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She shook out her hand. “It was like punching a granite wall.”
“Yes.”
She huffed. “Trying for the warm and fuzzy teacher of the year award?”
“No.”
She crouched down. “You’re no Yoda.”
“Was he someone of significance?”
“Now those are fighting words.” She attacked him, but the thrill of excitement was undeniable. She was having fun. In the midst of dark chaos, her body moved like she was born to be a monster. Deadly, feminine destruction, all rolled up on one powerful compact package.
He evaded her attack, but the glint in his eyes was unmistakable. Raine was having as much fun as she was. He even slowed his attack to match her movements, giving her time to assess his actions.
They ducked and weaved around one another. There was no fatigue, and the longer she fought, the more alert she became. She sensed his soul, the source of his power. His essence was intoxicating and addictive. Before she could stop it, her shadow reached for his.
Gray mist rose from their bodies, wrapping around one another like black spiderwebs entwining their prey.
Raine growled before he pushed her away. “Stop.”
Dannika broke from his embrace as if he had slapped her.
“I guess I should have asked if you preferred hotdogs over tacos,” she snapped.
“You have no concept of what you are doing.”
She put her hand on her hip. “You afraid of a girl?”
“You misunderstand. We will have sex until neither one of us can move, but be warned there is no future in it.”
She laughed. “You’re afraid you might fall in love.”
His eyes flickered. “No, Dannika. Shadows are cursed. We have sex. We reproduce. But we don’t mate.”
CHAPTER11
Dannika dropped her fists when her heartbeat accelerated. The cool wind raced over her skin like ice as she resumed her human form. “Mate? You reproduce by transition. You’re like werewolves, except real.”
“No, Dannika.” He solidified to his human form. “What you’re describing is a disease. There is no cure for what we are.”
“Isn’t transition your only form of reproduction?”
“Transition is an option for very few. Most fledglings die. The majority of our species is born.”
Her stomach knotted. “You said I was the first woman to survive.”
“Yes. We reproduce with human women.”
Dannika glanced around the field. A few men sparred in the distance. “Then where are they?”
Raine flinched. “I’m told that at a certain stage in our development, we feel an urge to reproduce. When that happens, we leave the clan and enter the human world. We get a job, we interact, looking for a suitable breeder.”
Dannika’s eyes widened. “Did you say, breeder? Do you pay these women or something, like surrogates?”
Raine cleared his throat. “That option has been brought up in recent years. It wasn’t available in the past, but we have not found a suitable surrogate. Our shadow selves require a bond with the mother of our child.”
“How do you get a woman to have your baby and let you walk away with it after it’s born?”
