Tracked: A Valkyrie Saga Book 2

Chapter 14 - Attacked

My limbs were moving and my lips were talking, but I wasn't the one controlling them. It was like everything that was me was locked away in a glass plated box. I could see, hear, and feel everything that was happening, but I couldn't change what my body was doing no matter how hard I banged on the clear walls.

Inside I was shaking with a terror that I had never remotely felt before. On the outside I was a nonchalant actor, enacting a plan that would destroy everything and everyone that I loved. I would have gladly killed myself before ever allowing myself to do what I knew I was about to do. But even that was out of my control.

-- Derik Risberg

I woke up, checked my phone, and saw that Derik wanted me to go to the clan house first thing for training. I grabbed a quick shower and had my traditional cup of coffee with Jack and Amy before they left for school and I started walking over to the clan house. The rent house was only a couple of miles from the clan house and I didn't mind the walk. It gave me time to relive everything that had happened the night before and I found myself grinning as I let myself into the big house.

Derik was standing just feet from the entrance and I nearly jumped out of my skin because I wasn't expecting him to be there. As I tried to get my bearings, Derik actually reached out his right hand as if he expected me to shake his hand. I looked at him with a raised eyebrow but decided to play his little game. I was on my guard, assuming he was going to pull some training exercise and expect to find me flat-footed.

The second that my hand was firmly within his grasp, Derik surprised me yet again by slapping a stainless steel cuff with dark stones rimming the edge onto my outstretched arm. An unpleasant hum radiated out from the cuff and I instantly hated that it was touching my skin. I pulled my hand away and started to examine the odd piece of jewelry when all of a sudden a searing pain swiped across my face and I was pushed backward. I stumbled and when I caught my balance I brought my hand to my newly injured cheek, not understanding what had just happened. I looked up just in time to see Derik step into me and smash his fist into my stomach before I could react to defend myself.

Air gushed out of my lungs and I couldn't help but sink to my knees and bow my body as pain engulfed me. I didn't understand what was happening right now. Was this a training technique? If it was, I was going to tell him that I really didn't appreciate being ambushed like this, right after I kicked his ass.

I called a Shield to form around me, to give me a moment to regain my breath, and was utterly shattered when it didn't form. My Gifts had never failed me before and in my confusion about the Shield not forming I did nothing to stop Derik's knee that caught under my chin flinging me back into the nearby coffee table. My head cracked into the edge of the table, causing my vision to momentarily darken and I pushed back into the void with everything I had.

Nothing happened.

I didn't melt into the void. I don't even think I became less visible. This time I reacted slightly faster and turned away from Derik's stomping foot. I had to scramble away from him to gain my footing and position myself in a slightly unsteady fighting stance. That hit to the head was messing with my balance.

"Derik!" I yelled, and blood splattered from my mouth. "Stop. Something is wrong. My Gifts aren't working. Please stop," I pleaded and hated how weak I sounded.

"Fuck that," Derik growled out in a low demeaning voice that I wouldn't have recognized as his if I hadn't seen his lips move. "I have sat back and watched the pathetic Ray show for weeks now and I am sick of it. You are a pathetic street rat that is done leeching off my family," he yelled at me and then materialized a wooden staff and advanced on me. I had significant training and considered myself pretty unstoppable in the fighting department, but at that moment I discovered just how reliant on my Gifts I truly was.