Page 19 of The Night Burning
“Let me guess, you want to train with us?”
“Not just me. I talked to Celina, Jena, and Raika. We all want to train.”
My heart tugged. Raika wanted to train? Like Tyren, I didn’t like the idea of her in a fight, but she had been in fights before. And despite not being trained properly, she had done well. Imagine if she could fight. She would kick some serious ass.
“I like that idea.”
Lucille gasped. “You do? Are you serious?”
I nodded. “Yes. The four of you can join us for practice tomorrow.”
She clapped her hands, excited. “I’ll let the others know right away.” She ran out of my office.
Tyren glared at me. “Females fighting?”
“Why not? Like Lucille said, they had some basic training in school and I remember many of them being rather good. If they continued training, they could be as good as us. And the moon knows we need all the help we can get.”
He leaned closer and whispered, “Aren’t you worried about Raika getting hurt?”
I clenched my teeth, unclenched them. “Yes, I am, but she already showed all of us that she can protect herself, and all of us too.”
Tyren let out a long sigh. “You’re the alpha. I won’t argue with you.”
“Good.” I took another bite of my sandwich.
A minute later, Lavinia and Killian came into the office, carrying disposable lunch boxes.
“Oh.” Lavinia stared at us. “Let me guess, Lucille?”
“Bingo,” I said between bites.
She rolled her eyes. “You’ve got to set her straight.”
“And what will I say to her? Lucille, I appreciate your attention, but I’m in love with someone else.”
Killian pointed at Tyren.
I nodded. “He knows.”
“If you do that, she’ll ask who, and it won’t take her three seconds to realize who,” Lavinia said. She placed the lunch boxes on my desk. “And then the real problem begins.”
“Why?” Tyren asked. “Why aren’t you telling anyone?”
I explained to him all the reasoning about it. Despite wanting to tell everyone about so I could walk around with Raika’s hand in mine, as I said it all out loud, I once more realized it made sense to wait.
Tyren nodded and shoved the last piece of his sandwich in his mouth. Lavinia and Killian leaned against the low filing cabinet to the side and started eating their lunch of carbonara pasta—made by Rue, no doubt. Her cooking skills were legendary. I regretted eating the sandwich now.
Killian’s phone rang. He picked it up, looked at screen, and frowned. “It’s Taos.” Taos was one of the vampires he had sent to search for the crystals. “He wasn’t supposed to call me until later this evening to report.” Killian answered the call. “Taos, what happened?”
I focused my wolf hearing on the conversation.
“We’ve found him,” Taos said. My eyebrows lifted. “He seems to be hiding in a luxurious hotel in Calgary.” That was one state over, in Alberta. “So far, he seems to be alone, but earlier this morning, he went into an abandoned farm outside of town. We couldn’t get close. It was full of demons.”
“Does he have the crystals?” Killian asked.
“I haven’t seen them, but he carried something in the inside pockets of his jacket. He keeps checking the items to see if they are still there.”
Would he be carrying the crystal with him, or would he have hidden them somewhere safe? What would I have done? I would probably have hidden them, but who said these demons were smart?