Page 109 of Slayer

“Hey,” I panted, having just accidentally pushed Harper across the padded training room.

“Hey.” Asher held his rubber practice stake in a fisted grip.

Things had been kind of weird between us. I felt like he was avoiding me. Three months had passed since that day we hugged in the library and I’d shown him my mark, and since then, we’d barely seen each other outside classes.

I had half wondered if he and Daphne would get back together since that seemed to be their thing. But from what I saw, they looked to just be friends. They sat together sometimes at lunch, and sometimes she sat with her best friend, Jasmine. I never saw them be physical, like holding hands or anything, but I was starting to wonder if I had imagined the part where Asher said he wanted to kiss me. The first week at school here was a wild overstimulation, so I quite possibly could have. But every time I thought that, I would catch Asher looking at me from across the room in a way that made my heart ache. Even now, he was glancing at my lips. I didn’t understand him. Was he interested in me that way? I peered across the room at Daphne, who was chatting with Jasmine. Maybe it was her. Out of respect for a recent breakup, he didn’t want to pursue anything new?

“Begin,” Professor Kade said, and I was thrust back into the moment.

We were practicing takedowns, trying to get someone flat on the mat, so I reached out to sweep Asher’s legs, but he jumped over mine with ease.

“Come on, Tyson. You can do better than that,” he taunted.

“That nickname has died,” I growled, trying to forget that I’d actually bitten a vampire’s ear off.

Gross.

He frowned, lunging for me and grasping my upper arms as he took me down to the mat, the impact knocking the breath from my lungs.

Some whoops and hollers sounded around us.

“I think that Tyson thing was the coolest thing ever. You’re brutal,” he told me as he straddled me and had me pinned to the mat, his weight solid and warm, his knees bracketing my hips.

Brutal? Why did he make that sound like a good thing?

I felt a sharp tingle on my forearm where my runes were, heat blooming under my skin, and reached up to grab his waist, my fingers curling into fabric. With one hard heave, I threw him off me and down to the mat beside me. Scrambling to get up, adrenaline buzzing through my veins, I reached him just as he was trying to right himself and crawled on top of him, pinning him where he lay. Now my legs were straddling his waist, and I had his arms restrained above his head in record time, my grip firm, my balance locked.

The room exploded into cheers, and I grinned, my breath coming a little fast.

I looked down at him and was surprised to see desire in his gaze and something else threaded beneath it. Respect.

“Should I let you win? Or try my hardest?” he thought out loud, his voice lower now, roughened.

That got a smirk out of me as I tightened my hold, leaning in just enough to feel his breath on my skin. “Don’t ever let me win,” I growled.

The next second, I went flying. He bucked up with his pelvis as he yanked his arms out from my grasp, the sudden force sending me off balance. I rolled to the side and popped up onto my knees just as the rubber tip of his stake pressed against my chest, right where my heart would be. But my stake was also pressed against his chest, the space between us gone, tension humming tight as a wire.

He grinned, and so did I. Butterflies took flight in my stomach.

Professor Kade clapped. “Okay, Asher and Stella, you will be matched up for the rest of the year.”

Someone made a ohhhhh noise, and Asher backed away from me, glancing at Daphne.

I followed his gaze to see her wearing a soft, slightly sad smile.

Great.

From then on, every class that there was a physical partner matchup, Asher was always my partner. We were nearly matched in strength and speed, with him being only slightly stronger than me.

Celia became my idol. I saw her come back from night shift with a cut over her eye, dirt in her hair, blood on her stake. She was the ultimate hunter.

Christmas break flew by with a few overnights at Harper’s where her family spoiled me with gifts, and now that I had money, I reciprocated. It was the best Christmas I’d ever had, almost like I had a real family. But as usual, I couldn’t get the ice wall around my heart to completely thaw because I was afraid of being abandoned. I could admit that to myself.

After Christmas, I spent long days training and longer nights in the library. I wanted to soak up everything I could about this new life. Especially with the hunter unit trials coming up in March. The trials would place us into our hunting units, which would be who we hunted with for the rest of our careers. Assuming we all graduated and became licensed hunters. The pressure was on.

Each day I was paired with Asher was a grueling lesson in self-control. I’d never wanted to kiss a guy as badly as him. The attraction was off the charts, but whenever class was over, he just retreated back to his dorm instead of hanging out. I wrote him off as hard to read and forced myself to forget about him.

Now I was in a little corner of the Evernight Library that I’d secretly found with a table that faced a back wall of books and a two-seater bench. I was reading Runes and Their Deeper Meanings when someone plopped down beside me on the bench. I yelped a little. I’d been so engrossed in the page I didn’t notice until I saw Greyson Reed. Greyson was also a striker like Asher and had been paired up with me in sparring quite a few times. He was a nice guy.