Refuge (Relentless Book 2)

THE WARRIORS FORMED a defensive line in front of me a second before I realized what I was seeing. The creatures were coal black and so big they made a Great Dane look like a lap dog. Their huge jaws opened wide to reveal massive fangs.

The last time I had seen these two beasts had been over a month ago in the wine cellar of a mansion in Portland, and they looked just as ferocious in the sunlight as they had in the dimly lit cellar. Back then, I’d used my power to soothe them, but from the looks of them they were not so friendly anymore. All I could do was stand and watch huge claws gouge the ground and saliva flying from snarling jaws as the hellhounds thundered toward us.

The four men in front of me raised their weapons, and my mouth went dry with fear. My knowledge of hellhounds was very limited, and I had no idea if the Mohiri were even a match for the powerful beasts. I didn’t think my power was going to help much this time.

Or was it? What was it Nikolas had said about the hellhounds? They are yours now. Once a fell beast imprints on a new master they are incredibly loyal. They will only answer to you. Was that true? Had they really imprinted on me?

I backed away from the men who were too focused on the approaching beasts to watch me. When I had put a dozen or so feet between us, I turned and ran to the left, gathering my power as I went. If Nikolas was right, the hellhounds would not harm me because I was their master now. If he was wrong . . . I swallowed hard. I didn’t want to think about that.

I stopped running and whirled around just as the hounds changed direction and headed straight for me. The warriors looked my way, and I saw horror on their faces as they realized what I’d done. They spun to intercept the hounds. I’d seen how fast Mohiri warriors moved, and I knew they would engage the hounds first. I had to do something before it was too late.

“STOP!” I bellowed at the top of my lungs, and the power building inside me made my voice resonate across the lawn in a way it had never done before. Men and beasts skidded to a stop and stood just feet from each other, watching me with startled expressions. My hand went to my throat. Had that sound really come from me?

I lowered my voice. “Don’t move.” When one of the twins opened his mouth to speak I cut him off. “I know these boys, and I think I can handle this.” I had no idea if that was true, but it sounded pretty good, and I was encouraged by the fact that the hounds had actually stopped.

Before anyone could object, I pointed at my feet and said in my most commanding voice, “Come.” The hounds tilted their heads to one side and looked at me like they weren’t sure what to do. I spoke louder. “Come.”

I didn’t really expect it to work. I could barely get our beagle, Daisy, to come on command, even though I had saved her life and allowed her to sleep on my bed whenever she wanted to. I wasn’t prepared when the two hellhounds sauntered over and halted right in front of me. Holy crap! I sucked in a sharp breath when I found myself face-to-face with two pairs of red eyes and two of the scariest looking mouths I had ever seen. Their hot breath fanned my face as they panted, and I resisted the urge to wave my hand in front of my nose at the awful smell that was like a combination of raw meat and bad foot odor. God, I really hope these guys didn’t just eat someone.

“Sit,” I commanded, and they sat back on their haunches. Their faces were still at eye level with me, but they didn’t look nearly as threatening with their tongues hanging out. “Good boys,” I praised while trying not to cough from their noxious breath. If you overlooked their size and their red eyes and their bone-crushing jaws, they were just big dogs really.

“Now, how did you two end up here?”

Their tails began to thump against the ground, and I smiled in relief. I reached out and rubbed the top of one hound’s head, giving him a good scratch behind the ears. He shifted until he was pressed up against my side, and his weight almost tipped me over. A whimper made me look at the neglected hound on my other side, and I patted my hip. I found myself crushed between two heavy hellhounds clamoring for my attention. It occurred to me that I might be the only person to ever show them kindness. Hellhounds were bred for one purpose and that was to maim and kill. They were weapons, and weapons did not need affection.

I scratched their heads and grimaced when my face was bathed by two very long, wet tongues. “Ugh! This is not very hellish behavior.” I tried to shove their mouths away, but they pushed back harder until I almost toppled backward. “Stop, stop,” I wheezed, and when that didn’t work, I choked out, “Down.” The two of them immediately lay down and ceased their play. They were well trained at least.

I wiped my wet cheeks with my coat sleeve, grimacing at the wet tendrils of hair that hung around my face. My hand stilled in the act of pushing my hair out of my eyes when I realized how quiet it was. I looked up to find the four men watching me with expressions of shock and disbelief. I let out a sigh that only the hounds could hear. Just what I needed – another reason for people to stare at me.

The men recovered from their surprise, and the twins took a step toward me. The hellhounds leapt to their feet in front of me and bared their teeth, letting out low threatening growls. Niall and Seamus stopped in their tracks.

“Stop that,” I ordered, putting my hands on the back of the hounds’ necks. The growling ceased, but I felt the tension in their bodies as they maintained their protective stance, ready to pounce at the slightest provocation. What do I do now?

“If I wasn’t seeing it with me own two eyes, I wouldn’t believe it,” said one of the twins without taking his eyes off the hellhounds.

His brother shook his head. “I’m seeing it and I still don’t believe it.”

I felt a low rumble in the hellhounds’ chests when the men spoke, and I wondered how in hell I was going to stop the beasts from hurting someone. The hounds seemed docile enough with me, but apparently that did not extend to anyone else, especially armed men.

“Um, can you guys lower your weapons?”

None of the men moved to do as I asked, and they all stared at me like I had lost my mind. I understood their hesitation, considering what they were looking at, but I could not see any other way to end this peacefully.

“They are protecting me, and you all look pretty dangerous right now,” I explained, still petting the hounds’ heads. “They don’t know you are friendly, so could you please just put the swords away?”

The blond warrior was the first one to comply, sliding his sword into the sheath on his back. The others followed, and as soon as the last weapon was out of sight, I felt the hellhounds’ hackles go down.

“Much better. Now, I don’t suppose any of you know how my hellhounds ended up here.”

One of the twins gaped at me. “Your hellhounds?”

I patted one of the huge heads. “Do they look like they belong to someone else?”

Callum chuckled, and the blond warrior gave me an appraising look. Seamus and Niall stared at the other two men as if expecting one of them to say something. When neither spoke, one of the twins said, “They got here yesterday. That’s all I know. I don’t normally handle any of the beasts.”

“You have other animals here?”

He made a noise. “I wouldn’t call them animals, but yes, I think there’s usually a few in the menagerie.”

The image of young trolls trapped in a cage flashed through my mind, and outrage filled me. “You have a menagerie here? You put creatures on display?”

“That’s just what we call it. It’s where we keep some of the creatures we capture that are causing problems for the humans, until we can figure out what to do with them.”

“I want to see it.” He looked like he was going to object, so I said, “If my hounds are living there, I want to see it. Besides, how else do you plan to get them there?”

His eyes flicked warily to the hellhounds, and he sighed. “Follow me.”

I trailed him, keeping a safe distance as he led me to a cluster of stone buildings at the back of the property. The hellhounds walked beside me, but I saw how they constantly surveyed our surroundings, looking for anything they perceived to be a threat.

Claire hadn’t taken me near these buildings during my tour, and I’d figured they held weapons or more training rooms. The largest one was a long rectangle two stories high with windows on the second story only, and a domed roof that looked like thick glass but was most likely a much stronger material. There was one entrance, and my guide pulled open the heavy reinforced steel door, allowing me and the hounds to go ahead of him.

Whatever I was expecting, it was not the bright, airy, two-story room separated into eight caged enclosures of varying sizes. Between the cages were solid walls, presumably to keep the inhabitants from bothering each other, and metal bars lined the front of each cage. I could not see inside the cages when we first entered the building, but shuffling noises at the far end of the room told me that at least one of them was occupied.

“Can I look around . . . which one are you again?”

He grinned. “Seamus. Go ahead, but you’d best be putting up your beasts first because they make the other critter nervous. And me, too.”

“Where do they go?” I hated the thought of caging any animal, but common sense told me the hellhounds could not be allowed to run free. At least not yet.

“There.” Seamus pointed to the first enclosure that was at least twenty feet wide and fifteen feet deep. There was a slot at the front near the floor where food and water could be pushed inside, and at the back I saw an opening that led to a dark cave-like structure.

I waved at the open door to the cage. “All right, in you go, boys.” The hounds hesitated for a moment, and I thought they were going to refuse to enter the cage. I couldn’t blame them. I wouldn’t want to be caged either. But they went in without any further urging, and I closed the gate behind them. “I’ll come visit you every day. Maybe they’ll let me take you for walks if you behave yourselves.”

Seamus made a face that suggested no one would ever trust the hellhounds enough to let them walk around freely no matter how well they behaved. We’d have to see about that. These hounds were my responsibility, and I would not keep them locked away like zoo animals.

Seamus examined the locking mechanism on the gate after I closed it. “Hmmm, this doesn’t appear to be broken. How did these two get out?”

“Maybe someone forgot to lock it.”

He shook his head thoughtfully. “The locks engage automatically on the cages, and they can only be unlocked from the main control panel or with a coded key. I’ll have to get security to pull up the surveillance for today.”

I looked around until I spotted a number of security cameras fixed at regular intervals high up on the walls. There was one camera for each enclosure and two near the entrance. It made sense that if you were housing dangerous creatures, you kept them under close surveillance.

I left Seamus muttering over the lock and walked toward the other cages, intensely curious about what kinds of creatures they kept there. The first three cages I passed were empty, but my pace picked up when I saw what looked like wisps of smoke drifting out of the fourth one.

“Watch it, lass. Don’t get too close to that one,” Seamus called just before the interior of the cage came into view. Heeding his warning, I moved to the other side of the floor before I turned to see the occupant of the cage. My jaw dropped and my eyes nearly bugged out of my head.

“What the . . . ? You have a freaking dragon in here!”

I gawked at the greenish-brown creature breathing small puffs of smoke as it watched me with large green eyes eerily similar to those of a crocodile. Leathery wings were folded against its scaled body, and it crouched in the back of the cage like a cat about to pounce. It was small for a dragon, roughly the size of a very large bull, so I figured it must be young. Dragons are not native to North America so I wondered what in God’s green earth had brought this one here.

“Not a dragon, a wyvern actually.” An olive-skinned man with short black hair walked up to stand beside me. “And a mean one at that. This one burned five people and killed two in Utah before we managed to catch him.”

I tried to remember what I had read about wyverns. They are smaller and faster than their dragon cousins but not as powerful. They breathe smaller flames, and they have two legs instead of four. Whereas dragons are intelligent, wyverns are closer to animals, kind of like a crocodile with wings and just as deadly.

I shivered. “What will they do with him?”

“We have a place down in Argentina where they actually train them to hunt vampires. We’re holding Alex until they can send someone to get him. Don’t get too close to him. His flame has a good three-foot reach, and he won’t think twice before trying to fry you.”

I couldn’t stop the laugh that burst from me. “Alex? You named a wyvern Alex?”

The man chuckled. “One of the men who caught him gave him that name. He said the beast was as surly as his older brother.”

Shaking my head, I smiled and held out my hand. “Hi, I’m Sara.”

“Sahir.” His dark eyes were warm when he smiled. “I have heard much about you.”

I made a face. “Yeah, you and everyone else, apparently. I think warriors gossip more than the girls at my old high school.”

Sahir’s laugh was deep and rich, and I liked him immediately. He moved toward the hellhounds’ cage, and I followed. The hellhounds growled menacingly, but he ignored them. “I have cared for many creatures, but this is the first pair of fell beasts I’ve ever had in my care. They are extremely rare. When I heard how they were captured, I must admit I thought the story was fabricated – until I saw you walking with them.”

“Damndest thing I ever saw,” said Seamus, who had finally stopped studying the lock on the hellhounds’ cage. “I thought for sure someone was going to die when I saw them coming at us. Sahir, you have any idea how those beasts could’ve gotten loose?”

Sahir shook his head. “No one’s been here since they brought them in last night, and the keys are in my office. Perhaps we should check the security footage.”

Seamus and I followed Sahir to his brightly lit office at the back of the building where Sahir logged into a computer. A few clicks later, he brought up the feeds from the security camera in the building. “All camera feeds are stored in the central security database, but you can view them from any computer if you have clearance,” he explained to me as he clicked on the camera for the hellhounds’ cage. He opened the digital footage and went back an hour. Then he slowly fast-forwarded until we saw the door to the cage click open and the hellhounds leave the cage. Sahir switched to one of the outdoor cameras, and we watched the hellhounds push open the main door and run from the building.

“Could it have been unlocked by mistake?” I asked, and their expressions told me that it was unlikely.

Seamus rubbed his chin. “Not many know the beasts are here, and I can’t see why anyone would set them free.”

“As a precaution, I’ll ask security to put a second lock on the cages,” Sahir said as he reviewed the footage again. “I’m just thankful Alex didn’t get loose as well.”

I shivered at the thought of the wyvern flying around the grounds shooting flames at anything that moved. “Yeah, same here.”

Seamus left after we finished going over the surveillance videos, saying he had to get back to work. I stayed with the hellhounds for another hour and spent a little while getting to know Sahir who was new to Westhorne, too. He’d come here from the compound in Kenya two months ago, and before that he’d lived all over Africa and the Middle East. He was originally from Afghanistan, but his interest in supernatural creatures took him far from home. He considered himself more of a scholar than a warrior, and he obviously cared a great deal for the welfare of the beasts in his care. He told me few people came to the menagerie, but I was welcome to visit the hellhounds whenever I wanted.

I was in much better spirits when I returned to the main building later that afternoon. It felt strange to have so much free time here, but Westhorne did not offer regular classes for the trainees. Mohiri children went to school until they turned sixteen, and then they began their warrior training either at their home compound, or at a place like Westhorne where the seasoned warriors took over their education. There were six trainees here besides me, and I’d noticed their days were a lot fuller than mine. In the mornings, I trained with Callum, but so far my afternoons were free. According to Callum, it was to allow me a period of adjustment before full training began. Eight hours with that Scottish brute? I couldn’t wait.

Back in my room, I fired up the killer new laptop that had been waiting in my room for me on my first day here. It made my old one look ancient, and I was immensely grateful the Mohiri loved technology. Their network connection blew my old cable modem out of the water. I went to my happy place every time I logged in.

The first thing I did was log into the new email account my hacker friend, David, set up for me. David was hiding from the Master, too, and he was pretty paranoid about communication, which considering our shared history wasn’t a bad thing. He had also shown me how to check for any kind of surveillance software on my new laptop, in case the Mohiri were keeping track of my online activity. I hated to be mistrustful even before I got to know them, but I had to be sure. Thankfully, the computer was clean.

There was one new message from David, and I opened it, eager to see if he had any news. I knew the Mohiri had to be looking for Madeline and the Master, but in the week and a half I had been here, I hadn’t heard a word about their progress. So, David and I were doing our own search for Madeline. Well, David was doing most of the work, but he had as much vested in finding her as I did.

The last lead I told you about turned out to be bogus. I have a few more I’m checking out and I have some of my friends helping. It might take me a few weeks, but if M is in the country, I’ll find her. I’ll keep you posted. Stay safe.

I read the email again. David was really good at what he did, and I bet his friends were, too. If anyone could find Madeline, it was him. When he did, she was going to tell us everything she knew about the vampire that had torn our lives apart. I still hadn’t figured out how I would make her talk, but I’d think of something. Maybe I’d threaten to feed her to the hellhounds.

I tried for the hundredth time to think of a reason why she didn’t just pick up a phone and call the Mohiri to tell them who the Master was. Why spend your life on the run when you could eliminate the thing you are running from? She was a warrior, a vampire hunter. She should be ridding the world of vampires instead of protecting the identity of one as dangerous as a Master. I did not waste my time wondering why she didn’t give up his name to protect me. Madeline had shown her lack of maternal feelings a long time ago.

I closed my email and checked out a few of the message boards to see what was going on out in the world. According to my old pal, Wulfman, it was very quiet in Maine these days, and I suspected that was because every werewolf in the state was still on alert after all the vampire activity there a month ago. I worried about Nate there alone after what had happened to both of us, but Roland kept assuring me that Maxwell was monitoring the area and the pack was keeping an eye on Nate, too.

The rest of the country wasn’t lucky enough to have werewolves guarding it, and I read about at least two dozen disappearances in California, Texas, and Nevada that looked vampire-related. I shuddered every time I thought about a human in the hands of one of those monsters. I still had nightmares about Eli even though I’d killed him. I had no illusions about my ability to fight off a vampire, and I knew things could have turned out horribly for me if circumstances had been different. If Nikolas and the werewolves had not arrived when they did. If Eli hadn’t been too distracted to see me reach for my knife.

My phone rang and I reached for it, knowing it had to be one of two people since only Roland and Nate called me at this number. I was already smiling when I answered it.

“You owe me big time, demon girl,” Roland quipped, snickering at the nickname he’d made up for me last week.

I leaned back in my chair and scowled at the wall. “If you don’t stop calling me that, I’m not talking to you anymore.”

He laughed at my weak threat. We both knew that would never happen. “I think you’ll forgive me when I tell you about my little trip to a certain cave today.”

My stomach quivered in excitement. “And?”

“And that place is a bitch to get to. You couldn’t find a less dangerous hideaway?”

“Remy found it, not me, and you have to admit it’s the perfect spot. Now tell me.”

“Do you know how bloody cold it is up on that cliff?” he moaned. “I think my toes are still frozen.”

“Roland!”

He sighed. “Message delivered and answered.”

I jerked upright, my heart racing. “Answered? He left something for me?”

“More like he drew something on the wall of the cave. I took a picture of it with my phone. I don’t know how you can read this stuff. It looks like hieroglyphics.” I heard him playing with his cell phone. “I just sent it to you.”

I scrambled to check my email, and I had to wait another thirty seconds for his message to show up. When I opened the attachment, I stared at the picture for a minute before tears pricked my eyes. Leaving home had been hard enough, but leaving without saying good-bye to Remy had killed a little piece of me. After a lot of pleading on my part, Roland had agreed to leave a small note in the cave for me. Remy could not read human writing, and I knew how to write a few dozen troll words, so my short message translated to, I miss you. Sara. On the cave wall, written in Troll was, I miss you too, my friend.

“Well? What does it say?”

I translated the writing for Roland, and he huffed loudly. “That’s it? You made me freeze my ass off climbing down a cliff twice to find out if he was still your friend? Hell, I could have told you that and saved myself the trip.”

“You don’t know trolls, Roland. They have very different ways, and the elders are really strict. If they told Remy to stay away from me forever, he would obey them.”

He sighed again. “Sara, I might not know troll ways, but I saw you with Remy. Meeting him is not something I’ll ever forget. No matter what happened back then or what orders he got from his elders, that troll will never stop being your friend.”

Roland was usually playful and goofy, and sometimes I forgot how insightful he could be. “I think I just needed to hear it from him. Thanks for doing this for me. You’re the best.”

“I know. I get that a lot.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Good to know some things will never change.”

He laughed with me. “What can I say? Women love me.”

“You’re hopeless, you know that? One of these days, you’re going to meet someone who doesn’t fall all over you, and I hope I get to meet her.”

“I have met her, and she broke my heart back in elementary school.”

“Oh, don’t start that again.” I closed my eyes, still embarrassed by his and Peter’s recent confessions that they both had crushes on me when we were kids.

“I bet your face is red right now,” he teased.

“Stop it or I won’t tell you about what happened today.”

“More exciting than my day?”

I told him all about the hellhounds, the menagerie, and the wyvern. He whistled and told me I had to send him some pictures. “I’m not sure if I’m allowed to do that, but I’ll ask. Maybe you can come visit me and see them yourself.”

“Yeah, a werewolf visiting a Mohiri stronghold, that should go over well.”

“You never know. Stranger things have happened.” I picked at the label on a bottle of Coke on my desk. “So, any special plans for the big birthday next week?” I felt a pang of sadness at the thought of not being there for his eighteenth birthday. It is a huge milestone for a werewolf because they are considered an adult at eighteen, and they are included in hunts and start doing patrols with the other adult wolves. It was bittersweet for both of us. We were excited for his coming of age, but sad that we wouldn’t be able to celebrate his birthday together. My own birthday was a little over a month away, and it was hard to imagine him and Peter not being here for it.

“No big plans. I think I have to work the next day anyway.”

“You have a job? Who are you, and what have you done with Roland?”

He groaned. “And what’s worse is I’ll be working for Uncle Max at the lumber yard. Every weekend.”

“Didn’t you always say you’d rather work at a fast food joint than for Maxwell?”

“I have no choice. I gotta make some cash if I’m ever going to get some new wheels, and the lumber yard pays good money.”

Guilt settled over me. Roland’s pickup had been ripped up by a pack of crocotta trying to get to me. He loved that old truck.

“I know why you’re quiet all of a sudden, and you better stop it,” he ordered. “That was not your fault. Besides, one of the guys in the pack might sell me an old Mustang he has in his shed. It needs some work, but my cousin, Paul, said he’d help me fix it up. You remember him; he’s the mechanic. I just need to get enough for a down payment and it’s mine.”

I smiled at the excitement in his voice. “I wish I was there to see it. You never did finish teaching me how to drive.”

“Forget it! I saw what happened to the last car you drove.”

“Hey, that was so not my fault, and I got away from the bad guys, didn’t I?”

“They must have lots of cars there you can practice on, and they can afford to replace them.” He made a sound like a snort. “I bet Nikolas could teach you, if you don’t kill each other first.”

My hand jerked, almost knocking over the bottle of Coke. I pushed it out of my reach and glared at it. “I haven’t seen him since he dumped me here and took off.”

Roland was quiet for a moment. “I’m sure he has lots of work to catch up on and he’ll be back soon.”

“He can stay away for good for all I care.”

“Come on, you don’t mean that. Nikolas is not such a bad guy, and coming from me, that’s something.”

“I don’t want to talk about him.” My face heated up, and my palms prickled as resentment flared in me at hearing my best friend defend him. I knew I was overreacting, but I couldn’t stop the angry hurt that came every time I thought about Nikolas leaving the same day we got here. After everything we went through, he couldn’t even be bothered to say good-bye.

A soft hissing pulled me from my silent rant. I looked at the Coke bottle a few inches from my hand, and gasped at the brown soda bubbling up as if it had been shaken. My hand closest to the bottle was crawling with blue static, and sparks leapt from my fingers to the bottle that looked ready to explode.

I jerked my hand back and tucked it under my other arm, and almost immediately, the soda began to settle down. What was happening to me? Whatever it was, it was getting worse.

“Hello? You still there?”

“Yeah, sorry.” I tried to keep the tremble from my voice. “I got distracted for a minute. I need to tell you something.”

“Okaaay,” he said warily. “You haven’t been selling troll parts on the black market have you?”

“Roland!”

“Sorry.”

I sucked in a long, slow breath. “You know how my friend Aine said my Fae powers might start to grow? I think it’s happening – or something is going on anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. It’s like my power is on the fritz or something.” I described the little flare-ups I’d been having, including the strange cold spot in my chest. “I almost made a bottle of Coke explode a few minutes ago, just by touching it.”

“Hmm.” He was quiet for a minute. “Maybe it’s tied to your emotions.”

“What do you mean?”

“You haven’t been very happy since you went there, and you got mad when I mentioned Nikolas. Faeries are supposed to be, like, happy all the time, right? Maybe being negative screws with your Faerie magic.”

I snorted. “Great explanation.”

“No seriously. Or it could be hormones. It’s not that time – ?”

“Stop! Do not go there if you know what’s good for you!” My face really was flaming now.

Smothered laughter reached my ears, and I called him a few not-so-nice things, which only made him laugh openly. The thing about Roland is that it’s really hard to resist his laughter.

“Feel better?” he asked when we’d both finally stopped cracking up.

“Yes.” I wiped my eyes. “You’re an ass.”

“But you love me anyway.” His voice grew more serious. “I’m sure this thing with your power is nothing. You’ve been through a lot lately, and it’s probably messing with you.”

“Maybe you’re right.” What he said made sense. This had only started up since I came here. I wasn’t miserable, but I wasn’t happy either.

“Of course I’m right. I’m not just a pretty face, you know.”

“No, you have that huge ego, too.” I felt lighter than I had in days.

“Well, my job here is done.” He heaved a weighty sigh. “Now I have to study. We have a chem test tomorrow, and I still have to graduate from high school.”

Chemistry was Roland’s worst subject. It used to be mine, too, and we used to help each other cram for tests. Chemistry was one thing I did not miss. “Good luck on the test, and thanks again for going to the cave for me.”

“Anytime. No, scratch that. Please don’t ask me to do that again,” he pleaded. “Talk to you tomorrow.”

I hung up and rubbed my damp hands against my thighs. The static was gone and the Coke was back to normal, but that didn’t lessen my anxiety. My power was acting weird, and I had no idea what to do about it. I wished Aine was here, or Remy. He was so knowledgeable and would have helped me figure this out. I let out a ragged breath. I missed him so much.

“Enough of that.” I pushed away from the desk and glanced at the clock. It was a little early for dinner, but I had to get out of this room and stop wallowing in self-pity. I grabbed my laptop, tucked it under my arm, and headed down to one of the common rooms. There were three such rooms where people could hang out and watch TV or talk. They had wet bars if you wanted a drink, and no one seemed to care how old you were. Roland and Peter had been so envious when I told them that part.

TV sounds drew me to one of the rooms, and when I peeked in I found a single occupant, a blond boy named Michael, who I’d met on my second day here. Michael was fifteen, and he was quiet and reserved compared to the other kids here. He was a bit of a computer geek, too, and he spent most of his free time on his laptop, gaming and talking to his friends online. On my third day here, I was struck down by a vicious migraine, and it was Michael who had come to my room to see how I was doing and to ask if I needed anything. The healers said my headache was probably brought on by stress, but it was so bad that even the gunna paste had no effect on it. I lay in bed suffering for the better part of a day before I remembered the tiny vial of troll bile I’d brought with me. I’d planned to destroy it, but thankfully I never got around to it. A single drop of bile in a glass of water was all it took to rid me of the horrible pain.

Michael was sitting in an armchair, engrossed in his laptop as usual, when I took a seat on the couch. “Hey, Michael.”

“Oh . . . hi, Sara,” he stammered, smiling shyly. Poor guy, I didn’t know how he would ever make it as a warrior if he didn’t get over his nervousness. I almost rolled my eyes. Like I had room to judge others. I was probably the worst trainee in Mohiri history.

“What are you up to?”

“Not much, just talking to a friend.” He leaned on the arm of his chair and his face lit up. “Did you hear that they wiped out a huge nest in Las Vegas yesterday?”

“How big was it?” The last time I saw a vampire, he had twelve of his friends with him. I couldn’t imagine facing more than that.

“I heard it was thirty suckers, and it only took two units to take them all down. Of course, that’s because Nikolas Danshov ran the mission. He probably took out half of them himself.”

My mouth went dry. “Nikolas was there?”

His eyes practically glowed from excitement. “Yeah. What I wouldn’t give to see him in action. They say he can take out half a dozen suckers at one time without breaking a sweat.”

“Yep,” I replied absently, remembering Nikolas facing down a dozen vampires and easily disposing of three of them.

“What’s he like? You know him right? Everyone says you even fought suckers together.”

I held back a sigh. It had taken less than a day here to learn Nikolas was something of a superhero among the younger Mohiri. “Nikolas is an amazing warrior.”

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.”