“Nope,” the teen replied with a smirk.“I concentrated on your stuff and this popped into my hand.I can steal the things that are most valuable to folks.”She tossed the sculpture to Arkas and he deftly caught it.
“What about me?”Oaklie asked challengingly.“What do I have that’s valuable?”
Grace concentrated again, then a huge wooden statue of Arkas appeared right in front of the kid’s chair.“Holy crap!”she exclaimed, eye level with his huge package.“I’m too young to be subjected to Ark’s anaconda!”
Vic roared with laughter and Oaklie’s face turned bright red.The artist leaped to her feet, grabbed hold of the life-sized statue and sped out of the room.She hadn’t been given a tour of the place yet, but took a short passageway to another wing.Finding a vacant bedroom, she put the sculpture in a corner.“How the hell did she teleport that all the way here from Tennessee?”she muttered.
Everyone was still laughing when she trudged back to the great room.Arkas was beaming proudly.“My female sculpted me even before we met,” he said.
“Fate must have sent her a vision of you,” Zoe figured, dabbing at her tears of mirth with a tissue.Amaros was grinning, which was akin to hysterical laughter for anyone else.
“I carved Oak before I met her, too,” Arkas said.
“Don’t even think about it,” Oaklie warned Grace when the teen slid a look at her.The sculpture Arkas had done of her was her second favorite thing.It was in one of her duffle bags.“It’s a naked carving and it’s private,” she added.
“Fair enough,” Grace agreed, holding her hands up in surrender.“The statue wasn’t in Tennessee, by the way,” she said.“It felt a lot closer than that when I reached out to steal it.”
Everyone turned to Arkas for an explanation at Oaklie’s blank look.“I stashed it in the truck,” he admitted.“There was no way I was going to leave that behind,” he said.“It’s just as perfect as my stag.”He patted the wooden animal, then put it on the coffee table.
Xanthia went next.“I can manipulate electronics with my mind,” she said, then turned the fairy lights off, then back on.The huge TV on the wall came to life even though the generator wasn’t running.It just played static before she switched it off.
“That’s pretty cool,” Oaklie said with a grin, then arched an eyebrow at Victoria.“How about you?Grace said you’re our trainer?”
“I can astral project in my dreams sometimes,” Vic said.“I can also anticipate what people are going to do before they do it.I’ve never lost a fight,” she boasted.
“Not even when her opponents tried to cheat,” Grace joked.Wynter rolled her eyes in response.
“Can we have a demonstration?”Arkas asked.
Vic popped to her feet and moved away from the couches.“Let’s go, Ark,” she said, motioning for him to join her, then moving into a classic boxing stance.
“I don’t want to hurt your female, brother,” Arkas said to Camriel.
“Trust me, you won’t be able to hit her no matter how hard you try,” Cam said confidently.
Ark glanced at Oak, who was just as curious as he was.“Go ahead,” his female said.
Standing, the warrior approached the cambion who was only three inches shorter than him.She had a strong, muscular build and he could already tell she was a fighter.The reaping hook that was tied to a belt loop gave it away.“Ready?”he asked.She nodded and he burst into a series of rapid punches.
Vic moved like lightning, deflecting and sidestepping the attack with ease.She somehow got behind him, then he found himself pinned to the ground moments later.Her thick forearm was pressed tightly against his neck, but she wasn’t cutting off his air supply.“Do you believe me now?”she asked.
“Yep,” the knight agreed, impressed with her skill.“I can see why you’re in charge of training the females.”
She released him, then yanked him to his feet by the back of his sweater.“Try not to feel too emasculated,” she joked.“Not even Cam can take me down, unless I let him.”
Her mate gave her a sultry look that usually would have been enough to have them heading to their bedroom.Zoe cleared her throat, reminding them that their conversation wasn’t over yet.
Arkas returned to his seat and settled next to Oaklie.She gave him a sympathetic look, then ruined it with a snicker.
“I guess that just leaves me,” Wynter said.“I can manipulate water and pretty much all kinds of liquids,” she said.Picking up her coffee mug, she coaxed the coffee to rise up and copy the shape of the wooden stag.Oaklie grinned in reaction, then the liquid sank back into the mug.“I can also use it as a weapon,” Wyn said.“I learned how to freeze soldiers’ organs and their brains to disable them.I froze one of them into a solid block of ice, too.”
“Then GG’s ex blasted him into a million chunks with his rifle,” Grace said.“I really wish I could have seen that.”
“We all do,” Xan agreed.“So, are you going to show us your talent with wood now?”she asked.
“If you insist,” Oaklie said modestly.Her first trick was to infuse the stag with magic and make it walk across the coffee table.The girls grinned in wonder as the wooden animal paused and lifted its head, then turned to peer around.
“That’s amazing,” Zoe murmured.
