His breath hissed through his teeth. “Do you think I don’t know that? But I’m also not ready to watch her go off on some revenge mission with notions of fighting vampires.” Running an agitated hand through his hair, he finished with a snarled, “Jesus Christ. I just got her back.”
Sitting up on her knees, Morgan extended her hand and Travis took it with a sigh, settling down beside her despite his continued agitation. Massaging his shoulders to relieve some of the tension, Morgan added, “Look at it this way. This Thompson fellow was already part of an active hunt. Kane will probably bag the bastard by week’s end, long before Sophia would be ready to be out in the field.”
Travis dropped his head with a blown-out breath. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
Digging her thumbs in a bit deeper, Morgan grinned when she heard Travis groan with pleasure. “Also, by training her, we’re giving Sophia another means of defense, so that what happened five years ago never happens again. She’ll know how to defend herself without having to unleash her dragon.”
Turning, Travis slipped his arm behind Morgan’s back and pulled her around him so she was straddling his lap. Nuzzling her face, he murmured against her lips, “How did I get so lucky to find you?”
Pressing her lips against his in a sweet kiss, she grinned. “I believe I found you first.”
Chapter Nine
Sophia woke, pumped for action, ready to train, but if she had thought her first day of Hunter training was going to start with some hand-to-hand combat action, or firing off a gun at some targets, she was sadly mistaken. Day one was apparently beginning with show and tell as Morgan and Jamie went through a lecture on weaponry.
“A Hunter’s primary weapon is a matter of personal preference. I like my SIGs,” Morgan said, showing Sophia the pistol before tucking it back into its holster. “While your brother prefers a Glock, and Kane swears by Heckler and Koch.”
“What about you?” Sophia asked Jamie.
“I’m mostly the brains of the operation,” the blonde vampire said with a grin, holding up a tablet. “Tech is my thing. When I’m not behind the scenes, I can hit what I aim at and prefer a Glock like your brother, but my weapon of choice in the field is knives.”
“Blades are close combat, though,” Morgan said. “And while we’ll get to that eventually, best to start with something that allows some distance between you and your target.”
Made sense, Sophia mused, before Jamie pushed that tablet in front of her and said, “So, today we’re starting with the basics, how to clean and oil a handgun, the different calibers, and which ones work best for vampires, then we’ll move on to loading and unloading.”
Sophia watched the videos, putting the knowledge to use under the watchful eyes of Morgan and Jamie as she took apart and cleaned first one of Morgan’s SIG Sauers and then one of her brother’s Glocks. Once cleaned, she loaded each with the appropriate caliber bullets then unloaded them. She was eager to load at least one of them back up and head somewhere to squeeze off a few rounds, only to have that idea nipped in the bud when Morgan praised her for her work and removed the weapons with a murmured, “That’s enough of that for today. Time for some strength and endurance training.”
Sophia couldn’t hold back her groan, reminded of her P.E. days in school, and having to run laps. She hated running laps.
“We know you’re still recovering, so we’ll take it easy on you,” Jamie assured her.
“But vampires are fast, strong, and agile,” Morgan added, “so if you want any hope of bringing one down, you’ll need to be the same. Depending on where you are when you find your target, you can’t always pull a gun, just like you can’t always unleash your dragon.”
“Dragons are naturally pretty strong, aren’t they?” Jamie asked curiously. “I mean you’d have to be, right?”
Sophia shrugged. “In this form?” she said, motioning down her body, “I’m stronger than your typical human, I know that, but I don’t have access to the dragon’s full strength unless I shift.”
“Which you can’t exactly do in the middle of New Orleans.”
“Your control is another thing we’ll have to work on,” Morgan said with a frown. “You’ve gotten better recently, but you’ll need to learn to stay in control even in a combat situation.” Tapping her chin with her finger as she contemplated the problem, she said, “I think we’ll rope your brother in on that one since he actually knows what it’s like to be a dragon.”
Sophia’s phone went off as Morgan spoke the last and she glanced at the display that proclaimedThe Mighty Kanewas calling. She frowned. She hadn’t inputted that, nor had she, or would she, set the ringtone to LMFAO’s songSexy and I Know It. Connecting the call, she demanded, “What did you do to my phone?” and then changing her mind, said, “Better yet,whendid you do that to my phone?”
Kane let out a bark of laughter. “Yesterday when you were otherwise occupied. You really should password protect your devices. Jamie would be appalled.”
Shaking her head with a mixture of disgruntlement and amusement, she looked toward Morgan and Jamie who were patiently waiting and mouthed, ‘sorry’, before asking Kane, “What’s up? Did you need something?”
“Yeah. Furniture. I decided to stay at my new place after I left you guys last night. Those floors are hard.”
A snort of laughter was out before Sophia could stop it, and embarrassed at the sound, she quickly cleared her throat. “Okay. So, you want to go furniture shopping? Why call me?”
“Well, it occurred to me you wouldn’t realize what I’d done to your phone until I called you.”
Unable to hold back her grin, Sophia tried for a dry tone and failed as she said, “Ah, I see the method to your madness.”
“So, do you and the ladies want to help me furnish this place? They’re there with you, aren’t they? They’ve had you cleaning guns all morning, am I right?”
“We were about to start on strength training.”
