Gabriel’s eyes slid to me before focusing back on my friend. “You will find another partner if you don’t want to be made into my thrall, mage,” he hissed.
“Hey, asshole,” I yelled at him. “I said leave her the fuck alone.”
Kiri turned toward me slowly, her hands trembling at her side. “No, it’s okay, Bechora. I’ll… I’ll just swap partners with him.”
I turned my head to search for the professor and found him staring at our trio with his arms crossed, watching. “Aren’t you going to do something about this?” I demanded.
Rumlock raised a brow and shrugged one shoulder, and I growled to myself. Our professor seemed to think this was a situation for us to sort out on our own.
“Run along, little mage,” Gabriel barked.
My attention snapped back to the vampire, and I opened my mouth to speak, but Kiri cut me off. “It’s fine, I promise. Just let it go and spar with him.”
I pursed my lips and studied her face as I considered what to do. “Fine,” I nodded after a beat. “Why don’t you join my friends and me for dinner since we aren’t going to get to go over all the fun uses for demon anatomy in bed?”
Gabriel stiffened at my words, and I smirked at him. Kiri nodded with a smile before taking off in the direction of the vampire’s abandoned sparring partner.
Gabriel stepped into her place on the mat, planting his feet and letting his gaze travel over my body. “It’s no wonder you’re not improving if you spend your time in class gossiping,” he snapped. “A shame really— all that lean muscle and you don’t know how to put it to use defending yourself.”
I plastered a saccharine smile on my face and waved a hand down the length of my body. “My muscles were used for climbing a pole in a strip club, and let me tell you, they were effective.”
Gabriel went still at my words, his face twisting into a snarl as they sank in. An enraged sound left his mouth, and I was on my back beneath him with his fangs at my throat before I could even consider summoning a shield. His snarl vibrated through my throat; his fangs close enough to break skin if I so much as breathed the wrong way. Rage ripped through me, and I slammed both palms against his chest, summoning flames to my hands. Heat flared between us, the desired effect dampened by the magic that kept us from killing each other on the combat pitch. The flames were still hot enough to make him rear back, his lips curling into something between fury and amusement as burnt impressions of my handprints sank into the chest of his training leathers.
“Better,” he muttered, on his feet and circling me before I could blink. “At least you’re not lying down waiting to die this time.”
“Fuck you, Gabriel,” I snarled.
“Only in your dreams,” he replied with an arrogant smile before winking at me.
My fury sputtered out as I realized he was referencing the dreams that haunted me nightly. The last time the asshole had mentioned them, he’d all but blamed them on me. I couldn’t wrap my head around why he was bringing them up again. The answer came nearly as soon as the thought formed. My feet flew out from under me as Gabriel’s leg swept them away, and I landed on my back, the air rushing out of me in an oof.
“It’s like you want to get hurt,” he snapped. “Found your magic and you’re still fucking worthless in a fight.” My chest still ached from having the wind knocked out of me when Gabriel barked. “Get up. You’re embarrassing yourself.”
I wheezed out a breath and pushed to my feet, glaring at the arrogant vampire. “I’d say you could be less of a dick about it, but you’re… well, you.”
Gabriel ignored me, his eyes glinting as he circled, weight balanced perfectly on the balls of his feet. “Square your stance before I drop you again.”
My anger flickered back to life, and I forced my body into the fighting stance Professor Rumlock had drilled into us since the start of term. Tracking Gabriel with my eyes, I called flames into one hand and made a come-hither motion at him with the other.
Gabriel tilted his head, a smirk tugging at his lips. “You must enjoy it when I put you on your back.” His words dripped with innuendo, and I couldn’t help the flare of lust that tingled up my spine.
“Do you ever shut up, or do you just enjoy the sound of your own voice so much that you find it impossible?” I taunted, embarrassment at my reaction coiling in my stomach.
This time, I thought I was ready, tossing the flame inmy hand toward him as I called my shield forward. Gabriel rushed, and though he couldn’t reach me through the shield, that didn’t stop him from using his momentum to shove me backward, using my own power against me. I went airborne, my heart stuttering as the shield around me snapped back into my body. My arms reached out on instinct to break my fall as the ground rushed up for my face. Something jerked me to a stop at the last second, leaving me a hair’s breadth away from hands touching the ground before letting me drop the rest of the way. Looking over my shoulder, I found Gabriel standing over me, another infuriating smirk on his face.
“As entertaining as it would be to see you break your arms, I’m not quite done having fun with you yet.”
“Asshole,” I bit out, shoving myself off the ground. Stomping back to our training mat, I called fire into my hands and sank back into my stance. “One of these days, Gabriel, I’m going to roast your ass.”
His smile was razor sharp as he took his position opposite me. “Good. Then maybe you’ll finally be a worthy sparring partner.”
Gabriel alternated between tearing me apart with sharp words and throwing me around just hard enough to rattle my bones for the remainder of class. Every time I managed to singe his leathers, he’d find a way to sneer it into nothing. Every time he put me on my back, he made it a point to call out my failure in a tone that left me furious and humiliated. It was only as we returned to our starting stances that he’d hiss out what seemed to be helpful tips, but I couldn’t fathom why, aside from using them to keep me off-kilter. By the time Rumlock barked our dismissal, my body ached, and my pride was shredded. I didn’t bother sparing the infuriating vampire a second glance as I stormed into the female locker rooms to shower and change.
Gabriel was just leaving the stadium when I emerged. At the sight of him, my anger boiled over, and I couldn’t stop myself from chasing after him.
“Gabriel!” my voice cracked across the cobble path like a whip, but he didn’t slow. “I know you can hear me, you fucking bastard!”
This time, he slowed to a stop, his shoulders tensing as he turned to face me. His expression was twisted into something dark I couldn’t decipher, but I refused to let that stop me from confronting him. It had been his choice to spar with me, all so he could belittle me, and I was done with it.
