Page 48 of Demon of Dreams

“Excellent.” Noah took a step back, his eyes flicking between me and Sean. “Well?”

“Wait, you want us to—I mean—while you’re—now?”

I stumbled over my tongue, feeling like an idiot. Worse, I knew that feeling would only intensify, once I had to practice hand-to-hand combat with a guy who’d threatened to murder me at lunch, in front of a man who’d seen me jerking off in a men’s room.

I looked across the mat at Sean, who seemed to take that as a sign that I was ready to go, because the next thing I knew, he was advancing, one hand raised, the other waist-level. There was a quick jab, and a wrench of my arm, and suddenly I was on my back, the wind knocked out of me. Sean’s body straddled mine, one knee on either side of my thighs, his face inches from my own.

His mouth parted, and his tongue flicked between his teeth like he was tasting the air, catching the scent of prey. I wasn’t thrilled about the way his pupils had dilated, or the way his eyes pinned me to the mat as strongly as his arms did.

Sean looked up at Noah. “Not much of a challenge, sir.”

“You’re lucky. If he were at all competent, you’d actually have to answer for your sloppy form,” Noah replied, his voice as expressionless as his face.

Sean’s gaze hardened, and as he lifted himself off of me, his smile turned to a scowl. He held out a hand, but when I took it, he jerked me to my feet like he was attempting to pull my arm out of its socket. Noah was still watching us, arms folded over his chest.

“Again,” he commanded.

I took three steps back, breathing deeply. Sean set his feet in the starting position. I looked up, and again, he began moving the second our eyes met.

I tried to remember the defensive stance Noah had demonstrated at the beginning of class, but it was no use. I’d barely shifted my weight before Sean was on me again. If anything, I went down faster this time.

Once again, Sean straddled me, our faces uncomfortably close. I could see a tiny scar at the corner of his mouth, and I was getting way too familiar with how pink his lips were.

Don’t think about his lips, I scolded myself.Don’t think aboutanythingon his body. But it was hard. Literally. Sean might be an asshole, butassholeappeared to be something I was attracted to. Or at least, part of me was.

I shifted, willing my rapidly stiffening cock to calm down, because if there could only be one situation in which it wasn’t helpful to get turned on, it was right now. Noah was still watching us, for Christ’s sake. I couldn’t imagine a more embarrassing situation.

“You call that a takedown?” Noah barked. “Look at your elbows. Look at your feet. Anyone with a modicum of ability could see how off-balance you are. Are youtryingto demonstrate all the ways to do this wrong?”

Sean’s scowl grew deeper.

“Again,” Noah said.

This time, Sean didn’t offer me a hand up. I was grateful for the break in physical contact. My saving grace was that whileassholeseemed to do it for me,kicked in the ribs by a horsedidn’t, and that was how I felt right now. My cock calmed down a little as I turned my attention to the various aches and pains in the rest of my body.

I stood slowly, brushing my hands off on my pants, and tried not to breathe too deeply and bother my ribs. I looked at Sean. This time I managed to get my arms raised before he advanced, though they were nowhere close to the position Noah had demonstrated, and they offered as much resistance as toothpicks. Within seconds, I was down again, Sean’s body pressed against mine.

“Were you listening at all when I was talking?” Noah snapped. “At this point, you’re no better than the new kid. Which is saying something, considering his atrocious performance. Again.”

Sean’s gaze got harder and harder, as did my falls to the ground. By the seventh go-round, I was trying to decide which part of me would give out first: my ribs, or my right arm, which was growing disturbingly numb from all the times it had been wrenched.

“Again,” Noah said, glaring at Sean. “If you can’t manage this, I don’t know how you think you’re going to earn the right to a sword. I wouldn’t trust you with a pair of safety scissors.”

“Fuck. You.” Sean jumped to his feet, his chest heaving. “This hand-to-hand bullshit is useless. Witches can just spellcast, and Hunters have our own abilities, plusbondedweaponry. When the time comes for a fight, we’re not going to be playing around with whatever off-brand karate this is.”

When, I noted. Notifthe time came for a fight, butwhen. He assumed it was a given.

“And you can’t imagine a single situation in which a witch might be unable to cast? In which a Hunter could be incapacitated in battle, losing their precious weapon?” Noah’s voice was cold and measured. “It’s the fights you don’t prepare for that you lose. The enemy you’re sure you can take who beats you. Complacency breeds weakness, and weakness is death.”

Neither of them seemed to remember I existed, down there on the mat. I rolled onto my side, then wobbled to my feet. I felt light-headed. Mostly from the punishment my body had taken, but it didn’t help that Noah was staring at Sean like he wanted to rip him in half—and he’d never looked hotter.

God, I didn’t want to be turned on by this. Not by men, not by angry men, not by men who so clearly thought I was worthless. I needed to get out of here. Surely by now I’d been thrown to the ground enough that I’d earned the right to go to the bathroom.

“Could I, um—” I began, but Noah cut me off.

“Now do it again.”

Sean’s eyes flashed, full of rage, but he didn’t talk back. Instead, he transferred that glare to me as he squared up. He looked like he wanted to kill me—or possibly Noah, and I was just the acceptable replacement target. It hardly mattered. I knew what I was in for either way.

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