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“Lizzy, what did you do?” He rubbed his head, checking for blood. “What happened?”
Plucking the dagger off the ground, I sheathed it and smiled. “I killed it. Take that, Ashley.”
The bragging rights were mine for a month. I couldn’t wait to see her face when she heard that I’d out scored her today. She’d be furious.
“No, I can see that.” He pointed at the last wisps of demon lingering above the ground. “But what was that thing you did before? You were glowing. You’re not nearly advanced enough to have mastered those Nephilim powers. I only just started working with my own. Only a handful of warriors have that ability.”
A grin pulled at the corner of my mouth. “Really? I’m getting that good?”
“It’s not a good thing, Lizzy.” He frowned, pulling me back down to Earth. “If you let your powers get out of hand like that, you’ll hurt yourself, or worse. You’re not ready to control them.”
“But I’ve been working my butt off.” I threw my hands up in the air, wincing at the momentarily forgotten shoulder wound. “I can handle it.”
His eyes shifted to my shoulder and they went wide with concern. He jumped to my side, forgetting the lecture, and gripped my shoulder too hard. I gasped as pain radiated from the wound.
“Sorry,” he said with an apologetic frown, loosening his grip. “What happened?”
“It stabbed me.” I shrugged, causing pain to shoot through my shoulder again. “It took my dagger...” The fierce look Gabe shot me threw me into defensive mode. “It was only for a second. But it’s just a shoulder wound, I promise. It’ll heal fast.”
I’d had worse wounds than this from defeating the demon that inhabited the goddess, Margaret Thatcher. A little shoulder wound wasn’t going to get me down.
He shook his head. “Your father isn’t going to like this...”
I stretched to my tiptoes and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Luckily for us, he’s still in Europe.”
As it turned out, my luck had ran out. We returned to Westward Manor to find my father and his sister, Esther, back from their European trip. I didn’t even have a chance to get my shoulder patched up and to change out of my bloody clothes. Luke found me in the great hall, his eyes going straight to my wound.
“What happened?” he demanded, his blue eyes filling with concern.
My father stood over six feet tall, with broad shoulders, a slender waist, and a square jaw. We shared the same brown hair color, although his had begun to gray. It was hard to think of this bookish man with wire-rimmed glasses as a warrior. He spent most of his time cooped up in his office, handling Nephilim issues or browsing his eclectic collection of books.
“Looks like today’s sweep got a little out of hand.” Esther pressed a finger to my wound, making me wince. “This will need a few stitches.”
Towering over me, she shared the same graying hair as my father, only hers fell down to her elbows. She had light blue eyes and a splash of freckles that dusted her nose and cheeks. Unlike the athletic shape of most Nephilims, my aunt had a plump figure which she hid under loose blouses. Instead of training as a warrior, she spent her time in the medical and research wards. She was a good reminder that life didn’t end after gatekeeping. There were many other jobs at the manor to keep the Nephilim busy.
“I thought Gabe was taking care of you.” Luke turned to Gabe with an accusing glare. “You promised to take care of her.”
“He did.” I tugged on Luke’s arm. “We just had a little accident. I’m fine, really.”
“You’re not fine. You need to take a break from these patrols. They’re getting out of hand.”
Esther hummed and nodded in agreement. “You’re lucky this wasn’t worse.”
I frowned at them. The patrols were the best part about training. I was learning so much from those trips into the woods. Surely, he wouldn’t take them away from me.
“Gabe, tell them I’m fine.”
“Actually, I happen to agree with your father.”
I looked up at him and felt my forehead wrinkle. We’d done just fine today. Taken down more than our fair share of feral demons. That’s what we warriors were supposed to do. And I was getting better. All I had to do was focus my rage into the attack—and I had plenty of that left over from the months before—and I could easily take down a handful of demons at once. How could he say things were getting out of hand?
“She started glowing today,” Gabe explained to them, ignoring my frustration. “We were in the middle of a maneuver when she lost control.”
“You glowed?” Luke returned his attention to me, even more concerned than before. “Did you feel pain?”
The pain of a million knives cutting into my skin, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.
“Maybe, a little.” I shrugged. “It went away.”
