Training Day

She sighed heavily and put the music louder, rolling her neck and bouncing on the balls of her feet. Her hair in a messy ponytail, wearing short gym shorts and a sports bra, she continued to train in her training room/gym that she had decorated. It was a room she wasn't using up until now. James was on the phone with one of his music buddies talking music and she needed to focus. James would not help her focus. She'd just want to jump his bones. Again.

She kicked hard to the dummy's head and flipped in the air, another flat footed kick to it's chest before landing on her feet. Smiling proudly, she cracked her fingers.

Kiara stopped the treadmill. She'd been running in the main mansion gym for 2 hours now. She felt restless and cranky. Running at top speed on the treadmill did nothing to burn off any energy.

As she grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat off her brow one of the servants that usually tended to her meals appeared.

"Miss Griffen...have you seen Miss Hamby? The King wishes to know about her blood supplies" she said softly. Most of the staff were still very cautious around her but she shrugged.

"She must be in the mansion somewhere...I'll find her and page you her answers" she said as she left the gym. In her usual work out shorts and tank top and sneakers she began looking.

There were places she could rule out quickly as she headed down to where Jessica and James were staying. She just hoped they weren't in bed, that would be awkward.

She crouched low, holding her defensive stance as she imagined enemies attacking her. She used her speed to whip the neck of the dummy, rendering him dead for all intents and purposes. Quickly back to her feet, she did a side flip and worked on her movements. It was not that easy with no one to actually fight you.

She misread the distance between her and the other dummy, flipping in the air and landing on her ass when she got distracted. "DAMN IT!"

Kiara turned her head. She could have sworn she heard Jessica nearby so she followed her ears until she found a small but neat gym where Jessica was surely training.

"There you are" she said as she draped the towel over her shoulders.

"Bill wants to know how you're doing on bottled blood and if you want more" she said casually as she looked around. It looked like Jessica was training to fight, but that was always hard to do when you had no one to fight with, or if you have very little fight experience.

She snapped at Kiara after her question because she was frustrated with this training alone thing and the fact that they were basically at war, and still Bill barely came to her, always sending others to do his job. "Why can't he ask his damn self!"

She closed her eyes immediately and sighed hard. "No, sorry...don't repeat that. I'm just....UGH!!!" She stomped her foot and looked over at Kiara. "It's not like this will pay off. I'm no good at this!" She fell back to sit on her ass and put her elbows on her knees, her hands on each side of her head.

Kiara shrugged and took a few steps forward.

"You're right...this isn't going to help. You learn when you really fight...or you know you're forced to survive" she said with a casual tone.

"I thought Quinn had taught you to fight" she said as an afterthought but then she shook her head as if she was correcting herself.

"Sorry...I was under the assumption he'd actually done something correctly instead of disappointing people"

She rolled her eyes. "He did....but it's hard to practice when there is no one actually giving you something to go on. This training dummy doesn't fight back and I doubt that anyone wanting to kill me would just stand there. Besides, they're all older vampires who will probably kick my ass and hand it to me." She groaned and laid back on the mats, her arms out at her sides as she looked up at the ceiling.

"Blood supply is low...donor girl seems...sad....making feeding from her a little awkward." She sighed. "I'd ask James to help me train but he's....well....it's hard to think of kicking his ass when I just want to....nevermind."

She laughed. "I know the feeling sweetie... how do you think I feel around your maker? Sadly I am utterly incapable of resisting him...pathetic I know" she said as she looked around.


"Look Bill would behead me if he ever got wind that I hurt you in any way, training or not...BUT if you promise not to tell I'll train you for a bit"

She wrinkled her nose, thinking of Bill and Kiara...it was weird. Sighing, she nodded. "I am weak to his charms as well....James I mean. James." She had to verify because otherwise that just sounded...bad.

Hearing Kiara's offer, she brightened and sat up quickly. "REALLY?? Oh would you! I would love to hear your input...I mean, I'm thinking I'll have to know how to fight dirty...especially with their high power weapons with silver rounds..." She knew about that all too well.

Getting to her feet, she looked at Kiara eagerly. "When do we start? What do we do? And don't worry this is all in training, let's just not talk about anything that would uuhh....trigger anger. Kay?"

Kiara chuckled and shook her head as she went to close the door to the gym.

"Sweetie...first rule of fighting... at least for vampires, emotions are your worse enemy. You need to think 3 steps ahead of your enemy. Explore all possibilities. ALWAYS assume they will fight dirty" she said as she rolled her neck a bit and tossed her towel aside.

As she turned to face Jessica she spoke again, this time more serious.

"Second... you fight to kill. You go into a fight fully expecting the other party to die you hear me? the moment you show compassion for them is the moment you yourself will die"

She nodded and listened to all the tips Kiara was giving her as she rocked back and forth from left to right, excited she got to learn from another person. It was interesting how Kiara would teach her really, considering they had fought in the past...and she was good. she held her own but Kiara had skills. She nodded again.

"Right, I got it. No emotions, no compassion."

She cracked her knuckles.

"I'm warning you now Jessica... unlike Quinn I don't throw a punch hoping to teach you something. I come at you like a silver laced tornado" she said with a grin.

"Now granted I'm going to try very hard not to kill you, but know that I spent most of my youth canibalizing vampires to survive... so leaving someone alive after a fight flies against my very nature"

She kicked off her sneakers and removed her socks.

"Now...try and stop me any way you can think of. Right now theres no wrong answers"

Her eyes widened a bit and she began to reconsider if this was the right idea. They DID have history and well...Kiara looked a bit psycho like she was ready to butcher someone with her bare hands and bathe in their blood like Carrie at the prom or something. Jessica swallowed and nodded slowly. "I uh...just wanna learn...not exactly die." She gave a weak smile and rolled her neck, mimicking Kiara.

"Try to stop you? What, stop you from killing me? Yeah no problem....without killing you? Problem..."

Kiara chuckled. "Stop me from landing blows on your body Jessica. You may be vampire but there are things I can do to incapacitate you for days without actually killing you... you should hope you don't let me get that far as it'll be VERY hard to explain to Bill why you're missing a limb"


She licked her lips. She didn't say ready? or anything. Instead she lunged at top sped and crashed into Jessica like a concrete wrecking ball does to a building. She slammed Jessica into the nearest wall, one hand gripping Jessica's lower jaw and tilting her head up so she could use her fangs while her free hand landed punch after punch to Jessica's rib cage.

It happened so fast, you'd have thought Kiara herself was a vampire. She cried out as she slammed against the wall, trying to think on her feet as each blow to her rib cage hurt but not for long. Wrapping her hands around Kiara's neck, she brought her knee up and pulled her head down, slamming her knee to her face as she felt her grip loosen. Using her speed, she went behind the were and swooped her leg against Kiara's, to get her to fall.

She growled and felt her feet leave her but only for a split second. She took the blow and rolled to the side, using the floor as leverage to jump upward and land a solid kick to Jessica's side.

"Too slow...think faster" she said as she did a back flip and took another running start but this time instead of slamming head on to Jessica she dodged left at the last minute, kicked off from the corner wall and slammed into her back, pinning her face down on the floor.

This is where her real strength showed as, despite her petite size, Kiara kept Jessica pinned down like a ton of lead weight.

"Right now I'm not your friend. I'm someone hired to kill you and deliver your fangs to Bill to make him cry" she said, trying to motivate Jessica.

She fell down on her stomach, her face pressed up against the mat as Kiara spoke. She used her words to get herself to focus, she had to fight for her life. Pulling free from her hold, she used her speed and strength to move and in the blink of an eye, she was out from under Kiara and on top of her using the same exact hold on her she had just been in.

Kiara grinned.

"Big woop you pinned me" she said as she used this position to grab Jessica's left arm. She brought her knees up and began to push Jessica away at the same time pulling her left arm forward, like she was going to rip it right out of its socket.

She growled and felt the pull of her arm, if she continued she would loose it. She pulled herself back enough so that she could kick Kiara straight in the chest, causing her to slide back against the floor. Watching her movements, as soon as Kiara got to her feet, she jumped up and grabbed the bar that hung from the ceiling to place both her feet flat against Kiara's chest, enough force for her to fly.

She grunted and felt the wind leave her lungs with a whoosh. She coughed for a few seconds, her eyes suddenly turning red.

She was two seconds from going after Jessica and even took a few steps forward before she stopped herself and fell forward in a weird, tripping over her own feet gesture.

"G-good job... y-you need to use...your surroundings" she said, her voice sounding very growly and beast like as she regained her composure before she really killed Jessica.

"Remember... don't fight fair... you find something you can use, use it, it's one less weapon the enemy gets"

She smiled and nodded, scanning the room quickly and watching Kiara as she seemed to struggle. Her first instinct was to check on her but she remembered Kiara's rule to not show compassion...it could be a test. She balled her fists and released them, gearing up for whatever the wolf would do next.

She took several deep breaths, mumbling under her breath.

"don't kill her....remember Bill....don't kill her" she said over and over again as she finally stood.

Her eyes were back to normal as she rubbed her chest. It looked like she was fondling her breasts for a moment, before the unmistakable sound of cracking bones came from her chest as she coughed.

"Not bad... two broken ribs...but you failed to puncture the lung" she said in the most casual of manner.

"You're still a young vampire, but we need to build up your strength. As a vampire you get stronger every year. Speed comes naturally but we need to get you bench pressing some serious weights"

She stood back up and realized she actually injured her...but not enough by Kiara's standards. Finding it interesting about her suggestion, she looked around. "This is all I have right now since I'm on lock down. Do you think weights will help? I mean am I not supposed to be naturally like...strong?"

Kiara nodded. "Well...yes and no. The older the vampire the stronger they are... BUT that doesn't mean we can't help the process along" she said as she looked around.

"Weights will help a bit...what you need is a nice punching bag, something you can wail on with all your strength and feel the resistance against you" she said as she walked over to the small punching bag in the corner.

"You want to be able to do this" she said as she balled up her left fist and punched the bag. The bag not only went flying off its hook and towards the wall, it ripped open, spilling its contents all over the floor.

She nodded and made a mental checklist of things to do and weights to have James go get for her since he wasn't on lockdown. Watching and listening to Kiara, she punched the bag and when it burst, Jessica's jaw fell open. "What....what the hell? Dude, you just...you...wow. Guess you had your vegetables...."