Chapter 45

"Uh,"

A blurry visioned Lucas let out as he woke up with a crook in his neck. He slowly rubbed his eyes as he tried to take in his surrounding before realizing he was on the couch. "What time is it?" He thought to himself before seeing his phone face down on the table. A groan left his mouth as he reached for the device. He stared at the blank black screen while pressing the power button and waited for his phone to pop back to life. After what felt like 5 minutes, he let out a sigh as he realized it was dead.

"Must have forgotten to charge it last night," he muttered roughly before placing it back on the table. He soon felt his head begin to ache as a splitting headache woke him fully and forced him to lean forward with his hand on his head. His mind soon tried to piece together what had all happened last night.

He remembered him and Amay eating takeout for dinner while watching a random tv show. He also remembered Amay moving and sitting closer to him, and everything went blank. Putting two and two together, Lucas figured the best way to get answers was to find her.

Lucas groaned slightly as he got to his feet and slowly began to search around the house. Due to how bad his headache was, he decided not to call out for her and was going to quietly find her and ask her what had happened. However, the throbbing in his head became too much, so he went into the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

While turning on the faucet and filling up a glass cup, he felt his eyes move to look outside. His eyes narrowed but quickly widened. He found Amay, but she was standing outside.

"What's she doing, " Lucas thought to himself as he watched her motionlessly stand in one spot. He stopped the faucet as he kept his eyes on her, and he couldn't help but watch and see what she would do.

Amay stood in the grass wearing shorts and a sports bra with her eyes closed as her long hair swayed in the wind as it gently touched her skin. Her chest slowly moved back and forth as she controlled her breathing to match the peaceful breeze.

"Relax and focus," she could hear her teacher's voice ringing in her ear. "Take up your weapon and show me your stance."

Amay exhaled as her body slowly came to life. She slowly put her right foot in front of the left before sliding it across the grass to be behind from a certain angle. In that same motion, her hands came together above her chest and slid across each other. She tensed up a little as she could feel her middle finger cut her palms open. The smell of iron filled her nose as blood began to flow out. She then positioned her hands outward with her left hand extending outward, while her right was expanded back following her leg.

As her blood slowly dripped from her cuts, she opened her eyes as her snake-like pupils focused. Instead of seeing a luscious field of grass and flowers with trees marking the perimeter and Elizabeth's house to her right, she was surrounded by pitch-black darkness with a single light beaming down on her and giving her a small area of safety.

"Good, child." Her teacher's voice spoke again. "Now, prepare yourself."

Amay heard the voice fade away as she imagined figures slowly peering through the darkness. Her left ear twitched as she could hear one figure approaching her from behind. She quickly turned around and brought her hands together as if she were holding a sword's hilt.

The first dark figure's sword blocked with Amay's all-red sword's downward slash. He pulled his blade back and tried to strike her across her chest, but Amay used hers to block. She was playing defense until she could find an opening to attack. With a full hop back and using her feet to kick off the grass, she held her sword low as she charged her attacker. They tried to swing at her neck with a brutal horizontal slash; however, Amay used her sword to stop his attack. She ducked low, quickly slashing out the attacker's knees. With a quick spin, Amay plunged her sword into his chest where his heart would be.

As the attacker faded, Amay's right ear twitched. She immediately turned around and used her sword to block an incoming object. Her feet gripped the ground as she stood her ground. Her eyes watched as the object that was sent at her was the sickle. As the sickle was pulled back, the figure began to spin it on its chain rapidly. She could hear the blade pick up speed. Cautiously Amay began to step forward as she knew she needed to close the distance between them and her.

The blood sword quickly went back into Amay's hand and was replaced by a dagger while another dagger formed in her other hand, facing the ground. She then took off towards the figure with the chained sickle in a zigzag formation, with her red hair catching in the air.

The figure released the sickle and came straight for Amay's head. She quickly slid across the grass and watched as the long chain went over her head. Her eyes went wide as she saw the chain being pulled back. She rolled to the left, barely dodging the incoming bade, and used that split second to toss one of her daggers at the attacker.

They used the chain to block the attack but were caught off guard when the blade reverted into a liquid. While his eyes were closed for that split second, Amay charged at him. Blood had covered her hands, turning them into sharp claws. As she pounced into the air in a fell swoop, Amay had decapitated the figure.

While their bodies started to fade, Amay breathed heavily as she tried to catch her breath. Her heart was beating fast, and her mouth felt dry. She closed her eyes as she stayed kneeling, trying to focus her breathing again. She then felt, smelt, and heard something behind her and quickly turned around to attack whoever it was.

Amay's claws stopped only inches from their throat as she caught herself and realized who it was. She breathed heavily as her eyes and irises became more prominent as she looked at the person in their kind and scared eyes. She slowly pulled her arm away while straightening up. Without skipping a beat, she punched Lucas square in his chest before yelling at him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?! Or even thinking?!"

Lucas gripped the middle of his chest as pain raced through him. "Ow! Why did you punch me?!" he angrily asked her as he stumbled and fell back.

"Don't change the topic," She angrily told him before standing over him with her arms crossed and her face now red. "I could have killed you! If I didn't realize your scent, you would have been dead." Amay said with a hint of sorrow in her voice.

"Okay, Okay. I was in the wrong for that," Lucas admitted as he saw the worry in her eyes. He honestly would admit he did pee his pants a little and saw his life flash before his eyes when she nearly went for his neck. His chest was still tingling from her punch. "I'm sorry. I was just wondering what you were doing. You started fighting the air out of nowhere." Lucas said as he slowly got to his feet.

Amay's face turned an even brighter red as she realized he was watching her. She couldn't look him straight in the eyes when he said that.

"I...I was training," she admitted in a low voice to him. "I do my training when no one is watching...It helps me focus more. When I woke up and saw you were asleep, I wanted to get a quick practice in," she explained while still blushing.

"Oh. Ooh." Lucas said, realizing it more. "This also explains the clothing," he added while looking down at her figure.

His face blushed slightly as he looked back up at her face. He could feel the awkward tension building between them, so he quickly changed topics. "So I woke up with a headache and have no idea why. Did anything happened last night?" He asked, rubbing his head.

Lucas watched as Amay's eyes got huge, and a guilty look came across her face. He noticed she was beginning to move from side to side.

"What happened?" Lucas bravily asked, but felt like he would regret it.

"Well...." Amay nervously began to speak. She didn't look him in the eyes as she began to rub her left arm. "After we got done eating, we watched a little TeeVee. I got bored and wanted to pick up from what we did earlier that day."

"Okay. We kissed and..," Lucas said, feeling his heart begin to beat a little faster, but he wanted to get to the point.

"Well. I thought that "thing" you did felt nice, and I wanted you to do it again." She continued and giggled nervously.

"Thing?" He mouthed for a moment, trying to figure out what she was talking about. "The only thing I did was stick my tongue in your...OOOH." He said, realizing it. He then watched as she nodded her head at him.

"You see....when you did that, you forgot my teeth are really sharp." She said, rubbing her neck a little while looking at him. "Remember how I said I can't properly control my blood-drinking yet? Well, it still holds up. By the time I realized it, you were passed out." She nervously chuckled at him.

"I...I...." Lucas found himself stuck on what to say to her. Part of him felt like he should be mad, yet his other side was thinking different thoughts. "I'm conflicted."

"If it makes you feel any better, I did make sure you were still alive," Amay said, trying to at least make him feel better.

"Let's just move on," he said, unsure what else to think about his mistake. "So, do you want to spare a little since it's just us and my arm is feeling better?"

"I mean...I'm down if you are." Amay said, wanting to move past the topic. "Hopefully, this will make up for last night," Amay whispered.

"What was that?"

"Let's stretch first," Amay said quickly, changing past her comment. "You need to stretch a little to loosen up your body."

"Oh..that's fair," Lucas said, then looking back at the house. "Let me eat something first," he said, walking back to the place to settle his hunger and find something for his headache.