Alex felt like every cell in his body was humming with energy. His inner force pulsed through him, growing stronger and stronger with each heartbeat. He could even feel his physical strength surging, and as he ran through his fighting stances, he realized that he was stronger and faster than he had ever been. With a deep sigh, he paused and looked across the clearing.
He noticed that his senses were more acute, and he could hear strange noises coming from Clark's home on the other side of the Downs. With a frown, he ran as fast as he could toward the compound. He didn't stop until he reached the doors, kicking them open.
He stood casually in the doorway, his hands folded behind his back, radiating strength. His features seemed leaner and sharper. After days of suffering, he had manifested a whole new level of power.
It should be enough to handle Jacob, he thought, looking around the room. It's definitely enough to handle these losers.
"Alex," Rufus said softly. He knew right away that this was not the same man he had fought alongside earlier; he was on another level.
"Does he look stronger to you, or is it just me?" Edward whispered to Rufus in awe.
"You finally showed up," Ava said, still crouched over Dennis. "I honestly thought you'd hide."
Her tone was mocking, but she was uneasy under her bravado. She could see that something was different about him as easily as Rufus had, but she wasn't sure what it meant.
"I'm a little disappointed that you got here before I got a chance to slice your friend open," she said. "You really let me down."
Her team members chuckled. Alex ignored them all and took a deep breath.
"You can't fool me, kid," she said. "You might be walking and talking, but I know you're still torn up. You're coming with us. You get to spend the next twenty-four hours under guard, and tomorrow afternoon, it'll be my personal privilege to take you to Canfield Arena and watch Jacob take you out.
"The Petries have declared this your mess to clean up. You're about to be excommunicated. If you die tomorrow, this all goes away, and if you're lucky enough to survive, we'll scrape whatever's left of you off the field, and you'll be tried by the national chapter."
She smiled. She was enjoying this immensely. Her men were grinning behind her, excited to watch Alex suffer for challenging Kenneth.
"You really love the sound of your own voice, don't you?" Alex said, smiling back. "Didn't you learn your lesson the last time you tried to mess with me?"
Ava's face twisted with rage. He had sucker punched her, but even she couldn't pretend that they were in the same weight class. She knew she would lose in a fair fight, even after Jacob had beaten him senseless. But she didn't really have to fight fair.
She moved the tip of her sword to Dennis's throat.
"On your knees, Alex," she ordered. "And just for fun, give yourself a hundred of those little slaps you're so good at. Count them out, too. If you skip one, he dies."
She motioned to her men, and they all drew their blades. "They'll all die too," she said, pointing at his friends.
"Get out of here," Will said to Alex. "Don't worry about us. Just run."
Ava backhanded him with the hilt of her sword. These people are so soft, she thought with disgust. They've never suffered a day in their lives before today.
"No one said you could talk," she hissed. She wrapped her fist in his hair and forced his head backward.
"Get on your knees," she said to Alex. "It's time for you to learn a lesson in humility."
Alex's eyes were cold. "Oh, there's a lesson here, all right," he said. "But none of you will be alive to learn it."
One of her men dropped into a fighting stance. "You think you can talk to us like that?" he said. "I'll kill you with my bare—"
His voice was cut off by Alex's hand around his throat. No one had even seen him move.
The room was silent.
Ava's eyes narrowed. He shouldn't still be a threat, not with the beating he took, she thought. How much of this is just for show?
"You're bluffing," croaked the man whose throat he held. "You don't have the—"
There was a crack, and the man went limp. Alex had snapped his neck effortlessly.
Ava's blood went cold. "You really do have a death wish, don't you?" she whispered and signaled to her men, who shuffled to surround him with their blades ready.
He responded by stomping his left foot. The stone tile beneath him shattered and sent shards out in a wide circle. Screams echoed through the room as the shards cut through the men around him like bullets. They fell where they stood and didn't move.
Ava roared with anger. She had just watched Alex kill more than a dozen of her men.
"It's a good thing I'm under orders to bring you back alive," she said. "Otherwise, I would kill you for this."
He said nothing. He just leaned over, picked up a piece of the broken tile, and toyed with it for a moment before suddenly whipping at her, striking her in the center of her forehead.
Her eyes went wide with shock, and a thin stream of blood poured down her face. She slumped to the floor, clutching her forehead and writhing in pain.
"I did tell you that you were all going to die," Alex said softly.
With a shout, his friends took advantage of the confusion, and began to fight Ava's remaining forces. The battle was ugly but quick. In a matter of minutes, most of her men were dead. Only she and two others were still alive. She looked at the broken bodies of her men, and her eyes blazed with hatred.
"You wanted me here, and I'm here now," Alex said. "Was there something you needed to tell me? I'm all ears."