The night when Joy had brought along Daniela and Tammy hadn’t been a good night for me. I knew seeing the three of them would remind Sam of just why she had refused me, would make her conclude that she had made the right decision. I’d been hoping that in time she would come to change her mind, open her eyes more to the idea of what I’d offered. If she had, the three of them turning up together like sisters would have cancelled that right out, because Sam was right; she could never be a part of anything like that. She was more than that. I respected her for it. I wanted her for it. I almost hated her for it.

It was always that I almost hated her. I could never get past the wanting her. Could never shake her off. Could never find anything about her that made me want her less. The wanting was quickly becoming aching. I didn’t want to be like this anymore; constantly thinking about and wanting someone that I couldn’t have but who my soul seemed to think was mine.

Christ, now she’s just making it worse...She had left her chair and was stretching up to reach the top shelf of one of the filing cabinets, returning some documents. Her top had risen up and the small of her back was showing, flashing me some kind of swirly tattoo. To make it even worse, but at the same time better, was that I could see the top of her panties...red silk with a band of lace at the top. I was seriously at risk of becoming painfully hard.

“Hey bro.” Oh great, Evan’s here.

I nodded a little. It was all I could manage because I knew what was coming next...

“Hey Coach,” he greeted Sam, grinning. Most of the Commanders were calling her that now, though they said it as a pet name whereas the recruits’ said it with an air of respect. She had come a long way with them, completely turned things around.

Her head swerved, revealing that smile that she always had for him. I wish I could say that I thought she did it to get a rise out of me. But it was so obvious that the smile was authentic. “Alright Ev.”

I stiffened. I don’t know why it got to me so much when she abbreviated his name like that. Joy seemed much more relaxed now that he was here. No prizes for guessing why. She loosened her hold on my neck but I still felt like I had a chimp hanging off my body.

Evan stood by Sam’s desk, tapping it with his fingers. “I was hoping you’d still be here.”

She seemed just as surprised as me by that. He had never come specifically to see her before. I won’t lie, I wanted to punch him.

“I’m just leaving for the arena,” she said apologetically as she returned to the desk and tidied the pile of papers on top of it.

“Actually, that’s why I’m here. I was thinking I could come along and watch. I’ll sit in the spectators’ box out the way and I won’t say a word, I swear.”

“Aren’t you working with your own squad?”

“I decided to give them half the evening off because it’s one of the guy’s birthdays.”

“You’re too sweet” – Did she want me to punch her too? – “I said I’d let mine leave early if, and only if, they did good. Why the sudden interest in my squad?”

“Well it turns out that, um, some pranks have been getting played on the other squads, particularly mine. The guys swear it’s payback from your squad, that a certain telekinetic individual called Harvey was responsible. But I thought they can’t possibly be right about that because you’ve only been training Harvey for like a week.”

“Huh, weird.” There was just as much humour in her voice as in his.

“And now I’m all curious. So, can I?” His grin was charming, he’d get his way.

“Alright, but I need a favour from you.”

He shrugged. “Whatever you want.”

“I’d like to borrow your squad some time to spar with mine. It won’t be for another week.”

“Do you think they’ll really be ready for that?”

“Well you can decide that for yourself, can’t you?”

I couldn’t bring myself to say anything to his “Later, bro” or her “See you later”. At least, not anything that wouldn’t be a threat, curse, or insult.

Sam? Hell, I hadn’t even meant to call her. The last time I had spoken telepathically to her was when I had saw Max flirting with her at the pool. I wasn’t expecting a response now just like I hadn’t then, especially since she had continued to leave the office.

Yep? Forced friendliness.

Now I was going to have to come up with a reason why I had called her. I’ll be coming to watch too.

I’m surprised you haven’t sooner, they’re your recruits as well.

Joy grinned at me. “It’s only a matter of time.”

“What?”

“That’s if they’re not already.”

I sighed. “Joy, when have I ever liked riddles?”

“I was saying it’s only a matter of time before those two get together.”

A blazing heat of half-anger half-panic shot through me and I felt like I’d explode. No. I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let them be together. If she was to ever be with Evan for even one night there would never be any chance of there ever being anything between Sam and me. I couldn’t ever be with someone for even one night who had been with my brother. Too weird for me. And the idea of there never being a chance sparked a dull ache in me. All this over a goddamn f**k?

“Are we going up now?” said Joy sweetly.

“You are. I’ve got somewhere I need to be.” I moved so fast around the table that she lost her monkey grip on me.

“Where are you going?”

“Why don’t you get the chocolate mousse ready,” I suggested in an irritated voice. Not that I had any intention of following her up there.

“It’s chocolate ice cream.”

Oh. Turns out I’d been paying even less attention to her than I’d thought. “That too.” I went at vampire speed to the arena, expecting to see Sam and Evan along the way, but it seemed that they had travelled at vampire speed too.

I joined Evan in the front row of the spectators’ box. He had his arms folded and a hand holding his chin, intensely interested. So was I. But only in Sam.

“Hey bro, I didn’t know you were coming.”

I only nodded at him.

He sighed. “Jared, I could be wrong, but I could swear that I’m supposed to have done something, and if I have, I truly have no idea what it is.”

I forced a mini smile and patted his back. “I’ve got a lot on my mind right now.” That was true. The upcoming attack on The Hollow’s walls wasn’t something that just slips from your brain.

“I’m guessing that it’s mostly Sam.”

“No,” I denied. “Squad stuff.”

“Yeah. Right.” He shook his head grinning before then returning his attention to the scene below us.

Sam was pacing in front of the guys who were all stood side by side in an almost perfectly straight line. None of them were smirking or fidgeting or whistling – which was more than what I could say for when they were training with me. Even Damien was focused. Wow, she ran a pretty tight ship. It was when she said the first few words that I realised exactly what they were focusing so much on doing.

(Sam)

“Harvey, there’s a tiny bit of excess energy around you, suck it in,” I said.

“Yes, Coach.” His expression was aggravated, as always. Harvey still hadn’t rid himself of his arrogant streak so he always got touchy whenever he was singled out for one reason or another. For once, however, he didn’t grunt before doing as I’d asked. I took that as progress. It was a case of baby steps with Harvey.

“Last session, you all met your goal of channelling all your energy. That’s an achievement, but it’s not yet the time to do a sing and a dance about it unless you can channel all that energy under pressure. During an attack, you won’t be in a nice, quiet arena, secure in your safety, with me right here to tell you if you’re doing it right. You’ll be out in the open, you’ll be surrounded by stimuli, you’ll have enemies hunting you down and you’ll have me to answer to if you don’t move your arse.”

They each smiled at the latter part, knowing better than to laugh. This was a serious matter and they were expected to treat it seriously.

“So, here’s where we get a hint of just how well you’ll do. Tonight, we’ll be doing two exercises. The first will involve me testing you all individually to see how well and quick you can respond to an oncoming threat. I’m sure you’ll all be pleased to know that I will be that threat,” I added, to which they smiled. “I know you’ll definitely be pleased to hear that I don’t want you to just defend, I want you to attack.”

Enthusiasm seeped out of every one of them; they wanted desperately to let go and abuse those powers. Boys and their toys.

A few of them suddenly noticed that the spectators’ box wasn’t empty tonight. I guessed that there must have been some movement from up there.

“Yes, yes, you have observers. Get over it. Note that my intention in this exercise isn’t to hurt you and see how well you can ignore the pain, we’ll leave that for another night.” More smiles. “During this exercise all I am interested in is your reaction to an attack. Only if I can be sure that you’re handling your gifts as you need to can we move on to the second exercise. All that understood?”

“Yes, Coach!” they shouted soldier-style. Dramatic, but whatever. I thought that they were probably showing off to Evan and Jared. I could swear that Jared’s eyes were on me. I had to expel that thought from my mind before becoming self-conscious and losing focus here. But it was hard, especially when only minutes ago he had spoken to me telepathically for the first time in days. It’s funny how you don’t realise you ever liked something until all of a sudden it happens when you weren’t expecting it.

Blocking out Jared for now, I moved at vampire speed toward the southern wall, stopping just short of five feet. Letting my body feel part of the ground beneath me as though my feet were roots of a tree, I stood firm and sucked in the natural energy of the earth. Ready, I then stamped twice with one foot and willed a decent sized bolder to rise. It was big, sturdy and bulky enough for each one of them to individually hide behind one-at-a-time, even tall David.

Returning to my spot near to the northern wall I repeated the action, creating myself an almost identical bolder. I then randomly called out a name.

“Harvey?”

“Coach?” He seemed eager for this. Harvey was eager during most exercises, but not so much enthusiastic...it was that he wanted to prove himself – prove that he didn’t need learning the way everyone else did. But all he proved time and time again was what I was already telling him and the rest of the squad; he’s not ready to take on the world yet. But Harvey could nonetheless be reckless and arrogant which made him not the best team player. If he could only get past that, I could properly consider the ideas that he was full of. But for now, as I said before, it’s a case of baby steps with him.

“I want you to go to that bolder over there.” I gestured with my head to the bolder at the southern point. “Use it as cover when you need it, but don’t hide behind it. Remember, I want you to attack and defend. But the intention isn’t for anyone to be hurt. Oh and nobody moves from their bolder unless I allow it.”

He wiggled his head as if loosening any tension in his neck, making his black silky hair dance around. “Sure thing, Coach.” However, behind that child-like grin lay a hint of mischief. His reckless side might just manifest here. If he believed that hurting me would make him seem power-tastic then that would be exactly what he would do. Then I’d have to twat him.

After I’d ushered the others to gather in the corner of the wall behind me, both Harvey and I stood behind our bolder. Twiddling my fingers, I drew in the energy surrounding me, especially the natural energies and held it in reserve, feeling it wriggle like a caged animal eager to be freed.

I then reached out with my sense of hearing, listening for any movement from Harvey. He was fidgeting crazily – wouldn’t be a good thing in combat, he’d be sounded out immediately. “Harvey, keep your movements to a minimum, remember.”

Instead, I’ve-something-to-prove Harvey attacked first; striving to move the bolder with his telekinesis. Idiot – did he really think I’d build something flimsy? Converting some of the absorbed energy into my beloved silvery-blue whip, I, in the swiftest movement, let half of my body peek around the bolder and cracked the whip at Harvey. He cried out, cursing.

“Don’t be a whelp, I didn’t whip you hard,” I called out. “But I will whip you senseless if you don’t give up trying to move the bolder and come up with something else. Come on, where are all those ideas of yours?”

I listened for him again. No movement. Wow, he’d actually listened to me.

I enjoyed the sizzling in my hands as I converted the whip into an energy ball. Vampire-swift again, I peeked around only long enough to fling the ball at the boulder before then retreating behind my own bolder; knowing perfectly well what Harvey would do in response. Sure enough, he used his telekinesis to deviate the energy ball. It crashed into the bolder but the mound didn’t at all crumble.

“Oh come on, you can do better than that!” I told him. “Stop trying to attack the bolder, that’s not what has a power to fling at you. If an enemy is really that intent on finding cover then they’ll simply find something else if you do manage to damage their cover.”

Again I threw an energy ball, but this time I kept my eye on Harvey. I then watched as he levitated the ball up into the air and then sent it zooming doom, hoping to catch me behind the bolder. Instantly I called on my energy shield, which made the ball rebound and hit the wall.