We were completely under ground so when I woke up it was still pitch black in the room and I honestly forgot where I was. When I remembered that everything I learned yesterday wasn't a dream, I pinched myself to double check. That hurt, this is reality. I checked the clock and it said 8am so I sat up to go to the bathroom. Alexander pulled me back into the bed before I could get up.
"How are you up so early after that long flight and all the events of yesterday?" He said groggily. I nestled back into his warm embrace.
"My body just knows when it's time to wake up. I couldn't sleep anymore." I replied.
He looked over at the clock and decided it was time to get up too. "I suppose we have a lot to get done while we are here so we might as well get to it." He said as he yawned and stretched rolling on top of me and pinning me down to kiss me.
"You know, if you keep this up then we won't get anything done today. We will be lucky to leave the room." I giggled out between kisses still on a high from our admission of feelings yesterday.
He groaned and grumbled but his rational side won out, so he rolled off me. We got ready and both put athletic clothing on for the day. The fridge was filled with breakfast food this morning. We had eggs and oatmeal, so we had lots of energy to train more today. While we let our food settle Alexander gave me a more detailed tour of the place. It was huge and could easily accommodate 100's of people. One entire floor was a library filled with ancient knowledge. It had computers too that had all the information from the books here digitally archived on it to make searching easier. We stopped at one to see if there had been any events in the past that might correlate with the current vampire problem. We found nothing about another time like this. I guess the vampire counsel had come to the Shadow warriors for help because they were getting scared as well. The vampires that were turning were of all ages not just the older ones, so something was obviously triggering it unnaturally. Alexander had told me the Shadow warriors were similar to Demi Gods only they didn't have a God parent. Anyone could be one as long as they passed the judgment from the Gods. Their clan had dwindled after the war with the Titans, so the Demi Gods joined forces with them to keep the balance. That's still what held their system together today because over time the warriors continued to decrease in number. As the world evolved many of them left to have a family and normal life like his parents had tried to do. His mom went back after his father died because she needed a safe, stable place to raise him. Apparently, this is where much of Alexander's childhood was spent.
We arrived at the training room again and today he started to teach me basic ways to incapacitate an attacker. Obviously at human speed for me, I was fast, but I wasn't capable of inhuman speed.
"Aren't you getting bored of moving this slowly if you have superhuman speed?" I asked aloud wondering.
"Not at all, I'm spending time with you. How could I be bored doing that?" He said earnestly.
I smiled and rolled my eyes at how corny he was, but I loved it. We continued training and I was starting to get the hang of it. He upped his pace once he saw I was getting it.
"Ok, now I'm going to come at you as if I were going to attack you in a real-life scenario. You learn faster this way because getting hit or knocked down sucks. I won't be going full force on you but enough to knock the wind out of you. Remember that I heal fast, so you won't really be hurting me much. I just want you to be able to think clearly enough to use this in a real situation." He said to me.
I nodded and we got into our fighting stances. The first time he came at me I was stunned for a moment but luckily my body reacted. I went into fight mode. I remembered to grab his arms and I swung myself as hard as I could between his legs so I could slide under him while flipping him over the top of me. I stood up quickly, turned around and got ready to attack. He had rolled through and turned around to do the same. He was coming at me again this time stepping to the side and trying to use his legs to trip me last minute. I managed to lift my legs in time narrowly avoiding falling on my face. He spun around again aiming for my gut with his knee. I dove over his leg. I was now on the ground and as soon as he turned his foot was flying at me again. I only had time to block with my forearm. That was going to leave a bruise for sure. I'm going to have to build up gradually to blocking because a real kick would have hurt so much worse. I winced and he immediately paused his assault.
"Did I hurt you? I'm sorry if I did. I know it's uncomfortable, but you have to train against me as if I'm the enemy or you could lose your life if you really do face them. It will get easier, and you will get used to it. In an organized battle we have gear that helps to minimize the blow, but it still hurts if you haven't trained like this. I don't really bruise because of the healing but you definitely will. I did as well before taking my oath. We have a special salve here I can put on you to help after this." He said reassuring me.
"Thank you, I figured staying by your side meant I'd have to be involved in this part of your life. I'm just going to have to get used to it." I said, looking at him with sincerity in my eyes.
"I know. I just keep wondering when it will be too much for you." He said, putting his head in his hands.
"I'm not sure if this will make you feel better or not, but I hope you know that even if you weren't involved in this and I found out about it some other way I'd still dive headfirst into this, right? This is a huge burden and finding out how so little of you exist to do this job makes me want to help even more. I can't not help people. Hell, I'd go through all the training and take the oath just so I could protect the people I love. I want to protect the vulnerable who cannot protect themselves as well." I said trying to convey the depth of my feelings on the situation.
He looked at me like he couldn't believe what just came out of my mouth. "I was born into this, but you just found out yesterday and you would still choose to lay down your life to protect others?" He asked incredulously.
"Yes, I would have joined long ago had I known you existed. I have always felt a sense of duty for the common good but never found a good fit to helping my fellow human beings. This calls to me though and I'm not sure why." I said.
He grabbed my shoulders pulling me into him. I wrapped my arms around his waist. We stayed silently like that for a while, and he started stroking my hair. It was soothing.
Alexander POV***
It all came out in nothing more than a whisper, "I didn't know how much I needed you in my life until this moment. You always seem to keep me headed in the right direction. To be honest, I didn't want much to do with this life because, it took both my parents from me, but I couldn't let helpless people or innocent other species get hurt. There hadn't been any activity in so long that I'd become accustomed to the peace, and I selfishly wanted to stay in it. I was on the fence about telling you this because I didn't know if I wanted to even be in it myself." I admitted.
"I don't think that wanting to have a life free from a responsibility that literally most of the world doesn't even know about is selfish. I am honestly amazed at all you have been able to accomplish in your life despite having this secret." She said, finding my lips with hers.
I kissed her back with so much enthusiasm that it took a moment before she could focus again after I pulled away. I don't know what I did to deserve her, but I thank the Gods that she stumbled into my life through my love of art. She sees things a thousand different ways and finds a silver lining in almost anything, even if it's morbid. Her phone rang just then bringing us both back to reality. She got up to get it. I could hear her on the phone, it was Lily checking in to see how our getaway was going. She stepped out of the room, so I guess she wanted to share something privately. I checked my phone to see that Nate had called so I took the opportunity to call him back.
"Hey, how is the trip going?" I heard him say as soon as he picked up.
"It's going well. I think today we will go sight-seeing around Athens. It's been a while since I've seen the city." I said, hoping that would satisfy him.
"Well, you two should enjoy your time there. Greece is a beautiful country full of historic sites and legends. I just wanted to check in to let you know everything at the office is going fine. No fires or anything have been started on my watch." He said chuckling at his own joke.
I shook my head, "You basically make dad jokes dude, but I still love you. Maybe not as much as I love Penelope though." I said wanting to get a reaction out of him.
I heard him spit out whatever he had just taken a bite of. "Wait did you just say the "L" word? Have you told her?!?" He demanded.
"Yes, I did, and it turns out she does too." I said, smiling from ear to ear.
I heard Penelope come back in, so I looked over at her. She looked happy and walked over to the punching bag to practice her high kicks.
"Wow, that's great man!" Nate said, enthusiastically.
"I think so too. I should let you go though so we can get on with our day. I'll talk to you soon Nate. Love ya man." I said and hung up not waiting for his reply.
I've never had to talk to Nate about any of this mythical creature stuff and I honestly didn't know if I ever would be able to tell him. I didn't want him in danger too. I turned to Penelope hoping to sneak up on her, but she had indeed learned quickly. I went to plant a kiss on her cheek, and she instinctively moved to use my force to throw me. I was a more than skilled fighter, but I ended up on my back surprised.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I just saw you out of my peripheral and reacted! Are you ok?" She asked, checking to see if I'd been hurt.
"I'm ok, just a bit surprised. It's good you are starting to react that way though. It will certainly help you." I said looking up at her with a proud grin on my face.
She blushed and looked away. "I think we should call it a day for training. I'm starving and in need of food." She said.
"I thought we would go out to see the city today so if you would like, we can shower and grab a late lunch. Does that sound ok?" I asked.
"Race you to the shower." She said with a competitive glint in her eyes and took off.
Is it weird that it turned me on? I was pretty satisfied with losing so I took my time. I knew that she'd be naked in the shower waiting for me at the end of this game.