Whispers

Chapter sixteen

The guys are waiting for us on the front porch when we get back. The happiness and relief in their eyes when I step out of the car was enough to further calm whatever leftover nerves that are still lingering from the meeting. Angel runs up to me and embraces me hard, making me laugh. I watch, while still in the embrace, as Jason's body language physically relaxes at the sight of me.

"We knew you were going to be back, but we were still nervous," Bane says to me with a smile. I smile back and Angel lets me go, looking at me up and down. 

"Okay, I didn't see you before you left, but that can't be the way you went to the meeting," I look down at myself, forgetting that I had dirt on my dress and scratches covering almost every part of exposed skin. 

"Oh, yeah," I say with a nervous chuckle, "There was a slight incident outside the meeting hall," I try to brush off more of the dirt, but it is useless. I have to wash it. 

"Gill showed the council members that she does, in fact belong here," Dom places a hand on my shoulder as he came to stand beside me, "They said she has one of the most powerful combination abilities they have ever seen. Even said they were going to call Will to see if he was willing to come home and train her." 

Angel, Bane and Jason look at me in amazement. 

"I mean, her eyes do get really purple when her ability is activated, so that's not too surprising. Still," Jason says with an approving nod. He pushes himself off the railing, "When can we expect William to be back?" His voice changes suddenly at the expulsion of William's name. 

"Jason--," Dom tone turns to one of warning. I look at him, confused. What is wrong with William. 

"You don't need to have this lecture with me, Dom. I'll play nice if he comes back," Jason sighs, annoyed. Dom give him a warning look, as if to tell him to check his attitude, before speaking again. 

"We aren't sure if he is coming back yet. Councilman Fraywood said he would contact him and offer him the opportunity to help Gill with her ability. She will still train with you, though, even after he gets back, if he comes back," Dom sighs, and slips his hand off my shoulder, "If you're still okay with doing that, that is," He crosses his arms, waiting for Jason's response. 

"Oh yeah, more than willing. That was actually going to be my next question. Thanks for answering it," Jason pushes his hands into his pockets and looks down. 

"Good," Dom claps his hands, "Kitty and I are going to prepare for dinner, I will see you all later," Dom leaves up the steps and into the house, Kitty close behind. 

I grab Kitty's arm, and then bring her in for a light hug, "Thank you for your help today, I don't know how I would have done all of that without you," I say before letting her go. Kitty smiles at me and pats my shoulder. 

"Anytime dear. I am more than happy to help," She gives me one last pat on my shoulder before following Dom into the house, the door closing behind her with a soft click. 

Once they were gone, Bane looks at Jason, "You still don't trust Will?" He asks, his voice between confusion and amusement. 

"Nah, that guy gives me a bad feeling," Jason looks at Bane and chuckles softly, "I swear, something is off about that guy. One day I'll be vindicated and I'll get to say, 'I told you so' just you wait," Jason goes to the door, and swings it open before walking inside without another word. 

In that moment, exhaustion hits me like a freight train. A combination of not sleeping well the night before and the massive release of energy earlier is a perfect recipe for that. I excuse myself, exhaustion clear in features. Bane and Angel nod with understanding and say they would come get me for food later before I go into the house and make my way down the hall, to my room. When I get to my room, I strip down and put the clothes I had on the night before. I then crawl into bed and pull the covers up to my chin, sleep taking over my brain easily.

I am standing, alone, in the dark. I am in the woods, in a small clearing surrounded by towering trees. I cannot tell what time of day it is; All I know is that the ground beneath me is hard and incapable of growing grass. I turn around and freeze--Five feet in front of me is the biggest wolf I have ever seen.

The wolf is black with the brightest red eyes. I swallow hard, trying to calm myself. The wolf stares at me, unblinking, waiting. Then, the wolf growls, and I turn on a dime and run. While running, I look behind me for a split second, to see the wolf right on my tail. I look ahead of me, and plow right into a tree. I fall to the ground, covered in loose foliage, and feel my head. I'm not bleeding, but damn, I hit that tree hard.

I hear the wolf growl, and freeze. I role over on my stomach and try to get to my feet. I try taking in deep breaths, but found my chest to be too tight. I cough, hard, and taste blood on my tongue. The wolf stares at me as I stammer to my feet, its eyes trained on me, its teeth bared. 

I put my hands out in front of me, like in a defensive position, as the wolf goes to pounce on me.

I bolt into a sitting position, my head spinning. I can't breathe, and I feel tears falling down my cheeks as I try to take in a solid breath. I cough, trying to release the pressure, the stare of the wolf still fresh in my mind.  

Without warning, Jason opens the door, his face set with anger and protectiveness. He sees me, hand on my chest and unable to breathe and comes right to me. 

"Gill, you're having a panic attack, I need you to try and breathe. In through your nose and out through your mouth," He says, sitting down beside me. He puts his hand in mine and squeezes, trying to help me through the terror I am experiencing. I try to do as I am told, and for a minute it is nearly impossible. After a couple of tries, I was able to loosen up my lungs enough to breathe in and out with less trouble. He gives me a moment to get myself back together before asking if I am okay. 

I swallow, "I had a nightmare," I saw rubbing my face clear of tears. I look at Jason, the purple in his eyes beginning to subside, "I was attacked," I close my eyes, the picture of the wolf with the red eyes coming back to me instantly. I feel my heart start to pound again, but am able to calm it now that most of the panic is gone.

"Who attacked you?" I swallow and squeeze Jason's hand, which is still in mine. The intense feeling of comfort it gave me allowed me to talk without wanting to vomit. 

"A wolf. It had red eyes," I sighed, more tears streaming down my face without my permission, "I woke up before it pounced on me," I wipe my face again, not wanting to cry anymore in front of Jason. How embarrassing can I be? Crying in front of someone I barely know. 

Jason, without warning, pulls me into a hug. His arms around me brought me instant calm and comfort--more than just his hand in mine. I freeze for a second, and then instantly relax and rest my forehead on his shoulder. After a minute of being like that I push off of his shoulder, finally able to breathe with ease. 

He looks at me, concerned, "You going to be okay?" I nod, the feeling of panic gone, now replaced with another round of pure exhaustion mixed with the fear of falling back to sleep. 

"I'll be fine," I look over at the alarm clock to see that it's 7 PM--I slept for a solid 7 hours. 

"Well, there's food if you want some. Or I can just bring you a plate?" I think for a second--I don't want to be around people, mainly because I feel like my face is puffy from crying, and I need to eat. 

"Would you mind? I don't want to burden you or anything," I try to rub the sleep away from me, but it's useless--I was going to fall back asleep eventually. I just hope I don't have the nightmare again.

"You're not a burden, Gill. I'll be right back," Jason clasps my hand his his and gives it one last squeeze before leaving. 

"Thank you," I whisper as he leaves the room. Once the door was closed behind him I fall back down on the pillow, completely drained. 

My thought swam around the nightmare and Jason--How the hell did he know I was having a panic attack? There was no way he could have known, it's not like I screamed when I woke up, which would have made more sense. I rub my face, determined to not think about it, but unable to stop. 

About ten minutes later, the door opens again, and Jason walks in with Bane close behind him. Jason is holding a plate of pasta, and Bane has a water bottle for me.

"Jason told me you had a panic attack, you okay?" Bane hands me the water bottle and I nod at him. 

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just drained now more than I was before," I take the plate from Jason and smile at him, "Thanks, Jason. Bane. I really appreciate it." 

"Hey, it's what friends do, right? I'm sure you would do the same if one of us were having a hard time. On a more serious note though, if the nightmares and anxiety start to become worse, I would talk to Doc," Bane says, his voice thick with concern. I nod, and assure him that I will talk to Doc, and then take a huge gulp of the water he gave me. 

"Alright then. I'm going to go take a shower and then read some. You wouldn't mind if I kept the lamp beside my bed on, would you?" I shake my head at Bane--I'm sure I will be able to fall asleep through anything at this point. 

Bane nods, collects some clothes, and goes into the bathroom to shower. I wait until I hear the water running full blast before looking at Jason. 

"How did you know I was having a panic attack?" Jason looks down at me and shove his hands in his pockets before shrugging. 

"I don't know. I just had a feeling I should check on you, and then I walk into you having a panic attack," He says, nonchalantly, as if it isn't a big deal. 

I eat my food, making sure to chew my food thoroughly before swallowing. When I finish, Jason takes my plate from me, and tells me to get some rest, "We have training after you're done with school tomorrow. Bane and you should be in the same class, so he can help you get to where you need to go," Jason says, his face emotionless. I nod at Jason, and watch as he leaves. 

I take another deep gulp of water, and lay back down, falling asleep to the thought of Jason and still wondering how he could possibly know about my having a panic attack out of the blue. I fall asleep before Bane is out of the shower, and thankfully, it is dreamless. 

"Goddess," I pant, "Jason, please, one second." We are running on a trail that goes around the majority of the property, which equaled out to, about five miles. 

This is going to kill me. It is the middle of the day, I had been up since 8 AM because of class, and now I was going to die from this run. I put my hands on my knees, my heart slamming into my chest, my lunch fighting to come up my throat.

"Oh, come on, Gill. Head over heart, Have to keep blood flowing to your head or you'll get sick," Jason grabs my shoulders and pushes me up into a standing position, his hands on my shoulders sending shivers down my spine. I sigh, still out of breath. "Why don't we walk for a minute, and then we will start running again," He rolls his eyes, but allows for it to happen. I put my arms behind my head, and then groan, still dying, when Jason said that we needed to start running again. We took off in a jog, and not a slow jog might I add, and eventually made it back to the house and the gym's.  

"That was a good run wasn't it?" Jason opened up a cooler sitting on the outside of one of the gyms and tossed me a water bottle. Without a second thought I opened it up and chugged half of it. 

Yeah, I'm going to regret that later. Oh well. 

"I'm sorry, did you say 'good run'? When is running ever good?" I ask, still panting. Geez, I really was out of shape. I rub my eyes, feeling tired. We aren't even done for the day, and I am already looking forward to going to sleep. 

"You'll get better the more you do it. Your muscles just need time to adjust. Take another couple of sips of that water because we are about to head inside to practice hand to hand combat," I groan internally and took another chug of my water bottle, finishing it off. I follow Jason into the gym, which is right next door to where everyone was practicing with their abilities. I welcome the cool air of the gym, feeling the sweat from my body dry on my skin. We lay down some mats for comfort. When we are done, Jason stands in front of me, "Alright," He sighs, "Lets see what you got. You've fought before, haven't you?" Jason stretches his arms out, not looking at me. 

His behavior has been a little off since last night, but he is still talking to me. I do my best to shrug it off without much thought, but it still bothers me.

"Yeah, but not like this. Last fight I had was in a high school bathroom and I don't remember what happened. There wasn't any strategy to it," I put my hands on my shoulders, finally able to breathe and concentrate. 

"That explains a lot." Jason laughs and begins to circle me. I know this trick; He is sizing me up, trying to figure out where my weakness is. "Let's start with this then. Everyone has a weakness. Just because you don't have any training, doesn't mean you don't have skill. You were obviously able to figure out what you were doing on your own, so that means you can defend yourself. Now it's just time to hone the skills down so you can do them without thinking," Jason continues to circle me, finally stopping and says, "Your physical weakness is your legs." 

"Is that some sort of joke about how I can't keep up with you in running?" I ask, laughing slightly. 

"No, actually, it's not. Not only did I shoot you in the leg, but you seem like one of those fighters that is more concerned with your top half than your bottom. Fighting is a full body experience. Sure, punching someone only really requires the arm, but you get more force if you use your entire body," Jason explains. Well, I knew that, but I guess he was right. I didn't even know that I don't pay attention to my lower half. "The second someone picks out that you don't use your legs like you should, they're going to use that to their advantage and take you out from under because they know they can't take you from the top." Jason crosses his arms across his chest. 

"Alright," I sigh, suddenly feeling crappy about my fighting ability.

"Gill, I'm not trying to tell you you're not a good fighter. You just need some training," I roll my eyes and start sizing Jason up, trying to see if he has any weaknesses, "But, since we are on the subject, words are another one of your weaknesses." 

"What?" I stop, laughing. "My weakness is words?" 

"You get riled up easily, and that can distract you. Why do you think I stepped in when you get into that verbal spat with Ray? She has years of experience on you, and she knows exactly how to push a person to where they don't think before they act. I've seen her take down Dom, one of the best fighters here, because she was able to get under his skin. He tried to use brute strength instead of strategy, and lost," I feel my eyes widen. s**t, he's right. 

"I have a file?" I ask, my voice small. I guess that would make sense. The Council has files on a lot of people, and considering I had to leave my mom to live with my dad, I wouldn't doubt that there's a file on me. Still, it shocked me that Jason had read it.

"Yes. Everyone here does. I was assigned to your case, remember? It was the whole reason I knew where you lived. I couldn't just go to you completely clueless," I nod; That made sense.

"Okay then," I watch Jason some more, trying to see his weaknesses, but I was having a hard time finding one. I swallow, "Lets get started," I got into a fighting stance.

"Try to pin me and don't hold back," He advances with a kick to my bad leg, which I am able to avoid, thankfully. With that, I fight back.

I can feel my muscles screaming at me to stop the entire time we are sparring. Then, after a while, my back made an indentation on the mat where I kept landing when Jason took me out. Every time I get up I scan Jason's stance to see if he has a weakness, but I didn't have enough time to really find anything. I groan again as my back hits the mat for the hundredth time.

"If you can't beat me, try using your strengths to your advantage," I crane my neck to look at Jason, who is back on his feet. 

"Yes, strengths. Because I have those." I roll to my side and get to my knees to adjust my hair. I didn't have time to put it in a braid before running, and I didn't have time before we started sparring. I the hair band out and swipe my hair right back up into a ponytail, loose strands sticking to the back of my neck thanks to my constant sweating. 

"We aren't leaving until you pin me," I look at Jason in disbelief and sigh. 

"We are going to be here a long time," I complain, getting to my feet. My legs protest against me, not wanting to put in any more work after being knocked out from under me so many times. Jason shrugs, his hands on his hips. Mentally, I note that he is getting tired of this too--eventually he is going to slip up.

We go at it again, the session ending in the same result--with my back on the damn mat--except this time, I notice something. I get back up, a surge of adrenaline running through me. Jason, whether he realizes it or not, uses the same moves every time.

I took a deep breath. I knew what I needed to do. 

Jason comes at me first, doing exactly what I expect him to, except this time I am able to dodge and avoid being put onto the mat. I go to land a punch when I see it--Jason uses one side to punch, and his other to block. I dodge his right hook, and punch him in his blocking shoulder, which takes him aback. He rotates his shoulder, and readjusts before coming at me again, this time going for my legs.

I dodge him, somehow, and get another jab in to his shoulder and then to his chest. I dodge three more of his blows, and notice that he is getting tired and in pain from his shoulder. I jab his shoulder once more, which causes him to stop completely, allowing me to bear hug him and tackle him to the ground.

The sound of Jason's back hitting the mat is like music to my ears.

"Finally!" I say, rolling onto my back to lay next to Jason. My body does not want to move anymore, in fact, the thought of movement caused a soreness to multiply.

"I let you win," He pants, messing with his shoulder. I look over at him and give him my best eye roll. 

"Yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night," I get up, almost unwillingly, and hold a hand out for Jason to take, not prepared to take on his full weight. I fall and end up face to chest on top of Jason. He let out another groan and laughs. 

"Sorry," he says between laughs as I push off of him and back onto the mat. I feel a blush rush to my face and try to look away from him so he wouldn't notice. 

"You just had to put all of your body weight to the ground," I push off the mat and to my feet. Jason holds out his hand again, waiting for me to take it, "I'm not stupid!" I laugh, slapping his hand away. 

"Ah, and here I thought I was going to get away with it," He pushes off the mat and stands, babying his shoulder, "You did a number to my shoulder. How did you figure out that I had a weak shoulder?" 

I shrug, "First, I noticed you used the same three starting moves, and then that you use that shoulder to block, which is weird considering it is your weak one." 

"I can't extend this arm out as far as the other one. I messed it up bad two years ago," He rotates it again, wincing in pain, "It's a lot less painful to use it to block when I need to than to try and hit something or someone," I nod, about to ask him what he did, "You should go get some water. You worked hard today," Jason walks away from me, leaving me alone in the middle of the gym.

"Thanks," I say, slowly following him to a cooler by the door, "I really need to shower," My work out clothes are sticking to my body, and I feel like a huge knot. We each grab a water and start towards the house. The afternoon sun hits my face and blinds me for a second before my eyes are able to readjust. The other pack members are coming out of the other gym at the same time as us. I catch Angel's gaze, and wave. 

"Or you can just go jump in the lake. Saves time," I laugh and shake my head. 

"No, I'm just going to shower," I said, shrugging. A nice hot shower to get off all this sweat felt really good right now. 

"Suit yourself," Jason shrugs and waves goodbye to me before walking into the house. 

"Hey!" Angel runs up to me smiling broadly, "How was it? He didn't beat you up too bad did he?"

"Nah. I'll be fine. Sore, but fine. I was able to pin him the last time. Probably a lucky shot," I take a sip of my water, welcoming the feeling of the fresh air and sun on my skin. Angel shrugs at me, and starts chattering about random stuff. I am barely paying attention, my mind solely focused on getting a shower and then something to eat. 

My stomach growls in response to my thought of food. Angel hears it and pokes my stomach, "Looks like someone is hungry," He pokes me again and I swat his hand away. 

"Don't poke my stomach! It might bite you, it's so hungry," I say with a laugh. 

"Probably," He laughs, "I'll let you go shower, I'm about to do the same. I'll see you in the dining room for food," Angel's eyes light up at the word food before he walks off. 

I get to my bedroom door, about to open it, thinking how great a shower is going to feel on my skin, and how great it is going to feel to not be sweaty when a blood curdling scream rips through the house.