Masters Ring

Chapter 52
	
	The martial arts class quieted when I walked in followed by the
female Foot Brothers. I smirked thinking the scene was out of a bad kung
fu movie; students in sparring equipment happily beating on each other,
suddenly representatives from a rival school enter. I spoke to the school
owner about paying one of his students a visit, but the entrance must have
seemed ominous.
	The instructor and I bowed to each other before I waved the female
Brothers towards the spectator section where they could put on their
sparring gear. Both Stephanie and Rachel's eyes were heavy on my back, a
sensation that I ignored.
	"I'll be back," I told the Brothers. "I left something in the
car."
	It took longer to take care of my business outside than I expected
so everyone was ready when I returned.
	"I informed Stephanie of your desire to test her progress," the
instructor told me.
	"You're ready then?" I asked Stephanie.
	"She's ready," Rachel answered from beside Stephanie.
	The girls were suited up, and looked eager for what I had planned.
	"Both of you?" I asked them.
	"We're friends," Rachel replied with hostility.
	"Hmmm," I said turning towards the female Brothers.
	"To be fair, one of you at a time," I told them.
	Charmel nodded and stepped onto the mat. The rest of the students
sat against the wall fiercely concentrating on the unfolding action.
	The floor was large enough to allow plenty of room for what I
expected the last sparring session to be.
	Charmel and the two girls lined up on opposite sides with the
instructor in the middle. He gave brief instructions before stepping
aside.
	Rachel charged as soon as the instructor signaled them to begin.
The girls' natural ability to work together surprised Charmel forcing her
to retreat carefully. Stephanie and Rachel could not make up for Charmel's
experience though, and the instructor stopped it when the outcome became
obvious. He insisted on a couple of minutes of rest for the girls, which
they took advantage of by talking to each other.
	Their match with Evelyn went better showing me that they dissected
their mistakes and constructed a more effective plan of attack. It did not
work, but they managed to hold off Evelyn longer than they should have
been able to.
	I had removed my shoes and socks by the time the instructor
signaled a halt to the match. Rachel's eyebrows went up when I stepped
onto the mat.
	"Pick the one you want on your side," I told the girls gesturing
at the Brothers.
	"Both," Stephanie answered immediately.
	"Tell me when you're ready," I instructed and turned around to
stare out the window.
	"Let's go," Stephanie said a few minutes later.
	I turned to see them lined up with the female Brothers on the
outside. I put my mouthpiece in, and walked to stand across from them.
	"No pads?" Rachel asked me.
	I ignored the question and set lightly.
	"It's your body," she said with a shrug.
	The instructor shook his head knowingly, but did not comment. My
opponents spread out as he looked to either side to make sure everyone was
ready. He signaled us to begin, and jumped out of the way.
	It was a good idea because Rachel charged immediately as she had
in the two previous matches; unfortunately, she moved too fast isolating
her attack. Two steps brought Rachel in range, and she launched a
roundhouse kick. I stepped into the follow-through zone of her kick and
rushed forward. The move would have robbed her kick of power, but that was
not my intent. I trapped her kicking leg below the thigh in the crook of
my arm while my other arm snaked around her neck. I lifted Rachel off the
ground and tossed her at Stephanie.
	Catching a kick like that required a good read and timing, from
the gasps around the room it was obvious the instructor had made the
sensible decision of not demonstrating the technique.
	The Brothers were a couple of steps behind Rachel's charge, which
they should have known was coming and adjusted their attacks accordingly.
Their original positions outside the less experienced girls separated them
too much to hit me at the same time. It was the second time they made that
particular mistake with me, which was unacceptable.
	I moved to the left and Charmel froze to prepare herself for the
blow. She paid a high price for ceding me the initiative. The chest pad
offered her the same protection that a boxer's training does from a
precise left hook to the liver.
	None.
	I drove into her body the lesson that coming at me alone was
suicide.
	Watching her partner collapse made Evelyn hesitate long enough for
me to get closer than she wanted for her attack. Throwing a punch was the
dumbest thing she could have done, I caught it and pulled her in hard
against my shoulder. It must have felt like she ran full tilt into a
concrete wall; she fell on her ass stunned by the impact.
	Stephanie had untangled herself from Rachel by that time and moved
towards me. A spinning back kick threw her five feet in the opposite
direction. I tried to spread the force of the blow so that there was no
permanent damage, but she did not get up after landing hard.
	Rachel yelled and ran at me again. I glanced around but neither of
the Brothers was going to rejoin the fray soon. Rachel's kicks and punches
had some serious intentions behind them but I shook each off with quick
turns out of their power.
	Letting her hit me made Rachel even angrier, she threw everything
she had at me to little effect because of my blocking and rolling. At some
point, she must have decided just hitting me was good enough and kept at
it until exhaustion overtook her.
	"Do you feel better?" I asked when she stopped.
	Her roundhouse had no tell so my body reacted naturally. I spun
down hooking her base leg out from underneath her. She landed on her back
with a thud and air exploded out of her lungs.
	I stood looking down at her until she caught her breath.
	"Now, I feel better!" she gritted out from behind her mouthpiece.
	I shrugged and walked to Stephanie who had sat up. I crouched down
to look into her eyes.
	"Was this really necessary?" she whispered angrily.
	Everyone was paying attention to us so we kept our voice tones low
enough that even the Brothers and Rachel could not hear our conversation.
	"What happened happened, Stephanie," I told her. "What happens
happened. What will happen, you determine."
	"Do I get a fortune cookie with that?" she whispered
sarcastically.
	"You were raped. It happened and nothing you ever do will change
that," I told her. "At this moment, you cannot fight me and win. I have
years of training and hard experience that you will never be able to
acquire. You know my family history; there are generations of breeding the
best of us inside of me. You could not have killed even your rapists as
easily as I will kill you. What happens in a fight between you and me
already happened, Stephanie. It happened every morning that I woke for one
of these classes while you rolled over and hit the snooze button for
another fifteen minutes of sleep."
	"So what am I supposed to do?" she asked seriously.
	"Determine what will happen," I answered. "Give yourself a
fighting chance against monsters, against a bullet in your head, and even
against me."
	"It's really fucking easy to talk from your side of the table,"
she said.
	"The Brotherhood has decided what will happen if you fail," I told
her. "I have decided what will happen if you succeed in breaking the
past's hold."
	"You will kill me anyway," she whispered.
	"Maybe, Stephanie," I said. "But our decisions won't matter if you
make one of your own."
	I stood up catching two male students getting up from the corner
of my eye. One of them coughed so I turned towards them.
	"Beating up women is no big deal," one of them said.
	I sighed wondering if they understood why the backs of every woman
straightened violently. A measuring glance told me everything I needed to
know: a pair of barracuda in a goldfish pond.
	"I think beating a woman is a big deal," Evelyn said putting her
mouthpiece back in.
	Charmel did the same thing and waved me aside. I nodded and
stepped off the mat. Neither barracuda chose to step out of the water
after the female sharks got through mangling them.
	"Would you like a ride home?" Charmel asked when I leaned against
the driver side door of her car.
	I had asked them to pick me up in front of the student center that
morning. They agreed instantly with my plan to test Stephanie making me
feel that they wanted a second round against me after getting more
information about what they faced. The ride to the school was a pleasantly
quiet one making me think that other Brothers spent time together to get
away from general noise that accompanied Siblings.
	"No," I told Charmel. "Stephanie offered me a ride home."
	"Did you get what you wanted done here?" Evelyn asked from the
passenger seat.
	"I tried to change what will happen," I answered. "I won't know
until it happens or does not happen."
	They nodded and looked at me curiously since I did move away.
	"There's a body in your trunk," I said. "One of your fellow Foot
members fell for the old 'He's looking into an open car trunk; I can stab
him, push him in, and slam it shut before anyone notices' routine."
	Both sprang to attention.
	"I apologize for the blood in your trunk," I said to Charmel. "He
tried to use one of those big ass hunting knives on me; it disagreed with
his bowels."
	"You knew he was following us, and didn't tell us," Evelyn said
angrily.
	"He wasn't here for you," I told her pointedly.
	"Who was it?" Charmel asked.
	"Don't remember his name," I replied. "Don't care if he was stupid
enough to come at me by himself with a knife."
	"Shit!" Evelyn exclaimed.
	"Is there a problem?" I asked.
	"I fucking bet Roderigo it was over," Evelyn complained.
	"I'm in for the full six," Charmel said snickering and starting
the car. "I planned to hide out until it was over, but if the idiots are
going to follow us to David maybe I'll visit that sorority of his that I
keep hearing such good things about."
	"We'll take care of it," Evelyn told me dismissively. "That's our
job anyway."
					
					------

	There were a lot of people in the living room when I got home.
	"A full day of movies," a pajama-clad Doris Alex announced.
	Every Sibling or candidate except one sat around open pizza boxes,
soda, popcorn, and candy.
	"Where's Emily?" I asked.
	"She ran away," Melisa said nonchalantly.
	"Excuse me?"
	"She didn't run away," Doris Alex corrected. "She just ran."
	Melisa shrugged and grabbed a handful of popcorn. I waited for
someone to continue but was ignored.
	"Does anyone know why she ran?" I asked patiently.
	"I think the Sarahs and me jumping you shook her a bit," Luanne
said distractedly. "She thought she was next, and we took her by
surprise."
	The doorbell rang, which was also ignored by everyone. I went to
answer it and found Samantha getting ready to ring again.
	"Hello," I said curiously.
	"Doris Alex called yesterday to tell me I should come over,"
Samantha told me.
	I nodded and got out of her way. Following her into the living
room, I wondered what Doris Alex was up to; an answer I did not have to
wait long for. The Sarahs got a look at Samantha and started vibrating
with sexual energy. I sighed and rolled my eyes at Doris Alex.
	"Sarahs meet your type," I said taking care of the introductions.
"Your type meet the Sarahs."
	Samantha raised an eyebrow, but was too focused on the girls to
say anything to me
	"Aren't you the prettiest pair of matched fillies," Samantha said.
"Has David trained you to the saddle yet?"
	"No," both Sarahs replied in unison.
	"Greeaatt!" I said from behind Samantha.
	"You're going to be busy out of the house tonight anyway," Doris
Alex said coming to stand next to me. "Plus I wanted to create some
distance between the Sarahs and Lee."
	"Trying to break up the threesome?" I asked.
	"Lee needs to make up her mind about what is really important in
her life," Doris Alex told me.
	"You're going to take away her playmates to see if she follows
them," I said shaking my head at her.
	Doris Alex shrugged innocently.
	"You might be pushing her too hard," I told her.
	"We'll see," she replied. "Lee has a strong inclination towards
our lifestyle and following the Sarahs might be the excuse she needs to do
what she wants to anyway. It won't be about Brothers if she comes to us."
	"Did you have to set this up in my house?" I asked nodding towards
where Samantha was circling the rigidly standing Sarahs. "They're going to
start ripping clothing off any second."
	"You're going out so it doesn't matter what those three do here,"
Melisa said leaning up to give me a kiss on the cheek.
	"I am?" I asked.
	"Emily needs to be brought back," she told me seriously.
	"I don't know where she is," I pointed out.
	"We got all of that for you," she answered giving me a sheet of
paper. "She took your car so she was easy to keep track of."
	"My car, my car; or my car, your car?" I asked.
	"Nobody touches your car!" Melisa said dangerously.
	Every Sibling or candidate entering my house probably got the
official list of David's things only Melisa got to play with.
	"Your car, Melisa's car," Doris Alex interrupted with quickly.
	"How did you find out what motel she's staying in?" I said
changing the subject.
	"I gave her one of your credit cards," Doris Alex answered. "I
hope she got the room she wanted."
	"She didn't go far," I said reading the rest of the paper.
	"The motel is on the border of her hometown," Doris Alex told me.
	"Interesting," I said.
	"You should get going," Melisa told me. "You wouldn't want to keep
her waiting too long."
	"Take your time though," Doris Alex said looking at Samantha and
the Sarahs. "This isn't going to be pretty or quick."
	"Toss a whip and some handcuffs into Michael's room," Melisa
ordered. "I want to finish watching the movie."

						-----

	The door was unlocked so I opened it and stepped inside. Emily sat
on the bed wearing one of my t-shirts. She used the remote to turn the TV
off before looking at me.
	"Hello," she said nervously.
	I nodded closing the door behind me.
	"I didn't run away," she informed me quickly. "I just didn't want
an audience for this."
	"People know better than to come into my room when I'm in the
middle of something important," I told her. "So what's the real reason you
came here, Emily?"
	She changed positions to give me a nice view up the t-shirt. My
dick hardened in appreciation of how pretty her pussy looked.
	"I grew up here," she answered.
	"In this room?" I asked.
	"Sort of," she responded with a smile. "I grew up in this town,
but I lost my virginity in this room."
	"And you picked it for our first time?" I asked wincing.
	"Losing my virginity wasn't a very memorable experience," she said
sadly.
	"Bad?" I asked.
	"Prom night, drunk boyfriend I thought I was in love with, and I
got dumped the next week," she listed off. "Not exactly what I dreamed
of."
	I nodded knowing there was nothing I could say about it.
	"How did you lose your virginity?" she asked spreading her legs a
little.
	I sat on the bed and stared at her. Emily wanted a perfect night
and the memory of my monsters had no place in it.
	"I had a friend who shared his girlfriend with me," I told her.
	"What?" she asked amazed.
	"It wasn't a 'if you love me, you'll do this for me' thing," I
said. "He gave me everything. He didn't have anything that in his mind
didn't actually belong to me and that included a girlfriend. He probably
didn't get a girlfriend for himself; he did it for me."
	"She just accepted it?"
	"I think Brittany knew it from the beginning, nothing that
happened between us surprised her," I said. "He gave me everything."
	"Is that what I'm supposed to do, David?" she asked quietly.
	"No, Emily," I told her. "The rule here is I accept everything
you're willing to give me."
	"I don't like that," she said with a shake of her head.
	"Why not?"
	"Your friend was right, it's better to give you everything," she
told me seriously. "You know what to do with it. I think that's another
reason I came here. I stopped believing in giving someone all I am because
of this room."
	"Why did you stop believing?" I asked.
	"Because he didn't love me too," she answered staring at me.
	"Emily," I said only to have her fingers on my lips stop the
words.
	"I never left this room because a kid told me he loved me here
just to get into my pants," she said looking into my eyes. "I know what
you don't feel, David."
	"So how is this going to work then?" I asked her.
	"It doesn't have to work," she replied. "It just has to be."
	I raised an eyebrow in question, but Emily chose not to explain
further.
	"I think I can kill two birds with one stone here," she told me.
	"Which birds?"
	"I can get away from everyone at your house, and I can relive my
first time with a man," she said quietly.
	"You can't avoid the people in my house being a part of your sex
life, Emily," I told her.
	"They don't have to be a part of tonight, do they?" she pleaded.
"I'd like to lose my virginity in private."
	I leaned forward and gave her a long kiss.
	"No," I said breaking it. "I think we can do this on our own."
	"Tomorrow morning, I'll do whatever it takes to show Doris that I
belong in your home," Emily said heatedly.
	"Nobody thinks you don't belong, Emily," I said. "We've been
waiting for you to accept it."
	"I'm ready."
	Emily proved it that night and in the morning, not to Doris Alex
or me but to herself.