I woke up without knowing which rooms everyone else took, so I couldn’t tell if the guys were up yet. I went to the underground kitchen and found Caleb making what looked like a dozen-egg-omelette.
“They’re bigger here,” he defended himself.
“Does living on this island make you part-farmer?” I asked.
“We have essentials delivered every month or so, but there’s a chicken coop on the other side of the woods and some animals I try to tend to,” he said, putting his omelette on a plate and cracking more eggs into a bowl. He was right, they were much bigger than the ones we got back home. “Mushrooms, peppers and any cheese that isn’t blue or from a goat, right?” he asked me.
“Which one did you know?” I understood exactly how he knew, and what some of last night’s looks meant.
“Cassie,” he said with a warm smile. “I met Beth a couple of times as well, but Cass was family.”
“As in…” I wondered if the men in my family hadn’t died so much as become Gifted.
“Some ties are stronger than blood,” he shook his head.
“Embry introduced you?” I guessed.
“No, Etta did.”
“She’s your wife?” I assumed.
“My heart and soul,” he agreed.
“Did Etta help them protect her?” I asked, trying to remember if anyone else had popped up in my dreams of Cassie.
“No, but Cass tried to protect Etta. In her first life,” he said pointedly.
“I know that’s supposed to mean something, but…” I raised my shoulders to let him know I had no idea what he was getting at.
“Your first life is before the first time you die and come back. Most of us don’t know we’re Gifted until that happens, so knowing someone before their second life is a big deal.”
“It makes you family?” I asked.
“In some cases,” he agreed.
“Is Etta short for something?” I asked, the wheels turning in my brain.
“Loretta,” he shared.
“You’re Teddy and Lorie,” I clued in.
“We are,” he smiled. “If Etta were here right now, she would have smothered you in hugs the second you arrived.”
“You wanted to,” I called him on it, remembering the look.
“I did,” he agreed. “But I held myself back when it was Cassie as well. Back in the 1800s, it was considered improper to sweep a woman up in your arms if she wasn’t your wife.”
“If history serves, that wasn’t common either,” I pointed out.
“No, it wasn’t,” he agreed with a laughing smile. “Etta was extremely proper, so it drove her mad, but she also loved it.”
“What was Cassie like?” I asked, having nothing more than her accounts and a couple of dreams.
“When I met her, according to society, she was the perfect, docile woman every mother-in-law dreamed of.”
“A bore,” I smiled to show I got his meaning.
“She knew how to fit in,” he defended her.
“Did Alan know the truth?” I asked, ever curious about my ancestors. I was fascinated by the women who came before me, but so intrigued by the men that I never had the chance to encounter. Grams had explained that the women in our family were simply stronger, but it seemed more like the men were cursed.
“When I met her, he knew everything. He was the most progressive and supportive husband I had ever seen. He traveled for business and he would bring back elaborate protective devices from Asia and Africa for her, because she always insisted on getting into trouble.”
“He was the Lucius Fox to her Bruce Wayne,” I smiled.
“Batman references?” he sounded surprised.
“I grew up with an older brother.”
He was mid-nod when he decided my answer made even less sense than the reference. “A full-brother?” he asked.
“All my ‘full’ relatives died when I was little, but the couple that raised me had a son who was a few years older. He’s my guardian now.” I was aware that as an eighteen-year-old I didn’t legally need a guardian anymore, but Sam liked to say parents didn’t stop being parents when the kid turned eighteen, it was a lifelong adventure.
“I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago,” I said awkwardly. I didn’t often meet new people, so it rarely came up.
“Still hurts,” he told me.
“Why were you shocked at the idea of me having a brother?” I asked.
“Cassie had three brothers who all died in infancy, and she suffered miscarriages before Corrie,” he looked uncomfortable, like he wasn’t sure he should be telling me.
“Could the protective devices help against this man who is hunting me?” I changed the subject for him, figuring I would ask Embry about it later.
“The ones from Africa might have. They had voodoo or shaman powers or something, but most of them were leather gauntlets or spiked purses, heels with blades that sprung out…”
“That sounds like super cool spy stuff,” I pointed out, impressed.
“It was. I think she freaked out with excitement when he brought them home to her, but we never saw that. By the time she used them with us, she acted like it was completely natural for a woman to shoot spikes from her umbrella.”
“Seriously?” I was in awe.
“She was the coolest,” he told me, placing the second omelette in front of me.
“I have none of that,” I shared, accepting the fork he handed me.
“The gadgets?” he asked with his mouth full.
“The confidence, the skills. All I can do to defend myself at this point is run and hide.”
“Do you want to change that?” he asked instead of the reassurances Sam would have given me.
“Is that your magic power?” I asked.
“My Gift is my strength,” he filled me in. “I can teach you how to box. I mostly do it for fun now, but there was a time when I was training or sparring against the best the field had to offer.”
“I would love that.” I didn’t realize how much I meant it until I said it.
“Then finish your breakfast and meet me in the gym,” he smiled.
“Where is that?” I asked. This place was huge, but it didn’t have any signs.
“Take a left out of here, right at the theatre and straight down to the end,” he told me like it was the simplest thing ever. “We keep meaning to put signs, but we don’t usually get visitors who don’t already know their way around,” he explained.
“I’m sure I’ll figure it out.”
I finished my breakfast and went to the room where I had left my bag to change into shorts and a t-shirt. I tied my hair up into a ponytail and tried to retrace my steps back to the kitchen, then from there to the gym. The ‘theatre’ looked like the inside of a movie theatre, with about fifty seats. I was surprised to find the gym had at least a dozen exercise machines, and a section with every weight imaginable. The machines looked like they had never been used before, while the heavier weights had the most wear and tear on them.
“Over here.” Caleb poked his head through a door behind the row of treadmills.
The room he was in had a boxing ring and punching bags, but it looked like everything came from the 1920s, when you would sew your bag back together rather than using duct tape.
“This came with the building?” I teased.
“It used to have mats for wrestling, which was pointless because we were never two people. A week into my first time as Guardian I had Etta come join me with my stuff.”
“And it stays here?”
“Etta was more than happy to get rid of the dusty old bags.”
“She sounds…”
“She’s amazing. I just like to pretend complain about her,” he assured me. “You can take Etta’s wraps and gloves.” He nodded to a pile of thick strings and well-worn pink gloves.
“Wraps?” I asked, totally clueless.
“Let me help you.” He smiled to himself before coming over and taking one of the thick strings. He put a tiny loop from the end of it onto one of my thumbs, then proceeded to wrap the rest of the material around my hand and wrist.
“Wraps. I get it,” I told him.
“Everyone has to start somewhere. You’re way ahead of everyone who sits on their couch and doesn’t try anything,” he pointed out.
“You’re very glass half-full, aren’t you?”
“Eternal optimist,” he agreed. “I know that bad stuff happens, but I’ve been lucky overall. And Dale had a point. When you act enthusiastic, or happy, you can’t help but be.”
“I like it,” I assured him, wondering if he had only read the book, or had actual conversations with Dale Carnegie.
His first lesson consisted of showing me the proper stance for boxing. He placed my feet shoulder width apart, then had me jump a few times to figure out my left is my dominant side. At least for balance and boxing. I brought my right leg back, then Caleb nudged me a few times, with increasing strength, to make sure my base was strong. It was only then that we moved on to my arms, which needed to be high enough to defend my face, but not close enough to get punched into it…it was a lot to remember just to be able to look the part.
“Your feet,” Caleb called me on my stance while he taught me how to jab.
“I seriously doubt my footwork will give him pause,” I argued.
“You won’t knock him out with it,” he agreed. “But the stance was made for a reason. It’s to help you move and pivot and…” as he spoke, he gave a demonstration, punching into thin air, but he looked fierce and powerful doing it. Graceful even, when he pivoted on the right hook.
“Don’t worry, Cash didn’t get it the first time either.”
“You taught her too?” I asked.
“Her?” he was confused. “Oh, Cassie.”
“Who were you talking about?”
“Cassius.”
“Clay?” I knew enough about boxing to know Muhammad Ali’s real name.
“He was a sweet kid,” he agreed.
“You trained him?” It made sense that if you lived for centuries you met a lot of cool people, but there was a lot of subtle name dropping going on.
“Of course not. I trained at his gym for a couple of years when we settled down in Louisville. He would use me as a training partner sometimes.”
“You guys should all write books about all of your adventures.”
“No one would believe it,” he waved me off.
“Fiction, obviously.”
“Fiction has to make sense. Reality is the one that doesn’t,” he told me.
“I’m thinking you don’t read a lot of fiction,” I argued.
“I’m thinking you’re stalling,” he called me on it.
We stayed in the boxing room until 2 o’clock, when the watch on his wrist flashed with a fireworks display. He went off to his room and I went upstairs to the outside world.
It was weird being on an island with no one else, especially when it didn’t look abandoned. I figured I would rather get lost looking for them up here where I could always find the lighthouse, than down below where I could wander for days before being found.
I spotted the chicken coop Caleb mentioned, as well as some cows grazing by the woods, before finally encountering another human being. Embry was jogging on the sandy beach at the other end of the island.
“Have a good lesson?” he took out an earbud and asked me.
“It was practically a two-hour lunge, so my legs will hate me tomorrow, but it was a lot of fun,” I agreed.
“It’s hard not to follow along whenever he gets excited about something,” he understood.
“Did you meet him through Cassie?” I asked.
“No, I fought with him in the Texas Revolution. But she introduced me to Etta,” he shared.
“Do you box?” I asked. I knew he could shoot, play sports and run a lot faster than me, though nowhere near as fast as Gabriel, but I didn’t know what his other skills were.
“Caleb taught me, so we do spar sometimes, for fun, but I prefer kickboxing and he gets insulted by that.”
“Can you teach me the kicking part once I figure out the boxing?”
“I’m not a teacher but we can take a class sometime,” he smiled, as if my new interest in martial arts confused him.
“I’m not gifted, so I need to have something to not feel so useless,” I explained.
“Luce,” he reproached me for being hard on myself.
“No, Embry, I have lots of talents. I know I’m book smart. But if this big scary guy shows up, I have nothing. I either run and hide or stand frozen like a deer in headlights and neither of those sound appealing.” I thought of the plantation and what would have happened if the house hadn’t attacked.
“It’s not like you can defeat him in a boxing match,” he said delicately.
“I said I didn’t want to feel useless,” I got him to laugh. “And I know we don’t stand a chance against him, but maybe I can defend myself from someone he takes over to try and get to me.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” he assured me.
That night, Embry made us Spaghetti e Olio to go with the seared scallops Caleb prepared. The guys paired it with a nice wine, but I didn’t join them, although I doubt any of them would have stopped me for being underage. I figured one of us should be sober and alert if ever the Big Bad managed to find us.
We got into a new pattern on Caleb’s island, where I would spend my morning boxing with Caleb, then have a quick lunch before Embry or Gabriel, or both of them, would teach me simple self-defense.
“What about S.I.N.G.?” I asked Gabriel during his first solo lesson.
“I don’t think your singing is terrible enough to send him away,” he teased, so I pretended to be offended.
“I mean from Miss Congeniality.”
“I have no idea what that is.”
“Here, try to grab me from behind,” I told him.
“I haven’t taught you how to defend yourself from that.”
“I won’t hurt you for real, I promise,” I said, which he possibly felt attacked by, because he obliged.
“I grab you from behind and…”
“Solar plexus, instep, nose, groin!” I showed him the steps and yelled them out at the same time. “Would that work in real life?” I asked, smiling at the absolute shock on his face.
“That’s from a beauty pageant?” he asked.
“A movie about a beauty pageant,” I agreed.
“Life isn’t a movie Lucy. The force you would need to elbow me with, the chances of you inflicting any pain in my foot through my boots…” he shook his head. “If you manage to break my nose you’d have a tiny window to maybe get the groin, but…”
“I’m sorry. It was just an idea.”
“It’s great that you want to defend yourself. I’m glad you’re taking this seriously. But he isn’t a drunk guy at a bar who won’t take no for an answer,” he said more gently.
“I get that,” I assured him. “Are you saying it’s pointless and I shouldn’t do anything?”
“No, you should never be complacent, or powerless in your own life. I want you to be confident and know how to defend yourself. But I never want you to argue when we tell you to run, or to hide. No matter how well-trained you are, these aren’t fair fights and I can’t lose you.” His eyes were as intense as I had ever seen them.
“I’m not delusional.”
“Okay.” He picked up one of the pads Caleb had lent us. “Let’s try some krav maga.”