Craig opened his mouth, but before he could speak, JD interrupted. “Don’t even think about saying thank you. We take care of each other here, remember. I’ll give you all of the details in the morning. Right now, you need sleep. Are you staying here or going to Sarah’s?”
“At the moment, I think I need all of my friends around me.”
JD nodded. “We’re all here for you. Just let us know if you need anything.”
“Right now, I need to shower.”
“Go straight to bed afterward,” JD said. “I expect to see you at the training session in the morning.”
When he had left the room, JD turned his attention to Sarah. “I want you to stay with him again tonight.”
“I was planning to. He needs me.”
JD held out his arms and she climbed onto his lap. “I know. I hope you understand why I’m making him train in the morning.”
“He needs the routine. He needs to know that life goes on and the physical exercise will be good for him.”
“You’re smart as well as beautiful.” He kissed her. “Now go and look after him. I’ll see you in the morning.”
His office felt strangely empty when she left. He found the others in the dining room playing some sort of card game, but from a quick glance at the table he couldn’t figure out what and he didn’t care enough to ask.
“Craig’s back,” he said.
“How is he?” Jonathon asked.
“Not good. Sarah is staying with him again tonight.” He noticed the smirk on Christina’s face. “Christina, if you even think about commenting, I will rip your tongue out.”
Natalie was shocked. She had no idea what Christina had been up to and couldn’t understand how JD, who always treated her with kindness and respect, could treat her sister so differently. “You can’t threaten her like that.”
“It was not a threat, it was a statement of fact. She should be grateful I warned her. Next time I won’t, I’ll just act.”
When he left the room, Natalie ran after him. He was both pleased and surprised. It showed there was courage behind her timidity and it was finally beginning to surface.
She did not, however, confront him; instead she asked a question. “Do you mind if I ask what she has done?”
JD momentarily thought about brushing her off, but decided that she deserved to know the truth. He took her into his office, closed the door and proceeded to tell her everything that Christina had done and said. It took a while.
“I don’t expect you to believe me,” he told her when he had finished, “but I swear I’m being completely honest with you.”
“She’s my sister and I love her dearly,” Natalie said in a soft voice. “But she can be a real bitch sometimes. This isn’t the first time she has tried to come between a guy she has taken a shine to and his girlfriend. Last time she succeeded, then dumped the poor man a month later when she grew bored with him. Do you want me to speak to her?”
JD smiled at her. “Thank you, but no. I can handle her on my own. If I have to resort to violence, I promise not to do any permanent damage.”
Natalie looked at him carefully, trying to gauge whether he was joking or not, but his face was unreadable. A shiver went down her spine when she realised he wasn’t.
————————————-∞————————————-
The visit to JD’s parents went a lot better than expected. They took to Sarah immediately and made her feel welcome. JD’s mother couldn’t stop thanking her for saving his life and his father joked with Jonathon about actually listening to a woman for once. It was an enjoyable evening and they promised to do it again sometime soon.
The funeral was not so enjoyable, but it went well. Hunters from every Sanctuary turned up to pay their respects. Craig was overwhelmed by the whole event. Sarah spent the entire time with him, holding his hand and comforting him when he needed it. If anyone found it strange that JD’s girlfriend was paying so much attention to another man, they kept their thoughts to themselves. If JD had no problem with it, neither did they.
Afterward, a tall, attractive young man introduced himself to Craig. He wasn’t a hunter and knew nothing about the Sanctuaries or vampires, but as Kirren’s ex-partner, the priest had invited him along. He purposely kept the funeral simple so it could easily have been a ceremony in almost any religion. As Kirren was not a hunter, nobody was dressed in hunting gear, so no outsider would have any suspicion that it was anything out of the ordinary.
The young man explained that he and Kirren had split up after too many arguments about Kirren not coming out to his parents. He apologised to Craig, saying he blamed himself for what happened. Craig took him aside and Sarah left the two of them alone to talk.
Sarah spotted JD and Jonathon talking with their parents so she went to join them, slipping her hand into JD’s when she reached his side. He squeezed it comfortingly.
“Did Craig’s parents know this was going on?” Jonathon asked his father.
“Yes, they knew. I told them they weren’t welcome and if they ever tried to contact Craig again I would deregister them. If Craig wants anything to do with them it will be his choice, not theirs.”
“Thank you,” JD said. “It’s going to take him a long time to get over this.”
“I know and I’m relying on you three to help him through it.”
“Everyone at 14 will,” JD said.
A short while later, Craig joined them. “Can we get out of here? While I appreciate so many people coming, if one more person offers me their sympathies I think I’m going to scream.”
“Of course,” JD said and released Sarah’s hand so she could take Craig’s.
As everyone from Sanctuary 14, other than Christina and Natalie, had attended the funeral, they expected the house to be empty when they got back. Christina had said she would borrow Silvia’s car again and take Natalie out shopping, but Natalie was in the lounge, reading.
“I couldn’t bring myself to go with Christina,” she said. Since being rescued, she had yet to leave the Sanctuary grounds. “So she went without me.”
“That was nice of her,” Jonathon said sarcastically.
“How did it go?” she asked. She knew that they had all been attending Kirren’s funeral, but not the reasons behind it.
“As well as could be expected,” Katie said.
When Craig walked into the room, Natalie went up to him and hugged him tightly. Only Sarah saw the look on his face as he watched her leave the room.
Are all trainers evil
Craig did not fall into the depression everyone feared he would and life at the Sanctuary soon got back to normal. Natalie started to spend more and more time with Silvia and was soon doing a lot of the cooking. Christina, on the other hand, refused to help out in any way, treating the place more like a hotel.
Finally JD could take it no longer and had a word with Doc. “What are the plans for the pair of them? They can’t stay here forever.”
“Unfortunately they can. The decision has been made, not by me I hasten to add, that they should stay here for as long as it takes them to recover enough to go back their old lives.”
“And if they never want to leave?”
“Then we’re stuck with them I’m afraid. Unless, of course, they do anything which justifies me transferring them to another Sanctuary.”
JD did not smile when he asked for a list of things that qualified.
————————————-∞————————————-
The following Friday night, Sarah was on call for work so wasn’t able to join the rest of the hunters when the alarm rang. Katie had gotten Natalie addicted to a TV show that she had all ten series of on DVD and Sarah decided to join her in the TV room. They were part way through an episode when Christina walked in.
She remained silent, pretending to watch the show, until the end credits came up. “You are very selfish you know,” she said once Natalie had left the room to get them all drinks f
rom the kitchen.
“Really? In what way?” Sarah stayed calm; she wasn’t going to let Christina get to her. She could have just ignored her, but she was curious as to where she was going.
“You control JD too much.”
Sarah burst out laughing. “You have got to be kidding me. Only Jason can control Jason.”
Christina did not like being laughed at. “So how come you won’t let anyone else call him Jason?”
“That’s his decision, nothing to do with me. If you want to know why, you’ll have to ask him.”
At that moment her phone rang and she glanced at the number. “I have work to do,” she said before pressing the answer button and leaving the room.
————————————-∞————————————-
The hunters returned an hour or so later and Christina and Natalie handed around drinks to them. JD wasn’t surprised when Sarah did not appear. He was, however, when he couldn’t find her in his office.
“Any idea where Sarah is?” he asked. Natalie shook her head.
“She obviously does not care that you’re back,” Christina said viciously. She was still angry at being laughed at.
JD ignored her. He was getting used to doing that. He was beginning to grow concerned when half an hour later Sarah had still not turned up. Her car was in the garage so he knew she must be in the house somewhere.
When he went to get showered, Craig left at the same time. JD opened his bedroom door and just stood staring at the sight before him. Sarah was lying on the bed dressed in stockings, a suspender belt, lace panties and a matching bra. For a moment he was left speechless.
“Is everything alright?” Craig asked with concern when he saw JD frozen in the doorway.
“Goodnight Craig,” JD said as he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. “You look good,” he told Sarah as he lay down on the bed next to her. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“You always seem to be full of pent up energy when you get back from a hunt. I thought we should put it to good use.”
“I need to shower.”
“That can wait.”
“Yes, it most definitely can,” he said, then kissed her.
She didn’t remember to tell him what Christina had said until the next morning.
————————————-∞————————————-
The following afternoon, Craig went to see JD in his office.
“Natalie has asked me to train her,” he said as he took a seat in front of JD’s desk.
JD put his pen down and gave Craig his full attention. “This conversation seems familiar. Last time I was the one who ended up doing the training.”
“And you still haven’t thanked me for that,” Craig said. “This time it’s different. Natalie does not want to be a hunter, she just wants to learn how to defend herself.”
“And why is she asking you instead of me?”
“She’s scared of you.”
“I can understand that.” Natalie had started to attend some of the early morning training sessions, as an observer only, and JD had not objected. He was tough on his students and Natalie would never be able to cope with that.
“Do I have your permission?” Craig asked.
“That depends. Is this something you want to do?”
“Yes, I think it is.”
“Then it’s fine with me. Just let me know if you need any help.” Then something occurred to him. “One more thing. I understand why she does not want me to train her, but why did she choose you?”
Craig smiled. “She asked Sarah first, but Sarah said she can’t teach. She doesn’t have enough experience, or patience. When Natalie asked who she should get to do it, Sarah suggested me. She said I was a better fighter than the others.”
“You are,” JD said. “But don’t let it go to your head. Take it easy with Natalie. She has absolutely no experience. Small steps at a time. Don’t push her too hard. I did with Sarah because I knew she could handle it. Natalie can’t. Let her set the pace.”
“Will do,” Craig said. “If I have any doubts, I will come to you for advice.”
“Get the others involved later on if you need to.”
“Thank you. You won’t regret this.”
“I had better not.”
A few days later, he did regret his decision. Christina asked permission to enter his office and he knew exactly what she was going to say.
“I want to be trained,” she said as she sat down.
“Then speak nicely to one of the others.” JD didn’t look up from the document he was reading.
“I want you to train me.”
“Tough.”
“Why not? You trained Sarah.”
JD put his papers down and looked at her. “Firstly, Sarah had potential, you don’t. She already knew how to use a sword and had a good foundation I could work from. Secondly, I agreed to train her so I could spend time with her. I had to spend a lot of time with her and worked her really hard. Quite frankly, I see too much of you as it is. There is no way I want to spend any more time with you than I’m forced to. You’re free to ask any of the others to train you if you wish, but I’ll be surprised if any of them agree.”
“Craig is training Natalie,” she said.
“Yes, but Natalie is a nice person. We all like her and are happy to help her out.” He held back from giving his opinion of Christina; he didn’t need to.
“You’ll change your mind,” she said as she stood up. “When you and Sarah have split up, you will come to me begging to spend time with me.”
“Not if you were the last woman on this planet,” he said. He couldn’t help smiling when she slammed the door behind her.
————————————-∞————————————-
A few weeks later, Sarah’s employer sent her away for the week. Despite the fact that they spoke for hours each night, JD did not handle the separation very well. He became cranky and irritable. Instead of avoiding him, his students took it in turns to volunteer for extra training just to keep him occupied. Even Natalie asked him to join her and Craig for one of their sessions so he could give a professional assessment.
During dinner one night, Christina called JD Jason. Everyone in the room held their breath, but he simply ignored her, pretending she hadn’t spoken. The second time she did it he did react, but not in the way everyone was expecting.
He did not get angry, he just turned to look at her. “If you want to pretend to be Sarah,” he said, “you will have to do everything with me that she does.” Her eyes lit up. “Wait here,” he said, then left the room.
When he returned, he was carrying Sarah’s sword. He placed it in front of Christina.
“Pick it up.” Christina looked at him in confusion. “I said, pick it up.” Still his voice was calm.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“It’s quite simple. If you ever call me Jason again, you will face me in the arena, holding that sword, and you had better hope you can block as well as Sarah can.”
Christina looked around the table. The look everyone was giving her told her that nobody was going to defend her.
“But why do you let her call you Jason?” she asked. “It can’t just be because you love her. From what I’ve heard, she called you Jason from the very beginning.”
JD contemplated not answering, but he could see that others were intrigued. “I wanted her from the very beginning,” he said. “And I knew that, if I was going to train her properly, I would have to put her through hell, so letting her call me whatever she wanted seemed like the right thing to do.”
JD could see Craig giving him an odd look. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. JD knew exactly what he was going to say. Craig tried again. “When you say the very beginning, do you mean before or after you agreed to train her?”
“Before.” JD looked around the table, wondering which of his students would be the
first one to work it out.
“But you seemed so reluctant to do so,” Katie said in confusion.
“You manipulated us, didn’t you?” JD was pleased that it was his brother who spoke. He was a lot smarter than he acted most of the time.
“Do you really believe I would do a thing like that?” he asked, keeping his voice so soft and even it was impossible for them to be sure whether he had done what Jonathon was accusing him of.
He turned his attention back to Christina. “I take it that this won’t be needed,” he said, picking up the sword. Christina was pale as she shook her head.
————————————-∞————————————-
Since starting his relationship with Sarah, JD had been joining the others when they watched films more and more often, but that week he said no every single time. Christina queried this and was told that he never watched films with them if Sarah wasn’t around.
“I can change his mind,” she said. She hadn’t forgotten what he had said about her facing him in the arena, but she decided that there were other ways she could get under his skin that did not involve her doing things that Sarah did.
‘I wouldn’t recommend trying,” Jonathon said.
Christina ignored him and went to JD’s office, knocked on the door and waited for permission to enter.
“I will have to stop shutting the door,” he said as she walked in. “That way I’ll know who is knocking so I can judge whether to say yes or not.”
Instead of taking a seat, she sat on the corner of his desk. “You work too hard. You should give yourself a break. Join us for a film. I can guarantee you’ll enjoy it.” She ran her fingers through his hair as she spoke.
He grabbed her hand and slammed it onto the desk, twisting her wrist as he did so. Her scream of pain was loud enough for those in the TV room to hear.
“If you ever touch me again I will break every bone in your body, one at a time, until you’re in so much pain that you beg me to kill you. Only then will I break your neck.” His voice was low and calm. For some reason this made it even more menacing than if he had shown his anger.
Vampire Hunters, #1 Page 38
