Blood Warrior (21 page)

He looked impressed. “Really? Who is your mother, if you don’t mind me asking?”

I looked down at my hands. “Diana Montgomery.”

He went silent and I glanced back up at him, his face was full of wonder. “You knew her?”

He nodded slowly, a smile spreading across his face. “Yes, I did. She is one of the best. We trained together when we were children.”

I stood there gaping. The way he had said this made me think that they may have done more than just train together. Still, talking about my Mother was still difficult for me.

“How is she?” he asked in a quiet voice.

I swallowed hard. “She’s… she died when the Lamia attacked our house.” His face fell, and his expression gave him away; he had cared about her. It actually made me like him more. Anyone who genuinely cared for my Mother couldn’t be so bad.

His face was also a little surprised. “I’m so sorry to hear that. But, I guess that explains why you’re here, she would have never-“

More students entered the class then, and he snapped his mouth shut. I was tempted to press for whatever else he was going to say. She would have never what? But, as everyone began stretching and warming up, I made a mental note to be sure to continue this conversation later.

Tommy came in and greeted me with a small bow. “Hey, beautiful.”

“Hey, Tommy.”

“Sorry about what happened the other night,” he said. “My dad doesn’t mind if I have parties, but he always makes sure warriors are on hand in case things get violent. I should have warned you.”

I shrugged. “It’s cool. Actually, I’m sorry. I’m embarrassed about getting thrown out like that.”

He laughed. “Are you kidding? I would have
paid
to see Victoria knocked on her face like that. It was classic.”

I smiled. “Yeah, she kind of asked for it.”

He nodded. “She did. Besides, my father said that anyone stupid enough to taunt a Warrior deserves to get beat up.”

I was shocked. “You told your dad? That’s so… embarrassing.”

“No, it’s not. He likes you anyway, so don’t worry.”

I furrowed my brow. “How does he like me? We’ve never met.” He smiled. “Yes, you have. He’s on the Council. Lord Caslon, you met him the first day you came here.”

I thought back to my meeting with the Council, there had been three women and two men. One of the men had been blond with blue eyes, like Tommy. I assumed that was his father.

Just then, Patterson called the class to attention and we all lined up. He began pairing us up into twos. I got paired with Tommy, since we were standing right next to each other.

Patterson gave each group an area that was marked off by tape on the floor. I noticed then that the whole gym was marked off in large squares. We were told that we must stay within our square, whoever got tossed out, lost. My mother had done something similar to this, so I figured it wouldn’t be so bad.

Tommy smiled as we stood opposite each other. “You ready, Warrior?” I snorted. “Are
you
ready, Brocken?”

We fought, and I learned that Tommy was a better fighter than he let on. By the end of the class, I had gotten tossed out of our square four times, and I managed to push him out six times. I considered this a victory.

When the bell finally rang, we were both grateful. Tommy smiled “I won.” I scoffed. “No you didn’t. I pushed you out more times than you did me.” He laughed. “Doesn’t matter. I still won four out of ten times. You’re a Warrior, so that means that each time I pushed you out is equals two of yours. So, really, I won.” I laughed at his stupid logic. “Whatever makes you feel better.” I wanted to stay and talk to Patterson some more about my Mother, but I still had to change clothes, and I didn’t want to be late to my next class. Tommy waited for me outside of the locker room and we walked to our next class together.

“Are you going to the fight this weekend?” Tommy asked as we sat down in History class.

“What fight?”

“There’s a fight at the end of each month. Between the warriors, I always go. It’s good to see what we will be doing once we graduate. You want to go with me?” I shrugged. “Maybe, I’m not sure if I want to see that.”

He gave me a charming smile. “Please.”

I smiled back, even though the idea made me sick. “We’ll see.” Always optimistic, Tommy grinned. “Great.”

The teacher came in and began the class. I listened and took notes, trying to think about anything other than fighting. I’d always thought I’d enjoyed fighting, but that was when it was for a purpose. It just wasn’t as appealing as a sport.

Chapter 42

Lunch time came, and I was ready to annihilate some food. Nelly had a plate waiting for me, like always, and I sat down beside Jack. A smile lit up his face when he saw me and he gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Hey, darling.”

In front of me, Nelly’s and Daniel’s eyes widened. I had just enough time to frown in confusion before I felt a cold liquid spill all over me. And I was completely soaked.

Victoria.

I turned around slowly. Victoria was holding an empty soda bottle over my head, shaking out the remaining drops. One landed on my already dripping nose. My left eye twitched. I brought my gaze up to Victoria’s. A satisfied smirk sat on her lips for the briefest of moments. When her eyes met mine, whatever she saw there made her smug switch swiftly to uncertainty, and immediately following that, fear.

My eyes were searing, I’m sure, right along with my blood. One side of my mouth pulled up. It was a crazed expression; some part of me knew this. Some part of me didn’t care.

Then, I was up, out of the chair, gripping Victoria’s throat in my right hand and slamming her into a nearby soda machine. It rocked on its hinges.

The movement from my chair to my current position had been so swift that I hadn’t had time to contemplate it. My body just acted. Now, as I stood constricting Victoria’s vocals, realization slowly seeped into me.

Victoria’s feet weren’t touching the ground. Her face was starting to drain of color. This wasn’t in the least displeasing. Her pulse grew slower under my fingers. I watched her eyes.

Her eyes spoke legions. Windows to the soul, that much is true. Victoria’s eyes betrayed her in the worst of ways. Fear had seized them like a careless embrace. Her pulse grew slower still. I leaned forward, placing quirked lips by her ear.

“You have no idea easily I could kill you right now.” My lips pulled back in a toothy smile. Victoria’s eyelids fluttered. “You have no idea how bad I want to.” I paused, the thought much too enticing to ignore. If I just closed my fist I would crush her esophagus. The urge had me tightening my grip.

“I’m not going to,” I whispered, more to convince myself than reassure her.

“But,” I twisted my wrist the side, forcing her to look directly at Nelly. “If you so much as
look
at her wrong, I’ll kill you.” I snapped her face back to mine. “And, if you fuck with me again, I’ll make sure I leak the life out of you slowly, so I can savor each one of your last breaths.” I shoved her back against the machine and let her drop to the ground. When I turned around, I realized that the cafeteria had gone completely silent. No one met my eyes as I spun on my heels and walked out of the cafeteria. My earlier hunger was forgotten, a much different hunger taking its place.

Chapter 43

I just keep on walking, half expecting every teacher or administrator I passed to hall me off to the office. But they didn’t. No one stopped me as I exited school grounds and just keep walking straight.

I had no idea where I was going, but soon, I hit a line of trees and picked up my pace into a fast run. I have no idea why, but I just needed to run. I guess I had too much adrenaline coursing through me and that I had to let it out somehow. So I just ran. I ran through the trees as fast as I could go, scraping my face and arms with branches the whole way. The pain didn’t even register with me, I just kept on going.

I’m not sure how long I ran; it felt like both seconds and hours. It must have been a while though, because my clothes and hair had long since dried. I couldn’t think anything except that I needed to run as fast and as far as I could. I ran until I came to a small lake, I must have been pretty deep in the forest because there were no sounds or signs of civilization anywhere.

I had only stopped because I’d been about to start dry-heaving. And now that I had, I just felt like collapsing. I sat down by the edge of the lake and concentrated on the scene around me. The scent of pine and fresh water engulfed me. The ground that I sat on was an odd mixture of sand and dirt. The trees loomed over me like gargoyles on an old building. They seemed to stare at me, and I stared back. The only sounds were of the bugs near the water and the small creatures carrying out the tasks of their day.

The world around me had kept moving, but my world had gone completely still. I had totally lost it back there. I’d come dangerously close to choking the life out of Victoria. Even thinking about her now made the monster inside of me rear its ugly head. I always worked so hard to control it, to keep it buried so that I wouldn’t do something I would seriously regret later. But I’d almost lost control. I’d almost killed someone because she’d poured a drink on me.

And the worst part was, I felt like it was only going to get worse.

A twig snapped off to my left and I jerked my head in that direction. I had to be careful; it was foolish of me to just take off into the trees like I had, there were all sorts of dangers out here. Fear coiled in my stomach as I considered all the possibilities of the source of the noise. I realized now that I had been really stupid; the Pine Barrens were no place to get lost.

I stood up slowly. “Who’s there?”

My question was met with silence. I would have started laughing at my own stupid-girl-in-a-horror-movie question if I hadn’t been so scared. I had wanted to break the silence somehow, but amazingly, hearing my own voice in the solitude of the forest seemed to freak me out even more.

I turned back the direction I had come from, and began heading toward the city.

At least, I
hoped
I was heading toward the city. Then, something hit me hard in the back of the head, and I spun around quickly, my body tensing for an attack.

I stood there for several moments, afraid to let my guard down. I couldn’t see anyone, but I knew someone was watching me. I could just feel the eyes on me, and I was seriously wishing I hadn’t come this far from civilization.

When nothing made its presence known, I turned around slowly, pretending to let my guard down and head toward home. I closed my eyes and concentrated hard on my other senses. A second later, I heard it, the whoosh of an arm throwing something through the air. I spun around fast, and caught the rock that had been thrown right out of the air. My eyes immediately followed the direction that it had come from.

I couldn’t believe what I saw.

Chapter 44

It was a little girl.

Well, a really dirty little girl. I stared at her, taking in her appearance. She was wearing torn clothes that were too small for her and her face and hands were streaked with dirt. She was barefoot too, and I wondered if this was some kind of feral child; she couldn’t be much older than Akira. I also noticed that she had a cleft lip, but her face was still very beautiful, with eyes that were a bright gold and framed by thick, dark lashes. She had curly brown hair that was so dark it almost looked black and a skin color that suggested she spent a lot of time in the sun.

Her appearance wasn’t what caught my attention however, the fierce expression and crudely made weapon she was holding did. I took a slow step forward and she raised the sharpened stick she was carrying.

“Don’t move,” she said in a strong voice.

I held my hands up in front of me and she narrowed her eyes. “Who are you?

What are you doing here?”

I stayed where I was. “My name’s Alexa. I’m lost. I’m trying to get back to Two Rivers.”

Her eyes dropped down to my right arm. “What are you?”

“I’m a Warrior,” I told her.

Her eyes widened and she slowly lowered her stick. “Kayden’s Warrior?” she asked.

The mention of Kayden’s name gave me pause. Who the hell was this girl? And how did she know Kayden?

I shrugged. “I wouldn’t say I’m
his
exactly, but yes, I know him.” In fact, I should say that I’m Jackson’s, but that was irrelevant right now.

Her tiny face scrunched up as she considered this. “If you’re a Warrior, then you are Kayden’s because there is only one Warrior, and she’s his.” She said this with absolute certainty and I was beginning to wonder if she was some kind of apparition. How else could some child in the woods know about Kayden and me?

Either that, or I had really lost my mind this time.

She approached me slowly, cautiously, and I made sure to remain very still. I didn’t consider her a threat exactly, but who knows who else could be with her. She may have an army of cannibals waiting in the trees for her signal to attack.

When she reached me, she gripped my right arm in her tiny hand and ran a rough finger over the lily on my wrist. I stared at her adorable little face and tried not to smile at her confidence.

“Alexa, right?” she asked, releasing my arm.

“That’s right.”

She held out her hand. “I’m Soraya. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard great things.” I raised my eyebrows. “It’s nice to meet you too, Soraya, but,” I glanced all around us. “Who told you about me?”

She took my hand and led me to a tree that had fallen near the bank of the lake.

It made for a decent bench, and she sat down and patted the seat beside her. I did as I was told and sat down.

She stared up at me with those gleaming, golden eyes. “What has brought you all the way out here, Alexa?”

I shook my head, still very confused by this weird turn of events. “I just got lost.” She shook her head in return, and it made her curly hair bob around her face.

“Don’t lie, a Warrior should be truthful with those she trusts.” I raised an eyebrow. “Who said I trust you?”