Chapter 16

"Elaina, why is your face blue?" Dawn asked curiously, her arms still around Elaina's shoulders.

Rob knew the effect wouldn't last long on its own, as least not until they found her trigger, so he looked around for something that would show her reflection. He saw the toaster shining brightly on the counter and grabbed it, yanking the cord out of the wall in the process.

"Dawn, look at me!" he called. When she did, he held the toaster in front of his face.

"What the hell is that?" Dawn husked in fear. Even as she said it, the glow faded from her eyes. She looked around to Elaina and saw fresh blood trails on her cheeks. "Elaina, what was that?"

"You've taken another step on your own before we could tell you about it," Elaina answered.

"Rob, what does she mean?" she asked without turning away.

"Show her, Elaina," Rob said wearily.

"Show me wha... ?" Elaina's irises lit up a brilliant emerald, casting a glow on Dawn's skin. "Oh."

"Dawn, look at me," Rob called again, this time with less urgency. Dawn turned to see his irises casting a bright golden light.

"What does this mean?" Dawn asked as her panic receded.

"It means..." Elaina began.

"It means..." Rob interrupted roughly. He knew how Elaina felt about blood servants, and he wanted to cast his own spin on it, at least for tonight. "What it means," he said more gently, "Is that we are a family now, united by her blood. For better or for worse, you belong with us now."

"What?" Dawn said, feeling even better about things. This was beginning to sound like her ideal situation: bound by love. "Are we married now?"

"It's deeper than that, sweeting," Elaina replied. She finally got what Rob was up to and was willing to go along, for now. "We are bonded by blood, and we don't know if you can go back from here."

"What if I don't want to go back?" Dawn whispered into Elaina's ear.

"Then we keep you forever and ever, until the end of time," she whispered back. Now Dawn was crying. "I don't think you should go home tonight, sweeting. Stay with us?" Dawn nodded.

Unnoticed, time had passed and it had gotten late. There was nothing sexy about the way they were all feeling, so they simply stripped down for bed. After washing up, Elaina had Dawn crawl to the center so they could cuddle with her. Despite the gravity of the situation, Rob felt himself hardening as he watched the nude Dawn position herself on the bed. Elaina looked down and chuckled.

"Even now," she said, "You just can't resis..."

"Can't what, dear?" Rob asked, looking to see why she'd stopped. Elaina was staring at him, at his eyes to be exact. "Elaina, what's wrong?"

Elaina grabbed a hand mirror from the dresser and held it up to his face. His eyes were throwing rainbows.

"Oh, that's just great," Rob groused. "Now I'll never be able to surprise you."

Elaina patted his half-hard. "You never could, dear."

They climbed into bed with the gently snoring Dawn and were soon fast asleep.

Rob woke up alone, a situation he was no longer used to, and he didn't like it. He grumbled to himself as he rolled out of bed and padded off to the bathroom. He remembered shedding his clothes the night before, and he noticed they were in the hamper now. He figured Dawn must have left early so she could get ready for work and Elaina had taken her. At least, that's what he'd have done.

After getting dressed, he went to the kitchen to find a continental breakfast waiting for him. He grabbed the milk from the fridge and sat to eat his cold meal. As he was crunching at his muesli, he identified the source of his discontent and told himself to pull up his big-boy pants and move on. The women couldn't be with him twenty-four/seven and he had to accept that there would be other times when he'd be alone.

As he was scooping up another spoonful of heart-healthy cereal, he laughed. Even when she wasn't there, Elaina was showing she cared. He finished his meal in a much better mood, and then headed off to work – after doing his dishes, of course.

Rob checked in with Jake first thing and found what he had expected: Jake was still plugging away at the data, trying to find what tied it all together. A spare desk had been moved into the office and an intern was busy collating what had already been extracted into sensible piles. Knowing nothing significant could have changed overnight, Rob let them be and went to report to Bob.

When he got to Bob's office, he heard Bob arguing with someone on the phone.

"You don't have the authority to question me about my procedures ... Who's your supervisor? ... Fine, your manager then ... You don't know? ... We'll see about that!"

Bob slammed the phone down on the base and looked up to see Rob watching him with concern.

"They've moved up to having random flunkies call me to harass me," Bob said wearily. He scrubbed his face with his hands. "You wouldn't happen to have any really good news for me, would you?" Rob shook his head no. "Didn't think so. It's too early yet. Has Jake got everything he needs?"

"He shanghaied an intern to help out," Rob offered. "Brought in a desk from somewhere for the guy. Other than that, all we can do is give him room to work."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Keep me posted, Rob. That's all I can ask," Bob said resignedly. Rob nodded then left, feeling the utmost sympathy for Bob. The phone was ringing as he was walked out and he heard Bob sigh. Rob wondered what he could do.

Rob made it to class on time for once and was able to take his time getting ready. He banged his locker shut with an elbow and looked up to see Karl watching him.

"What's up, Karl?" he asked politely.

"You're good, dude," Karl replied. "Scary good."

Rob bowed his head. "I know. It's not always a good feeling."

"Do you think you could teach me to be that good?" Karl asked hopefully.

Rob lifted his head and shook it. "I can't even teach Archer how I do it."

"That's what I figured," Karl said with disappointment. "But I had to ask." He sighed. "I got a class to run. See ya out there."

"See ya, Karl," Rob replied. Karl walked out.

Rob smiled to himself when he thought if he could only find a sweet young vampire to hook Karl up with...

Archer was waiting on the mats for him when he got out there. Karl already had his class doing warm-ups. Unlike the weeks before, none of the class looked over when he appeared. Rob guessed they were getting used to the prodigy.

Archer had him warm-up, doing the same right beside him. Rob never spun up during warm-ups, looking at it as cheating and unuseful. When they were done, Archer handed him gloves and told him to work the bag for a while, while he was doing the same at the next bag over. Rob pulled the gloves on, noting they felt stiffer than before.

"Those gloves have a Kevlar layer in them," Archer said when he saw Rob turning his hands and flexing his fingers. "Let's see if they last longer than the others."

They worked the bags for a half-hour. Rob was covered in sweat by the end, and Archer pointed to the ice chest, joining him there to rehydrate.

"We're doing something different today," Archer said. "Last week, I had you fight me and Karl together." He waved toward where the class should have been sparring. Instead, they were all sitting cross-legged just beyond the mat, with Karl standing nearby with his arms crossed. "Today, you will being fighting the class."

Rob blinked. "All of them?"

"Perhaps," Archer said, "But not all at once. What I want you to do first is fight some of our more ... eager students who think they're good enough. They know better than to try me on, but they seem to think you're not all that. So," he finally said, clapping his hands together, "I want you to put them down as quick as you can, using everything you've learned. Okay?"

Thoughts of bullies, full of themselves and trained to kill, crossed his mind and he nodded. "I can." Then belatedly he added, "Sir." Archer shook his head and escorted Rob to the class.

"Karl," he said, "Rob needs to stretch out and fight with others." His eyes warned Karl to stay silent about last week. Karl nodded. "So," Archer continued, "Do you have any volunteers?" Several of the class perked up. Rob noted they were the ones he would have picked out as bullies.

"You," Karl said, pointing to the most eager. The man rose quickly by straightening his legs without using his arms. Rob would have been impressed, except that he knew most of the class could do it, too. It was one of the exercises.

Archer had the man come forward and he squared off with Rob. Archer raised a hand.

"You're going down," the man growled. Rob just stared calmly at him.

"Bow." The two men bowed, never taking their eyes off each other.

Archer dropped his hand. "Begin!"

The man stepped in, throwing a combination hand-and-foot strike intended to confuse the target and force an inadequate defense. Since Archer had instructed him to use everything he'd learned, he felt no remorse as he spun up his senses. Time slowed to a crawl and Rob saw the inevitable opening the man had left. Rob whipped to the side, spinning to get out of the direct path of the double strike, then he launched his counterattack: a backfist to the solar plexus. Time returned to normal as he spun down, and he watched as the man was lifted from his feet by his own momentum and dumped on the mat, flat on his back. He lay there as he struggled to breathe around his paralyzed diaphragm. The rest of the class was stunned by how quickly it was over.

Archer bent over to look at the man and saw he would be okay once he'd caught his breath. He stood back up and looked at the class.

"Hmm, that was disappointing," he said as the man struggled to his feet and was helped off the mat by a classmate. "Karl, do you have another volunteer who might do better?"

Karl was trying to hide a grin as he looked over the class for the next victim. Archer leaned sideways to speak to Rob.

"You need to hide your eyes better," he advised quietly. "I'm pretty sure that one saw them. The rest? Probably not. It could save your life in a real fight, but it might confuse things here." Rob nodded his understanding.

Karl had selected another volunteer, calling out "Rick" when one of the class raised his hand. Rick stepped up looking slightly less eager than his predecessor. The men squared off and waited for Archer to call the fight.

"Bow." They did. "Begin!"

There was a sudden shuffle as both men reset their stances, then silence. Rob recognized immediately what Rick was doing: he was letting Rob bring the fight to him. Rob recalled what Elaina had once said about the first to attack giving up the advantage by attacking. Rob decided a feint was in order.