Refuge (Relentless Book 2)

NIKOLAS REACHED FOR me and drew me behind him. As soon as the karks saw that there was no way out, they swerved away from us and began to zoom frantically around the hall, looking for another means of escape. By the time Sahir, Jordan, and Olivia showed up, followed by Terrence and Josh, there were karks everywhere. The small white bodies careened up the large curved staircase, through open doorways and down every hallway, swerving around people with amazing agility and speed.

“Don’t hurt them!” yelled Sahir, grabbing Josh’s arm to stop him from swiping at the creatures with a long thin sword. Sahir need not have worried. The karks were so tiny and fast that they were almost impossible to hit.

“Do you realize how long it takes to breed karks?” Sahir ducked as one of the creatures shot toward him. “We can’t kill them.”

“What the hell are we supposed to do with them?” Josh yelled back.

“We have to round them up somehow.”

I looked at the mass of white bodies whipping around us and shook my head. I couldn’t see how on earth anyone was going to catch these things. Pulling away from Nikolas, I ran over to Sahir. “How do you catch them?”

“Normally you’d use a spray made from scarab demon pheromone. Karks can’t resist it. Unfortunately, this batch was not supposed to hatch yet and I didn’t see a bottle of spray in the crates.”

I put a hand over my head when a Kark flew close enough to hook my hair with its tiny clawed wings. “So, what do we do about them?”

Sahir studied the situation. “I have a sedative that might help slow them down. I’ll go get it, and you try to keep these people from killing them.”

“Me? How am I supposed to stop them?” I asked, but Sahir was already running away.

Someone squealed, and I whirled around to see Olivia batting at two Karks that were zipping around her head while Jordan was bent over, holding her sides and laughing. Mark, Terrence, and Josh were running around the hall chasing after the creatures as a dozen warriors burst into the hall and stopped short at the pandemonium before them. I saw Chris among them, and his eyebrows shot up when he spotted me in the middle of the hall. I shook my head to let him know this one was not my doing.

“What in God’s name is going on here?” Tristan bellowed, and I looked up to see him on the second floor landing with Celine. Celine looked down on me with a sneer on her beautiful face as if I was somehow responsible for the whole thing. Why the hell did everyone assume I had something to do with this?

Tristan started down the stairs with Celine on his heels, and twice they had to stop as Karks fluttered around them like large white moths. I couldn’t contain my smirk as I watched Celine swipe at them.

“Who is responsible for this?” Tristan demanded in a commanding voice that carried through the main hall. “Where is Sahir?”

“He went to get some kind of sedative to knock them out,” I told him when no one else answered.

Tristan stared in displeasure at the scene before him. “How did this happen?”

“Ask them.” I pointed at the other trainees. “I was with Nikolas.”

Behind Tristan, Celine’s eyes narrowed on me, but she said nothing. Her hand went to her pocket, and for a few seconds I half expected her to pull out a knife and come after me with it.

“It was an accident,” Jordan said. “We laid all the eggs out after breakfast and turned them as Sahir instructed. We just went back to turn them again and they were all hatched.”

Shaking his head, Tristan strode into the center of the chaos. “I want these things caged before they make an even bigger mess.” To punctuate his words, a splatter of white landed in Celine’s straight black hair, and the female warrior shrieked as if it was acid instead of poop. I almost laughed before I got a whiff of the kark dung. I immediately slapped a hand over my mouth and nose at the noxious odor that was a mix of rotten eggs and dead skunk. If we didn’t round the karks up soon, this place would reek of it for a month.

My first thought was to use my power to calm the karks, but common sense told me there was no way I could handle this many at once. Still, it might work on some of them and that was better than nothing. At least they weren’t demons, so I could not hurt them or cause them to go nuts.

Opening my power, I let it saturate the air around me. After a few minutes, I noticed the karks closest to me were moving slower than the rest before they began to flutter down drunkenly to perch on the stair banister, the chandelier, or any surface nearby. I walked over and picked up one to get a closer look at it. Its snow white fur was downy soft, and I stroked it with one finger as I studied the small bat-like ears and teeth and soft white leathery wings that looked almost fragile enough to tear.

“They must be getting tired,” Mark said. “Should we try to catch them now?”

Glancing up, I caught knowing looks from Nikolas and Tristan. Thankfully, no one else seemed to notice. “Go find some crates or boxes or whatever you can to put them in,” Tristan told Mark and Josh, who immediately ran off to do as ordered.

Nikolas came over to stand by me and spoke so no one else could hear him. “Are you doing this?”

“Yes, but I’m not sure how long it will work on them. I hope Sahir gets here soon.”

Tristan walked up to us, followed by Celine who was still trying to get the sticky kark dung out of her hair. “Someone needs to be reprimanded for this disaster.” I ignored her pointed glares in my direction. No matter how much she disliked me, there was no way she could blame this mess on me.

“Here, we can put some in these.” Michael ran into the hall carrying two of the mesh equipment bags from the training rooms. He spotted Tristan and headed for us. “Will these do?”

“Good idea,” I told him as he opened one of the bags and I laid the kark inside. “Come on,” I called to the other trainees. “Help us out here.”

With the help of Olivia, Jordan, and Terrance we managed to round up at least three dozen karks that were close enough to reach, but there were still over two hundred of them whipping around the room with no signs of slowing down. To make matters worse, more of the creatures decided they had to go potty, and soon we were all dodging their little stink bombs like we were in an eighties arcade game. If my nose hadn’t been burning from the stench, I probably would have burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.

“Watch where you’re going,” Celine snapped when I backed into her to avoid getting hit by a white glob of poo. Unfortunately, Michael chose that same moment to slip on the stuff and come barreling into us, sending the three of us tumbling to the hard marble floor. Lucky for me, Celine broke my fall, but she was not as happy about that as I was, and I was pretty sure the elbow she jabbed sharply in my ribs was not by accident. I grunted and rolled off her and right onto poor Michael, who let out a moan when the back of my head butted his nose.

“Ah hell,” I muttered when I sat up and saw the white streaks on my jeans. My eyes watered at the smell. It was going to take all day to get rid of this stench, and my clothes were ruined for sure. I spotted a small streak of yellow on my sleeve and hoped it was not urine. I rolled my eyes. Like a little spot of pee would make a difference now.

“Need a hand up?” Chris’s voice quivered with amusement, and I scowled up at him, which only made him burst out laughing. Tristan joined in, and I glared at both of them before they each grabbed an arm and pulled me to my feet.

“Ugh!” I groaned when I looked down at myself. I really didn’t want to know what my hair looked like right now.

Nikolas helped Celine up, and she clung to his arm. How was it possible for her to be even filthier than me and still look ridiculously gorgeous?

“If anyone needs me, I’ll be soaking in my tub for the next two hours,” Celine declared, and I couldn’t help but notice the meaningful look she gave Nikolas. I couldn’t see his face, but I heard his soft chuckle at her blatant invitation. Annoyance stiffened my limbs, and I stalked away from them. We were covered in poop with no idea how we were going to bag the two hundred or so karks whipping around, and those two were flirting with each other like they were at a cocktail party.

The door opened and Sahir slipped inside with a respirator mask hanging from his neck and carrying a foot-long metal canister with a rubber hose attached. On the other end of the hose was a spray nozzle. “Sorry it took so long. I had to dilute the sedative and transfer it to a spray canister so it will reach them.” He lifted the nozzle and sprayed a couple of karks as they flew by him. At first it appeared to have no effect on them, but after a minute or so they fluttered to the floor.

I immediately picked them up to make sure they were still alive, and I smiled at Sahir when I felt their strong heartbeats. “It worked.”

He turned to Tristan. “I diluted this, but it still might knock people out if they breathe too much of it. We should clear the hall before I spray more of it.”

Tristan nodded and ordered everyone to head to the common areas until Sahir said it was safe to come out. All I wanted was to find the nearest shower and scrub myself clean, but as soon as Sahir knocked out all the karks, we’d be needed to bag them before they woke up again. Dutifully, I trailed behind the others instead.

“Ouch!” I jerked my head to one side when a kark flew at my face and nicked my ear with its sharp little teeth. I put my hand to my ear and frowned when my fingers came away red. “The little bugger bit me!”

“It must have scratched you by accident. Karks don’t bite people,” Sahir said, fitting his mask over his mouth and nose as he waited for everyone to clear out.

Needles of pain stung my forearm, and I gasped at the white creature latched onto my sleeve, its pointed teeth digging into my skin. I let out a yelp and grabbed the little body to yank it from my arm. It squeaked and twisted, frantically trying to break free from my hand. “What is up with this thing?”

No sooner had the words left my mouth when another kark flew into my chest. I batted it away, but it did a one eighty and came at me again. I snatched it up in my other hand, and it went nuts like the first one. My first thought was that these things really were demons and no one had bothered to tell me. Why else would they be acting so bizarre around me? But if that was the case, my power would have freaked them out a few minutes ago instead of putting them to sleep.

“Ow! What the hell?” I yelled as, from out of nowhere, five or six karks dive-bombed me, and I had to throw up my arms to protect my head. “Sahir, will you spray these things before they try to eat me.”

“I told you, karks don’t – ” Sahir broke off when dozens of the creatures flew at me from every direction like a swarm of angry hornets. I cried out and tried to run for cover, but I could not see past the mass of white bodies around me. Over the squeaking and flapping wings, I heard Sahir yelling, but I was too busy fending off his harmless karks to pay much attention to what he was saying.

A few seconds later, something large collided with me and I flew backward. Instead of hitting the floor, I found myself circled by a pair of arms and pulled against a hard body, bracing me from the impact. My rescuer and I rolled over once, ending with me on the floor and his body covering mine. I didn’t need the flutter in my head to tell me who was holding me tight against him and shielding my body from attack with his own. I suddenly found it hard to breathe, and to my dismay I was pretty sure it wasn’t from the fall.

“I don’t give a damn. Just do it,” Nikolas barked at someone, and I felt the angry rumble deep in his chest. He lowered his head, and his warm breath fanned my cheek. “Cover your mouth and nose. Sahir is going to spray around us.”

I pressed my face into the crook of his shoulder, acutely aware of his body against mine and the fact that I had never been this close to a man before. Unless you counted that time I healed Roland, but I didn’t think holding a half-crazed werewolf fell into the same category.

“There are too many of them,” Sahir said a minute later in a muffled voice.

“Keep spraying us,” Nikolas ordered.

“I can’t. It’ll poison you two if I spray more around you.” I heard Sahir move away. “I’ll do what I can to reduce their numbers. What the hell is wrong with them? Why are they only going after her?”

“I don’t know.” Nikolas shifted his weight and surprised me by leaning in and sniffing at my hair first and then my hoodie. How he expected to smell anything over the stench was beyond me. “Something smells off here.”

I could not contain my snort. “You think?”

Instead of smiling like I expected him to, he reached down and grabbed the bottom of my hoodie. “What are you doing?” I demanded in a panic when he started to lift it up.

“I think something on your clothes is making the karks behave like this,” he explained without stopping. “I can detect something that doesn’t smell like you or their droppings.”

He knows my scent? That revelation shocked me so much I forgot to protest further, and Nikolas used that opportunity to quickly yank the hoodie over my head and fling it away from us. Despite his body heat, I shivered as cold from the marble floor seeped through the back of my T-shirt. A few karks used the opportunity to squeeze beneath him and latch onto my hoodie, but as soon as the piece of clothing flew away, they followed it.

“Jesus, look at that.” Buried beneath Nikolas, I couldn’t see what Sahir was referring to, but his tone sent another chill through me. “They’re still trying to get to her. Whatever it is, it has to be on her T-shirt, too.”

“I know.” Nikolas lifted his head again, and his eyes were dark and apologetic when they met mine. “Sara – ”

“No way! Forget it.” There was no way in hell I was stripping in front of him and everyone else. “We can make a run for it.”

“There are too many of them. As soon as I get off you, they’ll attack you.”

“I don’t care. I am not taking off my clothes.” The very thought of it made my stomach clench.

Nikolas sighed roughly. “I’m sorry but this is no time for modesty. It’s just your shirt, and I’ll cover you.”

That’s supposed to make me feel better? My throat was dry, and I averted my eyes from his as my trembling hands pushed between us to reach the hem of my T-shirt. Why did this shit keep happening to me?

“Stand back, boys. Time for the girls to show you how it’s done,” Jordan yelled above the racket. “Let her rip, Liv.”

I barely had time to wonder what the girls were up to before Nikolas and I were hit with a blast of cold water that soaked the two of us within seconds. Coughing, I turned my face into his chest to keep from drowning in the onslaught. A minute later, a deep rumbling started in his chest and I pulled away when I realized he was laughing.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” I grumbled, still upset about how close I’d come to stripping in front of him and everyone else.

“Immensely.” He raised his head and looked around, then rolled off me and to his feet in one easy movement. Before I had time to move, he reached down and pulled me up to stand beside him.

All around us, white bodies littered the floor and stairs while the few karks still moving desperately tried to evade the powerful jet of water from the fire hose Jordan was holding. Jordan wore a devilish smile as she swung the hose back on us for several seconds before going back to taking down anything with wings.

“Hey!” I sputtered as water ran off me in rivulets. I pushed wet hair from my face to shoot her a dirty look.

“Sorry, had to make sure I didn’t miss any of it,” she said, but her smirk belied her apology. “Hey, it worked, didn’t it?”

She was right; there wasn’t a single kark interested in me anymore. I looked around for my hoodie and spotted a splash of blue beneath a pile of unmoving bodies. Sahir must have dosed them with his sedative.

“I think that’s enough, Jordan.” Tristan wore a serious expression as he surveyed the mess in the main hall. He waited for Jordan to shut off the hose then he started toward us, followed by Chris and the other warriors. “Are you two okay?” he asked me and Nikolas. I nodded, and he turned to Sahir who was the resident creature expert. “Sahir, what could have caused this?”

Sahir removed his mask and shook his head. “I’ve never seen karks behave this way. They didn’t go after anyone but Sara.”

“Something on her clothes attracted them.” Nikolas strode over to the pile of white bodies and yanked my hoodie out from under them. “Look at this.”

I barely held back a gasp when I saw the tattered remains of what I had been wearing a few minutes ago. The karks’ sharp teeth had literally shredded it before Sahir could knock them out. Coldness spread through me when it hit me what would have happened if Nikolas hadn’t gotten to me when he did.

Tristan’s face hardened. It was the first time I had ever seen him this angry. “Have that garment examined. I want to know exactly what happened here.” He addressed one of the younger warriors I only knew as Ben. “Get something to put these things in before they wake up. And we’re going to need the cleanup crew in here.”

“Yes, sir,” Ben said before rushing to follow his orders.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Tristan asked me again. Concern colored his voice after seeing the damage to my hoodie.

“I’m fine.” Or I would be after a very, very long hot shower.

Jordan had abandoned her fire hose and walked over to join us. “Sara, you look like you just won a wet T-shirt contest,” she announced, causing more than one male head turned my way.

“What?” I croaked and looked down at the pale yellow V-neck clinging to me in a way that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Heat enflamed my cheeks, and I yanked the wet material away from my chest.

Nikolas stepped in front of me, and I stared at his broad back as he blocked me from the others in the room. A surge of gratitude wiped out my annoyance at him from a few minutes ago. I would never understand him. One minute he did or said something that made me want to hit him, and the next he did something nice like this.

Once I had arranged my T-shirt so it no longer looked like a second skin, I stepped out from behind him, hoping my face wasn’t as red as it felt. The first face I saw was Chris’s, and he quirked one corner of his mouth at me but wisely kept his thoughts to himself.

“Nikolas, we need to talk when you have a minute,” Tristan said, and Nikolas nodded tersely. There was an undercurrent in their communication that I couldn’t read, but it sounded serious.

“If you don’t need me, I’d like to get cleaned up,” I said to Tristan, who glanced at Nikolas and told me to take the rest of the day off. I wasted no time escaping to my room where I spent half an hour showering kark poop out of my hair and skin and mourning the loss of my St. Patrick’s hoodie and my favorite jeans. I stood in front of my bathroom mirror drying my hair and wondering if Roland could score another hoodie for me. I hadn’t really been involved in much at high school, but now that I was no longer there, I found myself holding onto the things that reminded me of that part of my old life.

I felt immeasurably better once I was clean, and I was trying to decide how to spend the afternoon when my stomach growled loudly. It was lunchtime, and I’d barely touched my breakfast, but I was loath to go down to the dining hall. I was pretty sure that by now, the whole place knew what had happened and everyone was asking the same question. Why had the karks attacked only me?

It was a question I had avoided thinking about since I left the main hall. If karks did not attack people, someone had to have done something to send them after me. And if Nikolas was right and something on my clothing had attracted them, then how did it get there? Or more importantly, who put it there? It had to be someone in the hall, or at least someone I’d come into contact with today. I made a mental list of everyone I had been near this morning and quickly dismissed it. Nikolas and Chris would never harm me, and I found it difficult to believe Jordan or Olivia would either. Besides, the two girls had sat across the table from me at breakfast and neither of them got close enough to touch me. There was too much chaos in the main hall to remember who had been near me. The only people I recalled touching me were Nikolas, Tristan, Chris, Michael, and Celine.

The last name gave me pause. Celine obviously disliked me, and we had been in very close contact when I fell on top of her, which would have given her ample opportunity to mark my clothes with something that would attract the karks. And she had taken off right after that. I stared out my window without seeing anything. Could jealousy really have driven her to try to hurt me?

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at that thought. Celine jealous of me? Hardly. She was stunningly gorgeous and could have any man she desired. There was no need for her to do something so drastic when she could easily have Nikolas if she wanted him. And if he wanted someone like her then . . . oh, what did it matter to me anyway?

Snatching up the phone, I dialed Roland’s number. He should be just now getting home from school and I needed to hear his voice.

“Hey,” he answered breathlessly like he had been scrambling for his phone. “Everything okay?”

I carried the phone over to my bed where I flopped down on my back. “Why do you think something is wrong?”

“Well, because you never call this early and I haven’t heard from you in two days.”

My free hand slapped my forehead. Crap. Nikolas’s sudden return threw me off so much yesterday that I’d forgotten to call Roland. Now I had to tell him about the karks and the lamprey demons all at once. “It’s been kind of nuts here the last few days. Nikolas came back yesterday.”

“Ah.” It was amazing how one syllable could hold so much meaning.

“That’s not all.” I filled him in on the disastrous trip to Boise, deliberately making the whole demon attack sound a lot less scary than it had been. No need worrying him when he could do nothing about it. I did include the part where I blew up the demon.

“Whoa! You weren’t kidding about your power getting stronger.”

“Yeah, well I could have done without the shower of blood and guts.”

He brushed off my revulsion in typical male fashion. “I think it rocks. I’m just surprised Nikolas let you go off to Boise in the first place. You know, with him being the way he is.”

“He wasn’t here, and even if he had been, he doesn’t tell me what to do,” I declared irritably.

Roland chuckled. “Uh-oh. What did he do now?”

“He didn’t do anything. It’s just been a crazy few days. First the lamprey demons, then Nikolas shows up and tells me he is training me, and then – ”

“Hold up. Nikolas is training you?” Roland burst into laughter.

I scowled at the ceiling. “Remind me again why I call you.”

“S-sorry. I just can’t help picturing him trying to teach you how to use one of those swords. Can the Mohiri re-grow limbs?”

“Oh shut up,” I retorted, but a smile crept across my face because I was pretty sure Nikolas wasn’t foolhardy enough to put a sword in my hand.

“Well, at least it’s not boring there.” He sighed heavily, and it was my turn to ask him what was wrong.

“I hate this. It’s our senior year; we should be hanging together: you, me, and Pete. School totally sucks without you.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

“No?” Roland groaned. “Do you know how hard it is to pretend to be sad over your best friend’s death when you know she is still alive and well?”

I tried to put myself in his shoes and couldn’t. “That’ll get easier soon. I bet people have already started to forget about me.”

“You still don’t get how much people noticed you, do you? People at school talk about you all the time.”

“They do?” That shocked me, considering how few friends I’d had at St. Patrick’s. Other than Roland and Peter, I could think of only one other, a boy name Jeffrey who I’d sat with at lunch every day.

“I told you it’s not the same here. Even Scott is different since you disappeared. Pete thinks he misses you.”

“Ha! Now I know you’re messing with me.”

“Seriously, he is not the same guy. He doesn’t say much anymore, and he’s even nicer to people. I heard he broke up with Faith two days ago.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. There had been animosity between me and Scott for years, and it was strange to think he might be affected by my death. It was more likely that he had changed because he no longer had the negative emotions my undine side brought out in him. Maybe not having me around was actually making him a better person. Wow. Now that was a depressing thought.

A knock at the door stopped me from delving further into that line of thinking. “Hold on, Roland, someone’s at my door.”

I didn’t try to hide my surprise when I opened the door to find Jordan, cleaned up and holding a plate of sandwiches and two bottles of water.

“I figured you were avoiding the dining hall and might be hungry,” she explained, breezing past me to lay the plate and bottles on my desk.

“I’ll call you back later, Roland,” I told him, and we said good-bye.

Jordan walked around the room, studying my photos and drawings. “Nice. Did you draw these?”

“Um, yes.”

“Is that your uncle?”

“Yes.”

“He’s hot for an old guy.” She finished her little tour and flopped down on my bed as if she’d done it a hundred times before.

I hadn’t moved from the door. “What do you want, Jordan?” In my experience, other girls did not visit me to hang out. They usually went out of their way to avoid me. I reminded myself it was only human girls who were naturally repulsed by my undine side, but after years of being shunned, it was hard to believe otherwise.

She actually looked a little hurt by my question, and I regretted my curt tone. “Sorry, that came out wrong. I’m just surprised to see you here.”

“Me too. I don’t usually like many people. Olivia is nice but she is such a girl, if you know what I mean. I didn’t care for you either when you first got here, but you’ve changed my mind.”

I closed the door and went to sit in my desk chair. “Thanks, I think.”

Jordan sat up and ran her finger along the outline of one of the birds on my grandmother’s quilt. “This is nice. Did your mom make it?”

I laughed harshly. “My mother took off when I was two, and if she had made anything I would have burned it before I brought it here with me. My grandmother made it.”

“Ouch! Someone has serious mommy issues.”

“If you came here to make fun of me, you know where the door is.”

“Geez, chill, will you? I get the whole anger thing. You aren’t the only orphan here with a sad story.” She got up and came over to grab a sandwich and a bottle of water. “Why don’t we eat and you can tell me again how there is absolutely nothing between you and Nikolas Danshov?”

“I told you, there is nothing going on between us. He’s my trainer and that is all.”

She laid her food and water on my nightstand and sat on the bed again. “Uh-huh. That’s why he threw himself over you like a living shield.”

I chuckled. “You really don’t know Nikolas. That’s what he does – he protects people, and he would have done it for anyone.”

Jordan let out a burst of laughter. “As much as I wish Nikolas would want to come running to my rescue – not that I need any man to rescue me – it will never happen. You didn’t see his face when he saw you getting attacked. I’ve never seen anyone move that fast.”

“I wish someone would tell Nikolas and Tristan I don’t need a man to protect me,” I grumbled.

“Males are just wired that way,” Jordan explained through a mouthful of food. “You’re tough but you have this whole vulnerable look going on that gets their testosterone in a twist. Of course, I’m pretty sure it’s more than that with Nikolas after seeing him downstairs. When you were standing there all wet and he moved in front of you – the look he gave those other guys . . . brrrrr. He did everything but pee a circle around you to mark his territory.”

“That is totally absurd. And thanks for that disgusting visual by the way.”

She gave me a long searching stare. “You simply cannot be that clueless. Anyone with eyes can see the sparks between you two.”

I looked away from her and unwrapped my sandwich. Before I could take a bite, Jordan let out a squeal. “Oh my God! You really have no idea, do you?” When I didn’t answer, she jumped off the bed and bounced up and down on her feet like she had just won a prize.

“What?” I asked defensively.

She fell on the bed, howling with laughter, and I watched her with growing irritation. After a few minutes, she pulled herself together and sat up, wiping her eyes. “I love it! Celine’s been throwing herself at Nikolas for years and he chose a sweet little orphan over her. She must be positively insane with jealousy. Oh how I wish she had stayed around to see him go all caveman on the other guys over you.”

“He did not choose me, and I certainly don’t want him.” I slumped in my chair, wondering why I’d ever thought it might be nice to have a girlfriend to discuss girl matters with. I was sure my face must be glowing like an ember now. “Can we please talk about something else?”

Jordan took a drink from her water bottle then made a face. “Sure, but it won’t be nearly as fun as talking about Nikolas.”

Anything would be better than that subject. “I get why Celine might not like me.” Jordan snorted at my choice of words, but I ignored her. “But why do you dislike her so much?”

“Are you kidding? Unless you have a penis, that woman is a total bitch to you. She always favors the boys in training. Thank God she is only here a few times a year.”

“So, she would have disliked me anyway just for being a girl?”

Her eyes sparkled. “Yes, but you are an extra special case.”

“How long have you lived here?” I already knew that all of the trainees here except for Terrence were orphans. Other than Michael, I didn’t know anyone else’s story. Jordan was brash and fearless and different from the others, and I wondered if she had been like that in her old life.

A shadow passed over her face. “My mother dumped me when I was four and I started telling people about the little person in my head. I guess it didn’t help that I was also beating up kids twice my size. No one else in her family wanted to take me, so I ended up in our wonderful foster-care system. I got passed around a lot. No one wants a kid with voices in her head who has to see a shrink twice a week for anger issues.”

She flicked her blond hair back, and her eyes filled with pride. “But I always knew I was different for a reason. When I was ten, I ran away from the last shithole they dumped me in. I was living on the street for three weeks before Paulette ran across me by accident. As soon as she spoke to me, I knew she was like me, and she didn’t have to ask me twice to go with her. She took me to Valstrom, which is their compound in northern California, and I lived there until I came here two years ago. Do you know I was the oldest orphan ever reclaimed . . . until you?”

“Nikolas mentioned that.” Jordan’s coldness toward me in the beginning made sense now. Her old life had been pretty rotten, and then she came here where she felt loved and special and, according to Michael, number one in everything she did. Then I came along and everyone was talking about the orphan who survived out there for seventeen years. I stole her spotlight, and even if it was unwilling on my part, she had resented me for it. At least she seemed to have gotten past that now.

Her eyes widened. “Nikolas mentioned me?”

“He told me you were ten when they found you and all the other orphans were no older than seven.” Seeing her expression at hearing that Nikolas had spoken of her, I omitted the fact that he hadn’t said her name, just that the orphan had been a girl. The smile that lit up her face was worth the tiny omission.

“How did Nikolas find you anyway?” she asked around a mouthful of food.

“I was at a club in Portland with my friends,” I said vaguely. “A few days later, he tracked me down and told me what I was. I wasn’t too happy about it.”

She tossed me an incredulous look. “Why not?”

“It totally freaked me out to learn I had a demon inside me. Didn’t it bother you?”

“Are you kidding? I found out that not only was I not crazy like everyone said I was, I was immortal and had superpowers. I was like, ‘Hell yeah, where do I sign up?’”

I chewed thoughtfully on my sandwich. She and I had such different pasts. I’d had my dad and then Nate to love and care for me, not to mention my friends. Growing up in foster care and living on the street at age ten, it was no wonder she had embraced her Mohiri heritage. I never realized how fortunate I was compared to people like her and Michael who had it a lot rougher than I did.

Jordan laid her half-eaten sandwich on the nightstand and stood. “I think you and I are going to be great friends. And to show what an awesome friend I am, I’m going to prove to you that I am right about your warrior.”

“What do you mean?”

She walked into my closet. “You hide yourself under those awful hoodies, but I saw you in that wet T-shirt and it is a shame to cover that up all the time.”

“I am not hiding, and there is nothing wrong with the way I look. I happen to like my clothes because they are comfortable and practical.”

“Boring,” she sang from the depths of my closet. “Don’t you have anything in here besides these ratty jeans and tennis shoes?”

“Hey, I like those jeans.”

She emerged from the closet. “Let me guess, you had all male friends back home and not one girlfriend.”

“So?”

“So a girlfriend would have made sure you had at least a couple of decent outfits so you could dress like a female from time to time. Thank God you have me now.”

“I thought you liked me because I wasn’t too girlie.”

Jordan swept a hand up and down her body, which was clad in jeans that probably cost more than three of mine and a pretty black top with a Grecian-style yoke neck. “Do I look girlie to you? No, I look hot. Trust me, there’s a difference.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “That is your style, not mine. And if he . . . any guy doesn’t like me for who I am, then he’s not worth my time.”

“Ha! You do like him.”

“No, that was just an example. Don’t turn my words around.”

She gave me a sly grin. “You look awfully flustered for a girl who doesn’t care.”

I turned to pick up my water bottle as an excuse not to look at her smirk. “I’m flustered because you have a special talent for driving people nuts.”

She started to laugh then yelled, “Hey!” I spun around in my chair to find her on her hands and knees, peering under my bed. She looked up at me and made a face. “I hate to tell you this, but you have an imp infestation. Little bastards just stole my sandwich.”

I put a hand to my forehead. “Shoot, I forgot to bring them something to eat today. They must be hungry.”

Her mouth fell open. “You feed them? You do know they are thieving little rodents who would steal your mother if they could lift her.”

From under the bed I heard outraged chattering. “I don’t think they like to be called rodents. And if they wanted to steal my mother, they are welcome to her if she ever shows up.” I tore a chunk from my own sandwich and went over to lay it under the bed. “They’re partial to blueberry muffins, but they’ll eat anything if they’re hungry.”

Jordan sat back on her haunches and stared at me. “You treat them like pets? You are one strange girl, Sara.”

I grinned because she didn’t know the half of it. “You wanna see pets? Come with me and I’ll introduce you to Hugo and Woolf.”