I feel the twinge in my shoulder as I tire but swing overhead to block and redirect Sawyer's wooden sword blade, sweat beading on my bare neck and making the sleeveless sparring tee stick to my skin.
"Now," I hear Xaden say quickly in my mind, and my body immediately moves to fulfill his request. I shoot out my left arm with the dagger reversed in my palm, the wood blade angled lengthwise along my forearm toward my elbow.
Sawyer mistakenly follows through with his swing and I thrust it forward to slice across his stomach, the two of us splitting apart as I cackle in victory at his muffled, "oof, damn it!"
"Gotcha," I pant, the sweat on his face and neck making his freckles stand at attention. He tags out for Ridoc as we play the unofficial Second Squad, Flame Section game of King of the Mat - or in this case, Queen.
Ridoc palms the sword Sawyer had, giving him two to dual wield, and I catch my breath with my hands on my knees as he gets himself ready. My streak consists of Rhi, beating her out by only a couple of seconds, now Sawyer where I sneaked my left arm past his defense, and soon to be Ridoc as he seeks to knock me from my throne.
Am I cheating? Yes. I have a Xaden in my head. But they don't know that, and I've been using trickery to win on the mat since day one, so this is nothing new and I feel no guilt.
"Left foot forward?"
"Left foot forward," his smooth voice approves as he watches from the other mat, pretending to look over Bodhi and Imogen as they go hand to hand.
I do as we agree and meet Ridoc's cocky grin, rolling my eyes when he swirls his swords dramatically and taunts, Rhi and Sawyer cheering him on. He charges in and I duck the first blade while meeting the second, and left foot forward was exactly what I needed to use in order to counter and not lose my momentum. The wooden dagger still sits backwards against my forearm, and I feel the sharp sting as it cracks into the outer bone with the block.
"Eyes on his right hand - left is a fake out."
I see Ridoc lift the left arm acting as if he would strike downward at an angle toward my neck, but I follow the instruction and track his right hand as it goes low for the swipe against my stomach.
Keeping my movement forward, I step into his body, my knee hitting his back thigh before the leg could plant to take weight. I hear his grunt as his balance falters and he drops to one knee, though his recovery makes his left hand come down in the form of an elbow jarring onto my fingers that hold the right blade I had intended to strike with. Unfortunately, it clatters from my hand, but I don't falter. Ridoc's right hand foregoes the swipe he'd been working toward to flatten on the mat in order to catch his weight, so I use my forward momentum to step on the blade and pin it down before he can pick it back up.
Dropping the training dagger from my left hand down to my right, I catch it in mid air and twist it up, the point stopping where Ridoc's neck meets his shoulders, and he groans in defeat.
"Fuck, that was really hot," Xaden groans into my mind, and a shiver races down my spine.
"You wanna go next?"
"Yes, please."
"Damnit! Vi, you're a killer tonight!" Ridoc gasps, stepping off the mat as Rhiannon takes his place quickly, a smile on her face and her eyes set with a fierce determination.
"She is going to kick my ass. Maybe I've taken it too far."
"Her right foot is forward but her sword is centered."
I pause, and the moment seems to slow as I study her posture. "She's set to strike either way - which would you choose?"
"It's a 50/50. You'll have to pick and hope to adapt. You're faster, don't forget that."
Shit. I decide to match her stance, and the second she charges, the training sword shifts left. So, I go left with my right hand banking on the path down the middle being wide open for the left hand to swing in for a low to high pierce into her ribs.
I chose wrong. She pivots her body and my left dagger sails too low, and with a quick downward sweep with her elbow, she pins my forearm between her elbow and body. Quick as lightning, she loops her forearm underneath my extended elbow and lifts up, the sharpness against my joint making the blade fall from my hands with a thud to the mat.
"Vi, go right!" The surprise of having Mira's sharp, commanding voice give me direction makes me misjudge the distance of my other dagger's parry, and my sparring partner's sword swipes with a sharp thud across my ribcage.
Rhiannon cheers, Ridoc and Sawyer join in, and I hop up and down a couple of times while breathing deeply to let my body thwart the pain in both my elbow and side. It's nothing I can't handle, and Rhi didn't hit me hard enough to do more than maybe leave a bruise, but the adrenaline coursing through me needs some kind of outlet.
"Good one, Rhi! That new stance gets me every time. I always choose the wrong direction."
"Why didn't you go right?" Mira asked, walking over to us, and I roll my eyes at my overprotective sister.
"It was a 50/50. Besides, we're just messing around."
She shakes her head, hands hitting her hips. "No it wasn't - going right was the clear move. Who trained you?" It was half a jest and half serious from what I can tell, so I don't answer and simply glare into her brown eyes.
"I did," Xaden says and he's all of a sudden right behind me, just off the edge of the mat.
"Well, you trained her wrong." My sister chuckles, but the slight narrowing of her eyes doesn't make it out to be as sarcastic as she intended.
"Did I?"
"Mira," I start, but my sister is already stepping up to the side of the mat, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Vi, I'm the one that taught you how to throw a punch. I think I would know how best to teach you how to parry and strike from a mix up."
"You're not remembering how that night ended with a fractured wrist and two and a half broken fingers, are you?" It's only partially a joke. I don't want to spend any time with Brennan to be mended for sparring outside of challenges.
"Fine then. What advice would you have given, Riorson?" She's being snarky with her goad. If only she knew that he had given his advice, just in a way she'd never know.
I hear his sigh both aloud and in my mind. "I would have had her step into the attack."
"Forward?!"
I feel his offended aura from here and I'm not even looking at him. But the way Ridoc, Sawyer, and Rhi take a step back from the mat, I know he's fired off one of his signature death glares. "She's faster than Rhiannon, and smaller. Stepping forward would be the best for her body type."
"I love when you focus on my body type."
"You really want to play this game, Violence?"
"He's right," I say, smothering the smile I feel tugging at my lips. "Always."
"Stepping right would have worked for any body type, being small doesn't matter."
It's my turn to scoff and I catch the surprise on her eyes, and her invitation is quick and sharp. "Oh, you think you know better? Go ahead," she offers with a swirl of her hand.
"How badly do you want to prove your sister wrong?" I can hear the excitement in his voice and it triggers my own competitive streak to shine right through any common sense.
"So bad."
"Make the call and I'm yours."
I change a glance over my shoulder, "and you aren't already?"
"Fair point. How about physically?"
All I do is cock an eyebrow and maintain my stare.
"There's my Violence."
"Fine," I say and move back to the center of the mat before turning to Xaden and gesturing for him to join me. From the corner of my eye I see my squad gather around to watch just behind Mira, and the smile that sits on Xaden's lips as he joins me sets my pulse to race.
"Weapon?" I ask and he shakes his head, taking up a stance. My eyes sweep the chiseled edges of his body and I notice that his momentum is ready to shift left. I immediately see an opening to the right against his upper grounded thigh. I can cut under his left arm using my size to avoid a strike and swipe my blade into his leg before bringing it up underneath the arm close to his chest.
"Advice?" I turn to Mira and gesture.
"Sweep his legs on the left side to knock out his momentum then swipe your right knife high to low center as he tips," she says confidently.
"That would definitely work if I was six inches taller and had at least fifty more pounds on me." He's planted too low…my sweep won't do much but give him my back and probably fuck up my knee, and I know it.
"You are absolutely correct. If you listen to her, I'm taking your back and using your own blade to slit your throat."
I bite my lower lip when I look at him, "Gods I love when you flirt." His eyes darken in a way that quickens my pulse.
Following Mira's advice, the moment Xaden moves to the left I follow with a sweep using the back of my heel against his forward leg. As predicted, it dead stops against his planted calf leaving me to try and recover while partially facing the wrong way. So I react by turning my blade in my other hand and move to spin and swing it, but now I don't have enough momentum any longer.
Like a flash of lightning he steps with me to keep my back to his front, his right hand catching my swing. His other arm wraps around my middle, those long fingers flattening against the near entirety of my stomach to haul me back and up against the taut, muscled lines of his chest. The right hand squeezing my own fingers around the wood handle forces my arm to angle the blade up to my throat.
My legs dangle off the ground and I'd be completely defenseless if it were anyone else. Hell - if it was a fight on a battlefield, I'd be dead.
So how is this where I feel safest?
My whole body tingles when he presses a soft kiss to the back of my neck before slowly lowering me until the pads of my feet hit the mat. His hand is still at my hip until I step away, which I desperately don't want to do, and suddenly I wish we were sparring alone.
There's nothing quite like sparring foreplay. I tamp the rising need down and turn on my sister.
"Well," I say with an exhale, "that didn't work."
Mira is glaring daggers at Xaden. She knows he's the superior fighter, hell - we all do, but she doesn't get the point I'm making. He's taught me how to read an opponent and trained me with moves that work for my body type, speed, daggers, and the fact that my joints will subluxate or tear if I put too much stress or overextend at any one spot. Mira is assuming that if it works for her and everyone else in this room, it'll also work for me.
"You didn't follow through on your sweep and gave up your back. You should have followed through, Violet."
I nod. "I'm sure that was it. Next?"
Mira huffs and Xaden sets into another, different, stance, and I take a moment to give him a look over. His hair is tousled and my fingers tingle to drive through the soft strands, preferably as I hold his mouth against my skin. I see sweat beading against the side of his neck along the curving lines of his rebellion relic, and as it drops I long to have it be the tip of my finger, or better yet - my tongue.
"You're fucking me with your eyes in front of your sister and our entire squad, just so you know."
I don't deny and give him a slight shrug that says so, but I do shift my gaze to study how he's standing, putting my training to use.
"Call it out."
He isn't as low to the ground, but his stance is open and his hands are low near his hips. "This is where I would use speed to charge in close with a forward left thrust forcing you to move to the right to avoid my blade. Past that I'll be a 'who is faster to swing left'." I know it'll be him and that my blade won't come close to his ribs, but it won't stop me from trying and it doesn't keep it from being the right move.
"I agree," he says in that gravelly grumble he knows puts me in our bed no matter the time of day, and then follows it up with a wink under that scarred brow. Flaming butterflies rush into my stomach and I know he sees the want shining in my eyes because I can definitely see it in his.
Mira speaks and drags me away from my stare into the gold-flecked onyx pools that hold my soul. "Fake left with a high strike to the top of the shoulder so his balance is centered left, then come straight from the right downward through the base of his neck."
"How tall does she think I am?"
His laugh is like a silken caress through my mind.
"A present for me, however, as I get to take you hard to the mat."
"Promises, promises," I jest and see the curve of his lips set in a perfect. Fucking. Smile.
I palm my blades and strike top left with a sweep set to distract, but in order to hit the top of his shoulder, I have to stand nearly my full height and then some. His left hand parries and his right grabs my other hand in a soft twist, just enough to get me to drop the dagger and no more. I feel his palm let go then quickly press and push against my chest while he steps into my poorly expended body.
His other hand spreads across the flat of my back to break my fall, holding me to his chest to keep from touching the mat at all. My heels hook around the lower back of his thighs, but he keeps the delicious pressure of his body off of mine with his other palm flattening against the mat.
Only when momentum is fully dead does he let me loose to lay down, rocking back to sit on his heels, his eyes sweeping me from top to bottom.
"So much for hard," I taunt.
"The only thing I'm thankful for is how tight I can tie sparring leathers."
I can't help but bite my lower lip to hold back a moan, and I do - from everyone else but his mind, and I see the tick of the muscle in his lower jaw but manage to keep my eyes from swooping down his body before I catch myself on fire.
I unlock my legs from his thighs and he stands, both hands reaching down for me to take.
"Okay, why is it so hot when they spar?" Ridoc asks, and I laugh. If only he knew. As I turn back to Mira, I see pure frustration on her face and her arms crossed over her chest
"One more?"
She nods slowly, eyes studying me as if she's never seen me before. To be fair, with her having only been in Aretia for a little over a week and this being one of the first times she's come to hang out while we're training in any way, it's no wonder she doesn't know why her advice is getting my ass kicked. If it was anybody but Xaden, I'd be limping if not carried out of this gym.
He takes a third stance, one we've been training for about a month, so I know before he's finished settling exactly what to do to get the upper hand. He's low to the ground with his right leg only slightly forward compared to the left, but his left hand is low to his knee while the right is at the height of his hips. This is one of those moves where my size is all that matters to get past his guard.
No one in their right mind above five foot five would go for center and then dead stop to then thrust downward with the left blade in an attempt to catch his leg or arm, whichever would get there first. Then, contrary to what a taller opponent would do, go low and slice into the inner thigh. Luckily for me, I'm five foot two and that's exactly what I plan to do.
"You want to call it?" He asks outside of my mind this time. This is for Mira, not me.
I shake my head and that beautifully scarred brow lifts in slight surprise.
"I'm going for that back leg of yours," is all I tell him.
Xaden nods, "you should do exactly what you're thinking," he says out loud again, and I see Mira frown before sighing and giving her opinion, a little more lackluster than the others as I hope she's starting to put the pieces together.
"I'd go forward then left. Hit that left shoulder and force him to shift weight to the right, then parry the off hand while focusing your main hand to get the blade into his chest from high left to low right."
If Xaden is going to talk to Mira under the guise of advising me, I might as well do the same with my answer. I look pointedly in her direction. "I'm not tall enough to strike that high unless he crouches down, and I'm not heavy enough to hit his shoulder and offset his balance to the right."
Turning to him, "but I am going to get you to go to the right."
"Oh are you?" He's intrigued.
"What? You're tall enough and heavy enough, stop it. Step in and force him to adjust." Mira is offended for me, despite the fact that what I said wasn't self-deprecation, it was simply acknowledging my limitations and changing things to work for me.
"He'll step forward and I'm on the mat."
"I will," he confirms. "I'm already headed in that direction, actually."
Mira's hands drop to her sides as one hand balls into a fist. "So what then, Violet?"
"I'm not trying to mess with you, Mira, I'm just showing that the moves you, Rhi, Sawyer, anyone would make - they don't work for me. They get my ass kicked, as you've seen. I'm too short and about fifty pounds underweight for what you're suggesting. Not to mention the snapped wrist I would have had on the last one from that twist, or the dislocated knee on the first one if I'd actually followed through with that sweep."
I see the realization hit her eyes, but she just gestures for me to keep going - much softer this time. "Go," she orders, and there isn't anger in her eyes. She legitimately wants to see what I've figured out, so I turn to Xaden and he nods.
My speed gets me past his first guard and my dead stop puts his forward momentum directly in front of me, going left, just like I planned. I feel his surprise across our bond as he hadn't planned on that being the move I'd take. Xaden mixes it up to his own credit and swings his right arm to grapple my opposing hand before I can bring it down to his thigh, but this opens the right side, and I turn my main hand wrist sideways to poke the point of dull wood high up into his inner right thigh. I know he feels the pinch, and his eyes drag down to where I'd absolutely be bone deep in his leg if this was a real fight.
"Gotcha."
"I thought I had you with the grapple to the right."
"You already have me," I grin and pull back my blade while he takes a step back.
"No one in their right mind would have gone forward and then stopped, Violet. I can't believe that worked."
"No," I counter. "No one taller than me would have gone forward and then stopped. I already had the upper hand with my center of gravity being a lot lower than his, and my dead stop meant that Xaden only had one direction he could parry."
"To the left," they say simultaneously, Mira sighing and drooping her shoulders while Xaden just chuckles and nods.
"To the left," I confirm. "Mira, I love you and you're a great hand to hand fighter, I know you are. We're just…built differently. I promise that I'll always take your advice if it doesn't get my ass kicked."
She nods and comes forward to pull me into a hug, my squad scattering back to the other mats now that the show is over. "I'm sorry, Vi. I'm still getting used to this version of you." She sighs as if it's painful, before turning her eyes on Xaden. "And…I'm sorry for doubting you, Riorson."
The surprise is evident on both our faces and she rolls her eyes. "You gonna keep sparring?"
Xaden speaks before I can answer, "you look pretty tired, Violet." I turn to see his cocky grin for a split second before he turns and makes his way from the sparring room.
"It's like nine o'clock."
"If you're not in bed in five minutes, I'm starting without you."
The pulse of flaming excitement that shoots from my stomach to my cheeks drops my jaw.
"Y-yeah…tired," I mumble, and Mira groans.
"Gross. Go away. I hate you both," she grumbles and moves over to where Rhi and Sawyer are watching Imogen and Ridoc step onto the mat.
I'm gone before the first strike.
…