Glassed Destiny

Practice

"You really want to keep on going?" Snake asked, his eyes slitted as he raised a brow at him. "The guppy already left for his lunch break."

"Let's just keep it up," Jim said, controlling his breathing easily. "We need the practice anyway."

It wasn't too often that he was able to practice with Snake anymore. When they were first assigned to be each other's partner, they started this first as a means to get out their anger. Jim thought it was a great idea, since he had been dying to find some way to get to the bat and make him understand that he wasn't as weak as he thought. Snake was a strange vampire, though. He really just loved to fight for sport. And the things he would tell Jim in the beginning would have them going at it for days on end.

The truth was that fighting really helped him sort through his thoughts. Snake had told him that a long while ago. It was on one of those nights that they had nothing to do when scoping out a place. Jim understood exactly what he meant, because he was the same. While he needed to focus on blocking and attacking, he could easily use it for getting through his emotions and sorting his thoughts. Even Skaal had learned to enjoy these trainings.

Skaal was too used to training with the warriors of the pack. They used to do that all the time when he was in it. Doing police schooling and moving to the city was around the same time that stopped. Some of them probably thought that he had gotten soft being away from them for so long. They'd be surprised if they found out the truth.

Jim blocked a silver weapon easily. Snake had enjoyed the gadgets that the chief had allowed him to have. While both Felix and Jim had all the same tools and weapons on their belts, Snake lived and breathed by it. And when they practiced, all rules were thrown away in regards to them. It helped bring out the realistic outcome that most of their assignments had. Being able to think on your toes while blocking a chain of pure silver was definitely one of those scenarios that had to be used in real life.

"Are you just going to use your toys?" Skaal came out to taunt the bat. Jim was never one to do it, but Skaal absolutely loved it. So, this was one of the only times that he would allow him to come out freely in his human form.

"Are you just going to hide behind Jim?" Snake smirked as he continued to whip the chain around. "It's not a fun time unless we're playing Animal Planet here."

"Watch it, bat," Skaal said, a growl escaping. "I'll have you crushed in one bite."

"Someone's in poor spirits today," Snake said, tossing the chain aside. He then ran straight for him, ready to throw a punch at him.

Jim blocked it easily, going for another blow. This time, he hit the vampire right in the stomach, hard enough to slam right into the wall behind him. They were in a room at the basement of the police station. The walls were made of cement, and reinforced with another kind of metal that Jim could barely pronounce. All he knew was that there was no way of denting these walls. Not even throwing an invincible vampire at the speed of a jet plane taking off.

And the way that the bat just ran back to him and attacked like it was nothing still shocked him to that day. Jim had thrown plenty of people much farther at that speed. Not one of them would be able to brush it off like it was nothing. Not even other vampires that he had faced. Those usually took a second or two before they came back into the fight.

It felt good to use his muscles like this again. Practicing with someone who could take a thousand hits and keep going was more useful than when he trained with his warriors at his childhood home. They would wear out way before he was even close to getting out all of his energy.

Jim really didn't want to think so much about his pack. Bringing Indigo there just brough a plethora of horrible memories to the surface. All he had wanted to do was have a decent night with her, maybe try and see her thoughts about what Skaal had admitted to her. Instead, he spent most of the night just playing a bunch of movies until she fell asleep. She didn't seem that scared until she got to his place. As much as Jim was holding her due to his own selfish wants, it also seemed like she really needed it.