screwed up by telling Gary what I'd learned, and set me worrying. So I made him promise that he and his furry friends wouldn't do anything with the information I'd just given him until Angel and I were out of this mess.

Gary took the opportunity to again push for Angel and I to join his group, as that would provide enough protection for both of us in his opinion. But Angel and I stuck to our guns about that arrangement and the Were reluctantly agreed to hold off on Martino, and that gave me a sense of relief.

Martino and I might have had a pact at the moment… but at no time did I promise him that I wouldn't turn what I knew over to werewolves for their future use. I just promised I wouldn't talk to other vampires about it.

Angel had been pestering me to continue her ninjutsu training, as I had promised, so I decided it would be a fine opportunity for a lesson… seeing we were spending the day 'hiding out' – like common criminals.

White Crow decided he would stick around and hang out for a while… seeing he'd "never met a honest to goodness ninja before."

I had a sneaking suspicion that the old man might have been poking fun at me, but I could read nothing positive about that on his wrinkled features. I had a vague idea the Indian could keep a straight face during the funniest comedy movie if he wished to, and I made a mental note never to play poker with him for large money.

I had several times attempted to explain to the aged Indian what I did was a little beyond what the common person would think was a ninja, and it was certainly light-years beyond the movie myth of popular cinema, but the old Were didn't seem to grasp the concept no matter how simply I put it.

Or… it was he was choosing to misunderstand on purpose, simply to annoy me.

So with our unplanned audience of one in tow… the vampire girl and I headed out to our somewhat secluded back yard, where I also had my archery range, to continue her martial arts education.

Angel's Bunjinkan training in fact continued progressing even faster than I had first estimated. She learned the basics like a duck taking to water, having that natural unearthly balance and grace of a full-blood vampire. At times it almost seemed that she was taking directions right from my thoughts the way she effortlessly seem to understand the principles behind the empty-hand techniques I showed her.

With her impressive progress, I had also recently started to introduce weapons to her.

We were out on the wide back lawn, dressed to train in comfortable loose-fitting clothing. Angel now looked at me in doubt, than back at the length of wood in her hand with some obvious dissatisfaction.

"Why are we bothering with sticks?" she grumbled, with more than a bit of disappointment in her tone. "Its not even sharp at one so you can use it like a stake."

I rolled my eyes, as she made a stabbing motion with the short staff. Angel had become a fiend for B-grade horror flicks, and watched way too many of them for anyone's good.

"Its called a "Hanbo", I corrected, while brandishing my own three-and-a-half foot dowel of hardwood. "With this you can learn all the basics of other weapons."

"Really?" Angel openly jeered. "With this little-bitty toothpick?"

"Yes," I answered, my tone growing sour with her constant sarcastic doubt.

"Whoa there, Boss! Looks like you got your hands full proving that one to the little lady," White Crow put in from where he lounged on the steps of the rear porch, scarfing down a forgotten bag of potato chips he found somewhere in our kitchen.

I turned to gaze at him irately.

"You're not helping… as usual," I scolded.

The old Indian threw his crumb-coated hands up in surrender.

"Okay, okay, I'll zip it," he said contritely. "Got anything to drink?" he added, brushing his hands off.

"Use the garden hose," I responded bitterly.

The Were frowned. "That's not being very host-like!"

"Stop being mean," Angel told me in turn, then turned to our 'guest', "Gary, check the refrigerator. There should be something in there," she told the old man.

White Crow gave the pretty little vampire a huge charming smile.

"Thank ye kindly, madam," he said with over exaggerated politeness. He twisted his lips up as his gaze swept passed me. "Paleface!" he muttered as he sprang up the steps into the house.

I sighed over the interruption, and then gave my attention back to Angel and the current lesson I was attempting to impart to her.

"Okay… forget about the dog," I said.

"Wolf!" we heard in a near growl coming from deep inside the house. "I'm a goddamned Wolf, you cretin!"

"Whatever," I replied.

Then with some luck, I was able to run Angel through the basics of how to hold and use the Hanbo without further distractions from our guest.

I was showing Angel how to block and trap an attacking limb when White Crow reappeared and plopped himself back down in his former place on the stairs. I was trying not to notice that he had found a half-gallon pitcher full of iced tea that Angel must have made for me at some point, and was currently using said pitcher as a large drinking glass.

For a thin old guy, that werewolf sure could eat!

Angel had just thrown a punch at me, which I deflected with the short end of the Hanbo. I then daftly weaved the longer end through her elbow joint until the tip was caught up under her armpit.

"At this point in the technique, you next simply crank down on the end of the staff you are holding," I was telling her, explaining as we slowly went through the lesson.

Angel frowned in disbelief.

"But I could just tense up my arm and break this twig in…" she started to say, until I cranked down hard on the Hanbo.

Angel suddenly squeaked in alarm after her elbow joint hyper-extended beyond the point even she could control it. Her arm locked up and I dumped her on the ground.

"Hey!" she shouted huffily, her face partly buried in the grass. "That wasn't funny!"

"It wasn't meant to be," I said as I unwrapped her arm from my staff. "It was meant to show you that you shouldn't be so arrogant… and to give you some confidence in using this 'twig' as a weapon if you have to. It was also to remind you that while you are faster, stronger, and less vulnerable than a human, your body is still designed like one, and still has some of the same mechanical flaws. You can imagine I made it my business finding and knowing each and every one of those faults by heart. Understanding how to exploit those flaws is the secret to winning… even against a vampire."

I helped her up from the ground and got an acerbic look for my trouble.

White Crow squinted his eyes at us. He knew impending trouble when he seen it.

"Whew, Chief… I think she's gonna make you pay for that one sooner or later," he criticized.

"Don't you have some fire-hydrants to water somewhere, instead of heckling my class?" I wanted to know.

"Nope, not today," the Indian quipped with a mirthful grin, not offend by my comment in the least. It was obvious he though something entertaining was soon coming over the horizon.

Despite the Were's running commentary, and bad blow-by-blow impressions of Howard Cosell, we were able to get far enough along in the lesson to work on a little bit of free sparring with the Hanbos. Angel seemed to enjoy the part where I showed her that she could switch from traditional Hanbo techniques into just about any sword method in the blink of an eye.

She showed just how well she'd learned, when she made a fake sweep at my feet with her stick to get me to leap over it. As soon as I started to land, Angel executed a nearly perfect Hidari-Kesa-Giri downward diagonal cut that took me painfully across both shins.

"Ow!" Gary openly cringed at the sound of the solid wood cracking against bone.

I stumbled upon landing, tucked into a roll and came back to my feet with my lower legs smarting like hell.

Angel grinned slyly at me, knowing she nailed me good. Pay back was a bitch, and so could be Angel.

"Okay grasshopper," I said, as I limped painfully into a new ready stance. "You want to play that way? Let's go," I beckoned.

The mocking smirk the little vampire gave me said that she thought I was pushing my luck after she had just scored so well. But she chambered her Hanbo as if it were a spear, and charged in anyway to finish me off.

Instead of slipping her rush, I used the Earth posture of ninjutsu fighting and held my ground. At the last possible second I dropped low to the ground, and like I was using a pool cue, I drove the tip of my half-staff into the pressure point just above the kneecap on her leading leg.

Pressure points on vampires don't work, unless they are accompanied by a secondary reaction due to one of those aforementioned design imperfections in the human body that not even vampirism can correct… like this one. The pressure of the tip of the Hanbo against Angel's knee jammed its hinging action and caused it to lock up. Her unstoppable forward momentum then made Angel stumble. As soon as she did that, I leaned to the outside and swung the long end of the Hanbo like I was reaping with a sickle, to hook in behind that same knee. Once there, I rotated it like I was working a boat oar and took Angel off both her feet.

The girl hit the ground hard flat on her back. I immediately moved in and trapped a few of her fingers between my hand and the shaft of my Hanbo. I then yanked that arm straight and jammed one heel into her armpit. The other end of the Hanbo ended up jabbed in under the fleshy part of her jaw, forcing her to turn her head slightly away from me. This also had the added benefit of taking Angel's sight away from me, thus she could no longer see what I was up to – which left her in even more of a dire strait strategically. I lastly rotated my hand holding her pinched fingers slightly, which in turn locked out Angel's arm and elbow, and put more pressure on her jaw.

"Give up?" I asked.

The girl couldn't speak with the end of my half-staff trying to find a path into her mouth by boring its way in under her chin, so she slapped her free hand against the ground in the traditional marital artist tap-out manner.

I immediate released the hold I had on her, and rolled over to end up crouch on my feet next to her, placing the end of my Hanbo on the ground and using it to lean on casually while I regarded her.

I hadn't wanted this to turn into a pissing match, and I'd been a touch harder on her than I planned, but she wanted to learn and as her Sensei, I had to be firm when it was required. This wasn't a game after all, and I was trying to teach her a skill that just might save her life.

"Your biggest mistake that time was in thinking that I was as injured as I let on to be. Remember that," I lectured her as she propped herself on her elbows to gaze at me with a blank face. "The strong fighter will always dominate over the weak fighter, but the smart fighter will win over them both," I quoted from one of my teachers from long ago. "Bunjinkan is the art of winning… anything including deception and misdirection is a weapon to be used."

I almost expected her to be sulky over the trick I'd played on her; instead she brushed her clothing off a bit then turned to me with an unexpected big smile.

"You're going to have to show me again how you did that one," she asked brightly.

After another hour of weapon's training, I took Angel further into the art of Chikairi-no-jutsu. I explained and showed her how to walk and move soundlessly, how to blend in with the smallest of shadows, and how to hide in the most unlikely of places.

White Crow himself seemed intrigued by what we were practicing, and I caught him several times out of the corner of my eye following us about and mimicking what we were doing. Once when I looked at him questionably, he grinned sheepishly and said it was a lot easier hiding and moving unnoticed as a wolf.

Angel seemed delighted with her newly discovered skills, and looking at the old man inspiration struck me. I asked if he was up to a game of "hide and seek" with Angel, and I indicated the heavy brush that bordered my property. The girl suddenly got a look of wicked amusement on her face, obviously thinking that she could easily outsmart the Were – on his own turf, more or less – and beat him in the game.

White Crow seemed up to the challenge, and Angel was so confident she didn't even blink when I suggested that White Crow hunt her as a wolf.

There were several acres of heavy undeveloped woodland behind the homes on our street and that would be our playing field. Angel was given a ten minute head start into the woods before the Were would follow and attempt to find and catch her.

I had no fear that anything bad could be waiting inside the forest, as White Crow would have sensed them better than Angel or I would have, even in his human form. And a vamp would have to be pretty stupid to hang around with a werewolf in the immediate area.

Gary ducked behind the garage for a moment to do what he had to do, and then a huge wolf bounded out just a few moments later. The wolf came and sat by my side on the porch as we waited for the ten minutes to expire. White Crow sat patiently, motionless like a statue, except for his ears that would twitch every now and then as he searched the woods for any audible sign of Angel.

Eventually I glanced at my watch and saw that Angel's grace time was up.

"Time," I said to the wolf, who huffed once and immediately bolted into the brush at the back of the yard.

I got up and headed into the kitchen and made more iced tea. When I returned the back porch to wait the results of the game with some interest. The area was still silent for the most part. I supposed it might have been a dirty trick to pit Angel against Gary this way, as I doubted very much any vampire could hide from a werewolf for very long. I was sure that Angel had taken to the treetops at several points in the exercise to break her scent trail, but having seen him in action, I knew White Crow would eventually find her no matter what.

However, there was no better way to build and hone your skills than by training against or with someone better than you were. It was the best and quickest way to learn… I 'd discovered that simple truth long ago in my own training.

I had been back on the porch for about fifteen minutes, and was beginning to be surprised the game had even lasted this long, when I heard a bark in the distance, followed immediately by a squeal of enjoyment that could only have come from Angel.

The barking increased, along with the shouted taunts. I could follow the commotion as it traveled around the woods from place to place, far quicker than any human could have moved, and knew the training game of "hide and seek" had turned into fun competition of "catch me if you can".

There was little doubt that the martial arts lesson was over for the day, as apparently the pair was soon taking turns with the roles of hunter and prey, and chasing each other through the trees.

Angel's laughter sounded happy as it drifted back to me, even White Crow's booming barks seemed filled with delight. I leaned back against the next step of the short staircase, and was surprised to find a small grin on my face, deciding this was the perfect way to end the day's workout.