Refuge (8 page)

“I guess I had to grow up fast.” I didn’t
tell him I struggled every day to figure out who I was and it
wasn’t getting any easier. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yes.”

“I know you guys are looking for the Master,
but every time I ask someone about it they tell me not to worry.
Will you tell me what you’ve found so far?”

He gave me an indulgent smile. “You don’t
need to worry about him anymore.”

“See, you’re doing it, too.” I threw up my
hands in frustration. “I’m not a five-year-old, and I didn’t move
here to be coddled and kept in the dark about things that affect
me.”

Tristan was taken aback by my outburst, and
silence stretched between us. “You’re right. I’m sorry,” he said at
last. “We are naturally protective of our young people, and we
don’t include them in such things until they become warriors. It is
a dangerous world, especially for our kind.”

I watched his gaze move to the portrait of
the beautiful blond girl with the dainty, heart-shaped face and
angelic smile. Pain flicked across his face, long enough for me to
realize who she was. Nikolas had once mentioned Madeline’s aunt who
was killed by vampires a long time ago, and there was no mistaking
the resemblance between Tristan and the girl in the painting.

“Just because I want to know what is going on
it doesn’t mean I will go out looking for trouble. Trust me; I plan
to stay as far away from that vampire as I can.”

He came out of his reverie. “We cleaned out
three nests in Nevada and two in California that we suspect
belonged to him, but so far we have found no clues to his identity
or his whereabouts.”

“I guess he wouldn’t be a Master if he was
easy to find, would he?”

“I have hunted six Masters during my life,
and this one is the most evasive by far. We did not even know of
his existence until you told Nikolas about him.”

“Six Masters? Did you get them all?”

“Yes, and we will get this one, too,” he
replied with conviction. “I just don’t know how long it will take.
Today’s technology makes it easier to follow leads, but it also
makes it easier for someone to disappear if they are good
enough.”

The phone on his desk rang, interrupting us.
When I glanced at my watch I was surprised to see that nearly two
hours had passed. Tristan stood, wearing an expression of regret.
“That would be my reminder that I have a Council call in five
minutes. I hate to cut our time short.”

“I understand. We can talk again some other
time.”

“I’d like that very much.”

We were walking to the door when my eyes lit
on his large bookcase, reminding me of the strange man in the
library. “Two nights ago, I went into a small library on the second
floor of the east wing and I met a man who was upset about me being
there. He didn’t look like a warrior. I mean, there was something
different about him. I think he was sick.”

“Did he frighten you?” He didn’t ask what the
man looked like, so he obviously knew who I was talking about.

“No, he was pretty agitated though. There was
one point where I thought he was going to freak out, but he was
mostly rude.”

He looked amused. “His name is Desmund, and
he lives in that wing. He has been suffering from illness for a
long time, so you’ll have to excuse his bad behavior.”

“Oh, I should have known. I heard there was a
sick warrior living in the wing, but I assumed he was on the first
floor.” I felt terrible. I’d upset a sick man who probably needed
peace and quiet so he could recover. No wonder he’d been so
irritable.

Tristan’s chuckle took me off guard. “Desmund
has been closed off up there for too long, and it will do him some
good to be around other people.” He opened the door for me.
“Desmund’s had a very long and interesting life, and he was a
different person before he became ill. I think you will like him
when you get to know him.”

“Maybe I will.”

“Feel free to use that library whenever you
wish. He can be difficult at times, but don’t let him drive you
away. I think you will be good for him.”

I made a face. “Great, just what I needed,
another difficult warrior.”

“DO YOU KNOW what this is about?” I asked
Olivia, walking beside her around the back of the main building.
When we’d arrived at the training wing a few minutes ago, we found
a notice telling all trainees to head to the arena. I’d never seen
anything here resembling an arena, and I was starting to wonder if
this was some kind of joke on the new girl.

Olivia pointed to the left of the menagerie
at a square stone building about as big as a small church, with a
domed roof like the one on the menagerie. Tall thin windows covered
by iron bars shaped like leafy vines lined the side facing us, and
I could see an arched doorway framed with the same decoration.
Standing in front of the building were the other trainees, Sahir,
and the woman who had come into the training room with Tristan
several days ago. Everyone but me seemed to know her, and it was
obvious from the infatuated stares from the boys that she was very
popular among them.

“Who is that?” I asked Olivia, who made a
face.

“That’s Celine. She lives in Italy, but she
comes here three or four times a year. God, I hope she’s not
training us.”

We reached the group before I could ask her
what she meant. Celine stopped talking to the assembled trainees
when we arrived, and I was taken aback when her frosty green gaze
settled on me. “Now that everyone has decided to show up, we’ll get
started, shall we?” Her attention shifted back to the others.
“Today we are going to add a little practical training, so I hope
you studied hard in school.”

An excited murmur rippled through the other
trainees, and Sahir stepped forward, his dark eyes sparkling.
“Before your imaginations run away with you, you are not going to
be facing a vampire or anything that dangerous.”

Celine walked to a cloth-covered cage I had
not noticed. “We are going to start you on something less
life-threatening.” She pulled the cloth back to reveal a brown
rat-like creature the size of a pug with large curved incisors and
clawed feet huddled inside the cage. Unlike a rat, it had a short
stump of a tail and yellow eyes.

“This is a bazerat, for those of you who are
not familiar with them,” Sahir said. “They are found mostly in the
Amazon where they live off snakes and birds. They have been known
to attack humans if provoked. They are sometimes bred in captivity,
and they can be quite dangerous in the wrong hands. One bazerat is
not much to look at, a couple of them are a nuisance, but a pack of
them is like a school of piranha when they pick up the scent of
blood. I have seen a pack of thirty or so bazerats kill and consume
a twenty-five foot anaconda in less than an hour.”

Celine smiled as her eyes moved over our
group. “Fortunately for you, you will not have to face a whole pack
today. You each have to face only a pair of bazerats, a task I’m
sure
most
of
you will have no trouble completing.” I couldn’t help but notice
that she was looking at me when she said the last part and her
smile had become more of a sneer.

“Oooh, someone doesn’t like you,” whispered
Jordan close to my ear. I started to ask her what she meant, but
Celine spoke again.

“Here is how we’ll do this. One by one you
will enter the arena where we will release two bazerats. Your task
is to neutralize them. Before you go in, select your weapon of
choice from the pile by the door, but remember bazerats are fast,
so choose wisely.”

The group of trainees surged forward to find
weapons, and I was left standing alone in front of Celine. “You
want us to kill them?” I looked from Celine to Sahir, and they both
nodded. “Why?”

“Why?
” Celine repeated as if she couldn’t understand
the question. “Because they are vermin and they would not hesitate
to kill you.”

“But they only kill when they are hunting for
food or when they feel threatened, right? They are no danger to
anyone now.” I pointed at the bazerat in the cage. “That creature
is terrified of us.”

Celine arched a perfect eyebrow. “Would you
rather we had you face the entire pack to make it feel more
dangerous to you? This is how we train. Think of it as a
sport.”

My nostrils flared, and I shook my head. “I
don’t kill for sport.”

The other trainees had joined us again,
holding their weapons, and they quieted when they heard my
declaration.

Celine’s lip curled. “How do you expect to be
a warrior if you can’t kill? Do you think vampires will cut you a
break because you won’t kill them?”

“I have no problem killing in self-defense.
I’ve already killed two vampires.” I ignored the whispers around
me. “But these creatures are not vampires. They’re not even
malicious.”

“You’ll change your tune when you face a
couple of them with no bars between you. In fact . . . ” She put a
manicured finger to her chin. “Why don’t you go first?”

“Fine by me.” I saw a flicker of surprise in
her eyes. Did she expect me to refuse, to run away? I started for
the door of the building, but stopped when someone grabbed my
arm.

Terrence pushed a knife into my hand. “Don’t
be stupid,” he said when I tried to refuse it. “You don’t have to
use it if you don’t need to, but don’t go in there without some
protection.”

Nodding, I gave him a small smile and took
the knife, immediately noticing that it felt different in my hand
than the one Nikolas had given me. This one was larger and heavier,
and the blade had a jagged edge instead of a smooth one. I held it
flat against my thigh as I pulled the door open and stepped
inside.

The door shut behind me with a loud click,
and I found myself in a short hallway that opened into a large
room. It was much darker inside the building and the only light
came from the windows, but it was enough for me to make out the
bleacher-style seats on three sides of the room and the polished
wooden floor beneath my feet. The floor in the middle of the room
was roughly thirty feet long and wide, and in the very center sat
two empty crates.

“Great,” I muttered, scanning the room for
the bazerats. It was difficult to see anything in the deep shadows
beneath the seats, so I stood still listening for movement. All I
could hear was my own breathing. There was a shuffling sound as
something moved beneath the seats to my left. I looked that way,
but it was impossible to distinguish between shadows and the dark
shapes of the bazerats.

From the other side of the room came the
scratch of claws on wood, and I caught a glimpse of two glowing
yellow eyes beneath a seat.
How the hell did he get over there so fast?

I jumped when I heard a sound on my right
again, and I whipped my head around in time to see a second pair of
eyes peering out of the shadows. The hair stood up on the back of
my neck as my heart sped up.

I clenched the knife in my fist, glad now
that I had taken it from Terrence, and walked slowly toward the
center of the room where the crates sat. There was nothing to be
afraid of. If they attacked, there were only two of them and I had
a very sharp blade. I would just rather not kill something if I
could avoid it.

Hell, maybe I wouldn’t even need to use the
knife. I’d used my power to calm a crazed werewolf and two
hellhounds, so surely it would work on these little creatures. I
hoped so, because if I had to rely on my fighting skills, I might
as well serve myself up to them on a platter.

That’s not true,
a little voice inside me argued.
You fought off a
crocotta and killed Eli. You are not weak or helpless.

I stood up straighter. For some reason,
Celine didn’t like me, and she was out there waiting for me to
fail. But I wasn’t weak, and I certainly wasn’t a coward. She
wanted these things neutralized, and that is exactly what she was
going to get.

“All right, guys, I really don’t want to hurt
you and I know you’d probably rather be in home in the jungle, but
none of us can change that right now. So what do you say we make a
truce so we can all get out of here?”

The bazerat to my left gave a low
hiss
that did
not sound friendly.

“Okay, so no truce. Suit yourself.” I walked
slowly toward the hissing as I released my power into the air
around me. When I was three feet from the seats, I stopped. My
plan, if it worked, was to draw the creature to me. It was
certainly preferable to going under those seats after it.

A loud thumping made me jump, and my heart
leapt in my throat before I realized it was someone banging on the
door.

“Are you taking a nap in there or what?”
Celine called, and I could hear the laugher in her voice. “If you
need some help, just let us know.”

“No thanks. I’m doing great,” I called back,
wishing it was true. I peered under the seats and thought I saw a
patch of darkness that might be the bazerat, but I couldn’t be
sure
. I bet the
others will have no problem seeing in here.
Callum kept
telling me that my vision and hearing would be enhanced if I
learned to use my Mori’s power.

“Hey there, little guy. Why don’t you stop
all that noise and come out here so we can become friends?” I sent
a wave of power toward the spot where I believed the creature was.
“I know you’re scared of people after they put you in a cage and I
don’t blame you for being upset, but I won’t hurt you.”
If you don’t hurt
me.

Something shuffled under the seats, and I was
about to smile when I realized that instead of approaching me, the
bazerat was moving away from me. I frowned. When had a creature
ever run from my power? I didn’t know anything about bazerats
except for what Celine had told us, but they looked like large
rodents and I knew for sure that my power worked on rats.