“Are you a southpaw?” Hegazed at my stance, eyes roaming over me.
“Yes, I’m left handed.”
He shook his head andthen grabbed my hips and twisted me a little. I tried to stand firm, but he wasstrong. He clicked his tongue between his teeth. “You’re weak.”
“Screw you,” I said,glaring at him.
“But you have some spunk,so I’m going to work with that. This scrappy fighting style of yours will onlylast as long as it takes for one of the ash to take you down to the ground.”
“Guess you’d better havea magic wand then.”
“I don’t need magic.” Icould smell the faintest metallic scent on his lips. He’d recently fed.
I tried to focus as hetook a step back. “Put your arms out, like you’re flying.”
I wanted to roll my eyes,but managed to simply sigh and do as he said.
“Resist,” he commanded ashe applied pressure to my arms, pushing them down with ease.
“Again.”
I resisted him as hard asI could, but my arms still fell easily.
He nodded, his chestnut hairsweeping across his eyes. “Your left arm is stronger. On top of three times aday training, I’m recommending twice a day weight training. I’ll have Jaredtrain you. He loves his weights.” I knew Jared was one of the sexy six. Theblond Australian. I’d only ever seen him from across the way, but he definitelyhad impressive biceps. Still, that was a lot of training.
“When do I sleep?” Ichallenged Ryder.
“When you have survivedthe culling.” His serious tone wiped the attitude off my face. Swallowingroughly, I nodded. The instinct to survive was strong in me and this guy waswilling to help me. The least I could do was give it my all.
“I’m going to teach you afive step sequence. This sequence will be the only thing you do, three times aday for the next week. You will be so sick of it by the end of the week, youwill be doing it in your sleep.”
“Wow, you really know howto sell your services,” I muttered.
He ignored me. “Left jab,right hook, left leg kick, drop and sweep.” It sounded like a chant almost.
“Watch me,” he commanded.
“Left jab.” He lightlypushed his left hand out and brushed my chin.
“Right hook.” His righthand swept around and lightly touched my right temple.
“Left leg kick.” He tookhis left leg and slowly brought it up to touch my ribcage.
“Drop.” He dropped to theground. “And sweep.”
From a crouched position,his leg snaked out and swept my legs out from under me. I fell back on the mat,my teeth clacking as I hit the ground. I had totally not expected that, sinceit was simply supposed to be a demonstration. He stood and looked down on me.
“You’re a dick. You knowthat, right?” I waved away his hand.
He dropped his arm backto his side. “Would you rather have a dick teach you to stay alive or a niceguy babying you through training?”
Shit, the dick had apoint. As soon as I was back on my feet, Ryder walked over to a wall andwheeled out this big-ass punching bag figure of a man. He put it right in frontof me and stood like a sentinel next to it.
“Ready to sweat?” herumbled. I forced myself to focus. It was really unfair that the unique rumblyquality of his voice totally threw my equilibrium off.
Taking my position, Ibegan the sequence he showed me. I was unable to sweep the heavy mannequin, butI assumed we would work on that later. Maybe I’d be lucky enough to return thegesture from before and sweep Ryder on his ass.
Every time I punched, heintercepted and adjusted my hold, or twisted my arm. It made me feel like Ididn’t know shit about fighting. I grit my teeth and kept going. After twentyminutes of this my muscles were screaming at me to stop, but I wouldn’t giveRyder the satisfaction of seeing me quit.
