Page 23 of Darkness Defined

I shook my head and kept moving. As I skirted past a man with claws for hands, I caught sight of my reflection in the wall of mirrors and stopped dead. I barely even recognized myself. On the one hand, I was cleaner than I had probably ever consistently been and the weight I’d lost during my latest stint on the streets had come back. The hotel manager’s comment that I would probably need new pants made more sense as I realized how much my body had changed. I may have been ragged and dirty before, but at least I had an edge. Now I looked… soft. Rage pounded through my veins.

Alex played me.

I glanced over at an unattended barbell. The last person had been lazy and hadn’t removed the weights. I walked over, eager to see just how much strength I’d lost while I’d been kept like an overfed house cat. My hands were less than a foot from the textured bar when a thought occurred to me. Curious, I adjusted my stance and leaned down to pick it up one-handed, though it was substantially more weight than I’d ever lifted with two. But if Alex was right…

Still skeptical, my fingers wrapped around the cool metal. It rose effortlessly off the floor as if it weighed nothing. Shocked, I let go and gravity immediately reclaimed it. At the last second, I snatched it out of the air before it could crash. I looked around to see if anyone had noticed the scene I was making. Thankfully, no one seemed to care, being too busy with their own routines. I curled the bar up to get a better look at how much weight was supposed to be on it and quickly did the math. Ninety kilograms made it roughly two hundred pounds. Except that wasn’t possible.

I carefully replaced the bar and shuffled off to test other weights, determined to prove that it was some sort of trick or faulty equipment. After going through pretty much every available weight, I started waiting for someone clearly struggling to finish before testing it myself. That earned me a few hateful glares. Once I’d pissed off the third meathead that was easily three times my size, I had to admit that maybe Alex really was right.

All of these years I’d struggled not to be the short, dumpy kid, to be strong enough to defend myself. And… none of it mattered. If what he said was true, then it was no wonder I’d thrown Scylla clear across a courtyard. I stared at my reflection as if seeing myself for the first time. Just what exactly did being a demon entail?

I immediately thought of two people I could ask. Neither struck me as appealing. If I asked Vera, then the entire class would hate me even more than they already did. All it had taken was the rumor that she’d picked me up to brand me as a teacher’s pet. No doubt they all believed I had some secret “in” and was receiving special treatment. As far as I was concerned, getting abandoned in a mysteriously locked room for a few weeks did not magically make me her favorite. If they knew the truth—that I really was nobody—they probably wouldn’t care at all. Strange part was, I didn’t want them to know. Just once, I wanted people to like or hate me for no other reason than me.

The only other person I could think to ask was Alex. He’d already proved that he clearly knew a lot about being a demon, not to mention everything else in this wild place. But the thought of asking him was worse. The last thing I needed was the actual teacher’s pet schooling me. And I certainly didn’t want him to know that I was basically gutter trash, though I wasn’t entirely sure why it mattered what he thought of me. Maybe it was because I’d have to see him every day.

I glanced up from my musings to see several offended gym junkies eying me unpleasantly, including the rock-freak. It seemed prudent to scoot out of there before one of them could decide to take my experiments personally. Outside, no one may have been giving me death stares, but there were still plenty of outrageously odd people. Everywhere I looked were wings, claws, teeth, scales or something I didn’t even have a name for.

How am I ever going to survive this place?

“Hey kid,” someone said behind me. It sounded suspiciously like one of the meatheads from earlier.

I turned around slowly to see the source and swallowed. Yep, definitely one of the guys from inside. He had to be pushing seven feet and looked like he ate linebackers for breakfast. I struggled to remember if I’d actually tested one of his weights.

“You look like you’re looking for trouble.” His voice tumbled and rolled like the beginnings of an avalanche.

I quickly shook my head. Enhanced strength or not, I had no desire to figure out how I would measure up against this behemoth of a guy. He laughed harshly, and I flinched.

“Nervous little thing, aren’t you? I saw you back there.” He pointed his thumb towards the gym entrance. “You must be new around here, but you look like you could handle yourself in a fight.”

I eyed him. Given my new decidedly squishy appearance, it was a wonder he hadn’t already clobbered me for no other reason than he could.

“It’s clear what you’re looking for isn’t at a gym. I’ve got a better place for people like you.”

I bristled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

His grating laugh set my already frayed nerves on edge. “Good, you’ve got some life in you, after all. Name’s Otto. Follow me, I wanna show you something.”

I refused to move. Big guys were usually slow. If I took off unexpectedly, I could probably outrun him.

“Here.” He passed me a buck slip.

I squinted in the low light to make out what it said, then frowned. No way I was reading this right. I held up the small paper for a better look, but the words didn’t change. It was clearly advertising an exclusive underground fight club. Who in their right mind fought on purpose?

“That’s where we’re going. We meet every Tuesday and Thursday. But we’re having a kind of summer kick-off tonight.”

“Show me.” The outrageous demand flew out of my mouth unopposed. A downright menacing smile spread across his face. Then he turned and led the way across campus while I quietly followed in his wake, silently questioning my sanity every step of the way.

The red brick of the gym disappeared behind us, as well as several other buildings that I couldn’t really make out in the growing dark. We walked in silence until he stopped unexpectedly on the perfectly manicured grass.

“This is the official boundary of the school. You see that door there?” I followed the path of his outstretched arm to see a small metal door that could have belonged to a warehouse and nodded. “That’s where we’re going. If we get caught fighting on school grounds, we could be suspended, expelled, or bound. Behind that door you won’t find sympathy or healers. It’s everyone for themselves. So don’t expect your mama to come rescue you here. Got it?”

I didn’t have a mom, and I had no idea what a healer was or what being bound meant, so I simply nodded again.

“Good. Now, we can’t let just anyone in this place. What are you anyway?”

“A demon.”

“I got that much at the gym. What kind? Some of you are a bit more trouble than you’re worth. No offense.” Otto shrugged, as if I should know what he was talking about. I didn’t, so I answered honestly.