Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) (5 page)

The
beautiful woman in front of me nodded and wrapped her arms around
me. I latched on, running through my head what I’d just said. I was
terrified, but I was honest. My father had failed in his role, but
I wouldn’t.

I won’t be like him. I’ll stop him, I’ll keep us
safe.

We
crawled into bed, and Anna passed into sleep in a matter of
minutes. I, on the other hand, stayed awake.

I promise.

The Training

‘
Rise and shine!’ Chris shouted as his arms vigorously shook
me.

‘
Whatthehellareyoudoing,’ I moaned.

I sat up
and dug my fists into my eyes. When I opened them, I was greeted by
Chris’s face. Behind him, the windows showed the red hue of
sunrise. I groaned again.

‘
Aren’t you superhuman nowadays?’ Chris chuckled.

‘
That doesn’t mean I don’t need sleep,’ I growled.

He gave
me another shake and I swiped his arms away. Anna roused slowly at
my side. She gave Chris a look I was glad not to be on the
receiving end of, and shifted till she sat beside me.

‘
Please tell me the city’s fallen victim to Lucas’s father,’
Anna muttered. ‘If it hasn’t, then you should run, because I will
hunt you down.’

‘
I need to borrow Lucas for a bit,’ Chris replied.

I
squinted up at his face.

‘
At this time?’ I said.

He
nodded and walked towards the door.

‘
Get up and ready, then meet me in my room,’ he
said.

Once
he’d left the room I swore. Anna looked at me, her eyes half-closed
and shrugged. She rolled back over, and before I knew it, she was
asleep again. I got up and changed into clean clothes before
heading into the bathroom. I cleaned my teeth and slouched back
into the bedroom, kissed Anna on the forehead, and went in search
of Chris.

When I
reached the room outside, I heard the rattle of a computer’s
keyboard. With his back to me, Brian faced a laptop in front of
him, a steaming mug of coffee by his side. I brightened at the
prospect of caffeine, and wandered over to the bank of
computers.

‘
Morning,’ I said, eyeing his coffee enviously.

‘
Hey,’ Brian replied, his face lifted from the screen, before
it shot back down.

‘
You doing?’ I asked.

‘
I’m taking a look at that drive you guys gave me,’ he sighed,
‘although, it has some serious security measures on it.’

I
frowned at the laptop’s screen; a jumbled array of letters that
didn’t equate to any known words filled it.

‘
Security measures?’ I said.

‘
Yeah,’ Brian nodded. ‘Pretty decent ones too, where did you
get this?’

‘
Off the man that tried to kill us,’ I replied, ‘you know the
one we’re being suspected of murdering.’

‘
Then whatever’s on it might be important,’ Brian mused. ‘Don’t
worry, I’ll crack it. I think Chris was looking for
you.’

‘
Yeah, I noticed,’ I sighed. ‘You think I could get a cup of
that-’

‘
Lucas,’ Chris cut me off from the doorway of his room. ‘Come
on.’

I sighed
and moved away from Brian. I headed over to Chris, who tapped his
foot on the ground. We entered his room, and for the most part, it
matched mine and Anna’s with its wooden floors and brick walls with
faded pictures. It was slightly smaller though, with a door leading
to a room ours didn’t have. Chris motioned to follow him
there.

‘
What’s with the early wake-up call, Chris?’ I
asked.

‘
We need to talk,’ he replied. ‘Plus, I hoped we could get some
training in as well.’

‘
Some huh?’ I moaned.

He
stopped before the door we were headed for and turned. His mouth
was a thin line, and his demeanour was sombre.

‘
I thought it’d be a good idea to get some training in, you
know, some exercise,’ Chris said. ‘You’ll see.’

He
opened the door to a room filled with equipment. There were weights
and treadmills lining the wall, with other apparatus I didn’t have
a name for thrown in too. The middle of the room was open and
empty, with a slightly springy floor that Chris manoeuvred us onto.
He then stood a few feet in front of me. I was slightly confused,
and I waited for Chris to speak, when instead, he
lunged.

His fist
shot through the air. Before I could move, it connected with my jaw
and knocked me off balance. I hit the floor, when a foot collided
with my side. There wasn’t any pain, just a heavy force where
Chris’s strikes hit, but a startled cry escaped my lips
anyway.

‘
What the hell!?’ I shouted, anger firing in my
stomach.

‘
You’re strong, fast. Advanced in ways I’m not, but still,’
Chris said, ‘I have you on the ropes. If it was your enemy, you’d
be dead.’

I got
back on my feet, and before I could take a breath, Chris threw
himself my way. I saw his fist coming and ducked, lashing my own at
his stomach. He caught it though and twisted, bringing my arm
behind my back, before kicking me back to the floor.

‘
Come on, give me a second,’ I said.

I moved
to stand, but Chris kicked my legs from beneath me.

‘
You think your enemy will give you a second?’ Chris chided.
‘You think that if you need a timeout you’ll get one?’

I cursed
and pushed myself up. Using my speed I moved in close to Chris,
bringing my knee up at his chest. He bounced back and pushed it
away. I gave chase, throwing my weight into my right fist as it
sped towards him. He reacted as if he’d known my play. He grabbed
my arm and my neck and threw me to the ground.

I
sighed, frustrated. I pushed him off and spun, using my own legs to
take away his. He jumped, kicked me onto my stomach and pinned me
down. I felt his breath on my ear.

‘
Strength and speed aren’t enough,’ he panted. ‘You can be the
strongest and quickest, in fact, you probably are, but if you can’t
anticipate your opponent’s next move you’re a goner.’

Chris
untangled himself and stood. I hesitantly got to my feet, my pride
a little damaged.

‘
Greystone was different,’ he said. ‘Those creatures lacked
foresight. They didn’t plan an attack, we were lucky.’

Lucky?

‘
You need to learn to fight, to be prepared,’ Chris carried on.
‘Otherwise all those nifty gifts you have are useless. Manage your
own strength too, otherwise when you do manage to connect a blow to
someone, you could kill them.’

If I’d
felt drowsy before, it was gone now. I hadn’t entertained the idea
my strength could kill someone, and the thought made me sick. I had
killed before, the people who’d been turned into monsters in
Greystone anyway, but they were already on death row, the drug my
father gave them and the fact they had resisted it created a battle
in their bodies for control, a battle that would eventually wear
them out and kill them. Plus, we hadn’t had a choice.

For the
next hour, Chris proceeded in teaching me to anticipate. He taught
me how to punch and kick, to block both and limit the amount of
strength I used. I listened without interrupting. I wanted to put
my abilities to good use, to use the thing my father had killed
hundreds to create as a force of good, a force that would be used
to bring him down.

‘
Faster,’ Chris shouted as I blocked a punch. ‘Use your speed
over your strength. Defend yourself before you attack. Be prepared.
Catch your enemy off guard.’

It was
in the middle of a routine like that that Chris started on what
he’d really brought me there for.

‘
Is it worth it?’ he asked.

‘
What?’ I said through gritted teeth.

I threw
my fist at his stomach, but he blocked and stepped to the
side.

‘
Hunting down your Dad?’ Chris panted. ‘Is it worth
it?’

I
stopped.

‘
Of course it is,’ I said. ‘He needs to be stopped.’

‘
And how do you plan to do that, Lucas?’ he replied. ‘Kill
him?’

‘
I-’ I started.

I didn’t
know. I had come to blows with my father before we’d escaped, but I
hadn’t been able to stop him. It was then that he told me about my
twin sister, if she existed. Of how I had been the only one he had
planned to use in an experiment, until he found out he’d fathered
two children. I hadn’t met her, and no doubt he was lying through
his teeth about it, but I hadn’t killed him. I could blame it on
what he’d told me all I liked, but I knew it wasn’t that. I just
couldn’t kill him.

Chris
waited as I sifted through my thoughts.

‘
I don’t know,’ I said. ‘He still has to be
stopped.’

We
started training again.

‘
I think
we
should stop, Lucas,’ Chris said. ‘We need to stop and run.
Things have gotten too complicated.’

What!?

‘
We can’t run!’ I spat. ‘What the hell has gotten into
you?’

‘
We’re up against two extremely powerful organizations,’ Chris
reminded me. ‘Two practically untouchable groups and we don’t even
know where to start!’

‘
So we run?’ I growled, my temper flaring. ‘Then
what?’

‘
We live, Lucas!’ Chris replied with a jab. ‘Tell me, why do
you want to bring your Dad down?’

‘
Were you all there in Greystone?’ I said incredulous. ‘Isn’t
it obvious!?’

I
blocked one of his kicks, and moved in with one of my
own.

‘
No, that’s why I asked,’ he replied. ‘What is it you want,
Lucas?’

‘
Justice!’ I shouted, confusion spreading.

‘
Justice?’ Chris asked. ‘Or revenge?’

I
laughed.

‘
Is there a difference?’ I said.

Chris
took me down and rolled off, getting back to his feet. He glistened
with sweat, and his chest rose and fell heavily. Even with my
abilities I was out of breath, my skin moist but not gleaming like
Chris’s was.

‘
There’s a big difference!’ Chris shouted. ‘Revenge will
get
you killed!
It’ll get Anna killed, Brian, Paul, me! I won’t watch while we
all get killed by some lunatic!’

‘
So we should run?’ I spat. ‘We should live the rest of our
lives in constant fear, when we might be able to end it
now?’

‘
It’s better than nothing,’ Chris panted.

‘
We can’t!’ I screamed.

‘
Would you listen!? I only want us to-’ he started.

‘
Anna’s pregnant,’ I blurted.

That
stopped him in his tracks. His eyes widened and his mouth gaped. I
looked at the floor and shook my head.

‘
We can’t run,’ I whispered. ‘We need to end this. We need a
better life for my child.’

Before
he could reply I brushed past him, and left the room.

*

I
marched past Brian, still typing rapidly on his laptop, and past
Anna lounging on a couch. She must have sensed that something was
wrong, as she shot up and followed me into our room. I growled,
knocked a picture frame off of the nearest table, before throwing
myself onto the bed. Anna walked over and sat beside me, wrapped
her arm around me and took one of my hands.

‘
What’s wrong?’ she asked.

‘
I told Chris,’ I said. ‘I told Chris you were
pregnant.’

‘
And he didn’t like that?’ Anna prompted.

I shook
my head, ‘No, not that. Anna, he’s different. Before I told him, we
were training and, he wants to run. He wants to ditch the hunt for
my Dad and just live our lives on the run.’

‘
I see,’ she replied.

‘
Really? Because I don’t. I mean, what happened to the tough
and unstoppable leader in Greystone?’ I gritted my teeth. ‘What
happened to bringing them down? They took his wife’s life! They
took
our
lives.’

Anna
squeezed my hand then tilted my chin towards her.

‘
I see because I understand,’ she whispered. ‘Lucas, it’s
because we’ve lost all these things he wants to run. To try and get
as far away from this as possible, he may be strong and
intelligent, but he’s human too. Do you want to die?’

‘
Of course I don’t,’ I muttered.

‘
Neither does Chris,’ Anna said. ‘I’m with you, 100%. I mean,
we have a baby on the way. I won’t bring our child into a life of
constant fear. Plus, they have my brother. I will not leave until
he is with us, I will be at your side and help you tear them to
pieces.’

I nodded
and placed my lips to hers. I knew how lucky I was to have her, a
constant pillar of support and strength. It was funny though. The
worst experience of our lives had given us the greatest gift, a
gift that people spent the majority of their lives searching for,
and more often than not, they never found it; a powerful connection
that was unbreakable.