Refuge(24)

“What the hell?” I sat up, holding the unconscious creature. I knew it was still alive because I could feel a pulse, slow and steady beneath my fingers. How long it would remain knocked out was another matter. I freed one hand to fumble around for the knife, and once I found it, I staggered to my feet. There was no telling where the other bazerat was, and I’d rather get this one locked safely in his crate before his brother decided to come looking for him.

I released a sigh of relief when I slid the lock into place on the crate holding the unconscious bazerat. “One down, one to go.” I felt a lot more confident now that I only had one left to contend with.

The second bazerat proved to be a lot more slippery than the first one, and he led me on a crazy chase before I finally managed to corner him. He wasn’t nearly as brave without his brother, but he still hissed and bared his teeth menacingly at me whenever I got close. He freaked when I dived, got my hands around him, and gave him a taste of my power. Once again the weird static electricity surged through me, and I had to fight to keep it from zapping the life right out of the creature. I wanted to capture him, not kill him. Still, it knocked him out cold and I was able to tuck him safely in his crate. I stood back and surveyed the two sleeping bazerats that looked so harmless now. But I knew better. I shuddered as I headed for the door. I hoped I never ran into a whole pack of those things.

“Well, I’m happy to see you are still in one piece,” grated Celine when I emerged from the building, and I couldn’t help but notice that her expression did not match her words.

Except for a few scratches, I was unharmed, and I felt pretty proud of myself for finishing the task. “Piece of cake,” I said, moving past her.

“Wait,” she barked, and I stopped walking as she opened the door and went into the building. In less than a minute she was back with a scowl on her face. “You’re not done. Get back in there and finish them off.”

“They are back in their cages where they can’t hurt anyone. There is no need to kill them.”

Celine took a step toward me, towering over me by at least six inches. “The task was to kill them. So kill them or you fail.”

“The task was to neutralize them, and they are neutralized. If I have to kill senselessly to pass your test, then you can go ahead and fail me.” I tossed the knife on the ground between us and walked over to stand by Michael, who was gawking at me like I’d just sprouted another head. I half expected Celine to come after me, but she had apparently decided to let it drop and was already looking for another trainee to enter the building. First, they had to get another pair of bazerats since mine were out cold. I hid my smile of satisfaction.

“Well, well, the kitten has claws after all,” drawled Jordan, who walked over with Olivia to join us.

“What the heck did you do in there, Sara?” Michael wanted to know, forgetting his shyness for once.

“I caught them and put them back in their cages.” I conveniently omitted the part where electricity had shot from my fingertips.

Terrence laughed. “Why go through all the trouble when it’s easier to kill them?”

I met his mocking gaze and shrugged. “Anyone can kill. Taking them alive is a lot more of a challenge, don’t you think?”

He scoffed, but I could see it in his eyes; the gauntlet had been thrown. “I’ll go next,” he called to Celine before he stalked off.

I watched Celine talking to Terrence. Of course, she looked quite pleasant now that she was talking to someone besides me. If Celine had been human, I might have blamed her attitude toward me on a natural female aversion to undines. But she was Mohiri, so she was supposed to be immune to that. “What is her problem anyway?” I muttered to no one in particular.

“You.”

I frowned at Jordan. “Me? I just met her twenty minutes ago.”

“She’s jealous of you,” Olivia said in a voice that wouldn’t carry to the trainer. “Supposedly, she and Nikolas Danshov go way back and she’s still got it bad for him.”

I pictured Nikolas with cold, beautiful Celine and something hardened in my gut. “What does that have to do with me?”

“Let me see.” Jordan tapped a finger against her lips. “Could it have something to do with how much time Nikolas spent in Maine protecting a certain pretty little orphan?”

“What? No, it wasn’t . . . You don’t understand.” I felt a blush creeping up my neck. “It wasn’t like that. We don’t even get along.”

Jordan smiled. “Uh-huh.”

“No, really. He was just doing his job. I didn’t want him around any more than he wanted to be there.”