His face hardened as anger took hold. “You are right, Amelia, but someone else will be, and you will only fight as well as you train.”
“He has a good point,” Monique said.
I glared at her. “Haven’t you got something better to do, Monique?”
She picked at a long, red-painted nail and then deliberately held it up so the claw glinted in the sunlight. “No, actually.”
I rolled my eyes. “Giving me the finger, so mature.”
“You fight her at human speed, Karson,” Kenneth called out, a grin splitting his face. “She needs to learn to fight a vampire at vampire speed.”
“She would be dead, Kenneth.”
“Maybe.” He leapt from the cliff, landing like a cat onto the grass. “Or maybe not. May I?” He straightened and held out his palm.
Karson looked reluctant for a moment, but he handed the sword over.
My stomach twisted. What if he accidentally sliced my body? Then I reassured myself that thought was silly; there was no way Karson would pass him a blade if he thought I was in any danger.
Kenneth towered above me, a wall of sleek, bulging muscle.
Monique sat forward, a sudden glee in her eyes.
My stomach became a tornado. I didn’t know Kenneth, but I trusted Karson. Still, my heart rate increased. He’d hear it. Fuck it.
“You don’t have the speed of a vampire, even using your powers. You need to learn to feel a vampire coming.”
I swallowed down a dry throat. “Okaayy,” I said hesitantly.
“The best way to do that is to blindfold you.”
My breath snagged in my lungs. Darkness …
Kenneth studied my face. “I won’t hurt you, I promise,” he said, oddly gently. He placed the sword on the ground. “I won’t carry the blade, if that helps.”
I couldn’t tell him it wasn’t the blade that scared me, because it was. Who’d want a blade coming at their body? But I was terrified by not being able to see. “Can I use a branch or something? What if I hurt you?”
“You won’t, but if it makes you feel better.” He nodded to Karson, who snapped a one-inch-thick branch off the tree, peeled off the thin twigs and green leaves, then handed it to me.
Kenneth pulled a black cloth from his pocket.
“What, you just carry blindfolds around with you? Just in case you need to blind a random witch?”
He smiled, his white teeth flashing as he held it out. “I save it for the bedroom usually.”
Despite the fear, I laughed. “That’s twisted.”
“No, I don’t really. Well, maybe occasionally. Why would I deny a woman the pleasure of seeing these beautiful muscles.” He flexed the muscles in his arms and winked.
When I still didn’t reach for the cloth, he pushed it closer, urging me to take it.
“You vampires are all the same.” I gripped the cloth hesitantly.
“It’s clean,” he said.
It’s just like closing your eyes, Amelia, you are safe, a voice whispered in my head. It sounded like Karson’s. It couldn’t be though. It was my own trying to convince me,I’m safe, I’m safe.
I closed my eyes, wrapped it around my head, and tied the knot. My world went black. For a second, it was silent. There was nothing, no heartbeat, no breathing, no birds, no shift of leaves in the breeze. Then panic struck, roaring through me like astorm, like drenching rain, pounding in my eardrums. The world tilted beneath my feet.
