I instantly understood. I hadn’t been training with her. Ooops.
“I got drafted out of bed at five-thirty this morning,” I said hurriedly.
“By who?” Jetta demanded.
“Tatiana Demidova,” I said as casual as I could.
“What?” Caeco asked at the same time that Jetta said, “WTF?” A couple of kids three tables away looked over.
“Yeah, my reaction, too. You try waking up to her hand over your mouth. And Chris just standing there laughing at me,” I said. “Then I drank her blood.”
I had their undivided attention.
“Seems like someone spoke to them about the whole Delwood situation and so they came back from Europe to train me for the next few days. Every morning—at five fucking thirty. Tanya owns an old factory not far from here. I have to get to the top floor and they all hunt me. She put a drop of her blood into a Gatorade to get me healthy enough to beat up.”
“Who is ‘they all?’” Caeco asked.
“Chris, Tanya, Arkady, and Stacia. Awasos was there but he didn’t participate.”
“I’m jealous,” Caeco said, a hungry look on her face that had nothing to do with breakfast.
“Well, it’s frustrating because they’re so damned fast. They’re also taking it pretty easy on me, just attacking one-on-one. And the building is old and full of wood but I can’t burn anything and earth is useless because it’s all old hard concrete and I might level the building or something. That might make her mad and I really, really don’t want to see her mad.”
“How can you even defend? I beat you up and they’re way faster than me,” Caeco said. She was peeved.
“I can’t—not martial arts style. Instead, I have to use circles and shields and electricity. I’m trying to think up new weapons and stuff, but it’ll be hard,” I said.
“Which is the point of it,” she said, expression shifting to thoughtful as she pondered my problem.
“I managed to make a circle out of wire I found, and it moves with me, but it won’t work up on the top floor. Also, they shot my regular circle to see if it would stop bullets.”
“With you in it?” Jetta demanded.
“Well, me and Stacia, but we were sitting on the floor.” A voice in the back of my head spoke up and pointed out a potential hazard in that last sentence.
Caeco’s eyes narrowed. “Why was Stacia in the circle with you?” Yup, that hazard.
“Because I was really unexcited about having them shoot me and she volunteered for moral support,” I said, thinking faster than I had all morning.
“Tell me… is she interesting to you?” Caeco asked, eyes deadly serious.
Hmmm, options? Definitely a no-go on the whole naked werewolf story. Let’s stick to observations.
“Is she attractive? You know she is. Is she in love with Chris Gordon? I’m no expert, but even I could see that,” I said, hoping it was enough.
“What?” they both said, simultaneously and loud. Other diners looked our way.
“No, it’s pretty glaringly obvious. She’s super helpful and all, but she watches him, you know, when he’s not looking. And Tanya and her don’t really get along… I mean, they work together, but you can tell they don’t like each other. Always trading insults and not really the friendly kind, either. You can see it frustrates the crap out of Chris,” I said. “And when we were back in the silo, do you remember how she looked at him?”
Caeco’s eyes unfocused a bit as she sat back and thought about my words. Then she nodded. “Yeah, I agree. I never analyzed it from that direction, but now that you mention it, all the signs were there. I wasn’t as attuned to social cues as I’m becoming now.”
“Wow, a super love triangle. That’s really hot,” Jetta said. She was practically shaking with excitement as she thought about it. Girls.
“Okay, you’re off the hook, O’Carroll. But let’s think about weapons. You said there’s electricity?” Caeco asked.
“Not much. Just one wire at the entrance. I’m wondering about static, though, because the building is unheated and cold.”
“Good thought. Wait, you never said if your circle stopped bullets?” Caeco asked.
“It did. Froze them right in the air over our heads. Then Stacia stood up and Arkady shot her again. Stopped them all.”
“How about your shields? Do they stop bullets?” Caeco asked.
“We didn’t test them yet, thank God,” I replied.
“We should. Test them, that is,” Jetta said, spooning some yogurt into her mouth.
“That would require guns and shooting and someplace to do it,” I said, relieved that nothing