Chapter Twenty-Six
Neith
Once I have written everything down, I take the list and my coffee back to the bed and get myself comfortable. I may not like to go actual clothes shopping, but I love shopping online. Mainly because I can do it from my bed.
**********
I have no idea how long I have been shopping for, but River came to bring me lunch and chat for a bit at one point, and I have gotten everything that I needed and a few things that I wanted which was a novel experience for me. I also got some essentials that I forgot yesterday, like extra shampoo and conditioner and things like that. Even though it’s the weekend I have paid extra for next day shipping and I’m guessing that Ransom is going to do his thing and make sure that no one remembers the location of the house and there is no trace of it online. It seems like it would be a really complicated task, but he doesn’t seem to be bothered by doing it so I’m just going to put it down to magic and Ransom’s awesomeness.
I added everything up as I bought things and I am actually wincing at the total, but even though I have spent more in one go than I think I have ever spent in my life, excluding my house, it still hasn’t made a dent into the total amount that is left on the card. I can’t believe how much my life has changed in less than a week.
Last week I was trying to find enough money to get some food in the house and working extra shifts at Bobby’s so that I could start to restock my healing supplies, and now I have just bought myself a whole new wardrobe of clothes and not from a thrift store either. I haven’t got myself things just because they are cheap, I have bought myself things that I actually really like, things that are in my style and that I actually want to wear.
I like it.
Before I can get too focused on how much my life has changed in so many ways, there is a knock at the door. Stretching my back out as I walk, I realize that I must have been sitting in the same position for far too long, because I feel more stiff than I should.
“Hey,” I greet Reed happily.
“Have you managed to get everything done that you wanted to?” he asks me with a smile.
I nod, smiling proudly as I say, “Yeah. I just finished actually. Please tell me that you are here to tell me that it’s time to do sword practice because I have been sitting still for far too long, and I’m now feeling really twitchy.”
Reed’s smile widens, “Actually, yes that’s exactly what I was coming to get you for.”
“Thank fuck,” I grin. “Let’s go.”
As I start to move out of the door though, I feel magic start to build in the air, it’s not Reed’s magic and none of the others are with him so it's not them either. Although I can now pretty confidently say that I could recognize their magic now, and this magic that is building is not one that I recognize.
It takes me a moment, but I soon realize that it’s the sword.
Turning around to look at it, I put my hands on my hips, and aware that I probably look like I am crazy, I narrow my gaze on my sword, “I get that you want to come, and that you don’t like the idea of me practicing with other swords, however, I haven’t swung a sword in a really long time, apart from when we killed that backwards knee thing, and when you helped me with the kelpies, which I really fucking appreciate by the way, you’re awesome. I would like to practice with a normal and boring sword before I start practicing with you, this practice session is just to test where I need to improve. As soon as we have worked that out then I can start practicing with you and we can figure out what we can do together.”
The magic that was building disappears and I’m going to take that as a sign of the sword's agreement.
Reed’s eyebrows are in his hairline as he looks between the sword and me, “Your sword certainly gets jealous pretty easily.”
I roll my eyes as I shut my door behind me, “Yeah, trust me to have an enchanted sword that gets so easily jealous. At least it didn’t try to stab me this time.”
“I’m not sure it really tried to stab you the first time, I think it knew that you were going to catch it.”
I pull a face, “I would definitely like to think that.”
He chuckles, “Come on, let’s see how rusty you really are.”
I practically bounce the whole way down to the gym. As I have mentioned before, it has been a long time since I have been able to properly practice with a sword and it is one of my most favorite things to do. As we are warming up, making sure that nothing is going to get strained during the practice, I have to admit that some nerves start to bubble in my belly. I really don’t want to make a fool of myself, and Van talked me up to the others, which of course means that they are here as well, everyone apart from Doc who seems to be missing. I don’t really mind that the guys are here, but I really don’t want to be so rusty that I look like I have never handled a weapon before. Logically I know that I can’t be that rusty since I’ve used my sword twice now to save my life, but what if that was all the swords doing and had nothing to do with me?
Evander wasn’t entirely wrong in what he was saying to the guys, I do seem to have a natural affinity with weapons, swords especially, but that was when I was practicing every day.
“Alright, since I know that you like your swords, is there a particular style that you like to fight with?” Reed asks me.
The guys all stop pretending that they are working out or practising themselves and all turn to watch. I decide the best thing for me to do is to pretend that they aren’t there. It will just make me too nervous otherwise.
I shrug, “I like most swords. Anything that has a point is good with me, so I’m happy to practice with anything. My favorite weapon to fight with though is a double-bladed, double-edged sword, that shit is fun. Oh, I had this double-bladed dagger once, that had a knuckle guard that had another blade on it,” I sigh lovingly, “that thing was fucking awesome. Oh, my fuck, I could get one made for me couldn’t I?”
The guys are all looking at me with amused and slightly shocked expressions.
Raiden mutters, “Damn, Van, you weren’t kidding she really does love her blades.”
Griff grins, one of his rare proper smiles as he says, “You talk about blades like I have heard women talk about clothes and shoes. It’s fucking awesome.”
I shrug, “I like pointy things.”
“Yes, you could get one of those double-bladed daggers made,” River replies, answering my early question. “We have someone that we go to when we want our weapons made, he is absolutely amazing and can design it any way that you want. I was actually talking to him a week or so ago and he was saying that he is getting bored of making normal weapons and wished that someone would ask him for something a bit more unique. He’s going to fucking love your request!”
I start bouncing, “That’s awesome when can we go? Wait, are you talking about Lewis? I met him in town yesterday when I went with Raiden.”
River smiles and nods happily, “Yeah that’s him. He’s amazing at what he does. I’m not sure when we could go but maybe Tuesday, unless something comes up with the case. You have got Sully’s poker game tonight. The training academy trip is on Monday, and I think that Raiden wants to show you the library and go through all of the things that we need to research tomorrow.”
Raiden interrupts before I can reply, “We can do that another time, or I can make a start on it tomorrow and then you can help me out and come see the library another time.”
I shake my head, “No way, I have got questions that I need answered and as excited as I am about getting my blade designed, that can wait. Some of the things that I want to look into can’t. It’s like an itch in my brain currently.” I frown. “I know that sounds really weird but that’s the only way that I can think to describe it.”
“I get that,” Raiden admits.
“Thank fuck for that because everyone else is looking at me like I’m weird,” I grin. “Alright, let’s do this. Don’t laugh if I’m shit.”
“Neith, none of us would do that,” Griff reassures me.
Reed hands me a short sword and holds up one for himself as well.
“I figure the best way to see what needs to be worked on is to see what you currently know and remember, so we’re going to spar,” he tells me. “These are practice blades, but they will still hurt like a motherfucker because we keep our practice blades sharp enough to cut. People have a tendency to get lazy in their practices if there isn’t a real threat of injury.”
“That’s smart,” I reply. “I’m used to practicing with proper blades, I never practiced with blunt or wooden ones. I didn’t really see the point.” I snicker at my inadvertent joke, “ha! Point, get it.”
River snorts clearly having the same level of humor that I do while the others just shake their heads and look amused.
“I like that,” River grins.
Reed shakes his head but has a smile playing around his lips as he gains my attention and tries to get me back on track.
“If at any point, you need me to stop, for whatever reason, just yell stop and I will,” Reed tells me, all amusement dropping from his expression.
I nod, “I expect I won’t get too far into this exercise before I’m needing to stop.”
“I’ll take it slowly and then pick up speed and complexity the longer that we practice until we reach a point where you need to stop,” Reed replies.
“Got it,” I grin. “Let’s do this.”
My smile drops as I focus on the fight. Reed is substantially bigger than me and in a sword fight that means that he has certain advantages over me, although because I’m smaller it should technically mean that I am faster than he is and can’t dart around him a lot easier. That usually applies to humans though and Reed is a strong and powerful supernatural. I have no chance of winning this but then again, that is not the point of this exercise. I’m just really competitive. This isn’t the time for that though.
Reed wasn’t joking about starting slowly. He begins by using the most basic of things that we are first taught. I understand what he’s doing but this is going to take forever if he’s going to start with the very basics.
“How about you come at me, like we are properly sparing and throw more complicated stuff in there as we go?” I suggest as I block another one of his swings.
He stops and frowns, “Are you sure?”
I nod, “Absolutely.”
Reed must see something in my expression because he nods, and without any real warning, charges at me. I grin; this is so much better. I see surprise light up his eyes when I manage to keep up with him, and I have to admit that I’m surprised too, it looks like I’m not as rusty as I thought I was.
Which means Van was right and there is no way that he is likely to let me live that down.
Unfortunately, I let my confidence make me sloppy and Reed manages to get through my guard and nick my arm, drawing that smallest amount of blood. He stops immediately and looks at me with concern.
“Damn it,” I growl, “I let myself get too confident. Again.”
I don’t know what expression is on my face, but Reed doesn’t even bother to argue as he simply lifts his sword and waits for me to attack this time. As we begin to fight again, I make sure that I don’t allow myself to get overconfident. I want this to be a real test of what I am capable of and where I need to make improvements to get better. This time I allow myself to become completely focused on the fight, all other distractions disappear, and I am simply in the moment.
This doesn’t mean that I am completely ignorant to what is happening around me, if one of the guys tried to attack me, I would know, it just means that I am not allowing myself to get distracted by things that don’t matter.
We have been fighting for a while, and my muscles are burning but it’s a good kind of burn, it’s been a long fucking time since I had this good of a workout. Reed hits my sword at just the right angle and with enough force that it flies out of my hand, and I move out of the way before the blade makes contact.
“Watch this,” I hear Van say, “Neith!”
Instinctively, and I don’t know how, but I know that he has just thrown me another weapon, Reed must see it too because he swipes at my leg and doesn’t stop fighting. I flip backward to avoid it, getting quite a lot of air and splitting my legs mid flip so I land one foot at a time, catching the staff with a blade on the end easily as I fall back down into a fighting stance. Reed looks shocked but I don’t give him a chance to regain his composure as I take advantage of his momentary hesitation and use it to disarm him of his sword, spiraling my blade around his and tearing it free of his hand.
“Van,” I call out, as I launch the staff toward the opposite wall. This is a game that we used to play, I had completely forgotten about it.
“Reed,” Raiden says, as he throws a sword to Reed.
Evander chuckles as he throws two battle axes in my direction and makes everyone curse, until I easily pluck them out of the air.
“Axes, really?” I grin.
Reed and I start to spar again, using the different weapons. Every now and then Evander will throw a new weapon at me, and I have to catch it and dispose of the other weapons that I am using before I fight with the new one all while still avoiding the attacks from Reed.
“They have been at it for ages, and I’m starting to think that neither one of them is going to back down,” Griff says. “Someone needs to call it. They are going to end up hurting themselves in a minute if they aren’t careful.”
“That’s enough guys!” Evander calls, adding, “Weapons down.”
Reed immediately stops and smiles at me; I return it before I decide that the floor is a much better companion and lie down. Breathing heavily.
River
I am struggling with watching Reed and Neith fight. At first, I was okay, it was really fucking interesting watching Neith fight. There was definitely something supernatural about the way she fought. For one, she was keeping up with Reed and he wasn’t slowing down for her, he wanted to test exactly what she was capable, and while he started to move only at human pace, he increased his speed as she increased hers and as a bystander it was easy to see the surprise on his face when she started moving as quickly as he could.
My problem started when Evander started to throw different weapons at her, it was really fucking impressive to watch her so easily switch between the different ones, and there is definitely something supernatural about her affinity with weapons, I have absolutely no doubt about that. But Reed also started fighting in earnest, as he realized that she was a formidable opponent and if he didn’t then she was going to cause some serious damage to him.
Logically I know that Reed would rather get hurt himself than hurt Neith, I know that. However, she triggers something in me that I haven’t felt before and it's something that I’m not used to dealing with. It happened when she was bleeding and everyone was taking too long to make sure that she was okay, and I can feel a similar thing happening now. The good news is that I now recognize it, and I am confident that I can control it. However, as it’s still a new feeling for me, I’m going to need to practice controlling the feeling first and that means that I need to excuse myself.
“I’m just going to step out, I will be back in a moment,” I say to Van.
He glances over at me, his smile faltering as he asks, “Is everything okay?”
I nod, and answer honestly, because what would be the point in lying, “Yeah, those new instincts I have when it comes to Neith are not coping too well now that Reed has upped his game. I am fine, and don’t feel the urge to defend but the feeling is new, so I need to make sure that I get a handle on it now so that I don’t lose control over it in another situation.”
Van nods, “I get that man, if your instincts are so strong about her though, we are probably going to need to look into why.”
“Yeah, I know,” I reply.
It's something that I have been thinking about, but I’m not entirely sure what looking into it is going to find. I don’t have the answer for why my instincts have been triggered by her and honestly, I’m okay with the fact that they have, so long as I can get control over them, and I don’t end up trying to take on one of my brothers. That would be really bad, and not something that I want to do.
“If your instincts are triggering now, when you know that she is safe with Reed, then you are going to have to be careful about when they trigger when she is under threat. It will be a good thing in some circumstances but in others it could cause a big problem and let people know that she means a lot to you and us, which could be bad.”
I scrub my hand through my hair, letting out a heavy sigh. That is also something that I am aware of. He’s not telling me anything that I haven’t thought of before.
“I know man, that’s why I’m leaving to get a handle on it now. It won’t take me too long to control it. Hopefully, I will have a handle on it before a situation like that arises.”
Evander smiles and claps me on the shoulder, “I know you will.”
I love that he has that much faith in me, I just hope he’s right. Returning his smile, I glance once more at Reed and Neith and then head for the doors. I think fresh air is probably the best thing for it. With this in mind I head straight for the front of the house.
Before I can get there, I run into Doc, “Hey man, how was work?”
“All good, are you okay?” He asks, studying me closely.
I nod, “Yeah, I just need some fresh air. The guys are in the gym watching Neith kick Reed’s ass.”
His eyes widen as he grins, “Now this I’ve got to see.”
I chuckle as he moves past me and then resume my task, and head toward the front door.
Neith
“H ey guys, River said that I would find you down here,” Doc says as he walks into the room. His tone changes from warm and friendly to concerned as he asks, “What the hell? Why the fuck would you push her that hard? She’s in pain, and severely dehydrated. I’m not actually sure how she is conscious.”
“What!” Reed exclaims the panic in his voice prominent, and echoed by everyone else in the room.
I roll my eyes, not that they can see, so instead I raise my hand and wave to gain their attention, “I’m good, honestly. You’re being dramatic. I just need a moment.”
“Why didn’t you stop me? I told you to say stop and I would,” Reed demands, looking down at me, all sweaty and gorgeous.
“Yum,” I mutter and his eyes widen slightly before he shakes his head.
I’m exasperating him. I do that to a lot of people; what can I say it’s a gift. Evander hands me a bottle of water and I smile gratefully before I start to chug it. Yeah, I definitely should have drunk more than coffee this morning.