I re-notched the arrow, and when I tried to pull the arrow back, I found out that it took quite a bit of strength to haul it back. I would find out later that it was termed in pounds of pressure. Whatever. So, finally I had the arrow drawn back and aimed as best I could with what information I had retained then let go with my left hand.
"Ow, ow, ow!" The stupid string snapped down on my right arm as it shot forward, and holy crap, it hurt like hell. I dropped the bow and arrow, not even caring where the arrow ended up, and tackled Gavin. I was tired, I was hungry, and he so did that on purpose!
Gavin, not expecting my sudden infuriated attack, fell to the ground, me on top. Then he rolled me under him and sat on me, with my arms pinned down above my head. I don't know what made me do it, I really don't. I would say it was instinctual, but again I don't know, I was just mad. I pulled energy in from around us, only instead of holding it in a ball in front of me as I did before at the diner, I pulled it directly inside of me.
I only pulled in a small amount. It felt tingly and strange inside of me. I felt little static-like shocks snapping around in there. It didn't hurt, but it sure felt weird. Then I focused, "aimed" at Gavin's chest, and pushed the energy out of me and at my target. I felt the blast from where I lay on the ground. A gust of air shot into my face, forcing me down into the ground, pressing down on me. It was a bit uncomfortable, to say the least. I didn't complain, as at that moment I saw Gavin explode off of me and high into the air. Our eyes connected in surprised horror as we both realized at the same time that he was coming back down hard, directly at me.
I heard Leif yell to me to move, but there was just no time. Gavin landed on me with a grunt. The air in my lungs burst out of me, and pain you wouldn't believe coursed through me. I felt a weird giving in my chest, as my ribs bent in, but didn't break. I tried to pull air in, but couldn't. Gavin was smothering me. He was too big, too heavy. I shoved at him weakly. He grunted again at me and rolled off to my side.
Gavin had knocked the air right out of me. I again tried to pull in air but couldn't. I knew what that meant. It meant that it was really going to hurt when I was finally able to breathe. I forced myself to relax, and just like that, I was able to bring in air with a loud gasp. It tore its way through my closed lungs, and I quietly rode out the pain. After a few more in and out breaths, I knew the pain would recede.
Leif had reached my side by that time, and I focused on his concerned face. I grabbed his arm and said on a gravely forced whisper, "I didn't know that would happen. I'm so sorry. Is he alright?"
"Shh, he's okay. Just a little stunned, like you are. Relax a minute. Get your breath." He was rubbing his hands over my arms, then my legs, and then my chest. When he reached a tender spot at my ribs, I gave a girlie, wimpy squeal, and jerked away. Leif grabbed my shirt and started to jerk it up. I grabbed his hands then, not content to lay there while he tried to undress me in front of everyone. "Don't!"
"I have to check those ribs." He tried to pull up my shirt again. I held tight.
"No."
"Sunny."
"Leif." I said this with the same amount of exasperation he had given me. He breathed out heavily and gave up. I sat up carefully, proud to note I only winced twice as my ribs pulled. I looked over at Gavin guiltily. He was sitting up and giving me his own guilty look. What did he do?
I swallowed back my huge pride and said, very sincerely, "I'm so sorry, Gavin. I had no idea that would happen."
Gavin raised a hand at me and said, "No, I'm sorry Sunny. I lost my temper. It's not the first time and it wont be the last either. Are you alright?" He was disheveled and dirty, and his clean military look was ruined. He had dirt on his face and neck, and he suddenly looked so young to me.
"Yeah, I'm fine. How old are you, Gavin?"
He must not have been expecting that, as he gave me a surprised look before answering, "Nineteen."
He was only two years older than me. That two years seems like a hundred to me. I nodded once to indicate I had heard him. Then I pushed to my feet. Austin tried to help me, but pride is a funny thing. I caused this, no matter what Gavin said. This was my fault and I didn't feel like being babied for it. I held up my hand in a restraining gesture and said, "I got it."
Leif was still hovering over me as it was, I didn't need Austin there as well. Leigha, I noticed, was hovering protectively over Gavin. That was interesting. She didn't meet my eyes even though I knew she felt me staring at her. How could she not? My gaze was drilling into her head. I gave up trying to get her attention and headed for the path out of the woods.
Leif tried to take my arm again, but I shrugged him off. I was trying to hold it together and not cry. My arm felt funny, and a slicing pain coursed through my ribs every time I breathed in. Leif trying to comfort me or show concern would just make my emotions come to the front and I wouldn't be able to control them. Then I would humiliate myself and burst into tears and cry like the big baby I was feeling like. "Really, Leif, I'm good. Look, I'm done for today. I'm going to head home."
I looked over at Gavin again. "I really am sorry, Gavin." I felt really bad. I had tossed him into the air without care. I was the one that lost my temper, not him, no matter what he said. "See you guys Wednesday. We'll try that again." I turned and made my way down the hill and into town then directly home.
~ * ~
"What happened to you?" My mom asked as I made my way up to my room.
I had a feeling this was going to be the first of many lies, when I said, "Apparently I am a bit clumsy lately. I fell down the hill on my way down from the cross. I'm fine though. Dirty and embarrassed, but fine. Really."
I headed up to my room and took a nice warm shower, rinsing away the aches and pains along with the dirt and grime.
Chapter Twelve
Worthless
I met Leigha in the clearing on Wednesday. The guys were coming later. They had some so-called errands to run. They weren't fooling anyone, though. I think they knew as well as I did that Leigha and I were going to need a few minutes to work out our strange relationship.
She didn't know what to make of me. I didn't act as she deemed appropriate for one of my 'station'. I should have been more royal or something, I guess. Too bad though, as I was just me. A few weeks from being seventeen, hormone-crazed, sarcastic, mouthy, opinionated teenager from the United States of America.
Then you have Leigha. What can I say? She intimidated the crap out of me. Tall, beautiful in her cold hard way, thin, with glorious deep red hair and mossy green eyes. How could she not intimidate anyone? I was just the cute little girl next door compared to her. It sucked.
Leigha had set out two straw-like mats on the ground. She sat with her legs folded on one of the mats, her hands resting on her knees and her eyes closed. I had the strangest urge to tip toe over to her, grab her shoulders, and yell "Boo!" I restrained myself though. My luck, she would retaliate with deadly force. That would at least solve my princess problem.
I contented myself by simply walking over and sitting down on the second mat, assuming it was for me, and waited for her to finish up whatever she was doing. I wished she would hurry the heck up so we could get on with the day's training.
Finally, her eyes opened. I may have heaved a loud and noisy sigh in her direction, but geez, I didn't have all day to sit on a mat on the cold frozen ground. "How are you feeling today?" she asked. "Your ribs are well?"
Why did she talk that way? None of the others talked backwards or weird like that. Well, Aiden did sometimes, but I figured it was because he was old.
"Yeah. They're fine." My ribs were still a bit tender, and my arm still ached, but I wasn't going to mention it. Leif had spent the last two days since my tumble with Gavin treating me like an invalid. I also liked having my books and stuff carried, not because I was hurt, but because maybe he wanted to carry them. I liked having him around, but not hovering over me as if I was a broken baby bird. It was suffocating. No, I was not complaining one bit about my arm or
my ribs.
"So, what's on the agenda for today?" I asked to change the subject.
"First, we are going to find your inner self through meditation."
Oy! I did not sigh, I did not grumble, I sat there, most likely with a blank expression on my face. Leigha did sigh though then grumbled, "Look, it has been decided by the guys that I'm supposed to take it easy on you today, so it's this or nothing. Don't you think I have more exciting things to teach you? Well, I do. I may not be a 'weapons expert' or a 'genius' at hand to hand combat…" Wow, she had her own form of sarcasm going on. Yikes! "But this exercise today will at least help you learn to control yourself and your abilities so you don't keep hurting everyone when you lose control of your gifts."
Ow, that stung. I had already apologized to everyone for Monday, what more did she want me to do? What more could I do? Plus, hello, I didn't do anything to her.
"Hey, I happen to be new at this gift thing," I replied hotly, crossing my arms over my chest. "I suppose you acquired your gifts and immediately had instant control of them. Well, you know what? I don't. I also assume that maybe my gifts are a bit more powerful than yours if you did have that instant immediate control over them. Shadow walking is easy, I got that one. Aura or energy reading, I got those too, with a little research. The energy control, well, that one's a bit more difficult. When did you last try and succeed at controlling energy? Hmm?"
She obviously didn't have any reply to that, as she sat there quietly for a moment then said, "You're right. I don't know what that is like." Then she surprised my annoyance right out of me when she leaned in and whispered, almost excitedly, "What does it feel like? The energy?"
"Umm, well, I never really thought about it, actually." I thought back to the night at Dee's then I thought about that moment right before I blasted Gavin. I tried to remember the actual feel of it. "It feels like static. It raises all the little hairs on my body, which is actually really weird. I get little shocks throughout my body. It feels like energy would feel, I guess."
"How did you know how to use it?"
I had already thought about this one myself. "I think it's an instinct. Babies don't know how to breathe until they have to. I think when I was in danger at Dee's, it was a protective instinct that just took over. On Wednesday I tried to use it consciously." I looked at Leigha and said sincerely, "I honestly didn't know it would do that. I was trying to zap him a little bit, not blast him. I had no idea energy was that powerful. Is Gavin still mad?"
She huffed out a breath and said, "He was never mad at you. I was." She nodded at me to confirm what she had said. "I thought you intended to hurt him. He told me you were just as surprised as he was. I didn't stay mad long. It's hard to be mad when I do understand losing control." She smiled ruefully and shrugged her shoulders.
I know! The ice queen smiled?
"I didn't have instant control over my gifts," she said suddenly.
That was a huge surprise. But then I realized I had no idea what her gifts really were. "What is your gift?" I asked tentatively. I hadn't heard anyone really talk about their gifts, except for me and Leif, that is. Maybe it was an unspoken rule that you didn't share.
"I have speed. What I mean is, I am very fast. Not blindingly fast, but faster than anyone I have ever seen or known. It is a family trait. I happen to be even faster than my father was. I practice. I like being the fastest." Go figure.
"Going so fast at first, well it was hard to dodge stuff. I ran into my share of trees, people, dogs. It was an embarrassing time for me."
"Can you show me?" I wanted to see how fast she really was.
Holy crap, she just did it again. She smiled at me as she jumped to her feet.
Leigha dashed across the clearing. She was not blurred fast, but she was fast. She was like, "oh my gosh" fast. She dashed back and stopped directly in front of me. She wasn't winded at all. All I could think to say was, "Cool."
"So, what's up with you and Gavin?" I figured we were on better terms, I may as well ask.
"Nothing," she replied, looking down and brushing off imaginary lint from her blue jeans.
"It doesn't look like nothing to me." I didn't want to push her, but there didn't seem to be all that many girls in the group. Maybe she could use someone to talk to. Plus, I was nosey.
"I mean nothing. He doesn't even know I am a girl, for heaven's sake. He just thinks of me as one of the rebels, or maybe at best as his sister. It's a bit depressing." She shook her head as if she was disgusted with herself.
"You have got to be kidding. You do realize you're hot, right? It's a bit disgusting actually."
She choked out a laugh and said, "I am trying to get his attention. It's just not working."
"Oh, I'm sure it's working. I don't know any guy who wouldn't notice you. Seriously."
She shook her head again then gave me a cocky grin. "Come on, run with me. We need to get your body in shape and ready."
"I can't run that fast!" Was she nuts? She just said she was the fastest runner she knew.
"Of course you can't, but you still need to get in shape. Don't worry, I will go slow." She must have realized that was a bit, well, rude and blunt. True maybe, but rude all the same, as she looked over her shoulder at me and shrugged as if to say, sorry, but deal with it anyway.
I got up off of my mat, dusted off my seat, and said, "Lead the way."
I was not a runner, to say it simply. I wasn't in bad shape either, but the route she took whipped me. I was pretty sure that was part of the plan. We had made some headway into a workable relationship, but who could blame her for showing off just a bit?
I could, as I was the one dripping in sweat, and huffing and puffing so hard, I thought I would die. No wonder she was so nice and thin and built. She had to be made entirely of muscle. We made it back into the clearing just as the others were getting there. I staggered over to the cooler, grabbed a bottle of cold water and sucked it down like it was the last water on earth. Then I slowly walked over to my mat and dropped down, my chest still heaving. My heart was still pounding so hard I could actually see it beating against my chest.
Gavin leaned into my line of sight. "You ready for me? It's my turn now, right?"
Lord, shoot me now. There was no way I would be able to get though three hours of training three days a week. We needed a better plan. Did I whine and complain, or did I just suck it up. Choices, choices. I heaved myself up off the ground and stood up on my still a bit shaky legs. "What are we working with today? Still the bow and arrow?"
"Yep, I brought you an arm guard, though."
I looked over at Leif, crossed the brown grassy field and leaned into him for a quick hug of affection. I smiled up at him. He looked down at me with his warm blue eyes and smiled back. He dropped a kiss on my forehead, gently pushed me off his chest where I was leaning and said, "Play nice with Gavin today, eh? He's still a bit sore from the pride bashing he took on Monday."
I glanced shyly over at Gavin who just rolled his eyes at me, which made me feel better. "So, no hard feelings?"
"Not too many. You ready?" he replied. I have to say, the military hair cut looked good on him. He looked mean, rough, and tough, but add the hair, and the package spoke Clint Eastwood, or maybe John Wayne. He even had that deep gravelly voice you would expect.
He helped me put on the arm guard, saying sarcastically, "Wouldn't want to hurt the princess and all that."
I really hated that name, especially in reference to me. "Don't start, Gavin."
He stepped behind me and set me up as he had before. He gave me some additional instruction about how to hold my wrist to minimize the bowstring slapping my arm. That would have been helpful on Monday, but I didn't call him on it. I think everyone had been testing me, seeing how far they could push me and how strong I was. Well, weren't they surprised to see that this princess had quite the temper?
I took aim and shot the arrow. It didn't come close to the target. It was still at least ten feet away. I reloaded an arro
w and tried again, and again, and again. I just couldn't get enough force on the arrow. I was getting frustrated and feeling inept. Leif finally took pity on me, I guess, because he took the place of Gavin behind me. He leaned in and set me up with another arrow, drawing the arrow back with me. We aimed the arrow together. His breath was against my ear and it was hard to concentrate, as he whispered, "Hold your breath. Ready? Release."
We released the arrow and I watched in surprised excitement at the arrow not only sailed further than before, but I heard the solid thunk, as the arrow struck the target. It didn't hit the bulls eye, but it was at least in the target area.
"Woo hoo! Did you see that?" I said excitedly as I danced around in a little circle. Finally, a moment of something other than failure. I immediately reloaded, aimed, and released. I watched in fearful anticipation as the arrow sailed through the air and finally hit the target. Barely. The arrow had just sliced the corner edge of the round target and was hanging on by a strip of plastic. But it hit, and I had done it by myself. I did a little jump and a hip shake and spun around to crow for myself at the others. Leif was smiling proudly at me. That was all I really cared about. I skipped over to him, smiling widely.
I looked over to see what Gavin thought of my performance. The butt just shrugged his shoulders at me and said, "Well, at least you finally hit the target. Come on, I still have twenty minutes of training with you."
I stuck out my tongue at him. It made me feel better.
After my session with Gavin, Austin took over with his hand-to-hand combat training. It was better this time. It was more of a class on self-defense, instead of a test-out-the-princess lesson. We sparred back and forth and it went relatively well. I only took one small hit to the chin, and it didn't really hurt all that much.
Shadow Dancer Boxed Set Page 12