A slight grin tugged the corner of my lips.Cool.I felt a little mentally unhinged at the thought of being indestructible, but it was also thrilling.I have healingpowers.
Logan stood before me and motioned to his body. “There are many ways to take a man down, but let’s focus on three. The neck.” He did a karate chop to my throat, stopping just before touching me. I swallowed hard andnodded.
“The groin...” He tugged his bottom lip down, making a painful face, and I couldn’t help but grin. “And thearmpit.”
My head reeled back as I laughed. “The armpit?” What ajoke.
He shot out lightning-quick then, and shoved his thumb up into my armpit. A cry tore from my lips as I moved my body, trying to get out of his grasp. Deep pain radiated from my elbow to my ribcage, and then he letgo.
“Hurts like hell,” hestated.
I glared at him, rubbing my underarm. “Yeah it does.” I was totally burning his nextmeal.
He nodded. “Yourturn.”
He opened his arms wide as if asking for me to bring it on. I frowned. “I don’t know about this. I’m not a fighter type ofperson.”
Now it was his turn to laugh. “The first ten minutes of knowing me, you punched me square in the jaw as I tried to save your life.” His jaw muscle twitched and I stepped back afoot.
“I did?” Oops. I must have been acting on instinct. I certainly didn’t remember doingthat.
“Yes, you did, and I was pissed, and also relieved. That’s the kind of attitude you will need to survive this lifestyle. Someone threatens you, you take them down. No questionsasked.”
He was right. I needed to not care about hurting him or embarrassing myself. I needed to train, to learn to protect myself so I didn’t have to depend on a pack. I put my arms into fists in front of me and Logangrinned.
“Horrible form, but I like your spirit.” He winked, adjusting myhands.
Over the next hour we went through one repetitious drill—karate chop to the throat, thumb to the armpit, and then knee to the groin. I didn’t do it hard, but Logan pretended to fall over every time, and that’s when I was supposed to run. Throat, arm, groin, run. We did this until my muscles creaked and Danny looked like he was dozing off from boredom. I was about to ask for a break when Danny suddenly saterect.
“Druids are here,” he said in a flat monotone voice. He flung out his hand and a glowing yellow light slammed into the knife cabinet where Logan kept his glowing green swords. Could these druids sense the dragon magic that adorned the blades? Logan’s eyes bugged out of hishead.
“Why are they here?” Logan mouthed as we heard the crunching of tires ongravel.
Danny closed his eyes, breathing deeply, as if in a trance. “They are the same ones from Eva’s bar. They want to meetSloane.”
Ohshit.
“Shit,” Logan muttered, coursing my internaldialog.
Danny stood. “We chat with them, assure them all is well, and they willleave.”
Logan looked nervous, which I hadn’t thought possible before now. “How many arethere?”
The sorcerer closed his eyes and then opened them again. “Three.”
Logan looked absolutely shocked. “THREE! I thought only two were at Eva’s bar? Do they have their truth witch withthem?”
I was guessing that druids didn’t hang out together, because Logan seemed downright shocked that this many were clusteredtogether.
Danny looked deep in concentration, his eyes rolling under the lids, emanating a faint yellow glow. Then he grinned. “Their truth witch has fallen ill, thanks to Eva. They must have flown this third druid out to finish theirinvestigation.”
A car door shut and Danny put a finger to his lips. Did he just say investigation? I felt like I was going to be sick. What if they smelled that I was one ofthem?
Logan crossed the barn quickly and slipped his hand in mine, the warm skin making my dragon coil tightly inside of me as a low buzzing worked its way up my arm and into my chest. Logan leaned in slowly and whispered in my ear. “You’re my wolf shifter girlfriend. We’ve been dating about a month, and I asked you to move from Phoenix to join my pack here inFlagstaff.”
I swallowed hard, trying not to think of the way his hot breath tickled my neck or the way I liked how he called me his girlfriend, even if it wasfake.
“Okay,” Ireplied.
