Alright people here it is chapter five! Please excuse if the writing seems a little off, there were a few times while writing this I kind of felt unsure about what I was typing so it may be awkwardly written at some points, but I hope not. Honestly this chapter was a little hard to get through, mostly because I think I have so many big things planned, but there has to be kind of filler chapters leading up to those moments, but none the less here it is and hopefully the next one will be easier to write. Please enjoy!

Landon's POV

I sat at a table in the courtyard going over some homework. My head rested in my hands as I read over a textbook and was writing notes. I was exhausted. It had been about a month since I had started training Sophia and she definitely didn't make it easy, but her stubbornness was somehow endearing. She was infuriating however, and we butted heads every day. Every time I'd ask her to do something, she would have to question it, "why should I do that?" "What's the significance of this?" As annoying as it was she would eventually just do what I ask, but never without a fight. I fought a yawn and glanced down at my watch and noticed it was only 5 a.m. I was ready for bed and I hadn't even gone to get dinner yet. I sighed and ran my hands through my hair and returned to my notes. Less than a minute had passed when I heard someone slide into the chair in front of me. I raised my eyes up and saw that it was no other then Hunter's smirking face looking down at me. I straightened up and slouched back into my chair throwing my pencil onto my notebook.

"Come to do my homework for me?" I asked grinning knowing very well that he was definitely not here to do my homework, but he was definitely here for something. Hunter threw his head back laughing then looked back at me and shook his head no. In an instant he went from humor to serious and eyed my appearance up and down.

"How are you Landon?" Hunter asked looking a little worried. I sighed and smirked as I closed up my textbook.

"I'm fine, just a little tired, but it's to be expected with everything that's going on. I mean its senior year, I should be busy." I replied.

"Not so busy that its making you exhausted every day Landon. I know you've been getting up even earlier in the mornings before you train Sophia. I understand you want to keep your own training up, but you don't need to do it every day. Take a day off and take a break." Hunter said.

"I'm fine, really." I protested back. Hunter raised his eyebrow at me.

"You should take your own advice you know. You've learned so much, not only physically, but mentally, so think about it now. Don't push it, in order to be the best guardian you can be you can't be exhausted, how do you expect to defend and protect others when you aren't performing at your best?" Hunter explained. I realized he was right, just a month ago I was telling Sophia how ridiculous she was being for not being realistic and now here I was doing the same thing. "Anyways I came here to tell you I read your evaluation on your training with Sophia. It's really good, I'm happy with what you've shown her so far and it seems like the progress is going great from the few sessions I've seen, besides her feisty attitude." Hunter said smirking.

"Yeah, she's definitely a handful." I replied smiling, thinking about Sophia's cute angry face, wait, and where did that thought come from?

"I want you to pick up the training though. Start teaching her how to use a stake now." Hunter replied.

"I don't think she's ready for that Hunter." I protested, Hunter quickly shook his head.

"She's has to learn Landon and she has to learn fast. I know she's willing, she will be fine. Believe it or not, she's learned a lot from you this past month." Hunter said. I looked at him confused.

"What's the rush Hunter?" I asked confused as to why he was pushing this.

"A task has been arranged for the junior novices. The guardians want to see what they have learned so far since the seniors have taken over their training. To be honest, I'm a little worried about this task. I feel like there is more behind it, like there's a reason they want the juniors to be at a certain level, but regardless it's going to happen. She has to be the best she can be Landon, you have to prepare her. In two weeks you will take her out to the woods to camp for the night. She's not allowed to know about this task. Just tell her that this is something you had to do as part of your training too. At some point you'll have to disappear then disguised. The guardians will attack her and she'll have to defend herself using only her surroundings." Hunter explained. I sat there in silence for a few minutes feeling very weary.

"Why can't I warn her, I don't think that's fair, Hunter she's going to be so scared, what if she can't do it?" I asked a little more frantically then I intended to.

"Landon she'll be fine, no one is going to threaten her life. You have to believe that she can do this that your training has paid off." Hunter replied as he stood up. "I have to get going, just keep up the training and teach her how to use that stake, it'll be fine Landon." Hunter said and turned around and left. I sighed and began packing up my schoolwork. It wasn't that I didn't think Sophia could handle herself; I had no doubt that she could. She was always able to keep up with me in sparing and she had put some good points on me, heck she was probably just as good as me. I just didn't feel right throwing her out there unaware of the situation. I stood up and walked across campus to the dining hall. There was no choice, I had to do my job and she would do just fine. I decided to quickly grab an apple from the snack table and head to my room. Hunter was right, I needed a break. I decided to skip dinner and go straight to bed. The last thought I had before my head hit my pillow was, "I think I will skip my own training tomorrow."

Sophia's POV

I sat on the ground leaning against a tree as I watched Jake and Arabella working on their magic. We had found a secluded place for us to all practice in private so no one would suspect Jake and Arabella's use of magic. I watched quietly as Jake positioned himself behind Arabella, his hand gently placed on her hip, while his other hand guided her arm in a certain position. I raised my eyes and smirked as I watched Arabella's reactions. She was so cute and every time Jake would touch her in order to show her something, she was as red as a tomato. They were both so naïve to each other's feelings. At times like this I would sit quietly as if I didn't exist and just observe the two of them. One reason was indeed just business watching their natural stances to see what I could teach them, the other reason was just to see the reaction the two of them had towards one another. Jake liked her I could tell, especially when he would find any excuse to touch her. I smiled at both of their happy faces and turned my face down to look at the book I was holding. I thought about the last month training with Landon. He still had refused to teach me to use a stake, but had actually taught me things I never really thought about. We had spent sessions fighting in the dark; He would teach me simple things that would sharpen my technique, how to use my senses, how to predict, and all these things I would have never thought about. I had gotten over what had happened the first time we met and came to discover that I actually held a high respect for Landon. We had come to form some sort of partnership, but I still liked to make his life difficult. We constantly bickered, but it made sparing all the more fun. I smiled as I thought back to our training session earlier this morning.

Landon easily maneuvered to his right, missing my left swing and managed to slap the side of my head making me take a step back. I glared back towards him as he shot me a smirk bouncing back and forth from side to side.

"Come on Belikov, if you're going to be a good fighter, try making your moves a little less obvious." Landon said teasingly as he blocked another one of my punches.

"Why? Because your little fake left, punch right move is so secretive?" I asked sarcastically proving my point as I block coming at me from the right. Landon chuckled, circling around me as I watched his every move.

"It's not obvious when you're fighting a strigoi who hasn't been watching your moves for a couple of weeks." He replied smirking finally jumping forward for his attack. I quickly side stepped and stuck my foot out, causing him to stagger, but he never lost his ground.

"No, but it just makes it easier for me to kick your ass." I said smiling kicking out towards his side. He managed to grab my foot and pushed me back. I regained my balance and locked my eyes with his. I could see the determination in his eyes that I felt and we both smirked at each other.

"Shut up with the smart talking and prove it Belikov." He said never dropping his smirk and with that the fighting picked up. We both lashed out at each other, throwing punches here and there and never stopping to pause. He managed to get in a few good kicks, but I never faltered. After a few good punches at him, I managed to start making him move backwards and right when I thought I had him, he managed to bring his foot up to his chest and kick me forcing me back. He smirked and turned his back to me. Without wasting a second I took off at full force ready to jump on his back to bring him down. As I leapt into my jump, Landon quickly turned and grabbed me by the waist, but before he could swing me so he had the upper ground he managed to lose his footing and we both fell, but I had won the upper hand and had been the one to fall onto of him.

"Oof." Landon groaned as his body made impact with the ground. I had collapsed on top of him with my head resting on his chest. We both lay there a few minutes, Landon I'm sure catching his breath, but I just felt paralyzed. As my head rested against his shirt, I could feel the heat radiating from his body and smell the nice cleaned laundered smell of his shirt even though we had been working out. I brought my hands up and placed them on his chest feeling the strangest urge to caress his body and not let him go. I lifted my head and brought my eyes up to meet his. He deep green eyes were full of laughter and he raised himself up so he was resting on his elbows. "Well that's not how I planned that was going to go." He said jokingly, grinning down at me. I continued to stare into his eyes for a couple more moments, and then shook my head back into reality. I pushed his body back down into the ground and straddled his body, pushing my hand into his chest where his heart would be. I smirked at his now shocked face.

"I win." I said triumphantly and pushed myself up off of him. I offered him my hand and helped him up to his feet. "Number one rule, Ivashkov, never hesitate, it ain't over until that stake is driven into a strigoi heart." I said cockily trying not to notice the little space in between where we stood. Landon smiled and walked around me to pick up his bag and turned back to look at me.

"Even though you're cocky about it, I'll give it to you, because you're right, I should have never hesitated." Landon replied smiling. I looked at him confused and walked with him out of the gym.

"Why do you look happy about that?" I asked before we parted ways. I stiffened as he reached out and tucked an escaped strand of hair from my ponytail behind my ear.

"Because you're supposed to be able to beat me Soph, it shows me you have improved." Landon replied softly. He quickly looked into my eyes then waved as he took off towards the main building. I watched his retreating form and unconsciously felt the ear he grazed as he had tucked my hair behind my ear. This hate love teammate thing was starting to get confusing I thought as I took off to get ready for school.

I came back to the present and immediately saw bright green eyes right in my face. I jumped back further into the tree scared out of my wits.

"Ahh, Jesus Arabella, What the hell was that for?" I asked highly annoyed with my hand resting on my chest. Arabella stood back up smirking as Jake approached her from behind grinning as well.

"Well I was trying to tell you that we're done for the day, but you were off in some lala land, what was that all about anyways? What were you thinking about? Or more importantly who were you thinking about?" Arabella teased bashfully blinking her eyes towards me. I rolled my eyes and stood up gathering my stuff, noticing that it really was getting late and that there was time to grab a quick dinner before hitting the sack. The three of us walked towards the dining hall and my thoughts went back to Landon. I honestly didn't know why I was thinking of him. I mean the guy drove me crazy, when I had first met him; he made me feel insulted although he had apologized since for that, but he was still so annoying and we always clashed, fighting not only physically, but verbally all the time. Why couldn't I get the way his body had felt underneath mine though out of my head? I had never noticed how good he had smelt before either or how green his eyes really were before. I shook my head frustrated trying to rid my head of these thoughts and turned to see Arabella was still looking at me questioningly.

"No one important, I promise." I said and with that she shrugged and lit up as we walked towards the food line. I stood for a couple minutes and watched as her and Jake got in line. "I think." I said to myself before I went and joined them.

There you have it folks! Who honestly didn't see that one coming? Aha how predictable, but it'll get better between Landon and Sophia, I hope, if my brain can write out all the perfect things I have planned. Please review or favourite or something me so it'll help motivate me to write faster. Thanks all!