~x~ Chapter 3 ~x~

Ril simply grabbed my hand gently in hers and tugged me out of Casanova's room. "I don't really like what you're wearing right now but it would have to make do since we haven't got anything else. We'll start with shopping for more normal everyday stuff before we get into training."

"I have no idea what type of training you have in mind so I'll just go with it. It can't be worse than what Pritkin puts me through." I scoffed. "I mean seriously that guy threw me off a cliff as part of my training!"

"He threw you off a cliff? Wow, that is surprising... Did it work?"

"No."

"But my guess is, he jumped after you when he finally realized that it wasn't going to work and saved your ass. Hence you're still here. So how did he manage to save you?"

"He used a parachute made by his shields I think if I remember rightly. It was terrible for steering."

"Oh I know those things! They're pathetic unless all you want to do is to drop down slowly and completely vertically." she scoffed. "There are much better spells to use than that but I guess that he didn't really think about that at the time."

"Pritkin? Not thinking about any given situation that he's faced with? Well that's a first."

"Oh trust me. There are many times when that man's brain doesn't function as well as he would like it to. But hey, nobody's perfect."

"Don't tell a senate vampire that." I scoffed.

"Oh trust me, if I saw a senate member, there would be no words exchanged. Nothing but absolute chaos."

"You're not on good terms with the senate? How have you managed to survive?"

"Well for one thing they wouldn't be able to catch me even if they wanted to. Two, they want to be able to manipulate me in any way they want but they can't and that frustrates them so we're not exactly friendly with each other. Normally they do their best to stay out of my way and I don't bother them. That's how our relationship works and that's fine by me. I don't like to see them more than I need to."

"Have you ever gone up directly against the senate before?"

"Most high ranked demons have. The senate never learns from their mistakes. They are always trying their best to capture and manipulate powerful demons into what they want and they have never succeeded. Us demons rarely ever do something that doesn't benefit us in some way. The senate, being power obsessed as they are, can't grasp that and so there have been a lot of various conflicts between the senate and high ranked demons for a very long time."

"You still haven't answered my question though, Ril. Have you ever gone up against the senate?"

"Yes and for the moment we'll just leave it at that. I'll tell you another time why the senate and I don't get on."

"Okay but I would like to know if you don't mind."

"I don't mind but there will probably be a better time for me to tell you the story so I'm saving it for then. Oh and for the time being, until I give you a makeover, please don't let go of my hand otherwise the vampires in the area will be able to sense you."

"Okay, got it."

We made it through the streets and although Ril had said that I would be safe with her and I knew that Pritkin trusted her to make sure I didn't die I this insane task, I couldn't help but look around cautiously. It was a habit that had slowly developed since being dragged into the whole Pythia business and having been with Pritkin for so long, although I wasn't usually alert, I did learn to be. Sometimes.

Ril glanced over at me and simply gave me a beaming smile that seemed to say that she was proud of something. I didn't really understand it, but then, I hardly understood what was happening around me since being caught by the Senate.

She gave me a reassuring squeeze of the hand and I smiled back at her. We headed down and across the street from the hotel and she led me into a large looking shopping mall which looked like it had far too many shops to count. The moment I stepped through the doors, I regretted it.

There were people.

A lot of people.

I could barely see the doors of the various shops around us. All I could see was the hundreds of heads that passed us as Ril somehow manages to weave through the dense crowd while guiding me as well. We went into an elevator and I gave a quiet help of protest as more and more people crowded into the small condensed space. I felt like a trapped animal and I didn't like it at all. Ril gently manoeuvred me towards the wall and stood in front of me, shielding me from the mass of people.

With Ril around, I felt safe. In fact, I felt safer with her than being sheltered by Mircea in a hotel suite. I knew that I had high security there and that Marco would do everything in his power to protect me, but the problem didn't lie with whether Marco was willing to protect me or not. The problem was that he didn't know how. Half the time I didn't know what I was up against so how in earth would Marco know?

I was glad when we reached the floor that Ril wanted us to be on and she tugged me off of the elevator. This floor was a lot calmer and quieter and certainly with a lot less people around. I could actually see what shops were on this floor which was a blessing.

I took a look around and realized that I had never been on this floor before with Marco and the other vampire guards. The clothes on this floor were a lot more casual and normal. Although I was just like any other woman on this planet with regards to clothes in the sense that I liked having pretty things, I still enjoyed having the more casual things so that I wouldn't feel nearly as bad every time a piece of clothing was ruined by chaos or training.

For the next few hours Ril let me roam around at my own pace and didn't usher me from shop to shop like I thought she would. She did however on occasion throw various articles of clothing at me to try on. Some I kept since I liked them but others I either refused to try on or handed it back after seeing what it actually looked like on me.

Shopping was strangely therapeutic. I felt like I had all the time in the world because of how chilled it was with Ril around. I liked not having to worry about being surrounded by a bunch of male vampires while I shopped and tried things on.

I liked the return of my privacy above all else.

Privacy was one of the many things that I didn't have with Mircea around. I didn't have my own space and be always tried to dominate my every decision. It infuriated me to no end and I was getting sick and tired of being overly sheltered by him.

After about an hour of shopping, Ril took me to a salon where I had a change of appearance with the help of magic. I still had my original look and features but with the help of a very intricate glamour spell.

After the makeover I looked completely different. Even I couldn't recognize myself and that was an odd thought.

When it got to lunch time that was when hell began. For some odd reason, the lunch hour was extremely busy with people everywhere I looked. There was nowhere that didn't have people and it was utterly ridiculous!

"Since it's rush hour and your first training with me, I'll make it slightly easier. Your task for today is to get a chicken salad sandwich and a bottle of coke then get back to the main entrance. You have fifteen minutes to finish the task and your time starts now." Ril told me bluntly before taking the bags of clothes from me and shoving me mercilessly into the herd of people.

In that same second I lost her. I couldn't see her anymore and I also lost the general direction of where I was. I was being swept along by the crowd and for a moment I panicked and didn't know what to do. I wasn't sure how much time I wasted being swept along by the crowd but eventually I managed to gather my wits and remembered what Pritkin had taught me.

*Quote from Hunt the Moon*

Okay, think calmly and assess the situation. I thought carefully. I had to get a sandwich. That meant that I had to find a café of some kind. Ril never said whether she wanted a specific type of chicken sandwich or not so I guessed that any make would do so long as it was a chicken salad sandwich.

I tried to get a hold of my surroundings and to do that I would have to push past the dense crowd of people so that I could actually see where I was and what was around me. Somehow, I managed to push my way through and found a small space that wasn't dominated by a moving crowd. Once I got there, I jumped up and down a few times, feeling like a fool, so that I could see what shops were around me. I tried to get my bearings and to remember what shops I had passed on the way that morning.

I tried to remember where the cafes were since I could remember having passed at least two. Now the harder part was trying to remember what shops were around each café so that I could try to find it. After wasting even more time trying to remember, I decided to simply take the gamble and head in the direction that I thought one of the two cafés were in.

My first attempt was a failure. Where I thought was a café was actually a kitchen utensils shop. My second attempt however was a success. It was a lovely little coffee parlour which also sold snacks and small lunches. Luckily, they also sold chicken salad sandwiches so I grabbed two of them and two cokes before making a beeline for the counter so that I could pay.

It was then that I realised something else. I didn't have any money on me. Since I had simply shifted from the hotel that I was being confined in to Dante's, I didn't bother bringing any money with me. I gave a groan of frustration and was about to step out of the line when I noticed something poking out of my shorts' pocket.

Maybe God did have some mercy on me.

Sticking out of my pocket was a lovely twenty dollar note. I hastily paid with what I had and dashed out of the coffee parlour. I must have looked like some kind of a mad woman but I didn't care. All that mattered was getting back to Ril in time. I knew that I was either way out of time, or I was cutting it really close.

I looked around once more, trying to get my bearings and trying to remember where the elevator was so that I could get to the main entrance. When I got to the elevator, I saw that there were so many people queuing and realised that I would probably be faster by taking the stairs and that was what I did. I saw the fire escape not far from where I was standing and made a run for it with the food in hand. I took the steps two at a time, sprinting down the stairs like my life depended on it and headed down two floors.

By the time I reached the main entrance, Ril was perched on the small wall just outside of the front entrance and she was shaking her head as I walked up to her.

"You've got several things to work on. I won't tell you everything you need to improve on because if you don't learn it yourself, it won't become embedded into your memory. We'll keep doing these exercises until you get it right for the next four days." Ril told me bluntly. "What I will tell you is something very obvious. You've got to serious cut down the time it takes for you to react to any given situation. It took you approximately four minutes to realise that you were caught in the crowd and another three minutes to realise that you needed to get out of the crowd to find what you needed. Another thing that you are terrible at is shoving past people without being brutally rude. Of course, when your life is on the line, it doesn't really matter all that much whether you're being rude to those around you or not, but for the purpose of these exercises, I want you to get better at shoving through crowds."

"How long was I off by?"

"Only by about a minute. I'm impressed that you chose to take the stairs and you managed to get down them a lot quicker than I would've expected. It seems that some of that training with Prit really had paid off."

"Considering the amount of times that he had me running up and down extremely long flights of stairs, I'm not all that surprised." I rolled my eyes.

"Well then I guess Prit didn't do that bad of a job." Ril smiled at me and patted the space on the small wall beside her. "Let's take a half an hour break and then we'll move onto our next exercise. Well done on your first task for being only a minute off. Next time the time limit will be much shorter so I hope you're prepared, Cassie."

"I will do my best, Ril."

"And that's all I ask for," she smiled again.

I took a seat beside her and handed her one of the sandwiches and one of the cokes. For a while we both ate in silence and I simply watched people walk in and out of the large mall. There were so many people around and I knew by instinct and recognition that a lot of them were also non-humans.

After half an hour, Ril tugged me up and forced me to do several stretches. It was a little embarrassing since we were in the middle of the street but I couldn't defy her either. I knew that Pritkin had bizarre training methods and I had no doubt that Ril was the same, if not a little stranger, so I could only trust her.

When the stretches over, I was even more surprised by her next task.

"Okay, stand on the wall, Cassie."

I did as she asked.

"See that pillar over there towards the end of the street?"

"Yes…"

"I want you to run there and back as fast as you can. I'll time you."

"What?!" I shrieked, earning several odd glances from passers-by.

"Please just do it, Cassie."

I stared at her before giving a reluctant sigh. I jumped off of the wall and just glanced at her with a small glare before taking off down the street as fast as I possibly could while trying to weave through the crowds of people who were also walking down the street. It was incredibly difficult to run since there were so many people around and there were almost no gaps for me to slip past to overtake people.

I somehow managed to reach the pillar that she had mentioned before and then dashed back. I barely had time to catch my breath when she hurled another task at me.

"I want you to get me a donut leaflet. It's somewhere along this road."

I took off running again and this time I was slower because I couldn't remember where I had seen someone handing out donut leaflets. It wasn't until I was on my way back that I found the guy was only a few paces away from where Ril had stood. I had just run all the way to the pillar for nothing.

"You have just realised your stupidity, haven't you?" she grinned at me as she took the donut leaflet from my outstretched hand. I rested my other hand on my knee and struggled for several moments to catch my breath. "You have ten minutes before the next task. In the meantime, I want you to think up at least five important reasons as to why demons are dangerous creatures."

I collapsed onto the wall and lay on the cold brick as I stared up at the sky.

Five reasons why demons were dangerous.

Well this was interesting.

Although Pritkin was an incubus and I knew by fact and instinct that he could be incredibly dangerous when he wanted and needed to be, I never really thought properly about the details of why he was dangerous regarding him being a demon.

I tried to think of the most important reason and it took me several moments to actually consider it a threat. Pritkin could kill me. He could easily kill me and take away my life as he had on far too many occasions reminded me, especially a couple of days ago.

He was an incubus, unlike with vampires, once he started the drain, there would be absolutely nothing I could do to stop him whereas with vampires, you had the chance or the option of shoving the vampire away before he or she killed you. With the incubi, you wouldn't even consider the idea of pushing them away even if you were fully aware of the fact that they were about to kill you.

Even though Pritkin had reminded me time and again of this fact, I had never taken him seriously. Mainly for the reason that there were only two demons that I could think of who would even consider draining me. One was the crazy and idiotic war mage himself, the other was his father.

Yes, Rosier was incredibly dangerous, but I had the vague feeling that he wasn't so interested in trying to kill me anymore. He would probably take the chance if there was an opportunity like I was lying half dead right in front of him, but he didn't seem to care to make any real obvious effort to kill me personally. Not since that last time in the hotel room when he was draining me or that time when he wanted to get the Codex from me in the hotel lobby.

Rosier's way of thinking was that I would probably be killed off by someone else and he didn't really care that much about how I died so long as I was killed one way or another so that I would no longer be a threat to his son. To be perfectly honest, I had to agree with the demon lord. There were so many different groups and races who seemed to be after my life at the moment that I was genuinely surprised that I still managed to survive through everything.

And that brought me back to the other demon in my life. The main reason why I was still alive was thanks to one man, or demon, however you wanted to see it. Pritkin, also previously known as Merlin, was the man who wrote the Codex Merlini and he was also a demon but above all of that, he was just Pritkin. There was simply no other way to describe him.

Pritkin was just Pritkin. He was his own type of person and set of characteristics entirely. I had never met anyone who was anything like him and I doubted that I ever would. He was just such a bizarre and crazy person that it would have been insanity to try and compare him to anyone else. Well, that and the fact that if anyone ever tried to compare him, he'd probably just kill them for trying.

"What are you thinking about, Cassie? That slight smile of yours has me curious."

"I'm not really thinking about anything. Just resting." I lied.

"I'm not buying it. What were you thinking about? Hm… let me guess, you were trying to think about demons so… You were just thinking about Prit, weren't you?" she smirked victoriously.

"No."

"And that's was definitely a lie if the sound of your heart rate speeding up is anything to go by."

"My heart rate?"

"You forget, Cassie, I'm not normal by any means whatsoever. There are many things that I can do and having ultra-sensitive hearing is simply one of my abilities."

"I see. So what else can you do?"

"You will see in due course," she shrugged nonchalantly. "It's too much effort for me to give you a list now. It'll be like asking you to list the things that you are capable of and describing the various forms of each of your ability."

I blinked at her for several moments before I realised that she was right. If someone asked me the same question as the one that I had just asked her, even I would be reluctant to answer. Not because I didn't want them knowing what I could do, although that would definitely make me hesitate, but simply because it would have been too much of an effort and a waste of time to try and think up and list the things that I have managed to do so far.

"So, your time is up. How many dangers did you manage to think up?"

"Um… one?" I stated uncertainly.

"Just one?" she stared at me as though I was joking, except, I really wasn't. I had only just thought of one. She must have seen the answer on my expression because she gave a heavy sigh and ran her hand through her hair. "It seems that there's more to teach you than I'd first thought. Either that or Prit was right and you are totally oblivious to the dangers even though you know perfectly what they all are."

"What'd you mean I'm oblivious even though I know what the dangers are?"

"It means that you know why demons are dangerous, you know what makes them dangerous, but despite that you don't take any of the risks or dangers into consideration of the fact that it adds to their threat."

"So you're saying that I'm like a sheep walking into a den of lions? The sheep knows that the lions are scary and dangerous but it doesn't care."

"Precisely my point," she nodded. "So what was the one reason you thought of?"

"That they can easily kill me and once it's started there'd be nothing I can do to stop the process of the drainage."

"Well you've got the most obvious and important one. I guess I'll give you a brownie point for that. I will tell you one and then you can run laps backwards and forwards between here and that pillar until you manage to figure out the other three. The one I'm going to tell you is less obvious and you probably don't actually know. Demons can use magic up to a certain level. They are restricted to a certain type of magic depending on the family and specie that they come from. Now take a run and let's see how long it takes you to work out the other three."

"You want me to run until I figure the other three out?" I asked her hysterically.

"Yes, that is exactly what I am proposing. Now, there are two things that I can do. I can either put a spell on you so that you have forced to run at a certain pace the whole time until I say stop, or you can choose your own pace by running by yourself. Which would you rather happen?"

"I don't like the sound of either of those options but I pick the latter one!" I complained and took off at a slow jog back down the street towards the pillar.