Mated

Fifteen

I readied myself and when he gave me a nod, I threw a punch at him. As if it was so predictable, he side-stepped it.

"Wake up," James said, bouncing on his feet and gesturing to me to come at him again. He had been kicking my ass all morning and uttering things like 'get out of your head', 'you should already have me on the ground', 'keep fighting like this and you're already dead'.

I raised my leg in a quick notion to kick him in the side, but his fist came down on my knee. I winced as the pain shot through my kneecap and fell back from my pounce on him. Taking my weakness as his opportunity, he stepped toward me, throwing punch after punch and I stumbled backwards trying to block and dodge them all.

We continued like this for a few moments with him following my every step as I tried to maneuver away from him and dodge his hits. Finally, I was able to pull myself back together and landed a fierce punch on him, knocking his head to the side.

With his guard down, I stepped around him, coming up behind and, while on the very tip of my tippy toes because of his height, put his head in a headlock. He grunted, trying to pull out of it, throwing his head from side to side. He bent over, forward, causing my feet to come off the ground and he lightly threw me over his head onto the ground.

I was a step ahead of him. Once I hit the ground and he was still bent over, I wrapped my legs around his neck and used my elbows and forearms to twist my body around, turning his neck in the process. He tried to break free but there was nowhere to go with my legs wrapped around his neck in an unrelenting hold, his body bent forward, locking him in what I knew was a painful position. He panted for air and after a moment, patted my leg, tapping out.

I released him and he squat, rubbing his neck. I sat upright with my arms wrapped around my legs, actually smiling at myself and my improved strength. James might not have confirmed it, but I had gotten stronger since we started these trainings.

"Ms. Pierce." He shook his head and raised his brows with a surprised chuckle. Was he actually laughing because of me? "You never cease to amaze me."

I was pleased and moved to get up. But when I tried to stand, I couldn't. There was some invisible weight holding me down. I looked down at my chest, expecting to see James' foot pressing down on it already ready to demonstrate a different scenario where the weight felt heaviest, but James was several feet away.

"You never cease to amaze me... You never cease to amaze me..."

"You never cease to amaze me..." it rang in my ears, louder and louder.

"Why do you keep saying that?" I winced, trying again to stand.

"What?" He asked. Why did his voice sound as if he were far away but he was standing right in front of me?

"'You never cease to amaze me'," I repeated. As soon as I'd said it, I was jolted backwards by a force I couldn't see. I felt James catch my head in his palm just before my eyes clouded over and the world around me blurred. My chest tightened, making me gasp for air. I squeezed my eyes shut and then blinked them open. I let out a deep breath, able to breathe again.

He was no longer at my side.

"You never cease to amaze me," I repeated once more. But it wasn't really me, the sound my voice made was deeper sounded older like before. Like the day I had a vision when I was in James' library.

A man with sun kissed skin was sitting on the edge of a canopy bed in the middle of the elaborate bedroom we were in. His reddish-brown shoulder length hair was pulled back in a ponytail. His face looked strong and a few years older, mature.