Vile Boys (Spine Ridge University)

Days later

“So what do we do?” she asks as she stands in the open grassy area, looking all fine and fancy.

God, it almost makes me pity her.

She’s got a long road ahead of her.

But I will be there every step of the way.

I chuck a wooden stick her way, and it lands in front of her feet.

“Pick it up.”

She does what I say and holds it like it’s filthy, but if you ask me, it’s the finest wood around. The trees here in Priory Forest are old and provide the best sticks one could ask for while training.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” she asks.

“Hold it. Tightly, but not too tight.”

“Like this?” She holds it in front of her.

I nod and tilt my head to look at her stance. We’ll have to work on that.

“Now what?” she asks.

I straighten my back, positioning myself sideways while I pull off my belt buckle and toss it aside so she won’t hurt herself. Then I raise my hand and beckon her. “Come at me.”

“What? With this?” She looks at the stick like it’s a piece of rubber.

“Mm-hmm.”

She laughs. “You want me to hit you with a stick?”

“Did I not make myself clear, darling?”

“Oh no, you did. I’m just wondering what this will teach me,” she murmurs.

“It’ll teach you the basics of fighting with a weapon,” I say, still beckoning her. “Now come. See if you can hit me.”

“If?” Her eyes narrow.

I grin at her. “Give it your best shot.”

The shimmer in her eyes as she bolsters herself is nothing short of magnificent.

She runs at me, clunky at best, swiping her little stick left and right, but none of her hits actually land because I know how to avoid them. Her moves are like how a child with no training would attack.

“Jesus, how are you making this look so easy?” she mutters, breathing raggedly after what seems like the fiftieth try.

“Experience,” I muse.

She makes a snooty face. “Well, you didn’t say I’d start with a stick. I might actually be able to hit you with something real.”

I snatch the stick from her hand and swipe it under her legs. She falls down immediately, and I point it at her face, then say, “Anything is a weapon if you know how to use it. I’m not going to give you a weapon you aren’t ready to use.”

She scowls, and I raise a brow in response, then hold out the stick so she can take it back.

“Yet.” She surprises me with a swift swoop while getting up, and I avoid it by jumping away.

“Clever girl,” I mutter. “Again.”

She keeps on trying to strike me instead of going for the obvious.

“Hit me,” I say.

“I’m trying,” she barks.

“C’mon,” I say, still easily avoiding each of her strikes.

“Stop moving so much!”

“You think your enemies will just stand still and let you hit them?” I retort.

“Enemies?” She pauses. “Who said anything about enemies?”

“You assume Caleb and Ares are the worst people out there. They’re not.”

She tries to strike me again, but I don’t have a black belt for nothing.

“The question isn’t if you can win in one-on-one combat. You can’t,” I say.

“Then why are we doing this?” she yelps between breaths, on the edge already.

“The question is, can you outsmart them?” I tilt my head and smirk when her eyes narrow.

Finally, she’s beginning to understand.

“Hit. Me.”

She swoops in from underneath and repeats my own move right back at me.

SNAP!

The stick breaks in half against my thick calves, and the sound makes me look down.

PUNCH!

Her fist strikes my chin out of nowhere, making me lean away and rub my chin.

She gazes at me with a smug grin on her face. “That good enough for you?”

Oh my …

So there is spice in her after all. I like it.

“Good. You’re starting to understand the art of distraction.”

She tries to hit me again, but I grab her fist and twist her wrist so she’s forced to spin around, and I easily subdue her. “Don’t get cocky now. I can bend you to my will with little to no effort.”

She huffs and puffs, her body snugly fitting into mine as I hold her down.

But she stomps on my feet and shoves her elbow into my midriff, making me buckle in pain. She breaks free when I try to take a breath.

“Well … you got me there,” I say, huffing as she steps away with a giant smirk.

To be honest, I kind of let her have that win.

But she doesn’t need to know that.

“You’re a swift learner.”

Her face begins to radiate, and it makes my heart throb.

That’s the face I’m looking for.

The spirit of persistence is what she’ll need to cultivate.

“You want me to win using dirty tricks,” she says, rain slowly beginning to pitter-patter down from the sky. “I want to learn how to fight fair.”

“Darling …” I sigh out loud. “The fight was never fair to begin with.”

I grab my umbrella and open it. “Ready to head back?”

She frowns. “Already? We’ve only just started.”

I point at the sky.

“It’s just a little rain,” she says. “I’m not made of sugar.”

“You sure about that, darling?” I taunt.

She narrows her eyes. “You say the fight isn’t fair, but you won’t even make it fair.”

I’m intrigued. “How so?”

She grabs a new stick off the ground and holds it in front of her. “You said they have weapons, and I need to prepare for that. You have nothing. I have this stick. That isn’t a fair fight.”

A dark smile slowly forms on my face. “Nothing?” I close my umbrella again and point it at her. “I beg to differ.”

Her face contorts as a smug grin appears. “An umbrella?” She snorts, droplets of rain rolling down her cheeks, making me lick my lips at the thought of lapping them up.

She emboldens her stance and grips the stick tightly. “Like you said … it was never fair to begin with.” Her lip quirks up into a lopsided smile as if she thinks she’s already won this fight. “So bring it on.”

Too bad for her I still have a trick up my sleeve.

I tilt my head and pull the handle of my umbrella outward, opening the secret compartment. And as I slowly take out my katana, her smile dissipates swiftly, her eyes glinting in the harsh glimmer of my blade. The complete and utter shock on her face as her pupils dilate and her jaw drops was worth every second of this encounter.

“Now, darling … are you truly ready to fight me?”