Lover Dearest

Chapter 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Though I had expected insurmountable obstacles from the training session, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the tasks asked of me were rather easy...to me anyway.

Tyler decided to start the training with a little pushing and pulling of the water while using some of the control and words that Dallas had taught me earlier. It was so easy now that I had already tried most of the stuff with Dallas, so I let myself get caught up in my surroundings. The ocean was cerulean blue and it's beauty was a stark contrast to the gloomy landscape I stared at daily back home. Tearing myself away those miserable thoughts, I focused back on the tasks at hand.

Tyler was extremely easy to get along with, surprisingly. She had a magnetic personality and it was hard not to laugh at every joke she told.

"Alright, I think it's time to try some defensive moves in case the safe house is found sooner than expected."

The words rocked me out of my methodical way of training.

"Wait, you're expecting people to find this place?! And we're still here?"

The disbelief in my voice was obviously palpable in the way it shrieked at the end of each question.

"Kristen, you're sending off major power waves every time you even get a little frustrated. Soon, that power is gonna lead something very bad to our very location. Better train now and be prepared when it actually happens."

She had a point there, and I wasn't about to argue with that point. I did exactly as she told me and I melded the water into a shard of ice as commanded word or phrase she told me. The words rolled off my tongue as if they were always meant to be said by me. The waters conformed to my every command and I never felt more connected to a part of me that I never even knew existed. It was empowering in both the best and worst ways.

When Tyler was satisfied with the progress I had made, it was already extremely late and I hadn't realized the sun dipping down below the horizon. The amount of training I had gone through registered with my brain and I felt the slow ache of fatigue run through my veins like a freight train.

Walking back up the beach, millions of thoughts whirled through my head all at once. I missed my family immensely, especially my sister. Although our relationship was a bit rocky, I loved her with all my heart. And my mother...God my heart was in the midst of breaking in two right where I stood. The misery crackling through my bones was overwhelming I wanted to collapse in my spot. I felt the onslaught of tears coming in the atmosphere around me before I ever felt the wetness on my face. Maybe everyone was right, that the weather did reflect my emotions at the time.

Calm down, that's all I have to do.

Think of happy things...Dallas. He could be the anchor that helps me control my emotions! I'm always happy around him...I need to find him when I get too stressed to deal with everything.

I started the trek up the beach after my mini-meltdown to find him. Tyler went ahead of me so I was still walking by myself. Out of nowhere, a slow rumbling started reverberating in the ground underneath me. Panicked, I looked all around me searching for the source, but there was none. The rumbling continued, and it felt like the earthquake back in Juanita's when I was still in Arkansas. A long, hollow sounding growl emerged right behind me. A wave of pure terror shot straight through my body as a line of tremors rocked through my body. Thunder cackled in the sky like a malicious betrayal. The pounding rain came seconds later and that's when my feet uprooted themselves from the frozen, fear stricken position they were in just seconds before.

The ever present feeling of something following me made me sprint that much harder up the sandy dunes to the safety of the house. The sight of lit up windows was the most beautiful thing I had seen in a long time, and I came to a skidding halt in front of the doors of the house only to open the door and then lock it tightly behind me. The calming effect it had on me was instantaneous and the smell of the house was beautiful, sandalwood and the ocean. My senses were enveloped in warmth and I immediately relaxed into the house.