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Chapter 3
Piper
Sweat dripped down my heated skin, drenching the neck of my sports bra. I grunted and twisted to the side just before my trainer, Billy, could nail me in the stomach with his foot. Swinging my arm as I came out of the spin, I caught Billy on the back of the head, knocking him several feet forward.
“Damn, Piper.” Billy rubbed the back of his dark bald head, his bright white teeth laughing as he held back a wince. “You don’t pull any punches. Or kicks.”
I took up a new fighting stance and smirked, my hands up and ready. “I thought that was the point.”
Billy shook his head and held his hand up. “Hold on, supergirl. You might have unnatural human stamina, but some of us mere mortals need a break and water.”
“I don’t know what you mean. I have normal stamina.” I relaxed my stance while Billy walked to the nearby bench to grab his water bottle. “I’m just more motivated than you are.”
He grinned around the mouth of the bottle, his dark brown eyes crinkling at the edges. Swallowing and letting out a satisfied “ah,” Billy pushed the top of the bottle, closing it before tossing it into his gym bag. “Yeah, well, excuse me for not wanting to hit such a pretty face.”
I held back an eye roll. Billy might flirt, but he was harmless. Nothing like Jack.
“Besides,” Billy continued, taking his towel and wiping his brow before throwing it over his shoulder. “You’ve been training here with me for almost a year and you’ve already surpassed me. Tell me that’s not supernatural.”
I shrugged sheepishly. “I’m a fast learner. What can I say?”
So, I hadn’t exactly been sitting on my ass taking phone calls and filing case files for the last year. While I couldn’t exactly go running after the hunters on my own—I didn’t even know where they were—what I could do was make myself less of a liability. Being a human servant had some extra benefits. Faster reflexes, heightened senses, and now thanks to Billy, a background in mixed martial arts and weapons.
“You ready to go to the back?” Billy jerked his head toward the door at the back of his studio. The front was covered in blue and black mats where we trained with a few free weights lined around the edges.
“Yeah, but only if you’re not going to tease me anymore.” I gave him a pointed look as I followed him into the back room. Here, Billy had five stalls lined up, pointed toward a long room with different targets spread throughout the space. We had begun with normal targets, the kind with the silhouette of a person that they used at official shooting ranges. When Billy found out that my skills were far above the norm, we’d moved on to moving targets. Not that they were much more of a challenge for me now. Before I became a vampire servant, I couldn’t have been able to hit a target if it were five inches in front of me. In fact, I probably would have ended up shooting myself. Exploring my new abilities had been interesting for sure. Especially with my raging hormones needing an outlet.
I shifted before the booth, smiling to myself as I remembered all the creative ways Darren and I had relieved those hormonal fits of mine.
“So, what’s on the schedule for today?” I wiggled my fingers and cracked my neck, prepping for whatever Billy threw at me.
Billy went over to the cabinet where he kept his weapons and punched in a code. Reaching inside, he gave me no warning before spinning around and throwing something at me. I jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding it.
“What the fuck, Billy?” I glared at him and then at the dagger sticking out of the opposite wall. I marched over to the wall and pulled the dagger out, waving it in the air. “You could have killed me!”
With a knowing smile, Billy pointed at me. “But I didn’t.”
I frowned and dropped the dagger to my side. “That’s beside the point.”
“You can’t tell me that wasn’t supernatural of some kind. No one has that kind of reflexes without years of training.” Billy shook his head in disbelief. “I’m an ex-marine, believe me. Even some of the guys don’t have that kind of intuition. I don’t know why you even came to me in the first place.”
“I told you,” I repressed a frustrated growl, “I’m trying to be prepared for—”
“That ex-boyfriend of yours, right.” Billy’s tone sounded like he didn’t quite believe the lie I’d been telling him over the last few months. Turning back to the cabinet, he pulled out another few daggers and brought them over to me. “Since we have gone through all the gun exercises I have and you’ve aced them,” he gave me a pointed look which I avoided, fiddling with the handle of the dagger, “I figured you should learn some other techniques. You won’t always have a gun around to protect you. And you need to be able to fight with other weapons.”
“And you thought daggers,” I lifted up the dagger in my hand with a raised brow, “were the answer? Aren’t they are little…” I huffed. “When am I ever going to have a dagger lying around? A steak knife, yes, but a dagger?” I moved to cross my arms, but then remembered the dagger and dropped my arms again.
Billy moved into position in front of the targets and tossed three daggers in rapid succession. Turning back to me with a straight face, Billy pointed a dagger at me. “Because while I don’t quite believe all this ex-boyfriend stuff,” I opened my mouth to argue, but he stopped me, “it’s your business and I don’t want to pry. However, I do know that someone like you, someone who just eleven months ago came in here looking like she’d never thrown a punch in her life, is gearing up for something. Something big, and far be it from me to keep you from being fully prepared for whatever you are getting yourself into.” He held the handle of the dagger out to me. “So, you’re up.”
I pressed my lips into a grateful smile, taking the hilt. “Thanks. You don’t know how much I appreciate all this.”
“Just stay alive and that’s thanks enough.”
I took Billy’s place in front of the targets and threw the dagger. It hit the target just shy of the center. I twisted to Billy and cocked a brow. “I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”
Several hours and even more sweat later, I left Billy’s to head back home. I hated to lie to Billy, but I couldn’t very well tell him the truth. Not like he would believe me anyway. I hardly believed it. Though, all this prepping to fight the hunters didn’t do me any good if I couldn’t find them. They weren’t exactly listed anywhere. They only revealed themselves to vampires and other hunters. Which, while I wasn’t prepared to be the former, I hoped to convince them I was the latter. I just needed a starting point.
“Darren!” I tossed my keys and purse onto the side table and walked farther into the house. A delicious smell filled the air. I followed it to the kitchen where I found Darren at the island and a familiar, grey-haired head at the stove. “Gretchen! When did you get here?”
