Page 42 of Infiltrated

“There is no magic that can resolve our problems. The solution rests with our work and discipline.” Jose Eduardo dos Santos

“I will train until my mind, magick, and physical capabilities are one. Anything less and I will not only be failing myself, but everyone who I have to protect as well.”- Charlie

Charlie

I wakeup before these fuckers again. Must be nice to sleep without an internal clock that always keep blaring inside your head. I sighed as I rolled out of bed and took a quick shower and threw on some workout clothes. I head out the room and grab a water, saving my coffee fix for later, to head to the gym.

I closed the door behind me and took a deep breath as I looked around my sanctuary. I loved the feeling of being in here, sweating out my demons and clearing my mind. I warmed myself up and wrapped my hands before walking over to my circle of punching bags and started to beat the shit out of the bags in front of me like they were everything that was wrong in the world.

“Last Resort” by Papa Roach comes on over the gym speakers and I breathe deeply as I land a flying roundhouse kick at one of the bags and follow up with punches and sidekicks. Training camp is going to be a sweet victory and a gut punch all at once.

Pixie’s words from last night floated through my head. Fuck. The boys were unexpected but whatever, I can get over that, I am over it.

My problem is the fucking arranged marriages, I have a problem with someone hurting someone I love. I mean, fuck, I have been planning on the Council’s demise when my parents didn’t come home. Now I have to walk into enemy territory with my mates and four of them are going to have to deal with bitches pawing at them. What am I supposed to do? Play jealous angry mate and show my hand early? Fuck that.

It wasn’t like we were going to walk in there and be obvious about our bonding, the plan was to infiltrate, but I damn sure didn’t think we would have to walk in there and deal with this either. It was an unexpected complication, the complication being my heart wanting to jump out of my chest and beat the fuck out of these girls. I’m all about woman solidarity, on sitcoms and shit, not solidly sitting on my men’s dick. Gah, say what you want but you know damn well, it's all unicorns and rainbows until someone tries to go where they don’t belong.

I’m in the zone as “Only One” by Yellowcard starts to play, and I grab two swords from my weapons wall and start to flip them in my hands.

For the longest time the entire goal had been to infiltrate and kick ass, now I’m wondering if it could be and should be modified to fit our unique situation, but that just wasn’t logical. But when was love logical. Fuck. Nope, no. Okay, fuck, well this can either make shit harder or easier. I will vote for easier. “Sugar, We’re Going Down Swinging” by Fall Out Boy starts to play.

Decision apparently made by the smart system. I take a deep breath and turn to figure out where the fuck I put my water bottle, and notice five pairs of eyes staring at me.

Dimitri

I cleared my throat,and tossed Ellie her water bottle and a towel. “Well, that was intense, are you feeling okay?”

She lifted her eyebrow and smiled, making my heart skip a beat. “Why wouldn’t I be, vampire, I just kicked some serious ass. Those dummies didn’t stand a chance and I disemboweled my imaginary friend.”

I laughed and shook my head as I walked further into the room with the guys on my heels. We had walked into the workout room as Ellie ran at one of the dummies and took it down with her legs before kicking another dummy to the floor. We stared as she fought with imaginary opponents with her swords, using a complicated series of slashes, swipes, and hits.

My jaw dropped when she tossed the swords and caught them behind her back after doing a few punches and kicks. The music kept changing in the background as she fought, hinting at the inner turmoil she must be feeling. She threw up her mental shields so we could only pick up her feelings of anger, jealousy, back to anger, then acceptance. When her swords lit up with fire the men and I looked at each other and stared at her, transfixed. That particular ability was not known for the cities and only a few of the Elite knew how to fight with spelled weapons.

Pixie stood to the side with her head turned while she took in Ellie, a smirk on her face, of course she is used to this display of skills. My eyes widened when she threw the swords across the sparring zone, aimed true as they went through the stomach of the poor unsuspecting dummy.

“Yeah, we noticed that, care to share why you felt that you needed to murder an entire room of fake people,” Luca asked.

“Not particularly, no, but I will say good morning before you all sit and meditate, you all need to practice with your new powers and tell them apart so you can use them quickly when needed. You will need them all soon and practice makes you perfect.” She shrugged.

Pixie stepped around us to walk over to Ellie, who snaked her arms around her waist and gave her a kiss and whispered something in her ear that made Pixie’s laugh echo around the room. My heart ached for the same reception and a look at the men’s faces confirmed that they felt the same. She looked in our direction, her smile faltering when she saw our faces. She paused a second before walking towards us and stopped at Etienne first before she grabbed his face and kissed him deeply, following suit with Luca, then Dante—who prolonged his kiss—by grabbing her ass and whispering things in Spanish in her ear. When she finally stopped before me, her cheeks were flushed and she looked so damn beautiful, I tilted her head up toward me leaning down to press my lips against hers. I teased the outside of her mouth and she moaned softly as she opened her mouth and rubbed her tongue against mine, teasing me with her tongue rings. I pulled her closer and nipped at her bottom lip before giving her one soft kiss and pulling away before I ended up doing more.

She was so fiery and strong but the way she melted when she was in my arms gave me a thrill of power and passion. I wondered often how I was going to handle seeing her in training at the academy and not want to sweep her up, and drown in her kisses and moans. Between her and Pixie, my tough guy exterior was quickly fading. This shit happened all the time in movies, but I never pictured myself being that guy. Now, I see how easy it is to get swept up like it happens in the Disney movies my little sister used to make me watch when we were younger.

The Magick Community may be separate from the human side of the world, but we watched and listened to all of their shows and music. Same world, just different sides of the coin really and when it came to creativity and talent, the humans had it in spades, they didn’t have to hide behind magick abilities, they simply existed and were talented despite not having powers. I envied that sometimes, the ability to be creative and growing in your own right without having to rely on magick to do so. However, I’m sure that they would feel the same way about us if they knew more about our world. Grass is always greener, and all that.

“Mmmm, I love those lips, baby.” I tossed a wink at her, watching her blush.

“Vampire, these lips are all yours.”

I groaned as I shook my head and swatted her on the ass as we turned to walk to the sparring area to apparently meditate. Meditation sounded nothing like sex but fine.

Charlie

Love,Love, Love. The word kept bouncing around my head as the men started to pull their powers and practice telling them apart and bringing them forward to the tips of the fingers. For the rest of the morning I had them practice holding and manipulating elements like I did with Pixie. While they practiced, I ran off to make them all protein shakes and handed them out without having them pause in their studies. We just didn’t have time to slack and it helped that they now have my power reserves, which is to say, they won’t feel drained or tired after using their powers and waste time recharging.

After a few hours, they whined about needing a break, I rolled my eyes and slipped out of the room and grabbed a plant from the kitchen.

“We can take a break after you all take turns using your earth magick to make this plant grow. This is tricky because you need to focus your energy into feeling the life of the plant, guiding it to grow without harming or killing the plant. This is also important because learning to manipulate the ground and earth beneath you can be a determining factor in a fight. Can’t fight if motherfuckers can’t stand.” The men chuckled, their deep laughs doing something to my slick heat. I groaned, and Pixie smirked at me.

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