Tonight had been one of the worst nights ever. First I’d had my squad being absolute sods to the point that I’d had to send a blast of air at them to knock them off their feet. Then I’d had to see Victor again. Then I’d killed Victor. Then there’d been that horrible, indescribable agony while my body grieved. Then there’d been all that stuff with Jared. And now I was stuck worrying where this teleporting power was going to take me to next.

I definitely had to stop thinking about Jared in case it took me to him. That’d be bad.

So I thought about the pool. Technically I should then stay where I was. I enjoyed the feel of the water on my skin and how it lapped up against my body. I thought of how weird it had felt swimming just minutes ago, it had been my first time since becoming a vampire and God it was effortless. I didn’t struggle to stay fully afloat no matter how tired I was, I didn’t have to dig deep in myself for the energy to keep going after a few minutes, and nor did I have to wait long before my hair dried. Closing my eyes, I thought about how peaceful it was here in the water alone, and how relaxed my body was becoming, and how –

SPLASH!

I opened my eyes to find Max the Slap-head in the pool. He hollered a noise of exhilaration.

“I’ll say this only once,” I told him. “Fuck off.”

“Now, now,” he said, wagging a finger. “Sure you have your authority when it’s training time. But right now I’m on my own time. And I’m staying.”

“Tosser,” I cursed, too brassed off to take much notice of his bare chest. There had been a lot of bare chests going around tonight.

He came a little closer. “I heard what happened.”

I tensed. A lot had happened tonight so what exactly did he mean?

“Must have been a hard thing to do; killing your Sire.” There was a lot of sensitivity in his voice. I hadn’t thought of Slap-head as the type to have a sensitive side.

“Yeah well he was a dickhead.”

“I heard that too.” His smile was only small but it held all its usual cheekiness. “At the risk of sounding like a pervert, why are you fully clothed in the pool?”

“Ah you sound so disappointed. Had you been hoping that jumping in here would get you a better look at what lies beneath?”

“Oh I can see your assets just fine, don’t worry about it. In fact, with your wet clothes clinging to your skin it’s a really good view.”

I splashed a handful of water at him. He shook it off like a wet dog and then edged even closer, but not too close, which I appreciated.

“I wanted to ask you something.” His tone was serious now. “If you knew that rumours were getting spread round about someone...would you tell them?”

It couldn’t have been more obvious what he was getting at. “What have people been saying about me now?”

“The messengers get shot a lot,” he continued, ignoring me, “so if you were the messenger would you risk getting shot?”

“Slap-head, tell me now,” I ground out.

His eyebrows shot up and a smile crept onto his face. “I’m not telling you a thing until you drop the Slap-head thing. We’re not working now, it’s on my own time, and my name is Max.”

“Either get out of the bleeding pool and leave me in peace or cough up.”

“Is it really that hard for you to say my name? Does it make you shudder or something?” He was even closer to me now. “Or maybe I just make you nervous.”

“You make me want to slap you.”

“Alright, fair enough. People have been saying that something’s going on between you and Commander Michaels.”

I stiffened. Had someone been in the arena who we hadn’t noticed? I played it aloof. “And this rumour is based on...?”

He gave me an incredulous look as though he thought the answer was obvious. “Well, um, there’s how he looks at you. There’s how you look at him. There’s the fact that there’s that much sexual tension between you that it gets us all horny. I mean, come on, you guys can’t even work together.”

“Thanks for the heads-up about the rumour,” I said simply, still aloof.

“Well? Do you wish to confirm or deny these rumours?”

“You know what? No comment. And I’ll tell you why: you lot need to grasp the fact that I’m your superior, not your equal, not your mate. That means my business is my own.”

Max grinned. He’d taken that as a denial, by the looks of things. There was the smallest space between us now. I had to question why I was allowing him to get so close. It wasn’t like I had any intention of kissing him. But, contrary to what he believed, I wasn’t nervous around him. He was easy to be around because he didn’t want to play games or make bets or push on things. He just wanted to have a laugh.

“Okay,” he said. “But like I’ve said, we’re on our own time now. This is just one single person talking to another.”

“What does this single person want?”

He pursed his lips for a second. “Hmm. I guess what I want is to know if when we’re on our own time...we can cancel out each other’s single status.”

His cuteness and smooth voice and the way that he hadn’t come across all corny and pushy almost made me consider it. But I had plenty of reasons not to. “Mates is the best I can do. And by mates, I mean friends.”

Max nodded but didn’t lose his smile. “There’s one thing you’ll learn about me in training tomorrow.”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t give up easy.”

“I’m not playing hard to get,” I told him as he hopped out the pool. “Mates, that’s it.”

“I know you’re not playing. But babe, that just makes you even more of a challenge. You’ve no idea how much I like challenges. You might not have meant to, but you just turned me on big style.”

I had a feeling that he didn’t walk away with vampire speed because he was hoping I’d take a sneaky look at his arse as he strutted off. I didn’t look. I’d already gotten a good look at it at the try-out. It was a nice behind if ever there was one. Biteable.

You’ve just saved his life by saying no, I heard in my head. Jared.

My head immediately snapped up to look at his balcony. He wasn’t out, but I could see him at the window. Seconds later he was out of view, but I’d saw his expression long enough to notice that he was absolutely livid with me. That fact bothered me as I lay there that morning, trying desperately to get some sleep.

After my day’s sleep in the comfiest bed ever, I actually didn’t feel so bad. Yeah, I still felt crappy over everything that had happened with Jared. And I still had mixed feelings over burning alive my maker. But there were bigger problems – like the fact that The Hollow might be attacked soon and the squad had to be prepared. So although I was again a little tempted to hide away in my room, I ignored it.

I thought about trying to teleport to the office but immediately decided against it. God knows where I’d end up. It was odd. Usually when I absorbed someone’s power I could handle it just as easy as I handled my own because I knew exactly how to harness energy and channel it; that was all you needed in order to control and effectively use a power. But I couldn’t seem to grasp how to use this teleporting thing. Thankfully it would fade as soon as I used up all of the energy that Jared had passed on to me.

Before I was even half-way down the corridor to the office I knew that Jared wasn’t in there. I’d be able to smell his scent from here, and he wasn’t too hard for me to sense.

“Alright, Fletch,” I greeted as I reached the reception desk outside my office.

“Oh, luv, come here.” Before I could say a word he was on his feet and his arms were clamped around me. I guessed he’d heard about Victor meeting his doom at my hands. “It’s alright, luv. It’s alright,” he crooned, as though I was crying. “I know. I know.”

“Fletch, I’m fine honestly.”

“You don’t have to act for me, luv.” He was patting my back now.

“Oh bugger off ya big Nancy,” I giggled as I stepped out of his arms. “I’m fine.”

“Your emotions say different.”

Oh crap, yeah, I’d forgotten he was an Empath. “Okay, I’m a bit mixed up.”

“Mixed up? You’re all over the place. You’re like a broth of conflicting emotions.” He held his head as if the impact of it all hurt. “Ooh I can feel a migraine coming on.”

“Then I’ll leave you be, luv.”

“Ah bless ya. Bless ya.”

Once settled at my desk I retrieved my notepad, intent on doing flow charts on the recruits for me to document what their ability is now and what goal I have for each of them. That was, of course, if they bothered turning up later at the arena. I got a feeling that some of them might. Max, David and Denny would. Maybe Chico and Butch. I wouldn’t go chasing after the others; that would cut into the training time I had for those that did show, which wasn’t fair to them. As for afterwards, I might make cook up a mini tornado and stick the lazy absent gits inside it. That would be satisfying to watch.

On completing the flow charts I stuck each one in the relevant recruits’ file. I still had an hour to kill before it was time to meet the recruits at the arena when Evan strolled in the office wearing a cheery grin.

“You’re here. I knew you would be,” he added. He looked edible in those tank-green pants and t-shirt, but I wouldn’t have thought they’d suit him if I hadn’t seen the evidence for myself.

Confused, I said, “Where else would I be?”

“Well some people thought you might want more time alone. I said you’d have bounced back by now. Right, come on.”

“Say again?”

“Antonio wants to see you. In the mansion.” With that, he turned and waltzed cockily out the office, confident that I’d follow. Which I did.

Fletcher’s face was a question mark as Evan and I started down the corridor together. Wanting to be careful not to start rumours that I was shagging both brothers, I told my assistant, “Fletch, I’m just going to see Antonio and after that I’ll be at the arena if you need me.”

“Right, luv.” He looked less suspicious now but still curious.

“What does he want to see me about?” I asked Evan as we left the Command Centre, heading toward the mansion. God I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the recruits had gone whining to him that I’d thrown bits of their past at them.

“Don’t look so worried,” chuckled Evan.

“I’m not worried. It’s just that I feel like I’m been sent for by the School Head Master and escorted to the Head Master’s office to get a rollicking for something.”

“Oh, no, I don’t think it’s anything like that.” He held the door open for me and we stepped into the grand hallway of the mansion. “He probably just wants to make sure you’re okay after what happened yesterday.” After a moment of walking in silence along the hallway he said, “So, are you okay?”

“No offence, but I’d rather not keep going with this conversation considering that I know exactly what course it’ll take.”

“It’ll take a course?” he asked, amused.

“I’ll say I’m fine, then you’ll say I can’t really be fine, then I’ll try to convince you I am, then you’ll say how it must have been really hard for me kill him.”

“Well it must have been.”

“Jared, Max and Fletcher said the same thing and all three times it made me feel like shit.”

“Why?”

“Because it wasn’t hard. I did it without thinking.”

“You did it to protect Antonio, that’s nothing to feel bad about.” Gently Evan squeezed my shoulder, giving me the sort of smile that begs you to smile yourself. So I did. And that’s the moment – while Evan had his hand on my shoulder and we were smiling at each other widely – that fate decided it would be fun for Jared to walk down the same hallway, heading in our direction. His face was a picture of fury. Oh bugger.

Where’re you taking her? I heard in my head. Did Jared realise he’d sent that thought to me instead of Evan?

Antonio wants to see her. Why are we talking about this telepathically? Evan’s confusion didn’t show on his face.

Then I understood what was happening. Absorbing a little of Jared’s power must have made it possible for me to listen to telepathic conversations around me. I didn’t let it show that I could hear.

Jared, nearly at us: Why are you taking her to him?

Evan: I was asked to go get her, what’s the problem?

Jared: No problem. You can both do what you want, it’s none of my business.

Evan, amused: Oh, I get it, she won’t let you screw her, will she?

“Hi,” said Jared to both Evan and me as he stopped before us. If I hadn’t been able to hear the frustration in his telepathic voice, I might have bought his aloof expression.

“Alright,” I greeted, trying for aloof too.

“Where you off to, bro?” Evan asked him.

Evan, amused: Oh I bet this is all new for you. I was starting to think there wasn’t a girl out there who wouldn’t spread her legs for you. She just gets more and more interesting.

Jared: Evan, I’m not in the mood for this. Oh and don’t think she’ll let you in her panties either.

“Going back to the squad,” replied Jared. “Dawson supervised them for me while I came to speak to Antonio and Luther.” He gestured with his head to the room across the hallway.