Safe House - Hidden Monsters - Chapter 16

Photo credit: Day by Day at Beautiful Bearskin Lodge / Foter / CC BY


Jill woke in a large bedroom. She looked around and noticed a bay window to her right. Outside she saw rolling mountaintops and a cloudless summer sky. She turned and found her father's eyes watching her from a recliner. He looked like he'd slept there all night. He smiled and approached her bed. Jill threw her arms around his neck as soon as he sat down. 

The door opened and a young woman walked in. Her dark curly hair was pulled back in a long French braid down her back. She walked with a grace any girl would die for and her flawless skin reminded Jill of cocoa and honey. 

"How is my patient this morning?" she asked. 

"I feel fine. But I remember being attacked by the wolf." Jill paused and examined herself feeling little pain and finding very few scars. The thought of the attack made her skin crawl and she shuddered.

"I'm a healer. It's what I do best. You escaped with some serious injuries but I was able to cure them quickly," the woman said as she set a small tray of fruits and sweet breads in front of Jill. Saal entered the room next and pulled Tom aside to chat. 

All conversation stopped as a giant of a man stormed into the room. His faced seemed set in a constant scowl. 

"You were correct, Saal. You must have been tracked. A uniformed man is watching the house not far from here, about two miles." He stopped talking and looked at the people in the room, who'd gone quiet and slack jawed. "What?" he growled. 

"You're so tall, Vrag!" Tom said. 
"And big!" Saal added. 
"And handsome!" the woman said smiling. Jill giggled. 

"ump," Vrag growled as he continued. "I can only alter my appearance so much; deal with it. "Anyway, I found the tracker and killed it." 

"You killed the officer?" Tom shouted. 

"I wish," Vrag said. "I killed the device he used to track you. He'd set it between the two back wheels of that thing you came in." Vrag stormed to the far window and wrenched the curtains open. He scanned the horizon and stopped, his eyes fixed on his target. He pointed two fingers to his eyes then out the window before he jerked the curtains shut again. "I didn't detect any listening devices so I think we're safe to talk. No one shifts. We stay human." 

He approached Jill next in a huff. She pulled the covers up high. Only her eyes showed as she looked up at the large man. "Even as a human, I'm still bigger and a hundred times stronger than you. You are agile and swift and you will need to be clever if you want to escape our training sessions unscathed." He looked back to the young woman, "Is she fit to start, Elyen?" 

"Yes, Vrag," Elyen said. 

"Good, we start in one hour," Vrag said pointing a mean beefy finger in Jill's face before he turned to leave. 

"Vrag, you should be nicer!" Elyen chided. 

"Why? I'm not nice to anyone," Vrag said as he reached the door. 

"You're nice to me," Elyen said. 

Vrag stopped and turned. He stormed back to Elyen who watched his approach with poorly concealed amusement. He stopped in front of her and pointed his beefy finger at her. "I'm nice to you because I love you…. And you're my mate," he said. His tone still sounded gruff and mean but Jill saw a slip of humor twitch at his lips. "And you look very pretty," he finished. Elyen smiled wider and tapped her cheek to request a kiss. "And nobody tells me what to do!" Vrag growled loudly as he kissed her forehead instead before he turned and stormed out. 

Jill smiled at the couple then frowned. "Training for what?" she asked.


CCC#298