Page 34 of Kiss of a Hellish Prince

“Yeah, actually,” Rune said. “It was three against one, but she held them off for a few minutes, got a few good hits in, and they had to drug her. Why?”

“Three grown demons had to drug her to abduct her,” Darrius said. “A halfling with no training.”

Ulric ignored Darrius and Rune and knelt so he was eye level with me. He and Rune had the same blue eyes. On Rune, they were sexy and sent shivers down my spine. On Ulric, they made me feel like I was being examined, like a lab rat.

“You also held off two men in your home, right?” he asked.

“Not really,” I admitted. “Rune and Murmur showed up in like five minutes. I just stalled for time.”

“Why did you run in between the attackers and your sister?”

I looked over at Rune. He really had filled his dad in on everything.

“Because she is my sister, my responsibility. I would never let anything happen to her.”

“You up for one more test?” he asked, offering me a hand up.

“Depends. Will I have to run or fall again?”

“Nah, this one will be about seeing how you move,” he answered. “Kylie. I want to test her hand-to-hand reflexes.”

She had wandered over to the wall and was tapping on her phone, apparently bored with watching me fail.

“Sure.” She led me over to the blue mats. “You have already been through a lot, so we are going to take it easy. I’m going to show you how to stand in a fight and how to block. I’ll throw a few slow punches at you, and I just want you to block them, okay?”

She was patronizing me, clearly having already given up on the idea of another badass woman in the field. Even I knew she didn’t expect much.

This was to humor Ulric.

After she showed me how to move, she threw soft, slow punches at me, letting me get a feel for it. I picked it up easily. My ribs still ached, my thighs burned, but I could do this.

Kylie picked up her pace, and I could keep up with her, even as she started moving at a normal speed. She took a step left, and I countered right without thinking. She took a step forward; I took a step back.

“Have you taken any combat classes, like boxing or even martial arts?” she asked.

“Does Tae Bo count?”

“Absolutely not.” She laughed. “Do you think you can handle a bit more?”

“Yeah, this is fun.”

“I want you to keep blocking, but if you think you see an opening to make a hit, take it.”

We resumed our fighting stances. She started at full speed this time, throwing different punches. I blocked, deflected, and dodged every hit, waiting for an opening. She moved around the mat, forcing me to counter her steps and stay on the offensive.

I wasn’t sure how long we circled each other; it could have been ten seconds or twenty minutes.

Kylie moved fast. I couldn’t find a good opening for a strike. My entire body ached. My thighs particularly were screaming for mercy, or aspirin, or a massage from the super-strong fingers of a certain sexy, blue-eyed, brown-haired demon.

I would not give up. I was far too focused to let something as insignificant as my thighs shaking to stop me.

Finally, I saw the moment to strike. Kylie let her guard down on the left side. I’m right-handed, so that would have been preferred, but I took the shot with a left hook.

Kylie almost didn’t see it coming. She jerked back and raised her arm just in time to block my hit from hitting her jaw.

“That was great.” Kylie’s smile lit up her face. “You’re a natural fighter. We definitely need to get you in here to train and in the field.”

“She doesn’t have to—” Rune began.

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