Immortali

Chapter 20- The Security Team

When she first awoke, she felt confused, unable to recall why she was in a place that was both strange and familiar, and, when she did, she wished she hadn't.

Pulling herself out from under the covers of the warm bed in the guestroom, Raina rubbed her eyes, not because she was tired- she hadn't really felt tired in a long time- but because it was a habit. It made her feel normal.

As she became accustomed to the light in the room, she looked at her surroundings- something she hadn't done the night before. The room was pleasant enough. The bed had a quilt made from squares of varying shades of pink material. Across from the bed was a large oval shaped mirror and a dresser with a piece of frilled white material covering it.

To Raina, the room didn't seem to quite... suit Arriana, her fearless, calculating mentor. In fact, it made her wonder why her mentor had chosen a room that looked as though it were made up for a six-year-old girl?

Shaking her head, Raina decided not to wonder about such things. Arriana, as she'd discovered last night, was a mystery. Or, rather, she was many mysteries. And, so was Alrick. Neither of them had told her who they had suspected her to be. Instead, they'd both been content to keep her in the dark.

It was these angry thoughts that Raina had swept into the kitchen with, like an angry storm rumbling and grumbling in the distance. Arriana and Alrick sat at the kitchen table, eating a breakfast of bacon and eggs. They were chatting about something before she'd appeared, but had abruptly stopped. She didn't acknowledge them.

"Good morning, Raina," she heard Arriana say. Raina sat at the end of the table, leaving an obvious distance between them.

"Morning," she grumbled in reply. An awkward silence ensued in which, all Alrick seemed to be able to do was gulp and twiddle his thumbs nervously.

For a how-ever-many-year-old warrior, he's terrible at handling a confrontation with a moody teen, Raina thought to herself, biting into a piece of toast.

"Alrick thought that you might like to take a few self-defence lessons with him today. Oh, and we had to deal with a little situation this morning before you woke up..."

Raina glared daggers at Arriana. "Like what?"

Arriana, to her credit, was handling herself much better than Alrick, who looked as though he would very much like to leave the room. "After you didn't arrive at Layla's house, your friend became very worried. She called your family, and everyone was distressed to learn that you weren't there. Don't worry though! We had a few telepaths and mnemokinetics rearrange their memories. Now your family thinks you were at Layla's house and Layla thinks you stayed at home because of a family crisis. After a few weeks, they'll forget it ever happened."

Raina nodded, shovelling a mental truckload of dirt over her guilt. This sleepover was supposed to be her way of making it up to Layla for not... well, for not being a proper friend. And now, even that had blown up in her face. Once again, her Immortali life had gotten in the way of her human life.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Arriana asked.

Raina cocked her head to one side and looked her mentor right in the eyes. "Not really. I'm still trying to decide exactly when you were going to tell me about this prophecy that depicts me as some kind of all-powerful hero. So, when I'm done working that out, I might start talking to you again. Till then, I may as well have taken an oath of silence."

Arriana sighed and rolled her eyes. She muttered something that sounded an awful lot like 'stubborn teenagers.'

Sounds about right, Raina thought. She knew that at the end of the day, that was all she was being, but that didn't stop her from getting angry. Hell no, she definitely wasn't done with that. Not by a long shot. So, she didn't say another word for the duration of breakfast.