Page 74 of Stalked

“It’s a lot to take in, I know, but you’ll be safe here,” Lily promised. “We’ll keep you safe with magic.”

I turned to Shannon when Lily released their hug.

“Did you ever get a hold of Riley?” I asked her.

Shannon nodded. “Yes. Finally. He’s with his new friend, Amber. They should already but on their way.”

“Amber?” I asked. “Amber who?”

Shannon shrugged. “I don’t know her last name, but apparently, she’s the girl who found him after the animal attack.

Amid the chaos, I hadn’t even thought about the girl who had saved him. However, I was grateful for all she did;I just wasn’t sure bringing a stranger to the safe house was the best idea. It could expose us to vampires, and this place would be threatened.

I checked my phone one last time to see if Riley had tried calling me before turning back to Shannon. “Okay, we’ll start without him, and I’ll fill him in when he gets here.”

I brought Shannon up to date on the events of the evening, going into great detail about what I had left out of our phone call. I explained the ritual, my mission, my sole purpose for even being in this world, and all the powers the element of Spirit possessed. Finally, I confessed my immortality and told her how my destiny was to protect humans on the Earth. Surprisingly, she expressed her acceptance of the newmeand her desire to help in any way. Though she suspected something was different about me when we were kids, there was a lot more she didn’t know, and now this was her reality, too.

Caleb emerged from the training room after pouting there for the last hour. Sweat dripped from his neck with each heavy breath.

He hastily interrupted us by clearing his throat. “We need Mercy to train so she can learn to fight with her hands.” He looked over at me, giving me a warm smile. “Your powers will come naturally to you but fighting with your fists won’t.”

“You want Mercy to fight?” Shannon said. “This should be interesting.”

I playfully rolled my eyes at her as I stood from my chair—following Caleb into the training room.

It was quieter than the rest of the lair, closed off from the open space. It had a padded mat and various steel and wooden weapons stretching to the ceiling. Caleb explained witches created this place after they took over the lair. The adult witches would bring their children to the safe house to train them just in case they needed to fight other witches that were into dark magic. Back then, before the Chosen were born, vampires weren’t a threat to witches, but not all covens were allies.

Caleb padded across the mat and over to a radio hanging on the wall. He turned the knob until a rock station played loudly through the speakers. He lowered the volume and turned back to me.

I shook my head in disbelief at the clear music coming out of the speakers. “You get frequency down here?”

“It’s the only station that isn’t just static.” He laughed softly. “I hate training in silence.”

Caleb pulled a hairband from his pocket and wrapped it around his hair, pulling it into a low ponytail. He then removed his T-shirt, revealing a black tank top underneath. The fabric stretched over his muscles, showing the definition of his abs through the thin cotton material.

He is beautiful, I’ll give him that.

Caleb handed me another rubber band, and I wrapped my hair up into a messy bun.

“Thanks,” I said.

Caleb then walked behind me, unclasped my necklace, and placed it on the table by the radio.

Even though the spell Joel had cast around the safe house offered protection, I felt a little naked without my jet stone.

Once Caleb returned to the mat, he said, “It’s probably going to get pretty hot in here.” He winked for his not-so-subliminal sexual reference that didn’t go unnoticed. I snickered as we moved toward the training mat. Once we reached the center of the room, he held up his palms. “My hands are your target. Don’t hold back.”

“Oh, don’t you worry,” I said, winking back, “I won’t.”

CHAPTER 22

OVER THE NEXTcouple of hours, Caleb instructed me on how to properly kick, jab, swing an uppercut, sweep, punch, and strike. My body sure hated him with every second of it. I hadn’t done any physical activity since my junior year in high school before I quit cheerleading.

“Come on, Caleb. I need a break.”

“Mercy, this new body of yours is weak and skinny. We need you to be able to side-kick your opponent and actually knock them down.”

“Okay, I get it. I’m a frail little girl that no one in their right mind should trust to save them. Caleb, I can just use my magic. I’m much more powerful now, right?”

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