Page 149 of The Lost Ones

He smiles with understanding and then rushes off in the opposite direction.

“What do we think of him?” Erin asks.

“I honestly have no idea. I can’t pick anything up off of him.” I say frowning as we start to make our way to the stables, honestly all I want to do is relax but I know this is important. “What about you guys?”

“His scent didn’t waver or anything like that but he’s an expert in lying. I wouldn’t put it past him to have worked out ways around it. Sort of like you did, that was fucking impressive!” Hunter says grinning at me and dipping to kiss the top of my head, making butterflies take flight in my stomach.

“Why thank you!” I grin, “You can smell that sort of thing?” I ask.

“Yep,” he replies reverting to being a man of few words.

“That is so cool dude!” Dash booms.

“Hey kids. I’ve heard you’ve had a bit of an afternoon.” Rupert says as soon as we enter the stables.

“You could say that.” Levi gripes, kissing my cheek on the past to his horses stall.

“Well let’s put that out of your minds for now and focus on the horses, you’re going to be here later tonight. There’s a lot of things we need to get through and we’re running out of time. The experienced riders I want you practicing using weapons whilst on horseback. There’s a small armoury beside the tack room, choose your weapon and get going. The rest of you I’m going to get you cantering, galloping and get you jumping too. Then towards the end of the lesson I want you all to be practicing with weapons as well. I wanted to take things slower but we just can’t afford to. I know I’m asking a lot but I promise it’s for a good reason.” He looks at us sombrely and although I’m overwhelmed by how much he wants us to do he was right before, we do have a steep learning curve as supernaturals and if it really is as important as he’s making it out to be then I’m just going to have to suck it up.

We all nod that we understand.

“Good, tack up your horses and let’s get going, we have a lot to get through.”

I walk over to the tack room getting everything I need for Dave and also grabbing him a carrot from the store too. I found them yesterday after our lesson and Dave is going to be working just as hard as I am for the next few hours, if not harder since he has to work with a novice like me.

He deserves a treat.

After I’ve grabbed everything I need I walk over to his stall and smile, the big quarter horse snorts happily when he sees me and gently nudges my chest with his head. I slip him the carrot and he munches loudly as I start to tack him up.

I was slightly worried that I would have forgotten how to do it since we were only told once but Rupert comes over to check everything before I get on and assures me that it’s all as it should be. It fills me with confidence, enough that I start to think that we may succeed in getting everything done in this lesson that Rupert wants us to.

Rupert works us and the horses hard over the next few hours and by the time we’re finally done we can do everything that he wanted us to be able to do. I chose to learn how to use a bow whilst on horseback which meant that I also had to learn how to stay on Dave whilst he’s galloping without holding on since I need both hands to use a bow.

Although nerve wracking at first I quickly found it incredibly enjoyable. It’s shocking to me that we’re only on the second day of lessons yet we have managed to achieve so much. If I were still human it would take months if not years of hard work to get us to this point.

I know that I’ve got my Nyx swords and I could’ve saved myself a bit of time and effort if I learnt to wield one of them but I still haven’t worked out how to get them to appear and if we’re ever in a situation where I need to use a weapon I need something that I can rely on.

It’s getting dark when I meet everyone outside the stables and we start the walk back to our dorm room.

“I’m not as achy as I was yesterday after our lesson.” Dash says as we enter the castle.

“Neither am I and I wasn’t stiff or in pain this morning either.” Damon adds.

“I am so glad we’re supernaturals because that long in the saddle if we were humans would’ve had us sore as fuck. Especially since we’re not used to it.” Levi chuckles.

“I think I might try to call my parents quickly I still haven’t heard anything back from them.” I frown.

“Do you have your cell?” Erin smirks.

“Yes, I found it last night.” I smirk and they laugh.

Kai threads his fingers through mine as I dial. It rings and rings going through to voicemail. I try my other dads and my mom but none of them pick up.

“Seriously?” I ask, why aren’t they answering.

“No answer still?” Nate asks with sympathy and I shake my head sighing heavily.

“Hey, has anyone heard from Cole?” I ask suddenly, anything to stop myself from thinking about why my parents refuse to answer the phone. My mind goes to dark place, wondering if I was a disappointment to them. Too damaged for them to love. I shake myself free of my thoughts, focusing back on the question I had asked.