He stopped cold, then moved so close to me that the bottom of his white gi pants brushed my legs. “You are Sentinel of this House. It’s not an issue of ‘better than.’ ” His expression softened, and he looked at me with those deep green eyes, and instead of baiting me, he encouraged me.
“I have seen you move, Merit. I have seen you perform the Katas with grace and speed, and I have seen you battle men twice your size. Your skill is not the problem. You can do this.”
I nodded and blew out a breath, and I tried not to look up at the balcony to check the reactions of the vampires who were watching me. I didn’t want to see mine or Ethan’s frustration echoed on their faces.
Was that the problem? That I had an audience? It shouldn’t have mattered. After all, I’d been a dancer; it wasn’t as if I hadn’t performed in front of a crowd before. And then I thought about the first time I’d challenged Ethan, and how proud he’d been of my skills as a newbie vamp. And I thought about what had been different then.
Suddenly . . . insight.
In that first fight, I’d danced.
I looked at Ethan again. “Can I get some music?”
He frowned. “Music?”
“Please.”
“Any preferences?”
I let a smile slowly curl my lips. “Something I can dance to.”
He nodded at someone behind me. After a moment, Rage Against the Machine began to echo through the Sparring Room.
I took a moment, closing my eyes and letting the pounding of “Guerilla Radio” loosen my limbs. I let my body adjust to its rhythm, and when the tension was gone and the world seemed to slow on its axis, I opened my eyes and I looked at him—not as his lover, or the vampire he’d made, or his Novitiate, but as a soldier in my own right.
“Ready?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Begin,” he said, and as if it were the simplest thing in the world, I attacked.
I didn’t think about it, didn’t analyze it, didn’t wonder how he might parry or defend. Instead, with the roaring bass line echoing through my chest, I struck out.
I started with a high butterfly kick, and before he could defend, using the momentum I’d gained from the kick, I swept a high roundhouse at his face.
He grunted and dropped down with his usual speed, then struck out with a roundhouse kick. But I’d seen that kick before. I dodged the move, flipping backward and landing with my body bladed, ready for the next round. “You’ll have to be faster than that, Sullivan.”
The crowd came to its feet.
We both hopped out of our kicks, balancing on the balls of our feet as we waited for our next openings.
“That’s better,” he said.
I winked at him. “Then you’re gonna love this one.”
“Not if I move first,” he said, then aimed a sidekick at my torso, but I spun around, one hand on the floor as I turned, then aimed a back kick at his head.
I missed his head . . . but caught him on the shoulder. His inertia brought him down to his knees, but he hopped up quickly enough.
The vampires in the balcony cheered appreciatively.
Hands on my hips, I gave him an appraising glance. “That’s better.”
He snorted with delight.
Ethan kicked again, and this time, I thought I’d try something a little different. I jumped backward into an exaggerated scissor-legged flip that took me ten feet in the air and out of the range of his kicks.
I landed again, and then the sparring really got started. We moved and torqued our bodies as if gravity made no difference at all, as if we were partners in a pas de deux.
“Good,” he called out, but there was a brilliant gleam in his eyes.
That was when I used my best weapon. I looked at him and faked a side kick. “I am but a common soldier,” I said.
He froze, his expression falling. And in that moment of discombobulation, I swiveled and offered up another butterfly kick.
This time, I caught him square in the chest.
He flew backward, then hit the ground with a thud.
The room went silent . . . and then burst into raucous applause.
Chest heaving, sweat dripping from the exertion, I walked over and stared down at him, not entirely sure about the protocol. What do you do when you’ve finally beaten your teacher at his own game?
I decided to enjoy it. I let my mouth curl into a grin and arched an eyebrow at him. “Why, Sullivan, I think I just kicked your ass.”
His eyes were wide, emerald, and decidedly shocked. But even there on the ground he smiled up at me with pride and a kind of boyish pleasure.
When I’d stepped over his body, I offered him a hand. He took it, and I pulled him to his feet.
“Always remember,” he whispered to me, “that you are an uncommon soldier, whatever they say. And you are quite a thing to behold.”
I nodded, took the compliment, and glanced up at the crowd on the balcony. Lindsey and Katherine stood at the front, bodies pressed against the rail, both clapping along with the crowd. I grabbed the hems of an invisible skirt and curtsied, then held a hand in Ethan’s direction. He chuckled but made a gallant bow.
“I believe we’ve had enough fun for today,” he called up. “Back to work, vampires.” There was grousing, but they headed for the exits, chatting with animation about what they’d seen.
That was when it hit me. My inability to best him, the sparring wall I’d had to work through, was mental, emotional. It was about letting go of all my human preconceptions about fighting, about movement. It was about, as Catcher had once told me, understanding my vampire body’s strange new relationship with gravity. It was about remembering, as Ethan had said, what free dance was like—forgetting about whether the moves were perfect, whether they looked good, or whether they were “right,” and remembering what it felt like to be truly in your body, to feel limbs move, hips sway, skin heat, heart pound, breath speed.
I saw the covetous silvering of his eyes, and I knew that he’d realized the same thing I had.
Lacey Sheridan wasn’t going to be the only Master vampire Ethan had made.
And speaking of the last girl who’d gotten training from Ethan, I glanced up and oh so slowly shifted my gaze to the one who came before me. Lacey stared back at me, some new emotion in her eyes. It wasn’t friendship, certainly; Lacey and I would never be friends, not with Ethan between us. But there was something akin to respect in her expression. It was the recognition that she’d met an enemy on the battlefield and found her equal to the challenge.
The old me wouldn’t have wanted the confrontation.
But the new me liked the odds, even if I wasn’t entirely sure the prize would be worth the fight.