Dark Secrets (4 page)

Second Chapter: Training

Damien was leaning against the door frame, arms crossed, head cocked, with a goofy grin on his face.

“It seems I’m interrupting something… having a little fun, are we? I guess not getting laid for several years makes a man desperate eh, Derek?” Damien smirked, “You’re acting like a bitch in heat.”

I look at Derek. His face is back to its normal indifferent self, as if nothing had even happened, which makes me angry… even more so than I would have been with just Damien’s stupid remark.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean, Damien?” I’m looking straight at him now; glaring really.

Damien saunters over to me with a look of satisfaction, as if making me angry was what he was aiming for. He drops his face down to mine.

“Only a dog could like your face.” He says with that cocky smile of his. Clearly he was pissed. Normally, he was a complete gentleman... Perhaps this is who he really is.

I lean closer to him, get on my tippy toes and whisper in his ear, “And only a blood donor could like yours.”

I draw back to see his reaction; utter shock crosses his face, a flash of pain in his eyes. I can hear Derek muffle a laugh.

I gave him half a smile as I turned to leave the room.

I move toward the dining hall where Kai is playing on the floor. Lachlan is standing in between me and him.

“Having a bark off against a wolf isn’t a fight anyone’s going to win, especially not an elf.” Lachlan stated plainly.

I take a quick look at him and then drop my eyes. Anger is surging through me; I need to get away before I do something I regret. “I think I’ll take Kai out for a walk through the woods.”

Damien is standing directly behind me now. I can feel his breath on my shoulder. He’s not too much taller than I am. Compared to the other guys, he’s a midget.

“I’ll go with you.” He says casually.

“No.” I look hastily at him and then back to Lachlan. I’d rather not have to deal with him at the moment. “Lachlan, if you please.” I nod my head towards the door. If I have to have a bodyguard at the moment, I’d prefer it be the quiet guy.

I pick up Kai and rush out the door. There is a thin ribbon of trail here otherwise I wouldn’t have gone off without someone else by my side. I’m halfway down the path before Lachlan catches up to us. I don’t know if he got distracted or what; with those long legs he should have been able to keep up easily. We walk in awkward silence for a while. The trail leads deep into the woods; mostly north. We stop at the creek that runs through the center of the forest.  I am explaining to Kai the names of the trees surrounding the river while Lachlan gathers some firewood.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked politely.

“I can’t right now.”

“Is it because you’ll cry?” I simply stare at him. “I just meant… I mean, you look like you’re on the brink of tears.”

I just shake my head and continue what I’m doing. If I speak I know I’ll go off on him and I would like to keep the peace with at least one guy.

He’s paying close attention to me… which isn’t abnormal for him. He’s been doing it since we met. But, it’s not the same as when Damien stares at me. The way Lachlan watches me… it’s almost as if he’s studying my every move. It’s kind of creepy. Lachlan is a scientist as well as a witch. He claims that they go hand in hand. I guess if you think about it, that makes perfect sense.

I look at Kai, who’s playing with a couple rocks and making sound effects every time he clangs them together.

“Look mommy! Look!” Kai’s voice was like a song bird; full of elation. He’s holding up a shiny blue stone.

I just stare at him for a moment; dumb founded. What is it about being around these men that gives him the courage to speak to me now? He never speaks unless it’s imperative for him to do so.

Lachlan clears his throat “I’ve been helping him lately. He seems to have trouble forming his words unless absolutely necessary; almost as if he’s afraid to speak. I wondered if there was some psychological reasoning behind that…” He pauses for a moment. “I hope you don’t mind… but I cast a spell on him to free his speech and his mind. He should communicate more freely with you now.”

My eyes grow wide and my head jerks up to look him dead in the eyes. Fury fills my body. “What the hell? Who gave you permission to do that? Don’t EVER cast a spell on my son without my explicit permission to do so!”

“It’s perfectly safe, I promise!” He replied urgently.

“I don’t care if it’s safe or not! If he doesn’t speak that’s his choice. You shouldn’t ever force someone to do something they don’t want to, by magic or other means!”

The wind starts swirling around me, leaves are blowing everywhere. Suddenly Lachlan is being thrown back. When I get angry the elements do my bidding for me. I didn’t consciously strike him with my power. But, I did badly want to hurt him. All of my anger from the day burst out of me in one quick surge. I have to be careful and calm myself down. I try to bring my exuding energy down to a minimum. I feel more powerful when I am surrounded by nature. The last time I lashed out my house caught on fire.

“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Calm down! I won’t ever do it again! I swear!” Lachlan yells over the wind with fear in his eyes.

“Kai and I are going back. I don’t want to be anywhere near you right now.” I picked up Kai and started walking off. He tried to follow and I turned around sharply, “You’ll stay here a while if you know what’s good for you!” I warned.

We’ve been in the woods awhile now and it’s starting to get dark. We got back to the house right around 9:30 p.m. It was completely dark out by then and I had to ask the forest spirits to light our way back. In order to do it right one has to center their aura, ground oneself to the earth and then call up the spirits of the forest and ask for guidance. The key is to be polite and earnest. It’s something my mother taught me. What the guys don’t realize, what I won’t mention, is that my mother is a witch.

You don’t have to be born a witch; you have to be taught. Everyone is born with magical abilities. They just have to learn how to tap into them. Some are stronger than others and are more in tune than most. I guess with me being of Elven blood it just makes it easier. I’ve always been stronger than my mother and my son is stronger than I am, even at such an early age.

Derek and Damien were both outside waiting for us when we approached the walkway.

“Where the hell have you been? We’ve been worried sick?” roared Derek.

“Sorry, didn’t realize you cared so much.” I stuck my tongue out to him as I handed Kai over to Damien to take in; he fell asleep on the way back… They quickly disappeared into the house.

Derek grabbed ahold of my shirt collar and picked me up off the ground. I could tell he was even more angry than usual. What happened while we were gone?

“I don’t give one flying shit about you, personally. But if you get hurt I’m out of a job, so straighten up!” he snarled. I simply glared at him. As if he could really scare me. Humph.

“Really? What about the kiss? I seriously doubt you kissed me because you don’t give one flying
shit.”

He glared back at me. Put me down slowly and walked away.

The next day we started training; vigorous exercises that lasted for hours on end. Daybreak was the beginning of our daily routine; they taught me everything from basic self-defense to karate, all the way up until lunch time. Usually one of the guys would go in with Kai and prepare our meal while the other two were still wrestling me to the ground. Kai enjoyed watching the show. He was always cheering me on… telling me to kick their butts and show them what we’re made of.

Derek was in charge of the strength building exercises; anything that had to do with hand to hand combat. Damien was in charge of testing my eye-hand coordination and motor skills. Lachlan works with me so that I may learn how to harness my energy. He claims that’s the first step in realizing my true potential. I’m not so sure about that, but who am I to argue?

Lachlan has showed me circle casting, how to clear my energies, basic meditation, and how to contact my spirit guides. He wanted to help me open up my mind so that I could read other people’s thoughts. What he didn’t realize is that I have already mastered that skill. I just usually have it turned off. It’s something I was born being able to do. It took me a long time to figure out how to shut it off and I had to have a lot of help from my mom to do so. It just about drove me crazy. The majority of what Lachlan is trying to teach me I already know, but I don’t point that out. His lessons are the easiest and right now I need easy.

Day in and day out this is all we do. There are different techniques every day, but it’s always the same routine. I am getting really tired of it really.

I miss spending quality time with my son. I can tell he misses it too. He’s usually sitting alone in the living room while we’re training. Occasionally he’ll come out and watch, when it’s not too dangerous. Damien went out and bought a TV for him to watch so he wouldn’t get bored. But, I hate that this is all he does anymore. I try to convince the guys to give me a break every now and then so that I may sit down with Kai for a while. But they claim I don’t have the time to do anything but train, eat and sleep. I’m about fed up with this malarkey.

The guys act differently around me now. They’re even bigger assholes than they were before, especially Derek. As if he wasn’t enough of a jack-ass already! He’s acting as if my kissing him back was a federal offense.

Lachlan will only talk to me about magic and is constantly drilling me. But, I guess he might just be trying to focus on his job and do it well… Every now and then though I catch him staring at me and twice now he’s brought in flowers to cheer me up. Lachlan is the only one that’s been even semi-nice to me. I often wonder if the reason I get along so well with him is because he’s human.

Damien rarely ever looks at me anymore… even when he’s speaking to me he doesn’t really look my way. He goes out of his way to avoid me; which is kind of hard to do. Once he went as far as jumping out the kitchen window in order to avoid having to be in the same room as I was.

I feel as if I’m stuck in a hostile environment that I just can’t get out of.

What makes it even worse is that the guys can’t seem to fathom my need to spend time with my child and forbid me from doing so. Obviously none of them have ever had children of their own. It’s because of this that we got into it this morning…

We were in the kitchen preparing breakfast and Lachlan was describing the schedule he had just drawn up for the week. He detailed everything to the exact minute. He handed it to me to look over.

“Wait. Wait. Wait a minute! The way you have this written leaves me about two hours to spend with Kai a week! That’s not happening. Fix it!” I said furiously.

“No. You will follow the schedule exactly as I have written it. We’re running behind. We have to have you completely ready in three months.” Lachlan glared at me.

“I don’t care if you have to have me ready in three
weeks.
I am not neglecting my child. Did you ever stop to wonder how he would feel about all this?” I huffed. “You can’t possibly think that you can just control everything we do in our day to day life. You’ve already taken us away from our home and forced us to live in this rundown house. I am working my ass off for you already even though I hardly know any of you and this is the thanks I get?!”

“You think…” Lachlan started, but was interrupted by Derek placing his hand on Lachlan’s shoulder...

“Now wait a minute, she has a point. We’ve been working her too hard. She deserves a break every now and then and Kai misses his mother.” Derek would know too. He spends more time with him than any of us put together. He clearly loves my son and for that I am thankful. Kai needs a man in his life.

Lachlan smacks the hand off and glares at Derek, “She doesn’t deserve anything! She’s made little to no progress.”

“Excuse me? Maybe I would make more progress if you stopped trying to teach me things I already know! It’s your fault I haven’t progressed as far as I should have!” I scream.

Kai is cowering in the corner, a look of worry crossing his face.

“I agree with Lachlan, you need to stay focused and arguing with us about it will do you no good at all.
We
are in control here, not you.” Damien butted in.

“Ha. Yeah, okay. Let’s see how well that works for you.” I say as I head towards Kai. I lift him to his feet and point to our room, “Go on to the bedroom honey, mommy will be there in a moment.” He nodded and ran away.

“Uh…. No, you won’t. Directly after breakfast you’re going out with Derek to work on your wrestling techniques.” Lachlan sneered.

“Uh… No, I am not. I am going to spend the day with my son. I’ll show you who is boss!” I brush past him and start to walk away.

I am instantly grabbed by someone. My first instinct is to grab the hand and twist it backwards. I do so without even bothering to check who grabbed me.

“Ow. Ow. Ow. Let go, let go!” Derek yelled.

“Oh! Sorry, Der. I thought you were Lachlan.”