Dalliance - Z.M. (An Exquisites Original Story)

36; NFWMB

Chapter 36

"Ain't it warming you, the world gone up in flames?"

(Raine's POV)

"Harder! No... For God's sake. You tryna get killed? Harder, Fosco!"

My adrenaline is laced with fury at the sound of Ana's voice giving me these directions for what feels like the thousandth time today. My fists move to punch the bag in front of me vigorously as she holds is steady. I'm putting in all of my energy but she looks unfazed as she watches me, reminding me once again that she is much stronger than she looks.

"I'm fucking trying!" I shout back, sweat racing down my forehead.

Ana and I have been training together for weeks now. Even though I lifted weights since senior year of high school, my personal training held no candle to the difficulty Ana puts me through. She is not only helping me get stronger, but she is teaching me how to fight. When I told her I'd most likely have a gun whenever I was in a bad situation, she told me that the gun was useless in the hands of someone who didn't know how to aim.

"No!" She shouts, letting go of my bag. Defeated, I drop my arms to my side, panting. I go to reach for my water bottle but she kicks it out of my way and stands in front of me, infuriated. For such a tiny girl, she holds a lot of rage inside of her.

"Listen to me," she tells me carefully, scolding me with her tone. "You are not going to get anywhere if you fight like this."

"What are you talking about? I think I've gotten a lot better since-"

"I don't care," she interrupts. She does that a lot. "You might be able to hold a candle to my strength but the people that want you are a lot bigger, faster, and stronger than I am. So maybe you should stop thinking of me as an enemy and actually listen to the shit that's coming out of my mouth."

Clenching my jaw, I try to practice the ounce of patience I have left towards her. "I would love to listen to you, but you are not giving me any advice. You just keep telling me I'm fucking up."

"Which you are," she deadpans. Here she goes again. "I'm not gonna hold your hand and tell you what to do, alright? If you want to get better, start thinking for yourself and stop relying on other people to tell you what to do."

The words that come out of her mouth hold little to no meaning to me since I've been hearing them since we've started. Still, it doesn't make me any less furious.

When we had started training about three weeks ago, I came in with a brand new attitude and convinced myself we could be friends if I tried. But Ana is as stubborn as a mule. She had no interest in becoming my friend, or even maintaining civility with me. All she could care about is making me stronger so Zayn or any of her other colleagues didn't have to try to hard to protect me.

So now she trains me for three hours, four times a week. We meet at Apollo's training facility around seven AM along with a few other people from the gang who train there too. It's not like I have much of a choice, anyways. Apollo is convinced that Moon's going to make a move soon and I'm going to need to fight to protect myself, but he calls that his last resort. Still, it's better to be safe than sorry.

The tensions around me have been running exceptionally high since my birthday which was a week ago. Ever since Apollo killed Alec, we have not heard anything from Moon or her people, which is either a really good thing or a terrifying one.

"Alright, let's try again," Ana says, grabbing my water bottle off the floor and tossing it to me. I take off my boxing glove to take a sip as she takes hold of the punching bag.