2

Inside a very luxurious room, the lights were switched off and a slender figure sat at the edge of the queen-sized bed staring into oblivion, her expression was unreadable. Outside, the rain fell lightly, a very refreshing and peaceful fall from the heavens. The figure moved towards the walk-in-closet, the clothes were set to her liking. Changing into suitable clothes for training, she went down to the underground training room Michael had showed her while bringing them inside.

She looked around the training area making sure there was no one there before she made her way to the punching bag. Already in a fighting stance, she punched the bag continuously, it was as though she was angry and was venting her anger on the bag. The bag suffered a lot of blows from her to the extent the shackles holding it up gave way and broke; it was replaced by another as it fell. Scarlett's breathing was ragged; her hair drenched with sweat.

She continued her onslaught on the punching bag, the second fell and was replaced by another. The sound of her fists landing on leather echoed in the room and soon the scent of blood filled the room after Scarlett's fifth punching fell to the ground.

"You really don't like sleep kiddo?" a voice echoed in the room. It was none other than Mr. Quinn. Scarlett stared at him before she continued punching without sparing the man a word. Mr. Quinn however was amused at her behavior. "You know..." he began. "...you remind me of your father when he was your age," he said and Scarlett stopped after hearing about her father.

Staring at the man with unanswered questions in her eyes, Scarlett grabbed a towel hanging on a rack a few feet away from her and cleaned her sweaty face. Mr. Quinn gave her a bottle of fresh blood and she gulped down half the bottle in seconds. The old man scrutinized her every movement, she leaned on the wall with her eyes closed, she looked like she didn't even do anything at all, her ragged breathing had since calmed and her drenched hair had dried off thanks to the air conditioner Mr. Quinn turned on when he came in.

"I know you," her voice was rough. He wasn't expecting her to say that. It sounded more of an assurance than a question and he knew she wouldn't bother asking. She stood there leaning on the wall.

"Do you still have some energy left in you?" he asked. "I want to see just how strong you've grown," Scarlett's face lit up almost immediately, she loved sparring matches. She grinned wickedly at him and he smiled back at her. He attacked her without warning with every blow stronger and fiercer than the last. His attacks were precise and in less than thirty minutes of their fight, Scarlett lay on her back on the floor in pain. "I was wrong..." he began. "...you aren't as strong as you feel or look...what a disappointment, I expected more from a noble hybrid," he said.

If there was one thing Scarlett hated more than anything was being called a disappointment and it was only one person who ever called her that, her grandfather, he had come over for a visit when she was ten and decided to stay and be her personal trainer, her grandfather sparred with her, he didn't show her slight mercy as a child. He called her a disappointment because she couldn't even land an attack on him not to talk of dodging his attacks and now this old man did the same.

She remembered every blow he landed on her back then; she had suffered quite a lot of injuries, like a broken skull and other broken bones as well as a bleeding head, no one cared, they said she was the princess of a noble race and as such shouldn't be treated as a weakling. She couldn't help but smile at the similarities between the old man and her grandfather. There was this strong feeling of familiarity and his behavior was so akin to her grandfather's.

"Lying helpless on the floor won't do you any good hybrid; you're still a disappointment..." he said. "...even after nine years," Scarlett was at a loss for words. First he said she reminded him of her father, which was odd for a person she wasn't so sure she knew and now? She didn't know where the strength came from but she appeared in front of him and grabbed his collar, her eyes gleamed with curiosity.

"H...how is it possible? You died in that plane crash, no one could survive that...not even you," she choked out. "I literally saw your body, burnt, bruised, scarred...lifeless,"

"Not everything is as it seems... but it seems to me that you're still that ten year old weakling sulking under the rain from nine years ago...still a disappointment," the old man said. The first time he called her a disappointment she had cried and now...now the same feeling that had overwhelmed her nine years ago and made her cry, today it made her angry, angry at herself that after nine years of training, she couldn't match up to her grandfather's strength, she didn't even realize when he landed those punches on her.

Fueled with that anger, her eyes were replaced with scarlet orbs, her face beneath her eyes darkened and black veins appeared on her face and she snarled at him before she punched him hard on his stomach. Blood flowed from his lips and he flashed a devilish yet amused smirk as he wiped it away. "It seems I underestimated you hybrid, maybe you're not a complete disappointment," he said. Hearing that made her angrier, she punched him harder, making sure to hit him harder than he had hit her, but...Scarlett flew backward without knowing what hit her.

The calm grey eyes of Mr. Quinn turned blood red, his face also darkened like Scarlett's and he snarled at her. Scarlett had just managed to regain her stance when she received another punch on her jaw and stomach; she coughed up blood and flew backwards breaking the wall, her eyes changed to its normal color as she landed as well as her face.

Mr. Quinn hovered over her and smiled, his face was already normal. She had grown incredibly strong after these nine years but it wasn't enough, he wanted to see just how much power she could wield. "Never let your anger cloud your instinct, fight with a clear mind," he said. He just left without a single word of sympathy.

Wiping the blood off her face, she lazily stood up and looked around; the wall was long gone, this was just her first time here and she was already damaging things.

"No stress about the damage," a voice said. The guy looked just like Nicole; he stood a few feet away from her holding a face towel. "Xander, you must be Scarlett," he said offering her the towel.

"Thanks," she said nodding.

"I couldn't help take a peek when you came in here, I was actually coming to train but you beat me to it…those punching bags, they hurt you or something?" he asked. Scarlett smiled at him. "Your eyes are amazing," he said.

"What?"

"Huh…I'm sorry…it's just…forget it,' he said. "You know you should smile more, it makes your eyes sparkle…your sparring match with Mr. Quinn was awesome,"

"You were here the whole time?"

"Pretty much, so when can you go against me like that?" he asked, his sea blue eyes gleaming with excitement. 'He's a lycan true blood' she thought. Scarlett looked at him, his aura was almost the same as Nicole's, she wanted to know just how strong he was but she needed to talk to Nicole about him first. "I guess that's a yes?" he said and Scarlett nodded. "I can't wait," Scarlett sighed as he left and took a gulp of blood from the bottle Mr. Quinn had given her. She went to her room and had a cold shower, while she was dressing up, a maid knocked on the door.

"Ms. Quinn, it's time for lunch," the maid said. Scarlett followed her downstairs without uttering a word. They had already started eating; Nicole and Michael were tearing up pieces of flesh while Chris was sipping his cup of blood.

"Where have you been?" Nicole asked.

"In the training room," Scarlett replied.

"Do you still train hard?" Michael asked. Scarlett nodded and poured herself a glass of blood.

"I'm not done yet, just came to grab a snack," Scarlett said.

"I guess old habits die hard," Chris said. Scarlett smiled at him and stood to leave but Mr. Quinn stopped her.

"The training room isn't fit for you to train in Scarlett…after your training earlier and I think that's a bit too little," he said.

"This is enough, thank you," she said and vanished. Mr. Quinn smiled at her behavior; his granddaughter was still the same old Scarlett he had sparred with nine years ago. 'You really do remind me of Nathan' he thought.

"Hi Ms. O'Connor, I'm Xander," he said.

"Nicole,"

"Where's your friend? I bumped into her in the training room earlier,"

"She just left,"

"Wow that was fast,"

"What are you thinking about?" Michael asked. He had noticed the way Chris stopped drinking when Xander sat with them. Chris had been staring at Xander and Nicole ever since, even though Xander had auburn hair and sea blue eyes while Nicole had nut brown hair and sky blue eyes, he couldn't deny they looked almost identical and their auras felt surprisingly the same.

"It's nothing," Chris replied. "We'll see you later Nicole,"

"Sure,"

"Want to train with me?" Scarlett asked. Nicole turned to see Scarlett behind her with trails of sweat dropping from her face. Scarlett only ever invited Nicole to train with her when she wasn't planning on overexerting herself and Nicole knew it. Scarlett's style of training was just way too brutal but she never listened to anyone who told her to calm down.