Alejo [Vampire]

Alejo- Chapter 35

::CHAPTER 35::

We'd been moving from place to place for nearly a week and the girls were already getting irritated. Ria didn't complain like Ana did, but her brand of irritation had always been passive aggressive. It didn't help anyone's mood that she was utter shit at fighting. She didn't have much muscle or much in the way of speed. She dropped her fake blade more times than should be statistically possible and she was terrible at taking direction.

I should have seen this coming. She had always been short tempered and stubborn from the second we'd met. I just hadn't anticipated that it would translate to fighting too. Most of the time, she did the polar opposite of what I asked her. I was starting to think it was on purpose.

Ana was practically a natural. It turns out that she'd spent a lot of her time in my care drawing the soldiers while they practiced. She'd seen enough to pick up a thing or two. She was obedient. Careful. Determined. If only some of that would rub off on her sister.

Ria was such a brilliant girl when it came to plans and tactics and finding flaws. She was so good that I'd assumed she'd be a natural at this too. She was short and small, so she needed an entirely different skill set to fend off someone and use her blade. If only she would pick up on it.

"Get up!" I snapped watching her take her sweet ole time to rise, "I need you to run through those moves again and faster."

"I can't go any faster!" she snapped.

"Then find a way to! Ana can do it. Why can't you?"

"I don’t know!" she glared, "I'm trying! Stop yelling at me!"

"I have to yell at you! You refuse to do what I'm telling you! It's been three days and we've gotten nowhere!"

"I'm sorry!"

"I don't need you to be sorry! I need you to be better!" I shot back, "I have no use for a dead girlfriend!"

"What?"

"You think I want to see one of those traitor bastards kill you?" I demanded, "Get your act together and pay attention. You aren't going to be fighting humans. You need to be faster."

Four drills later and it became glaringly obvious that we weren't going to get any further. Maybe I'd have been more lenient before the incident in the pub two days ago. Now I'd seen with my two eyes that Samuel had been sending soldiers on the lookout for us. They came in flashing holopics of us around the pub. I was grateful that we'd chosen to dye and cut the girls' hair. The 3D holographic images of them seemed like completely different people. Loki and I were just ordinary enough looking for immortals not to draw too much attention. The girls had been the ones to worry about.

Still, the men were armed and didn't appear to be there just to talk. We couldn't afford to be in one place for more than two days at a time. It was difficult enough to find somewhere private to spar. I didn't need Ria making things even more difficult. I just wished that she would get it faster. Or at all.

I didn't appreciate the worry I'd learnt to feel. Before now, I hadn't cared about anything enough to experience worry. Now, I knew the protective instinct and the wrath I would bring down on my enemies in the name of protecting her. I wish I didn't have to protect her. She needed to stand on her own. I had to be able to do what needed to be done without holding her hand the entire way.

I ended training and congratulated Ana on another good session. I said nothing to Ria. She was already wearing that face she had when she wasn't talking to me.

We met Loki at the inn we were staying in at the moment. He was in his room busy tinkering with a deflection suit that he was building from scratch. He'd transformed his and Ana's room into a makeshift workshop overnight.