"Are you okay?" The masculine voice came near her ear.
Kylie's first thought was that it was Derek. He always knew when she was in emotional trauma. But she quickly recognized the deep, sexy voice. The voice of the person whom for the last week she'd tried to beat to smithereens with a wooden sword.
She turned around. "Yes." Then her pent-up anger crowded her chest and she knew what would help.
"Do you want to go practice?"
"Now?" Lucas asked.
"I need to burn off some aggression."
"On me?" He half smiled.
"Not ... Do you want to practice or not?" she snapped, in no mood for humor. Face it, someone had sent her a sword to learn to fight-and if they expected her to fight, then they obviously meant for her to stay alive. And she planned to stay alive to protect her mom from creeps like John.
Yup, staying alive sounded like a good idea.
"Sure." His blue eyes filled with concern. "Let me tell Burnett." His gaze didn't move from her face.
"What happened?"
"I don't want to talk," she said. "I want to fight."
* * *
Thirty minutes later, Kylie had already broken one sword without Lucas having said anything about loving her, how beautiful she was, or about them making out in the grass.
He made her go through some stretching exercises, insisting he could see the tension rolling off of her.
It wasn't rolling off of her, it was rolling around inside of her. Fear for her mom's safety chopped away ather sanity, fear for Lucas and what would happen to him if the pack completely turned against him ate at her peace of mind.
"You still don't want to talk?" he asked as their swords banged against each other.
Yes, but I just don't know what to say. "No," she lied, changing her stance and managing to get her sword past his, and then tapped the tip against his chest.
"You are getting good." He stared down at the sword pointing at his heart.
She pulled back to let him get his footing. In a few seconds, they were back to sparring when she felt the cold wash over her.
Too good. The student is besting the teacher. You need a new teacher.
Kylie glanced at the ghost standing there with her sword. Who else can teach me?
Me, of course. But no pansy stuff fighting with wooden swords. You must learn to fight with a real weapon.
Kylie's heart raced, remembering her main fear. Am I going to die?
The ghost sighed. That is up to you.
How sad was it that she preferred to take the word of a murdering spirit than that of her father? But the fact remained that she wanted to live.
"You ready?" Lucas asked.
Kylie faced him. "One second." She looked back to the spirit. Do you know my father?
Her question left her lips at the same time the spirit vanished.
Facing Lucas again, Kylie held up her sword and the sparring resumed.
"Do I need to teach him a lesson?" Lucas asked as his sword clashed again hers.
"Who?" she asked.
"Your mom's boyfriend." Lucas blocked her sword.
"No, I need to stop him," she said. If she didn't die first.
Then she felt a fire burn in her belly. She wasn't going to die. She was going to fight and win. And Lucas had to do the same, she realized.
"You're getting gutsy," Lucas said, but suddenly she lost her focus and his sword got around her and tapped her shoulder.
Kylie looked at the sword's point. "That wasn't a death blow. You can't count that as a win."
"No, but you'd be bleeding so badly that you wouldn't last much longer."
"Fine. Count it." She stepped back and prepared to start again.
This time she was more careful, blocking him blow for blow. Sweat poured down her brow. Her muscles ached, her heart ached. She opened her mouth to say something about his new moves. But something completely different came out.
"You should have told me about Monique," she said, not realizing what she meant to say. The sound of wood being slammed together filled the air like thunder. "If I had known..." What would she have done?
Was there any chance in hell that she would have said it was okay? Probably not, but perhaps she wouldn't have felt so betrayed. Maybe she wouldn't have lumped him together with all the other betrayals of her past.
"You wouldn't have accepted it," he finished for her. It was the truth. He started those fancy foot moves around her again. "And you would have been right not to accept it. It was a bad judgment call on my part.""Bad for us, yes. But maybe it was the right call for you," she said. "You have too much to lose, Lucas."
"I have you to lose!" Their swords slammed together; the loud noise crackled in the air.
They backed away from each other. "I told you that we're over. Find Monique, tell her you'll marry her."
"I am not marrying her. I never planned to."
"Then go back to your original plan, say you'll do it, get on the Council, and then back out."
"No. It was a bad plan then and it would be a bad plan now."
She breathed in and caught the air in her lungs. "Everyone blames me for ruining your dreams," she said. And someday you will, too-if I live. And that was what hurt the most right now. Not dying. But the fact that forgiving him seemed easy compared to accepting that he would one day resent her. Resent the choice he'd made.
He lifted his sword to start sparring again. She went along with it because just looking at him hurt too much.
He started talking as he moved. "Anyone who blames you is a fool. I was the one who chose not to sign the betrothal agreement. Not you." The swords hit again.
"Your sister believes it. Even your grandmother believes it. I saw it in her eyes today when she started to come over to talk to me."
"My sister is stupid. I love my grandmother," he said, and the sound of his sword slicing through air sent a chill down Kylie's back. "But that doesn't make her right. She follows a lot of the beliefs of the elders."
"Your pack is turning away from you. I saw that." Her throat tightened again. "You can't lose them, Lucas. You've told me a thousand times how important they are to you."
"But you are more important to me," he said. "I can't lose you."
"You've already lost me!" she seethed, and blocked his sword again. She couldn't let him do this. She couldn't let him sacrifice everything he had wanted. She couldn't watch him grow to hate her someday.
He pulled back. She expected him to come to the left, but he came to the right, and she failed to block him. He placed his sword right over her heart.