Refuge (26 page)

“Nikolas, please stop,” I pleaded as he
continued to advance on me. “I don’t want to do this. I don’t want
to hurt you.”

Instead of answering, he blurred out of
sight. A second later, I screamed as hands gripped my shoulders
from behind. I knew it was him, but instinct took over and the
power I had just reigned in lashed out at him. The Mori surged
forward, and I cried out as I latched onto my power at the last
second to keep the brunt of it from hitting him. I smelled ozone a
split second before there was a crackling pop, followed by
something crashing into the wooden seats behind me.

I spun around, and my heart stuttered when I
saw Nikolas sprawled unmoving on the floor. “Nikolas!”

In seconds, I was at kneeling at his side,
shaking him roughly. “Nikolas, wake up! Oh God, please don’t be
dead.” He didn’t move, and I pressed my ear to his chest,
swallowing back a sob when I heard his heartbeat and felt his chest
rise and fall. I rose over him and peered at his closed eyes and
slightly parted lips that made him look like he was merely
sleeping. He was alive, but I had no idea what my power had done to
him. My chest squeezed painfully until I could barely breathe.

His lids flickered open and his smoky gaze
locked with mine, making the breath catch in my throat. Before I
could find my voice, he gave me a lazy smile. “I said you could do
it.”

“You jerk! You . . . you asshole!” I punched
his chest hard and scrambled to my feet. Angry tears burned the
back of my throat as I ran toward the door. To think I had been
worried about hurting him. If I wasn’t afraid I’d actually kill him
this time, I’d turn around and give him a real dose of my
power.

“Umph!” I grunted when I ran smack into his
chest. Too angry to speak or look at him, I tried to move around
him, but he grabbed me before I could get past him.

“Sara, we needed to test your power to see if
you can use it at will, and now we know.”

“At will?” I blazed at him. “I almost fried
your ass! If I hadn’t pulled it back in time, you’d be singing a
different tune. No, actually, you’d probably be dead.”

“But you did control it, as I knew you would.
You want to know how I knew that?”

He let go of my arms, and I crossed them to
keep from throttling him. “Please, educate me.”

“I know because if there is one thing I have
learned about you it’s that you are incapable of hurting someone –
unless they are trying to hurt you or someone you care about.” He
gave me one of his infuriating smiles. “Then all bets are off.”

Feeling my anger abate under the force of his
smile, I looked away from him. I used to watch Roland and some of
the other boys back home using sweet words and boyish grins to
charm girls, but Nikolas was in a whole different league. “You
scared the hell out of me,” I said, unable to keep a note of hurt
out of my voice. “I thought . . . ”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to frighten you,
but the only way to get you to show your power was to expose you to
a demon and to put you on the defensive. Now we know what you can
do and we can work with that, and teach you to call on it when you
need it.”

I shook my head fervently. “I am
never
doing that
again.”

“Not that, no,” he replied calmly, ignoring
my outburst. “We won’t have to try anything that drastic next
time.”

“Next time? What part of
never
do you not understand?”
I practically shouted at him.

His eyebrows rose. “So you refuse to use your
power on me again, no matter what I do?”

“That’s right.”

“And how will you stop it?”

I knew he was trying to trick me somehow, but
I couldn’t stop from asking, “What do you mean?”

“If I bring my Mori out again and come after
you, what’s to stop your power from attacking me again?”

“I
will stop it.”

“How?”

So much for his faith in me. “I just will,
okay? I know what it is now, and I won’t let it get away from me
again.”

He did not respond, and my words hung in the
silence between us until the full meaning of what I’d said hit me.
That sneaky bastard! He had planned this all along.

“So now that we have that settled, why don’t
we try something easy that doesn’t involve throwing me across the
room?” He looked entirely too self-satisfied for someone who had
just gotten his butt kicked. “If you are up for it, that is.”

Damn him. He knew I would not back down from
a challenge like that. I turned and stomped back to the center of
the arena. “Fine, but don’t blame me if I knock you on your butt
again. And you owe me for making me believe I killed you.”

Nikolas’s husky laughter followed me. “Okay.
What do you want?”

I watched him walk toward me and smiled. “I
need to go into town this week to pick up a bunch of stuff for
Oscar before he gets here.” I had a suspicion Nikolas had never
been inside a pet store, let alone picked out kitty litter. Maybe
those muscles would come in handy.

His brows drew together. “Oscar?”

“My cat. Nate is bringing him when he comes
for Thanksgiving.”

“Oh.” I could tell by his expression he had
expected me to ask for something bigger than a ride to the pet
store. Maybe next time I’d think up something more impressive.

We spent the next hour working on my ability
to summon my defensive power. It wasn’t easy to stimulate it
without a demon nearby, and I flatly refused to let Nikolas use his
as bait again. After forty minutes, I started to get a feel for it
and managed to send a few sparks flying from my fingertips. Nikolas
made me concentrate on that until I started to tire and my stomach
began to growl. I didn’t admit it, but I was pleased by my progress
by the time we broke for lunch.

“When do you want to go into town?” Nikolas
asked, opening the door for me.

“Can we go this weekend?” I asked eagerly. I
had plans this afternoon.

“I think we can arrange that.”

Thinking of my afternoon plans reminded me I
hadn’t thanked him for what he had done for the hellhounds. “Chris
told me you were the one who had Hugo and Woolf sent here. Thank
you for doing that.”

“You don’t have to thank me. They belong with
you.”

A companionable silence settled over us as we
walked across the grounds, but it was broken when Nikolas muttered,
“That boy is going to cut his own head off.”

I followed his gaze to Michael who was
swinging a slender sword in an unsteady arc as he practiced some
moves near the edge of the trees. As if he sensed our eyes on him,
Michael stopped mid-swing and stared at Nikolas in awe before he
looked away shyly.

I watched Michael thoughtfully and let out a
quiet sigh. “Can I exchange the trip into town for something
else?”

Nikolas stopped walking and gave me a
questioning look. “You don’t want to go into town?”

“I do, but I want something more now.”

Interest sparkled in his eyes. “All right,
let’s have it.”

“I want you to teach Michael not to cut off
his head.” Nikolas gave me a puzzled look, and I shrugged. “He
needs a lesson in sword fighting a lot more than I need a ride to
town. Besides, you have no idea how much this will mean to him. He
looks up to you a lot.”

Nikolas looked at Michael, and his gaze was
unreadable when it returned to me. For a moment, I thought he was
going to say no. “If that’s what you want.”

“It is,” I replied, and I meant it.

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do for him, but no
promises. And I’ll still take you into town.”

I imagined Michael’s excitement when Nikolas
offered to work with him, and I couldn’t restrain myself. I threw
my arms around Nikolas’s waist and gave him a quick hug. “Thanks!”
Shocked by my actions, I pulled away from him and hurried toward
the main building before he could see the hot blush creeping across
my cheeks.

“You’re serious? You are actually going to
take those two monsters for a walk?”

“Don’t call them that, Jordan. You saw how
good they are with me. They’re like big puppies.”

Water sprayed across the table and a few
drops landed on my face. I wiped them away as Jordan grabbed a
napkin to clean herself up. “You have one twisted imagination if
you think those mons – er – brutes are like puppies. I’m starting
to think there is something way off about you, Sara”

“Scared?”

“Not.” Her lips curved into a pretty smirk.
“Despite your weirdness, your cluelessness when it comes to men,
and your complete lack of fashion sense, I still believe there is
hope for you. Besides, you are the only other female here I can
actually be around for more than an hour.”

I plucked a grape from my fruit bowl and
threw it at her. “You keep insulting me and you can find someone
else to play dress up with.” Not that I had any intention of
allowing her to turn me into her life-sized doll.

“Speaking of dressing up, did your warrior
boy see you all prettied up last night?”

I rolled my eyes. “He is not my warrior, and
you were totally wrong about him. I might as well have been wearing
a pillow case.”

“I am never wrong about these things. He is a
temperamental one so he was probably in a bad mood. Hell, I thought
he was going to rip someone’s head off this morning. I almost
pitied you having to train with him, but it looks like you survived
in one piece.”

“Barely.”

Chris chose that moment to walk in for lunch,
and he smiled and waved at me as he passed us. Jordan’s eyes
followed him appreciatively for a moment before she looked back at
me with a sly smile. “So, Nikolas has some competition, does
he?”

The girl never quit. “Chris is my cousin,
Jordan.”

Her eyes grew round. “Cousin? Why didn’t you
say something before?”

“I found out last night.”

It took her a less than thirty seconds to
make the connection. “But he is Tristan’s kinsman. Does that mean .
. . ?”

“Tristan is my grandfather. His daughter,
Madeline, is my mother.”

Her eyes grew round. “Holy hell! That is
crazy! You found out all of that last night?”

“Tristan told me who he was almost weeks ago.
I didn’t want people to make a big deal of it, so I asked him to
keep it between us for now. I guess it won’t be a secret much
longer.”

“No shit. Talking about winning the orphan
lottery.”

“I would have settled for not being abandoned
by my mother in the first place.”

“Mommy issues. Gotcha.” Jordan leaned across
the table with a gleam in her eyes. “If you are
Lord
Tristan’s granddaughter,
does that make you a lady or something?”

“God no, or at least I hope not. I’m having
trouble just getting used to the idea of having a grandfather who
looks a few years older than me.”

“Especially one so hot.”

“Ugh! Do not even go there.”

She burst out laughing, drawing the attention
of some of the people around us. It was obvious by their stares
that Jordan’s laughter was not an everyday occurrence, and they
were probably wondering if I had spiked her water or something.

She pursed her lips and studied Chris who was
sitting with Seamus and Niall. “Hmm. You know, I’ve always liked
blondes.”

I ducked my head to hide my smile. Poor
Chris, he thought human girls were aggressive.

“Just the two ladies I wanted to talk to.”
Terrence stopped at our table carrying his lunch tray. “You girls
up for a party Saturday night?”

“A party?” Jordan’s eyes lit up. “Will it be
better than that one you guys threw last month, where you all got
drunk and passed out by midnight?”

“A lot better.” He ignored her barb and laid
his tray on the table so he could lean down to say in a low voice,
“A townie party.”

“I’m in,” Jordan declared without asking for
details.

“Wait. Are we even allowed to go?” After our
trip to Boise, I wasn’t sure Tristan would let me go anywhere
without a bodyguard. A party wouldn’t be much fun with one or both
of the twins looming in the background.

Terrence smiled. “Josh and I go to Butler
Falls all the time, so I doubt anyone would have a problem with
it.”

“And they can’t say no if you don’t ask,”
Jordan added. “That usually works pretty well for me.”

“You mean sneak out?” Tristan said they
believed the Master thought I was dead so I was safe from that
threat, but he was feeling overly protective after the demon attack
and I didn’t want to worry him.

Jordan snorted. “You so don’t strike me as
the type to ask permission before you do something.”

“It’s not that simple. I did some really
stupid things before I came here, and I almost got my friends and
my uncle killed. I promised Nate I would be more careful.”

“Well, it’s gonna be a hell of a party,”
Terrence said. “Our friend, Derek, has a killer pad and he keeps
his bar well stocked.”

Jordan swung her gaze from me to Terrence.
“I’m still in. Anything is better than Saturday night hanging out
here.”

Terrence straightened and picked up his tray.
“Cool, and maybe Sara will change her mind by then.”

I watched him walk over to join Josh before I
turned to Jordan. “I thought you two couldn’t stand each
other.”

She shrugged one shoulder. “Na, Terrence just
knows how to flip my bitch switch and I know how to get a rise out
of him. We hooked up once last year, but we both realized that was
a huge mistake.”

Jordan and Terrance? I speared a piece of
pineapple with my fork and chewed it, trying to figure her out.
Hanging out with her was like having a friend with multiple
personalities; you never knew who was going to show up next.

“Anyway, whether or not you go to the party
is probably moot.”

“Why?” I asked her.

She gave me a cheeky grin. “Because those two
puppies
of
yours are most likely going to eat you today.”