"Come on, Krista, get real. Tats and piercings are hot right now."
"Keywords: 'right now.' In twenty years you'll just look silly wondering why you decided to stamp a permanent unicorn on your calf."
"Oh, I wasn't thinking a unicorn, but more like a big old dragon that wraps around my entire leg."
"Oh, well in that case," she said while shaking her head.
"Just keeping it real, home fry," I teased. "Where's Mark?"
"He needed to talk to Shawn about last night. I think they want to observe you in action," she said, flashing me a concerned smile.
"Watch as the student surpasses the teacher," I said in a deep announcer's voice.
"You tease, but you're more right than you think. Protectors spend their lives striving to achieve the skills that seem to come naturally to you. Haniel's given us updates on your training, but I think even he is surprised at your talent," she praised.
"Well, it's pretty easy when they can't touch me without being reduced to ash," I said.
"That only applies when they're in Daemon form. When they inhabit a human, your touch doesn't affect them, and yet you were still able to take on two last night. They're curious to know how that is."
I shrugged my shoulders, not sure how to explain it. Haniel and I had spent the last year working on my combat skills. At first, it had been simple yoga that he had insisted would keep me limber and centered. From there, we tackled various forms of fighting techniques from tae kwon do, aikido, and jujitsu to modern kickboxing. I was literally a Daemon-fighting machine. Sometimes, I'd seriously consider trading it all for a date with some steamy guy, but I kept that to myself.
"How's the book going?" I asked, changing the subject as I indicated the laptop.
"Not bad. Of course, the characters kept me up half the night clamoring about how they thought the story should go. I've spent the last two hours tweaking several sections. I think it's enough to keep them quiet," she joked.
"I'd listen to those voices. They haven't steered you wrong yet."
"That's true, although I'm thinking of closing the series up in the next book."
"What? Your fans would riot, myself included," I said, horrified at the idea of saying goodbye to hot boy Blaine from her Dark Night series. She penned the series under a pen name and had refused public appearances from the beginning. Her agent had given up on trying to convince her a couple years ago when his claims of "literary death" if she didn't put herself out there proved false. She gave her fans what they wanted by running a blog, doing regular Facebook updates, interacting on Twitter, and the obvious, writing kickass books.
She laughed at my words. "Well, eventually the series will have to end," she teased.
"Hmmmph," I disagreed, downing the rest of my coffee. "You want something to eat?" I asked, standing up and stretching.
"No, Mark said he'd bring me a chocolate cupcake from Wickedly Sweet on his way home. Do you want me to have him grab you one too?"
"No, I'll stick with a traditional breakfast, freak," I teased, heading back inside to rustle up a more appropriate choice than hers.
"Don't hate the chocolate," she called after me.
"Hey, Jordyn, I heard you kicked some major Daemon ass last night," Sam, my sort-of aunt said, joining me in the kitchen. I jumped slightly at her voice.
"I didn't know you were here," I said, stating the obvious as I mopped up the coffee that had sloshed over the edge of my cup when I'd jumped.
"Mark and Shawn had some business to attend to, so I thought I'd come hang with you," she said, looking guilty.
"Translation, you're here to babysit me," I gripped, putting two slices of bread in the toaster.
"Hang out," she said, emphasizing the words.
"Right," I said skeptically, removing the butter and jam from the refrigerator. Sam was nice enough. Sure, her bubbly personality kind of wore on me, but for the most part she was cool. I wasn't as close with her as I was with Krista or especially Lynn, but I chalked that up to the fact that we were polar opposites. She was optimistic about most things, while I was the engineer of the pessimist train. She was all sunshine and love, while I was darkness and fighting. I knew my instant friendship with Lynn had hurt her feelings, so I tried to make a conscious effort to open up more with her.
"Oh yeah, you know me, the Anomaly strikes again," I said, glossing it over.
"You're a badass anomaly at least," she teased, tugging at my hair. "So fill me in. I only got the highlights from Mark before he headed out this morning.
I sat down at the kitchen table with my toast and second cup of coffee and gave her the long version of the events from the night before.