Dracian Legacy (20 page)

“Yes, even if it’s the end of the world.” He leaned into a kiss.

“Don’t worry, princess. We’ll take care of your boy.” God, how I wanted to cuff Tyler in his face. “You could stay.
We
could spar.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

I scoffed.

“Weapons training. Marcus, Tyler—Bojutsu.” Axel instructed.

A tall girl with long hair black as night stood next to Marcus and Tyler. She wore skin-tight black pants and a tank that hugged her every curve. Her stance was confident and arrogance was written all over her face. She stared at me with annoyance and something else I couldn’t quite figure out—jealousy, suspicion?

What’s her problem?

“Trinity, Kenjutsu, balance beam.” Axel ordered.

Each gave a curt nod and headed to the weapons room.

Trinity paused, throwing a glare over her shoulder before she disappeared into the room behind the boys.

Yeah, I don’t like her.

Axel laced his fingers between mine, jolting me back from my thoughts. He slung my duffle bag over his shoulder. “Ready?”

I sighed with a nod and walked outside toward my old beat up Beemer, the last of my parents’ gifts to me before they… No, I wasn’t going to think about that, not now. I wasn’t ready. Would I ever be?

“How come you’re training them?” I asked once we stood next to my car.

“I’ve been at it a lot longer.”

“How does it feel?” I drew circles on his arm over a tattoo of five daggers wrapped in golden barbed wire. “I mean, having magic. Have you always had magic?”

“Somewhat.” Axel pitched my duffle in the backseat. “The dormant gene is awakened when the Dracian turns seventeen. We’re stronger, faster, and have a stronger sense of hearing than a human before then. But once it’s activated, everything is amplified tenfold. It feels like a blood rush, like everything inside is bursting to come alive and anything is possible. Everything’s clearer.”

“So you’ve been awakened for…”

“Eight years.”

“But you’re only eighteen.”

“Nineteen.” He corrected me. “I’m a freak of nature. Five months after I turned eleven, I found the mark, indicating my magic was awakened.”

“Mark?”

“Yes, every Dracian is marked when their magic is awakened.”

“Oh. So… is this the mark?” I pointed to the daggers on his arm.

“No. These are the tokens for my pledge to the Legion. Each dagger represents a ranking. Six daggers is the highest honor you can get.”

“Oh!” He had five; that meant he was higher up in the chain of command.

I held his pale-blue gaze, grasping his hand. The more time I spent with him, the more I wanted to touch him, feel him. His touch seemed to alleviate any pain, doubts, or anxiety. I loved the feel of his skin against mine.

His eyes seemed to change color based on his mood too. I could almost tell when he was overpowered with strong emotions because his irises started to glow. Right now, something was bothering him—I could tell.

“I’m patrolling for the rest of week.” He paused.

Oh, that’s why his eyes are pale blue.

“Time to pay up.”

“Pay up?”

“Yeah.” He drew my hand to his lips and kissed each finger softly, sending tingles straight to my heart. “I’m covering for Tyler this week. But, it’s worth it.”

“Oh!” I remember Axel telling me he had to take up a week’s worth of patrolling to get my phone number. Guilt gnawed at the walls of my heart. “I’m sorry.”

He put his finger under my chin, lifting my face to his. His eyes emitted so much emotion my heart ached in a whole other way. And God, he smelled so good, even after the workout.

So freaking not fair.

“Don’t be.” Standing at five feet five without heels, I was quite a bit shorter than his six feet two. He bent down, pressing his lips to mine. We both sighed in satisfaction at the same time. “You are”—he kissed my palm and wrist—“my favorite kind of hell.”

My heart fluttered as I drank in his intense stare. I knew exactly what he meant. It hurt to be away from him, but knowing I’d see him again made the pain bearable.

“Hey, lover boy, if you’re done sucking face, E wants to see you.”

“How are you guys related again?” I asked, shaking my head at Tyler. “I better get home.” Despair tightly coiled itself around my chest, making it hard to breathe.

“I’m really proud of how well you’re doing, Ren.” He kissed my forehead. “Next week we’ll start with offense training, perhaps.”

“Yay.” I squealed in delight.

Axel chuckled, opening the car door for me.

“Thank you so much for accompanying me.”

“Are you kidding me? I’d rather do this with you any day than play video games with Joshua.” I hugged Cassie tightly. “I’m so excited to have you as my sister.”

Despite her best efforts, tears threatened to seep through Cassie’s lashes.

“I know I can never replace your mom, but I’ll try my best to be the role model you deserve, Ren. You can always trust me and come to me if you need anything.
Anything
at all,” she said with emphasis. It took me a minute to understand to what she was referring.

I laughed out loud. “Joshua’s nagging you to talk to me, isn’t he?”

She nodded. “He’s worried, as am I. But I know you’re a smart girl and will make the right choice.” She placed her arm around my shoulder and mine went around her waist. We walked up the stairs, ready to enter the house.

“Does he not trust me?”

“That isn’t it. He was a teenager before and a troubled one at that. He doesn’t want his baby sister getting hurt. He’s having a hard time being your legal guardian
and
a big brother. Besides, I think he worries because you and Axel are so intense. Joshua and I knew each other our whole lives and we didn’t get that intense until a few years back.”

We stepped into the house and were immediately greeted by Joshua with a beer in his hand. “Hey. Did my two favorite girls have a good time?”

“Oh yeah. We had so much fun swiping your credit card. How much did we spend, Cassie? Five grand?” I teased.

Joshua wrestled me into a bear hug. “Well, nice to see you too, killer.”

“You suck.” I looked over Joshua’s shoulder to Cassie and said, “He cheats, Cassie. He uses his super Navy SEALs training to get his bear hugs. Watch out for this one.”

He let me go with a kiss on my cheek. “Oh, don’t be such a baby. You know you love my bear hugs and one day you’ll miss ‘em.”

I rolled my eyes.“Puh-leeease. Egotistic much?”

“Hey.” Dean stepped out of the kitchen with a Crush in his hand.

“Did you boys have a good evening?” Cassie asked, hugging her little-huge brother.

Dean nodded.

“Oh, yeah. Video games.” Joshua pointed toward the game running in the background.

“Boys!” Cassie and I said in unison.

CHAPTER TWENTY

It had been three long days and an impossibly never-ending Saturday. It didn’t dawn on me until this week just how much I missed Axel. I thought between shopping for the wedding, homework, school, and spending time with friends, it would get easier. Well, that proved to be a total sham. Wanting to share all those moments with him, I missed him now more than before.

I stared at Betsy, the training dummy extraordinaire. It didn’t take much for me to get worked up. I practiced the moves Axel taught me; I kicked, jabbed, and punched Betsy at the marked sites. I wasn’t sure how much time I spent beating the crap out of her, but when it ended, I was covered in sweat and breathing hard. I was proud of myself.

“Did Betsy do something to offend you, princess?” I groaned at the feminine voice that greeted me. “…Because you look like you’re about to get into a cat fight, and it’d be embarrassing if you lost to an inanimate object.”

I fought the urge to smack the owner of that voice. Instead, like a
mature
adult, I shouldered past Trinity. Since the first time she laid eyes on me, and every given opportunity thereafter, I received nothing less than pure hostility from her. You’d think I kidnapped her children and sold them on a black market or something. I couldn’t understand what I did to get on her shit list.

“Don’t you have some sick puppies to skin or elderly folks to give wedgies?” I picked up my duffle bag and headed for the door.

“You don’t belong with us. You’re nothing but weak and pathetic,” she said with venom dripping from every word.

“What?” The strap of the duffle bag rolled down my arm.

“You think you can fight me?”

I caught the challenge in her threat. She wanted a fight? She was going to get one. Yeah, I might get my ass whopped in the process, but I was so done with her bullshit. I never was one to be intimidated by the likes of a bully. And I wasn’t going to start now.

She threw a staff at me and I stumbled to catch it. As she ran toward me with her own pole, her beautiful long black hair moved behind her like smooth ribbons.

Axel never prepared me to fight with weapons.

Ah, crap! Okay, maybe I’m a little scared now.

I was already tired from my earlier beat-the-crap-out-of-Betsy training and I barely had the energy to move. I didn’t know why, but I wanted to prove to her I did belong here… with Axel.

The way Trinity moved was beautiful, graceful, and deadly all wrapped up in a bundle. That was if she wasn’t directing her murderous tendencies toward me.

“What the hell, Trin—”

I jumped, barely avoiding the staff aimed at my feet. I spun around her, but she was too fast. She wacked me right between my shoulder blades. I yelped in pain before I lost my balance and fell forward, face first. I rolled onto my back and blocked her attack, directed to my face, then kicked her in the stomach.

“Not bad, princess. You actually learned a few more things than shoving your tongue down his throat.”

“What’s your problem? I don’t want to fight you.”

“He thinks you’re special, but you’re nothing more than another bimbo.”

Her quick swipe caught me off guard, hitting me right on my forehead. Warmth trickled down my face. I was shell-shocked. She was
actually
trying to kill me.

Hatred filled her eyes as she spoke the next few words. “Just like all the girls he’s ever come across. Pathetic,” she spat. “Have you no shame? No self-respect?”

Black swirls of humiliation and frustration uncoiled inside me. I fought to control the fury boiling my blood. My heart rate picked up and I struggled to breathe. In that moment, it felt like everything around me moved at a snail’s pace. The ground below me trembled, or perhaps it was just me.

Trinity advanced.

“Stop.”

She stopped in mid-hit, perfectly aimed to the middle of my head.

Elijah, Dracian guardian for Rocky Hills, stood in the doorway. Thank God he’d intervened. Trinity would’ve split open my skull and
then
beaten me to a bloody pulp. I’d met Elijah a few times during my sessions with Axel. He was physically fit, built like a linebacker, with light white stubble running across his jawline. I wondered just how old he was.

Marcus followed behind him. At the sight of them, I worked to slow down my hammering pulse.
One, two, inhale. One, two, exhale. Rinse and repeat.

“Leave and don’t come back until you learn to control your anger,” Elijah ordered Trinity.

“Mark my words, princess; you’ll be the reason he dies or worse,” she said before storming out of the room.

Once she left, Elijah took slow deliberate steps toward me. He crouched in front of me, smiled, and reached for my bleeding head. “Let me…”

I jerked back automatically. “Sorry. I…” I winced at the stinging pain across my forehead. “I’d rather you not use any magic.” I didn’t know why, but I knew using magic was a bad idea.

“It’s understandable.” He snapped his fingers and Marcus brought over the first aid kit. “May I?” he asked this time before approaching.

I nodded.

Elijah worked methodically, cleaning, applying antibiotic ointment, and sealing the wound.

“Let’s take a walk.” He stood up and held out his hand.

“Thank you.”

I hooked my hand into his looped arm. He patted it with assurance, leading us out to the front of the training room. The crisp fall air streamed over us. I inhaled deeply, taking in the smell of fresh-cut grass, like that of a football or soccer field. A beautiful bronze sculpture of a woman and two kids running stood before us.