"What have you to prove?"
Eric hates the question and the casualness with which the blow is delivered to him.
She looks at him with a slight smirk, one of cat-like astuteness, her eyes ablaze with predatory intelligence although her manners remain casual. The Initiate by no means flew under the radar when she chose to join Dauntless but her apparent sweetness had grabbed Eric's attention and he fought to let it go. Surely Valentina had no place here. Not in the Division of warriors and soldiers.
She has that forsaken Amnity grace, the unintentionally seductive manners which have not quite been wiped out from her system.
It makes it burn all the more.
The initiate might as well be sent packing, booted all the way back to Amnity.
Eric manages to sneer.
"Ask me that again when you're a worthy Dauntless."
He thinks he's struck a nerve as he turns and saunters away.
But yet again, he finds himself wondering back on it later. And he finds himself doubting her lack of bother.
--
Eric watches her as she trains.
There's no fire in her.
No anger, no passion.
The first fight she's submissive.
Eric watched but only winces once, when the last blow is struck to the side of her head and she's knocked out cold.
"Take her away." He commands, dismissive.
His voice makes it obvious what he thinks of her:
she has no place here.
And he won't make it easier for her.
--
His occasional hatred towards her becomes gradual admiration when she breaks the rules of the fight one day.
Her friend, Chloe, had been heavily overwhelmed by her opponent.
Valentina jumped in.
He'd known of the two's friendship and yet he'd never seen something quite like it before.
A quick slam of her forearm into Hector's neck had him falling and rolling away.
"Enough!" The brunette commanded, with the voice of a queen.
He saw the passion then.
The anger, the bravery.
Everyone stood aghast although the building tension before had made it hard to watch the fight. Now they anxiously turned to Eric and Four, to see their reactions.
Eric kept his blank.
"I substitute Chloe," The Amnety initiate declared. No shame. No pride either. Just confidence.
Eric considered this.
Then nodded.
Anything for a good fight. He'd punish her insubordination later. "Proceed."
The look she cast on Hector was one which warned him that it was personal. Eric tried recalling what beef she might have with him - he vaguely remembered Hector picking on the blonde friend for her demure stature. Maybe his teasing had been vicious.
Valentina, taller and curvaceous and brunette, the opposite of her friend, appeared to wait for him to make the first move, staying on the defensive, but as soon as the bully drew close, she lashed out fast.
An elbow to the neck, a punch to the chest.
Her blows were accurate. Her aim centred.
Where was that hesitation that had plagued her before? Nowhere to be seen.
Eric watched as the flower blossomed into a tiger, right before his eyes.
Ruthless precision and sadist intent.
Unwittingly, he found himself smirking.
She was drawing out the torture of painful blows. Her grunts decorating the tense air along with the spluttering and gasping of the much bigger male.
The fight eventually drew to a finish.
Eric nodded, satisfied.
YOU ARE READING
Danger in Dauntless **RATED R**
AdventureEric and his new Initiate have an explosive, lustful struggle as they both try and come out on top. Eric never imagined he could find someone to prove him wrong, to prove him weak. Until she comes along.
