Warrior | Stefan Salvatore

Chapter 13

Graciela's body ached.

They began their training session at six in the morning. Marcel had his vampires outside his loft, while Elijah and Gia set up with Graciela indoors. She thought it would be better, because she wouldn't have to worry about being in the sun when it came up. Plus, for the early hours of the morning when it was colder, she felt comfortable inside a building with insulation.

Wrong. So, so wrong.

She learned very quickly that this was going to take more time than expected. Though her condition wasn't terrible, she didn't know how to throw a punch or how to kick, which is what she needed to learn first. But, before that, she had to actually warm up, and it made her aware of just how bad her flexibility was.

"Ooh, that's not a good sign," said Gia when she was unable to kick very high. She lifted her own leg, showing she could nearly kick herself in the face. "If you want to get to a point where you can snap a vampire's neck with a kick under the chin, you need to improve on that."

"Great, back to ballet warm ups every day," she said unenthusiastically, catching her breath. "Can we start sparring now?"

"No," said Elijah, shaking his head at her. "You are nowhere near being ready for that. This week, we shall work on strengthening. You will focus on flexibility exercises on your own time, as well as running. We shall guide you through exercises to reinforce your arms, to allow for maximum damage to an opponent despite your lack of supernatural strength."

Graciela huffed, disappointed. "Okay, then, let's get this over with."

The first day was terrible. She elected to walk through Algiers as a cool-down, her legs trembling and arms pulsating from how much she'd been made to do. Even with the aches, however, she felt proud.

"Hi," she said, calling Stefan as she started to walk back to Elijah's loft. "Sorry I hadn't replied. Elijah woke me up at the crack of dawn to train and it was awful."

"Are you okay?" Stefan asked, concerned. "Did you get hurt?"

"No, I'm just weaker than I thought. This week won't be carried out the way I thought it would be. But next week, I will likely begin to learn techniques. The week after that, sparring. Practice makes perfect. And practice also makes me want to pass out in the street."

"Don't push yourself too much. You don't want to tear any muscles and need vampire blood to heal. It isn't safe for you to constantly have it in your system. If you die..."

"I know," she said. "Thank you for worrying."

"I assume everything was alright with the wedding yesterday? Aside from what you mentioned about you and Elijah having to move out?"

"Yeah, it was alright," said Graciela, who had received permission from Klaus to tell Stefan about the implications of the wedding she was attending. She had a feeling he wanted Stefan to know it wouldn't be easy to be sneaking into the city for any reason, what with the wolves allied with the Mikaelsons. "Um, there was another thing, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to tell you." She wondered how angry Klaus would be if she told him that Kol died, considering Stefan hadn't even known he was back to life. "The point is, Elijah is sad, and I don't know how to help him."

"Well, you said you'll be getting a piano brought into the loft soon, right? You both enjoy music, maybe you could play for him. That could help."

She blew air out of her mouth. "Yeah, probably. You know, he wants to get me a new violin to replace the one that was lost but... I don't want to, yet. The one I had was special. And I know I probably sound like an ungrateful brat for telling him not to get it for me, but..."