Overlaying my anguish was a new feeling—not quite anger, but close. It was a feeling of empowerment. I wasn’t the little girl sobbing because my mother had, once again, passed out in her own vomit on the kitchen floor, having been too drunk to even cook dinner or acknowledge my existence. I wasn’t the same Morgan who’d cried myself to sleep for weeks after Jimmy had betrayed me, after he’d used me the same way Cal had used me. No, I wasn’t that girl anymore.
I was a Huntress. Powerful, strong. And there was one man who did want me around. Lance was waiting for me in the training room and I wouldn’t disappoint him. I would let my grief and my anger fuel my training. I would use it to kick the ever-living shit out of that werewolf bastard, and then I would leave this fucked-up place behind me. I didn’t need any man, despite what the legacy demanded. I hadn’t taken any vows to the Order and I didn’t need to abide by their laws.
With newfound determination, I quickly changed into my training clothes and made my way downstairs. To hell with Cal and his reasons. If he didn’t see me as being fit to love, then he was a crazy bastard. I deserved better and if he dared to come to me again looking for a quickie, he’d better be prepared for a fight, because I was not interested in slaking his needs any longer.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Burning Times
If Lance guessed that I was in a bad mood, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he had me drilling all of the moves that he’d taught me the day before. I was amazed by how efficiently my body worked, forcing my attention away from my heartbreak while I moved through the various submission techniques I had learned.
When he handed me a sword, and I felt the strangely familiar weight resting in my palm, I knew true power. He showed me a few moves, strikes that would yield the deadliest results and then left me to explore the momentum on my own. His occasional shots of “yeah” and “that’s right” spurred me on.
I liked the odd sensation of knowing the weapons, my mind already aware of technique, stance and strikes thanks to the bond. Presumably, what Cal had said was true—whatever he had trained with, I had gained intimate knowledge of. It allowed me to move and learn quickly.
But it wasn’t until Lance handed me the twin swords that he called the sai that I truly felt as though I’d found the weapon for me. They rested in my palms like they were meant to be there, balanced perfectly for me to thrust and block without losing my momentum. I gripped the handles, one in each hand, my thumb at the juncture where the handle met the middle blade. My comfort level with the weapon had me trying all kinds of different techniques. I liked twisting it in one expert move from the upright attack position to the downward guarding position, where the blades extended along my forearms and allowed me to block incoming blows.
“That’s so odd,” Lance mused as he lowered the sword he was wielding.
He had been increasing the speed and strength of his strikes and jabs, no longer holding back when he came at me. I had successfully blocked him for the past twenty minutes, the last time trapping his sword with the yoku—one of the two prong-like extensions of the sai. My instinct had been to twist, somewhere deep in my brain recognizing that doing that would snap his blade, but I released him at the last minute with a smile. “What’s odd? That I’m so kick-ass good with these things?”
His brow was furrowed and he shrugged. “Yeah, actually, that is what is odd.”
He moved to the towel rack and yanked a clean one down. He wiped his forehead with his free hand while he eyed the sword in his other hand. “You’re making me feel like an amateur.” He tossed the towel in the laundry basket and raised his sword to me again. “This is my weapon. It’s what I train with all the time. I want my Huntress, if I ever find her, to be comfortable with a sword.”
I shrugged as I transferred both weapons to one hand then snagged a bottle of water from the small fridge in the corner. “So, maybe I’m just that good.”
“Yeah, well, what’s odd is that Cal didn’t really train that hard with those things.” He moved over and grabbed one of the sai from my hands, rotating it in his palm. “The legacy says that the Huntress takes on whatever powers and skills the Hunter has trained in and perfected. Clearly, you’ve gained Cal’s expertise in other areas—like fighting and grappling. But this doesn’t fit.” He handed the blade back to me with a shrug. “The only thing Cal likes using these things for is throwing. He can hit a target twenty, sometimes thirty feet away—good eye, deadly accurate. But he never found much use for them outside of that.”
I felt the weight of our separation more at the mention of Cal’s name. “Well.” I sighed, forcing my unwanted feelings back. “That’s not the only thing we don’t agree on.”
Lance cocked an eyebrow, then reached past me to grab his own bottle of water. “Paradise isn’t everything it seems?” he asked as he twisted the cap off and took a swig.
I shook my head and laid the sai down in their case. “I didn’t expect paradise, but I did expect more from my Hunter.”
Lance followed me as I made my way to the bench and sat. He took a seat on the matted floor and continued drinking his water.