The Fawx Bite

VI.

I woke up to the sound of someone knocking on my door. Looking next to me, I noticed Marek had moved to the bottom of the bed and one of his wings was extended on top of my legs. Slowly, I crawled from underneath the covers and the wing before making my way over to the door. I paused with my hand on the handle, looking down to make sure that I was actually wearing clothes before I opened the door. Echo was standing there, loose grey sweat pants hanging off her hips. A sports bra clinging to her....very well rounded chest. I was struck dumb by the muscles that were suddenly displayed in front of me. I had seen her toned arms with strong shoulders. But I hadn't realized just how much muscle she had. Her stomach was a washboard of perfect muscle, her ribs barely showing underneath the skin. I cocked my head, pointedly staring because I had no idea that there could be that much muscle in the stomach.

"My eyes are up here," Echo smirked. "I'm hitting the gym, it would probably be a good idea for you to join me. I can start teaching you some things."

"Wow...not even a good morning. Just your desire to kill me."

Echo blinked. "Kill you?"

"That's what exercising is, cause you die a little inside every time," I pointed out. Marek huffed from on the bed.

Echo simply stared at me. "Get dressed."

"You're like cardboard," I retorted.

"And is that supposed to be an insult?" Echo arched a brown. "Get dressed, we have places to be."

It was literally on the tip of my tongue to not be so nice but I simply nodded and closed the door. I had a very bad feeling that I was going to regret this decision.

Definitely regretting the decision. I stared at the ceiling hoping that somehow, someone would come save me. Weight lifting was torture enough but Echo seemed to have an unhealthy like for cardio. And after fifty minutes, I was dead and done. Echo's form suddenly filled my vision as she stood over me. She sighed, "This isn't nap time."

"No, it isn't. It's not anything time because I am dead," I muttered.

Echo suddenly crouched and pinched my side which both hurt and tickled at the same time and made my violently spasm. The blonde stared at me as I limply rolled away from her. "For a dead person, you sure do move a lot."

I glared at her, "You are evil."

"I'm not evil, we're training cause if you are going to be doing anything akin to surviving in this world, you have to be fit. Look at the men and women that grace the covers of your comic books, they're covered in muscle," Echo pointed out.

"Yeah, but the actresses cast in them are nowhere near as ripped," I heaved myself into a sitting position.

Echo sighed, "I understand now why Jin wants to strangle you."

"Well, you should. You guys are together and couples should always – "

"Together?" Echo chuckled. "We are acquaintances at best."

I frowned, "He came to see you though?"

"He has the wrong body parts," Echo smiled at me. It was a very unsettling smile...like spine chilling. "Does that answer simplify things?"

"Yes," but I'm mostly saying that because you look like a psychopath with that smile and just nope.

"Come on," Echo hauled me up. We made our way over to the thicker mats and sat down and slowly began to stretch. Echo's blue eyes studied me, "Tell me about your sister."

"Vi?" whatever crossed my features made Echo's expression soften. I leaned back, "She's my best friend. We've been inseparable for years, ever since Liane –"

"Liane?"

I paused for a moment, "My other sister, she disappeared when I was young, and there was never any trace of her. We were told that she was probably dead and...yeah. The day she disappeared Vi and I, well we vowed to always be there for one another, to never let anything separate us."

"Hence why you fought so hard against Jin telling you that you couldn't bring her into this world," Echo mused.

"Yes, I mean we are already growing apart simply due to the fact that she has a boyfriend and she's graduating high school and she has this crazy dream to open her own dojo one day." I laughed, remembering her talking so animatedly about it. "Whereas I would love to be a makeup guru one day."

"Is that why you wear that schiesse on your face all the time?" Echo smirked at my blank expression.

"Whatever you said I'm sure it was an insult," I glared at her. "It is not whatever you said, it is an art that I just happen to get to wear."

Echo rolled her eyes, stretching her torso up and over her outstretched legs and then promptly placing her chest on her thighs and somehow intertwining her fingers around her feet. I just stared. She sat up, her beautiful face covered in sweat and complete arrogance. I tsked and tried to attempt what she had just done. My hands stopped short just past my knees.

"What about you?" I asked through a grimace, "What about your growing up? How did you end up a druid?"

Echo fell silent, her expression becoming carefully organized. "I grew up in a very different way than you. We were trained from the very day we were found to be...more than a civilian. I never really did have a childhood, per say. It was more like training until I became old enough to be sent out to do my job."

"Job?" I asked, feeling as though we were on thin ice.

"I was an assassin," Echo said bluntly. "The organization that raised me was a separate branch that was built from the Nazi's and continued on even after Hitler's fall. They loved to experiment on us, take us through quite literal hell and if we survived, we were worthy enough to be slapped with a letter and given a job."

"A letter?"

"So few agents actually survived or lived through the tests or the tasks given afterwards that each of us were given a simple letter as a name," Echo explained.

"Was your letter E?" I asked, incredibly curious. This was like a novel, or one of those crime shows that was on CBS.

"No, I had an actual name," Echo looked down at her hands, "I was different from the others, my role within the agency different."

I opened my mouth to ask how it was different but her expression was so cold and so distant that I thought better of it, instead I asked, "So...were your parents agents too?"

"No," for some reason Echo hid her face from me as she said this. "I was separated from my family when I was little. I ended up in a German orphanage and that was when Th – a senior agent found me."

I stayed silent, unsure of what to say. What did you say? She had grown up as an assassin. That wasn't something that many people, if any, could identify with. I looked back at her, "How did you end up as a druid?"

"I killed everyone within the organization that raised and trained me," Echo said flatly. "And I guess Lugh that that was worthy enough for me to become a guardian for dragons."

I blinked.

Well...I wasn't expecting that answer.

Echo stood and helped me to my feet; "This is going to become a daily routine, for you and I. Go get lunch and rest up for a couple of hours. Because I will be coming to get you again and we will start teaching you self-defense."

"Oh boy," I muttered to myself.

Echo grinned and patted my head, "Remember, you're the older sister, and if Viola has martial arts training she can kick your ass. You have to assert your authority somehow."

And damn her, but she was so right.