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“I was wondering how far I’d get before you woke.” I could hear the smile in his deep voice as it vibrated against the skin of my neck, and I shivered.
He stopped, pulling me into a tight hug, and I burrowed into him, before realizing it was morning. “What time is it?”
He reached over, grabbing his phone from the nightstand. The sun had already risen outside, and the birds were singing their morning song. “It’s eight. We should get up,” he groaned, tossing his phone onto the bed behind him.
I leaned over him. “We’re training today, right?”
His eyes lifted to me. “Only if you feel like you’re at a hundred percent. You promised you wouldn’t push yourself.”
“I promise, I’m fine, Damien.” I climbed out of the bed. “I made a lot of progress in our first session. I don’t want to fall behind.”
He pushed himself up onto his elbow, laying on his side as his eyes followed me into the closet. I changed into a pair of sweatpants Damien had provided for me before searching for a shirt.
Damien had made sure I had all the clothes I could need, whether it be casual attire, clothes for sleeping, training, even some delicate things for his own amusement—ones that had me blushing. I didn’t want to think about how much it cost him to provide these clothes for me. It couldn’t have been cheap, and the brands were the nicest I’d ever owned.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him step into the doorway of the closet. His loose sweats hanging around his hips, chest bare. He watched as I pulled a tank top down over myself, his hand sliding into his pocket as he leaned against the doorframe. A strange urge to take him back to bed flared in me at the sight of him, and I had to shake it off.
We’ve got more important things to focus on. Get your head out of the gutter.
“There’s something I wanted to give you.” His words snapped me back to reality. He pulled out a black dagger from behind his back, pulling it from a black leather sheath. It almost resembled the sword that had been passed down from Moira to Elena to Lucia. The same inscriptions and crescent moon were etched with gold and silver into the metal.
“I had it made for you. Keep it handy in case you ever need it for any reason. I want you to start getting used to it.” He pointed to the inscriptions. “These runes are specially placed by Selene herself. It will help against the darklings. The magics burn them with a simple touch.”
I smiled as he handed it to me, feeling the etched metal under my fingertips. I reached up to kiss his cheek. “It’s beautiful! Thank you so much,mea sol.”
“Anything for you,mea luna. There’s a harness for it on the dresser. You’re going to learn how to use that today. We’re going to start working on self-defense.”
“We’re still practicing using Nous, right?”
Damien nodded. “Yes, but it will be different this time. You won’t just be reading my thoughts, you’ll be reading my thoughts as I’m attacking you.”
I swallowed; that would be a lot to focus on. “I look forward to it, then.” I paused, remembering his promise to me last night. “Don’t think I forgot about your promise. After we are done training, I want you to take care of yourself.”
“I didn’t forget,mea luna.” His hands held my waist as he pressed his lips to my forehead. “Just not looking forward to it.”
* * *
Sweat rolled down my face, dripping to the floor as I panted. I’d focused on pacing myself, fearful that I might push myself too far and risk an attack. My heart pounded, but I’d taken precautions and knew when I needed to take a break. So far, it had worked, and I was thankful for it.
Damien had started our session with stretches and warmups, followed by a short jog to start building stamina. I hadn’t jogged since I’d suffered the heart attack a few months ago. Thankfully, I hadn’t become so out of shape that I couldn’t handle it, but I was rusty enough that it left me winded. Thankfully, Damien treated it as if I had never jogged in my life.
The last hour had been spent going through self-defense tactics. He’d shown me how to safely use a dagger. Not before I’d dropped it a few times, of course.
While I’d never held a dagger or used one like this, it felt oddly familiar in my hands, which I attributed to the experiences of my past lives. It was making the lessons a lot easier, and a tiny bit of confidence blossomed in me.
The rubber mats cushioned my knees as I paced my breathing and focused on steadying my heart rate. “Was I good with these? You know, in my past lives?” I asked, motioning to the cushioned baton that replaced a real dagger.
A cocky grin formed on his face. “I was better, but there were times you put me on my ass.” The look in his eyes told me that he enjoyed it in a way that left me a little hotter inside than I already felt.
“Well, keep it up. I want to get to that level again.” I pushed myself to my feet as my breathing steadied, and I gripped the baton tightly, readying myself.
He approached me and slid his feet apart as he flipped his own baton in his hand. Watching him move like this brought me back to the vision of him and Elena training. The way he fought hadn’t changed. It was helping me learn faster, and in a strange way this was becoming more like a refresher course.
His movements were calculated as he took a step toward me, initiating an attack. I shifted my weight to the side, using my hand and his weight to divert his baton away from me. “Who’s the daughter of Matthias?”
It caught him off guard, and he stopped. “Who told you about that?”
“I saw it in a dream I had about Lucia,” I lied, not telling him I’d practiced on myself last night.
