Blood Relatives

16. Same Problems As Luke

"Ok gang – line up." Coach Danby said Wednesday, announcing the start of practice. Carmine grinned and lined up next to Luke as usual.

This was the first time she'd been to track in over two weeks. And of course, it was her first time since she'd been turned. Even though she'd felt fine on Monday, her parents still hadn't wanted her to go to practice. She was looking a lot better, and they were glad for that, but they still thought she might be too sick for that much physical exertion. Carmine tried to argue, but they wouldn't listen – not that she could blame them. She wasn't going to tell them what she'd become, so she didn't have a lot of good reasons for going. But by Wednesday, apparently her parents had decided she was well enough to finally go again.

Carmine had to admit, she was excited. For the first time in months, she felt great. She couldn't wait to get back to running. And now that she knew she was actually strong enough to make it through an entire practice, the anticipation was killing her. She was finally getting her old life back – or, close to it. She'd have to sneak out a little more often than she'd planned on, but she was pretty sure it'd be worth it in the end. Carmine grinned at Luke. He smiled back cautiously. What was wrong with him?

They took off on their warm-up laps as usual. Carmine knew she'd have to pace herself – she wasn't much of a distance runner, and the ten-minute set was a little more than she could really handle. Especially since she hadn't actually been to practice in weeks.

Even though it was supposed to be an easy couple of minutes to start the practice, Carmine could never help going a little fast. Truth be told, she was never that good at pacing herself, despite what Luke seemed to think. Going slow always made her feel lazy. It was probably her pacing problems that made her always try to keep up with Luke in the first place. Well, that and pride.

Still, she hoped today would be different. She felt so good for one, and the fact that she was now a vampire wouldn't hurt either. She wondered how fast she could go without attracting attention. She'd definitely be able to beat all her old times now!

She ran for about five minutes, taking stock of how she felt. This seemed to be going well – she wasn't feeling tired or nauseous or anything like that. The last practice she went to – back when that incubus was slowly trying to kill her – Carmine had felt like throwing up almost from the first minute. But not today – it looked like she was finally back to her old self.

She thought she'd been taking it easy, so she was surprised to see she was keeping pace with the fastest kids on the team. How could she be so far up? Normally, she wouldn't be doing this good unless she'd been going at an all-out sprint! Carmine eased up a bit. She had every intention of beating every time she'd ever run, but that didn't mean she had to do it on day one. As she slowed down, she noticed Luke coming up behind her.

"What are you doing?" he hissed. Carmine knew he hadn't said it very loud, but she heard it as clearly as if he'd whispered it right in her ear. Carmine winced.

"What?" she asked. Sure, she was going a little fast, but did he have to say it like that? Besides, she'd slowed down – that was how he caught up to her in the first place!

"You can't just sprint around the track like that." he told her briskly. "People'll notice."

"I didn't mean to." she said in a way that wasn't quite an apology. "Besides, you try suddenly being twice as fast and then figuring out how not to show it."

Luke snickered.

"Fine." he told her, acknowledging her point. "So I guess you see what I was saying about keeping pace with someone else?"

"Yeah." Carmine admitted. But it wasn't like there were a ton of people she could pace off of. Suddenly, an idea struck her. "So why don't I just keep pace with you?" she asked, grinning.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Luke sounded dubious.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Having the two fastest people on the team pace each other in order to keep from going too fast?" Luke asked.

"Well, when you say it like that..." she trailed off. He grinned as she continued. "But I don't think it'll be that bad."

"Why's that?"

"You know what pace we've been going – you've been running with me for months." Who would be better to run with?

"True." Luke shrugged. Carmine thought he didn't sound all that happy about it – he seemed a little wary. She stared at him for a minute or two, but she couldn't figure out why he was acting like that.

"Just run at like eighty percent or whatever you normally do." she told him, trying to make him feel better about whatever was bothering him.

"Eighty?" Luke scoffed. "You think I try that hard here?"

"Fine – seventy. Or twenty. Whatever number makes you happy." She tried not to roll her eyes. Then, she grinned wickedly. "Or are you afraid of me beating you?"

"Oh, yes. Terrified." Luke deadpanned.

"Then let's go."

Luke shrugged, picking it up just a little.

Carmine kept pace with Luke for every drill they ran. She was surprised at how easy it was. Normally, she'd have been barely able to breathe after all that. Even on her best days, she usually had to give up about an hour in, letting Luke go off on his own. But not today. Today, she was able to keep up with Luke for the full two-hour practice. It wasn't even hard. Carmine saw him start to breathe a little harder during sprints and found herself wondering if she might actually be faster than Luke was at this point. She grinned happily to herself, but she couldn't help noticing the grim look on Luke's face.