Chapter 59

Clara

It had been several days since the vampire lord attacked the Warren. Ronan took me out for training. He was confident he could keep me safe, and some skills had to be learned out in the woods, like tracking.

I expected that Marcus would object. After all, I was spending time alone with Ronan.

Oddly, though, he agreed to let me train without a chaperone. Apparently, he considered Ronan as my training instructor a different entity than Ronan my court mate.

“For a vampire, he has a sense of honor,” Marcus said. “He knows how to be professional. And you know what will happen if you don’t give me a fair chance, don’t you, Clara?”

I glared at him, and nodded. I knew that if Marcus didn’t feel like he’d had an equal opportunity to court me, he could leave and come back with an army. And he would. So Ronan and I went out into the woods, alone for the first time in days, and we had to be professionals.

It was entirely frustrating.

“Now, there are a lot of ways to track someone,” Ronan said, crouching on a rock. “You have an advantage, being a werewolf. You can shift, and use your wolf’s senses. You can track by scent, I’d wager.”

I nodded. I didn’t often track people that way. I mostly hunted small animals. I wrote a note to explain that to Ronan.

“That makes sense. Well, in the end there’s not much difference between an enemy soldier and a bunny rabbit. Except that the bunny is not likely to turn on you with a blade in hand.”

I shrugged. My wolf had been slashed by enough harmless little bunnies to know that anyone and anything would fight if cornered.

“Well anyway, your wolf senses are useful, but I want to work on teaching you other things to look out for. You can’t always go on four feet as a scout.”

I nodded my understanding.

“So, I’ve had Finn go ahead of us to lay a trail for you to follow. You haven’t met him yet so you won’t know his scent to track it. I’ll show you a few signs to look out for, and then you lead the way.”

“What if I get us lost?” I wrote.

“You won’t. I know these mountains like the back of my hand,” Ronan said, and then made a show of looking at his hand. “Huh, how long have I had that freckle there?”

I laughed, which probably looked odd since I couldn’t make any sound. My shoulders bounced and I smiled wide.

Ronan grinned, and pointed out a few things to look for. Finn had helpfully left a partial footprint in the mud at one point. A few feet ahead, one of his hairs had caught in a branch and tangled.

“Now, a trained scout like Finn knows how to cover his tracks better than this normally,” Ronan warned me. “But most of the folks you’ll have to follow won’t have our level of skill. But eventually, I expect you to be able to follow me through the woods using all my skill and my magic.”

“Do you really think I can do that?” I wrote.

Ronan didn’t get a chance to answer. There was a scream somewhere deeper in the forest, and he jerked around.

“That’s Finn,” he hissed. “Go back to the-” the order I was not going to follow was cut off as a massive black wolf slammed into him from behind.

Ronan went down and rolled with the wolf. He kept the beast’s fangs off of his neck, but his arm was savaged doing it.

I looked around, frantic to find a way to help. There was only one wolf but I thought there might be more. I searched the trees and saw a pair of golden eyes staring at me, waiting for a chance.

I couldn’t shout to warn Ronan, so I picked up a rock and threw it at the other wolf. I didn’t expect to hit them, but my action would warn Ronan.

To my surprise, the rock connected with a solid thump and a shouted curse. The other wolf charged. I drew the dagger Jordan had given me, and twisted out of the werewolf’s path. I tried to slash him as he passed but I missed.

I spun with the wolf’s pass, and faced him squarely. I was not ready for single combat with a well trained Rogue mercenary. That didn’t matter. I had to win, because the alternative was watching two Rogues maul Ronan.

The Rogue shifted to human form and jumped at me. I dropped my shoulder and grabbed his extended arm. I twisted just as I had practiced with Jordan and Marcus. The Rogue went flying into a nearby tree trunk.

I rushed forward, and slashed at him with my knife. I didn’t think I could bring myself to kill him, but I could surely hurt him. He got an arm up fast, and my knife scored a long, red line along his arm.

“Little bitch!” he yelled.

I glared and struck again. He tried to catch my wrist to make me drop my knife, but I was too fast. Jordan had taught me how to evade that kind of grab, and I think she would be proud of how well I used her lessons.

I kept up my attacks on my opponent until Ronan managed to get to his feet and move to stand back to back with me.

“Good work,” he said to me, before speaking to the wolves.

“You lot aren’t welcome here, and you know it,” Ronan said. “I’m gonna give you this one chance to leave with your lives and your dignity before I turn my student here loose on you.”

The Rogue mercenaries glared, but both of them were bleeding. I had scored several hits on my opponent. It wasn’t enough to really hurt him; his wolf would heal him in a day. But I had been able to keep him on the ground and kept him from attacking Ronan. Ronan’s opponent was staggering just to stay on his feet.

Just then, a third werewolf approached. I tensed but Ronan grinned.

“And now you’re outnumbered. Good to see you, Finn.”

“Good to be seen. These two had a friend, but I dealt with that one.” Finn smiled, eyes cold, at the mercenaries. “If you hurry you can get him down from that tree before the carrion crows take his eyes.”

Outnumbered, the mercenaries decided to retreat. They shouted a few threats and went, presumably to find their comrade.

“Well, I guess that’s it for today’s lesson,” Ronan said, before wincing and pressing his hand to his side.

I saw blood and scrambled to put pressure on the wound.

“I guess you’ll be practicing some of Gregor’s lessons now,” Ronan sighed.

I used the pouch of supplies Gregor had taught me to always carry to bandage Ronan’s side.

“You’re stronger than I expected,” Finn said to me.

“I think her vampire and wolf sides are learning to work together,” Ronan said.

I hoped he was right. As Finn and I helped Ronan back to the Warren, though, I wished I was stronger. I had barely held my own.

I remembered what Naomi had suggested. Already, switching to living mostly at night and avoiding the sun had given me new strength. If I took the rest of her advice, and started drinking blood like Ronan and Tracy did, would I grow stronger still?

What if I had some power that would have saved Ronan? What if we were attacked again, and I let everyone down because I was afraid of what I was?

I would try, I decided. I would drink blood, and learn what I really was.