Chapter Five

October 2008

Reagan was taking her own private tour of the school. She had already seen the blueprints and now wanted to add images to her internal map. Mr. and Mrs. Draganesti were giving the main tour to their friends and parents of students of the classrooms and principal/security office on the north side of the building. She was exploring the south side where the cafeteria, gymnasiums and practice rooms were located.

I really wish my school's gym was designed like this, she thought to herself as she circled the practice room. They had the walls decorated with the types of activities that would be taught: fencing, archery, boxing, hand-to-hand combat, and other such activities. She looked over to where the bleachers were located behind safety glass wall.

Remembering the blueprints, she walked around the glass and a wall to the right of the bleachers. Standing on her tiptoes, she hit the secret panel, and the hidden door opened to the left of her, revealing the weapons storage room.

"Cool," she said, admiring the different types of tools of war stored in there. She kicked the doorway, activating the switch that instantly shut the door. It again looked like a solid wall.

"That is just freaking cool," she mumbled, leaving the room and walking down the hallway about five feet before entering the basketball gymnasium located to her left, the room to her right was the volleyball gym. But the basketball gym led outside and to the outdoor sport arenas. She opened up the door to let some air in and wondered around the court.

As she was turning back to shut the door, she felt a disturbance in the air and instantly drew her sword. A tall, dark brown haired vampire appeared, his back facing her. She instantly flipped her up to his neck.

"Move and you will breathe your last," she hissed, lowering her voice a bit. She had found that a lowered voice hid her gender, making the vampires think she was a man and underestimating her.

"My name is Zoltan," the man said, going still. "I was invited for the tour-"

"Who said you could talk?" she interrupted with a growl. Realizing that she might be making a mistake on who he might be, she decided as a precaution to test him against her nose. "Turn around slowly, hands at shoulder height."

Doing as she directed, he slowly turned around and faced her. Inwardly she smiled when she saw his surprise that she was a female. She wasn't to thrilled though, when his eyes roamed her body and landed on her lips.

"Blow your breath on me," she ordered, getting his attention back on track.

"What," he asked in surprise.

She leaned in a little but didn't quite catch the sent. "Again."

"You want me to breathe on you?" he asked in amazement.

"Okay, I caught your breath," she said, lowering her sword and backing away from him. "You're safe."

"Considers what you consider safe," he said with a grin.

She cocked her head in confusion. "Was that a threat or a flirt?"

Before he could answer, she felt the air shift behind her, and she quickly spun, raising her sword up to Conner's neck as soon as he appeared.

"Snow, put that away," he said, glaring down at her.

Blushing, she quickly did as commanded and stood at attention. "All's clear between here and the cafeteria, sir. This gentleman had just appeared in this room, and I have judged him friendly."

"I should hope so," Conner said, a corner of his mouth lifting. "As you were then."

She quickly gave him a salute and hurried over to the doors leading to the hallway, not daring to look at the other man. Suddenly, another man entered through the hallway doors and caught her gaze. They both stopped, and Reagan's instincts instantly identified him as a fellow shifter. She slowly began to circle him, and to her surprise, he mirrored her movements.

So he's another cat, she thought, narrowing her eyes. Her instincts told her to be wary, that he could turn out to be dangerous to more than just her body. And sense that thought scared her more than anything else at that moment, she gave him a hiss before escaping out into the hallway.

It was only after she was nearing the security office that she recalled where she had seen that cat-man before: back at Romatech, when she saw him on the monitor as he was preparing for the mission to rescue Robby (who at this moment was on a vacation to recover from his experience).

"Definitely need to stay away from that one," she mumbled. She stepped into the office and smiled at the man watching the monitors. "Hello there," she said, coming up to him.

He turned the chair, and she noticed that he was wearing a kilt. Vampire, she thought. They really need to update themselves. They're becoming to easy to spot.

"Hello, lassie," he said with a grin. "Having fun scaring Mr. Czakvar and having a near fight with Carlos?"

"Who and who?" she asked, hooking a chair with her leg to shift it over and sitting down next to him.

"Zoltan Czakvar and Carlos Panterra," he said, pointing to the screen that showed the gymnasium. All three men were still in there and were chatting for a moment. Then they all left and headed in the direction where the tour was still progressing. "What were you doing with Zoltan anyway?"

"Checking him out," she said blankly. Suddenly realizing how that sounded, she quickly added, "He just appeared, and I wasn't sure if he was a friendly or enemy. So I tested him."

"And how did you test him?" he asked, giving her a knowing grin.

She glowered at him. "I have taught my nose the difference between synthetic blood and real blood. I can now successfully smell what a vampire was drinking the last time he fed and judge him based on that."

"Really now," he said, raising his eyebrows.

She shrugged. "It's really no different than how you guys know the difference between A positive blood and AB positive blood. I've just trained myself to notice the variances as well."

"Useful talent that," he said, nodding his head in understanding.

Smiling at his praise, she held out her right hand. "Reagan Snow."

He began to reach with his own right, but stopped when they both realized he had no hand on that arm. Grimacing, he pulled his arm back. "Dougal Kincaid," he mumbled, turning his attention back to the screens.

"Pleased to meet you," she mumbled, suddenly uncomfortable.

For the rest of the tour, they watched the screens in silence.

Chapter Six

November 2008

Reagan was patrolling the hallways one school night when she heard a loud clashing coming from the practice room. Curious, she opened the door a smidge and was surprised to see Conner and Dougal going at it with giant claymores.

Closing the door a bit, she pulled out her mike and said, "Hey, Douglas, is everything still clear?"

"Everything looks fine from where I'm sittin'," the highlander said. "If you want to take a break to watch them, that's fine by me."

"Will they care?" she asked, opening up the door again.

"Not really," came the answer. "Conner actually likes outside input on Dougal's training. He still hasn't gotten use to fighting with his left hand yet."

"Thanks Doug," she said, entering the room and sitting down one the bleachers behind the safety glass.

"No problem," he radioed back before disabling their connection.

She sat back against the bleachers and watched these old-time warriors go at it like they really were out to kill each other. After a time, she did start to notice some flaws. Dougal, for one, wasn't holding the sword correctly. He was holding it like it could come out of his grip at any second and not like it was an extension of himself. Plus, it was obvious that he wasn't use to his left hand. His swings were uncoordinated and wide. It was only by chance or sometimes skill that stopped Conner's attacks from getting through, and Conner's left-handed fighting wasn't much better. She now had a full understanding of the saying, "Like the blind leading the blind."

She watched them for a while, thinking on how Dougal could become comfortable using his left hand in battle, when a memory from a few months back came to her. Instantly, an idea began to form, and she allowed herself a small smile. Now she just had to figure out how to make her idea a reality.

* * *

Three walk-through and a half hour before sunrise later, Reagan returned to the practice room where the two men were finally finishing up for the night.

"Good job, Dougal," Conner said, coming out of the hidden room. "We'll try again next week."

"Sure Conner." Even Reagan could hear the frustration in his voice. Dougal gave a nod in her direction before teleporting away.

"You know that he's not improving, right," she asked, raising her eyebrow at Conner.

"Noticed that did ya?" Conner walked over to her. "I just don't know what is going wrong."

"Simple: you're a righty trying to teach a fellow righty how to fight like a lefty," she explained. "What Dougal needs is a lefty to train him on how to successfully use his left hand. He's still reaching for things with his right hand. His brain isn't adjusting. But I have a friend-"

"Bring her," Conner said, giving her a knowing look. "I'll explain it to Dougal tomorrow, and we'll have your friend train him here."

"Great," she said, before hurrying home to inform Titania that she would have a sparring partner.