Fire in the Darkness (8 page)

Leaping in front of Eli, I tried to block his attack on Torin. “Stop!”

Eli’s pupils shifted vertically, his anger consuming him. Instinctively I grabbed his hand. The skin was rough and I could feel the knife-like claws starting to burrow into my skin. I moved it over my heart. Both my blood and his pumped through it. Taking a couple deep breaths, I felt his body react to mine, his heartbeat slowing.

“Breathe, Eli.”

It only took a few seconds before he was back to himself. Dropping his hand I turned to face Torin, who was watching us intensely with a bewildered, hurt expression.

“Torin, I think you should go now.” My voice was raw after his duplicity.

“Em . . .”

“Do I believe you are going to turn me over to her? No. But how do I know she won’t command you to?” I demanded. “You are sleeping with the Queen. You no longer have a right to judge who I associate with. Eli might not be the best choice, but I’d rather stick with the enemy I know.”

“Ember, I . . .”

I turned, rapidly walking away, willing myself to wake up.

“EMBER!” Torin’s voice tore through me.

WAKE UP, WAKE UP, NOW, I screamed into my head.

My eyes popped open. Only a minute later the door banged open and Eli stormed inside
.
In three giant steps he had crossed the room, looming down on me.

I sat up, leaning back against the wall. “Seems a little early for breakfast in bed, but since you’re offering, I’ll take my eggs scrambled.”

“How about I scramble you,” he huffed. “Talk.”

I was about to say something smart-ass, but the way red flickered through his eyes, I decided against it. I did have some sense of self-preservation.

“Are you talking about Torin? Were you there, too?” As I said, I only have
some
self-preservation.

“How long has this thing between you and Torin been going on?” Fury dripped over each word as he continued on. “You and him, huh? Never saw that one coming I’ll admit. I think it’s funny you were getting all bent out of shape over me being a womanizer, when you were tramping around with both of us at once. Quite an act you got going on there. You probably could give me pointers.”

“Fuck you!” I jumped out of bed and got into his face. “How dare you. You know nothing about me or what was going on between Torin and me. You have no right to be pissed. What do you care anyway? Your feelings for me aren't real.”

Something dark swept over his face. He stepped back from me. “You’re right. I don’t care.” The pain came fast and swift, reflecting on my face before I could contain my pained reaction. “So, how long has Torin been coming into your dreams like that? How did he find you?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know how he found me. I never asked because until recently I thought he was another hallucination of mine. He first fully appeared to me right before I came to Silverwood.”

“I don’t know what his game plan is, but you have to block him from your mind. He is the Queen’s Knight.”

“Block him? I am not going to block him,” I declared. “Plus, I don’t have the skill to do that.”

“These are your dreams. You have the ability to regulate them.”

“Then can I block you out? How did you get in anyway?”

His eyes flickered away for a brief second, and then he shrugged. “Maybe your subconscious was thinking about me.”

“Then it would have had me kicking the crap out of you.”

Eli laughed. The laugh was full and deep. “You couldn’t kick my ass even if you didn’t have the iron around your wrist.”

“I can fight.”

His eyes grazed over my body, and I suddenly was too aware of my skimpy tank top and underwear. He moved closer to me. “Don’t think your little struggle with Sam back at Silverwood was fighting. She wasn’t even trying; she knew humans were watching her. You could never have defended yourself if she had truly wanted to kill you.”

I felt my hackles go up. “I threw her into your windshield.”

“Like you, she wasn’t expecting your skills. She will never misjudge you again. So don’t underestimate her or the rest of us. You are powerful, but we are deadly.”

I shivered at his words. Had I only won the fight with Sam a few weeks earlier because I had the element of surprise? The Demon in me was happy to fight, but what if it couldn’t defend me from what was out there, or worse, it decided to take the day off? “Okay, then teach me how to fight.”

Eli scoffed. “Seriously? You want me to teach you techniques you will use against me?”

“Already scared the student will out-fight and out-wit the master?”

“Oh, good one, little girl. Think baiting me will work?”

I stepped up to him, my hands on my hips. “Yes.”

Eli nodded and turned. “Find some pants and meet me in the garage.”

The garage had been turned into a gym with punching bags, a boxing ring, and weights.

“Okay, you want to learn how to fight.” Eli walked up to a heavy bag in the workout room. “So let’s teach you.” I stood there for a moment, looking from him to the bag. “Come on, Brycin, let’s see what you got.”

Shaking my head, I moved in closer. I didn’t get Eli. Sometimes he treated me like an object to be tossed away after use. Then other times, like this, he helped me protect myself—from the exact thing I needed to defend myself from—him.

“I don’t know how to help you with your powers. But kicking someone’s ass the old fashion way . . . now that is something I can do. It comes in handy most of the time.” He smiled the arrogant, bad-boy smile, which made me melt inside. “Punch it.”

I swung my arm back and gave the bag a fisted hit. The bag barely moved.

“Pathetic,” he sneered and grabbed my hand in his. “Lesson one: you need to keep your thumb on the outside of your fist.” He curled my fingers, wrapping my thumb over them. “Lesson two: most movies do it wrong and show people punching with their arm straight. This will only be more painful to your hand than the target; you aim to punch with the first two knuckles.” Eli tilted my wrist down showing how to put my knuckles in front of my hand and punched it lightly against his hand. “Keep your arm angled, but your wrists straight as you punch. Try it again.” This time when I swung, the bag flew out of Eli’s grip. “Good.” He looked slightly impressed. “Again.” I punched at the bag several more times.

“This is also about protecting yourself, not just learning the skills of a fight club. You want to incapacitate your attacker as quickly and efficiently as possible, so you can get the hell out. Again, movies always show people punching each other in the face, which is actually the worst place to aim. Most likely you will miss or hurt your hand. It's also difficult, and extremely lucky, to knock someone out cold in one hit.” His fingers wrapped around my balled
-
up hand. Damn! Simply act of his skin on mine made my pulse race. “Aim for their throat or the side of their neck where their carotid artery is.” As he spoke, he touched my fist to the spots on his neck he mentioned. “This will cause them to back off immediately. It affects their breathing and will cause them to panic. Good time to run. But, if you can’t punch there, then go for their sternum or the kidneys. Of course, if you are fighting a male, the knee to the groin is going to put them down every time.”

I absorbed every word he said as we moved through different types of punches.
He had me using both my right and left hands and practicing defensive moves until sweat poured down my face.

“Okay, let’s move to the mat and you can try some shots on me. I’ll come at you like an attacker,” Eli said.
He pulled his sweatshirt over his head and his tan, ripped chest was beyond distracting. I tried not to respond to that or how low his jeans clung to his hips.

Nope wasn’t paying attention to it at all . . . nope, not one bit.

He seemed to know where my mind and eyes were because he responded, “I sleep naked. You’re lucky I could find what I did.”

Yeah, I didn’t really consider him finding clothes “lucky” for me. I turned my eyes away, scolding myself, as I followed him to the mats. I needed to get my hormones in check. Being attracted to a guy who only pretended to like you so he could use you as a trading card to the Unseelie King was not exactly healthy.

“All right, nothing but punches—no actual knee to the groin.”

I let my eyes widen with a fake innocence. “Me? Would I do something like that?”

“Yeah, you. You’ve probably been dreaming about hitting me there since the day we met.”

“Y
our
groin is not what I dream about at night.” I smirked. Yeah sometimes I didn’t play nice either, now knowing my dreams and meetings with Torin bothered him.

It worked like a charm. His eyes narrowed and he came at me in a blink of an eye with speed no human possessed. I reacted before I could think. Ducking and turning to the side, I slipped out of his reach. Whirling around his body, I took the opportunity to strike, targeting his kidneys. My fist plunged into his side.
Bulls-eye.
We turned to face each other. His eyebrows were hiked high on his forehead, his eyes wide.

“Holy shit! How did I do that?” Astonishment rang from my throat.

“Have you ever moved so fast before?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Nothing like that.”

Something fluttered over Eli’s expression. I looked down at the metal wrapped around my wrist, keeping my
Fay
powers at bay. If they were locked up tight, how did I do that?

“Again,” Eli’s commanded. His face returned back to his usual stony expression.

Bring it.
I smiled, w
anting to crack that stone.

Be careful what you ask for.

Eli was a predator. I could feel him studying me, measuring which way I would go, calculating his moves. My brain was doing the same, trying to counter his. The blood in my veins pumped faster. My head became light, my body more aware of his every nuance. He launched himself at me. I darted back and turned to the side, his hands grazing a few strands of my ponytail. I sprung up, silently landing on a table next to the mat getting out of his reach. He quickly adjusted his direction. Faster than I thought possible, he had my leg in his grasp, trying to pull me off the table. Simultaneously, I jumped
and caused
both of us to tumble onto the mat. My back slammed down, his body falling on top of mine. Our breaths were ragged as we lay there. My tank top was thin enough I could feel every muscle in his torso.

“Impressive,” he said, his voice deep and gruff.

Tension filled the gap between us as he stared down at me. My breath became more labored as his eyes turned more and more primal. Sex screamed from them, primitive, wild, raw, and no doubt incredible. It terrified me, excited me, as heat encompassed my body. Yearning crippled the air trying to reach my lungs. His head leaned in closer, his lids lowered with heavy desire. Abruptly, he broke his gaze from mine as he turned away, rolled off of me.

No-o-o!
My body protested at the sudden absence. I couldn’t move, everything in me screamed for his body to lie on me again, for him to end this excruciating torture. We were already sweaty, stimulated, and mostly undressed. W
hy stop when we’re already halfway there?