Dark as the Night

55

A/N: I have finally finished the full outline for the book! The manuscript will have 24 chapters, but I won't know how many chapters that equates to here on Wattpad. We have one scene left of chapter 14, which I'll post next week.

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-Evie

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"Hey."

Odessa nearly jumped out of her skin as the deep, low voice murmured close to her ear. She shoved her fist in her mouth to keep from screaming as she turned with wide, startled eyes to the rugged face looking over her shoulder.

"Why do you keep doing that??" she hissed at him.

James cocked an eyebrow and stood upright. "Ninja, remember?"

"Do you even know Ninjutsu?" she asked with a frown and looking back at the tablet in front of her, tried to calm her racing heart.

"No, what we do here is a sort of MMA with a lot of elements of Jiu-Jitsu, Krav Maga, Akido, and Muay Thai. It's really similar to the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, I think. Sensei used to be an instructor before he retired from the military."

Odessa digested this information, unable to select one single strand of the web of thoughts now weaving in her head. Finally, she grabbed the easiest and yanked.

"So, you're not really a ninja. Just a huge guy with a ridiculously inordinate ability to sneak up on people."

James chuckled. "I've never actually snuck up on you. You're just always zoned out when I'm around. I called your name a couple times, but you didn't hear me." He added in a grumble, "...as usual."

She was quiet as she added this bit of information to the top of the ever-growing pile of Things to Ponder. She didn't think she was the kind of person to be unaware of her surroundings. In fact, Tai had complimented her on that very skill several times. No one else ever seemed to startle her, but for that matter, she never saw James startle anyone else, either. They always seemed to hear his big, heavy footsteps. She'd always assumed that a.) they were just used to him or b.) he was singling her out to torture her. She had been leaning toward option 'b' but now she wasn't so sure.

Maybe he was just able to surprise her because she wasn't as on-guard when he was around. Now that she thought about it, she realized that, apart from her first few days here, she never felt nervous or unsafe around James. On the contrary, the warmth he radiated, and his spicy, musky cologne put her at ease. Like with Tai, her hackles didn't instinctively raise when he was around.

A large hand appeared in front of her face, waving. "Hellooooo? Did you vacate the premises?" She looked back up at him.

"Sorry, I was thinking. I know that's a difficult concept for you to grasp, but most people do it from time to time."

"Oh yeah?" He adopted a look of mock interest. "That's fascinating. I've never seen other people zone out as much as you do when they think. Are you sure you're doing it right?"

Odessa laughed and smacked his stomach. "Yeah, I know. I just have a lot on my mind and I'm having trouble concentrating on this schedule I'm supposed to be checking. My brain is just going in so many directions, I guess it didn't have room to deal with your stupid voice."

"You're mixing metaphors," James pointed out. "Definitely distracted." He pulled out the chair next to her and plopped down in it, then siezed the tablet from her hands and began scanning through the information on it.

"Hey!" she protested. "That's confidential. You can't just grab it and look at it." She reached for the tablet, but he pulled it away.

"No, it's not," he said. "I've done this for Leila before. There isn't any personal information other than names on here. Well, as long as you ignore the 'reason for visit.'"

"Exactly!" she huffed.

"But seriously, there isn't anything your job entails that I haven't helped Leila with before. Everyone knows that, and everyone trusts me. Maybe you should too. Unlike you, I can do two things at once, so let me do this and you tell me what has you so distracted that you let strange men sneak up on you." He winked then looked back at the tablet.

She snorted in amusement at his words, then sighed.

"All the training has been... enlightening, I guess. I'm remembering all kinds of things, and not just how to track deer or aim a crossbow – which, by the way, is actually new to me. But after Adam had me test out different ones, later that night, I was sitting around reading and remembered aiming a rifle at some geese."

James glanced at her with raised brows. "How would you have done that? Unless you're in the police or military, guns are illegal."

"I realize that," she replied. "So, I don't know. I don't even know if it was a real memory because it was just a flash, really, but why would I see it otherwise? And it makes sense. It explains why I can already hunt. But it's not just that – I've remembered small things like cooking chicken, gymnastics, and sitting in Italian language class, but not anything about the language. I remember my mom teaching me Latin phrases, but not what the phrases were or what they meant.

"And until today, I didn't remember anything about any sort of martial arts or fighting. David wanted me to demonstrate if I knew anything and I had no clue how. I was so confused, and it was stressing me out and I started feeling like everyone just wants so much from me. They want to know all these things and I can't do it. I want to know too, but I'm starting to feel like it's not about helping me but using me and I don't know why it feels like that, but I also feel like it's always been that way. And I have no reason at all to feel that either.

"Then just as I was getting all stressed out and frustrated, Mina attacked me out of nowhere and all I could think was that I was so goddamn tired of people coming at me and I reacted instinctively. I just fought her off without knowing what I was doing, but a part of my brain was constantly analyzing what was going on and how to handle it. And when it was over, I was flooded with... everything."

Odessa stopped rambling and took a deep breath. She realized she'd been staring into her lap, at her hands, which were shaking.

A finger slid under her chin and lifted it. Her eyes went to James's green ones, and she saw sympathy and warmth in them. "Hey," he murmured. "It's ok. You're right, they're asking too much of you too quickly and overwhelming you. I do agree that you need to learn as much as you can, but they're pushing you too much. I'll talk to Liam and Sensei about it, ok? Tai was pretty pissed this afternoon, so I'm sure he's had words with Adam, too."

She felt a tear slide down her cheek as she nodded. She raised her hand to wipe it away, but James's thumb beat her to it. "Thanks," she whispered.

"No problem," he replied. Then he removed his hand from her face and slid the tablet back to her. "You'd gotten further with this than you realized," he said, abruptly changing the subject. "It's done now." He looked at the clock. "Your shift ends in five minutes and you're doing ok on your homework. Instead of math, want to go to the Dojo and see if we can coax some more of those memories out on your terms instead of the old men's?"