Page 69 of After Darkness Falls

Oh. Blood.

How easy it was to forget.

"Levi? Are you…" Going to eat me whole? "All right?"

He paused.

"Yes. I'm in control."

He didn't look in control. His eyes were fire, his jaw set. Chloe found herself missing the smirk that had irritated her so much in the past.

He was a predator after one thing, and like an idiot, she'd let herself forget that.

Levi took one step toward her, and then another. A third. He was right in front of her, close enough to touch. His nostrils flared.

Levi lowered his hand to hers and took it in his palm. Then he brought it to his lips like a gentleman from an Austen novel. But instead of kissing her hand, he licked it, his tongue darting out once, his eyes remaining on hers.

"Lesson one. Your blood is your most powerful weapon. Use it well."

And on that note, he walked away, heading to a door left of the staircase.

Chloe learned to breathe again.

"Right. Can we elaborate on that lesson? It doesn't make much sense to those of us who aren't blood-sucking monsters."

"Get your ass over here, Miller."

The door led to a vast and mostly empty space with mats on the floor and training equipment scattered on the walls. The average Olympic gym had fewer toys.

Two vampires were sparring at one end of the room. Chloe watched with rapture as they moved fast and gracefully. She recognized them from the tower; the assistant and the woman who had been rather amused by her outrage over being offered a coat.

Soon, the woman had the dark-skinned man on his back, and they stopped.

Chloe could have clapped. But the next moment, they were both gone.

“What the hell! Where did they go?”

At her side, Levi replied, “They’re on patrol duty about now. This was just a quick training break.”

Damn.

"You guys do take the whole training thing seriously."

"Yes. For one, our kind get relentless and it helps to focus our energy. But mostly because we have to fight for our lives every other century. Whoever wins is often whoever had the most training."

Which disqualified her.

"So how do I win?"

"You don't," he replied, point-blank.

"You give the best pep talk."

"Your goal isn't victory—not right now, not at your level. It's survival. You have friends. You have a guard. You have divine mojo in your bloodstream for the next few months."

She wondered how he knew about that. Chloe hadn’t even told Mikar, feeling like it was huntsmen business she shouldn’t share unless necessary. She was going to ask, but Levi continued, "The likelihood of any enemy having you to themselves for more than five minutes is practically nonexistent. The primary goal of your training is to teach you how to last five minutes against anyone."

She hated to admit it, but he made a lot of sense.

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