“GET UP!” A shout broke through my sleep.
I woke up with a start, making my head pound again. I looked up to find Zane’s angry face glaring down at me. Apparently, the Faerie wine had worn off, and he was still livid.
“GET UP!” He repeated.
“I am up! Jeez! I'm up! What is it?”
“Are you out of your fucking mind! You want a fight? Well, then, you practice for one. So, up NOW!”
I didn’t exactly ignore him, but I looked at the time on the clock on the nightstand. It read sometime after six. I had slept a few more hours, and from that, the pain that once radiated throughout my entire body was now a dull ache. Although my ankle and ribs felt tender, even as I was sure they had knit themselves back together. The wound on my side was another story. It still felt fresh, and I had to be careful as I sat up.
“Did you hear a word I said?” He snapped at me again.
His voice and the fact that I sat up too quickly made my temples pound harder. I couldn’t get rid of the headache that seemed to have stayed with me from earlier. I put my hands to either side of my head, massaging the area.
“I heard. Just give me a second.”
This seemed to enrage him further, and he stormed toward me, ready to pull back the covers. But I grabbed his hand, glaring at him.
“I said, give me a second.” My tone was dark. I didn’t feel like the same girl that I had been the day before. I had faced a master vampire and lived, but only because my death was reserved for someone else. There was no joking left in me. I understood that I needed to use my time wisely, but I could only do what my body allowed.
“You don’t have a second,” he growled.
“I actually have a few days,” I retorted.
A bewildered look crossed his face and his body stilled with shock. “How do you know?”
“That’s what the master said to me.”
He lost all of his animosity and sat down beside me. “What happened?”
I gave him an spurning look.
"No, I am well aware of the end result. I mean, what went down," Zane clarified.
“I got a text message mentioning where to go if I wanted to get revenge for Sera.” I shook my head. “I thought it was Anahita.”
Zane's body tightened, and I saw veins pop out of his arms from the corner of my eye.
I put my hand on his arm to calm him. “It wasn’t Anahita, but I was so blinded that I didn’t think it could be anyone else.” I shook my head at my foolishness. “It was a trap obviously. And I encountered my challenger’s sire. And the rest you know.” I looked down at my feet still covered by the bedspread, feeling ashamed and embarrassed.
Zane took my chin and turned it to face him. There was kindness on his face, but there was also sternness and determination. “I can’t say I’m not mad at you.”
I rolled my eyes. Most people were mad at me.
"But I get the desire for revenge. However, it was an idiotic thing to do so close to the challenge. So now you are going to get up. Change into those workout clothes on the dresser. And meet me downstairs. You're not going out tonight, but I am going to teach you how to fight and move through the pain.”
A sour look must have been on my face because he chuckled as he stood up.
“You seem to keep forgetting that I’m an asshole.”
When he turned his back, I stuck my tongue out at him and watched him leave the room. Groggily I stood up and ambled to the dresser, seeing a black tank top and black spandex pants folded there. They weren’t mine, and they smelled brand new. I had wondered who went clothing shopping for me, and how awkward that probably was.
I looked at myself in the mirror that was attached to the dresser. I looked rough. Dark circles were under my eyes, and parts of my body were discolored from healing bruises. And of course, my hair was a mess. Fortunately, someone had left a hair tie on top on the clothes.
I lifted the oversized white t-shirt that someone had lent me and let it fall to the floor. Again, I stared at myself in the mirror. More yellow-brown healing bruises spotted my skin, except where the bandage was. There, spreading out from the white dressing, I deep red-purple bruise circled around it. Without taking the bandage off, I knew it was going to be ugly.
I took one last look at my torso, making a promise to learn all that I could and take this seriously before gingerly putting on the tank. Then I slipped out of the oversized grey sweatpants and pulled on the black workout leggings. The only things I was missing were socks and shoes.
I turned to grab my phone on the nightstand and saw some socks on top of black tennis shoes on the armchair that Nate was sitting in previously. I took them off the chair, put them on, grabbed my phone and headed outside the room.
The moment I exited the room, the most delicious smell wafted to my nose, and my stomach gurgled in response. I went to the kitchen, which was on my way to the basement anyway, to find Nate and Finn at the kitchenette table, and Meredith at the counter preparing food.
The three of them looked at me when I entered. It seemed Nate was no longer mad at me as he gave me a small smile; Meredith's was more prominent, but Finn scowled. It looked like it was time to apologize to Finn. I just wasn't comfortable doing it around others.
“Do you want a chicken patty sandwich?” Meredith turned her head, asking me.
My stomach gurgled again. “That sounds fantastic.”
I took a seat at the rectangular island, closer to Nate, but still in the middle between Finn and Nate.
"Finn only seems to have easy prep food. So no gourmet meals unless he goes grocery shopping," Meredith said while preparing a plate.
Finn gave her a mildly annoyed look, which Meredith returned with a smile. She turned with two plates in her hand, setting one in front of me and sitting down on the opposite side of the table with hers.
I dug into one of the two sandwiches when Finn finally spoke to me.
“You know you’re grounded, right?”
“Excuse me.” My response was muffled from the sandwich.
Finn sat back against his seat and crossed his arms. “The way I see it, Sera is incapacitated as your guardian at the moment, and since I am the only adult around, and you are staying in this house, you’re my responsibility.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “So you are grounded. You will not be going anywhere unless you tell me first.”
“I’m not too sure you know what ‘grounded’ means. And how do you know I won’t lie to you?” I challenged, swallowing a piece of my sandwich.
A wide sinister smile spread across his face. “Because you are still part Fae.”
I crossed my arms. “And what does that have to do with lying.”
“Fae can’t.”
“But I have.”
He raised his brows and studied me. “Have you?”
“Yeah, I have.”
“And how does it make you feel?”
If I were honest with him, I would have told him that it made me feel sick to my stomach. Instead, I didn't say anything and went back to eating.
“And no half-truths either.”
I stared at him because that's what I had been trying to do most of the time. It bothered me to lie so bad that if I could find a workaround, I had been using that.
He snickered. “You’re more Fae than you realize.” He nodded at me. “Eat up. It sounds like Zane has a lot of training for you and you’re going to need your strength.”
I grimaced but continued with my dinner. I was about halfway through my second sandwich when Zane came up to see what was taking so long.
I held up the remainder of my sandwich. “Mortal, remember?”
He joined us at the kitchenette table until I had finished, keeping a close eye on me, which annoyed me, but I understood some part of it. And then I followed him to the basement. Meredith and Nate wanted to follow, but I had asked them to find out information on Sera instead. I was actually going to request something from Zane that would make training look like child's p
lay, and I was self-conscious.
✽✽✽
I began automatically stretching on the mats when I got downstairs without hesitation.
“Caden, what's wrong?” Zane asked a few minutes into my stretching routine, standing a few feet from me, his arms crossed as he calculated me.
I look at him quizzically. “Nothing.”
“What, no jokes? No sarcastic remarks? You haven’t said a word since you got down here. You haven’t fought me on anything either.”
“Zane, I can’t fail.” I begged him with my eyes “You need to fight me every night until the challenge.”
“I already do.” A confused look passed over his features.
“No, I mean, I need to fight you as the master you. I have seen what a master can do, and you are holding back. No more holding back.”
He approached me with a no-nonsense look written across his face and posture. “If we do, no stakes.”
“Fine.” I nodded in agreement.
“But we fight after I teach you methods for protecting injuries.”
“Fine, but I also want some weapon training.”
“You will probably not be allowed to use anything but stakes in your fight.”
I looked away from him again before I remembered my earlier promise to myself. “No, you’re right.” I looked at him square in the eye. “But I plan to go after his men. I need to do it…for Sera.”
His jaw clenched as he contemplated my response. "Very well. But you know I am not letting you out of my sight, and I will finish it if you can't.'
“Fine. Let’s get started.”
✽✽✽
He beat me every time that night after showing me moves to protect my wounds. There were moments when he hit or kicked my side, and I would actually remember what he had taught and how to block my injuries. During those time, I had made him work for it. And then sometimes I would forget, and when his moves connected, I would go down for a couple of minutes in pain. The times I went down, the emotion was clear on Zane’s strained face that he wanted to quit. It was quite evident that he hated hurting me. But I refused to end it, even as I was dripping in more sweat than I ever had, and fighting while injured made my body feel hotter, clammier, and sickly.
Then when I was pretty sure he couldn’t take the stress of fighting me as the master vampire that he was, he declared enough for the night. It was messing with his head, as I saw his emotions spill out more than once when his moves connected. It was like a two-ton weight had lifted off his shoulders when I asked him to show me some of the weapons instead of urging him to continue.
We entered into another room on the opposite side of the gym that I had thought was a locker room, but in fact, it opened to a massive weapons’ room. All sorts of different types of weaponry in different sizes hung on the walls, or were on tiered ledges; guns, maces, swords, knives, stakes, crossbows, anything that I could have imagined. I was perusing the walls, looking through all the weapons, deciding which ones I wanted to learn how to use. Zane came up to me and handed me two stakes.
“What the hell, Zane?” I stared up at him.
“These are your greatest weapons. If you can’t throw these, you’re not ready for any other weapon.”
I looked at him with annoyance, as he nodded toward another door, which opened up into a room with targets.
Unfortunately, he may have had a point. In the beginning, throwing them was awful. I had no aim. And when I tried to aim, I lost the throwing power behind it. It was a different type of training than fighting hand-to-hand. Although, that required strategy, instinct, and strength; throwing a weapon required precision and power. Eventually, with moving targets, it would take instinct as well. If my stake didn't hit the target with the flat of its side, it barely had any power to stick even if I did hit the mark.
After an hour and a half, my throwing only got worse, and Zane let me stop.
“We're done for today,” he said, taking the stake out of my hand. “You can go change, get ready for bed…whatever it is that you do after this.”
“Are you sure?”
He rubbed a hand over his face. "Yeah, you're tired, and it's showing."
I shrugged and handed him the stakes, and then headed upstairs where I bumped into Meredith and Nate at the top.
Meredith was wringing her hands, and she looked anxious.
“What’s going on? Is it something with Sera?” I asked quickly, suddenly feeling anxious myself.
Meredith waved a hand dismissively and furrowed her brow. “No. She’s okay. She’s still out, but mom said you would be able to visit her tomorrow.”
My nerves calmed, but I still was feeling cautious about Meredith’s apprehension. “Well, what’s wrong then?”
“We want to watch you train next time,” Meredith blurted, as Nate crossed his arms.
I was about to deny them when Nate spoke up.
“We know you feel self-conscious, but there’s no reason to. We think you’re great.”
I narrowed my eyes at Nate.
“I thought you said you couldn’t feel my emotions,” I accused.
He shrugged his shoulders and looked nonchalant. “It dulls them a great deal, but I still feel some.”
“Please,” Meredith begged, her hands folded together in front of her.
“Fine,” I grumbled, rolling my eyes.
Meredith was practically jumping with excitement.
“Did you guys pick out some rooms?”
“Yeah. Meredith wanted to stay close to you, so we are the rooms across yours, next to the bathroom.”
Meredith stuck her tongue out. “Someone needs to tell Finn that with all this space, each bedroom should have its own bathroom. Instead of sharing one.”
I laughed as I headed toward my room with Meredith and Nate on my heels. “I’m not sure he cares.”
“Well, he should because now we’ll all have to share one,” Meredith said indignantly.
“I bet he probably has one in his room,” I guessed.
Meredith huffed in response. “So not fair.”
I snickered.
“How are your parents?” I asked them.
“They’re fine,” Nate replied. “They are going to stay at the hospital. They can’t seem to all leave together at the same time, and they don’t want to leave anyone behind.”
I reached my room, seeing that Meredith and Nate were headed toward theirs. I was about to walk in with my hand on the knob when I suddenly remembered something.
“Are either of you guys able to get a hold of Ajax or Jesse?”
Both shook their heads.
“Why?” Meredith questioned.
I paused a moment, trying to figure out how to word my feeling. “Somebody texted me to that house, and the vampire that I was fighting alluded to it being a guy. I don’t have the guys’ new numbers in my phone. Could it be one of them?”
Meredith shook her head vehemently. “No. I can’t believe it.”
“Can I see the text?” Nate asked.
I handed him the phone, and he opened up the texting app.
I sighed. "Well then, if you don't think it's Jesse or Ajax, someone needs to make them aware that someone is going after my friends."
“I can,” Nate said distractedly as he was looking at my phone.
Meredith and I glared at him, and when he didn't look up, Meredith cleared her throat. "How? They are not responding to any of their texts."
Nate shrugged before rolling his eyes. “I’ve been to Ajax’ apartment once.”
“You are not going alone,” I ordered.
“Yes, ma’am,” he smirked.
“I’ll go with him.” Meredith’s eyebrows creased. “I have a bone to pick with Ajax.”
“Neither one of you should really be going,” I admonished.
“Would you feel better if I tried texting them again instead?” Nate smiled and handed me back my phone.
I released a breath. “Yes. Yes, I would.”
“Then
I will do that.”
Meredith grumbled and crossed her arms. “I was really looking forward to giving Ajax a piece of my mind.”
I snickered, with a hand on the knob to my room. “Night, guys,” I smiled before I entered my bedroom, hearing Meredith gripe to Nate on the way toward their rooms.
I desperately wanted to take a shower. I was sweaty, sore, and my injury probably needed cleaning or at least looked at. I took off my tank top, and looked at the patched, angry red area and shivered.
Nope, not tonight, I thought.
I took off my pants, put on an oversized t-shirt that I found in a drawer. Again, it wasn’t mine, and it wasn’t new. I really didn’t have to smell it to know that it was Nate’s, even though I did anyway. The band, Metallica, was on the front. I slipped it on, crawled into bed, and fell asleep instantly.
✽✽✽
When Flora met with me, I was already sitting under the willow tree from last time, wearing the same outfit as last time. It was as if I hadn’t left, but time had moved on. The sky was the color of dusk, giving the area a hazy orange look. As she approached, I crossed my arms and frowned at her.
“What’s with the look?” She asked.
“If you have premonition powers, why didn’t tell me something was going to happen to Sera?” I demanded, crossly.
She sighed and sank down onto the grass next to me. She didn't avoid my glare, but instead, put on her motherly lecture face. I caved a little and softened like I always did when she gave me that look.
“Because that needed to happen,” she responded.
My heart took a sudden lurch at the shock. “Sera needed to get hurt? Why?”
“I can’t tell you now. There are reasons for why bad things happen to good people. And you may not get it now, but you will eventually.”
I scowled. "Can you tell me if Sera will be okay?"
Flora assessed my expression. “She will wake from this.”
I sighed in relief until I remember the premonition she had given me previously. “Is Nate still in danger?”
She pursed her lips and looked past me. “The situation has not changed. Someone is going to die.”
I threw my hands up in anger. “Then what is the point in showing me that if I can’t change it?!”
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