The Night Vigilante

XXII. Grace

Chapter 22 (Please comment and vote!)

            "You're angling your body away from you target again," Cole gently reminds me, his lips at my ear and his hands on my hips.

I swallow hard, straightening my body to fully face the punching bag.

Cole chucks lowly, knowing his effect on me before stepping back and releasing his hold.

"You have to twist your hips forward to carry the momentum with your fist," Cole instructs, demonstrating with a perfect punch that slices past my face onto the punching bag.

There is a resounding slam and the bag shakes wildly, nearly toppling me over.

Cole stills the bag, lifting my hand.

Blood seeps through the bandages and Cole frowns. "From now on you wear gloves or some sort of bandage over your knuckles when you punch."

"Ulrich doesn't like it. He told me—"

"Ignore what he told you. I am telling you that it's okay to wear the bandages," Cole says firmly. He begins to unwrap the soiled bandage much to my protest before grabbing a fresh linen and rewrapping my hand.

"She is my student too, not just yours boy," Ulrich says, striding into the training room with gusto. His hair is spiked, going with his hard image of piercings and tattoos.

"We teach all of our prospects to wrap their knuckles when training," Cole says lowly, not looking up at Ulrich.

Ulrich snorts, his heavy gaze on me.

I square my shoulders, meeting his gaze. My knees shake and after a long moment, he smirks.

"We wouldn't want to mess up that pretty face now would we? We wouldn't want to give Thatcher more reasons to dispose of you."
Cole slams the scissors onto the table beside us with so much force it dents the metal and I jump.

I glance down at Cole to see him still half hunched over, his muscles tight with tension.

"Call the other prospects in for training Ulrich," Cole says.

His voice is quiet, barely a murmur but the power and threat behind it is clear.

Cole wasn't the best vigilante out there because of luck. He earned people's respect—one of those people being Salem and if there was one person Ulrich had to obey, it was Salem.

Ulrich's voice remains passive, only the slightly tick of his jaw giving away his anger as he shrugs.

"I want everybody out now!" Ulrich barks, bellowing so loud I flinch.

There is a loud thundering of footsteps and one by one every prospect lines up stoically.

"Today we are going to work on floor grappling," Ulrich says, his thick accent rolling in the silent air.

Cole takes a step away from me and I line up at the end of the line, adding distance so people don't think we are closer than needed.

As I look at the prospects though, I can tell what they are thinking.

I am seen as the weakest link, the one who was shown favoritism...

The woman beside me is taller by a head and she looks at me from the corner of her eye with contempt, a smirk on her lips.