Page 82 of Whispered Warnings: Part One

“Why didn’t you stop me? I told you to say stop and I would,” Reed demands, looking down at me, all sweaty and gorgeous.

“Yum,” I mutter and his eyes widen slightly before he shakes his head.

I’m exasperating him. I do that to a lot of people; what can I say it’s a gift. Evander hands me a bottle of water and I smile gratefully before I start to chug it. Yeah, I definitely should have drunk more than coffee this morning.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Neith

I move so that I’m leaning on my elbows and look at Reed with a frown, “If I had stopped you when I got a little bit tired it wouldn’t have been a good gauge for how out of shape I am with my sword practice. It also wouldn’t be good practice for if I’m in a real sword fight, I can’t just say, ‘okay I know that you are trying to kill me, but can we stop for a moment, because I’m tired. Maybe we can pick it up again later?’.” I raise my eyebrow, as the logic of my words sinks in.

Doc shakes his head, “While I see the logic behind your words, and I can admit that to a certain extent, you are right. You are currently more than a little bit tired.”

“Semantics,” I mutter, as I hop back up and start stretching out my muscles, so they don’t cramp on me later.

Doc frowns at me, clearly he is not a fan of my answer.

“Neith, you should be a bit more careful,” Van says.

I shrug, “Honestly, I am used to running on empty. I’m used to having to push my body past what it should be able to do, simply because I have no choice. I don’t see the point in not training hard, but I will make sure that I hydrate properly and don’t allow my stubbornness to cause me an injury. Deal?”

I can see it in Doc’s eyes, he wants to argue with me, he wants me to say that I won’t push it that hard again and that I will take it easier when I’m training. But he also knows that to a certain extent I am right. We are agents, and our jobs aren’t safe. We all need to be at the top of our game to make sure that we are safe.

“He’s giving her the look,” Reed smirks.

“Aw, you’re now officially part of the team, Nene,” Evander teases, “Doc gives us all that look from time to time as his doctor side wars with the logical side that knows we have to push ourselves.”

I grin, and smile up at Doc, “I really appreciate that you are looking out for me, but you know I’m right. Just like you know that they are right too, and that you most likely do exactly the same thing.”

Doc shrugs his eyes, as his lips lift into a smile, but he doesn’t confirm or deny that I’m right.

River

As soon as I am outside, I take deep breaths.

I am already controlling my reaction a lot better than I did the first time that it happened, I didn’t immediately scoop Neith up and not let anyone touch her, so at least there is that. I wanted to, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t and that’s the key factor right now. The fact of it is the more it happens the better at controlling it I will be.

Admittedly it does take me at least twenty minutes or so to get a really good grip on my reaction, but I probably could have gone back in after ten minutes or so, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to go back too soon. It has been a long time since I have had to work on my reactions in certain situations, it makes me feel like a young pup if I’m being honest.

As I turn to head inside, a noise from the direction of the forest stops me and I turn back around just in time to see Neith’s kelpie come crashing through the trees and head straight for me. I drop down into a defensive crouch, calling on my magic but not letting it engulf me yet. I don’t want to attack it, Neith is fond of it, and it did let me stroke it, but if it comes down to me or him and he attacks first, then I’m going to have to defend myself.

The kelpie doesn’t attack though, it stops in front of me pawing at the ground with its hooves and snorting. It doesn’t take me very long to realize that it is panicking about something, but I have no idea what. If he has come here though, I think that it is safe to assume that he wants help and most likely wants Neith.

“Do you need help?” I ask, feeling a bit ridiculous at first but that feeling quickly dissipates as the kelpie nods back. It can clearly understand me better than I can understand it. “Alright, I will go get Neith.”

It nods again and stomps its hooves, clearly telling me that it’s urgent and I need to fucking hurry up. I turn back toward thedoor and start to make my way inside, before I realize that he’s following me.

“You can’t come with me buddy,” I tell him, but he pushes forward clearly wanting to get to Neith. If it’s as urgent as he is making out, then we don’t have time for this. “Back up. I will get Neith.”

Without meaning to, I let some of my alpha power out through my voice, it most likely happened because the power was already so close to the surface. I have no idea how the kelpie is going to react to it but what I don’t expect is for it to take several steps backward and then bow its head, conceding to me and doing as I have asked. Either it’s decided that I was right, which is unlikely since it was so desperate to get into the house to get to Neith, or my alpha voice worked on it.

That shouldn’t be possible.

Whatever the reason, I don’t have the time to question it now, I need to get the others. I rush inside, making sure to shut the door behind me so it can’t follow me, not that it will be able to if it is under the influence of my alpha voice, but doing so just in case anyway.

This is nuts.

Neith

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