Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (41 page)

Kara put her snout to his chest and sniffed. She grinned showing her dangerous teeth and then said “At least you look and smell better, Honey.” He sighed and gave her a hug.

Sarah walked to
his
front and started untying
the
cloak. She let it fall to the floor as she walked to
view his
back.
H
er cool fingers
began
tracing around the sutures she made. “You’re already regenerating well. Hopefully you’ll be completely healed in a few more hours.”

Connor
turned
around
and gently wrapped
his arms around her. He
kissed her forehead and smelled her scent; strawberry’s and apples. “I’m j
ust glad everyone will be ok.” He
released
his
gentle hold and turned to
his
sister and friend. “We have only a few hours until we go down for breakfast. Let
’
s get as much rest as possible.”

“Brother, I’m to
o awake to go back to sleep.” His
sister said in her deep animalistic voice as she said down on her haunches.

“I know it will be hard, but we can’t be groggy tomorrow.
N
ews will spread abo
ut
tonight and I want to be prepared for anything. We are already weakened and
I don’t want anything to go wrong if we are too exhausted to act
.”

Mark s
tood up and turned to look at Connor
. His silver eyes were set. “Listen, Buddy. Kara and I
will keep guard and rest.
You
need more time to regenerate. Lay down and rest... I mean it.”

He
d
idn’t want to argue anymore so Connor
walked over to
his bed. He
sat down and looked to see Mark manipulating his body into a wolf.
He
went down on
the bed just in time to see Mark and Kara ta
k
e
their position to guard the front door. They both laid down on their bellies and kept their ears facing the loose door.

Sarah slid into bed and tucked her back into
Connor’s
chest, but she was very careful.
She
cautiously entering
his
mind.
“Can we talk for a moment?”

“I can always spare some time for the woman I love.”
She reached down and patted his
leg
approvingly
.

“Flattery will get you everywhere, my Knight.”
She took a deep breath.
“You know I’m glad we fell in love. I say that for many reasons, but mostly because you are so unique. I thought you were making fun of me when you talk
ed
about your instincts. Kara told me several instances of how they have served you. She told me of how you stopped the car before a semi almost creamed you or how you saved her from rushing water that led to a waterfall.”

“Where are you going with this?”
He
wondered idly.

“Tonight you woke up to save the lives
that
we both cherish. I haven’t a clue about how you did it or why we have these abilities, but I am glad
you do
. I’m glad because I’m a
part of something unknown and special.”
He
could feel her happiness washing all over
him
.
Her bond cannot lie.

“I have to admit something to you.”
She stopped.
“That was one hell of a hit you served that woman. She was down before she even touched the ground.”

“It was wasn’t it?”
Sarah actually giggled silently.
“Alright, Connor, get some rest.”

Up and Down

David, Connor’s grandfather,
taught
him
about how to
achieve a semblance of
sleep when you’re in the wild
or just plain agitated
.
B
reathing
remained the first step
and
consciously slow
ing
it down
r
elaxed
a rapid
heartbeat.
Connor
needed to calm
his
body down
before the brain could unwind in kind
. Sarah’s
delicate
scent made
his
body relax far sooner
than normal
.
David
once
said “Connor, when you are in an unknown
and potentially dangerous situation
you must know how to rest.
Exhaustion will kill you.
First
ly
you must be completely calm
an
d
clear your mind
. The
most
difficult part
of doing this
is to
simultaneously
listen to all of your surroundings while making your mind go blank
and time will slow for you
. Finally you must listen
and
sleep at the same time. Your mind will never stop working until the day you die so train yourself to always be aware of your surroundings.”
Connor
focused on listening to everything
while thinking nothing
. Mark and Kara’s heavy breathing
came loudest
and the subtle sound of their powerful hearts pumping
gave a calming rhythm
.
T
he buzzing sound that came from the hallway light
system came next
. Jillian and Jack were both
whisper
ing
in their room
, but it wasn’t clear
enough to understand. He
heard all different sounds as
he
focused.
Eventually his
mind went blank and achieved
a state of
rest. During that time Sarah started her subtle snoring. The harder noise came from Kara as she started snoring in her wolf form. It was worse than her usual sounds.

Later
,
Connor
heard Mark take a deep breath and s
tood up silently.
Alert
hazel
eyes shot
open a
s
he
sat up
,
car
e
ful not to disturb Sarah as her
gentle
snore could
still
continue.
He
entered Mark’s mind.
“Is there a problem? I don’t sense anything
approaching
.”

Mark
walked silently on all fours until he could turn his head and
set
his slit
, catlike
silver eyes
upon the one who saved him and the one dearest to his heart
.
“No danger that I can sense either. I’m
just
going to check the time. I think it’s
about
time to get up, but I want to make sure. The girls are more frightened than we were
during the fight
.”

“I think we were all scared. We got lucky that we were the ones injured and not them
.”
He knew Connor
was talking about
their
women.

“Yeah we were lucky.”
Mark
cocked his head.
“By the way. How is your shoulder feeling right now?”

He
rolled
his
shoulder and extended
the
arm
as a test
. Doing a blissful st
retch and range of motion
Connor
thought
“Good as new.”

“I’m glad.”
He
looked at the door and pushed himself up to his back legs.
“I’ll be quick.”
Connor
nodded in the dark room. He carefully cracked the door and closed it without a noticeable sound.
Connor
remained alert while he was away. He came back in about two minutes later.
“
Liz is still up and told me i
t is
nearly
seven. I think we should wake them up soon.”
Connor
agreed and saw him kneel down and
began to
rub Kara’s long hair
that ran along her spine
. Her snoring
slowly came to a
stop a
s
her head came up at full alert.
She looked frightened for a moment until sh
e realized there was no danger.

Connor
rubbed
his wife’s
shoulder gently until she slowly awoke. “Good morning, Princess. It’s time to wake up.”
He
said gently.

She looked at him
with darker
than usual
green eyes as she slowly sat up. Sh
e reached up blindly to touch his already
healed shoulder
to find it smooth beside the stitches
. She sighed saying “Oh, thank goodness.” She raised up to her knees saying “Mark, can you turn the light on
for me
.” He did and
they
w
ere
blinded for a few seconds.
Connor
covered
his
eyes with
his
right hand.
W
hen
sight returned
he
dropped
the
hand to see her breasts right in front of
his
face. They were still covered from her long sleeved shirt, but the ef
fect was the same nonetheless. For a moment he forgot how
to breath. She touched each
damaged
area gently
,
then shifted to look behind his back
. She said evenly “There
isn’t a scratch anymore, but those stitches need to come out. Don’t move.” She kissed
him
on
the
ch
eek as she dismounted the bed. Connor
moved to sit on the
edge of the bed for her ease. He
w
atched her walk over to pull a
Fang from its home as it sat on the shelf. She walked behind
him again
to
quickly an
d painlessly cut and pu
ll each thread from
the smooth
skin. She sat each slightly bloody string in
his
hand
,
per her request to leave the bed
sheets
white “All finished, Connor. What’s next?”
and
all that remained behind were tiny droplets of crimson from where the string had been pulled from the flesh.

Connor
stood and stretched
his
arm
to find it was back to normal once again
. “I l
ove this regeneration factor.” He
looked up to see Mark and Kara both on their back legs with
a smile tugging at their jaws. He
tossed the stri
ng in the waste bin along with the
bloody shirt. “Well let’s first get ready to go. We need to meet Veronica for breakfast anyways.”

He
walked over to
the
dresser and slid the cold chainmail
over
his
chest. It felt refreshing until
his
body
heat
warmed
the links
up.
Next to be applied were the
greaves
and armguards and
f
inally a clean black shirt
covered it all. S
hoes and
Tool
slid
onto
their respective locations
. Mark and
Connor
were told by Kara to turn around as Sarah had to take her shirt off to put her chainmail on. Once she was
finished
they
left
the
room and
laid the
unhinged
door
against
the hallway wall. Sarah had already knocked on her parent’s door and
Connor
heard them say that they would be out in a moment.