In My Mother's Footsteps

In My Mother\'s Footsteps part 5
By Sultrysiren

I sighed and got dressed. I had been rude to Liam, ruder than I normally was. Yeah, I felt bad, I supposed. Besides, I was hungry. I had had no dinner last night, and, though is eas early, my stomach was reminding me that I had missed a meal.
Once I was dressed, I walked out into the common room. All my guards were there, including Adriel. Damn. I had been hoping that either they had forgotten about me and left, or Mother had decided I didn\'t need them.
\"Let\'s get something to eat, shall we?\"
All the guards stood, though Damon didn\'t look like he liked that idea. Too bad. I was hungry, and they had to come with me, according to Mother. Damon might not like me, but he was afraid of Mother, and would do what she wanted.
Silently, I opened the door and started walking. Adriel took his place beside me, Damon, Michael and Eadoin falling in step behind us.
\"How are you feeling?\" Adriel asked as we made out way upstairs to the manor. Palace, more like, the place was that huge.
I grunted. \"Like shit, but I took it out on Liam.\" It had made me feel a little better, though not a lot.
Adriel shook his head. \"Well, did you at least talk with him about whatever it was?\"
\"Yeah.\" I left it at that. He didn\'t need to know that the sidhe were coming after me. The only one who needed to know was Liam, and he probably wouldn\'t tell Mother. I didn\'t tell him not to, but I was sure he would respect my privacy. After all, it wasn\'t often that I opened to someone. Usually, when I did, though, it was him. Lucky him, no?
Mallory came into the kitchens as we were almost done. She was pretty, in a psychotic way. Today she was wearing a silk crimson dress that came to her knees, flaring out as she walked. It matched her hair and eyes perfectly.
\"Hello, brat.\"
I smiled at her, a nasty smile. \"Hello. Still not getting laid, Mallory?\"She She snarled at me first, then eyed my guards. \"Think highly of yourself, don\'t you, to surround yourself with such pretty boys.\"
I resisted the urge to look behind me at Michael, Damon and En. Mn. Michael I had been lusting over for years, and Eadoin was certainly pretty enough. I could even admit that Damon was handsome. But I still hadn’t picked them myself. \"Mother\'s orders.\"
\"Then your mother thinks highly of you. I\'m not surprised. You are like her in every way. A bitch, a slut...\"
I stepped to her and punched her hard, splitting her lip. \"You will not talk about my mother in such a fashion. She is your queen and you will give her the respect she deserves.\"
Mallory wiped the blood off her face and licked the same blood from her hands, all the while glaring at me. When she finished, she turned around and walked back out the way she came. I faced my guards once she was gone.
\"Let\'s stay here a few minutes, giver her time to run.\" I sighed, frustrated. According to Mother, she had always been this way. I couldn’t understand why Mother just didn’t have Mallory knocked off. Its not like she couldn’t do it. After all, her lover and my father was a hitman. He’d do it for free, maybe have her throw in some kinky sex.
“That’s probably a good idea,” Michael piped up. I turned to him, a bit surprised. “What? I have no love for her either, and I wouldn’t put it past her to try something stupid, even among us.” One corner of his mouth curled up in a half grin.
I nodded. “I wouldn’t either.” I sat down again, groaning. “Gods, I’m tired.” Between the nightmare I had, and the crappy sleep I had gotten, I was in a rotten mood. Luckily, I was doing a good job not taking it out on everybody else, which was what I usually did when I was feeling shitty. Maybe I was growing up. Then again, maybe I was too exhausted to care who felt my wrath and who didn’t. I was betting on the latter; it’s happened before.
We sat there in silence for a few minutes. Adriel was a quiet dragon, as was Michael. I didn’t know Eadoin well enough to know if he was a talker, but I knew that Damon had to be brooding over being forced to babysit me. Well, let him brood. They weren’t my orders.
“How are you coming in weapon’s practice, Princess?” Eadoin had spoken, finally breaking a silence that had gone on too long.
I shrugged. “Last time I went out to the range, pretty good.” I gave him a sheepish smile. “I just haven’t been out there in a long time.”
“I can’t see a child like you shooting anything, let alone hitting the target.” Damon snorted. “You don’t know anything.”
archarched an eyebrow as Adriel sighed. He knew what was coming. Funny, I did too. “Want to bet? I got fifty bucks that says that I can beat you.”
Damon’s face was disbelieving. “You’re joking. You’re a fucking child. I’ve been handling guns since before the king inherited the throne.”
“Chicken?” My voice was sickly sweet, my smile condescending.
He scowled at me. “Fine. You’re on.”
Michael’s face was shocked as I stood up; Adriel’s was not surprised. Eadoin, however, beamed at me. “Go get ‘em, tiger,” he whispered to me. Damon heard him, though, and his scowl deepened.
“She’s a bloody child.”
“So you’ve said, several times.” I smirked at him as Eadoin shook his head, trying not to laugh.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover, Brother. Remember who taught her how to shoot, and that that same person has always been better at shooting than you have.” Eadoin flung one arm around Damon’s shoulders as we walked out, heg fog for the range. “So I’d say that she has just a good chance at beating you as you do of beating her.”
Michael grabbed my arm as we were walking out of the kitchen. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” He whispered to me.
I slowed my pace a bit. “Yes, I do. Fuck, Michael, between being bored, being babysat and having to deal with a man I never liked in the first place, I need something to do. And bringing Damon down a notch or two seems like a good idea.”
Michael shook his head and sighed. “Showing the same arrogance he is will get you nowhere, you do know that?”
I patted Michael’s hand. “Maybe, maybe not. We won’t know til we get there, won’t we?”
“In some ways you are just like you mother. In some ways, you are worse.” Michael let me go, striding to catch up with Damon and Eadoin. I sighed and let him go. He had a point, but I couldn’t let this one go. It wasn’t a matter of money; it was a matter of pride. For the bothus, us, it seemed. At that thought, I sent a silent prayer up to the Goddess, praying that I would win. I would rather see Damon taken down a notch than to have him take me down one. I also hoped that Eadoin hadn’t misplaced his judgment, as they were good friends. He wouldn’t have addressed him as brother, that way. To dragons, a brother was more than one’s siblings. Your closest friends were often closer to you than your own brothers or sisters, and deserved the title more.
By the time we made it to the shooting range, we had gathered a small crowd. Eadoin had been boasting to whoever would hear him that the captain of the guard and the heir apparent were going to test each other’s skills. He was also taking bets on who would win. It was split fifty-fifty. There were the younger ones who remembered my skills on the range, and there were those who had fought next to Damon in at least one of the three great dragon-fey wars, and remembered his skills with all weaponry.
Since I was the challenger, Damon got to pick the guns. He gave me a wicsmilsmile as he handed me a case after very little deliberation. Inside was a colt .45. I hated that gun, but, paradoxically, it was the one I preferred to use. It was huge and ugly and the kick could break your nose if you held it wrong, but it was a reliable gun. I nodded, taking the pistol out of its case and took stepped into the booth as Damon did the same. The target moved to the back of the wall, and I raised the gun. It had been a long time since I had practiced with anything, but I had hopes that training would kick in and I would win. Goddess, I hoped I would win.
The gun kicked in my hand violently as I pulled the trigger, taking me by surprise. Steadying my hands, I emptied the whole clip into the target, hoping against hope that that first shot wouldn’t be the shot that made me lose.
I lowered the gun once the clip was empty and brought the paper target forward towards me, stepping out of the way so that Eadoin could take it. Damon had already stepped back, smirking at me. I didn’t look at either target as Eadoin judged. I just didn’t want to see.
“Damon won,” Eadoin said, “but barely. If this shot here,” he pointed to the first shot I had taken, “hadn’t been off, it would be a tie.” Eadoin beamed at me, proud, while Damon stared e ine in open shock. I smiled, though inwardly I was mad that I hadn’t won.
“I guess I owe you fifty bucks,” I said to Damon as he was putting away the gun. Mine was already packed away.
“You don’t owe me anything, Princess.”
I scowled. “You won, fair and square. I won’t have it be said that I don’t pay up.”
He shrugged, not meeting my gaze. “You were better than I thought. You may be a child, but you are a skilled child.”
I narrowed my eyes, though I couldn’t find anything wrong with what he said, beyond calling me a child. And even then, it wasn’t inaccurate, it was just a statement, given both his age and mine. “I’ll give you the money when we get back to my apartment.”
He nodded, stepping away as he did. I let him go. After all, I had nothing else nice to say to him.
“You did better than I thought you would,” Michael said, stepping up to fill the place Damon had exited. “I’m proud of you.”
I looked up into Michael’s deep green eyes, nodding. “Thank you.”
“I expected no less, after all, I taught her how to shoot her first weapon.” Eadoin grinned from ear to ear, slinging an arm around my shoulders. “She’s an apt pupil.”
Michael snorted. “When she pays attention.” He smiled at Eadoin. “But you did teach her well.”
Eadoin bowed from the waist, letting his arm slide from my shoulders. “With time, she could be better than me.”
“You’ll have me blushing in a minute, Eadoin,” I said, giving h lit little shove. That really wasn’t true, I didn’t blush easily and never did, but it was customary, in a way. A way to acknowledge that he was praising me. Eadoin grinned again at me. “Don’t worry about Damon, Judith. He’ll get over it, and may even come to respect you a little.”
I snorted. “I doubt that.”
“Doubt it all you like, I have known him since we were younger than you, and he’ll come around, though he’ll he hesitant to admit it at first.”
I gave a one-shouldered shrug. “I doubt it, but thanks anyways for humoring me.”
Eadoin shook his head. “You too are too headstrong, you know that? Ah, well, let’s go back and have a drink, to celebrate your victory.”
“But he won,” I protested.
“And you at bet beat him,” Eadoin said as we began the walk to my apartment. “If it wasn’t for the fact that you hadn’t been shooting in a long time, you could have tied him. Given a few more years, you could have beaten him. If that isn’t a victory,n I n I don’t know what is. So let’s go drink.”