Forever Young (17 page)

After Caiden walked me home, I laid in my bed for what seemed like hours before I could fall asleep. I was sure my dreams would be filled with dark daimons, especially since I would be battling one in less than twenty-four hours. Instead, I dreamed of Nerissa. I was standing on the sandy shore of the lagoon, and she was calling out to me from the water. When I woke the next morning, her words were still fresh in my mind. "You're our savior, Charlotte. All hope rests with you."

Morning dawned too quickly for me and I was exhausted when I got out of bed. My eyes felt heavy and gritty. I stumbled out to my kitchen and made a pot of coffee. I needed to get my head cleared and some energy going. I had a big night ahead of me in the First Dimension.

After two cups of java, I was finally able to get in the shower which erased the rest of the cobwebs stuck to my brain. I had just finished dressing when someone knocked on my door. Opening it, my face broke into a huge smile. Caiden stood there holding up a breakfast bag. One good sniff and I could tell he brought me fresh bagels.

"My girl needs lots of energy tonight so we need to start your day off right."

I gave him a quick kiss and grabbed the bag from his hand. He followed me into the kitchen and sat on the bar stool while I laid the bagels and cream cheese out with plates. We ate our breakfast in relative silence until Caiden broke into my thoughts. "Are you still worried about tonight?"

I popped my head up in surprise. Actually, I had been thinking about my dreams of Nerissa. I shook my head.

"I'm more bothered by Nerissa and her predictions of my future."

Caiden took a bite of his bagel and chewed it thoughtfully before swallowing. "It pisses me off how Sarah just discounted all of it. As head of this school, she should have more concern for these things."

I scoffed. "I don't think Sarah is concerned about anything but herself." I hoped that didn't sound too bitchy but at this point, I think I liked Payton a hell of a lot more than I did Sarah.

Caiden let out a loud sigh. "I think you may be right about her."

Yea! Validation!

Popping my last bite of bagel into my mouth, I put our dishes in the sink.

"Well, let's get this show on the road. I'm revved to kick some daimon ass."

Caiden and I walked to the auditorium which is where we would be given our assignments for our upcoming battle that evening. We were not allowed to pick our own teammates but rather they were randomly assigned. I hoped I got someone decent on my team. It would do a lot to help with my nerves.

Once the auditorium was filled, Sarah stepped up to the podium. The students were all quietly talking and it appeared every instructor and mentor on the island was in attendance.

"Attention. Everyone please settle down."

When the chattering and whispers finally died down, Sarah continued. "Tonight, you will embark on your first battle against real daimons. Up until this point, you have trained against your instructors and fellow students. Now...it's the real deal. Please pay attention to me when I say..." and here she paused to look directly at me, "you are not to take this exercise lightly. You will have an instructor or mentor present with you, but they will not interfere in your battle unless absolutely necessary. So while imminent death is probably not in the cards for you tonight, there is a very good chance that some of you could be seriously injured."

I looked around the auditorium. Everyone was paying rapt attention to Sarah and I could feel the tension permeating the air. Sarah made a few more remarks that, in a nicer person, would probably amount to a good pep talk. Instead, she tried to instill fear in us as a method to motivate. I inwardly sighed in frustration at her. She positively sucked as a leader and it made me miss Dr. Tinesdale.

After Sarah was finished, another instructor stepped up to the podium to announce the teams. The list of names read out droned on and on. I was pleased to see that Justas and Emerson were on the same team with Huron as their instructor. They had another boy on their team who I didn't know too well except that he was pretty handy with his spell casting.

"Joining mentor, Caiden Gallagher..." My ears perked up and I held my breath to see if I would get assigned to his team. "Michael Thompson, Gabby Hixon and Portis Haverstone."
Darn.
I wasn't counting on it but was hoping the forces of good would put me under Caiden's supervision for the night. I looked over at Caiden and he gave me a sympathetic smile. He knew exactly what I was thinking.

And then things got worse.

"Joining headmaster, Sarah Longchamp... Davis Maier, Payton Daugherty and Charlie Wright."

I groaned inside. I was stuck with my two least favorite people in the world. This did not bode well for my success tonight. I snuck another glance at Caiden and he ratcheted up his sympathy look by a million percent. I grimaced in return.

Justas leaned over to me and whispered in my ear. "If you're lucky, you might accidentally kill Sarah and Payton tonight."

I snickered. Not because I would ever wish that to happen, but because Justas knew me well enough to know I needed some humor for the situation.

After all of the names were called out, we were told to meet with our teams and formulate a game plan.

I filed out of the auditorium with the rest of the recruits and waited for Payton and Davis to come out. I knew Davis relatively well and he was a pretty nice guy. We often sparred together in Hand-to-Hand. He was large and stacked with muscle, which was always good in a fight. He was also an orphan, like me and Emerson, and plucked from the foster system in Utah. That brought a certain level of solidarity to our relationship.

Davis found me first then Payton walked up right behind him. "This is just great. I get stuck with little orphan Charlie as my teammate. I might as well start planning my funeral arrangements."

I looked at Davis briefly and he frowned at the comment but didn't say anything. I internally said a peace prayer in an effort to stop myself from punching Payton. I just smiled nicely at her and suggested we go find a place to talk. She rolled her eyes, I think a little disappointed I didn't take her bait. We ended up sitting in the common room of our dormitory and tried to hash out a plan.

Payton immediately started running the show. "First, I think we need to appoint someone to be in charge. Every group needs a leader and I hereby nominate myself."

Oh, this was going to be torture.

Davis cleared his throat and I was surprised he spoke up. "Well, I kinda want to nominate Charlie. She's the best in our class when it comes to weapons and hand-to-hand combat."

Payton gave him a tolerant look. "That may be true, but she positively sucks when it comes to magic. And I do excel at that. Plus, I nominated myself first."

I went ahead and just put ourselves out of our misery from having to battle this issue out.

"It's fine for Payton to be in charge. I'm actually looking forward to whatever brilliant plan she comes up with." I said that last remark with enough sarcasm, no one would ever mistake it for being genuine. Payton just smiled and continued on.

"Good. Now that we have that settled, I think this is the way it should work..."

Payton proceeded to talk for the next thirty-five minutes...non-stop! I don't even think she took a breath. I had to grudgingly admit, however, that she was no dummy. She clearly had been paying attention in our classes on battle strategy. She appointed me as lead person when we entered the battle field. If I had not been as well versed in strategy as I was, I might have assumed she wanted me to be the first to walk into danger in the hopes I'd get killed. But it was a good decision. I was the best with melee weapons and would be best suited to deal with a front-on physical attack.

She decided Davis would go next, to bring more brawn to the fight. Then she would bring up the rear, given her ability to cast spells was better than both me and Davis combined. She would be able to protect our rear if we were surprised from behind.

It was unlikely we would be faced with more than one daimon. Even though we were going into actual battle, the circumstances were as controlled as possible. Just like with the actual field trials, a daimon would be captured for us to hunt. Each team would battle only one daimon, and our goal was to try to dispatch it as a team as quickly as possible. The chances of us stumbling onto other daimons were low, as the area we would be working in was well scouted and then cleared in advance.

We had been given some information on the daimon we would be tracking. Payton pulled out a document that had been handed to us and read it out loud. It appeared we were being given an Ossius daimon. It was not an overly large creature—about the size of a large man. In its true form it appeared having yellowish, rubbery skin with blood red eyes. It thrived on chaos and was a Class A troublemaker in the First Dimension. We would need to be careful because in addition to brute strength, it apparently could produce bony daggers from the palms of its hands which could then be fired as a projectile at us.

Once Payton read that information to us, I immediately noted her plan of attack would not work. But before I could correct her, she piped up. "Well, my original plan will clearly not work. Since it can shoot projectiles at us, I'll have to be the first to go in with my magic. Unless we can disable those daggers, we won't be able to get in close enough for a kill."

I did not like Payton. Couldn't stand her actually. But I had to admit my respect for her went up maybe from zero to one-half of a percent. She clearly had not been sleeping during our classes and she was not afraid to go in first to a dangerous situation. I swallowed the bile in my mouth.

"Those are really good thoughts, Payton. I think we have a plan."

Payton looked at me with surprise and I thought that she might actually thank me for the compliment. But then her icy veneer was quickly back in place. "Of course it's a good plan. I came up with it."

Typical.

We wrapped up our planning meeting and confirmed that we would meet Sarah at the elevator to travel to the First Dimension at 9:00pm. That was our scheduled start time.

I left my teammates and headed to the cafeteria to meet Justas and Emerson for lunch. When I got there, I was surprised to find Dane sitting with them. After getting my food and joining them at the table, I looked over and saw Payton with her friends. She looked over at me with a snotty look. She didn't seem to look at Dane at all.

"So, what's the deal with you and Payton? Trouble in paradise?"

"I broke it off with her a few days ago." Dane's voice was subdued.

"Why?" I think I knew the answer, but I asked it anyway.

"Same old reasons. I'm just tired of the way she treats people. It's very draining."

I didn't know what to say. How could I console him for him breaking up with someone that was just a horrid person most of the time? Well, all of the time as far as I knew.

Before I could come up with something, Emerson reached out and touched Dane's arm lightly. "I'm sorry, Dane. I know that must be hard." Her voice was gentle and compassionate.

My dear, wonderful Emerson. She had not really warmed up too much to Dane because of his association with Payton but here she was giving him comfort.

"Thanks, Emerson. That means a lot. I'll be okay though." He gave a sad smile and went back to attacking his cheeseburger.

Justas threw a tater tot at me that hit me in the forehead and landed in my mac and cheese.

"So, how did your meeting with your teammates go today?"

I glared at him but didn't retaliate. Picking up his tater tot, I plopped it in my mouth and chewed. "It actually went fine. Payton, of course, appointed herself boss."

I watched as Dane rolled his eyes but he didn't say anything.

"And you let her be the boss?" Emerson was staring at me in amazement.

"It was easier not to rock the boat. Plus, I hate to say this and I will deny it if you ever tell anyone, but she's actually pretty smart when it comes to battle planning."

Emerson just gaped at me and I laughed. I know she thought I was joking but when I didn't correct her assumption, her jaw hung even lower.

Justas broke her astonished stare by throwing a tater tot at her. It pinged off of her forehead and in a stroke of luck, landed in my mac and cheese.
Score two tots for me.

After lunch, I had the rest of the afternoon off and there was only one place I wanted to be. Taking to the air, I flew to the north end of the island, touching down in Caiden's yard. His wall panels were open, meaning he was home. I walked in, calling out his name.

The bathroom door opened and Caiden walked out, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. My mouth went dry and my cheeks heated. His chiseled body was glistening with drops of water and I ran my eyes all over him. When my gaze came back up to his face, I found him smirking at me for my bold perusal.

"Better turn around, Charlie or you're going to get an eyeful."

He reached for the corner of his towel as he said that and I whipped around so fast I was surprised I didn't throw my neck out of joint. I heard him drop the towel to the floor and my imagination was on overload. Then I heard his dresser drawer open and close and my imagination started into overdrive. Within a few seconds, Caiden stepped up behind me, fully clothed, and wrapped his arms around my waist. He put his nose into my neck and took in a deep breath.

"God, you smell so good." His voice was low and his words caused me to tremble.

Nibbling lightly on my neck, Caiden murmured, "How did your meeting go?"

I bit down on my bottom lip—hard—to stop from groaning.
Now what was his question? Oh, the meeting.
"It was fine. I think we have a good plan of attack."

With a final warm kiss to my neck, Caiden released me and walked out onto his porch. I followed. He took a seat on the top step and I sat on the one below him, leaning back into his knees. We both stared out over the lagoon.

Leaning forward to put his arms around me, he rested his chin on top of my head. "What type of daimon did you pull?"

"An Ossius daimon."

Caiden whistled low. "Sarah's not pulling any punches. She gave your team one of the more dangerous daimons to face."

I grimaced. "Why am I not surprised Sarah would give me something hard?"

Caiden squeezed me in reassurance. "It doesn't matter what Sarah throws your way, you can handle anything. I have faith in you."