“It’s not the laps I’m afraid of—” I rolled my eyes. “It’s the lecture.”
“Lecture?”
“About…” Being alone with you. “About being late.”
“I’m sure you can charm your way out of a lecture.”
“You don’t know Mike very well, then,” I scoffed. “He’s resistant to my charms.”
As I turned away, Arthur grabbed my wrist gently. “Take care out there today, Princess. I will drop by to watch you train later, but, in the meantime, keep your wits about you—watch closely for anyone who watches you too closely and do not spar with any knight you feel you can’t trust.”
“Are you worried there’s a mole?” I almost laughed.
“That, I am.” He released my wrist. “Once I arrive, you needn’t worry too much, but I have a few things to take care of before I come down. Just be careful, please.”
I nodded. “Mike will be there. I’ll be fine.”
Arthur seemed amused by that. “Very well.”
I closed his door behind me and after four steps, enough to be directly in the middle of the corridor again and not so close to looking like I was alone with Arthur, Mike popped around the corner. “Ara!”
“Morning, Mike.”
“Baby, where have you been? I sent my knights up to collect you over an hour ago. Edgar told them you were getting dressed, but now they report back that you’re not even in your room.”
“I was in the shower.”
“Ara, they looked in there.” He smiled conceitedly. “Where’ve you been?”
“I went down to the kitchen.”
He looked at Arthur’s door then back at me. “Kitchen, huh?”
“Yes.” I pushed past him. “What is your problem?”
“You know damn well what my problem is.” He grabbed my arm, stopping me as I reached the stairwell. “I told you not to spend time alone with him.”
“Who?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Ara. I know you were in his room. I can smell him all over you.”
I shrunk a little. “Well, I can do what I want.”
“Yes, you can—except be alone with him.”
I yanked my arm from his grip. “You can’t stop me from having friends.”
“Ara, grow up. I’m not trying to stop you from having friends, but you know we can’t trust him. He was Drake’s right hand man for—”
“He’s not a mole, Mike,” I yelled, loud enough that Arthur probably heard. “He just wants to help.”
“Yeah.” Mike laughed sarcastically. “Help himself—to you.”
“Mike? Don’t be such a jerk.”
He dropped his arms to his sides, huffing loudly. “I’m sorry, Ara. I just—”
“You just what?”
“I hate that guy. He waltzes in here like he owns the place—tells me how to do my job, how to look after you, then wanders off with you and keeps you to himself all afternoon. I’m your best friend, and I waited so long to have you here, and now you are, I’m practically barred from seeing you, but those rules don’t apply to him.”
I clicked my tongue, folding my bottom lip in an exaggerated pout. “Aw, poor baby’s jealous.”
His mouth split into a grin, laughter coming out in one breath. “Quiet, you, or I’ll pair with you for sparring and give you a right smack on the bottom.”
“Ha! Good luck. I’m faster than you.”
He laughed and took my hand. “Come on, how ‘bout I show you this training hall I’ve been talking about for the last two months.”
Mike walked beside me, and the soft rain fell around us, making the countryside smell sweet, like cut grass and sugar. My mouth watered. It was a little colder on the coast for a summer, though, than it was inland. I wrapped my arms around myself to hide from the breeze as we stepped out of the trees and into a grassy clearing.
“How’s training been going with Emily over the last few weeks?” Mike asked from a step or two ahead. “She told me you’ve become quite a little expert with a sword.”
I shrugged. “A bit.”
“I ‘spose the ballet classes help there—given that fencing’s really a balance and grace thing.”
“Probably. Or just that I’m super cool.”
He laughed. “Let’s see how you do with a gun then.”
“A gun? We have guns?”
“Not yet, but we will.”
“What for?”
“Venom-filled bullets. Vampires are fast, but even they can’t stop venom infecting them if they don’t catch the bullet.”
“Cool. When do we get the guns?”
“In about a month or so. I’m putting a team of marksmen together.”
“Awesome. Do I get firearms training?”
“Uh, no.”
“Why?”
“Because ninety-eight percent accuracy on Halo does not give you the same skill out here in the real world. And besides, your dad would kill me if I put a gun in your hand.”
“Really?” I said sarcastically. “You’re afraid of my dad? We have a blood-hungry psychopath after us, and you’re afraid of my dad?”
He smirked. “Ara, you know what it’s like to sit under the glare of his disappointment.”
I shook my head. “And you think I have daddy issues.”
He laughed. “Baby, you do have daddy issues.”
Hmpf! I folded my arms.
“Anyway, back to the issue at hand—stop distracting me,” he warned, with a smile. “How are you going with the speed thing? Emily said you’d pretty much taken a step backward—so to speak.”
“Yeah. I get dizzy.” I rubbed my head. “I tried to flip out of Emily’s reach the other day and ended up in the lake—saturated.”
Mike burst out laughing, covering his nose for a second. “She didn’t tell me that.”
Heat washed over my head, rising from the chest up. “I asked her not to.”
“I got the full story of your sparring with David, though. He talked you up a bit, I think.”
“No, he just went easy on me.”
He held back his amusement. “I know. Well, so we need to work on your combat methods with vampires, but, today you can spar with humans, so it should be a piece of cake.”
“You think I need a self-esteem boost, huh?”