He rolled his shoulders back. For the first time, I noted his dress was more casual: a loose white top, left open in vampire style to expose his neck. I forced myself not to focus on that neck too much. Like Thea, he wore tight but flexible leather trousers that hugged his thighs. “Your vampire hearing works fine. It’s just as well since you need to be close to me while the transition settles.”
I opened my mouth to argue, then shut it. He’d dressed for the occasion. There would be no winning this argument.
“And I won’t have you defenseless,” he added. Despite the nonchalant tone, there was something almost tender in his expression.
I snorted. As if that mattered now. “Don’t you have other, more kingly duties to do than focus on me?”
He drew a step closer, focused on me with singular attention. “For this, I’ll make time.”
Chapter Nine
Samara
Raphael tossed me asheathed steel sword as soon as we entered the training arena. Thea moved to her usual position on the bench, as if this was another of Demos’s lessons. But Raphael was obviously a very different type of teacher.
“Show me what you can do,” he ordered.
I frowned, unsheathing the blade. It weighed as much as the practice swords I’d trained with, but the silver sheen of the metal made it feel heavier somehow. “What about drills?”
He picked up another scabbard and pulled out an identical blade. “That’s more Iademos’s style. This is mine. Take a swing.”
Still, I hesitated. “I could hurt you with this.”
The vampire just smirked. “I’d certainly like you to try. But that blade is unlikely to cause any real damage, even in the most experienced hands. It’s steel, not cursed copper or a bronze alloy. You’re a vampire now. We can’t get infected from a wound. We’re unlikely to bleed out. Our skin is tougher, bones harder. Immortality isn’t so easily bested.”
We.Our.
“What about decapitation?” A blade was a blade, cursed copper or not.
Raphael smirked with approval. “That would do it. In general, with a vampire, it’s best to go for the head.”
“Then giving me this sword is dangerous,” I pressed.
“All the best things are.” His grin was a little feral, and I wished what it stirred inside me was only fear. “Come on, viper. Show me what you’ve got.”
Fine. His funeral. I tightened my grip and charged.
Steel met steel with a resounding clang.
I was fast now, so much faster. My mind needed to adjust to the speed of battle. I swung again.
Raphael blocked, but he didn’t counter.
Swing.
Block.
Swing.
Block.
We went over and over, a dance of steel. The call of battle came quickly now, spurred on by my anger that had barely stopped simmering.Make him pay. The anger was a vicious flame, fanned by every lazy counter from the vampire.
He didn’t see me as a threat. Didn’t fear me.
He should. They all should.
I moved faster, my strikes coming at all angles. I hit hard. There was no careful calculus, just raw anger. I’d felt it before when I’d seen Demos and Thea sparring. But now it was tenfold, roaring at me to attack, attack, attack.
