Refuge (5 page)

“No seriously. Or it could be hormones. It’s
not that time – ?”

“Stop! Do not go there if you know what’s
good for you!” My face really was flaming now.

Smothered laughter reached my ears, and I
called him a few not-so-nice things, which only made him laugh
openly. The thing about Roland is that it’s really hard to resist
his laughter.

“Feel better?” he asked when we’d both
finally stopped cracking up.

“Yes.” I wiped my eyes. “You’re an ass.”

“But you love me anyway.” His voice grew more
serious. “I’m sure this thing with your power is nothing. You’ve
been through a lot lately, and it’s probably messing with you.”

“Maybe you’re right.” What he said made
sense. This had only started up since I came here. I wasn’t
miserable, but I wasn’t happy either.

“Of course I’m right. I’m not just a pretty
face, you know.”

“No, you have that huge ego, too.” I felt
lighter than I had in days.

“Well, my job here is done.” He heaved a
weighty sigh. “Now I have to study. We have a chem test tomorrow,
and
I
still
have to graduate from high school.”

Chemistry was Roland’s worst subject. It used
to be mine, too, and we used to help each other cram for tests.
Chemistry was one thing I did not miss. “Good luck on the test, and
thanks again for going to the cave for me.”

“Anytime. No, scratch that. Please don’t ask
me to do that again,” he pleaded. “Talk to you tomorrow.”

I hung up and rubbed my damp hands against my
thighs. The static was gone and the Coke was back to normal, but
that didn’t lessen my anxiety. My power was acting weird, and I had
no idea what to do about it. I wished Aine was here, or Remy. He
was so knowledgeable and would have helped me figure this out. I
let out a ragged breath. I missed him so much.

“Enough of that.” I pushed away from the desk
and glanced at the clock. It was a little early for dinner, but I
had to get out of this room and stop wallowing in self-pity. I
grabbed my laptop, tucked it under my arm, and headed down to one
of the common rooms. There were three such rooms where people could
hang out and watch TV or talk. They had wet bars if you wanted a
drink, and no one seemed to care how old you were. Roland and Peter
had been so envious when I told them that part.

TV sounds drew me to one of the rooms, and
when I peeked in I found a single occupant, a blond boy named
Michael, who I’d met on my second day here. Michael was fifteen,
and he was quiet and reserved compared to the other kids here. He
was a bit of a computer geek, too, and he spent most of his free
time on his laptop, gaming and talking to his friends online. On my
third day here, I was struck down by a vicious migraine, and it was
Michael who had come to my room to see how I was doing and to ask
if I needed anything. The healers said my headache was probably
brought on by stress, but it was so bad that even the gunna paste
had no effect on it. I lay in bed suffering for the better part of
a day before I remembered the tiny vial of troll bile I’d brought
with me. I’d planned to destroy it, but thankfully I never got
around to it. A single drop of bile in a glass of water was all it
took to rid me of the horrible pain.

Michael was sitting in an armchair, engrossed
in his laptop as usual, when I took a seat on the couch. “Hey,
Michael.”

“Oh . . . hi, Sara,” he stammered, smiling
shyly. Poor guy, I didn’t know how he would ever make it as a
warrior if he didn’t get over his nervousness. I almost rolled my
eyes. Like I had room to judge others. I was probably the worst
trainee in Mohiri history.

“What are you up to?”

“Not much, just talking to a friend.” He
leaned on the arm of his chair and his face lit up. “Did you hear
that they wiped out a huge nest in Las Vegas yesterday?”

“How big was it?” The last time I saw a
vampire, he had twelve of his friends with him. I couldn’t imagine
facing more than that.

“I heard it was thirty suckers, and it only
took two units to take them all down. Of course, that’s because
Nikolas Danshov ran the mission. He probably took out half of them
himself.”

My mouth went dry. “Nikolas was there?”

His eyes practically glowed from excitement.
“Yeah. What I wouldn’t give to see him in action. They say he can
take out half a dozen suckers at one time without breaking a
sweat.”

“Yep,” I replied absently, remembering
Nikolas facing down a dozen vampires and easily disposing of three
of them.

“What’s he like? You know him right? Everyone
says you even fought suckers together.”

I held back a sigh. It had taken less than a
day here to learn Nikolas was something of a superhero among the
younger Mohiri. “Nikolas is an amazing warrior.”

Michael rolled his eyes. “I know that. I
mean, what’s it like hanging out with him?”

I let out a short laugh. “Nikolas doesn’t
hang out. He glares at you and tries to boss you around. Then he
leaves. We spent more time fighting with each other than the
vampires.”

Michael’s cornflower-blue eyes widened. “No
one argues with Nikolas.”

“He might be a great warrior, but he’s still
just a person, Michael, and half the time he’s an arrogant pain in
the butt.”

“Who’s an arrogant pain in the butt?” asked a
new voice, and I looked at the two boys entering the room. Josh ran
a hand through his unruly blond hair and elbowed Terrence before
sitting beside me on the couch. “She must be talking about you,
buddy.”

Terrence scoffed as he plunked down in one of
the other chairs. With his mocha skin, artfully spiked black hair,
and stunning hazel eyes, he was easily one of the best looking guys
I had ever seen. He looked at Michael. “Whatcha up to, Mike?”

“Nothing,” Michael mumbled. He gathered up
his laptop and stood timidly. “Um, I have some stuff to do. Talk to
you later.”

I watched him hurry from the room, feeling
bad that we had scared him away. “He doesn’t seem to fit in here
much. He’s an orphan too, right?”

Terrence nodded, wearing a sympathetic smile.
“Yes, poor kid.” I gave him a hard look, and he quickly added, “Oh
I don’t mean it that way. I have nothing against orphans. He’s just
never gotten over losing his family.”

I was afraid to ask, but I did anyway. “What
happened to them?”

“What else? Suckers got them. He and his
brother were living with their mother in Atlanta when our people
found them. But the same night they went to get them, the suckers
went after them. Only Michael got out. His mother didn’t make it,
and the warriors couldn’t find Matthew. The suckers took him.”

“How old was his brother?”

“Matthew was his twin, and they were seven
when it happened.” Terrence sank back heavily in his chair. “They
never found Matthew, and Michael still believes his brother got
away. No one can convince him otherwise. He spends most of his time
searching the Internet, looking at missing persons websites, public
records – stuff like that.”

“That’s awful.” I’d lost my dad to a vampire,
but at least I knew he was dead and I didn’t have to go through
life wondering what had happened to him. I’d spent ten years just
trying to understand why he was killed, and I could not imagine how
hard it would be if he had gone missing like Michael’s brother.

The three of us sat in silence for a minute
before Terrence asked, “So, Sara, what did Tristan say to you
today?”

“Tristan?” The only Tristan I knew of was
Lord Tristan, who sat on the Council of Seven and ran Westhorne.
He’d been away on Council business since I got here, and I had yet
to meet him.

Terrence shook his head like I had asked who
Michael Jackson was. “You know, Tristan, the head honcho? He showed
up in training today.”

“Oh . . . which one was he?” I resisted the
urge to bury my head in my hands. Callum had wiped the floor with
my butt in front of Lord Tristan? After that exhibit, the man must
be wondering why Nikolas had wasted so much time trying to bring me
in.

Both boys snickered. “He would be
that
one,”
Josh informed me. I looked through the doorway, which gave us a
clear view of the main hall, and saw the blond man from this
morning talking to a red-haired woman I recognized as Claire, who
had shown me around on my first day here. I felt heat rise in my
neck. “Oh, him. He didn’t say anything to me. He was talking to
Callum.”

The boys looked disappointed that there was
nothing more to it, but Josh quickly switched gears. “We heard some
things about you, and we were wondering if they were true.”

“And what would that be?” I asked warily.

“Is it true that you actually hung with a
pack of werewolves?”

At the downward turn of his mouth, irritation
shot through me. I knew the history between werewolves and the
Mohiri, and I was well aware of how the two races felt about each
other. But Roland and Peter were like family to me, and I would not
listen to anyone put them down. “Yes, I hung with them all the
time. I even slept at their houses and ate with them. In fact, my
best friend is a werewolf.”

Josh put up his hands. “Touchy. Okay, we get
it; the wolves are off limits.”

Terrence leaned in. “We heard a lot of other
stuff, too.”

“Such as?”

“Did you
really
kill some suckers?”

“And fight off a pack of crocotta?” Josh
asked.

“And rescue a baby troll?”

I looked at their eager faces and shrugged.
“Yes.”

“Yes to what?” Josh asked impatiently.

“Yes to all of it. Only there were three
young trolls and I didn’t rescue them alone. I did fight one
crocotta, but it probably would have killed me if one of my friends
hadn’t killed it first. And I did kill a vampire.” I had killed two
vampires if I included the one Remy held for me, but Eli was the
only one that mattered to me.

“No way!” exclaimed a new male voice, and I
looked up to see that Olivia and Mark, two other trainees, had
joined us. I hadn’t spoken to Mark much, but Olivia and I had
talked a few times and she seemed nice. Olivia was pretty in a
girl-next-door kind of way with long dark hair, a smattering of
freckles, and a sweet smile. Mark reminded me of a grunge rocker
with shaggy blond hair that fell into his eyes. He didn’t smile as
much as Olivia. I had noticed they hung out together a lot, and I
wondered if they were a couple or friends like me and Roland.

Mark took Michael’s vacated chair and stared
at me in disbelief, making me want to scowl at him. Olivia was a
little more hesitant. “Do you mind if we join you?” she asked.

I shrugged. “The more the merrier, I
guess.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Mark began.
“You expect us to believe that you did all that with no training
whatsoever? I hate to point out the obvious, but from what I’ve
seen, you can’t fight . . . at all.”

I flushed at the reminder of my training.
“You can believe what you want.”

“Don’t mind him. Tell us about the suckers,”
Terrence urged.

Josh leaned closer. “Forget the suckers. I
want to hear about the trolls.”

I told them about how the young trolls were
kidnapped and we had to find them before they were taken overseas.
“They were holding them at this huge house in Portland. Nikolas and
Chris went in first to take out the security, and we went in after.
We had no idea those guys were crazy enough to work with vampires,
and we had to kill a few of them to get to the house. Nikolas,
Chris, and my friends took out most of them. I did one, but I had
help.”

“So, you found the baby trolls?” Olivia asked
breathlessly.

“Yes, they were in the wine cellar.”

Her eyes were like saucers. “What happened
next?”

“A bunch of Mohiri warriors showed up and
took over and we left.” It was only half the story, but there was
so much I couldn’t tell them without revealing things I couldn’t
share.

Terrence whistled. “How did you guys know
about the trolls in the first place?”

People did not understand my relationship
with Remy and I was not in the mood to answer the questions that
would arise if I mentioned him. “The werewolves know everything
that goes on in their territory.”

“That is too frigging cool,” Josh said, his
blue eyes wide.

Mark frowned. “Wait. What did you use to kill
the sucker if you didn’t have any weapons?”

“I did have a weapon. I had a knife Nikolas
gave me when we met.”

“You have one of Nikolas’s knives?” Olivia
asked, and I almost shook my head at the worship on her face.

“Not anymore.” It was either at the bottom of
the ocean or somewhere in Faerie, and I wasn’t going to explain
either of those possibilities.

“Convenient.”

A girl with a cute blond pixie cut walked up
to our group. Jordan was eighteen and, from what I’d seen and
heard, the best trainee here. According to Michael, she was the
oldest orphan ever reclaimed at ten years old – before I came
along.

“What do you mean?” Olivia asked.

“It’s a great story, but I’ve seen your girl
here in training.” Jordan scoffed. “If she killed a sucker, it’s
probably because it tripped and fell on the knife.”

Terrence smiled at me. “Don’t mind Jordan.
She’s actually a nice person when she’s not being herself.”

Jordan scowled, and I couldn’t help but think
she would be prettier if she stopped glaring at everyone. She
walked away, calling over her shoulder, “Whatever. Make sure you
get plenty of sleep tonight, Terrence. You wouldn’t want to lose
your grip on your sword again tomorrow.”

Terrence muttered under his breath, and Josh
said, “Don’t let her get to you. She got lucky today.”

I didn’t say anything. I’d seen Jordan
handling the long thin sword favored by the Mohiri, and I didn’t
think luck had anything to do with her skills. That girl was scary
good. Not as good as Nikolas, of course, but she might be
someday.