Trigger Warning

Eleven

(7 years earlier)

Testing was moving fairly smoothly. Amara had discovered that there were multiple groups testing that year, and finally, they were being converged together during the next stage of testing. They had finished training with real weapons, where everyone chose which weapon they were most comfortable with. Amara decided to stick with duel knives, fairing surprisingly well against Riot's bronze knuckles, Silas's claw blades, and Alec's modified ulu knives.

It was surprising to the Alec that Amara had improved so quickly. Sure, she had explained to the background check man that she had a history in mixed martial arts and parents that didn't care if she disappeared for days at a time, but she was odd.

"I don't trust her," Alec dodged a claw aimed at his face. "She's so serious all the time."

Silas slashed out with two swift motions, just as he had been training to do his entire life. "Dude," he said, "Just in case you didn't know, out of all four clans, we are the most stereotypically violent. We were the first clan she was exposed to when she had no idea of the clans' existence. She's just trying to figure out how to act."

"My, my," Alec spun away, cracking his elbow against his cousin's cheek, "Is that sympathy I sense?"

Silas grunted, moving with the strike and ripping his claws across Alec's chest, leaving three shallow gashes in their wake. "Sarcasm looks bad on you, Alexander."

"Actually," he breathed, "I think that's blood."

Silas aimed a kick at him.

"I'm serious," Alec grabbed his leg and yanked him off balance. "Amara strikes me as someone who's way too good at acting like this stuff is new to her. I think she's dangerous."

Shifting his weight, Silas spun out of the hold. "Adrian had a full background check don on her. I mean, come on," he got into striking position across from Alec, "a tough girl with black hair, fair skin, and strong abilities shows up? It screams Idalis trash. The first thing he did was check her."

What Silas didn't know was that Amara had hunted down the background checker and used her compulsion to get him to falsify all the data he'd collected.

Alec grabbed Silas's punch and dragged him forward, snapping his elbow into his cousin's face. "She came up entirely clean? That's almost worse."

Silas drew a deep breath, moving back, "Don't worry, she had a couple misconducts on her police records, but the parents and grandparents don't seem to have an allegiance."

Just barely, Alec avoided a kick to his knees, "The rest of the family?"

Silas shrugged, jabbing quickly, knocking Alec to the ground. "Cousin in Little Orleans, aunt in Alabama. Rest of the family resides in West Virginia. Trust me, she's clean."

With a laugh, Alec rolled to avoid the kick aimed at his head. "Am I the only one who thinks that's suspicious?"

"Yes," Silas grunted, dragging Alec to his feet and punching him in the stomach, "I think you're putting too much thought into this."

Alec was yanked into standing straight by his hair. "No," he threw his elbow back into Silas's ribcage. "I think that you think she's super hot."

"I'm insulted," Silas laughed, grabbing Alec by the arm and throwing him onto the ground, "Please, Alec, I'm a much more respectable human being than that."

He inhaled deeply, gasping for air as he responded, "Your name is in no way synonymous with respectable. Need I remind you that I've seen you—"