Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“So, I should feel lucky?” she asked as she shifted into a defensive position. Lachlan tracked the move, and from the way they stared each other down, I highly doubted this training session would end with one of them being a winner. I wagered both would give up in the middle and disappear to their bedroom, not that I blamed them. I joked about mates, but it was certainly fascinating. Witches chose consorts, not mates, but I was curious about the magical properties tied to the situation. I mean, fate had to have something to do with the selection process, but no one truly understood it.
“I’m guessing these are mine?” I called over my shoulder as I spotted five youngish looking vampires standing in a half circle around the mat opposite Valor and Lachlan.
“Yep,” Lachlan answered, not even out of breath as Valor whirled toward him, a flurry of fists and kicks that never made connection.
“Wonderful,” I said, flashing the vamps my best seductive smile—the one I reserved for distractions—and gave them a little wave. “Hi, boys,” I said, and they each glared at me. There wasn’t any hatred in their gazes, but they certainly didn’t like my flippant attitude. “Who’s first?”
All of them looked at each other for a moment, and there was something to admire in how they were already acting like a unit. I’d never seen any of them before, but with their matching cotton pants and shirts, I imagined they were rookies of some kind. Baby vamps auditioning for the royal guard, perhaps. Some silent decision was made, and they all converged on me at once.
“Oh, five at one time, how fun,” I said, ducking out of the first one’s attempt to knock me on my ass.
They encircled me, a mass of muscles and fangs and punches. Kicks and knees and all sorts of attempts to land a blow. I danced out of each of their attacks, moving as gracefully as all those ballet lessons my mother forced me to do as a youngling taught me. I was toying with them, really. I could’ve laid each of them out by now, but I wanted them to feel like they at least stood a chance before I embarrassed them in front of the king’s second.
“You almost had me there,” I said to a vamp who had red hair. He didn’t like my tone, and rushed after me with a growl. I hurried out of the way of the charging bull, feeling I’d let the fight go on long enough.
A crackle of heat shot through my blood, a comforting and familiar feeling any time I called on my power. The room tinted with the purple no doubt glowing from my eyes, and snaps of lavender energy sparked between my raised hands.
“My turn,” I practically sing-songed, waving my hands in a delicate circle as if I were rolling a ball between them. In truth, that’s what it was—ball of energy—one I mentally whispered to, commanding it to do my will. “Boo!” I said, thrusting my hands toward the rushing vampires. The purple ball of energy sizzled, soaring to each of the targets I’d instructed. One by one, it swept the ankles out from each of the baby vampires before pinning their wrists to the mat so they couldn’t retaliate.
I grinned down at them, letting my powers drop.
“Show off!” Valor chided right before Lachlan took her distraction and used it against her, hurtling her into the mat with a gentleness even I could see from here.
“It’s not showing off when there isn’t a challenge,” I said, then grimaced at the vampires still pinned to the mat. “No offense.” From their growls, there was much offense taken. Whoops. “Surely, there is someone here that could pose a threat to me? Anyone?” I asked the wide-open room, riding the high of my own confidence.
“Gladly,” a voice said from right behind me, and I whirled. How the hell had Benedict snuck up on me? “Overconfidence can be a poison,” he said, rolling up his shirt sleeves as he stalked across the mat. One of his hands was clenched in a fist, and it was the first show of anger from him I’d seen. He must be in a mood to let his normally controlled demeanor slip. “And thinking you’re infallible is also dangerous.”
“I don’t think I’m infallible,” I said, never taking my eyes off him as we circled each other on the mat. The baby vamps forgotten, Valor and her highlander forgotten, it was just me and him and everything in my body narrowed to the predatory way he challenged me. “I just know when I’m not matched.”
Benedict tipped his chin upward. “And now? Do you think you can so easily take me down?”
I smirked, my blood heating for entirely different reasons. “Oh, I know I can. You see, your power can’t incapacitate me like the Hunters’ powers did. You can tell when I’m lying, and I’m not downplaying how advantageous that power is, but here?” I asked, flicking my fingers between us, my powerful energy thrumming there. “You’re outmatched, Assassin.”