“Can you answer the question yet?” Patrick barked at me.

“You….hear….them….move,” I said between lifts. I finished my last pushup and stood, feigning indifference instead of exhaustion.

“Ms. Sparks is correct. Although vampires can move like the wind, you can still hear them, if you pay attention to your surroundings.”

Yay, gold star for me!

“I want the front row to stay where you are, the rest of the rows take a step back.” The obedient people did as he said so they were all spaced a little further apart. “Now, close your eyes and listen as I run through the rows.”

Everyone’s eyes closed and he disappeared again. Now that I was paying attention, I could see the blur that was Patrick as he rushed through each row. There wasn’t much of noise, but a small breeze stirred the air and the lightest whooshing sound echoed through the cavernous ball room.

When he was done with his example, he appeared right next to me. “Open your eyes,” he told the crowd. “What did you hear?” He pointed at a man towards the back.

“Wind,” the man said.

“Very good. Raise your hand if you heard it as well.” The majority of hands rose while some looked uncertain.

“Those of you who did not hear me coming would be dead right now if I was a hungry vampire. So, today we will be working on heightening your senses. If the enemy gets the drop on you then magic is useless. Once their fangs sink into your throat you’re dead. Got it?” Heads nodded with seriousness across the room. “Break into pairs.”

After everyone was paired, Patrick got to work to turning me into his own personal practice dummy. We began with my back turned while he snuck up on me, and I said if he was to my left or right.

Next, the physical contact began as he attacked from behind me. If I wasn’t quick enough, he’d push me to the mats and declared me “dead”. Patrick insisted we try it over and over until I won more times than I lost. I was pretty sure tomorrow morning I’d have some nasty bruises coloring my entire body.

Exercise three included magical maneuvers to freeze our attackers in place so we could walk right up to them and shred their hearts or slice off their heads—luckily, Patrick used a prop sword for this lesson. It was disconcerting to see how accurate the soldiers were with their weapons. Every time someone would slice off a dummy’s head, I pictured it being Aiden. It made me wonder how many innocents they would kill because of what the guilty vampires were doing.

After a grueling three hours of training, we finally got an hour break. Most of the witches and warlocks headed for the kitchen, but I had more work to do. Heading up the stone steps, my muscles burned with fury. After climbing six flights of stairs, my legs were nearly rubber and wobbled to hold up my weight.

I knocked on Miranda’s office door while I let the stone wall support some of my weight. The coolness of the stone felt good on my sweaty face. Miranda was a member of the council, but she handled the financial side of things. I needed to talk to someone level-headed and not someone who had war on the brain. Holly and Patrick wouldn’t listen, and Charles didn’t seem to have an opinion either way. My only hope of ending this before it started was to find a council member who would listen to reason.

“Come in,” Miranda called.

With my last bit of energy, I opened the door and flopped into one of the office chairs. Miranda was very tall and lanky. Her short, blonde hair was cut in a bob that framed her long face and her green eyes looked at me with surprise.

“Ms. Sparks, what can I do for you?”

“Sorry for my appearance, I just got done training with Patrick.” Sweat caked hair stuck to my head while the smell of sweat clung to me.

A smile lifted Miranda’s mouth up and a sparkle lit her eyes. “Yeah, he’s a tough cookie, huh?”

My eye caught the gleam of a diamond ring on her left hand and the way she lit up when I mentioned the drill sergeant’s name. “Forgive me for assuming, but are you and Patrick married?”

“Almost six months now, why?” She twirled the ring around her finger, the look of happiness was almost enough to make me throw up. I couldn’t imagine Patrick making any woman as happy as she looked.

“No reason.”

“Is that why you’re visiting me, to find out about my love life?” she joked.

“No. I sorta have some good news; well, I think it’s good news.”

Miranda sat back in her chair, interest was evident on her face.

“The Vampire Council wants to have a meeting with you guys about ending the war.” I sat up and leaned my elbows on my knees. I’d practiced this conversation a million times in my head with each one of the council members. For some reason, Miranda took it the easiest. I hoped the imaginary discussion was a sign of things to come.

“Why are you speaking to me about this? Shouldn’t you bring it to Holly or Charles?”

She was right, I should have been discussing it with them, but Holly was bloodthirsty and Charles tended to be lazy when it came to his job, neither one of them would like the news. “Yes, but everyone around here is a little crazy. I thought you’d handle the news better,” I told her. If the council was leery about meeting with the VC, I couldn’t blame them. The VC hadn’t done much to stop the killing of witches. Hell, for all I knew, the VC was encouraging the use of brew.

“And you thought I could convince them to meet, right?”

“Yes. You seem like the most level-headed one around here. Everyone else lives and sleeps war. To me, if the VC is willing to wave a white flag and end the war before more people are killed, then what’s the harm in meeting with them. It would save a lot of lives.”

While most of the witches and warlocks were learning how to fight, a lot would still die. I hoped saving lives would encourage the NAWC to meet with the vampires.

“It would be wonderful if we could stop the madness and a meeting wouldn’t hurt,” Miranda thought for a moment, her eyes darting to her wedding ring. Her thoughts were so transparent they might as well have been written on her forehead. If we didn’t go to war, Patrick wouldn’t go to war. The new bride didn’t want to become a widow. “I’ll speak with the council, and we’ll vote on it.”

A smile spread across my face in hopes that everything could go back to normal. I stood and walked to the door. “Thank you, Miranda.” When I turned to open the door, she stopped me with the one question I wasn’t ready to answer.

“Ms. Sparks, how is it you found out about the VC wanting to meet?” Her lips pressed into a thin smile, and her eyes glinted with knowledge. It was obvious she knew who my informant was.

“Aiden Blake and I used to date. We’re still friends so he called me last night to tell me about it.” I looked up from the floor hoping she’d bought my story, but her smile widened.

“We can’t choose who we love, can we, Ms. Sparks?” I hoped the question was rhetorical because I couldn’t speak. Lying to the council was a major no-no, and Miranda just called me on it. “Have a good day. I’ll speak with Holly and the others about the meeting.”

******

Three hours later, I was finally done training. Patrick had a field day busting my ass and laughing when I missed a step and fell flat on my face. Jerk.

The hot water pounded on my back and felt like heaven. I closed my eyes and absorbed the steam from the shower. It’d take a few layers of soap to eradicate the sweat from my body. Small purplish bruises were on my legs and arms.

My cell phone chimed from the sink, grumbling I climbed out of the shower. Using the pad of my finger, I wiped away the fog on the display. Just the man I wanted to talk to.

“Hello?”

“Good evening, my Gwen,” Aiden replied, his voice as smooth as milk chocolate. “Are you free tonight?” It was amazing that just the sound of his voice could make me forget about the horrible day.

“Yes, what do you have in mind?” My voice lowered as I imagined spending the night with my legs wrapped around Aiden’s waist.

“Take a cab to Thorn. I’ll be waiting,” he said mysteriously and then hung up.

Flipping my phone closed, I dried off and got to work at picking out an outfit. I didn’t bring sexy clothes to Moon, so magic would have to do. Imagining a sexy black cocktail dress, I willed it to form around my naked body. Fabric climbed up my skin, connecting and forming into a dress worthy of a double look. A deep V-neck plunged just below my breasts and the skirt hit a few inches below my butt.

The nasty bruises weren’t the accessories I was hoping for. Running my palm down one arm, I used magic to hide them. As my hand passed over the discolored blotches, they disappeared. I repeated the process on my other arm and legs. The dressed looked a lot better without the ugly purple spots decorating my skin.

Staring in the mirror, I envisioned my hair dry. Within seconds, it didn’t hold an ounce of moisture. Next, I got to work at styling it. A section of my hair was lifted up and twisted as if around an invisible curling iron and then released into loose curls. While my hair was being magically styled, I got to work at putting makeup on. With two fingers, I swiped across my eyelids, leaving my eyes with a smoky effect. The lipstick traced my lips in a wine colored gloss and the blush brush caressed my cheeks with a soft pink. I put mascara on myself, not trusting a magically altered, makeup wand that close to my eyes.

Once I was happy with everything, I stared into the mirror. My blue eyes were bright and my hair was tousled and curled into perfection. I had no clue where I was meeting Aiden, or if I was overdressed, and I didn’t care. When he saw me, it wouldn’t be long before we retired to his hotel room.

Aura curled around my legs, an icy sensation crawling up my calf. My body shivered against the cold. The feeling was something I was coming to recognize as death. When Dorian took me to the bar and told me to concentrate on the underlying feeling of death from the patrons, I felt it like an artic chill. Aura emanated the same feeling.