The Queen of the Night

Chapter 11

No matter the weather Matthew was going to have me run back and forth from the mansion to the courtyard and back again. Each time I ran my patience grew thinner and thinner like a melting sheet of ice.

I ran back to the mansion for the sixth time that evening with mud making me stumble and slip every now and again, which made me slower and wore my patience until it felt like it would break with anything that wasn't 'we are done'. Matthew was looking at the watch that sat on the underside of his wrist. "Your time is better by ten seconds. That's..."

"One minute," I interrupted harshly, physically feeling the string of patience snapping. "I'm tired of this! What's the trick?" I couldn't stop my voice from getting louder.

"I told you already. It could be that you're not trying hard enough. Or you're concentrating on moving your legs more than imagining your destination. Or you're thinking about your destination too much. There are a million things you could be doing wrong. We're doing it again." He must've sensed my oncoming complaint and ran back to the veranda before I could argue.

"I really want to kick him," I screamed to the clouds, which answered lazily with soft thunder. The rain finally stopped hours ago but the muddy conditions made things a little slippery.

"I don't blame you," Jillian's voice made me jump and I turned around.

"How long have you been there?"

"I've been watching you from the upstairs window. He knows what you're doing wrong but he won't tell you that. He wants you to figure it out on your own but this is a rather complicated trick. Took me a month to figure out how to do it. Now, are you thinking about the distance?"

"Well, yeah, why wouldn't I? It helps me to know how long it'll take me."

"That's where you're straying. Don't think about how many minutes it'll take or how long the track is. It's slowing you down so dramatically a dhampire could easily catch you. Here try this, close your eyes."

I expected something more but when no other directions came I closed my eyes.

"Just concentrate on what your destination looks like. When you open your eyes imagine running to it but don't think about how long it'll take you, just that you're running. And don't think about the things you have to pass to get there, either."

I nodded and slowly opened my eyes. Veranda...the veranda, just think about the veranda... I started running slowly at first but my mind didn't stray from the veranda until suddenly everything became a blur. The blur distracted me and it stopped just as quickly as it happened. I was just beyond the hedges that hid the veranda.

Matthew's face was bright for a minute. "Why did you stop?"

"I got distracted," I admitted sheepishly.

"You're going to have to do it again."

"No, I'm done!"

"One more time."

I glared at him. "No," I insisted.

He sighed. "Fine, fine. Then let us start on your next lesson. You need to learn to defend yourself against any attacks. There hasn't been an attack on our family for centuries but you never know when another attack might happen."

By the end of that lesson I was badly beaten. Bruises formed in small sizes all around my arms and stomach. Jillian took a look at the bruises. "He punched you harder than he should have," she scolded under her breath. "I told him when Nexus was here he needed to go easy on the children but no, he never listens to a thing I tell him. Well, I'll show him." She looked under the bed and pulled out a locked suitcase and opened it up. "You should heal soon," she said as she pulled out a packet of red liquids and poured it in a cup that sat on the desk. The red juice tasted bitter but she wouldn't allow me to take it away from my lips until I drank almost the entire glass.