Deanna paused in the doorway to the room, letting the smell of polish and leather waft around her.
The sharp clash of steel biting into steel and the steady thud of weapons hitting targets filled her ears, easing her.
She felt at home here. This was where she could release all her emotions - anger, fear, worry, confusion - and relax into the reassuring rhythm of her daggers striking leather.
She opened her eyes, gazing excitedly around the training room.
Two men were engaged in a sword fight to her left. A black-bladed katana clashed viciously against a silver sword that looked vaguely French.
Rows of arrow men lifted crossbows and steadied them, aiming at the ringed target.
Two women clamped on earmuffs, stepping into a separate room from which Deanna could hear gunfire.
A teenager a few years older than her was practising with a quarterstaff, his golden locks flying as he spun.
Deanna crossed the room, pausing to collect set of gleaming silver daggers.
She faced the padding-coated walls, and settled into her fighting stance.
She let off a string of daggers, watching as they collected in a group two thirds of the way up the wall.
Jerking the daggers out, she turned again and began shooting.
Already her mind was focusing on separate matters, her arms moving automatically.
Questions buzzed through her head.
What had been the purpose of the attack on the coven? Who had prepared the group?
Amadeus Deminski? she asked herself.
No, why would he stage an attack on Raziel's Coven? He was smart enough to know that they wouldn't succeed. The coven would have gone into lock down. Few people would have even died. He would have known they'd fail, so he wouldn't have even tried. But then, if he hadn't organised the attack, who had?
A rebel group.
Deanna recalled seeing members from several other covens alongside the Deminski Coven's vampires.
So a rebel group had attacked Raziel's Coven.
For what purpose? Either they were inexperienced and naive, or they had been paid enough to fight.
One thing was certain; Xavier wouldn't just let a threat like this go.
While she'd been gone, he would have summoned Amadeus and demanded the reason for his attack.
Whatever Amadeus' excuse had been, Xavier wouldn't have bought it. If there was one thing she was sure of with her Master, it was that he never trusted someone's word.
But what would he have done?
He couldn't just murder Amadeus at the meeting; that would have led to a declaration of war. The Deminski Coven would have called in as many other covens they could find to join them. Most of the vampire race would be wiped out.
And Xavier wanted the complete opposite.
He envisioned a world of one coven. He wanted all the covens to join as one major group. If the covens combined, it would create a complete world of peace within the vampires.
Deanna frowned.
So what would he demand of Amadeus?
He wouldn't want a complete destruction of the species; he wanted peace.
Deanna's eyes widened.
The dagger froze in her fingertips as shock coursed through her.
Over 900 hundred years ago, the two covens of the world had begun a battle to determine the greatest coven. It was believed that, in the aftermath of the war, all the covens would be united. But instead, the covens had torn apart. Xavier had fought in that war.
There was only one major set of wars in vampire history; the Wars of Dominor.
She knew exactly what Xavier wanted.
He wanted to finish what he had started. He'd create a Peace Treaty; a bond that linked two covens and suspended any feuds.
And then he'd break it.
