Indulge
Page 12
I hadn’t been worried about Arrick, but now I was. Had news arrived about him? I opened the door and leaned against the frame. “When will he be back?”
“I don’t know. Tonight has only been the third night, so perhaps soon.” She smiled, but it was forced and hugged me. “Now get going or you’re going to be late. Eli doesn’t like tardiness. Trust me, I know.”
I gazed up at her for a long moment before leaving. I was still pretty sure she knew I was hiding something, but was glad she didn’t push. Maybe she didn’t want to know the truth as much as I didn’t want to tell her. What parent would want to know their child had almost killed themselves by being so careless? Practicing abilities they knew nothing about with power that was more than they could handle?
I was lucky. I got to the training room just seconds before Bennett. Showing up before the star pupil had to win me some points. I hoped. Then I remembered what was in store for training today and my stomach clenched.
“I hope you are all well rested,” Eli began. “Tonight we are doing a crash course on fighting with an injury. Claire, I’m going to have you sit this first match out so you can watch our movements. Study them close, because you will be next. Do you understand?”
I nodded and sighed in relief. Nyx was smiling on me tonight. I took a seat on the edge of the mat and grabbed a bottle of blood. I drank it hungrily. I’d probably be sad I drank it all and had none left after training, but I was feeling better and better the more I drank.
Eli had Bennett bind one of his arms with thick, silvery rope. Thank Nyx he wasn’t going to actually injure anyone. I don’t know why I had envisioned Eli breaking my arm, so I could learn to fight with an injury. Maybe my imagination was twisted. This scenario was much better.
Eli’s movements were so fluid and smooth that even without the use of his arm, Bennett had a hard time landing an attack. I noticed that Bennett continued to target Eli’s good arm; and that was his weakness. It made him predictable.
I was learning the key. It was never about whether you could fight injured or evade every strike. Fighting was about knowing what your enemy was going to do next. Predicting their movements.
When it became my turn to fight Bennett, I was ready. Eli bound my arm and I focused my breathing. I knew exactly what I was going to do. Bennett would never see it coming in.
We circled each other around the mat, waiting for the other to make the first move. I knew he would grow impatient. He would think I was nervous. He would think I didn’t know how to fight injured.
His confidence would be his weakness.
Bennett lunged at me, a growl billowing from his throat. I flinched, on purpose. I wanted to him think I was afraid, so I jumped back to dodge his attack. The smile on his face confirmed my suspicions. I was ready.
I turned my body, allowing my bound arm to face away from Bennett. He would think I was trying to protect it. I wasn’t. I was making him do what I wanted him to do. I ran at him, raising my good arm like I was going to swing at him, but he jumped. Summersaulting over me. Too bad for him; I knew he would do that.
With my arm raised, I twisted on my feet lowering myself to the ground in an instant. When I was facing Bennett, his eyes flashed with surprise and I shot upward, landing my hand onto his throat. I shrieked in victory and slammed him down onto the mat.
“You lose!” I growled into his face.
“Flawless,” Eli said as he clapped. “Where did you learn that move?” he asked as he untied my arm.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It just came to me.” I flashed my fangy smile toward Bennett. Hopefully now I’d knocked him down a notch or two. He wouldn’t be the star pupil much longer. Not if I had anything to do with it.
Eli was so impressed with my performance that we spent the rest of class perfecting my attack. He named the move, ‘Snake’. It was fitting. I coiled my body in a tight low turn and sprung upward just like a snake would, attacking its prey from below.
I couldn’t wait to tell my father. This day had turned out better than I had thought. The only thing that could make it better was to hear good news from Arrick. Perhaps my luck was changing.
For the first time in nights, my father wasn’t in the strategy room. He was in the dining hall with my mother, Renek and a host of other familiar faces filling the seats. It wasn’t often that everyone ate together and I was happy for the change. Maybe it was a night of good news.
Leona patted an empty seat next to her. I hoped she didn’t mind I was still in my sweaty training clothes. “I hear you have been training with Eli.”
I nodded and scooted into my seat. A servant quickly brought me a meal and I tried not to slurp it down too hungrily. “Yeah, three nights now. It’s a crash course, but every little bit helps.”
She nodded. “Indeed. It is better than not knowing anything. We wouldn’t want you flailing around like a fish out of water.” Her old voice cracked, but there was a twinkle in her eye.
“And what have you learned so far? Do you know how to escape a throat attack or evade more than one enemy?” I shook my head. “Do you know how to sustain your energy in battle?”
I shook my head again.
“That’s enough, Jarvan.” Leona hissed. “You should be honored with the fact that your princess desires to fight with you and not hide away in some southern city.”
Jarvan just rolled his eyes and shoved his bowl away from him. Apparently he had lost his appetite. What a jerk.
“Why do you hate me so much?”
The question came from my mouth louder than I had meant it to. Everyone at the table was suddenly frozen in silence, their eyes locked on me. But I was focused on Jarvan. He hadn’t liked me since day one and made it crystal clear.
His eyes were wide in shock and then lowered in an angry grimace. “I don’t hate you. I just think you’re a liability.”
A growl erupted from my father but I ignored it. “So, all I am is dead weight you have to carry around? Is that it?”
Leona clutched the tightened fist at my side, trying to calm me down.
“That’s enough!” my father shouted, bolting up from his seat. “I won’t have the two of you at each other’s throats. There is too much at stake for your petty arguments.”
His severe stare dropped me into my seat. Our petty arguments? Jarvan was always the one that started it.
After a brief moment of quiet, everyone continued on with their conversations and Leona tried cheering me up with stories of her first training classes. One time she accidentally de-pantsed her training partner. To this day she said she’d never seen a vampire so angry in all her life.
I couldn’t help but laugh aloud. I liked Leona and was grateful to have her on my side, but her friendliness only made me miss my own friends all the more. I wondered if Dmitry and Robin were okay. Would Arrick really bring back word on them? Or maybe he would actually bring them here, and Louie. My heart fluttered with hope.
Maybe I was getting a little too far ahead of myself with that one, but if Arrick had the opportunity to bring my friends back I hoped he would. In fact, I knew he would. No matter what was going on - or not going on - between us, I knew that he would not leave someone behind that needed his help. Not if he could save them. His sense of duty was too strong.
An idea popped into my head like the flip of a switch. Maybe that’s what Arrick had been struggling with. Was his sense of duty to protect me interfering with his feelings for me? It made sense, sort of. Evilyn had told me that it wasn’t uncommon for vampires and their Blood Mates to be together, so why was Arrick so apprehensive? It was just another one of the great mysteries he and I were going have to discuss when he returned.
My mind lingered back to my friends as I left the dining hall and headed back to my room. What had happened after I left the palace? Was Dmitry blamed for my escape? He was the last to see me. I could only imagine what he was feeling. The image of his face twisted in sadness pulled at my heart. I missed him more than I realized.
And there was another burning question, one even larger than the rest; where was Ana? There hadn’t been a whisper of her whereabouts. I had suspected that she was the mysterious figure that I had felt watching me on the cliff and the eerie sensation when Arrick and I were in the woods, but it just didn’t fit. Ana had me alone on that beach. If it were really her she would have attacked me. I was sure of it.
No, Ana definitely had something else drawing her attention. Or someone else. If she really was in league with The Dark, then I was sure to be seeing more of her again.
I made it to my room and walked directly to the balcony without even thinking about it. I was drawn to the beauty of it but also by the memory of the night before. My vision had traveled through the streets, sensing every emotion, every feeling. I knew there was something wrong, something evil, but I just didn’t know where it was.
I thought of Nicolae, and still couldn’t picture him as the evil Vampire King that everyone said he was. Did I just have a soft spot for him, or was there good in him that only I could see? What had he really done that was so evil? Okay, he had me kidnapped. Sure, that was really messed up, but was it evil? He did it to protect his throne, to protect his region from The Dark. They were clearly an unimaginable, formidable evil. I couldn’t blame him for acting in fear. Could I? As always my vampire instincts disagreed, but my heart held out hope. Was it the bit of humanity I was born with from my mother, or was it the blood of Nicolae that made me a vampire? I guessed I would never truly know.
Chapter_12
I had completely forgotten that I agreed to meet Bennett after training. When he came knocking at my bedroom door, I couldn’t hide my disappointment.
Even though I had enjoyed my victory during training, the desire to gloat further did not interest me. I had been deep in thought trying to decide whether or not I wanted to go the lighthouse, and holding out hope that Arrick would show up sometime before sunrise. But there were only a few hours remaining, so I knew that was unlikely.
“Hey, you ready?” Bennett asked immediately after I opened the door.
“Yeah, just a minute.” I left the door open just a crack, hoping that he would stay in the hallway. Sadly, he took it as an invitation to come in. “So, where are we going?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve been trying to think of a place we could go all night, but with so much security around, all my usual spots aren’t so…” I got his point. There weren’t many places left in the Château or Naos where there wasn’t a watchful eye present. But that was a good thing.
He looked at me curiously. “You got any ideas?”
I pulled on my sneakers and tugged snuggly on the laces. Did I really want to tell him about the lighthouse? I didn’t see what harm it could do. I wanted to keep it my little secret, but we needed some place to go. We couldn’t just practice in the training room. Someone would definitely see or hear us. “It depends. Why don’t you tell me what you’re going to be teaching me first.”
“It’s better if I show you.”
Was he trying to be macho, or was he flirting with me? The expression on the maids face when she mentioned she thought he and I were together, made me have second thoughts about how I felt about him. I’ll admit, he was an excellent fighter. Sadly, that was the only nice thing I could say about him.
“Let me guess, you or both of us could get in trouble for this?” I asked as I shut my bedroom door behind us and we walked down the hallway. I hoped the maid wouldn’t see us. I didn’t need her getting all worried about me being around Bennett. I could handle myself around him, that much I was certain of.
“You could say that. Really the only person that would be pissed is Eli. He thinks higher level fighting skills should be taught to higher level fighters as they progress. Like you have to earn it or something. It’s stupid if you ask me.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t make sense. But he seems to know what he’s doing and he wouldn’t be our trainer if he didn’t.” Eli was tough and really hard on me a lot of the time, but I respected him. He was an extremely talented fighter and I wanted to be that too someday. I just didn’t have the patience and apparently neither did Bennett.
“Don’t get me wrong. Eli is bad ass, but in times like these you can’t hold your students back, ya know? Everyone needs to be able to do as much as they can, and I’m not the only one that thinks so.”
“All the other students train in private too?”
“Yeah. No one wants to be defenseless if The Dark comes knocking on the front door, ya know?”
Yeah, I knew. I just wished he would stop saying it. “That’s exactly how I feel.”
“And that’s why I asked if you wanted to train. I could see it in your eyes.”
“See what?”
“That you’re a fighter. We’re going to need all the help we can get.”
“You sound like you’re preparing for war.”
“Isn’t everyone? It’s going to come one way or the other.”
“You’re right.” He might have sounded all doom and gloom, but Bennett really was right. He was building his own little army, training all the newer fighters as best he could. It was kind of noble what he was doing, making sure everyone was capable of defending themselves as best they could. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as I thought he was.
“So, where we headed?” he asked as we stepped outside the Château into the cool night air. “I know you know a place.” He smiled at me mischievously.
“I never said that.” I still wasn’t sure I wanted to tell him about the lighthouse yet. “You’re the one who has been doing this already. Why don’t we go to one of your places?”
“Because, when I train people we do it at their house. Away from the Château.” He pointed his thumb behind him.
“Fine,” I grumbled. “Let’s go.” I made my way back toward the garden to take the same route I had taken the night before.
“That really was a nice move you had earlier. The sssnake,” he said.
“It doesn’t sound so cool when you say it like that.” I wrinkled my nose. “Besides, you looked pretty pissed off to be beaten by a girl.”
“Your being a girl had nothing to do with it. I just don’t like losing, but it was still damn impressive. I plan on teaching it to the other students. If you don’t mind?”
I smirked. “Nope. I don’t mind at all. Just make sure you let them know who taught it to you.”
“You got it, smartass. In all seriousness though, it might save someone’s life. You never know.”
“Can I ask you something?” All of Bennett’s openness about the war really made me think. “Do you really think The Dark is coming? I’ve been in some of the meetings and some people don’t really believe it and others think it’s the beginning of the end. It’s hard to know what to think or believe. Either way though, everyone seems to agree on one thing, if it is true we’re in serious trouble.”
“Hell yeah. That stone left in your room is their calling card. Trust me. We are deep in the shit.”
“How do you know someone just didn’t put it there to scare us? Make us think The Dark was coming?” I was thinking that Ana could be a prime suspect. She and her whole family seemed to be power hungry. Maybe that was their angle. To scare everyone into thinking this horrible evil was coming.
“It doesn’t work like that. Only a true follower of The Dark can handle one of those stones and not be affected by it. It was in your room; you know how it felt.” I nodded, clearly remembering the dread. “You think whoever put it there could have gotten far if they had felt those effects?”
“No.”
Bennett turned out to be less of a meat-head than I had originally t
hought. He seemed to know a little about a lot of things, and unlike most everyone I met he didn’t hold anything back. He gave me the cold, hard truth and it was refreshing.
Half-way up the hill, the lighthouse came into view and I gazed up at it, a sick feeling building in my gut. At least I knew I wouldn’t be exerting any of my special abilities tonight. Now that I knew how to tap into all my power and so easily connect with it, I wasn’t sure I knew how to access just parts of it anymore. It was like learning how to ride a bike, then trying to get yourself to forget you learned it in the first place. It couldn’t be done. Once the connection was made, that was it.
“Not bad,” he said, wiping sweat from his brow. “I don’t think this thing has been lit in decades.”
“Looked to me like it has been longer than that,” I said recalling the thick layer of dust inside.
“Adventurous little princess, aren’t you?” Bennett said, clearly enjoying the revelation.
“Your point? And I’m not little,” I said hotly. We might have been getting along, but I didn’t like him that much.
Bennett raised his hands up in surrender. “Calm down, spunky. I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just nice to see a royal that doesn’t mind getting their hands dirty, ya know?”
I just nodded, remembering the earlier altercation I had with Jarvan. At least someone else around here appreciated that I was trying to help. I wasn’t going to let vampires, Blood Guard or humans die to protect me or this region unless I was willing to do it myself. And I was, except I was determined that The Dark would be the ones doing the dying part.
“Not all of them plan on hiding in the Château while everyone else fights in the streets,” I retorted, opening the door to the lighthouse. It wasn’t as resistant as it was the first time.
“I know.” Bennett became quieter than usual and I got the feeling like there was something he wasn’t telling me. I sensed his feeling of loss without really even trying. I shot him with a questioning look, but he quickly turned away and up the spiraling stairs, the sounds of his footsteps echoing throughout the small room.