"Really?" I asked feeling completely dumbfounded.
As soon as the word left my mouth, I wanted to take it back. I wasn't so much the simple, one-word question that I regretted. No, it was the tone that I had used to ask it. When you're trying to sound grateful, you really shouldn't sound so utterly and completely surprised by someone's generosity no matter how out of character it might appear to be for them.
Dammit! How do I apologize to her for that? Maybe…
"Yes, really," she answered interrupting my thoughts. "It's yours for the taking. Well, not YOURS, but you catch my wood."
Wood? I questioned to myself before the meaning of her words came to me. "Oh! Yes, I do catch your drift. Thank you! Honestly, I can't thank you enough for this."
I turned to leave, but froze mid-pivot when she called out, "Wait!" She remained silent until I had turned all the way around to face her again before she continued, "Normally I demand some kind of trial to be completed and don't just let someone walk away with what belong to me."
"I know," I whispered as I stared at my feet. "If you…?"
"Which is why I can't just let you leave right now," she continued as if I hadn't spoken at all. My head shot up, but I don't think she saw the terrified look in my eyes. She seemed to have her words predetermined so the look on my face and turmoil in my heart didn't seem to matter to her. "which is why you will tell everyone that I tested you… And that it was… really, really hard."
She then gave me the details she wanted me to retell when people asked for them. I know she was going for 'dramatic', but I was feeling so antsy that I found it really hard to listen to her. But I finally forced myself to focus and soon I was finding it hard no to yawn. I minored in English Literature and I did a lot of creative writing in my spare time, so her plan lacked a lot of flair in my mind. But, something told me that time was of the essence right now, so I didn't argue with her. After all was said and done, I could take what she said and refine it into a better story. Most days people thought that she was completely insane, which helped me to eel even more confident that everyone would believe my storytelling even if she contradicted it.
After a few nods on my behalf and words of confirmation, she was ready to let me go
Wait, scratch that. She was ALMOST ready to let me go. Before I could turn to make my final retreat, she stopped me with her hands on my shoulders. She then leaned in and whispered into my ears. She laughed at the look on my face before she kissed my cheek and sent me on my way.
I was still feeling a bit dazed as I rushed through the house where I had been living to find the man I loved. He kept telling me that I should consider this place my home, but I still had a hard time reconciling that thought with my reality.
I had grown up in a townhouse with my parents on the outskirts of the French Quarter and I had commuted from there to Tulane University while I studied there. That made it hard for me to call a plantation in the Garden District my home. But I guess it sort of was now, right?
I stopped to shake that thought out of my head. That wasn't what was important right now. No, I had to find my warrior and stop him from becoming another statistic.
But where should I look for him? It was still light out, so I knew he wouldn't be outside. Heck, he might not even be awake yet. Now, that would work in my favor, so I doubted that I could ever be that lucky.
It didn't take me long to get through the front door before I sprinted towards his room. Not surprisingly, he wasn't there. And no, he wasn't in the Ensuite either.
I had already passed by the kitchen and that was a no go too, so, where was he? Where else could he be? I mean I know his house was big, like almost obnoxiously big from where I grew up, but where might he be tonight?
Without really thinking about it, I randomly ran to every room that I could think of until I heard a noise. At first blush it sounded simply like a grunt. That could easily have been misconstrued as him working out in his gym, honing his skills to kill soul sucking Daimons, but I knew better.
Well, at least my gut did. The butterflies in my stomach were fluttering so erratically that I was practically feeling nauseated. There had only been a few occasions where that had happened and each time it had been a significant turning point in my life, so I follow that sensation now.
I could hear him grunting and it thankfully got louder as I approached his training room. We had spent a lot of time in there together while he helped train me and honed my skills to help me prepare for the job I thought was the one I was destined to perform after I finished University.
Heck, it was in that room that we both first realized that we had feelings for each other. I had been adamant to ignore my attraction to him until the moment when I felt my lips press against his own.
I let my thoughts drift to my memories of that day. Thankfully they had been nothing but happy recollections, so I was practically beaming once I reached the training room door. I even came up with a fairly salacious comment that I was prepared to call out once I made it through the door.
"Baby" I called out along with his name as I opened the door.
My face fell and the rest of my words were silenced when I noticed that he wasn't alone. At first, I thought that he had invited a Squire over to spar, but the longer I watched the more unsure I became. Primarily, I noticed that he had his arms pinned behind his back. Although I know Squires spend a lifetime training to fight and kill Daimons, none of them had as many years of training and fighting under their belts as him. Second, I realized that he looked like he was genuinely struggling against his attacker and looked like he was in pain.
I called out his name again as a question as I took a step towards him and his attacker.
He immediately shook his head to keep me in my place. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he was gritting his teeth tightly to keep himself from crying out in pain. He had bee a warrior at a very young age during a very turbulent time and he had learned as a child not to let his foes knowhow badly he was hurt. I knew it wasn't just a point of pride to remain silent while in a fight, so I swallowed my questions out of respect to him.
I could feel tears starting to well up as I watched him continue to struggle behind an arm that had moved around his neck and started to strangle him. One of them had to tap out soon because this sparring had gone on long enough.
Forget respecting the warrior, someone had to an end to his insanity. "Stop this! You both have proved your point! Just stop it! Stop it now! Please?"
"Core…" he breathed out through hiss still clenched teeth.
The arm around his neck flexed and cut off his air supply completely. He wheezed out a horrific noise that got my feet moving again. I no soon took two steps before his attacker moved his face so that I could see it for the first time. He whispered something into his ear that caused his victim's eyes to widen with a wild look in them.
"Dad? Daddy!?" I called out in sheer desperation. "What are you doing?!"
A cruel smile spread across my father's face that coaxed my first tear to fall. He didn't seem to be moved by my emotional state. Knowing it was my father who was standing behind my warrior paralyzed me with fear. If I thought my love was a tough opponent, my father was an impossible foe.
"Dad! Please! Please! You're hurting him!"
The Dark Hunter finally stopped making noise, but that was mostly because my father had completely cut-off his ability to breathe. His eyes were still unnaturally wide, so I could easily see the color of them shift from the familiar black that was associated to him and his brethren in Artemis' service to blue.
He had told me that he didn't remember the original color of his eyes and I was the first person in more years than I could count to see his dark cerulean blue irises emerge just before the light in his eyes was completely extinguished.
