Seraphina: Initiation (7 page)

“Sera? Are you okay?” he whispers, “were you
asleep for all of that?”

“All of what?” I respond confirming his
fears.

“You woke me up telling me you couldn’t
sleep and began to kiss me. We were kissing for a quite while when
I saw you raise that!” he states pointing to the instrument on the
floor.

I stare down at my hands, covered in dirt.
What was I doing? Why can’t I remember?

“I don’t remember a thing,” I finally admit
looking up to him desperately trying to search my mind for
answers.

“It’s okay Sera,” he tells me with his hands
out like he means me no harm. I let him come to me slowly and wrap
his arms around me my eyes still wide against his chest.
What
the hell is going on with me?!

I’ve changed my clothes and washed the dirt
from my nails by the time we eat breakfast. Nate has cleaned up too
and never mentions what happened and I’m more than happy to pretend
like it never did. I know that we will eventually have to talk
about it, but until then I’m more than happy to leave it safe under
the depths of my unconsciousness where it belongs. We head out to
the porch again to go on my daily run. Instead of pausing like last
time, as soon as I feel the cool breeze on my face and the fresh
air in my nose, I jump off the porch and into the forest. Besides
kissing Nate, this has to be my favorite part of the day. Nate is
right, with every passing day I feel like I
’
m becoming more and more in tune with the
‘New-Me
’
, so to speak. I no longer cringe
at the slightest sound, I’ve adapted to the sights, smells, and
sounds all around me. But no matter how advanced I become the smell
of the outdoors, the sun on my face, the wind in my hair, and the
sound of my crunching footsteps as I push myself to my limits will
never get old. When I finally come to the realization that Nate
isn’t behind me, I stop beside an oak tree and close my eyes.
He
’
s nearby.
I can feel him
! I’m
walking towards where I sense him, it
’
s
like I can see with my eyes closed. I feel the smile cross my lips
as I mentally compare it to something in between sonar and night
vision goggles. My mind can sense the life around me, so I dodge
the trees as my feet trace their way to where I can feel Nate. When
I finally open my eyes, I see him leaning up against a tree with
his arms crossed.

“What took you so long?” he asks and I know
Training Day Two has commenced. I let out a scoff before he taps my
shoulder and states, “You’re It!” before disappears in a blur
dashing into the dense forest.

I roll my eyes before closing them,
following him a little faster this time; I catch him within a few
seconds. He dashes away again as soon as I catch up to him.
Breaking into a run after him making my way around trees and bushes
until I come face to face with something I
’
m not expecting. My eyes fly open when my mind
can
’
t comprehend what I sense. My eyes
meet the red ones of a large black bear standing directly in front
of me with drool dripping down from his large jowls. I freeze,
afraid to even breathe, he
’
s on all fours
and this animal is still twice the size of me. I slowly look
around, Nate is nowhere to be found. My eyes meet the large red
eyes of the gigantic creature again and he lets out a growl that
blows my hair back and shakes the very ground I
’
m standing on. I reflexively take a step back and I
find myself against the trunk of tree. I
’
m thinking maybe I can climb out of his reach, but
then the memory of an episode of National Geographic comes to mind
in which I saw a bear climb a tree to get to her cubs. I look up as
the thought crosses my mind and my eyes meet the brown eyes of a
tiny squirrel peeking their head out of their hole. The squirrel
looks from me to the bear and I think he puffed out his chest a
little bit. I watch him sizing up the bear about to make a dive for
him. Something in his eyes is calling me into action. It’s telling
me I can’t shy away from this. I am not weak anymore. I can defend
myself! Not understanding where my confidence comes from, I push
myself off the tree and walk right up to the bear. I can tell he
didn’t expect this when he stops to look at me for a few seconds
before growling again a tad quieter this time. This time I yell
back as loud as I humanly can. It
’
s the
bear’s turn to take a step back this time. Realizing I
’
m not going to back down he crouches in a stance
that tells me he
’
s going to attack.
Instead of running like my mind is telling me to do, my body is
bracing itself into a defensive stance. I find myself wishing I had
some kind of a weapon besides my bare hands. The bear takes another
step back before he begins to run at me. I crouch lower, preparing
for the impact, when my eyes catch sight on a glimmer of something
in the grass next to me. I reach down and grab it, turning it
around in my hand I notice it
’
s the
jewel-encrusted dagger I saw in the basement yesterday. I grip it
in my right hand as the bear is leaping at me, I slide under him,
jab up and stab him where his heart should be. He lets out a
horrible sound as he transforms into flakes of black ash that fall
like an evil snowfall, all over the ground and me.

“Sera!” My head whips around to see Nate
staring at me covered in black ash. Glancing down I can see the
dagger in my hands has disappeared as well and I look like
I
’
m playing in the dirt for the second
time today.

“I… there was a…” I try and explain.

“I saw,” his voice is firm and combined with
a face that tells me this is the last time I
’
m going to see fresh air.

Climbing to my feet and looking down at my
white shirt and green cargo pants that are now covered in soot,
“Nate…” I whisper in unbelief.

“It
’
s okay,
let
’
s go home,” he tells me and we both
simultaneously break into a run towards the house. I don
’
t try and out run him. I restrict myself so we can
run side by side. I
’
m a little nervous, I
notice, as my eyes are scanning every tree and bush we pass for
another attack. We don
’
t say a word until
we climb the steps of the house and close the front door behind
us.

He clicks the lock on the door behind us
before turning to me, “Did you see where it came from?”

“No, I was looking for you and I ran right
into it!” I tell his serious glare.

“It just appeared?” He asks out loud, but I
can tell he was talking to himself.

“The dagger!” I scream before whipping
around grab open the basement door and dash down the stairs two at
a time. Jumping over the banister as I reach the last few steps my
eyes are scanning the weapons display to find that the dagger is
still in its spot on the wall. I reach out to touch it just to make
sure.

“You created the dagger in the forest, it
wasn’t this one,” Nate informs me as he follows me down the
steps.

“What do you mean?” I turn to ask him as he
reaches the basement floor.

“Remember what I told you about
‘conjuring,
’
you can create things with
your mind.”

“Really?” I mutter in disbelief, “I was able
to do that without training?” I don’t seem to believe it, didn’t he
say it takes a lot of energy and concentration? How was I able to
just do it in a time of need?

“Don
’
t worry, I’ll
teach you how to control it, but
first…” Drifting off as he grabs a small knife off the wall and
with one arm throws it across the room to land in the middle circle
of a round target. Turning around I notice the basement has
transformed yet again, to some strange shooting range. The ground
is hard cement under my feet and across from me are random targets
some round, while others are in the shape of a human shadow. There
are lines scratched into the floor.

“Weapons?” I ask with an eyebrow raised.

“You seem to need some help,” he teases as
he hands me a dagger.

“Hey! It worked didn’t it!” I try and defend
myself. I think I did pretty darn good for my first time handling a
weapon other than stilettos.

“I want you to be able to whip these things
around like it’s second nature.” Telling me as he twirls a knife in
between his graceful fingers.

I roll my eyes as I pull my arm back and
release the dagger towards the same spot that he hit.
Unfortunately, I didn’t put as much power behind it as he had and
it falls to the floor just short of the target. I look over at Nate
who is giving me an ‘I-told-you-so
’
face,
“Not a word!”
pointing my finger at him in a
flirtacious warning.

He laughs it off, before walking me over to
a line painted on the floor. He comes up on the side of me, places
the dagger in the palm of my hand, and wraps my fingers around it.
“Extend your arm,” he tells me as he lifts my arm up to point
towards the target. “Aim!” I close one eye to see the tip of the
knife line up with the red of the middle of the target. “Then flick
it with all the power behind your wrist,” he whispers in my ear
before my eyes glance over to meet his and he takes a step
backward. I take a deep breath to get his sexy serious face out of
my mind before I focus once more on the target.
Aim and
Flick
, I think to myself,
Simple, you can
’
t screw this up come on
. I line
it up again with one eye closed, before I inhale deeply and I
extend my elbow back and flick it towards the target on the exhale.
I watch in slow motion as the dagger flips around and around in the
air before hitting the target one circle away from the middle. I
look over at Nate, but he is already at the wall getting me another
one. Handing it to me, I nod and try again. I extend, aim, and
release on the exhale again and it lands right next to the one Nate
threw. I turn in triumph when I notice it
’
s within the inner circle of the target, but
instead of recognition I get another dagger and he points to
another target. This target is in the outline of a human. I sigh,
before I begin all over again. I aim for his head, extending my arm
I aim and flick. I hit the target directly in the middle of the
head, before reaching out my hand for another weapon. I feel him
hand me one and this time I try and hit the heart. Extend, aim, and
flick. The knife lands in the middle of the chest on the target.
Nate nudges me to move to the next target, so I take a step to my
left, this target is a little farther away, but I accept the
challenge. I grab another knife from Nate
’
s hands and I find I don
’
t need to take as much time aiming, I extend and
whip it at the target and it
’
s a direct
hit to the targets head. I hear a noise come from Nate
’
s throat like he wants to say something but
doesn’t. He just hands me another dagger and I do the same thing I
extend, flick and it hits the heart. I reach for another knife
right from Nate
’
s hands when his eyes
meet mine and I can tell that I’ve sparked a little bit of pride in
him. Without breaking his gaze, I extend my arm and flick it at the
target without looking. He smiles at me as I grab the last knife
from his hands and flick it yet again without breaking our gaze and
I hear it lodge itself into the target. His eyes break away first
to look at my handiwork and I watch as he takes in the perfect
cross I’ve created with the four handles sticking out of the human
shaped target. A smile crosses my face in triumph when I finally
turn to see the handles sticking out.

“Throwing knives- Check!” he pretends to
check off an invisible list with a smirk before walking to the wall
and grabbing two daggers that look something like an Egyptian
artifact. He hands them both to me before grabbing himself a pair.
Grasping my fingers around them I can tell they are made of solid
gold, they have three throngs like a trident, but they are short
handled and the throngs themselves are short. I run my finger along
one of the prongs and without noticing I cut myself. My finger
heals over in seconds, but I realize these weapons are no joke. I
look up to find Nate is waiting for me in the middle of the room.
I
’
m walking up when he takes a defensive
stance, I do the same before he takes a step to his left and I
mirror him by taking a step to my right. We are sizing each other
up as we defensively dance around in a circle waiting for the other
to make the first move.
Is he taunting me? He did tell me not to
be on the offensive... This could be a test
… I process all my
options before I resolve to wait for him to make the first move.
When he finally does I think I see a wink in his eyes.
It was
definitely a test
. He comes at me and twirls in the air with
such grace as he comes down upon me with one of the daggers aimed
at my head. I don
’
t know where the
reflexes come from, but instead of crouching, I meet his dagger
with my own and they lock right above my face before I push him off
of me. He turns into a kick aimed at my head, but I duck around it
before aiming my own dagger towards his chest and our knives lock
again before I twist out of them and twirl around to elbow him in
the chest. He bends over in pain for a second before spinning
around to meet my dagger again and twists me around like a
ballerina before pushing me against the wall. I kick off the wall
and come at him again I
’
m twirling and
meeting his advances with such grace it
’
s
as if I was a weapons expert my entire life. If I had to describe
it, it
’
s as if defense is in my genes.
Now I understand what he meant when he said stick with defense,
because it
’
s like a reflex to me. Our
daggers lock again and he smiles at me as he breathlessly states,
“You
’
re catching on fast,” and I jab my
knee into his gut before tripping him with my foot. As his back
hits the floor, my three prongs are at his throat.