This chapter is when Adrian starts to train for what's to come.

It's not a very long chapter, and I know I could have made it longer,
but I didn't. But it's also not the shortest chapter.

If there are mistakes, I'm sorry, I didn't have mush time to proof read.

Please READ&REVIEW...

Training Session

"What do I need to do?" Christian asked after we filled him in with everything that we'd need.

"Well we don't need much," I said. "We mainly just need to make sure everyone's ready. And of course to know how everyone's doing on the training sessions."

"Everyone's doing great. But by everyone, you mean-"

"Adrian," I stated. Who else would I mean? He's a major part of the plan. He's the one that has to stake Lissa, which meant he needs to be strong enough.

"He's hardly ever came to any of the sessions. He never really wanted to fight. He always said he was a 'looker, not a fighter'," Christian said, rolling his eyes at the last part.

"Hey, I am a looker," I hear behind me at the door to Christian's room. Always making a grand entrance, Adrian's standing with a hand on the door frame, and a cigarette in the other. I guess me breaking his heart broke his contract to me to stop smoking. I already knew the drinking part wasn't going to last long, but the smoking part actually lasted longer than I thought. Adrian always had ways to amaze me. "So what are y'all talking about?"

"The training session," Christian filled him in, making Adrian groan. "And how you're never there."

"I could never hurt anyone, unlike some people," Adrian muttered, staring at me. But I just ignored him, trying real hard not to make him mad at me even more.

"Well you need to start training," I said, still not looking at Adrian. "You're the only spirit user we have, so we all need you." I know he was still staring at me, but I just walked past him and grabbed my stake off the counter. "You'll need to know how to handle one of these. And you're also going to have to get over the fact that it will be Lissa that you'll be staking." As I said it, I could fill the sadness raising up in me and I had to fight not to sob in front of everyone. But I knew Christian was having an even harder time with all this, they were supposed to be getting married in two months after all. How were we ever going to pull this off by then?

"It shouldn't be that hard," Adrian said, grabbing for the stake in my hand.

"Not so fast," I almost screamed, pulling my hand out of reach. "You are far from ready to use, or even touch, one of these. Do you even know how dangerous these are?" I know he already knew, we all learn in school, but was he stupid or something with just reaching out for one. Especially one that I held.

"I'm not stupid Rose," he said, looking me square in the eyes.

"There's more about stakes than you know. They teach dhampirs more about them than moroi. Mainly 'cause moroi weren't supposed to use them. But you need to learn how to fight before you learn how to fight with a stake." And there really was way more about stakes than moroi knew about. Moroi wasn't allowed to fight, so they weren't allowed to handle stakes. The main thing that they knew about them were that they were equipped with the four elements; fire, water, earth, and air. "And anyways," I said, remembering a main thing that he had to learn by himself. "You need to learn how to equip spirit into a stake too. And since you're the only one here that knows about spirit, you'll have to do that by yourself. So before you even touch a stake, work on training and your spirit."

"I have been working on that. Well, at least I was... with Lissa," he said, looking down and walking to the couch. "It's harder than you think."

"I never said it was easy." I knew it wasn't. I had been with Lissa loads of times when she was practicing. It took lots of concentrating, and it always left you drained afterwards. Not to mention with using spirit, it always had its side effects. "I know its hard Adrian, but you have to try," I whispered, standing in front of him. "This is important. This is Lissa we're talking about."

"I know," he whispered, pulling me into a hug. "I know it is. But this is really harder than you actually think. I haven't even come close to putting spirit into anything. Lissa was good at it, but me . . . not so much."

"Well you at least have to try. That's all we're asking for," Christian said from beside us on the couch.

"I know, and I will but it's going to take some time."

After we finished talking with Adrian, we made our way to the gym, my favorite place at the court, to start practicing. Of course, I couldn't do much, but I did get to show a few simple moves that would help. Mainly defensive moves, but they'd still help.

"The first thing that you'll need to know is how to block," I said, standing in front of Adrian. "And the main thing is how your footing is. If your feet are strong and sturdy, it'll be harder to knock you down. You have to spread your feet apart and bend your knees a little. Put one foot, which ever foot you lead with, in front of the other a little bit. And then just put a little more weight on the back foot, and then you should be good. Now just do what I do." I got in the position that I just told him about, having him do exactly what I did. Then I motioned for Dimitri. Dimitri came forward and pushed Adrian, making him stumble backwards a few feet.

"What the heck," Adrian shouted. "I did what she said."

"This is part of the practice Adrian," I said, holding back a grin. "He was just checking your balance, which is not bad. If you were just standing there, you would have just fallen on your ass."

"Yeah, whatever," Adrian muttered.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" I asked, almost laughing out loud.

"Nothing," he stated, stomping back over to me. I made him practice his footing a few more times before heading on to actually blocking.

"Now I'm going to show you what you need to do with your arms so you can block," Eddie said as I sat down to watch. "You need to make your hands into fists and put them in front of your face like this." He did everything as he talked, making Adrian go along. "You need to have one hand, which ever you use more, in front of the other a ways. Just act like your about to hit someone. But you have to stay sturdy and strong to block. You're not actually going to hit anyone. You're on the defense right now." As Adrian mirrored Eddie, Dimitri came up and asked him if he was ready. When he nodded his head, Dimitri struck out to hit Adrian. But Adrian was actually ready, so he moved his hands where Dimitri was going to hit.

"Good," Dimitri said, surprised that Adrian actually got it on his first try. But I knew Dimitri was going easy on him, 'cause if he wasn't, Adrian would of been knocked out already. As they did that a few more times, I could tell that Adrian was getting tired.

"He's getting pretty good," Jill said as she walked up behind me.

"Yeah, but he stills has a way to go," I said, not once taking my eyes off him and Dimitri still going at it. "But I don't know if he'll be ready any time soon. And I really wanted to leave within a week."

"Just keep this up and he just might be ready."

"Yeah, but he also needs to equip a stake with spirit, and he says that he's nowhere close to even figuring it out."

"Oh," was all Jill said as we stared at Adrian blocking every one of Dimitri's hits.

I'll try to update soon.

I'll probably only be able to update one more time before spring break,
I won't be in town, or the state, or even in the country. So I won't have a computer to use.

PLEASE READ&REVIEW...

Thanks a lot to everyone who has read my story. you've all inspired me to keep writing more,
and thanks even more to the people who have reviewed, you've inspired me even more. :D