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Her eyes narrow slightly and defiance flickers in their silver depths. “Liar.”
I cock my head, watching her. “Try that again?”
“Have you already forgotten that I can hear your heartbeat just as you can hear mine?” Her lashes lower as she glances down. “And I don’t need vampire sight to see how hard you are.”
I can’t help but chuckle at that, because she’s not wrong. Interesting. We’ve leveled the playing field—this could be fun.
She steps back out of my grasp. “Let’s get this over with. I’m starving and I don’t even want to think about what that means now.”
“After last night, I figured you’d be ready to swap milk for blood in your Cheerios.”
She glares at me. “Oh, he makes jokes now. Super.”
Instead of responding, I advance without warning with the intention of slamming her onto the mats beneath us. Considering she can nearly match my strength now, I don’t have to hold back in training her.
She darts away at the last second, and I whip around to find her across the room, bent over with her hands on her knees. “Holy shit, my head is spinning,” she says breathlessly.
“You’re much faster now,” I offer mildly.
She straightens and shoots me a look. “You don’t say.”
I shrug. “You’ll get used to it. In comparison to the other things you’ve already tackled, it’ll be easy.”
Her brows lift. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Be my guest.” I move again, this time going past her to attack from behind, but she whirls around, throwing her fist out. It connects with my chest, knocking me back a step, and despite the surprising flare of discomfort it brings, I can’t help but be proud.
Calla grins triumphantly, and I use that split-second distraction to grab her shoulders and throw her down onto the mats, hovering above her. Her grin quickly turns into a scowl. “Fuck,” she mutters.
“Good effort,” I say, leaning down, “but don’t let yourself get distracted next time.”
She rolls her eyes and manages to flip us over so she’s above me. I make no effort to move because this position really doesn’t bother me. “Are you satisfied that I’ll be able to defend myself against a hunter?” she asks, tilting her head to the side as she stares down at me.
“What would satisfy me, Calla, is if you never had to be in that situation.”
She opens her mouth to respond, then pauses. “Well, that’s not the reality we live in, because I’m not going to sit back and watch the rest of you fight. Definitely not now. This is my battle as much as it’s any of yours.”
Because of me. The words attempt to claw their way free, but I lock my jaw, refusing to speak them. There’s a good chance the possibility of Calla becoming a vampire would have come up at some point regardless of my parents, but it happening so soon, that’s on me. It’s not the reason I wanted to be the one to do it—at least not completely—but it means I feel a strong responsibility for her.
“You’re being too quiet,” Calla says, shifting on either side of my legs, her knees pressing into my thighs.
My eyes narrow on her mouth. “And you’re talking too much.” I lean up and steal her lips, grabbing her hips and grinding her against my cock.
“Atlas,” she gasps into my mouth, her heart racing, and I kiss her harder, digging my fingers into her hips through her leggings. She pulls her lips from mine. “I… can feel you.”
I chuckle. “That’s the idea.”
She pulls back enough to look at me, shaking her head and pressing her hands flat against my chest. “Notthat. I mean, you. Your desire for me, your fear of what’s coming, your ridiculous need to take on everything alone because you don’t want to burden the people you care about.”
My muscles tense, and I stare at her in disbelief. I’ve heard of this happening before with the sire connections, but have never experienced it firsthand. But the more I let it sink in, I realize that I’m feeling everything from her as well. I’ve always been in tune with Calla, but this is on a deeper level. It’s exactly as she said. I can sense her desires and fears and needs.
“I’m going to need you to say something,” she says, panic slipping into her tone.
“We’re connected.”
“Yeah, no shit, but—Wait.” Her eyes widen. “You mean because you turned me? Is this some freaky sire thing?”
I offer a tight, unamused smile. “It would seem that way.”
