Just as planned, the pride, pack, and Cullen coven were all gathered in a large clearing far away from town at exactly eight o'clock the next night. Kat was pacing back and forth, obviously still reeling from the information about her trainer coming back for her. Jasper was also pacing, though I could hear him mumbling to himself as he did so, trying to figure out how to best teach us all to fight. The wolves, still not trusting the vampires, were all shifted, lying near the tree line and watching the two moving supernaturals with gleaming eyes.
"I think it would be best if you start, Katherine." Jasper finally stopped pacing and spoke to the blonde Alpha. Her shoulders tensed up, but she nodded after a moment.
"Alright." She shook herself and turned to face the gathered group. "Rikki?" She called to the only member of our pride that was shifted. The leopard got up and padded up to Kat, ducking down and butting her softly with her head.
"For starters, shifters are obviously very large, and very strong." She pointed out, needlessly as Rikki dwarfed even her tall frame. "But despite that, we're faster than we look."
On cue Rikki reared up and leapt forward right into the vampire's faces before they could process what was going on, making a few of them stumble. She let out a low grumbling laugh and turned back to Kat, who glared at her. I guess that wasn't part of the plan.
"As I was saying, we're fast, and vampires usually don't take that into account. That's our biggest advantage, a vampire's arrogance." Kat told the Cullens. This of course drew several wolfy chuckles from the pack, and a few growls from the Cullens.
"You don't waste an opportunity to insult us, do you?" Rosalie hissed at the girl.
"I'm not insulting you. I'm stating a fact." Kat replied, her face deadly serious. "Take Emmett for example."
"What about me?" He asked, looking very confused.
"You're the strongest vamp in the coven. Right?" He nodded. "So let me ask this, could you beat me while I'm in this form?"
"Of course I could." He scoffed.
"Then show me." She challenged him back.
"I feel like this is going to end badly." Alice murmured from right beside me.
"It will." I sighed.
"Alright, but you asked for it." He grinned and stepped forward.
Rikki huffed and walked back to Danni to give the two more space for the unexpected tussle. Emmett strolled forward and, once close enough, dropped into a crouch, looking tensed for any movement from his opponent. Kat, the polar opposite, relaxed her body and leaned forward to stand on the balls of her feet.
Then she just waited. Eventually, Emmett must have grown bored, because he shot forward, my eyes barely able to follow. Just as he was about to crash into my Alpha, no doubt causing a lot of damage, she stepped to the side. Confused, Emmett turned to see a smirking Kat looking back at him. Letting out an aggravated growl, he charged her again, a bit slower this time; but just like the last time she side-stepped at the last moment.
This repeated several more times, Emmett obviously getting more frustrated with each near miss, and it showed in his fighting. Then, as he passed her once more, Kat's foot shot out and connected with his chest. Emmett stumbled slightly, and Kat seized the opportunity. She was quickly on the offensive, dealing several kicks and punches to his large body, until she finally got around to his back and forced him to the ground. She placed a foot on his back and forced his arms over and behind his back.
"You're strong, you're fast, and you're smart. And yes, I'm going to bruise just because I hit you. None of that is in question. But the fact is, most vampires fight like they are the strongest, the fastest, and the smartest. Hence, most of them fight arrogant." She announced, only letting Emmett up once she was done.
He slowly got up; looking a bit dazed, then shot Kat a glare. I was a bit nervous he was going to attack her again, but he only shook his head.
"You could have just said you could beat me, ya know?" He chuckled after a moment.
"Would you have believed me?" She smirked back.
"Not a chance." He laughed and stuck out his hand to shake hers. She looked absolutely stunned, but took the offered hand and shook it after a moment.
"Now, back to what I was saying." She motioned for Rikki to join her once more. "The two things you need to avoid when it comes to shifters: our claws and our fangs. We can tear apart a vampire in a matter of seconds if we manage to get ahold of one."
"So how would one dispatch a shifter?" Jasper asked, ever the strategist.
Kat looked incredibly uncomfortable with the question, for obvious reasons too. Answering the question let the vampires know how to kill us, and that's not something people like to share. Weaknesses are kept a secret for a reason, after all.
"We're most vulnerable at the back of our necks." She managed to get out. "If you can get on a shifter's back, you will most likely be able to kill it. Our defense mechanism is to flip over, but we can't crush or suffocate a vampire, so it would do anything other than inconvenience your kind. We will try to buck you off though."
"Anything else?" Jasper asked.
"Well, as Emmett so wonderfully demonstrated earlier, getting someone mad is the best way to make them fight sloppy." Kat shot the large vampire a smirk. "And if you want to get a shifter mad, you go for its tail." To demonstrate, she quickly yanked on the leopard's tail that was repeatedly hitting her back. Rikki let loose a snarl, both out of anger and surprise, but Kat just smirked at her. "That, and if it's a feline shifter, eliminating the tail takes away the shifter's balance."
"Well then, I suggest we practice. Each of the vampires should pair up with a shifter and try to climb onto its back, because I'm guessing it's not an easy feat." Jasper announced.
"Not even a little bit." Kat agreed. "And that will give the shifters practice in avoiding having someone climb our back."
"I call Bella." Alice declared, pulling me slightly away to an empty area.
"You want to practice killing me? That doesn't seem healthy for a relationship." I chuckled as Alice backed up slightly.
"If it was anyone else, I'd be too focused on ripping them apart for even trying to kill you, even if it's only pretend." She explained.
"True." I shrugged. She looked pointedly at me, and I realized that I needed to shift. Which meant I needed to undress. Yeah, that wasn't happening right here. "I need to shift."
"Yes, and I'm waiting." Alice responded and motioned for me to go ahead.
"I'm not getting undressed in a clearing with this many people around!" I hissed out as quietly as I could.
"Oh, right." She quickly took my hand and pulled me just inside the tree line so I was shielded.
"Um…" I realized that she was still staring right at me.
"Yes?"
"Are you going to stand there and watch me?" I asked in a voice that was far higher than usual.
"Why not, I'm bound to see it eventually." She said, though it was obvious she was joking. Or half-joking? Or maybe not at all? Goddess, my head got messed up around the small vampire. "But if it makes you uncomfortable I can leave…"
"Um…" Wow Bella, way to be articulate. "I'll just turn around." Yep, my head was officially messed with.
Ignoring the voices in my head yelling at each other (no, I'm not crazy… at least, I don't think so) I turned and lifted my shirt over my head before I could think about it. Of course, a gasp from Alice had me turning around to see what was the matter.
Once I had turned around, I saw her eyes were locked onto my side. The side that still bore the teeth marks from my change.
"I told you we keep the mark forever." I muttered, feeling rather self-conscious as she stared at me.
"I know, I just… didn't think it would…"
"Bother you?" I muttered, turning my gaze to the ground.
"Not for the reason you think." She took a step forward and turned my head so I was meeting her gaze. "It's a reminder to me that I wasn't here to protect you, and that kills me. The scar itself isn't what bothers me, it's what it represents." She explained, unshedable tears shinning in her eyes.
"As long as you don't leave again, then I don't blame you." I told her. And I realized I didn't care much that she had left anymore. She was here now, and that was all that mattered. Yep, now my head was messed with and I was going soft.
"Doesn't mean I'm not going to blame myself." She murmured, dropping one of her hands to run it along the slightly raised skin of the scar.
At her ice-cold touch, I couldn't help the shudder that ran through my body. It was like every nerve was on fire, and I was hyper-aware of the vampire in front of me. Hell, even her scent seemed to become much more potent, surrounding me in a haze of Alice.
And when she tilted her head up and pressed her lips into mine, I was officially gone. All I could hear, see, smell, feel, and think about was Alice. The way she fit against my body. The way her frigid temperature seemed to make my warmer body catch fire. The way her lips, so soft despite the marble-like skin she possessed, fit so perfectly against mine. And the way she made my whole body hum with a foreign energy that was so pleasant to experience.
A thud and growl from somewhere near us allowed some of my conscious mind to return, and made me realize that making out with Alice in the middle of the woods was not what I needed to be doing right now, even if it was I wanted to be doing.
"Alice…" I muttered against her mouth.
"What?" She pulled away slightly, letting me see two black eyes staring back at me. Wow, I never knew black could be such a beautiful color… "Bella?" Her question snapped me back to reality.
"We need to be training right now." I sighed, stepping back a bit. I knew that if I stood there with her in my arms, training would be the farthest thing from my mind.
"Right…" She grumbled.
"It might be better if you go back and wait for me. I'm less likely to be distracted that way." I chuckled.
"I'm not that distracting." She huffed turning to go.
"You are incredibly distracting." I told her with a laugh.
Thankfully she just ignored it and kept walking, giving me the needed privacy to strip down and shift, shedding human skin in favor of my panther's pelt. However, maneuvering out of the trees wasn't quite as easy, as Alice didn't pick a very wide path when we came into the woods. But eventually I made it back into the clearing, only a few twigs in my fur.
"Sorry." Alice smiled sheepishly when she saw the offending braches, though she didn't sound very sorry when a small snort escaped her lips. I just huffed at her and stood a bit in front of her, hoping she got the hint.
She must have, because with a wink she was coming at me, taking a very forward approach. Once she was close enough she pushed off the ground and did a rather graceful flip to land the correct way on my back. It almost made me feel bad rearing up and knocking her down with a heavy paw. Of course, she had just laughed at me, so I wasn't feeling too bad when she landed on her butt with a huff.
She growled softly and got up for a second attack, this time opting to go for my sides. Again I managed to knock her down, though she did manage to get a foot and a hand on my shoulder before I did so.
This went on for a little while, Alice leaping at me and me trying to knock her down. At the end of it I'd say we were about tied in out success, though she did insist that she won, so I just butted my head into her back once it was turned and caused her to fall forward. And really, that was all the victory I needed.
"You two done over there?" Emmett called out, watching us with a raised eyebrow and a grin.
"Are we calling it a night?" Alice called back, brushing herself off.
"Jasper wants to have a talk, so Bella's supposed to get dressed, unless she wants to sit here naked." He replied, his grin morphing into a smirk.
"I bet Alice wouldn't mind that one bit." Rikki's voice sounded in my head.
Oh shut up… I grumbled, trying not to let my mind wander to earlier.
"Wow, already half way there just tonight?" Rikki laughed at the images that of course popped to the front of my mind.
I just sent a growl her way and sulked into the trees to retrieve my clothes. Once fully dressed, I headed back out to the small gathering of people sitting in the grass around Jasper, who was pacing once again.
"Where'd everyone go?" I asked as I sat down next to Alice, and far away from Rikki who shot me a smirk. We were going to have to talk about personal boundaries soon. That or I could blackmail her somehow. I'm sure the Cullens would find it hilarious how whipped she was when it came to Danni.
"Most of the pack wanted to head home. Sam's still recovering after all." Leah told me, making me realize that it was just her, Seth, and Jacob left from the pack.
"But we figured that some of us needed to stay to talk strategy." Jacob answered. "And right now, I kind of represent the pack." He informed me, though didn't look too pleased about it.
"So what did we need to discuss anyway?" I asked Jasper.
"I realized that we have a small problem." He announced.
"Other than the group of vamps and shifters coming to kill us?" Kat muttered.
"Yes, other than that. During the fight, differentiating between The Pit shifters and our own might become tricky." Jasper pointed out.
"Oh." Kat replied. "You're right."
"I was thinking that we need some sort of mark to show us which shifters aren't going to try to rip us apart." He told us with a grim smile.
"As crude as it sounds, we could do something simple like tie a colored string around our neck or paw. The only problem is that it might fall off or be ripped off during the fight." Danni spoke up.
"It has potential, but you're right about losing it while fighting." Jasper mused.
"The pack all have cords tied around our front left paw to hold clothes while we're shifted." Jacob pointed out. "We could get a couple more for the pride. They're really durable so they shouldn't fall off easily."
"For now, that will be our plan, and a good one at that. If anyone else thinks of something better, then let us know." Jasper announced with a nod, though still looked deep in thought.
"Are we done here?" Kat asked and Jasper and he gave her a very distracted nod. "Good, then-"
Whatever she wanted to say was cut off but a loud crack in the woods directly in front of us. Every head in the clearing snapped up to locate the noise, and everyone sitting shot up to be ready for whatever it was.
Another snap soon followed the first, which had us all tensed as something came out of the tree line. Of course, I don't think any of us was prepared for the beast that did emerge.
My first thought was that it was a werewolf, the body shape and size were right, and the paws were identical. There were a few problems with that theory, however, and the main one was the distinct lack of snarling coming from the mystery creature. It also didn't reek, instead only smelled a bit stronger than the wolf shifters. The head was also different; its muzzle was longer, its ears weren't quite as long, and its eyes were a deep brown, not a soulless black.
"Lycan." Kat announced, answering the unasked question we were all no doubt thinking of.
"What's a lycan?" Alice asked me, but I only shrugged my shoulders and shook my head. Right now, we knew the exact same amount.
"I sincerely hope that you're not here looking for trouble." Kat stepped forward and addressed the lycan. Carlisle quickly stepped forward as well, prepared to speak as the coven leader for the land.
"Still completely paranoid I see." A voice seemingly came from nowhere at Kat's statement, causing her to tense up.
Not a moment later, a form straightened up from the lycan's back, and once the large supernatural was lowered to the floor, the passenger slid off its mount.
Taking a look at the newcomer, I saw it was a woman, a gorgeous one at that. She had long black hair hanging down her back and framing an angular face that was facing my Alpha. She would have been even prettier if an ugly glare wasn't plastered on her face, two bright blue eyes narrowed at my Alpha.
I had no idea who the woman could be until she produced a cane and began limping forward, her left leg covered in a multitude of angry looking scars. Then it hit me, this woman was Skylar, the old doctor from The Pit. Kat's old mate, the one that left her for her Imprint all those years ago, leaving the girl a broken mess.
Oh, this was going to be bad…
A/N: I'm sorry, I know I'm a bad person... But I'll try to get the next chapter out as quickly as I can! Reviews do inspire me, and I'd even take you guys yelling at me to hurry up.