Warrior

Chapter 17-2

I held my hand out to her, and she let me tug her down to sit on the rock again.

“Take it slowly. Just open up a little and remember that you are the stronger one.”

She gave me a puzzled look. “I thought the whole purpose of this is to tap into the demon because it has all the strength and speed.”

“Physically yes, but mentally you are stronger, and your Mori knows that.”

There was still doubt in her eyes as she closed them. Her brow furrowed as if she was deep in concentration. Minutes ticked by. Several times she flinched then took a deep breath, and I could sense the struggle going on inside her.

Her jaw clenched, and I gave her hand a small squeeze to let her know I was here. She relaxed for a few seconds before she jerked and cried out.

I cradled her cold face in my hands. “Look at me.”

She opened her eyes, and the fear in them made all my protective instincts come roaring to life. But this was one battle I could not fight for her.

“I know this feels wrong and frightening to you, but that is only because you aren’t used to it. Don’t run from it, and don’t push it away. Feel your Mori, get to know it, and let it get to know you.”

She closed her eyes again. I went back to holding her hand and watching her for any sign she was in trouble. She sat quietly, her expression unreadable, and the only movement was her breathing. Every now and then her eyelids flickered, but she was so still she could have been in a trance. As long as she didn’t appear distressed or afraid, I was willing to sit beside her and wait.

A jumble of emotions suddenly came through the bond, and I sensed it was coming from her demon. My Mori pressed forward. Solmi?

“Sara, are you okay?”

She didn’t answer, and I squeezed her hand, worried she might be in trouble. “Sara, talk to me.”

Her eyes opened, and I held back my sigh of relief. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. This is so weird and kind of intense.”

I smiled. “I imagine it is. I think that’s enough for now.”

“But I just started.”

“You’ve been at it for over an hour.”

Her mouth fell open. “I have?”

“Yes, and you don’t want to overdo it.” I knew from experience that learning to work with your demon could be mentally and physically draining.

“Okay.” She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again a minute later, they brimmed with tears.

“Sara?” I asked, afraid the demon had hurt her.

She wiped her eyes. “I’m fine. It was just…not what I expected.”

I relaxed when I could sense no pain from her. “What happened?”

“We talked a little. Well, I did most of the talking.” She went to stand by the lake. “I can’t describe it. What is it like for you?”

I hid my astonishment, not wanting to upset her. How did you have a conversation with your Mori?

“I feel my Mori’s thoughts, but they are almost like my own thoughts. I don’t talk to it like I would to another person.”

Her face fell. “Oh.”

“Don’t do that.” I walked over to stand beside her. “You’ve made great progress, considering your fear when we started.”

“I know.” She looked at the water. “It’s just…never mind.”

“Tell me.”

She bent to pick up some stones and began tossing them into the water, creating ripples across the glassy surface. When she spoke again, I could hear the frustration and loneliness in her voice.

“Nothing about me is normal. I’m probably the only one of my kind in existence, and I don’t fit in here like the other trainees. I can’t fight, and I hate killing. What kind of warrior doesn’t like killing? I don’t even connect with my Mori the way the rest of you do.”

I took one of the stones from her hand and skipped it across the lake as I thought about what to say to ease her mind.

“Your Fae blood does make you different, but that doesn’t mean you are not as much a Mohiri as the rest of us. And there is nothing wrong with not wanting to kill.”

She sighed dejectedly. “My Mori is afraid of me. I bet you don’t have to worry about that with yours.”

“No, and that will change for you once you and your Mori learn to join. Trust me; all it wants is to be one with you. Without that, it has no purpose.”

She looked at me, her eyes troubled. “It said my power burns it. I promised not to hurt it again, but what if my Fae power keeps getting stronger?”

“Is your power getting stronger?”

I’d been so happy to have her back I hadn’t considered the implications of her being half Fae. Would her power grow? What would happen to her Mori if her Fae side became more dominant?

“Yes.”

“Tell me,” I urged gently.

“It’s hard to explain because I’m not sure what is going on. A couple of times, I felt a cold spot in my chest right where I was stabbed.” She rubbed her arms. “And my power’s been acting up. At first, it was small stuff like making the leaves move and a bottle of Coke almost exploding. Then we had a training exercise with bazerats, and when I touched one of them it freaked out and my power shocked it.”

“What happened to the bazerat?” I asked with a mix of fascination and concern. Tristan had mentioned a training session with bazerats, but he hadn’t given me much detail.

“I didn’t want to hurt it,” she said miserably. “I knocked it out and the other one too. Celine wanted me to kill the bazerats, but those creatures were terrified of us.”

I didn’t try to hide my surprise. “You felt sorry for demons?”

She lifted her chin. “I didn’t find out until later that bazerats are demons, but I still wouldn’t have killed them just because someone thought it would be fun.”

I pictured her standing up to Celine, who did not like being challenged, especially by other women. But when Sara believed in something, no amount of pressure would sway her.

Sara chewed her lip. “And then I killed the lamprey demon, but I did that on purpose. It was me or him, and I figured if I could hurt one demon, I could hurt another. I think I expected to knock it out like I did with the bazerat. I didn’t know it would explode like that.”

I wasn’t sure what to think about the things she’d shared with me. It was clear her power was growing and it was deadly to demons. A tiny cold knot of fear formed in my stomach. What would happen to her own demon if her power continued to grow?

“Have you told anyone else about this?” I asked, keeping my tone light.

“Only Tristan and Roland.”

“Good. Keep it between us for now, and let me know if it happens again.”

She met my gaze fearfully. “You didn’t answer my question. Will my Fae power hurt my Mori? Could I hurt another Mohiri?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.” I said the only thing I could think of, and I hoped I was right. “The way I see it, you’ve had the two of them inside you your whole life, and if you were going to hurt your Mori, you would have done it by now. Did you feel like your demon was in danger when you had these flare-ups?”

“No.”

“There’s your answer then. Let’s not worry about that unless we need to.”

She visibly relaxed, and I felt better as well. If she was able to shield her Mori when she used her Fae power, she could continue to do that as her power got stronger.

“What now?” she asked.

She needed a change of pace after the emotional session, and I had just the thing in mind. There was nothing like nature and some good old fashioned exercise to clear your head.

“Now we do some other training.”

She stared at me warily. “What kind of training?”

I removed my sword and sweater, and laid them on my rock. Turning back to her, I said, “Nothing difficult. How about we go for a run?”

She burst out laughing. “You expect me to keep up with you?”

I smiled. “I’ll try to dial it back a bit.”

She made a face and stretched her legs. “Gee, I feel so special. How long will it take me to be as fast as you?”

Distracted by the way her jeans hugged her backside as she warmed up, I almost forgot to answer her. “About a hundred years or so.”

I wished I hadn’t spoken when she abandoned her stretching to stare at me. “A hundred years?”

“Give or take a few. Your Mori will give you strength, but it’ll be a long time before you develop that kind of speed. Didn’t anyone explain that to you?”

“I think Callum was too busy trying to get me to use my Mori to go over that stuff. But what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. How can warriors fight vampires if they can’t keep up with them?”

I crossed my arms, wondering if Tristan knew about the serious gap in her education, something I planned to rectify, starting today.

“Apparently there is a lot they haven’t told you. How much do you know about vampires and how they are made?”

“I know a vampire drinks from someone and forces the person to drink their blood and that’s how the demon is passed into the new host. It takes three or four days for the new demon to grow strong enough to take control of the person. Oh, and only mature vampires can make another vampire.”

“That’s all true, but did you also know that new vampires are weak and their strength grows over time?” I asked.

She shook her head, her eyes wide in disbelief.

Her lack of knowledge angered me. One of the first things she should have been taught here was how vampires matured and how to tell a young vampire from an older one. That knowledge had saved many warriors’ lives in battle.

“They are stronger than a human, but no match for a trained warrior, and it takes them almost as long as it does us to develop the kind of speed you’ve seen. Most of the vampires we saw in Maine were mature, and it’s unusual to see that many mature vampires together. Many of the vampires warriors deal with don’t have that kind of strength or speed.”

“I knew baby vamps were weak, but I thought that only lasted a few months,” she said, looking very relieved to hear that was not the case.

“We’re going to need to add some studies to your training. We’ll start this afternoon.”

Normally, we had people who handled the trainees’ studies, but I was reluctant to entrust her education to anyone else. I told myself it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it gave me a reason to spend more time with her.

“But right now, how about that run?” I said.

“Okay.”

We ran the whole perimeter of the lake, which was roughly five miles. I slowed so she could keep pace with me, and I wasn’t surprised she never fell behind. She’d spent half her life outdoors with werewolves and trolls, and she’d probably had to push herself to keep up with them.

By the time we finished our run, she was winded but glowing. I made a note to run in the woods with her whenever I could.

She was quiet but no longer withdrawn as we walked back to the stronghold. At the main entrance, I opened the door for her.