What a Difference a Year Makes (Revised)

Chapter 30

Chapter 30

It was two weeks later and we were finding it very strange without Mason. He had moved to New York, into the apartment above the new gym. He had worked his butt off getting the place into shape and he was due to open by the end of the week; a whole two weeks ahead of schedule, for which we were proud and grateful for. At first I was worried that he would be on his own in a new city but none of us noticed that Mason had struck up a relationship with one of Abe's guardians, Naiha Demir. She was originally from Istanbul and she had been a Guardian for a royal moroi that lived there. Unfortunately the royal moroi, unsurprisingly a Zeklos, made advances towards her and demanded if she wanted to keep her job she would fully 'service' him. She refused and he managed to get her unsanctioned by the Queen, citing irregularities in guarding. Abe, through his many contacts heard about Naiha's situation and offered her a job in his home, reassuring her that he was not like her former employer. When we first opened the gyms she had been among the guardians sent to the LA gym for training and wanted to stay on after the intensive was finished; now we know why. We soon approached her to see if she wanted to work for us alongside Mason, she jumped at the chance so now she had moved to New York to be with him and we couldn't be happier for them.

Dimitri, in an uncharacteristic moment, turned to me shortly after Mason and Naiha left and said "Alberta is the only one without someone now. I feel quite sad about that."

"Don't be too sure about that Comrade. I've had a sneaking suspicion for a long time about Alberta and a certain head guardian at St Basil's" I said with a wink. He looked at me in utter shock and I just laughed at him.

It's hard to believe that the Baia and LA gyms have been so successful that we are managing to open one in New York and we are currently in negotiations to open one in Istanbul; however we still didn't know who would run that gym for us. Eddie and Vika had expressed a wish to be considered but I don't know how Mama Olena would take to another child moving away from home; the youngest at that but Istanbul was closer to Baia than LA was so maybe it could be a possibility, also they would be living with family seeing as they would be staying in my father's main home. It would make things a lot easier to keep uniformity in training styles across all of the gyms, having Alberta continue on at Baia, Eddie and Vika in Istanbul, Mason in New York and Dimitri and I in LA. Dimitri too thought this was a sound business move but was worried about telling his Mama. If in the future we wanted to open more we should really start thinking about training up some of the exiled guardians that have signed up to our agency.

All in all business was looking good and spirits had picked up since our run in with Tasha and Lissa and we all hoped that it would be the last time we saw them, however, our celebrations didn't last for too long before those "banes" were at it again. I think in the back of my mind I knew that we hadn't heard the last of them yet but what I wasn't expecting was them sending someone else in their stead.

Today found me and Chris in the main room sparring. Since Mason had left, I had taken on training Chris in self-defence and combat techniques. I don't think either of us was originally looking forward to it but surprisingly we worked well together; although a little snarky with each other at times, almost like siblings.

"Come on Sparky, hit me!" I said to him. "Look, I thought you might like to get me back for all those fire crotch comments, so hit me. What you waiting for?"

"Alright you asked for it!" Chris said and lunged at me with his fists balled.

"That's more like it!" I said as I managed to block his very well placed punches. "Now if those connect, it should throw your opponent of balance so sweep in with your dominant leg to try and bring them down. That will give you time to stake them or, in your case, flambé their ass."