Angels and Warriors // A.L

Chapter 2

I turned around and saw Alec walking up behind me. I rolled my eyes and held my hands up in defence.

"Where's you're sister?"

"I don't know! I don't keep twenty-four-seven tabs on her," I muttered, annoyed.

"Sorry. Do you want me to show you how to use some of these?" He asked, pointing at the wall of weapons. I looked up at him, surprised, and then narrowed my eyes.

"Why are you being nice to me?" I asked him suspiciously.

"Think of it less as being nice and more making sure you don't get the rest of us killed because you don't know how to handle a weapon," he smirked.

I laughed, "Fair enough."

He took down two seraph blades, a variety of daggers and knives, and the beautiful bow and arrows. He led me to the training room floor and laid them out, crouching beside them. "I assume by now you know what this one is?" he pointed to the seraph blade and looked up at me. I nodded and he continued, "Okay we'll start with this one then."

He handed me one and it glowed brightly at my touch.

"Now, it knows you're a Shadowhunter, so it wants to respond. But you have to be firm with it. Let it know whose boss." He demonstrated moving his through the air and gestured for me to copy him. I did. "There. You make yourself a part of it and it a part of you." He showed me another, more complex move, and again I mirrored him. "The blade never dims. It's saying you belong together."

I looked at him curiously, still gracefully slicing the air, "How does it know?"

He watched me naturally take to the blade. "Because you're part angel, Samara, like all Shadowhunters - it can sense it in your blood."

He suddenly moved, as if to attack me, and I automatically swung my blade up to block him. He looked surprised, but pleased, "Good, you're a fast learner."

He spun around and dropped his aim, going for my leg but again my blade met his, stopping it in his tracks. His strikes were coming faster, the clash of the metal ringing through room and bouncing of the walls. He moved forwards swiftly, forcing me to take step after step backwards until he finally managed to knock my weapon out of my hands and back me into the wall, holding his brightly lit blade to my throat.

"Not bad for your first time," He grinned, retreating and handing me back my sword.

We practiced with the seraph blades for a little while longer, Alec teaching me the best moves for defence and how to attack successfully, before he decided to move on and try another weapon.

"Okay, this is a throwing knife, very handy if you need to maintain distance, but tricky to get the hang of. You don't want to be worrying about getting into a good stance or trying for too long to take aim." In one rapid motion, he turned around and threw the knife hard at the left target on the wall. Bullseye.

He turned back to me, handing me one. "All right, you want to get the right grip on the blade for a clean release." He adjusted my hand around the knife then came around and stood to the side of me. He showed me the arm movement slowly then told me to try it on the right target. I was surprised at how smooth it felt and the sharp ringing sound it made as the blade left my hand. I was even more surprised when it hit the target. Dead center.

"What the...?" Alec muttered, stunned. "Well then, uh, again?"

I threw knife after knife, in different styles, using different techniques. I never missed. Not once.

"All right then... I guess we can try something else now," Alec handed me a dagger, "A kindjal - very rare, but, if you can use one, very dangerous. Small enough to carry around undetected, large enough for hand to hand combat, and can be thrown if needed."