Ash(27)

“Let’s start,” he said, crossing over to the thickest of blue mats. I followed, taking note of the casual clothing Ryder was wearing. I didn’t often see him out of black camo enforcer gear. He had on loose judo pants and a tight-back muscle shirt. He pulled a gun out from behind his back waist belt and laid it on a bench. The flash of that weapon reminded me of how he had saved my life, and Jayden’s.

“Hey, about yesterday … thanks.”

Suddenly his eyes were locked on mine. “It’s my job,” he said.

I sighed. Okay.

“Get into your fighting stance.” His voice was clipped now. He was in training mode.

I did, holding my fists in front of my face, right foot planted in front of me.

“Are you a southpaw?” He gazed at my stance, eyes roaming over me.

“Yes, I’m left handed.”

He shook his head and then grabbed my hips and twisted me a little. I tried to stand firm, but he was strong. He clicked his tongue between his teeth. “You’re weak.”

“Screw you,” I said, glaring at him.

“But you have some spunk, so I’m going to work with that. This scrappy fighting style of yours will only last as long as it takes for one of the ash to take you down to the ground.”

“Guess you’d better have a magic wand then.”

“I don’t need magic.” I could smell the faintest metallic scent on his lips. He’d recently fed.

I tried to focus as he took a step back. “Put your arms out, like you’re flying.”

I wanted to roll my eyes, but managed to simply sigh and do as he said.

“Resist,” he commanded as he applied pressure to my arms, pushing them down with ease.

“Again.”

I resisted him as hard as I could, but my arms still fell easily.

He nodded, his chestnut hair sweeping across his eyes. “Your left arm is stronger. On top of three times a day training, I’m recommending twice a day weight training. I’ll have Jared train you. He loves his weights.” I knew Jared was one of the sexy six. The blond Australian. I’d only ever seen him from across the way, but he definitely had impressive biceps. Still, that was a lot of training.

“When do I sleep?” I challenged Ryder.

“When you have survived the culling.” His serious tone wiped the attitude off my face. Swallowing roughly, I nodded. The instinct to survive was strong in me and this guy was willing to help me. The least I could do was give it my all.

“I’m going to teach you a five step sequence. This sequence will be the only thing you do, three times a day for the next week. You will be so sick of it by the end of the week, you will be doing it in your sleep.”

“Wow, you really know how to sell your services,” I muttered.

He ignored me. “Left jab, right hook, left leg kick, drop and sweep.” It sounded like a chant almost.

“Watch me,” he commanded.

“Left jab.” He lightly pushed his left hand out and brushed my chin.

“Right hook.” His right hand swept around and lightly touched my right temple.

“Left leg kick.” He took his left leg and slowly brought it up to touch my ribcage.

“Drop.” He dropped to the ground. “And sweep.”

From a crouched position, his leg snaked out and swept my legs out from under me. I fell back on the mat, my teeth clacking as I hit the ground. I had totally not expected that, since it was simply supposed to be a demonstration. He stood and looked down on me.

“You’re a dick. You know that, right?” I waved away his hand.

He dropped his arm back to his side. “Would you rather have a dick teach you to stay alive or a nice guy babying you through training?”

Shit, the dick had a point. As soon as I was back on my feet, Ryder walked over to a wall and wheeled out this big-ass punching bag figure of a man. He put it right in front of me and stood like a sentinel next to it.

“Ready to sweat?” he rumbled. I forced myself to focus. It was really unfair that the unique rumbly quality of his voice totally threw my equilibrium off.

Taking my position, I began the sequence he showed me. I was unable to sweep the heavy mannequin, but I assumed we would work on that later. Maybe I’d be lucky enough to return the gesture from before and sweep Ryder on his ass.

Every time I punched, he intercepted and adjusted my hold, or twisted my arm. It made me feel like I didn’t know shit about fighting. I grit my teeth and kept going. After twenty minutes of this my muscles were screaming at me to stop, but I wouldn’t give Ryder the satisfaction of seeing me quit.

An hour later of non-stop “five step program,” I heard the door creak open and glanced across to see Lucas. Vamp was still fully dressed in a suit and his white trench coat. He was hot, but I was starting to think he was a pimp in his spare time, or a Vegas card shark.