Cursed Blood

It wasn't long until I got a feeling for what I was doing. Try not to die, and my powers would take care of it. At this point, Dmitri had thrown or shot everything imaginable at me. Part of my power was the fact that my extra appendages seemed to know how to use my energy to heal themselves -- every time an arrow pierced my wings, the wings themselves forced the arrow out, causing it to clatter to the ground, before the feathers melted and stitched themselves back together to heal the pierced spot. It was the same with axes, daggers and swords that Dmitri threw my way. My tail flicked back and forth as Dmitri and I stood across from each other, glaring. At this point, I had a sliver of control and held my wings up at my sides, spread out and ready to react. Whenever I panted, it sounded like hissing, and my horns were sharply pointed and waiting for me to headbutt something. My fingers curled around the dagger in my hand; I had caught it in a moment of instinctual movement that I knew came from the Darkblood in my veins. Dmitri watched me with cautious eyes, unsure of which side had more control. At this point, I was unsure too.

Exhaling, the sound a hiss, I dropped the dagger at my feet, relaxing my wings.

Presenting him the opportunity -- a trick -- that he took.

He performed a double throw of two axes, the sharpened blades (he was also switching between the wooden and the real weapons) glinting under the lights as my wings extended, slapping one axe out of the air while I allowed my muscles to perform their own magic, and I caught the handle. Quickly, I bent to grab the dagger, holding both in my hands as I readied myself. Dmitri was still unsatisfied, and grabbed one of the steel swords that had one of the sharpest edges. He swung it with both hands, testing it out, before facing me.

He wants a real fight, I concluded, wings flaring, tail curling around my leg. Fine. Time to see what Darkbloods can really do.

His grin turned deadly as he lunged for me, quicker than I'd seen anyone move. I hissed, actually meaning to for once, hurtling backward. The Lightblood warrior continued to advance, sword always barely missing me. Snarling, I took a window of time when he was readying himself for another strike to lunge forward, dagger flying for his shoulder.

But it was his turn to trick. He jabbed with the sword, and I expected to feel the pierce of it driving through my gut when I instead felt weightless. A gust of wind caused a small burst of dust as I was taken up into the air, dodging the jab. My wings were flapping, carrying me to ceiling.

"Finally," Dmitri exhaled beneath me. He had moved so that he had no view up my skirts, thankfully, and was staring at the black wings at my sides. They kept in perfect rhythm, and a certain part of my brain had a sliver of control over them. It was like a Darkblood's mind was inside of my own. I took control of it, gently letting myself drop before catching myself.

Part of me wanted to jump back into the air, but I wasn't quite sure how good at flying I was and wasn't prepared to practice. I glanced at Dmitri, noticing that the weapons had been cleared away.

His eyes met mine, his grin contagious. "First step of being a Darkblood? Using your form. Then we can work on magic."

I frowned. "Magic? I thought this was it," I said, gesturing to the horns on my head.

The man rolled his eyes. "Lightbloods have a form; their regular body. Then they have their magic. Then there are the Darkbloods; who's form can vary based off of their magic. There's rumours that Lightbloods used to be less human and more monster as well," Dmitri replied, looking slightly disappointed by my lack of knowledge about the two species I was apart of.

They're really only one, I thought, correcting myself. If I was going to be both, mine as well get back on track of equality -- though I did pick a side already.

Now I was frowning, at war with myself. Part of me felt like I should be giving both Lightblood and Darkblood sides a chance, while the other part of me was arguing about how Darkbloods were monsters.

Kyra and Kai aren't monsters. One's a bitch, but not a monster.

"Cloud?" Dmitri said, suddenly closer to me as I broke out of the reverie I'd been in.

"Yes?" I responded, unsure of why he was frowning as well.

He looked me over for a second, silent. "You were whimpering," he finally replied, eyes flicking to mine. "What's on your mind?"

Exhaling, I waited for my power to thaw and disappear, the extra parts retracting. I panted, since the whole morning had drained my energy, and I still had the burden of Terrance and mysterious girls on my shoulders.

"I'm not ready for any of this," I admitted, meeting his strong gaze with my own weak one, "but I have to be. Otherwise, people get hurt. Focus on getting me trained enough to save my brother. Then we can talk about feelings."

With that, I turned for the door, head bowed. I needed to focus. I needed my brothers, and the feeling of the breeze through my hair as I tended to the farm, of the sun burning my back in a way that was familiar. Tears gathered in my eyes as I fumbled for the door knob.

"Cloud," Dmitri sighed as I gave up, punching the door in frustration and laying my forehead on the cooler surface. "Cloud, stop."

I punched it again, feeling my knuckles scrape the wood. "Cloud," he snapped.

Stopping, I turned around to glare at him, my eyes red rimmed and my cheeks already puffy as tears dropped from my lashes to my cheeks. Dmitri sighed again, crossing his arms in front of his chest, watching me cry silently.

"Storm-Cloud Katlyn Rose. This world is based off the blood in your veins, and really, nothing else. You have power in your body, in your DNA, and you will learn to use it. You aren't meant to look so pathetic. Chin up, princess, otherwise you are going to fail and get people killed anyway. Right now, they see you as a bomb waiting to explode when you lose control. And there's no way in hell I'm going to train a bomb so that it can kill more people when it explodes in the end.

"So we won't train until you can get out of your head and talk about whatever makes you whimper aloud and stare into space. These problems need to be dealt with, and your mind needs to be clear before we attempt to train you."

His eyes were hard as he stared me down, but gradually the tears stopped falling. The words that came from his mouth weren't sugar coated or kind overall, but they did the trick, and I sniffled before nodding.

"Go find the Prince. I'm sure he'll know what class you have next, kid."

I glared at him. "Kid is a bit far," I snapped. "Just because I'm new to this doesn't mean you get to be rude and demeaning."

Dmitri smirked before pushing past me, throwing the words over his shoulder.

"Here's my deal, kid. When you can prove yourself, I'll stop calling you kid. Kid."

Rolling my eyes, I clenched my fists and stared at Dmitri's back in determination as he strolled down the hallway.

We'll see who's a kid.