Refuge (2 page)

If only I had the freedom to explore them, I
might have felt better about my change in scenery. So far, I had
been pretty much restricted to the grounds. Not that I hadn’t tried
to go beyond the border of the property, only to be caught and
returned twice. They told me it was standard procedure for new
orphans and it was for my own good, but I suspected my past
escapades might have had a little more to do with it. I longed to
walk in the woods and hike on the mountain trails without someone
treating me like a five-year-old who had wandered away. It wasn’t
like I was going to run off. We were in the middle of nowhere and
the closest town was five miles away. Even if I did head for town,
Butler Falls had a population of a whopping four thousand and more
farm supply stores than restaurants. Not exactly a magnet for
vampires, especially with a Mohiri compound next door.

I turned away from the window with a sigh and
hunted for a pair of jeans and a shirt in my ridiculously huge
closet. Who needs a closet the size of a small bedroom anyway? My
clothes took up half a rack and two shelves. A few days ago, the
rest of my boxes from home had arrived, and most of them still sat
unopened on the floor of the closet. That still left almost
three-quarters of the closet bare. Claire, the woman who had shown
me around the day I arrived, told me they had set up a line of
credit for me to buy anything I needed, but so far I hadn’t
bothered. It wasn’t as if I had anywhere to go, and my old clothes
served me well enough. Besides, I felt weird about spending Mohiri
money when I barely knew them.

I grabbed a warm coat and a paperback from my
nightstand. The book was one of Nate’s and I’d read it before, but
reading it again made me feel a little less homesick. I tucked the
book in my pocket as I left my room.

As I descended the stairs, the murmur of
voices grew louder. It was lunchtime, but the last place I wanted
to be was in the crowded dining hall. Instead, I left by the door
in the training wing that opened to a courtyard at the rear of the
building. To my right was the wide, deep river that bordered one
side of the property. I started that way, but the call of the woods
was stronger. Besides, I always had the feeling someone was
watching me when I went near the river. No doubt they were making
sure I did not fall in and drown myself.

I passed a group of warriors carrying bows
and swords, and they nodded politely but didn’t speak to me. As
beautiful as Westhorne was, I was constantly reminded that it was a
military holding. The Mohiri had dozens of compounds across the US
alone, and at least ten of them were like this one. The rest were
community compounds that were even more fortified than Westhorne,
but were less involved in military operations. I did not have to
ask why I hadn’t been sent to one of the Mohiri communities. No one
wanted to take a chance of the Master attacking a compound full of
kids if he ever figured out I was alive. So I came here
instead.

Home sweet home.

The scent of pine surrounded me when I
entered the woods. Overhead, I could see only patches of blue sky
through the canopy of branches, but the sun still managed to seep
through, its rays casting a dappled pattern of light across the
ground. It was so quiet here, and the only sounds came from the
birds in the branches above my head. I took a deep breath,
imagining I was in the woods back home in New Hastings, and I could
almost pretend Remy or one of his little cousins was about to sneak
up on me like they used to.

I shook off my melancholy because the woods
were too beautiful to allow sadness to mar them. Sticking my hands
in my pockets, I wandered aimlessly, content just to be outdoors
and alone for a while.
It will get easier,
I told myself like I did every
day. They had a lot more rules here than I was used to, but the
people were not unkind, even if they were different. Just because I
didn’t feel at home here, it wasn’t fair of me to judge the whole
Mohiri race after less than two weeks.

You mean it’s not fair to judge them because of
him.

Thinking about
him
would only make me angry, so I made an
effort to focus on anything but him. I stepped into a small sunny
glade where the air felt ten degrees warmer than in the shade of
the big trees. It was a chilly day, almost too cold to sit outside,
but it was infinitely better than being inside. I closed my eyes
and raised my face to the sun, listening to the quiet sounds of the
forest and breathing in its rich, earthy smell.
Yes, this will do nicely,
I
thought as I stretched out in the grass with my book.

I barely got through two chapters before a
small brown rabbit hobbled into view and stopped at the edge of the
trees. Even when I’m not using my power, it seems to broadcast to
animals and other creatures, letting them know I am not a threat.
But gentler creatures like rabbits are still a bit wary. I laid my
book by my side and reached for my power, sending a stream of it
toward the rabbit. His nose twitched, and he sniffed the air for a
minute before he started moving forward. I let him come to me, not
moving even when he touched his nose to my hand. I let power flow
from my hand into him until he lay against my side trustingly.

I sat up slowly, so I did not startle him,
and laid my hand on his back to feel for the source of his injury.
It didn’t take long to find the swelling and inflammation in one of
his hind legs. I moved my hand until it closed around the injured
leg and felt around for the extent of the damage. “Don’t worry,
little guy. I’ll have you fixed up in no time.”

A familiar heat welled in my chest and flowed
down my arm to my hand where it sought out the injury, enclosing it
in a healing fire that easily knit the hairline crack in the bone
and burned away the swelling. I felt the leg return to its normal
size, and I withdrew my power and lifted my hand from the rabbit.
“There you go, as good as new.”
I’d like to see Callum do that.
I might not
be warrior material, but I had other gifts. Perhaps I’d be better
off if I stuck to healing and left the killing to the real
warriors.

The rabbit shifted his weight and took a few
hesitant hops before he decided his leg was working right again.
“See you around,” I called to him as he went happily on his way. I
lay back in the grass again to recover from the healing, and I was
surprised to realize I wasn’t feeling drained at all. Strange, even
a small healing usually required a little recovery time. If
anything, I felt energized, restless.

I got to my feet and started walking again.
There was a small lake less than a mile from the estate. I’d seen
it on a map in the library, but the first time I tried to go to the
lake I was detained. Maybe this time I’d get lucky.

“What the – ? Not again.” I came to a halt
when my scalp began to tingle and my hair crackled like it was
charged with static. My palms and the bottoms of my feet started to
grow warm and itchy, and currents raced along the skin of my arms
beneath the sleeves of my coat. A rustling sound made me look down
to see the dead leaves around my feet quiver, even though there was
no wind.

As quickly as it had started, it was gone.
What is going
on?
It was the second time I’d experienced something like
this in last four days. I suspected it was an undine thing because
Aine had told me my powers were still developing, but there was no
one I could ask about it. I wished I knew how to contact her. She
promised to visit me soon, but I had a feeling that the Fae had a
different concept of time than everyone else. For her, soon might
mean a few weeks or a few years. I had no idea.

“Ugh!” I yelped as a spot in the center of my
chest began to itch and a cold knot formed beneath my breastbone.
This was new. The coldness was not painful but it did feel
uncomfortable, and it alarmed me that it was exactly where I’d been
stabbed a month ago. Aine said the faeries had healed me
completely, but what if she was wrong? Even the faeries had
admitted they were not sure how my body would react to the vampire
blood that had been on the knife.

Rubbing my chest, I resumed walking and hoped
the cold knot would go away. I turned and started back toward the
stronghold, and to my immense relief, the knot began to ease.
Whatever it was, it seemed to be going away on its own.

“Someone’s been a bad girl again.”

I jumped a foot in the air and spun around to
face the man who had so easily snuck up on me. The red-haired
warrior standing less than five feet away shook his head and gave
me his “you know you’re not supposed to be out here” look.

“I really wish you wouldn’t do that,” I
grumbled.

“Do what?” asked another voice, and I let out
a small squeal as I whirled around again to find a grinning mirror
image of the red head. “Damn it, guys! Stop it!”

Laughter filled the woods as the twin
warriors moved to stand side-by-side in front of me. Seamus and
Niall were so identical that I doubted even their mother could tell
them apart. They were the same size with bright green eyes, spiky
red hair, and boyishly handsome faces. Right now they sported
identical smirks.

“Now where would you be off to on this fine
day?” asked the one I thought was Niall.

“Just taking a walk and I was already heading
back. You can go back to patrolling or whatever it is you do out
here.”

“Well, unless you are planning to spend the
night in the mountains, you’re headed in the wrong direction,” said
the other who might or might not be Seamus.

Mountains? I must have been thrown off by all
the weirdness I’d been experiencing a little while ago. It wasn’t
like me to get turned around in the woods.

“Come on, back you go.” The twins moved to
flank me, and I held up a hand to stop them.

“I can make it back on my own. Just point me
in the right direction.”

“Sorry, lass, we have our orders.”

“Oh come on, you guys, not again.” My plea
fell on deaf ears, and I found myself being escorted along a trail
I hadn’t even known was there. The twins were watchful as if danger
was hiding behind every tree, walking with me between them like a
wayward child . . . or a prisoner.

“I was only getting some fresh air. You can
stop treating me like I’m some fugitive.”

The twin on my right spoke – I’d given up
trying to tell them apart. “Isn’t that what she said the first
time, brother?”

“Aye, and we were near fool enough to be
taken in by that sweet smile.”

“That was over a week ago. How long are you
going to hold that against me?”

“And what about three days ago?” asked the
twin on my left.

“I told you I just wanted to hang out by the
lake for a while. Where is the harm in that?”

The right twin snickered. “Like the last time
you went to hang out by a lake, huh?”

“How do you know about that?”

He gave me a lopsided grin. “We’ve heard lots
of stories about you.”

“Which is why you won’t be pulling the same
trick with us,” added his brother. “Though I am starting to feel a
wee bit sympathetic to those guys.”

The trees thinned and I saw the stone walls
of the sprawling building I now called home. We passed the edge of
the woods and stepped onto the wide green lawn. “I think I can make
it from here,” I told them.

Neither of them took the hint, and they
stayed on either side of me as we walked toward the building. I
folded my arms and went with them. No one had told me when I came
here that being under Mohiri protection meant being treated like
someone in a juvenile detention center. The twins were always
good-natured about it, but they were still my guards no matter how
you looked at it.

We neared the courtyard outside the training
wing where two men stood talking, and as we approached they turned
to watch us with knowing looks. Two more men walked around a
corner, and I recognized them as Callum and the blond man who had
shown up in training earlier. Callum gave me an amused nod, but the
blond man’s expression was unreadable.

I pulled away from the twins without a word
and marched toward the door, trying to hide my anger and
embarrassment. I’d promised to give this place a try, but I
couldn’t take much more of this. If this was going to be my life
from now on, I wanted out.

I was almost at the stone archway of the
courtyard when I heard shouts and saw the two men in the courtyard
staring behind me with horrified expressions
. What now?
My heart raced as I
whirled, expecting to find an army of vampires descending upon
us.

At first, all I saw was Seamus and Niall
drawing their swords along with Callum and his companion. “Run,
lass!” yelled one of the twins. He jerked his head to the left to
look at something. I followed his gaze and gasped at the sight of
two monstrous creatures bearing down on us.

Bearing down on me.

THE WARRIORS FORMED a defensive line in front
of me a second before I realized what I was seeing. The creatures
were coal black and so big they made a Great Dane look like a lap
dog. Their huge jaws opened wide to reveal massive fangs.

The last time I had seen these two beasts had
been over a month ago in the wine cellar of a mansion in Portland,
and they looked just as ferocious in the sunlight as they had in
the dimly lit cellar. Back then, I’d used my power to soothe them,
but from the looks of them they were not so friendly anymore. All I
could do was stand and watch huge claws gouge the ground and saliva
flying from snarling jaws as the hellhounds thundered toward
us.

The four men in front of me raised their
weapons, and my mouth went dry with fear. My knowledge of
hellhounds was very limited, and I had no idea if the Mohiri were
even a match for the powerful beasts. I didn’t think my power was
going help much this time.