He looked at Mike, too. “I know. But he’s too close to you, Ara. I believe this is best—and I’ve got ten years of Special Forces training to back my claim.”
“Special Forces, huh?” I elbowed him softly.
“Come on.” He winked, leading me away with a gentle hand to my shoulder. “Let’s finish up with training for today, then we’ll go to the library and put in a few more hours’ research on the Mark.”
“M’kay,” I said glumly. “If I’m not crippled with a headache after.”
“Something tells me you’ll be fine.”
I frowned up at his grin. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing.”
“Ara?” Mike cut in, jogging over. “You’re up first today. We’re gonna do weapons training after dinner instead. I need to make a report on your blue light for David.”
“Why?”
“He asked about it—said his reasons were on a “need to know” basis.”
“And you don’t need to know?” I asked, winking at him.
“Guess not.” He backed away. “I think he’s just worried. He said something happened on the beach the other day.” He eyed Falcon suspiciously, then asked me, “Anything you wanna share?”
“Um.” My gaze flicked to Falcon, whose face pretty much said ‘Don’t you dare’. “I’ll check with David first.”
“Fine with me. So—” Mike clapped his hands loudly and looked around the room. “Volunteers?”
Everyone in the room went dead quiet, half of them casting their gaze to the floor—fifty strapping young lads, shirtless and manly, all cowering before a girl half their size.
“Fine.” Mike rolled his sleeves up. “I’ll do it.”
“Mike?” I started. “You—”
He leaned in and cupped my arm. “I’m pretty sure I deserve it, Ara.”
At first I was confused, until I realised he meant that he deserved the pain for the slap he’d given me. “Fine.” I grinned, rubbing my hands together. “Pay back time.”
He laughed. “Then we’re even, right?”
“Not even close.” I bared my teeth at him. “But I might consider forgiveness if you make me some of your famous brownies later.”
He shook his head, smiling, and moved to the centre of the room. “Clear the space, everyone.”
Everyone moved back five paces, giving Mike and I plenty of battleground.
“Where would you like me to fire, Mikey?” I asked, resting my hands on my knees. “Cause, personally, I’d like to shoot you in the ass.”
“Ha! Good luck.” He turned and offered me a small glimpse of his butt. “This knight is way too quick for—Ah!” He jolted forward and hit the deck, a rush of blue filling the space around him, as if a glow-worm just farted, retreating back into my fingertips after.
The entire room of knights, both vampire and Lilithian, broke into burly laugher, and from the corner of my eye, I saw greenback exchange hands.
“Where shall I shoot you next?”
Mike stumbled to his feet, rubbing his bottom. “Why not aim for the heart?” He faced me again. “You did a pretty good job of banging it up last time, maybe you can finish it off.”
The crowd roared, half with laughter, the other half with a very long “Ooooh.”
“Heart sounds great,” I said, and flicked a bolt of energy toward him, but he ducked to one side and swept under it, charging forward fast before I even realised I hadn’t hit him. I coughed out as I went down on my back, the ground rattling my spine like an iron hammer on a twig. I was sure I even heard something crack.
“You okay?” Mike leaned back a bit.
“Sure,” I said in a squeezed voice, using my pain to distract him, then hooked my ankle up and around his chest, forcing him onto the ground as I rose up to pin him flat with both knees. “I’m fine. How are you?”
He whacked the ground with a flat palm three times, and I eased my kneecap back off his throat.
“Sorry, too much?”
“No way.” He shoved me back on my butt and skittered away. “Silly girl. You had me then, were it not for your compassion.”
I got to my feet and stood ready to take him on, but he waved in three more knights from the sidelines, and the odds suddenly changed in their favour. But I had a new weapon up my sleeve, something none of them could fight if I could just figure out how to use it.
“To your right, Majesty,” a man called, coming in from my left.
I saw him shift before I heard his voice, though, so his attempt to distract me was futile. My fist drove a new path for blood through two bones in his ribs, burning the hole closed with a bolt of blue energy after. He fell to the floor just as knight number two dove into the fray and cupped the side of my face from behind, twisting my neck to the highest point of resistance. I dropped my hand down by my hip and shot him in the balls, logging his screams of horror in my feel-bad-about-it-later thoughts. It wasn’t over yet. We had fifty more knights in here that’d willingly take me down.
But it was Mike’s hands that wrapped my waist. “Going for a man’s family jewels, Ara. That’s low. Even for you,” he whispered in my ear, then flipped me upside down, dropping me to the floor with one knee on my chest, the other pinning my head by the ponytail. “Yield?”
“Never.” I struggled against him for a second, then pushed a hand into his chest and shot him right through the heart. I smelled the flesh burn, saw it melt as the shock registered in his eyes a second before he flew back. And two knights grabbed me as Mike hit the ground, dragging me to my feet.
I yanked my arm from one grip and elbowed the guy in the ribs, swinging my wrist up to his jaw with another jolt of energy. He went down hard, but the knight on my right wasn’t giving in, and the pain in my head slowly grew, strengthening for each shot.
This guy was twice my size in both height and weight, and he was a vampire. I had nothing on him physically. But . . . mentally.
I focused hard on his arm, feeling my face and hands go hotter, the pain in my head rippling throughout my jaw and neck. My blue light seemed useless against him—the man wearing it like a Christmas tree parades its candles, and the telekinesis wasn’t working either. I couldn't find that place in me that’d awakened when I broke Jase’s arm. Maybe it was there, maybe it was afraid to come out again because of how devastated I felt after I hurt Jase. But if the power didn’t surface, I’d lose this battle to a vampire and, in turn, probably lose a lot of respect among the Core.