Demon's Bane

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

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“You look like you could use this.”

            Exhausted, Jana tilted her head up to find Sam dangling an ice cold soda above her head.  Gratefully she reached up for it and popped it open, but instead of drinking it she allowed it to fall all over her sweaty face and throbbing neck. 

            Sharon’s “testing” was grueling enough to make Data seem like a Kindergarten teacher next to her.  Where’s Data’s training had been more geared to stamina and agility—the two things that came in handy the most on the run—Sharon was all about precision and speed. 

            After the knife throwing there had been hurdles and long jumping and practicing high kicks on a wooden dummy.  Sharon had kept both her and Sunny moving until Matt appeared in the clearing clothed in a frilly apron and announced lunch. 

            Looking around, she could tell that everyone else had already moved up to the main house.  Even Sunny, who had seemed as beat as she felt.  Jana had waited until Sharon had turned her back to collapse against the roots of an old tree.

            She felt sweaty, aching and her muscles had lost that sweat burn she usually got during exercise and now just hurt like shit.  She wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and never come out again.  She wanted to sleep for a million years—never had she been so tired in her life. 

            And she loved every minute of it. 

            Once the last bit of soda dribbled down her chin, she pulled herself to her feet and crushed the can in a fist before tossing it aside. 

            “Thanks,” she muttered to Sam who was watching her with one of those mischievous grins—she guessed it was a trademark of his. 

            “Thank me?”  He asked incredulously, as if she had said something ridiculous.  “Thank you.  Now that you’ve come, Jana the Mystic Wonder Girl, Sunny has gotten a heaping slice or two of good old humble pie.”

            Jana didn’t know what he was talking about.  Sunny was good—really good.  She was so fast that she could have given Data and run for his money, and the girl had agility where it counted. 

            Jana had a feeling that in hand to hand combat, Sunny would quite simply kick her ass. 

            She said as much to Sam, who only chuckled and shook his curly blond head. 

            “Jana, Jana, Jana.”  He took a step closer and slipped his thin arm around her sweaty, soda-drenched shoulder.  “Walk with me.”

            They turned down to the patch that Jana guessed led back to the main house, only now the sun was high and hot.  Yellow bits of it cut through the gaps in the trees like shapeless, invisible hot pokers. 

            “Jana my dear, let me tell you a thing or two about Sunny,” Sam declared with a beaming grin.  “She’s my mother’s golden egg, you see—because I completely suck at anything hunting related.”  He shrugged as if the knowledge didn’t faze him one bit.  “But Sunny—Sunny has been throwing daggers since she was eight, running marathons since she was nine, and winning every fighting competition my mother put her in since…well.”  He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.  “Well, since forever, actually.”

            He laughed as if the idea was hilarious.  Then those charming blue eyes turned serious for once as he peered at Jana from beneath the fringe of his yellow lashes.