24. Solved

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Sunday, August 30th
Waning Gibbous Moon (Twenty-Five Nights to Full Moon)

I woke up stiff and sore, staring up at my bedroom ceiling. I was on the floor. My clothes, or what was left of them were covered with dried and caked-on mud and blood.

Lilith was sitting on my bed. “You would have probably been more comfortable here on the bed, but I didn’t think you wanted to soil your sheets.”

“How did we get back here? How long have I been out?” I realized one of my towels was under my head. It too was covered in mud, blood, and who knows that else.

“I carried you up through the back door last night. Well, I suppose it was this morning, around four. Don’t worry, no one saw.”

“I’ve been asleep all day?” Since Lilith was up, it had to be after dark. “This weekend went by way too fast.”

She just looked at me and shrugged.

“So what exactly happened?” I sat up, my body sore.

“Why don’t you get cleaned up first? Get in some clean, comfortable clothes, and then we’ll talk.”

I gingerly got up, my sore body groaning and protesting against me. I went into the bathroom, started the shower, and took off and threw away my ruined clothes while the water was heating up. When I got in, the scalding water burned my skin. It felt even worse when it hit all the red, partially healed scratches and bites that covered my body. However, that same water was also helping to soothe and loosen my stiff and sore muscles as it washed off the mud.

Tala was being extremely quiet and I had to prod her more than usual to wake her up. What do you want?

I tried to glean some information from her, “What happened last night?”

She was silent. I gave her some time while I scrubbed all the grime from my skin and out of my hair. The floor of the shower was thick with silt. I watched it wash down the drain as I continued to wait.

“Well?” I asked once more.

I lost, She growled.

“You fought Lilith?”

You left me with the bloodsucker. I am instinct. Of course I attacked her.

“And she won.” I made it a statement as I turned off the water and began to dry off.

She’s more powerful than you think, She growled once more before she went silent.

I wrapped myself in my bathrobe and went back to my room, where Lilith was still waiting.

“You should be fully healed by tomorrow,” She smiled, a devious look on her face.

I just glared at her. I had too many scratches and bites covering my body to count.

“That’s not a look you should give to someone who solved your problem.”

“Solved? Just like that?” I pulled the towel off my head and began to comb through my hair, which was more tangled than usual.

“Do you have any idea of what happened last night?”

“Just a small idea. I released my control over Tala, she saw you, instinct kicked in, she attacked you, you fought back, and you won. Now she’s upset. I don’t understand how that helps me. It seems more like an unsuccessful night of wasted training time to me.”

“Wasted?” She got off my bed and walked over to me. She placed a bare hand against the side of my neck. I felt Tala cringing inside me, trying to escape her touch. She was whimpering. I pulled away.

“What was that?” I asked, rubbing the spot on my neck where she had touched me. It was cold.

“I did more than just win a fight. I proved to your inner wolf, to the source of your power, that a stronger entity exists. Me. The reason that you cannot control that power is because you do not yet possess your own power to do so. Since I do have that power, your inner wolf must now listen to me, and if I order it to listen to you, then it must comply. Which is exactly what I did.”

I was in shock. So it really was that easy.

“Now that I control your power, we can truly begin your training. I can teach you to utilize this power.”

I just looked at her. All I really needed was to control it, right? Wasn’t that enough?

“Maybe we should wait until you’re fully rested. I will give you a few days. We can work again next weekend.”

“Okay, I can finally get some studying done.I have a lot to catch up on, and my first tests are coming up soon,” I smiled uneasily.

After our conversation, Lilith left the dorm, probably going for a meal.

Before starting on some reading, I checked my phone for missed calls. Randall had called several times since the night before and he even left a few worried messages.

I called him and he answered almost immediately. “Selene!” He sounded relived, “I’ve been trying to reach you!”

“Yeah, I saw. I was away from my phone, sorry.”

“So you’re okay? Everything’s okay?”

“I’m fine, just tired. I’ve been training alone,” I lied.

“Do you want me to come over? I know you want to train alone, but we can still do other things together.” I could hear the loneliness in his voice.

“I have lab tomorrow evening, but I’m not busy Tuesday. I was planning on taking a break from my training for a few days, anyway.”

“I want to show you something, maybe we can go after classes tomorrow? I can pick you up.”
So we made plans to go to wherever he was planning to take me (it was a surprise, apparently) after I got out of class on Tuesday. After that, we would probably go back to his house to relax and eat dinner. I was excited to finally have plans for something normal rather than training for the supernatural part of my life.

After that, I put on my pajamas, finished my readings, printed off some notes, and went to bed.

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A/N: This was supposed to post automatically yesterday, but for some reason it didn't. I guess I put in the wrong date or time or something. Sorry for the lateness, here's your belated Christmas Present. :P

New chapter will be on Monday. I might start going Monday and Thursday for a bit.