The Border Trilogy (Book #1) Enemies to lovers, Forbidden love

Part 11

"So, tell me. How is it going with Darien?" Cassandra asked after I'd fed.

"It's fine, he's obviously a great protector so training is going good, he's fast and better than me obviously but, I'll get better." I replied.

"And how is his behavior, he's not being rude is he?"

I looked at her and hesitated, "He's had it tough, I guess. He's not exactly fond of having to train me-"

"Having? He offered?"

"Yea, that's what I said, but he says it was just so that someone else doesn't get forced to and accidentally kill me." I mimicked Darien's quotaion mark aound the word accidentally.

"Oh, I guess he's right, no offese honey, but not all people see the good when they're focusing on the bad."

"It was easy for you, I mean, you took me in right away."

"You saved my daughters, you put your life on the line for them as well as the rest of the tribe, and while the rest of my tribe may not notice that, I do. You can't be a bad person and do all that." She smiled.

"Well, I'm not, I mean, I can't even kill a vampire." 

Cassandra's eyes widened a bit, "You can't kill a vampire?"

"I'm not mentally capable as Darien put it, even last night when we were attacked, I only paralyzed all those vampires, I never actaullly killed any of them."

"Well, why can't you kill them?"

"Uhm," I looked down at my hands and began fiddling with them.

"Eva?"

"It's-it's a long and personal story, I'd rather not talk about it." I looked up.

"Oh, okay. I'm sorry." She looked down.

"Don't be sorry, it's just, something I wish I could forget but just," I winced remembering the look on Katrina's face when I looked at her after I through the stake at her. "just can't."

"Okay, I understand. Let's get to bed hon," 

*     *     *

The next morning I went to the spot where we were yesterday, but Darien was no where to be found. Having nothing to do, I picked up a stake and worked on a technique he showed me yesterday.

Suddenly I heard a rustling of leaves, I stopped and looked around, but dismissed the sound when I saw nothing. I kept on training but heard the sound get closer. I put the stake down and prepared myself in a fighting stance in case it was a protector that was going to accidentally kill me.

When I heard a familiar motion come from behind me, I ducked as an arm wooshed over me. I looked up to see Darien standing in front of me in fighting stance. Before I had time to analyze what was going on, he lunged at me.

I ducked again and moved away from him.

"Defense is good until you need to use your offense, come on!" he said.

He came at me and threw a punch, I blocked it with my hand and threw a punch at him. He caught my wrist just as I reached out my leg to kick him in the waist. He caught my leg and gave me a hard push on my shoulder, making me fall backwards to the ground.

"Ouch" I said as I fell to the ground.

"Today we're not working with stakes, we're going to work on your fighting skills. You won't always have a weapon to kill a vampire with, so you'll need to be able to protect yourself in other ways." he said disregarding my ouch.