Page 74 of Incubus
An empty room with a treadmill and a punching bag was pretty much all there was to it, too. Sasha was the only person in the room, pummeling the life out of the no doubt usually neglected punching bag.
“Dude, you break it, you buy it,” Nathan said with a half-grin as he entered. “Did the bag insult you or something, ‘cause I can totally help you take it down.”
Sasha stopped mid-punch at Nathan’s arrival. He tried to smile back at Nathan, but the expression fell flat. “Hey,” he said. “Didn’t you just shower?”
Nathan rolled his eyes. Lacing his fingers together and raising his arms above his head to stretch, he moved further into the room, noticing several full-length mirrors along the walls. “Felt like stretching,” he said. “Some mid-morning calisthenics. You mind?”
“Of course not.” Sasha grabbed the punching bag to stop it from swinging. “I was just…”
“Releasing a little excess energy?”
Sasha laughed but that sounded flat too. “Yeah.”
“No wonder. That chick from the bar last night was pretty hot, huh?” Nathan looked steadily back at Sasha and, as their eyes met, he saw a familiar flash of grief. “Why not release a little of that energy on me? Unless you prefer opponents that don’t hit back. I don’t think so, though. I'm thinking...you’d really like to take a shot at me about now. Am I right?”
The intensity on Sasha’s face broke somewhat, but the grief remained. “I don’t want to fight you, Nathan.”
“I didn’t say fight, just a good spar,” Nathan said. “Come on. What’s a little sparring between friends?”
“Nathan—”
“Comeon. Humor me.” Nathan grinned, remembering that Sasha had used that exact phrase on him in an alleyway in Minnesota.
Kicking off his shoes, Nathan motioned Sasha closer, already positioning himself into a fighting stance. He hadn’t sparred with anyone since a few weeks before Jim was taken. Of course, that was before Jim had super strength. Sasha was supernaturally strong by birth. Nathan knew he would have to fight as hard as ever to keep up with an incubus.
At first Sasha didn’t so much as blink Nathan’s direction. He still had the punching bag in his arms. He was barefoot, just wearing a pair of sweatpants he had slept in. That would give him an advantage since Nathan was in jeans.
Then Sasha pushed the bag away and started toward Nathan with a blank expression. The hollowness of it made Nathan shiver, and not in the way Sasha usually made him shiver.
“I can hold back,” Sasha said, getting into a fighting stance as well, “but not much.”
“Don’t hold back at all,” Nathan said.
“I could kill you.”
“I doubt it.”
“I could break an arm or a few ribs.”
“Try me.”
“Nathan—”
“Hit me. I’ve already gotten a hit off you, remember?”
Sasha’s eyes flashed as if they wanted to turn red. He nodded.
Nathan had no idea what he was thinking when they started to circle each other. There wasn’t enough room to fight properly,but the adrenaline rush that had started to surge through his limbs kept him from calling a stop.
Nathan threw the first punch, but Sasha dodged effortlessly to the side and brought a ready uppercut into Nathan’s ribs. That almost winded Nathan right then, but he wasn’t about to let things end so quickly. Nathan was hunched slightly from the well-placed hit and used that to his advantage, bringing a knee up into Sasha’s stomach. Then, swinging with the same punch he had tried before, this time Nathan connected, clean across Sasha’s jaw.
Sasha recovered quickly, however, and rounded on Nathan with a swift kick to his shins that brought Nathan down hard on his knees. Nathan only just managed to roll away, scrambling across the floor to get back to his feet. As Sasha rushed after him, Nathan used the incubus’ own strength against him, grabbing Sasha’s arm and swinging him around to slam him back into the nearest wall. Nathan immediately reared back for another hit.
The swiftness with which Sasha had hold of Nathan’s wrist happened faster than his eyes could perceive. Nathan’s fist loosened under the tight squeeze of Sasha’s grip, and he cringed. He tried to pull his hand away but Sasha was too strong. The incubus pulled on his wrist, swinging Nathan around into a hold that had Nathan’s back pressed into Sasha’s chest. The sudden closeness made Nathan shudder.
Ramming his hips backwards, Nathan slammed Sasha into the wall, lifting up with his legs as he bent forward. It took all of his strength but he managed to flip Sasha over his shoulder, even if it also brought Nathan down to his knees.
“Had enough?” Nathan huffed, pulling his feet up into a crouch.
