Things That Go Bump At Night Part 12

"She's not going to be ready in this century taking her sweet a.s.s time like that." Ana was standing just a few feet away. I felt a wave of jealousy looking at her hotness. She wore a sports bra and a tight pair of biking shorts. Her subtle six pack abs right there for the world to see and those arms...the tone in them was scary.

"Go away, Ana." Jake threw at her without really looking at her. He couldn't possibly understand how grateful I was that he didn't eye Ana's insanely hot body like Ryan was at that very moment he was probably sure no one was looking. Ana shook her head and stalked off. "Don't listen to her. She started out exactly like you are."

That made me feel better. Not. But Jake could clearly see how suddenly self-conscious I now was because he sat on the weight bench next to us and pulled me to stand between his legs. He rested his hands on my hips and looked up at me.

"Don't let Ana discourage you Remi, she's had a tough go of it too. She's bitter. Plus, she was the only girl here until you showed up. I know you girls get territorial." He chuckled when rolled my eyes at him.

"Does this mean I'm going to be a hunter?" I asked, glancing at the room as a whole, then back down at him.

"That's still up to you." He answered.

"Do you want me to be?"

"No. And yes." For the first time since I'd started staring into those amazing brown eyes, I saw a little uncertainty in them. I brought my palms to his cheeks and leaned down to kiss him, his hands tightened at my hips, it was the first time I'd ever made the first move and I could feel the antic.i.p.ation in him.

"Not in here!" Quinn yelled out and I jumped back. My cheeks and ears were instantly on fire. Jake chuckled again and stood.

"Work on what I showed you. Push yourself, but don't hurt yourself. I'll be with Ryan if you need me."

Need him? Of course I needed him. In every way I could think of!

But I simply said okay and watched him walk off. He b.u.mped knuckles really, people were still doing that?- before stepping up to spar. I watched them, both impressed and slightly worried as they threw both each other and their fists around.

Dang, they were good, I actually found myself excited to be able to do that someday.

"You need to keep your elbows out."

I practically jumped and looked to see Ana glowering in front of me.

"Keep them in line with your frame." She added and watched as I adjusted my stance. She nodded.

"Are you helping me?" I asked; a little hesitantly, a little surprised.

"If you're going to be out there watching my back some day, I want to make sure you can." She didn't look at my face as she spoke, but kept her eyes on my form. And she stayed, for the next half an hour, barking out a command every few minutes. My muscles starting to whine after a while and I slowed.

"Are you quitting?" Ana spat. "You're weaker than I thought."

I don't know if it was her intention, but her comment had me doubling my efforts and I went another fifteen minutes before Ana just turned and walked away without a single word. I guess that meant I had met her expectations, and now I could quit. I dropped the weights at my feet and tried not to wince as I settled my arms back to the position that we humans were meant to keep them from birth. I rolled my shoulders as Jake came up to me, all sweaty goodness.

"Tomorrow we'll start you off with some stretching and abs." He said, laughing when I groaned.

"Do you guys work out every day?" I asked.

"They do. I sometimes miss days. Between school and football. But then football is a pretty good workout for me in itself."

"Is that why you do it?"

"No. I like football."

Of course he did.

"So how long do you do this?"

"About three hours a day."

"And how long have you been in here today?" Yes, in a roundabout way I was trying to figure out if this torture was almost over.

"I've been in here since seven."

It was ten now! Hallelujah! But my internal excitement was deflated like a poorly tied balloon when Jake did not lead me towards the exit, but instead led me to the treadmills -so that wasn't so bad. He set me up on a machine, then took the one next to me. I walked in place for a time while he jogged. Well, that just wouldn't do. I reached out and turned my machine to a jog to match his. He smiled over at me and turned his up to a run. Well, two could play that game. I ran with him.

It became very apparent that neither of us would be losing our breath any time soon. So after fifteen minutes of running, Jake conceded and shut down our machines.

"Okay, so we now know that stamina on your feet won't be an issue."

I shrugged.

"I've walked everywhere since birth. I'm pretty good on my feet."

"Point taken." Now he led me to the exit. "But we live nearly twelve miles from town, if you need to go in you can borrow my truck any time."

Hmm. Yeah that could be a problem.

"What?" He asked catching my frown.

"I don't have my driver's license." I admitted. He stopped me on the path, halfway between the barn and the house. I expected a certain amount of surprise and questions about why since every seventeen year old drove, but I should have realized by now, that wasn't his style. He simply smiled.

"We'll have to get on that then." He said simply. He was so accepting of all my flaws.

I had to laugh, though it was not a happy laugh and I resumed my walk to the house, leaving him standing there before he got over his moment of confusion and caught up with me.

"How is this attractive to you?" I asked before he could ask me what was wrong. "I'm completely hopeless at everything. I'm bruised and damaged and..." I stopped talking before I made myself cry and just shook my head.

"Hey." He stopped me again, turned me to face him. "You are none of those things. If you want my opinion, I've never met anyone quite as strong as you are."

"Bulls.h.i.+t." I was getting pretty good at this swearing thing that one was a shout out to my girl Kendra.

"It's not bulls.h.i.+t Remi. The only thing I find unattractive about you is how down on yourself you get."

"Oh, really? Do you want to know what I find unattractive about you?" I glared up at him and he waited expectantly. I had nothing. Didn't think that one through, did I? "Oh screw you." I turned and resumed my walk to his big pretty house. I heard him laugh as he jogged a few paces to catch up with me again. He followed me up to his room and said nothing to me as he rummaged through his closet for clean clothes.

"Wanna shower with me?" He asked suddenly.

I had to laugh, d.a.m.n him.

"No." But I think I actually did. What would that entail, exactly?

"You're not hopeless Remi." He said from the doorway. "You know when you asked me if I wanted you to become a hunter, I said yes and no?"

I nodded.

"I don't, because I can't even fathom the thought of you in danger. I'd rather keep you locked up here in the tower like a princess." He paused, let me soak that in, and then continued. "But I also do because I keep having these visions of how hot you'd look fighting next to me. And you can you know, because you are strong enough. Whether you want to believe it or not."

I wrinkled my nose as I thought on that for a bit. He was right. I was stronger than I gave myself credit for. I was supposedly a warrior spirit after all. Maybe it was time to let go of some of my insecurities.

"Thanks." I mumbled.

"Wanna shower with me yet?"

I laughed again, he ducked out as I threw a pillow at him. I grabbed my phone up and looked at the message from Kendra.

How was ur first nite with Jake? I want juicy deets!

I thumbed out a response. No juicy deets. I'm still the only V @ Webber Hi.

Her reply made me giggle. Boo.

I thought we were done for a while, but my phone chirped again.

Btw, u got lead solo. Congrats homie.

Ah. A piece or normality, I hadn't even realized I'd been needing it this badly. I plopped back to lay on the bed, my feet still on the floor and was still laying that way when Jake came back. I turned my head to watch him, he was s.h.i.+rtless again I hoped he remained that way forever- jeans slung low on his hips. He was toweling his hair but dropped it on the floor inside his door.

"What do you want to do today?" He asked. I shrugged. I'd never skipped school before, I even went when I was sick. "Are you hungry?"

I shook my head still kind of mesmerized by that impressive six pack, and those arms...or lordy, those arms...

"Okay, first thing we've gotta do is change your eating habits. You have to eat more. Lots and lots of carbs. From here on out you're going to be a very active woman and you're going to need all the strength you can get." He came to the side of the bed and pushed my knees apart with his legs and stood between them, he leaned over and planted his hands on the bed on each side of my head.

"You wanna make out for a while?"

Did I ever! I smiled then and snaked my arms up around his neck and pulled his face down to mine. We'd barely gotten started when there was a knock at his door. I almost laughed at the intense growl that emanated from his throat.

"You've gotta be kidding me. Hold that thought." He pushed up from the bed. I suppressed a giggle when I saw him adjust the front of his pants before opening the door. His dad was on the other side and they spoke in low tones. I sat up when Jake glanced at me over his shoulder. Were they talking about me?

Eventually Jake closed the door and came back to me.

"What is it?" I asked warily, a part of me was expecting him to tell me that I was no longer allowed to stay in his house.

"The demons that were out by your trailer made it through the protections last night."

I jumped from the bed.

"Oh my G.o.d. My dad?" I momentarily forgot to call him Bob.

"He's fine. For once being a drunk a.s.shole worked in his favor. My dad doesn't think they even knew he was there."

I exhaled in relief.

"So what does this mean?"

"It means we have to figure out the weak link in our protection before they all figure out how to get through it. We'll also need to reinforce the protection around every place you've ever spent any significant time. They'll hunt you down by scent if they have to."

"Kendra's." I gasped. He nodded. "Alright. Let's get to it then." I said, ready to jump into action.

"My dad already has a team out reinforcing protections. And we can't just snap our fingers and come up with new protections. There's some research involved to find out what's failed in the current protection, then a new one has to be developed."

"How long does that take?"

"Days."

"Days? But what if they get through Kendra's protections?"

"Luckily, so far reinforcements hold them off long enough to get a new protection in place. Trust me Remi, we've never failed in this."

I did trust him.

He sighed and held his hand out to me.

"Let's go get some lunch." Though the make out moment had pa.s.sed for me for now- I was still disappointed that it had pa.s.sed for him too. I took his hand and let him lead me to the kitchen where we set about making ham and cheese sandwiches.

"Was your mom a hunter too?" I asked as I watched him spread mustard on a slice of wheat bread, he paused in the action and my eyes shot to his face, I saw his jaw tick before he picked back up where he'd left off.

"No." He said quietly. When he said no more I decided to drop it. Obviously there was a story behind his mother, but he didn't want to talk about it. So imagine my surprise when he spoke again as he sliced pickles. "She couldn't see them. And she wasn't as open to the fact that we could as Maria is. When it got to be too much for her, she bailed."

Well s.h.i.+t.

Jake handed me the paper plates and I carried them to the table as he grabbed a couple V-8 splashes from the fridge. He joined me at the table and held them out.

"Strawberry Banana, or Goji Berry?"

"What's a Goji Berry?"

He chuckled, and handed me the Goji.

"Don't you have a football game tonight?" I asked as we ate. Friday's were always game nights.

"Yeah, but I'm out on a family emergency today. They'll have to survive one game without me."

"Imagine their horror." I teased and he laughed.

"I do have to go...hunting tonight though." When I dropped my sandwich I saw him tense. Getting ready for an argument maybe? I knew this was part of his life but it still shocked me to hear him say it. So I'd be alone tonight? But I had no right to argue with him and this wasn't even a conversation that deserved an argument; even though I would like to keep him safely locked away in a tower too. So I swallowed any whining I might have done, and decided to have a real live grown up conversation about it.

"So, how does this work? I mean, you have school during the day. On hunting nights, when do you sleep?"

He hid his surprise at my topic choice about as well as I hid the fact that I wanted to talk him out of going.

"I don't. At least not much. During football season I come straight from there to gear up for hunting, but during the off season I can come home and catch an hour or so nap before we have to go."