Page 127 of Vile Boys

She runs at me, clunky at best, swiping her little stick left and right, but none of her hits actually land because I know how to avoid them. Her moves are like how a child with no training would attack.

“Jesus, how are you making this look so easy?” she mutters, breathing raggedly after what seems like the fiftieth try.

“Experience,” I muse.

She makes a snooty face. “Well, you didn’t say I’d start with a stick. I might actually be able to hit you with something real.”

I snatch the stick from her hand and swipe it under her legs. She falls down immediately, and I point it at her face, then say, “Anything is a weapon if you know how to use it. I’m not going to give you a weapon you aren’t ready to use.”

She scowls, and I raise a brow in response, then hold out the stick so she can take it back.

“Yet.” She surprises me with a swift swoop while getting up, and I avoid it by jumping away.

“Clever girl,” I mutter. “Again.”

She keeps on trying to strike me instead of going for the obvious.

“Hit me,” I say.

“I’m trying,” she barks.

“C’mon,” I say, still easily avoiding each of her strikes.

“Stop moving so much!”

“You think your enemies will just stand still and let you hit them?” I retort.

“Enemies?” She pauses. “Who said anything about enemies?”

“You assume Caleb and Ares are the worst people out there. They’re not.”

She tries to strike me again, but I don’t have a black belt for nothing.

“The question isn’t if you can win in one-on-one combat. You can’t,” I say.

“Then why are we doing this?” she yelps between breaths, on the edge already.

“The question is, can you outsmart them?” I tilt my head and smirk when her eyes narrow.

Finally, she’s beginning to understand.

“Hit. Me.”

She swoops in from underneath and repeats my own move right back at me.

SNAP!

The stick breaks in half against my thick calves, and the sound makes me look down.

PUNCH!

Her fist strikes my chin out of nowhere, making me lean away and rub my chin.

She gazes at me with a smug grin on her face. “That good enough for you?”

Oh my …

So there is spice in her after all. I like it.

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