Darius charged, tackling both demons in one swoop, all three of them rolling around in the snow like puppies. Liam tried to take a step back to avoid the chaos, but he was too slow; someone’s hand—not sure whose—reached up and snagged his boot, dragging him down and into the brawl.
I was laughing my ass off, no idea who to even cheer for as the four of them pummeled one another with snow, Sparkle yelping as she ran circles around them. Seconds later, Emilio and Sunshine appeared, tails wagging, both of them jumping right into the fray.
“Boys!” I shouted, still trying to get my laughter under control. “We’re supposed to be working!”
“Oh, you’re going down, Desario!” Ronan shouted, beaming me in the chest with a well-aimed snowball.
“That was wholly unwise, hellspawn.” Keen to defend my questionable honor, Liam pounced on Ronan from behind, taking him down and shoving his face into the snow.
We spent the next hour chasing one another through the woods in an epic winter battle, making alliances and breaking them, pushing faces into the snow, shoving snow down shirts and pants and anywhere we could find an easy opening. By the end of it, all of us were laughing so hard I wasn’t sure we’d ever be able to talk again.
Poor Liam was shivering his human ass off, but the smile hadn’t left his face. Through chattering teeth, he finally said, “I’m fairly certain my vessel has never seen snow in his life, let alone gotten up close and personal with it.”
“I’d say the perpetually wind-tossed surfer hair and the pineapple tattoo on your hip are pretty solid indicators,” I teased.
“Dude… what?” Asher cracked up. “You have apineappletattoo? On yourhip? Did you lose a bet or something?”
“I’m not sure what gambling has to do with my vessel’s choice in body art,” Liam said, pulling down the waistband of his pants and boxers to reveal the tattoo in question. “Are pineapple tattoos offensive on the material plane?”
I tried not to stare, but couldn’t help it. It’d been a long time since I’d seen any part of Liam’s unclothed skin, and seeing the flash of well-defined abs transported me right back to our time on the beach in the Shadowrealm. To the moment of our first kiss, so passionate and intense, all those sparks…
“Gray, you okay?” Asher’s hand on my shoulder snapped me out of the memory, and I looked up to find Liam staring at me, his eyes twinkling with mischief. Something told me he and I had been thinking about the same thing.
“The snow has been an interesting experience,” Liam said, refusing to break our gaze, “but I prefer the beach.”
A smile twitched at his lips, and I returned it, feeling the heat rise inside me.
But the moment passed, and it wasn’t long before the guys were back in coach-mode once again.
Ronan grinned at me now, shaking his head like he still couldn’t believe any of this was actually happening.
I knew the feeling.
“She’s fucking fast, Beaumont,” Ronan said to Darius. “Faster than any vamp I’ve come across.”
“Don’t remind me,” Darius said, but he was smiling, too. “Gray, you’re a natural. Truly. And you’ve assimilated the change better than any newborn I’ve ever encountered—your magic seems to be neutralizing the worst of the side effects.”
“I feel great,” I told him. “Better than ever.”
“Yes, and I can’t tell you how relieved we are at that. But don’t let it go to your head just yet. Speed, strength, and fortitude are just a few aspects of your new form. You’ve got a lot more to learn if you want to be able to fully leverage all of your strengths and skills.”
I nodded, more eager than ever for the next lesson. “Hit me with your best shot, boys.”
Eight
GRAY
“Use every advantage you’ve got,” Darius shouted, his voice an echo from the dark woods behind me, one I couldn’t pin down no matter how hard I tried.
After running through numerous exercises testing my strength and agility, all of which I’d passed with flying colors, the guys decided it was time to test my instincts. They’d blindfolded me and led me deeper into the forest, none of them speaking as we marched for what felt like an hour.
If it wasn’t for the feel of Darius’s firm grip on my arm and the sound of Liam’s chattering teeth, I wouldn’t have known they were still with me.
Eventually, the trees thinned out, the snow thickening at our feet an inch at a time until I was pushing hard through hip-deep snowpack. The wind was chillier out here, too—compete with wet, heavy snow that splattered against my cheeks.
They’d brought me to the middle of what I could only guess was a wide clearing, leaving me with no warning of what was to come. All I had to go on was Darius’s final instruction:Don’t let anything touch you.
“I’m fresh out of advantages!” I called out now. “I can’t see, and everything smells like ice—my nose is useless.” Hearing was also a challenge; the wind was picking up again, howling through the treetops behind me, making them shiver and creak. My instincts were screaming at me to take off the blindfold, but I promised Darius I’d leave it on. That I’d see this through, no matter how frustrating.
