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This was good. I could work with that.
Springing to my feet, I spun to grab the first thing I saw—a spear. Caius grabbed me while my back was turned.
“Got you,” he breathed against my neck. Goosebumps scattered down my spine, making me all tingly.
“Did you?” I spun the spear, bringing it over the back of my head. Then using two hands I used it to bear down on the back of his neck, pushing it into my shoulder. Caius grunted.
I took a step back into him, then bent at the waist once more. My hips supported his weight as I used the spear to flip him over my shoulder in a slightly tweaked maneuver. This time he didn’t roll with grace or elegance.
Caius recovered quickly, but I was ready for him. Instead of turning my back and running, I stepped back and swung my spear like a baseball bat, or in my profession, a shovel.
The hard wood connected with his head.
Wood splintered. The handle went flying.
Too much.
I fell to my knees before him. “I am so sorry,” I said, reaching for his cheek where a slash marred his skin. Golden blood dripped from it.
I froze, hand raised toward him.
“It’s okay,” Caius said, rolling his neck. He plopped down into a sitting position and massaged the back of his neck while the cut on his cheek healed before my eyes.
Shifters healed fast, but that? I swallowed. No wonder he was unkillable. He healed like Wolverine.
“Your cheek,” I said, pausing when I wasn’t sure how to finish that statement. He lifted a hand to the thin trail of blood, all that was left of his wound.
Caius’s fingers smeared it together as he regarded it then me.
“You hit me.”
“I know.” I swallowed thickly. “And I am so sorry. I should have?—”
“Don’t apologize.”
My mouth fell open. “Why not?”
“You did perfect, Reagan. Flipping me with the spear? That was a great use of what you had and using it to help implement what we’ve already worked on. It shows you know the moves. You also handled it like a natural. Have you fought with one before?”
I scratched the back of my head. “Not exactly. My job was unconventional.” I paused for a moment, realizing this wasn’t a conversation I usually had with people. In fact, it might have been the first time I said it out loud. “My family are graverobbers and it was my job to dig. I’ve gotten in more fights than I can count, and I have a shovel as my first line of defense.”
While I didn’t expect it, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he judged us. People often did. I mean, we were graverobbers. Even I judged us sometimes for the jobs we took. But Caius didn’t do that. Instead he threw his head back and let out a deep, bellowing laugh.
“Are you serious?”
“As a saint,” I said, cracking a smile. “I’ve tangoed with plenty of ghouls. Half a dozen crazy vampires. More than a few souls, though Clara mostly dealt with those since they’re not hurt by anything on the living plane. But yeah, so when I grabbed the spear I just kinda treated it like I would a shovel.”
He shook his head. “Every time I think I have you figured out you surprise me again.”
“What can I say?” I crossed my legs and then put my elbows on my knees. “I’m a surprising kind of girl.”
“Did you choose graverobbing or was it something expected of you?”
I pushed a sweaty lock of hair out of my face. “Expected to some degree. My family is big. There’s a lot of kids and few adults. We all have to do our part to provide.”
Caius nodded thoughtfully. “That’s a lot of pressure to put on kids.”
I snorted. “No, not really. Being the guardian was a lot, but working?” I shook my head. “We were all fed, clothed, educated, and had a roof over our head. That’s just part of being in a family. You give back by helping out. Besides, it’s not like we worked for free. We got our cut from every job. We paid our bills and did what we wanted with the rest. I usually used my extras to buy really good paints from this one woman in the market.”
