Red Flag

Combat 101

I've done it, after the drunken mistake things got better, and Dante decided I could move on from the theory class and start going to combat class, Sheila was the instructor, a thing that got me by surprise, she asked me to go to her place, a townhouse just outside the city, she had an indoor gym with punching bags and soft areas to fall. 

"Are you ready to get your ass kicked?" she said when I got to her place "I thought you were going to teach me stuff" I said without knowing what was coming my way. We started prepping, stretching, and doing a short yoga session, I liked it and Sheila was absolutely stunning in her gym clothes. "Ok, enough softness let's get to business," said Sheila getting in front of me. She taught me how to stand, how to protect my face, and to duck, it was fun till the speed went up.

After 20 minutes I was sweating and Sheila was punching me and throwing me to the floor every 2 minutes. I was mostly tired of falling, I had bruises coming up for sure. "The actual key here is to never face in combat with a vampire, but they usually have human guards so we have to know how to fight" I was gasping for air so I just nodded. "Never fight a vampire, they'll crush you, but if you absolutely have to, run as fast as you can and hide, we're building stamina, core strength, and reflexes"

I dodged, fell, and received punches for 2 hours straight, I was exhausted, "I think that'll be for today, you should rest your muscles tomorrow, have some bananas and avocado, they'll hurt less, and we'll meet 3 times a week, in a month you should be able to get ready for the first mission" I didn't know what she was talking about. "What mission I asked?" she looked at me with a witty smile, "Dante hasn't told you?" I shook my head. "I'm supposed to prep you to get weapons, isn't that what you want?" I wasn't following. "Don't you already have silver weapons stored somewhere?" I asked.

Sheila laughed out loud, "Babe, no, we haven't killed a vampire in centuries, this is the first time we can actually get close to one" I was shocked and worried "What do you mean? I thought you hunted vampires" Sheila was picking stuff off the floor, "We do, our families have done it for millennia, we carry on with the knowledge and fight back whenever we can, but they are stronger and more powerful, a strike without planning could wipe us out, so we revolt and make political movements, to get close to vampires is really hard, but be sure that now that we have an opportunity to strike we will"

It turns out I was making a way for them to actually get rid of at least one of the vampire royalties, this is why Dante was so eager to understand my motive, and more than that the reason I am Maddy's weakness, I'm the bait.