Chapter 5: Elemental Boot Camp

[Bella's POV]

We land at the Lubbock Preston Smith airport. There is a man holding a placard with I. Swan on it. After a quick hello, he leads us out to the parking deck where a new black Lexus SUV is waiting for us handing Damon the keys. Damon opens the passenger door for me. "Thanks."

He puts the key in the ignition. It won't crank the car. "I'm going to string Pete up by his toes."

I get out on my side and walk around the car. "Let me try."

He backs away letting me into the driver's seat. I turn the key and the car starts immediately. "Looks like this one is mine: you have your shiny now I have one too."

Damon talks me through Lubbock; we finally leave the city and take a few back roads to a ranch. The road to the house is well taken care of. The ranch house is a one story hacienda styled building; the outside facade is mostly native shale stone, with a red tiled roof. We are greeted by Peter and his wife Charlotte.

"Welcome to the Whitlock Ranch, I'll show you to your room." The inside has a beautiful light wood paneling. Hand woven rugs and heavy wooden furniture. Charlotte pulls me away from Damon and Peter. She leads me down the hall to a lovely room with a king sized bed.

"Charlotte your home is spectacular and warm. Thank you for your invitation to visit."

She grins at me. "This is yours and Damon's room."

I look at her wide eyed. "Charlotte we aren't a couple."

She laughs, "You will be."

"Damon can sleep on the couch for a while."

I hear, "The hell I will." Charlotte bends over laughing hard.

She winks at me and picks up a pad next from the antique desk in the corner of the room and writes. "Damon is a gentleman he will not take advantage. Contrary to what he says you mean more to him than you both know. He will sleep on the couch in the sitting room next to this one. He is in protection mode and doesn't want to be too far away from you. I just want to mess with him a little." She grins at me. I take the note and reply. "We are just getting to know one another. He is important to me too."

Charlotte hugs me and leaves the room. Damon enters putting my suitcases in the room. "Damon, I only brought one suitcase."

"I packed you an extra one. You will need what is in there for the next few days."

"I'll be sleeping in the room next door. That door is to the sitting room." He points to a door on the left hand wall. He kisses me on the forehead and leaves through it, closing the door behind him.

Dinner was weird with just Damon and I eating and the others watching. Charlotte made a southern spread for us: Texas chili, vegetarian chili, cornbread, tortilla chips, salsa, corn on the cob and enchiladas. I tried all of them, so did Damon. Charlotte is a fine cook. "Thanks Charlotte, I love your cooking."

Jasper looks at Damon, "We need to get up early tomorrow to start training. We will be going to some caverns Peter knows about. Wake up call will be at four a.m. See you at breakfast." He leaves the house through the back door. I groan. I really hate getting up that early. Damon laughs at me. "That time is probably an hour or two late for him. He's letting us sleep in." I say under my breath, "Damn vampires." All of them laugh at me. I blush.

Damon takes my hand. "Come on time for sleep."

Surprisingly I fall asleep pretty quickly.

Damon knocks on my door to wake me up. "Bella I have some gear for you to put on." I open the door between our rooms. He is standing there dressed in a black Gi, holding a folded one for me along with arm and shin guards, along with a boxers helmet. "What? We are going to be sparring?"

"No silly this is to protect you from flying objects."

"Give me a few minutes and I'll be right out."

I put the guards on and the Gi. I pull my hair up into a ponytail. I carry the helmet with me to breakfast. Charlotte made breakfast and packed a lunch for me and Damon. I peeked in the wicker basket; she put two blood bags in there for him. "Thanks, Charlotte." I put on my socks and hiking boots that Damon must have left for me by the door last night.

"You're welcome." We get into Peter's old ranch truck to take us close to the caverns. We hike for about a half a mile to the entrance. The caverns look to be wind carved. The passages let us get deeper underground.

[Jasper's POV]

I explain, "We are going to be experimenting with each of our Leylock abilities. Bella both Renee and Charlie have shown you how to harness Leyline energy since you could walk upright. We are going to explore the elemental manipulation abilities that you received at birth. I want you to concentrate on control for now. We will get to defense and offence with the abilities after we gain control. Pete, Charlotte, Damon and I, are learning the same lessons with you at the same time."

"Why do we have to learn now?"

"I found out that there is someone that wants to exploit your abilities. I am not sure who they are but Alice was in contact with them. It's the main reason I left the Cullens. I recently discovered that I can use Leyline energy to defend myself by accident. Charlotte and Peter agreed with me about training. I had a long chat with Charlie and he agreed to send you for training with us."

[Damon's POV]

I can call up fog very easily. Sage used to bitch at me because I could call up fog almost from day one. It took her almost a century to perfect it. Now I find out that I have an affinity for water. I hope we can have fun with our elemental abilities.

"I volunteer to go first. Since I know how to call up fog, it might help y'all to know how I am able to do it."

I close my eyes and visualize the cavern filled with knee deep fog. I open my eyes and fog starts rolling into the cavern slowly picking up speed until the cavern is filled with fog up to knee deep. I guess the time interval to be twenty minutes.

[Bella's POV]

"Damon that is so cool. How did you do it?"

"I pictured in my mind the cavern and what it would look like if it were knee deep in fog. I believe it would happen when I open my eyes. Then I see the fog rolling in slowly, then picking up speed until the area I imagined is covered up with fog."

By the end of the day I could call up a mini dust devil. Charlotte could create sounds like feet walking in the cavern and no one being there. Pete could create a little ball of lightning in his hand about the size of a marble. Damon could create a five gallon puddle of water. Jasper could create a mini fire devil, similar to my dust devil. It would fizzle out if it crossed the puddle of water Damon created.

I can also cause rocks to break off the formations in the cavern and fall. I accidentally caused a minor cave in in one of the smaller caverns.

I was tired from all the experimentation. Damon and I had the stew Charlotte fixed in the crock pot and fresh baked bread for dinner. Damon also had a blood bag and some of Peters best bourbon. I excused myself from the table to go take a hot shower and get ready for bed.

[Damon's POV]

I love to watch Bella learn to master her elemental abilities. Her excitement when we learn new things together. I have to take long showers at night. Her happiness is a major turn on for me. Sometimes she spontaneously grabs my arm to show me something she mastered. Her touch excites me. Good thing Pete and Charlotte have one of those tank less water heaters.