“That was enthusiastic?”
“The pain and the discomfort are normal. The explosion-type sensation we had at the beginning is not....That was my power literally bursting with enthusiasm to enter you.”
“Why so enthusiastic?”
Antonio looked to Luther who, for once, had no answer.
Eventually Antonio theorised, “Perhaps because your own concentration of power was so great it massively attracted my own.”
I took an inventory of my entire self. “I don’t feel any different.”
“It may actually a few weeks for the gift to manifest itself, just as it does for a vampire’s natural gift to emerge,” said Luther. “I must say I am eager to see what it will be.”
“As am I,” giggled Antonio. “Do you feel able to return to work this evening?”
“That’s where I’m going now,” I said as I rose from the bench. “Hopefully the gift doesn’t pop up then or God knows what I might end up doing to the boys.” An evil smile surfaced. “That would be the most perfect excuse to beat them senseless though, wouldn’t it?”
“Oh and Sam, there is one last thing before you go,” called Antonio casually as I reached the door.
“What’s that?”
“When the attack happens on The Hollow, I’d like for you and Jared to lead the recruits together.”
I spun on the spot. “Say again?”
Chapter Seven
(Sam)
Entering the training arena, I almost dropped dead with shock – which would be a hard thing for an immortal to do. Inside, stretching and gabbing and laughing at dirty jokes, was every single one of the recruits. No sulky or irritated expressions. No lazy postures. No yawns or groans. Not even any signs that they were angry with me after I dug into their past and hit them with it. In fact, they all seemed eager and rearing to start.
I giggled, which made them all turn. “Did someone mistakenly tell you lot that I’ll be doing this topless or something?”
“Naked, I heard,” joked one of them. It might have been Harvey.
Max flashed me his usual smile – no hint of last night’s flirtatiousness in it, which was good. Like most people, I wanted my personal life and work life separate as far as possible. “We’re big boys, we can admit that we were wrong about you.”
Chico nodded and gave me look that was both apologetic and respectful. “If you’re someone who can kill your Sire to protect Antonio, then there are things we can learn from you. And you’re the kind of person I would listen to.”
There were murmurs of agreement from Denny, David, Salem and Reuben.
“Plus, you got a great body and I’m starting to get sexually confused being around guys all the time,” said Damien, appreciating my navy jeans and pink top that came attached to a white vest so covered my cle**age a little better. Needless to say, I’d picked this when Fletcher and I went shopping. He had begged me not to buy it.
“And you were right,” said Butch, “we let ourselves get caught up in the high of being picked for the legion and thought we were the best thing since sliced bread.”
“So, where do you want us and what do you want us to do?” asked Stuart.
I snorted. “Well first of all the lot of you can stop the friendliness and flirting. I’m not your mate, I’m not here for you to ogle at, and I’m not here to joke with you. I’m here to coach you.”
They all nodded and, in unison, said, “Yes, Commander.” Was I dreaming?
“Oh no, you can drop the ‘Commander’, I can’t stand it.” But I wasn’t going to let them call me by the first name either.
“How about Coach?” suggested Denny. The others seemed to approve of that.
I considered that for a moment. In terms of being someone who people would listen to, it was kind of the middle ground. People tended to respect coaches or trainers and have better relationships with them than what they did with people who marched around and barked orders.
“Coach, it is,” I decided. “I won’t be sending you off doing cross country or any physical exercises – that’s Commander Michaels’ department. All I will be concentrating on is aiding you with your gifts. Now...considering that you’re all lazy sods it’d be stupid of me to assume any of you have been practicing on your own time.” They didn’t deny it. “Right then, let’s deal with all that excess energy because until you learn to channel it I can’t teach you how to use your full potential and make use of it in combat.”
They reminded me of a rugby team getting ready to play the way they were getting rid of any cricks in their necks and bouncing a little on the spot.
“I’m going to give you all individual coaching, but do not at all mistake this as an insinuation that you only look out for number one. The point is to all become stronger as a squad, but you can only do this by first improving yourselves individually.
“Also you will need to know each other’s gifts inside and out – there might be a situation one of you can’t handle but another can by, for instance, paralysing an enemy’s senses or by mimicking a certain animal. It’ll also mean that if you see one of you in deep shit with an enemy you’ll know whether their gift will mean they can protect themselves or whether someone needs to intervene. What’s more, you’ll know exactly who is the best person to intervene. All of that clear to you?”
“Yes, Coach,” they all said.
God their compliance was weird. “Just to be sure that having your eyes almost glued to my cle**age isn’t making everything I’ve said fly right over your heads, someone tell me the first goal you all have.”
Max immediately said, “To work out how to channel all the energy so there’s none leaking out.”
I nodded. “Good. Someone give me the next one.”
“To improve our use of our powers so we can improve as a squad,” shouted Butch.
“Good. One more...”
“To know each other’s powers in and out,” offered Reuben.
“Well what do you know, you lot actually do listen,” I said, smiling wide. “After you’ve reached all those goals we can start looking at formations. But for now, let’s tackle the first goal. Denny?”
Instantly the animal mimic stepped forward. His baby face made me want to take it easy on him – it wouldn’t have the same effect on an enemy but it might very well make them underestimate him. Hopefully he was the type not to be estimated.