Read Online INVISIBLE PRISON (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) by Mary Buckham - Free Book Online Page B

and—”  I looked straight at Vaughn for this next part. “Fight as if you’ll die if you don’t win.”
    Vaughn nodded, her expression all business. Beside me I could feel Kelly quiver, but she didn’t say anything as Stone announced. “Bitsi, you get Team Princess. Rolf, Team Reyes.”
    That a-hole. The female shifter was just told we were lightweights. Compared to Chiquita’s group maybe but don’t count us out. Not yet. But we’d also dissed Bitsi to the group at large so now she had something to prove.
    Vaughn directed us into groups of two. Kelly was paired with Dyslexia, who didn’t like the combo. Neither did I but for different reasons . Dyslexia would watch out for herself and sacrifice Kelly without a pause.
    I started to say something but Vaughn caught my eye. She had a plan. I didn’t know what it was, but I could trust her or waste precious minutes publicly second guessing her.
    So I bit the inside of my lip and nodded.
    But if she was wrong and Kelly got hurt, Vaughn would pay for it.
    Her look told me she knew exactly what I was thinking. Good. We understood each other.
    Stone was calling both groups to attention. “Monroe, your team to the south end of the gym. Reyes, you take the north end. If you hear my whistle you stop fighting. If you don’t, you fight until your shifter sparring partner is pinned to the floor, both shoulders down for a count of twenty seconds.”
    I noticed he didn’t say immobilized.
    Bitsi swaggered toward us, taking her time, a smirk playing on her thin lips, her hands loose at her sides.
    Nerves scampered up my spine like a horde of ants at a picnic. I’d been initially teamed with two women I didn’t know well. One was Skylock and the other Brianna or Brie something. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Skylock’s skin slip a little, telling me she was non-human, and didn’t have a lot of control over her otherness.
    Not good news. Most of us revert to our base instincts when we get truly scared. If that baseness was non-human, a fight could quickly turn ugly. Think bar fight with everyone amped up on PCP or any other drug that made the fighters forget that there was a world of difference between broken bones and heads torn off.
    Stone hadn’t given us any parameters of what we could or could not do. For me that meant the fall back position was ask forgiveness not permission .
    If Bitsi badass here got out of line and stopped holding her punches, then I’d let loose with a few of my own. As soon as I could remember them. That was the other side effect of an adrenaline spike—a frozen memory.
    Vaughn shouted directions for where we should stand. Seven didn’t divvy up into three groups evenly so Vaughn made me a roving member. We’d attack two at a time. If one of the team went down, I’d jump in. If two went down the next team would charge. That way Bitsi might eventually be worn down enough to take down.
    I’d start three on one, then slip into my roving role. If we were lucky, we’d take down the shifter early.
    It was a shaky plan.
    A quick glance over my shoulder showed me the Reyes’ group was taking a different approach. Every team member was circling Rolf, a dog pile approach. Given their group had more weight and strength, their course just might work.
    My team of three stepped toward Bitsi. We were first wave. I swallowed, deeply, knowing my two mates were just as scared, just as panicked as I was, but they were here. Good start.
    “Come on, fur ball,” Skylock taunted, another part of our strategy. Most shifters had easily pressed hot buttons. A pissed person, human or non-human, reacted rather than acted. They might be the aggressor for a short burst, but emotional fighting used up resources faster. Once your anger waned, the levelheaded defenders became the bigger threat. The ones who could keep their cool the longest tended to survive.
    Skylock stepped closer, “Here, kitty, kitty.”
    None of us had any idea what Bitsi became when she