Page 45 of Creatures of Chaos

He nods. “It shows. Maybe I should stop by your gym, and you can give me some pointers.”

I shoot him a look. That sounded like a pick-up line, and despite myself I do what I didn’t have the nerve to do before and let my gaze covertly slide down his sweat-slicked chest. My stomach bottoms out and my mouth goes dry. I knew Talon was muscular, but I wasn’t prepared for the stack of abs so cut I could wash clothes on them, or how appealing the indents on either side of his hip bones are. I follow those indents with my eyes until they disappear beneath his shorts and then quickly look away, feeling even more blood rush to my already reddened cheeks.

Pull it together, Locklyn. You see shirtless guys at the gym all the time. So he’s cut . . . who cares?

I clear my throat, hoping it wasn’t overly obvious I just checked him out. “Clearly you don’t need any pointers,” I saywith a pointed glance behind us at his opponent, who still hasn’t regained consciousness.

“You can always learn more,” he says with a shrug, not seeming to react to my ogling. Thank the Creator for that.

We reach the locker rooms and I turn toward my door.

“Good luck with your next round,” Talon says. “But it doesn’t look like you’re going to need it.”

I snort a laugh. “You too,” I say, and then push through the door.

My next match I’m paired up against Kiaro, a bald six-foot snake shifter who won’t stop staring at my chest and rubbing his thumb over his bottom lip as we stand across from each other, waiting for the fight to begin.

A thread of unease slithers through my body as I size him up. I’ve sparred against plenty of guys larger than me, but I don’t know Kiaro’s skill level. I have to just hope he is as untrained as Jules.

The countdown begins and then the buzzer goes off. Kiaro immediately rushes me, reaching out with his arms to do who knows what, but I deftly duck under his reach and bounce to the other side of the cage. The way the dude has been looking at me and how he just tried to pull me into some sort of embrace makes me not want to get within arm’s length of him, which is a problem because I’ll need to get close to land a punch.

“Oh, I see. You’re shy,” he says with a lecherous grin.

Barf.

His tongue comes out to lick his bottom lip and it’s forked at the end. Not forked like it would be if he’d partially shifted, but forked as if he had his tongue cut that way on purpose.

I don’t respond to his taunts, but instead take note of his movements as he comes at me again. This time he doesn’t bother trying to pull me in, but swings out with his left fist, which letsme know that’s his dominant hand. I easily dodge his second attack and scamper away from him.

The crowd boos, but I block them out. I’m not going to be pressured to attack until I know more about him. Until I’m ready.

We dance around the cage for several more minutes and Kiaro gets increasingly frustrated with me. His movements become more aggressive, and I finally get an opening when he takes a wide swing at me. Rather than ducking away like he expects, I move closer, surprising him, and then deliver a quick jab to his cheek followed by an uppercut to his chin, and then quickly spin away before he has a chance to retaliate.

With murder in his gaze, Kiaro lifts his arm and wipes a trickle of blood away from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. Several feet apart, we stand and stare at each other; both of our guards are up.

Kiaro thought this was going to be an easy win for him, but now he knows better. It’s about to be a real fight now.

Without warning, Kiaro juts forward, his fist on a collision course with my nose. Even without the use of his magic he’s insanely fast, but I manage to shift so that his blow grazes my cheek rather than smashes my nose. It wasn’t a solid hit, but my cheek still throbs. That one’s going to form a nice bruise.

Over the next several minutes Kiaro and I trade blows. I don’t take any serious hits, but unfortunately neither does he. After five more minutes of fighting, we’re running out of time and neither one of us has the clear upper hand. I’m covered in a fine layer of sweat, my mind working hard to catalog his weaknesses, but finding it difficult to come up with any. He’s proving to be a much more challenging opponent than Jules. He’s not wearing out as fast as she did, and on top of that it’s clear he knows a little about boxing and hand-to-hand combat. His moves aren’tas precise or as polished as mine, but each of his hits has more power and his reach is a lot longer.

If Kiaro has one weakness, it’s that he doesn’t know how to use his legs in a fight and relies solely on his upper body. As a result, I end up relying heavily on my kicks to keep him at a distance. I don’t want his fists anywhere near my face. If he gets in one good shot it will be all over for me.

As the seconds tick by I can feel myself flagging. Kiaro comes at me, and I screw up and don’t duck away from him quickly enough, giving him an opening to snatch me from behind, which he immediately takes advantage of, putting me in a chokehold.

His forearm presses down on my windpipe, trying to cut off air, but I don’t panic. I know how to get out of a chokehold, I’ve done it a million times before. I’m about to initiate a movement to break his hold, but I’m thrown when Kiaro bends down and licks the side of my face.

“If I promise to make this quick, will you make it up to me later?” he whispers in my ear.

Revulsion sloshes in my gut and it takes effort to keep the contents of my stomach from making an appearance.

A furious roar comes from the crowd. My gaze flicks up in time to see Becks trying to rush the cage, but he’s being held back by four guys. He manages to shake one off, but only makes it a step before he’s pulled back again.

Kiaro tightens his grip, and pulling his shoulders back he picks me up.

I curse myself for not breaking free of the chokehold immediately. It’s so much harder to escape this position without my feet on the ground.

With effort, I push Becks and everything but Kiaro from my mind. I can’t afford these distractions. Curling my legs toward my chest, I kick out and buck, which throws Kiaro off balance enough that he pitches forward, his hold loosening as his bodycovers mine on the ground. I twist, spinning out of his hold, and immediately straighten and knee him in the chin.

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