This Same Earth: Elemental Mysteries Book 2 (26 page)

“What about Gemma?”

“Have Gemma train you?” She could see him tilt his head as he considered it. “Well,” he began, “that idea has some merit. I suppose if I told her to be very careful…If you’re going to insist on it, she would be the person to ask. She’s a fierce fighter, but I know she wouldn’t be too harsh with you.”

Beatrice forced herself to hold in the snort and focus on her goals. If anyone in the house would go easy on her, it most definitely would not be Gemma.

“Again!”

Beatrice blinked back the tears that dripped from her eyes and forced herself up to her knees. Even after years of martial arts training and a week with the vampire, she felt as if she was hitting a rock wall every time she came at her opponent. Gemma may have looked like a “lady of the manor,” but her fighting style was far more “hooligan in the pub.” It was nothing like she had imagined, and she was rethinking her determination to improve her fighting skills.

“Stand up and come at me, girl. Don’t be so obvious in your attack next time. I saw that punch coming from a mile away. Go for the dirty punch. Always. And hit your opponent when they’re down. There is no such thing as a fair fight.”

“Fine,” Beatrice muttered as she struggled to stand. Every muscle in her body ached and she tasted the blood in her mouth. She told Gemma not to bruise her in obvious places that Giovanni would see, but she was grateful it was wintertime. If he could see the series of bruises she was hiding under her clothes, Beatrice knew he would have lost it.

“You think you can take on a vampire? Currently, my lady’s maid has better fighting skills.” Gemma stood across from her, looking fresh and young in baby blue workout clothes that belied her ferocity. It was no wonder she had survived for over seven hundred years; the woman was lethal. Beatrice forced herself into position again.

“Remember, throw your attacker off-balance. It’s the only way your small size can be used to your advantage.”

“Got it.”

They circled each other, both eyeing the other for weaknesses.

“I imagine Gio has to be quite careful with you, doesn’t he?”

“What—” She ducked to the left as Gemma’s arm shot out. “Are you talking about?”

Beatrice winced as Gemma landed a punishing fist to the shoulder. “Oh, you must know. He was always quite…vigorous if I remember correctly.” The vampire gave her a wicked, knowing grin.

Bitch
, Beatrice thought, dodging the blow Gemma aimed at her chest, only to miss the one that struck her abdomen. She doubled over for a second before she stood, trying to keep a clear eye on the vampire.

“Well, he certainly doesn’t seem to have any complaints,” Beatrice panted. “At least, he didn’t last night.”
When we did nothing but sleep because I was sore and could barely handle an arm around me.

Gemma grinned as if she could read her mind. “You’re such a sweet little thing. I’m sure you’ll miss him when he’s gone to France.”

“Yeah,” she grunted as she managed to block a swift kick to her knee. “Because God knows I was waiting in my bedroom, crying, for the five years we were apart.”

Gemma cocked an eyebrow at her before she flipped backward over Beatrice’s head.

“Hey!” Beatrice said as she spun around and avoided Gemma trying to sweep her leg. “I thought you were keeping it to human speed.” She darted to the side and grabbed the edge of Gemma’s shorts, pulling the vampire closer as she tried to throw her off-balance.

“And I thought,” Gemma laughed. “That you wanted to learn how to fight vampires, little girl.”

“Fine.” Beatrice grunted when Gemma punched her side. Even though she was only using half her strength, the blow caused tears to spring to her eyes.

Gemma stepped back and wiped at a spot of blood Beatrice had spilled on her arm, allowing the human to catch her breath.

“I forget sometimes that you two are only recently reunited. Terry hasn’t left my side in twenty years, at least.” She darted in and landed a kick to Beatrice’s hamstring. “He’s so devoted.”

Okay, that one hurt a little
. Beatrice was determined not to show any mental weakness before the woman, even if physical fortitude wasn’t an option.

“You need to toughen up,” Gemma continued. “And you need to get faster. Watch me.” Gemma attacked one of the training dummies in the large studio on the second floor of Terry’s house. Beatrice watched in awe as Gemma laid a flurry of punches, elbows, and even a few head-butts to the dummy in the corner. Though she had slowed to human speed, Beatrice still recognized the utter ruthlessness of the attack.

“Now, try that on the dummy, and then you can try it on me. After that, you need to run some more; your stamina is still not up to snuff. And be quicker. Make yourself so fast they can’t grab you. If they do, you’re dead.”

“Fine,” she grunted, approaching the dummy in the corner. Beatrice had been training for over two hours that night. She was exhausted but tried to rouse herself so she didn’t meet Gemma's mocking eyes when she finished.

She imagined the face of her old boss for a moment, but that didn’t raise as much ire as it had the week before. Then she imagined Gemma’s face, but not even the sneering blonde could raise her out of her exhaustion.

Finally, she imagined the look on Deirdre’s face when she felt Ioan’s death. She remembered the howl of her cries before the ground swallowed her; then she imagined pale hands restraining Giovanni.

A cold calm settled as she cleared her mind and focused the way Tenzin had practiced with her. She sprang, first into the combination Gemma had shown her, but she couldn’t stop. She rained down blows over and over until she felt her knuckles slip wet against the plastic skin. Beatrice paused to catch her breath, leaning down and bracing her hands on her knees. As she wiped the sweat from her eyes, she realized her knuckles were bloody and the skin of her knees was torn.

Beatrice glanced over her shoulder to look for Gemma and found the blond woman watching her with narrowed blue eyes. Her stance was relaxed and a small smile played on her porcelain face.

“You’ll do fine,” she said. “Now run.”

London, England

February 2010

“Ow, ow, ow,” Beatrice whined as she sank into the bathtub. She was exhausted, sore, bloody at the joints, but relieved as well. She was finally getting a little less battered every night. Beatrice and Gemma had been training together for over two weeks, and as much as Beatrice resented her, she had to admit the vampire was giving her a lot of precious time.

Beatrice had realized soon after she learned Giovanni was a vampire that, as much as their strength and speed gave them physical advantages, the fact that vampires were housebound for half of the day put severe limitations on their immortal lives. Even older immortals like Carwyn who could be awake for much of the day were groggy and weak, exhibiting barely human strength and even less speed.

For Gemma to devote as much of her limited night hours to training Beatrice as she had—no matter how much satisfaction she got from beating her up on a regular basis—was not something Beatrice could forget, and she was reluctantly grateful.

She relaxed into the heat of the bath, wishing that she could share how sore she was with Giovanni, but knowing instinctively that he would not react well. He and Carwyn had been in France for a week, trying to determine what connections Lorenzo still had and meeting with possible allies. It was a delicate balancing act, since most of the French immortals seemed to hate Terry, Gemma, and all their people simply because they were English.

“Vampire drama,” she snorted. It still reminded her a little bit of high school.

She heard the door to the bedroom open and Giovanni’s voice when he walked in. Her eyes popped open. He was back early.

“Shit,” she whispered and stuck her bloodied hands under the water.

“Beatrice? I’m back.”

“Hey, just taking a bath. I was training tonight,” she called through the door.

Shit, shit, shit.

“How are you feeling? Gemma was quite complimentary of your determination when I talked to her. She says your speed is improving as well.”

He sounded impressed, and she hoped he wasn’t breathing too deeply.

“That’s good to hear,” she said and ran the soap over her knees, trying to clean the blood from her skin even though it made her wince.

Owwwwww.

“Beatrice?”

No!

She panicked and ducked under the water, remembering all the blood that had stained her hair from her broken knuckles. She heard him snarl from the other room.

“Why do I smell so much blood?”

Too late
.

She surfaced to see an irate vampire standing over her.

“I’m naked, Gio!
Naked
! Get out of here.”

He ignored her, his eyes raking over her bruised form and bloody joints.

“What the hell is going on?” he roared. “You look like you’ve been attacked.”

“I was. On purpose. That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?”

She sat up in the bathtub and crossed her arms over her bare breasts.

“What has Gemma been doing to you? She was supposed to take care of you. She was supposed to make sure—”

“We’ve been training. And I don’t want her to go easy on me, that’s not helpful. Now will you—”

“I told her not to hurt you!” he yelled. “I told her to temper herself and make sure—”

“The last person in this house that’s going to temper herself around me is Gemma! That’s the only reason—”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

She finally realized he wasn’t going to leave the bathroom while they were arguing, so she swallowed her embarrassment and continued washing up.

“Do you really not know she’s in love with you, Gio?” she whispered, conscious of the sensitive ears that filled the house. She rinsed out her hair as Giovanni stood over her, glowering. “Gemma is
in love
with you. And you love me and she’s not going to cut me any slack in the training room. That’s the only reason I suggested training with her.”

He wore a furious expression when he finally spoke. “You’re being ridiculous and jealous, Beatrice. And this is beneath you.”

She stood up, water sloshing out of the tub as she grabbed a towel from the stand.

“I am not. Stop being a pretentious ass and get out of the bathroom right now.” She shoved his chest when she caught him glancing at her breasts. “We will argue about this when I’m dressed.”

He turned and stormed out of the room. She heard the bedroom door open.

“And do not go looking for Gemma right now!”

She heard a pause before the door slammed shut. His heavy footsteps paced the bedroom. Beatrice toweled off, grimacing at the broken skin on her knees, elbows, and fists. She ached badly but forced herself into her soft sleep pants and t-shirt without a sound. Finally, she grabbed her hairbrush and went to sit on the bed to work the tangles out of her knotted hair.

Giovanni had stopped pacing and was standing with his back against the door, the scent of smoke pouring off him.

“You better calm down. You’ll burn that shirt if you don’t.”

His jaw unclenched enough for him to speak slowly. “I am not interested in the state of my wardrobe, Beatrice.”

“Well, calm down anyway.” She started working the brush through her hair, but he darted behind her and sat with his legs on either side, running one hand down her arm to grab the brush.

“Let me,” he said in a gentle voice. “You’re hurting. Just try to relax.”

He started to pull the brush through her tangled hair, stopping to work out the knots as she tried not to wince. She was sore and beginning to get stiff in the cold room.

As if sensing her discomfort, Giovanni tossed small blue flames toward the grate, where they lit the wood that was waiting to be kindled. She sighed and tried to relax her shoulders.

He spoke softly as he worked. “Why do you say she’s in love with me? We were involved, but it was never serious.”

“Well, obviously it wasn’t for you, but from the way she looks at you, it was for her.”

“But I never felt for her what I feel for you. I have an affection for her; I consider her a friend.”

“And I’m not trying to interfere with that, Gio. I understand, I’m just—”

“Did she beat you like this because I love you?” he asked in a whisper.

Beatrice stopped his hands and turned so she could look him in the eye. She placed one hand on his cheek. “No. We were sparring, and she’s a good teacher. My sensei in L.A. would have treated me just the same. Well, if he was a vampire.” She shook her head. “It wouldn’t do me any favors for her to go easy on me. I need to know how to fight.” She turned back around to face the fire, and he continued to brush her hair out.

He finally spoke again. “Is this because you don’t trust me to stay? The fighting? Is it because you think I’ll leave you again?”