Page 41 of A House of Fangs & Deceit

Hell. I was checking her out.

“You been practicing, pretty boy?” she asked Kieran with a familiarity that made me suspicious. My gaze pinged back and forth between them as jealousy spiked within me.

Before I could act on my completely irrational wave of jealousy, my feet were swept out from under me, and I crashed hard on my ass.

“Fuck!” I swore and glared up at Emil. “What the hell was that for?”

He smirked at me. “For being distracted in a training session.”

“We hadn’t even started yet,” I grumbled.

He held his hand out and I clasped it, letting him pull me to my feet.

“When you’re in the training ring, it’s always an active session,” he lectured, and I nodded. Despite his sneaky maneuver, his expression was kind.

“So, are we going to spar, or what exactly are we going to do?” I asked, resuming my position opposite Emil.

Alaric and Kieran regularly trained with the rangers, but I never really did. When I was younger, all my time was spent studying and preparing for life at House Laurent. The only combat skills I possessed were with range weapons, and that was something I practiced on my own because I found it relaxing.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Nyx pulling the same sweeper kick on Alaric, who had been distracted by something Kieran had said.

Unlike me, however, Alaric’s reaction time was on point, and he leapt over the kick and quickly took a couple of steps back to evaluate the threat.

Show-off. I bit back a scowl.

“We’re going to test your instincts,” Vail said quietly into my ear.

I’d like to say I handled his sudden appearance at my back well… but I did not. A shriek tore out of me, and I leapt several feet into the air.

When I landed, I whirled around to shove Vail away, but he was already gone. Kieran snickered at me while Alaric just shook his head disapprovingly.

“What?” I snapped. “He fucking snuck up on me like a—”

“Wraith,” Vail cut me off from where he now stood facing me several feet away. “Like a wraith or any number of othermonsters out there that are just as stealthy. You want to come with us, and for now you have Carmilla’s support in this.” I narrowed my eyes at his phrasing. Clearly, he was still hoping he could change her mind without me there to argue my case. “I know how all of my rangers will react in any situation, and I even know how Kieran and Alaric will react because they train regularly.”

“So, you thought sneaking up behind me and scaring the shit out of me was a good idea?” I asked incredulously, taking a step towards him.

“Yes.” He shrugged without a hint of remorse. “Now we know that you’re not at all aware of your surroundings and that you scare easily. That scream would have attracted all kinds of things at night.”

Kieran shot me a sly grin. “You are a bit of a screa—”

The pretty ranger slammed her elbow into his gut, and he dropped to the ground with a grunt of paint. "Not... nice... Adrienne," he gasped. The ranger—Adrienne, apparently—winked at me and sauntered away from Kieran.

Despite the flash of jealousy I felt earlier, I instantly liked her.

“We need to know how you’ll react when you’re frightened,” Vail continued as if nothing had happened. “How quickly you can get out of the way so that one of us can step in and keep you from being torn to shreds or dragged off into the night.”

I shifted uneasily at the predatory look in Vail’s eyes.

“If we’re attacked,” Emil said quietly, “you need to be able to get away and run. I’ll show you some basic evasive tactics once we evaluate what you’re best suited towards.”

“She’s best suited towards lounging around and being waited on.” Vail’s mouth twisted in disgust.

“I have muscles,” I scoffed. “Just because I’m not a trainedfighter doesn’t mean I can’t learn enough to get out of the way and run.”

“Muscles?” Vail crossed his arms and let his eyes roam over my body, his expression making it clear he wasn’t impressed by my soft build.

I mirrored his position and gave him the same flat stare he was giving me. “They’re sneaky muscles.”

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