Chapter 161

Dean

Dean was stalking the first enemy like prey in his lycan form when he had an idea. He reached over and grabbed the hilt of his sheathed sword and thought the word fire. He felt the claws on his hard began to heat. He charged the simulated shadow warrior and raked his claws across the opponent's chest. Three lines of fire appeared where his claws had been. Next, he sank his other claw into its skin and thought lightning. His own magic shot through his target and brought it to the ground.

Once Dean realized what he could do since they had begun to use the swords as conduits, he began to yell instructions to his mates. He watched in awe as Stormy used a shadow ball to take out an opponent while Damian used fae fire.

It didn’t take Dean long to realize that accessing and using someone else's power was easier said than done. Most of his attacks were clunky and inefficient. He knew it would take practice before most of the new magic was useful to him. Some of it felt like it would take years to learn.

The realization that unrestrained shared magic could be especially dangerous became clear after Damian lost control of the fae fire and almost set the whole training facility on fire. Similarly Dean almost took David out with a misfired shadow ball. Drew had accident burped fire and set his own hair ablaze. Luckily for him, Stormy was able to conjure water onto his head, and regrow his hair with a spell. David had even managed to lycan lightning himself somehow in the fray,

It took entirely too long but, in the end, they did manage to clear the field of enemies. They all were bruised, beaten and sore when they returned to Angie at the end of the run. As they came dragging back to her, she sat on a log kicking her feet and laughing.

The Kindred basically collapsed at her feet into a heap. She was still snickering as she looked over them. She shook her head and sighed.

“That wasn’t exactly what I meant, but it was certainty entertaining to watch. At the very least, I'm sure it gave each of you a new appreciation of each other.” She chuckled.

She waved her hard and reset the field. “After you drink some water and grab a snack, I want you to start again. Try to work together. See if you can combine attacks rather than switch powers.” She ordered.

Dean groaned and dragged himself from the ground. He grabbed some water and a snack before he and the others shuffled themselves back to the starting line. This time when he took on his lycan form, he reached out and took hold of Damian. He felt the lightning that normally felt like small tingles on his skin curl around his arms much like the shadows did for the vampire. Damian caught on to what he was doing and conjured a shadow ball that was twice its normal size and crackled blue.

David transformed into his Dragon and Stormy climbed up. She took a standing fighting stance and Drew shook out his wings and began to flap so he was near her.

As a group, they took to the field. Stormy, David and Drew rained fire down on the enemies from above while, Dean and Damian acted as the mop up crew. They worked together to use both their magic and physical attacks to take down any enemy’s that weren’t take out by fire.

The field was cleared much quicker on the second run. Dean was exhausted, but proud, when he returned to Angie for her evaluation of their performance. He sat down quietly on a log near where she was resting to see what she would say. Stormy walked over and sat down beside him. Dean reached over and took her hand while Drew sat on her other side and did the same.

“Much better!” Angie exclaimed. “Tomorrow, I would like to see you try some new combinations but that was definitely progress. After you have rested, I would like to see some sparing with swords, then we will call it a day.” Angie sounded happy for once and Dean felt himself relax.

Sword training went as well as Dean could expect. He knew he was rusty and it showed. He hadn’t had lessons since his training days, before becoming Alpha. His assigned sparring partner for the day was Drew, who was quite an accomplished swordsman. Drew defeated Dean time and time again, but each time Dean learned something new. Including the fact that Drew was actually left-handed. Dean wondered why he had never noticed it before.

After weapons training, they all gathered for a simple supper. Dean could feel Stormy’s eyes on him while he ate, from her place in Damian’s lap. A comfortable silence settled around them as they ate. Once the last of the stew was finished, each of the Kindred began to head off into different directions.

Stormy walked over and slipped her hand into Deans. He smiled at her mischievously and he could see that special twinkle in her eye. “I believe we have a date, Love,” He whispered huskily.

Stormy nodded her head and clapped her hands with a happy bounce. Dean shifted into his wolf form and Stormy dropped down so she could look him in the eye. She began to pet Dean’s fur as she rubbed her face against his neck.

“I love you” he heard her say in the back of his mind in her far away voice.

“I love you too.” Dean said in his head so she could hear him. Stormy gave him a kiss to his nose before she climbed onto his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he felt her sigh happily. He didn’t have to see her to know she was chewing her lip in anticipation. He could already smell how excited she was about their plan to mate under the moonlight. His body was already tight as a drum as he took off in a gallop away from the training compound.