How many today?” Edana asked Lucian.
“Only three.”
“Is it just me, or do things seem to be quietening down?”
Lucian laughed. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Edana.”
Gaunts had been attacking for days. Since a few days after Gabriel declared Edana ready. They had never attacked in large groups though. The biggest attack so far had been twenty Gaunts. Both Lucian and his father were suspicious that they were sending lots of small attacks in the hopes Edana would partake and weaken herself before the big fight, before the war. So Edana had spent all the fights inside, watching the fights from within Lucian’s mind, waiting for the day this would finally end. Now amount of attacks was shrinking by the day and Edana seemed to be the only one who found it odd.
She still trained daily, trying to squeeze out any extra strength she could get, but she no longer trained with Lucian or even Mr Crio, both of whom were needed in the fights.
The next day, the first attack began at 5am. Edana begrudgingly got out of bed after Lucian raced out, grumbling that the next group of Gaunts to wake her up before the crack of dawn were going to have her to deal with, even if she was supposed to be conserving her strength.
She created a mind-link with Lucian; as usual her touch was made undetectable and completely one-sided so he wouldn’t become distracted. He was fighting two Gaunts at once, the short flashes she got of them in human form proved them to be recently converted Inherents. This group was no larger than seven. Edana scoffed and considered shutting down the mind-link, but the more rational side of her told her to keep the mind-link in case this was just a rouse and the real attack happened soon. She did not want to miss that.
She watched from her mind’s eye as Lucian ripped off the head of a Gaunt that got too close, quickly turning and going straight for the other.
The Gaunts were dead in a matter of minutes. There were no survivors as they had no need to interrogate anyone. They all knew the war was coming soon.
Lucian got back to the room and Edana smiled to him as she passed, heading for the door. She wanted to speak to Gabriel. She wanted to know what was going on with the attacks.
Edana had to wait for the prince to get out of a meeting before she could go in. Stephanie, her personal assistant, was hovering around again. Whenever she trained Stephanie would go off and leave her alone, but she would reappear again as soon as she was done. It was actually quite annoying. Edana had long ago decided that she didn’t want a personal assistant. Lucian had said she was just there to help, but apparently Stephanie didn’t understand the concept of ‘wait till I call you’, because she was always there.
“Stephanie, can’t you go off and I don’t know, paint some roses red?” Edana asked, rubbing her temples.
“‘Paint some roses red’? Whatever do you mean, miss?” Stephanie looked at her confused.
“It’s from – oh, never mind. Just go away.” All the suspense was making her cranky, and when she was cranky, she was rude.
“But what if you need something? It is my job to look after you.”
“Look, I’ve looked after myself my whole life, I’ve never been served or had a personal assistant or anything, and believe it or not, I survived. So, shoo.” Edana waved her hands as if to a dog, not at all sure how to handle this woman’s clinginess.
The doors to Gabriel’s office suddenly opened, letting out a stream of vampires. Edana ducked inside and closed the doors before Stephanie could follow.
YOU ARE READING
Fearless Fiery Beauty
ActionHow do you tell the difference between adventurous and life-threatening if you are impervious to fear? You could ask Edana Keelia Greenwood, a 17 year old girl that most would refer to as ‘delinquent’, but considering the mess she got herself into...
