Dateless and Deadly

Chapter 14

OMG this chapter is EXCITING. hehe. Enjoy!!!!

Chapter 14:

“C’mon Cass, you can do better than that,” James yelled as I was once again tossed on my butt.

After spending a couple more days taking it easy, I was finally able to rejoin training and now that we had another powerful enemy working against us, we needed all the training we could get.

“Caine’s not going to wait for you to get up, Cass. Any day now.” I glared up at James. If looks could kill…

Oh wait, maybe my looks could kill.

I immediately smoothed out my expression and removed any thoughts of murder from my mind. Wouldn’t want to slip and accidentally wipe away James’ existence or anything.

I was beginning to stand, rubbing my sore bottom when suddenly he was in my face, forcing me back down. “You need to take this more seriously, Cass. You’d be dead by now if this was a real fight. Do you understand me? As you are right now, you don’t stand a chance.” His eyes were shooting fire and his jaw was ticking in anger.

Did I say I didn’t want to wipe his existence away?

I raised my hand and shoved at his chest so I had enough room to stand.

What the hell happened to that sweet guy who held me close while I had a nightmare? Where was the guy that fell asleep holding my hand when I was injured, who may or may not have kissed me lightly on my lips?

“Again,” James said voice hard as he took up his fighting stance once more.

This guy wasn’t the sweet, concerned James. No this was a drill sergeant. A completely unlovable and totally unforgiving piece of sh─

Before I could even move, I was on the floor again.

“You’re not even trying!” he exploded shoving a hand through his hair in frustration as he began to pace around erratically.

We were the only two people in the sparring room at the moment and I could feel the waves of his frustrated energy hitting me.

“I know I’m not the best student, but I am trying James. C’mon, I’ve never done this before. Am I supposed to be some sort of black belt after three lessons? Don’t you think you’re being a little hard on me?”

He turned to face me fully, closing the distance between us as I stood up. His eyes were so dark they were almost black. “Cass, Caine is not going to go easy on you. He’s going to use every advantage he has and his little minions have been trained to do the same. If they see an opening, they’re going to take it.”

My gaze met his steadily and beneath the frustration, I could sense his concern. “Okay James. Let’s do this.”

We took up our fighting stances again, facing off. He struck so fast that I couldn’t see it coming. I barely had time to raise a block before he was aiming another strike. Somehow I managed to keep up, completely on the defensive. Little by little, I started to engage more of my powers in the fight, sensing the energy coming off of him and adding more to the blows I was sending. I vaguely registered the surprise in his expression and my hits came harder and my blocks came more easily.

Time seemed to be moving at a slower speed and suddenly fighting wasn’t quite as hard as it had been. I saw an opening and struck sending him sprawling but not before he could grab onto me, toppling both of us onto the matted floor.

“Because it was a defensive move, I couldn’t see it coming,” I muttered realizing that I hadn’t seen his counter strike because he hadn’t planned it. He’d put no energy into contemplating his take down but had acted purely on instinct.