Refuge

Chapter 2-4

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.

My stomach rumbled, reminding me I hadn’t eaten lunch. I grabbed my laptop and stood.

“Hey, don’t go,” Terrence protested. “I want to hear about the crocotta.”

“The crocotta will have to wait. It’s dinnertime, and I’m starving.”

He and Josh stood at the same time. Terrence gave me a wide smile, showing off his dimples. “Perfect. You can tell us all about them over dinner.”