“It's simple,” he started, looking me in the eye. “Block this.” With no warning, he launched a fist at me.
I yelped out a “Hey!” and ducked to avoid his punch. I got out of the way in time, but I felt his fist sail through my hair as it passed above my head. What was it with people I cared about attacking me out of the blue?
He made a frustrated noise. “I said to block me, not dodge me.”
“You could have hit me!” I cried out.
“And then you could heal yourself,” he insisted, sarcasm and exasperation in his tone.
He strode toward me like a cat playing with a mouse. I stepped back, trying to gain some distance between us, but it wasn't working. He spun into a roundhouse kick, aiming for my chest.
Before his foot could reach me, I jumped back and mentally reached out to push his other leg out from under him. He fell backwards, landing on the ground with a deep thud. As I tried to regain my footing, I tripped over a tree root, sending me tumbling forward.
I fell hard, my head landing on something much softer than I was expecting and my knee slamming into what had to be a rock. “Ow,” I moaned, not wanting to look at the damage it had surely inflicted on my knee.
“You're 'ow'?” Liam grumbled from directly beneath me. I snapped my head up to see that my face had landed on his stomach.
I immediately jerked back, hitting the back of my head against the tree trunk. “Ow!” I cried out again.
As I cradled the back of my head, Liam sat up, wearing an unexpected look of approval on his face. “Good job. You took the opening this time,” he praised. “Now patch yourself up and let's go again.”
Hey, it's time to go home,” Lexie called out.
I stopped, turning to see Lexie and Grandma packing up the duffel bags. An impact slammed into my side, sending me hurtling toward the ground. I cushioned my fall with what I now knew was my air magic.
When I opened my eyes, Liam stood in front of me, offering me his hand. “Don't stop fighting until your opponent does,” he scolded.
“Yeah, yeah,” I sighed, taking his hand and letting him pull me up.
“Other than that, you made good progress today.” His grin tugged at one end of his pink lips, lending him an almost boyish look. With a hand at my lower back, he ushered me to the car. He picked the poor dead rooster up by his leg on the way and passed him back to Grandma, who put him back in the cage for some reason. It wasn't like he was going anywhere anytime soon.
Grandma stopped me and handed me the saber. “This sword is yours now,” she stated, “It's been spelled so it's an inked weapon. Since you're its master now, you should be able to slide it into your skin and pull it out when you need it.”
“Where do I put it?”
“The best place would be the wrist on your non-dominant hand,” she explained, showing me the dagger in her left wrist as an example. It was oriented with the tip of the blade pointing to her elbow and the hilt at her wrist. She grabbed at the handle, pulling it from her skin to show me.
A little dubiously, I slid the tip of the sword to my wrist. I expected it to cut me, but it just slipped into my skin without any bloodshed, prickling a little like Lexie did. Even though the blade was longer than my whole forearm, it fit perfectly to scale, taking up the length of my forearm as an elegant tattoo. It was strange to see ink in my skin, especially since the extent of my body modifications were a single set of piercings in my ears.
Grandma wore a prideful expression on her face as she gestured for Lexie and I to get into to the car. We climbed into the back seat as Grandma and Liam loaded up the chicken cage and the last of the bags.
“Great job today, girls,” Grandma declared, her happiness at our performance shining in her voice. “Tomorrow, Constance and I will work on learning how to spell magic and Liam will start teaching Lexie the basics of dagger fighting. Tonight, you ladies need to get your rest and prepare for tomorrow's lessons.”
We promised we would as she pulled the car onto the highway.
Grandma and Liam began to discuss their plans for tomorrow from the front seats. I listened as they talked about what kind of textbooks they should bring for me, if any, and what kind of knives to bring tomorrow to best teach Lexie.
Lexie and I just sat and let them hash it out, instead staring out the window in an amicable silence.
Grandma dropped us and the bags off at Liam's hotel as the last of the sun's light faded over the horizon, taking the rooster with her to cook for dinner.
Liam escorted us back up to his suite and called room service for dinner.
While we waited I went into Lexie's and my room and turned the TV on to the local news. I needed to shower and change into some clothes that didn't have blood on them before dinner got here.
The clothes I'd worn to train in were goners again. If this kept up, I would have to start buying clothes in bulk or something. A spot of fresh blood was something I could clean off, but it seemed like I was ending every damn day lately like Carrie at the prom.
I showered and dressed quickly, knowing that Lexie was anxious for her turn.
I pulled on some cozy sweats, but as I started to pull a sports bra over my head, a chilling sight flashed across the television screen. A scream was wrenched from my chest before I knew it.
11
Liam burst through the door, sword in hand. He froze momentarily at the scene in front of him.
“Get out!” I jerked my bra down, tearing the worn seams.
“What's wrong?” he demanded, stepping into the room and scanning the whole space.
When he saw the story on the news, his face darkened and he stilled, watching.
I put a shirt on with quivering arms. My face was sweltering hot. He just saw my bare chest; the first man to do so since I broke up with Blake four years ago. How was I ever going to be able to look him in the eye again?
“Constance!” Lexie cried, dashing into the room. She saw me, a red mess clutching my chest and Liam glaring at the television. “What's going on?” She gasped when she saw the familiar face of a girl who worked as a gardener at the Baxter House on the screen.
“And now back to our lead crime reporter Tom Horowitz with the details,” a friendly sounding woman reporter announced.
The scene cut to one of the local anchormen standing in a cheap suit outside of a small apartment building that was cordoned off with bright yellow police tape. “Thanks, Melissa.” His face was a faux sad as he continued, “According to the police, early this morning, another local young woman was reported missing and is believed to be in serious danger. Amanda Schoenberg's car was discovered just before sunrise this morning outside of her apartment. A small amount of blood was found on the handle of the driver's side door and her purse and other personal belongings were inside the vehicle. If anyone has any information on Ms. Schoenberg's whereabouts, they are urged to contact the local police department immediately.”
The screen switched to show a picture of Amanda, a tall, athletically-built brunette woman not much older than us, kneeling in front of a garage door with a Yorkie.
“As I'm sure you recall,” the reporter began as the picture of Lexie and I together at her last birthday party popped up on screen, “the heiress to the Baxter Corporation fortune and her friend went missing last week under similar suspicious circumstances. Now Ms. Schoenberg makes three local ladies with connections to the Baxter Corporation to disappear.” From there, he went on to detail the human perspective on how Lexie and I fell off the face of the earth. How our families thought we vanished.
“We have to go, Constance. We have to go now,” Lexie's voice shook as began pacing restlessly.
“Just wait a minute. We don't even know if this has anything to do with us.” I tried to calm her down, when truthfully, I was just as afraid. Something instinctive in me wanted to throw the door open and run for the hills, but we had to be rational.
Her disappearance may not have anything to do with us. Perhaps it was narcissism or
the paranoia of raw terror, but something in my gut told me she was a message meant for me. Duo was trying to scare us into a trap.
He knew where we were.
“Are you nuts?” She flung her hands to her sides and continued her anxious pacing.
“I know you're scared and so am I, but we can't go rushing out without thinking first. It could be a trap. Or it could be that she just had a crazy boyfriend for all we know. We never knew her.” I grabbed her by the shoulders to still her and met her panicked gaze with one of reasonable calmness— I hope.
“Shut up,” Liam said so quietly that I almost didn't hear him. “This is Duo's work, his way of trying to flush you out of hiding.”
“So do we run now?” I asked, keeping my arm over my breasts.
Liam turned to face us. He noticed were my arm was and blushed slightly. “No, we need to keep our current course of action.”
“What?” Lexie asked, as though his suggestion were absurd.
“Do we still go train tomorrow?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered. When Lexie scoffed, he explained, “He's just as likely to find us here as he is there and there are tactical advantages to being a moving target.”
“So we do nothing?” I asked, just for clarity. Duo killed an innocent girl for no other reason than that we knew her.
“That human is his way of trying to get you to panic and make a mistake. Don't give him what he wants.”
“So we're just supposed to hide while Amanda Schoenberg is hurt and locked up somewhere,” I said more as a demand that he say it again. Say that we were supposed to sit and do nothing while she was missing, while her family was probably worrying themselves sick over her disappearance. While Duo might be planning on taking another girl.
“She's not locked up anywhere. Her corpse has probably been fed to a pack of hobgoblins by now. There is no way that she's still alive. She was never a hostage, just a message,” Liam's heated voice stated point-blank.
“As long as we're hiding, will he take another girl? Is another girl going to die because she was unlucky enough to hear my name?”
“It's likely.”
“And how am I supposed to live with myself, then? How am I supposed to be able to look in the mirror and not see some selfish, callous monster?” I was completely appalled by his cold-blooded attitude and his apparent lack of compassion. Especially since this was so unlike the Liam that I'd gotten to know in the pits— the Liam who cared for me when I was injured and who had my back when things got bad.
“That's up to you. What's up to me is keeping you out of his hands, so you're just going to have to figure out how to live with it yourself.”
“You can be a real heartless bastard sometimes.”
“Yes, I know. And I live to sleep just fine at night. Whether or not you get to live to have your moral debates is up to you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you can't save every person and you can't afford to have a bleeding heart about it. Caring about everyone like you do is a big weakness and it's one that Duo is trying to exploit. You can't let him do that. What you can do is go to bed. Get some rest and you'll be more clear-headed about it in the morning.”
“So I'm being sent to bed like a toddler having a tantrum?”
“Sort of, yes.”
“How do you think I can sleep with him out there, stalking us?”
He let out a heavy breath and ran his fingers through his already mussy, dark blond hair. “I'll keep watch right here. You can go to sleep knowing that I'll protect you.” He walked into the living area and sat down on the sofa, in the corner nearest to the door.
Strangely enough, that thought comforted me. Even knowing Duo was hunting Lexie and me, having Liam nearby made me feel relatively safe. It wasn't only my experiences in fighting with him and seeing how easily he slew his opponents, but also the conviction that he would protect me. My certainty in this was an odd thing, I'd never trusted easily and I didn't really know Liam— he could have been a spy for Octavius for all I knew. Maybe it was a bonding through fire sort of thing, but I trusted him with my life.
That sleepy weight tugging at my mind and body was starting to sway me toward taking his advice. “How will you sleep?” I asked, not knowing when the last time he'd gotten any sleep was.
He waved his hand. “Don't worry about it. I'm trained to go without sleep, so it doesn't bother me as much as it does other people. And there's coffee in the kitchen.”
Still angry and wound up, but not knowing what else to do, I went to bed. I was out like a light before my head hit the pillow.
A gush of cold air blew over me, making me contract into a little ball.
“Get up,” Lexie called, hovering inches over my face. “It's after noon. Get your butt out of bed. We've got training to do.”
I groaned and blinked at the light, orienting myself. It was time to get to work. The sooner we got out of here, the sooner everyone would be safe again.
“If you don't get up, I will give you a nuclear wedgie. Don't think I won't,” she threatened.
“Fine, fine, I'm getting up.” I rolled out of bed and shook my head.
“There's already breakfast in the kitchen and your grandma is on her way here. Get moving.” She went back into the living room.
I threw some clothes on, straightened my hair and went out to eat. Liam was still in his room.
Grandma came in just as I was finishing my breakfast. Never let it be said of my grandmother that she had poor timing. She must have noticed something a little off, because she asked carefully, “Are we ready to go, then?”
Liam came out, nodded and walked past her out the door.
“Yeah,” I mumbled and followed Liam's suit, heading to Grandma's rented Jeep parked in the lot downstairs.
Grandma stepped in my way before I reached the door and held up two more vials of rosy-gold glamour. I'd almost stepped out as myself. That could have been bad. Without thought, I tossed it back and took the elevator to the ground floor.
In the lobby, I paused and waited for them to come down. I didn't want to sit in the car with Liam alone. It was juvenile, I admit, but I couldn't help myself in wanting to delay the inevitable awkwardness that awaited me.
I was kind of hoping that since major shit had happened right afterward, he'd completely forgotten that he saw me half-naked. But going by his evasive demeanor, he hadn't.
Grandma came down the hall from the elevators smiling with Lexie. I had a suspicion of what they were discussing without me around. Was this really the time for talking about something like that?
Grandma herded everybody into the car. As she merged us into traffic, she started talking about Duo's entrance with Liam.
While they were deeply ensconced in conversation, Lexie leaned over to whisper in my ear, “So what'd he see last night? Boobies, booty, beaver? The whole nine yards?”
My face was getting hotter than asphalt on a sunny day. Because I knew my voice wouldn't work, I just kept silent and hoped she would shut up.
“Since you won't answer, I'm going to assume that he saw everything and that you showed it to him, you dirty, dirty slut,” she teased with a huge grin on her face. She was way too happy about this.
She must have noticed the cherry coloring on my cheeks because she put her hand on my shoulder. “It has been way too long since you've even been on a date. Why not get a little bit of that?”
I turned to her with a look of grumpy disapproval on my face. “Do you really think now of all times is the best for that?”
She shrugged with a cheeky smirk. “We could all die today. Why not get some and enjoy yourself while you can? Because you could totally hit that.” She pointed at Liam's back appreciatively. “I see the way he looks at you when you aren't looking.”
“Some of the most evil people in the world are trying to murder us,” I hissed. “And they're killing innocent people for shits and giggles. I'm not hitting anything until this mess
is over.”
She harrumphed, sensing that I was done talking and turned away to stare out the window.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lexie crane her head, looking at something. I looked through the windshield to see what had caught her attention. There wasn't anything there— just forest, rock, and road.
Suddenly, my stomach was in my throat as the ground beneath us lurched upward. The car was launched into the air, impacts pounding into us over and over as we flipped end over end. My head collided with something hard enough that I heard a crack and for a moment, the world went dark.
12
Get out of the car,” Liam yelled from somewhere. His voice was hollow and tinny, as though I was hearing him from under water. Something smelled like gasoline.
A cool hand seized my arm in a firm grip and started pulling me. For every inch I moved, tiny stings bit into my exposed skin.
“I got her,” Lexie announced, her voice sounding labored and gurgling just a little. Her hand patted my face hurriedly.
I tried to open my eyes, but something hot stung them, making me instinctively clench them closed again. Rubbing with my hand only made it hurt more.
Lexie grabbed my hand, pulling it away from my face. “You've got glass in your hand.” She used her sleeve to gently wipe away whatever was crusted in my palm.
I cleared my eyes and blinked away the tears and blood to see what was going on. Lexie was kneeling over me, her face covered in tiny cuts that didn't bleed. Liam was standing nearby, equally battered, but in an alert, defensive posture with his hands flexed at his sides. He glanced over to me and looked relieved for a moment, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared as that violent look came over his face again and he went back to scanning the edges of the forest.
“What,” I started to say, but I couldn't remember the word that was supposed to come next.
Duo (Stone Mage Saga Book 2) Page 11