Page 16 of Dance of the Phoenix (Cloak of the Vampire #3)
For starters, she had us running laps. It was a great way for me to think through what she’d said about the pairing-up situation.
Out of the five Gifted participants, I was aware of the Gifts of three.
Cassidy had her powerful voice; Logan had his enhanced legs, surely part of the reason he was a Commander; and Neisha, one of the Troop’s Commanders, was the vampire version of a bionic woman.
About the other two, Haneul and Oberon, who were also Commanders, I had no clue, but considering they were chosen for the Hecatomb, they had to have some insane Gifts.
I wondered who I was going to end up in a pair with. I hoped for Neisha. I would definitely feel safer with her by my side rather than Cassidy or Logan, whom I had prior relationships with.
After running laps, we were forced into a brutal warm-up session that, an hour later, left most of us fighting to catch our breath.
As I was lying on the floor, trying to get ahold of myself, I saw two men—Magnus and Ragnor—enter the gym, approaching Margarita. The three talked among themselves for a short while before Margarita clapped her hands. “Participants, sit down on the benches.”
All ten of us took to the benches. Zoey settled next to me, still sweaty. “This gruesome training is going to kill me before the Hecatomb can even try to,” she mumbled to me, groaning as she leaned back against the gym’s wall.
“Just a friendly reminder that you chose this,” I told her with a frown. “Though I still don’t quite understand why.”
Before she could respond, Margarita clapped her hands again, bringing everyone’s attention back to her.
“We’ll start with two-versus-two mock battles.
Every Gifted and Common will have a chance to fight alongside each other today, so make sure to give it your all for our assessment to be as accurate as possible.
” She paused and narrowed her eyes. “It’s for your own good, after all.
Anyway, first up—CJ and Neisha versus Logan and Zoey. ”
“Wish me luck,” Zoey murmured as she took to the floor with Logan by her side. The two exchanged smiley greetings.
The mock battles had a two-minute time limit. Right after Margarita ordered “Start!” it was abundantly clear which pair would’ve won if the fight lasted longer.
CJ and Neisha moved together as if they could read each other’s minds.
They overpowered Logan and Zoey almost too easily, and not because either Zoey or Logan was bad, but they seemed almost clumsy in comparison.
Logan and Zoey both focused on using their legs, that being their strongest suit (or Gift, in Logan’s case), which gave them a large disadvantage against CJ and Neisha, who covered each other’s weak spots seamlessly.
While the fight was happening, Magnus was scribbling things down in his notebook while Ragnor watched with a cool, impassive look on his face. But his eyes were following the movements, letting me know he was focused despite his expression.
The next battle was Cassidy and Yelene against Haneul and Sulien. Haneul, with a hawk resting happily on his shoulder, seemed like he couldn’t hurt a fly, but when the battle started, his whole appearance changed. His hawk, too, changed as if a flip was switched.
Before Cassidy could even use her singing Gift, Haneul’s hawk began attacking her with its talons.
She cried out and tried to avoid it, while Haneul himself, as quick as lightning, came after her with his entire might, leaving Yelene and Sulien to fight it out between themselves.
The battle was interesting in that I gathered Haneul’s Gift must be connected to the hawk.
Was he a bird whisperer when he was human, perhaps?
Once the fight was over—I concluded neither of those pairs was compatible—Margarita called, “CJ and Oberon versus Aileen and Neisha!”
Neisha gave me a big smile as we took to the floor. “I have a feeling we’re going to nail it,” she whispered to me. “So don’t hold back. Oberon is one scary motherfucker.”
I studied the Commander in the opposing pair. Oberon, with his massive tanklike body, indeed seemed like a force to be reckoned with. It was his first battle of the day, like mine, so I was curious to see what Gift he had.
Soon enough, I found two things.
Once Margarita called “Start!” Neisha and I moved together toward Oberon, both of us seeing him as the primary target. Unfortunately, that made it easier for CJ to flank our backs and attack Neisha with powerful blows that made her stagger back.
I focused on Oberon, who didn’t move from his spot. He gave me a slow grin when I shot a fist to his head, and while my punch connected with his cheekbone flawlessly, I knew a moment later I’d made a mistake.
Because by then, vines were wrapped around my ankles, and with a simple flick of his wrist, Oberon had me hanging upside down from vines that sprouted out of the pockets of his training pants. I was utterly immobilized.
“First mistake, little Common,” he told me, pulling out seeds from his pockets. “When fighting a Gifted, always focus on the surrounding area rather than the vampire himself.”
I gritted my teeth because he was right.
I was so focused on his intimidating muscle mass that I forgot Gifteds had all kinds of powers, and those powers didn’t have to necessarily be connected to their actual limbs, like Logan’s and Neisha’s, or other parts, like Cassidy’s vocal Gift.
In fact, I should’ve realized it from the last battle, when Haneul utilized his hawk to attack unsuspecting Cassidy.
With a bitter feeling, I grated out, “Fine. I yield.”
Oberon slowly let me down and even offered to help me up. With a glance at Ragnor that told me his eyes were on Neisha and CJ, who were still battling it out, I took Oberon’s hand and rose to my feet. “Do you take vine seeds everywhere with you?” I grumbled.
The Commander gave me a big belly laugh that made him look like a heavy-lifting Santa. “I have all kinds of seeds with me,” he said, wriggling his brows.
I couldn’t help but laugh at that.
The fight concluded moments later, when Neisha had CJ in a choke hold, and I returned to the bench, sitting next to Zoey, who gave me a suspicious look. “What did you and him talk about?”
“Nothing, really,” I replied, shrugging. “Why?”
“Because our Lord has been looking at you two as if he was ready to go on a killing spree,” she murmured back, and I stiffened.
Slowly, I turned to look at Ragnor, but he seemed to be talking with his Lieutenants, his face as impassive as before. “Are you sure you saw right?”
“Don’t be daft,” she scoffed. “If the entire League didn’t already know about you two, then the way actual smoke came out of his ears would’ve let them all know.”
I couldn’t even begin to comprehend her words when the next round was up—with Zoey and Cassidy against Yelene and Logan.
The next few battles proceeded as before. I found myself paired with Oberon next, and while we made a good team, Yelene and Haneul were far more compatible than we were, and they managed to overpower us with overwhelming ease.
Same went for my pairing with Haneul. He was a quiet man, and he seemed to rely mostly on himself, which had been great before when he supported the much weaker Yelene, but with me, it turned out to be a hindrance.
I was more the long-enduring-battle type, while he was the kind to quickly finish off his foe. That made the battle very strenuous.
When it was my time to pair up with Cassidy, I was pretty tired. Cassidy didn’t give me so much as a nod, and I barely managed to nod at her; I was barely standing on my two feet. And with our opponents being Oberon and Sulien, I was already feeling tired.
The battle was short-lived. Cassidy and I, much like in our relationship, were not compatible whatsoever.
She was the stand-in-place-and-rely-on-her-Gift type.
That made both Oberon and Sulien focus their attacks on her, and when I tried to intervene and attack them back, they were so much in sync, they managed to fend me off while still overpowering Cassidy at the same time.
After that fight, I was able to rest for a few more battles. Until Margarita said, “Final battle will be Neisha and Zoey against Logan and Aileen!”