"Morning, mom."  Connie slowly opened her eyes, and saw the tea in Coral's hand.  She went to reach for the mug and groaned.

"Baby, what did you do to me?"  She squirmed under the blanket, groaned again, but then chuckled at Coral's look of concern.  "It was so worth it."  She bit her bottom lip.

"What's wrong, mom?"

"When...."  Connie looked up at her.

"For the harness?"  She nodded.  "Not for a month.  No, don't give me that look.  I don't want to damage your body.  Needles can heal within two weeks, but skewers need more time, or there will be trauma that could turn permanent.  You also need at least a week, preferably two, for your body to heal from the whip.  As to the rest of our activities, two days rest as it was your first time in years.  Now drink your tea.  I have some work to do in the shop."  Connie watched her daughter walk out of their room as though she had spent the previous day doing nothing.

"It's so not fair.  She's able to walk easily, while I'll probably feel like I was hit with a sledge between my thighs!"  She sighed and laid back against her pillow.

"How was she able to hide that side of herself?"

 

 

"Coral, are you here?"  Coral lifted her eyes from the Harley she just slid the transmission and engine into.  She smiled.

"Maria!  I'm glad you're here.  Sorry, give me a few minutes as I need to bolt the engine in place, then wash up."  Maria smiled, but Coral could see something was wrong.  Her fingers clutched at the edges of her shirt.

Coral frowned, lowered her gaze, and made a quick decision.  She picked up the engine and laid it back down on the mat.  She then went to the slop sink and washed all the grease that she collected during this build.  She wiped her hands, and with an easy smile, she walked towards the attractive woman that had been on her mind all morning.

"Maria?"  Coral stopped in her tracks.  There was a red mark on her neck.

"I...I came to let you know that I can't try on the harness....Coral?"  Coral walked right up to her, reached out and ripped open her shirt.  Maria tried to cover herself, but Coral's hands were too strong to resist.  Her face was closed in anger.

"Who?"  She said it simply.  Maria swallowed.

"My ex.  He didn't take no for an answer."  Coral went to her closet and picked out a jacket.  Then she picked up her phone.

"Tandy.  Come over.  I want you to examine someone who's been injured by an ex."

"I'm on my way, baby.  Will you call your grandfather?"

"Yes.  I need some information anyway."  She hung up the phone, put the jacket around Maria's shoulders, and pulled her into the house.

"Mom!"

 

 

"She's in rough shape, Connie.  She'll heal, but it will be a while before that happens.  This was really brutal."  Maria's face was covered in tears, while her body was covered in lacerations and welts.  The treatment stung, but it was the humiliation that really bothered Maria.

Also, unlike what Coral did to Connie, her boyfriend whipped her mercilessly with the intent to injure, and raped her as well.  Connie's face was also pinched in anger.

"Did she say where she went?"

"Coral called her grandfather.  Something about needing information."  Connie sighed.

"Then Maria's problem will soon be solved."  Maria looked at her quickly.

"What do you mean?"  Connie closed her eyes.

"My baby is..."  Tandy nodded.

"Yes, she is, isn't she?"  Maria looked confused.

"She's what?"

Connie remembered how easily her daughter handled opponents, and how she moved the equipment around in the garage.  Large steel machines and there were no lifting cranes present.

 

 

 

"Coral!  To what do we owe the pleasure of your presence at our club?"  The president of the club smiled wide.  He really appreciated this young woman's ability with a wrench, and his guys enjoyed sparring with her.

"Where is Maria's ex boyfriend?"  She said between gritted teeth.

"Roy?  He's just over there."  He pointed to a corner of the shop with only one person in it.

"I hope you won't miss him.  Send the bill to my grandfather for the damages."  She walked over and without telling him anything else, she threw a fierce punch at Roy's throat.  He fell out of his chair and onto the floor while he choked and coughed.  She then reached down, and dragged him by one arm over to a window.  She lifted him by his neck with one hand.  Her eyes turned completely black.

"Hurt Maria when she belongs to me?  You have some set of balls."  She threw him through the window.  His body even bounced when he landed on the pavement twenty feet away.  The president looked at another club member, his own eyes completely blank.  He couldn't believe what he just witnessed.

"Big John, could you do that?"  He shook his head.

"Maybe with both hands, I might get close.  Not one handed."  Big John was over six foot five, over three hundred pounds, and notoriously strong.  If he couldn't do it at his size, just how strong was this girl whom they sparred with?

"Jesus, she was holding back."  They watched as Coral vaulted out through the now empty window, leaped forward the twenty feet and landed feet first on his body.  It appeared almost supernatural the way she leaped.  Nothing like a human being.  She leaned forward, crouched, then pushed off with both feet.  She redirected her body mid jump, and landed feet first.

"Holy shit."  John's face turned white.  Coral picked up a railroad tie from the old railroad cut that hadn't been pulled up yet, and with one hand, she began to swing it at Roy's prone form.  She swung it again and again, over a dozen times onto his body, before she stood above his head.  She held it with both hands and aimed the tie so that it stood up on its end.

"No one touches my Maria!"  She then drove the end down into his head and splattered it like a melon.

Coral looked at a shadow along one wall of the club, and smiled contritely.  George stepped out of those shadows.

"Yes, sir.  She destroyed him.  You should talk to her.  She lost her temper far too easily."  George listened for about ten seconds.  "I'll tell her.  Level three.  Only one body, but property damage.  Yes, sir.  I have no idea how she was able to hide this devil so deep."

 

 

"Coral, you need to learn how to control your temper, and learn how to hide your strength."  She looked at him carefully.

"Are you angry with me, granddad?"  She asked simply.

"I'm disappointed.  You killed him in broad daylight."  He said it coldly, but her face twisted in anger.

"He hurt my Maria!"  She said it possessively.  "No one hurts those who belong to me and lives!"  He tapped his table, which made her quiet down.

"I didn't say to let him live.  I said you did it in broad daylight.  You also didn't hide that inhuman strength of yours, or control your temper.  It brings attention you can't afford right now.  You don't even know why you're so strong, so you can't afford for others to find out."  She didn't know, but he did.  Tandy, the doctor, found foreign DNA within her body, and it slowly changed her human DNA into stronger strains.  Whenever Tandy tried to take a sample, it would either dissolve, or evade her attempts to isolate it.  He didn't know if that meant the DNA was her own self defense mechanism, or if it was a foreign invader.  She lowered her eyes, then lifted them as he coughed.

"Granddad, you need to look after that cough.  I can't afford to lose you when I do not yet know enough.  I will also control my temper better in the future, but you may not like how premeditated I become."  He nodded.

"Your mother won't like it, but I prefer it.  Reason is what separates us from the animals, Coral.  Don't just hunt your prey.  Know when to go out for the hunt, and when to hold back.  Sometimes, if you hold back, it lets your prey relax.  Other times, it makes them bold.  Both situations benefit the hunter."  She nodded.

"I understand.  I better run home or mom will worry."

 

 

"She's a lot like you, sir."  He nodded.

"Yes."  He thought for a minute.  "She can be a monster, just like me.  She'll be able to protect her mother well.  I'm not sure if I should groom her as a replacement or not."  George nodded.

"Give her a bit of time.  She may show you what you're looking for."

"Time is something I may not have much of." He coughed again into a few tissues, and wiped the blood from his lips.  "Sometimes, it's not the enemy with the gun that is the most dangerous."