POV: Adalind
I wake up in bed alone. Aiden has already gotten up. I've been sleeping with Aiden in his bedroom or our room now I guess. I stand up stretching my arms over my head yawning.
I take a quick morning shower and get ready for the day. I go down to the kitchen and fix some breakfast. I just pop some waffles in the toaster and put some Nutella on them.
I'm eating my waffles when a man comes into the kitchen. I don't know him and have never seen him here before. I can smell that he's a vampire which is odd. All the vampires here don't come in the kitchen. Aiden only does when I'm in here. I'm the only one that really uses it.
He grabs a carton of eggs, ham, cheese and some peppers. Looks like he's making an omelet. "Umm hi. What are you doing?" I ask. "Hmm you would think that a person would know an omelet when they see one." He says sarcastically.
"I can see that. I meant why are you doing that? I haven't seen anyone eat actual food here so far." I explain myself further. "No? Well they are definitely missing out. I enjoy human food." He says.
"Adalind? Are you in here?" Aiden comes in looking for me. "Yeah I'm just eating breakfast. Where were you?" I ask him. "I had a few phone calls to handle. I see you've met Garalt." He says. This is Garalt? My new teacher.
"I suppose so." I say. "Oh how rude of me. I didn't officially introduce myself. I'm Garalt and you must be my best students one." He says. I arch an eyebrow at Aiden. "Best student?" I ask. "Oh don't look so surprised. Someone had to teach him and now I get to teach you. You should drink some orange juice. It's good for the blood. It'll help get your mind flowing." Garalt says passing a glass of orange juice to me.
What does my mind have to do with any of this. "Did you explain to her what all we will be doing today?" Garalt asks Aiden. Aiden nods yes. Last night after my run Aiden explained that Garalt will be testing me today. He wants to see just what I can and can't do.
"I hope you're ready. Class starts in an hour." He says. I nod. Wow he seems like his lessons are going to be intense. I hope I can do this. "We got this girl." Andrea says confidently. I really hope she's right.
Aiden and I leave the kitchen and go to one of the lounge rooms. Aiden kisses me. "Good morning." I say. "Good morning. Did you sleep well?" He asks. 8 don't know why he asks this when he slept next to me and would know if I hadn't. "Yes I slept fine. When did you wake up?" I ask. I wished he was there when I woke up. "I've been up for a few hours now." He answers.
We sit down on one of the couches. "Your father called and informed me that he will be arriving on Wednesday with your mother and brothers." Aiden says. "Oh I can't wait. Cam and Tate are so getting snow balls thrown at them when they arrive." Aiden laughs.
"Why is it they siblings are always out to get one another?" He says. "I don't know but at the end of the day we are family and would do anything for each other." I say. My brothers and I may annoy each other but we do love each other and will always have each other's backs.
We sit with each other and just enjoy being with each other for a bit. We do this every morning. Aiden and I have grown into a little bit of a routine. "You should get going. Garalt doesn't like to wait on people." Aiden breaks our little moment. "Ugh. Fine. Your not going with me?" He shakes his head no.
"No. I would do nothing but distract you and Garalt doesn't really like an audience." He says urging me to go. I go to the ballroom where Garalt has asked me to meet him. In the room some things are placed around that aren't normally here.
"OK I'm here." I say. Garalt is standing right in the middle of the room. "Great. What we're going to do today is see what you can do. I want to see you in action. We'll start with some simple running." He says.
"Where am I running. Am I running? Do I run normal or vampire speed?" I ask. "We are testing your vampire abilities so everything you do today will be towards that side of you. Run ten laps around this room." He instructs.
I do as told. It was nothing really. "Very good. I've placed an apple with the letter A carved into it in the middle of the gazebo outside in the hedge maze garden. Your task is to get the apple and bring it to me in lets say less than sixty seconds." He says.
I have to get an apple outside in a place that I've only been in at night only following a light path in a maze. Not to mention the ballroom is on the complete opposite side of the garden. This is just great.
He tells me to go starting the timer. I run as fast as I can to get this apple. It took a few dead ends before I got to the gazebo and got the apple. I make it back. "So close. One minute and three seconds." He says. Damn. "To be fare i haven't Really been in that part of the palace much so I didn't really know where I was going." I defend myself.
He just shrugs. "So now that you know where your going you think you can do it again under sixty seconds this time?" He asks. I nod yes. "Good. I'll be right back." He disappears and reappears in a matter of seconds. "Go." He starts the timer. I do it again and grab the apple and run back.
"Fifty five seconds. Thats better." He says. "Whats next?" I ask. "Next well test your strength. Move that safe here and don't let it touch the floor. Actually lift it and carry it." He instructs pointing to a safe on the right side of the room. I have to move it to the left side of the room.
I pick the safe up. It's heavy but I can manage it. It's not that bad. It's like a human carrying a huge watermelon. It's heavy but manageable. I set the safe down. "Was it heavy at all?" He asks. "Yes. Just a little." I answer.
"OK. Lets move on to hearing. There is a little girl looking for her mother. Which radio is playing that sound?" He presses a button on a remote and a lot of sounds can be heard all at once. The radios are numbered one to ten.
I take a deep breath closing my eyes and focusing on one sound at a time finding the little girl. "Seven." I answer. "Excellent. Your next task is to tell me what is Jasper talking to Randell about. They are in the library." He says.
I listen finding Jas only through sound. "I'm so glad the walls in here were not painted pink. It looks like blood got splattered everywhere and it stained in the walls so we just painted it pink to match." Jasper says. "I didn't think of it like that. I just think he could have chosen a different color like white."
"They're dising my favorite color." I growl. I'll have to get them for that later. No one says anything bad about this color pink. Garalt chuckles. "Obsessions aside very good. Now time for scent. What do you smell in this. What was this person feeling at the time his blood was drawn. About how old was he? What species? Blood type. Tell me what can you get from this."
He holds out a blood bag and hands it to me. "Can I open it?" I ask. All I smell is the plastic bag it's in. "Yes. Here you can pour it in this." He hands me a glass. I pour the blood in it. I sniff the blood. I know its human blood.
There is a nervous feeling to the scent. Its not like a scent scent but it's like you can feel it in the scent of that makes sense. There's a citrusy tinge in the scent. I would say type O positive. If I had to guess I'd say he was 26 to 35 range. I don't have a lot of practice with that.
I tell him all that I find in the layers I can smell. "He's actually in his fourties but thats ok. It does take years of practice and experience with that part of the scent but good try. Everything else was correct." He says.
"Yeah I was just guessing there. What next?" I ask. "We attempt the mind dive. I want to see you try. Their mind is completely open for you. All you have to do is go in. I've made it easy for you." He says. I've been practicing on Jasper and thats who walks in.
Jasper holds his hands out to me and I grab them we make eye contact just like we have been. Jasper says he's been staying open for me to go in but I can't seem to do it. If course it doesn't works. Not really surprising.
"OK thats enough. I've seen enough." Garalt says. I back away from Jasper. "I want to try something. Give me your hand." He says and I place my hand in his. What is he doing. He looks me straight in the eye. What is he doing. He sighs and suddenly grabs my head with both is hands and closes his eyes.
I'm so confused and freaked out. He suddenly pulls away. "You need to open your mind up. If your mind is blocked you can't go in. When you do the mind dive your head must be clear and open. Your also confusing this with you wolf mindlink. Don't go at it like your trying to mindlink. It is similar but different. Its not communicating. Its seeing what is in someone's head." He explains.
"Wait. Your saying I can separate the two. For example in my speed go in wolf speed then vampire. They're different?" I ask to clarify. "Yes. You've actually been using more of your wolf abilities in this. Your speed was the only thing you did that was strictly to vampire standards. Now yes both species have a lot of the same abilities but they each have a unique way of doing it and their limits. You have behaved with wolf limits mostly. You need to stop suppressing your vampire side and let it out."
I've become so accustomed to hiding my vampire side that I didn't even realize I was doing it to myself. I wonder if blocking out Andrea would help. I hate to do that to her. "Its ok Adalind. I understand. I'm not going anywhere." Andrea says. But would that work. He did say to open my mind up. I ask him about it.
"That is a trivial question. On one hand yes and on another no. I don't have all the answers. You're the first hybrid I have taught. This is new territory for me too. We can try it." He says. I nod.
"Shall we try?" I nod yes focusing on Jasper doing like we did before but this time I take a deep breath and close my eyes clearing my mind and blocking out Andrea. I need to find a way to separate the two and bring them together.
I open my eyes back up and try it again. I focus on his eyes looking deep with in. Images suddenly appear of a little boy playing in a barn running around laughing. I let go of Jasper looking away. "She did it. What did you see?" Garalt says. I tell him what i saw. I did it. I actually did it. I bring back Andrea to tell her the good news. "Thats amazing Adalind. I'm so happy for you." She says.
"Very good. We can end the session here." He says letting me go. I run to find Aiden. I can't wait to tell him. I find him in his study. I don't even knock I just barge in excitedly. "Hey how did it go?" He asks. "I did it?" I say with the biggest smile. He smiles. "Thats amazing. What was this problem?" He asks. I explain everything that went on and what the issue was.
"I guess I've gotten so used to not paying attention to that part of me I just never really let it out. I didn't even realize I did that. I was so focused on treating it as my wolf abilities instead of separate abilities." I finish explaining.
"Well now you can just be yourself and not hide anymore. Your perfect just the way you are even when your not perfect." He says kissing me softly.