Page 70 of After Darkness Falls

"All right. What does my blood have to do with that?"

"Most sups will smell it miles away. That makes it a liability, and also a weapon. You openly bleed anywhere within a mile, Mikar will follow the trail. But you may also use it against your opponent. They'll be focusing on trying to get to the blood—it may not even occur to them right away that they could simply rip out your throat. If your hand bleeds, they'll want your hand."

"So I can distract them," she said, catching on.

Levi inclined his head. "Precisely."

She nodded. "All right. Then what?"

"Then, you try to punch me."

She wasn't going to lie—at first, the prospect held some appeal, but she soon realized it had been a trap.

She drew her fist to the left, aiming for his shoulder, but he blocked, grabbed her wrist, and twisted it behind her back.

"Not bad. You need to be faster, and aim for the face—unless it's a feral, you want to stay as far as possible from the teeth. We'll get to that. Arms higher, use the other one to protect your face."

He let go of her wrist and took a step back.

"Again."

Two hours later, she really wanted to punch him. She was sweating, panting, and the man didn't even have the decency to look winded.

"Again!"

"If my arms fall off, it's your fault."

And her legs. And her lungs. Did she even have lungs?

She practiced the move he'd just shown her, a lower version of a skip-axe-kick, for the twelfth time, and the asshole casually stepped aside, effortlessly avoiding her.

Chloe dropped to the floor.

"Just give me five, okay?"

She was begging, and she wasn't even sorry. To her surprise, instead of admonishing her, Levi walked toward a fridge tucked in a corner of the room. He pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to her.

"Thank you."

"You're doing well, you know. Better than expected."

She rolled her eyes. "For a puny human?"

Levi shrugged. "For anyone. The art of violence is never easy, and particularly not at the start."

The art of violence. That certainly fit the way he moved.

"Would I have a chance, then?"

"Right now, no." At least he was no liar. "But give it time. All it takes is keeping your enemy out of range for one move, and then the next, and the one after that."

That sounded too simple.

"What were you saying earlier about the ferals? Those are the crazed-types we saw in London, right?"

A nod. "They're a different entity altogether. At this point, it's hard to even think of them as vampires."

Chloe frowned. "Mikar said they were sick vampires."

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