“No, you hurt him,” I snapped, pissed off beyond reason.
“This is his next training exercise,” he said with a hint of a smile.
“He didn’t hurt me,” Ego growled, “but I’m going to hurt him.”
He flew across the room toward Lysandro, but the old vamp literally blurred to the other side of the room. How we’d gone from tracking the heartbeats of different animals and insects, to Lysandro setting up different targets for Ego to spot through the woods surrounding his place, to this, I had no idea.
Ego howled in outrage, rushing Lysandro again. He didn’t get close to tackling him, running head-first into the window with a resounding crack. The window itself splintered.
“Holy shit. Ego, stop,” I said, going around the bar to find a towel.
By the time I’d wet it, the two vampires were staring at each other from opposite ends of the room. Well, Ego was glaring, but Lysandro appeared mildly amused. While I loved him—he’d been my first real friend that I’d made in this town by myself, after all—the way he was treating my vamp…uh, not mine, but he was my charge in a way, right? If I was his anchor.
“I want you two to knock it off.”
Lysandro huffed. “He’s right. I just wanted to see your reaction to a sneak attack. We need to do this properly.”
“What does that mean?” I asked suspiciously.
Lysandro went out to the entryway, coming back in with a long black bag—which had to have been where he’d pulled the bat from—and a black briefcase. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him with anything that didn’t have a flair of color.
He put the stuff up on the bar counter. “Are you coming, Ego?”
Ego crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the window. “I don’t think I will. This is some bullshit.”
“No, it’s not. Your senses are coming along beautifully. There’s not much more we can do with them until you’re willing to step outside of this godforsaken castle. I don’t really want to work on strength exercises in here, either. You might bring the whole place down. So tonight we’ll work on pain tolerance.”
I flinched. “Maybe I should wait this one out in my room.”
Ego’s gaze widened, landing on me for the first time since he’d been struck with the wooden bat. “Can you stay down here? Please.” He licked his lips and glanced quickly at Lysandro’sstuff, probably scared of what other tricks they hid inside. “I’m a little…”
“Scared?” Lysandro asked, raising one perfectly arched eyebrow.
I threw my arms up. “Do you blame him? Normal people don’t walk around torturing each other.”
“But he’s not a normal person, is he?” He focused on Ego with an intensity that made me shift uncomfortably. “I can sense it, fledgling. You’re waking up to your nature, growing comfortable even. But this world doesn’t know about our kind, and those who do can be…less than kind. I need you prepared.”
“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this,” I said, mimicking Ego’s posture and crossing my arms over my chest.
“I don’t mean this unkindly, my friend, but it doesn’t matter what you think,” Lysandro said.
Ego crossed the room, standing in front of me protectively. “Don’t be rude to him.”
“I’m not trying to be. I just need him—both of you—to understand that this is necessary.”
Standing behind Ego, I saw the blood that had leaked onto his shoulder and matted his hair where he’d been hit. Tsking, I blotted at his head with the wet towel. “I’m sorry if this hurts,” I murmured.
Lysandro barked out a laugh. “He can’t even feel it. Can you, fledgling? Scotty, push the hair to the side. You won’t even find a scratch on him.”
Doubting him, I did as he said and paused. “He’s right.”
Ego huffed. “I felt my scalp knit back together.”
“No way.” I dropped the towel and spun him to face me. “Are you serious?” He nodded. “Gah, that’s so badass.”
Ego rolled his eyes, but his lips twitched as he fought a smile. He’d spent the last two days of us cohabitating trying to determine if all of my praise was sincere. And it was. Everythinghe did was so ridiculously cool now. I wasn’t sure if it was this whole me being his anchor business blinding me to reality or if it was just the truth.
The guy was a freaking vampire now. I mean, come on. That was too cool. But it wasn’t just that. Watching him set up and record for Dead Air had been epic, and I’d fallen in love with that musicbeforeI knew it was Ego.
