Underground

7

"Wait so he was just like 'my name is Nicholas Spalding'?"
I grabbed Devlin by his arm and tossed him on the ground in submission. I looked over at Dorrian who was overseeing the training and he nodded. I let Devlin go and looked at Mitchie. "Yeah. That's what he did."

She whistled low and then chuckled. "I have to say Justine you are doing better than me. First Devlin now the nephew of one of the major Families? Someone is bound to get jealous," she teased and I rolled my eyes. Despite what I thought, General Mason didn't scold me too badly but he did use some colorful vocabulary. He would have turned me down anyway. Then there was this Nicholas guy...

I turned and looked over at the bleachers where a few people who wore the Spalding insignia sat and among them was Nicholas. Smirking. At me. He's come to everyone of our training sessions, with his group, ever since that night at the Mason estate. He was more annoying than Devlin. I pushed my hair out of my face and looked at Mitchie. "When do we start weapons? I had that knife the other night but it didn't do much," I asked irritated.

"Every Assassin gets a signature weapon. During weapons training that's what they are testing. Your skill with a weapon and then they pair you with one of your own," Devlin explained, laying on the floor. I looked up towards the bleachers and the guy Nicholas was gone. I frowned. Why does he come?

"Looking for me?"

I rolled my eyes and started walking away. "Go away." I heard his big boots stomping about behind me and as much as I wanted to yell at him I knew that was going to be a bad idea. He was the nephew to one of the members of the council and keeping him "entertained" as Duchess put it, will help keep me in the Games longer. But damn if that isn't hard.
"I saved you the other night. The least you could do is be nice to me," he tutted. I stopped walking and looked at him. What was more annoying about him was that he was extremely handsome and he knew it. His warm amber eyes were filled with mischief and I wanted to kick him.

"What is your ranking?" I asked.

He looked thrown off by my question. Good. Keep him on his toes. "I am a Captain. I have my own team in the Special Operations Squadron under the Mason faction," he said. For the first time since I met him, he actually said something that sounded interesting.
"What do the S.O.S do?"

"We handle the big stuff. Hostage situations, witness protection, terrorist attacks," he named off. "The list goes on. We are the government's last resort."

I just stared at him and wondered how the hell did he become Captain in that faction? He looked over his shoulder as Alex stomped his way over to us. Great. "Go away, Wolf. Ryder has training to do," he snapped.

"You know I thought Joel was the only one who could piss me off but it's all of you lizards," Nicholas commented scratching behind his ear. Alex took a step forward which caused me to take one back. I wasn't trying to get hit by niether of them.

Alex glared at him, "Dragon, dipshit! Dragon. We don't do that tongue shit."

"Must be the reason why you can't keep a relationship," Nicholas smirked. Mitchie, who appeared next to me, choked on a giggle as Dorrian walked inbetween the two guys.

"Spalding. Your issue is with Joel," Dorrian said in a strong voice. "Not with my little brother or my family's Candidate. Leave."

Nicholas didn't bother acknowledging Dorrian as he looked at me and winked, "A Dragon won't do nothing but lie, Sweetheart. Remember that when you go to pick a faction," and then he left. Dorrian whispered something in Alex's ear and for the first time since he met me, he looked directly at me.

"Stay away from that Wolf, Ryder. He's nothing but trouble," he snapped.

•••

During lunch, Mitchie and me decided to run fifty laps around the field. You would have thought because he legs were longer she would have done better than me. On the fifth lap I noticed someone was watching us. I stopped short and Mitchie looked back at me. "Justine?"

I stared at the large tree and frowned. I know I saw someone. "Who's there?" Mitchie shouted. I looked at her in disbelief. Has she never seen a horror movie? You don't ask that shit! The person standing behind the tree came out and leaned against it smiling. It was a girl. First thing I noticed was the red hair. It was a deep blood red. "You shouldn't ask who's there," she said looking at Mitchie. She leaned off the tree and walked towards me.

"You are Justine Ryder?"

I nodded.

She smirked, her blue eyes twinkled with amusement. "You fucked up my brother's nose," she chuckled. "I've been hearing a lot about you so I wanted to see you before I left for my mission. I'm Second Lieutenant Cherine Mason, the last sibling of the Mason clan."

She reminds me of Carter. "Seems like I met all of you..." I mumbled.

"Except Staci and Joel. Normally Staci and I would be your teachers for the Weaponry Training but we have to go," Cherine says looking over at Mitchie then back at me. "Do ten more laps before you go back inside."

"Yes, ma'am," we said. Cherine smiled and turned to walk away. I nodded to Mitchie who groaned as we started to run. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Cherine looking at us, talking to Carter and Jonathan.