Chapter 28 Rune #2
Dimitri chuckled before blurring forward, vampire speed taking over. He slammed into Slater’s chest, driving him back several feet.
The mat shuddered but absorbed the blow.
Slater only grinned wider, his tail flicking. “No fair, you didn’t say ready.”
“We’re sparring,” Dimitri hissed, flashing his fangs. “I don’t have to.”
Snakey lunged from Slater’s shoulders, fangs snapping for Dimitri’s face.
Dimitri twisted, narrowly avoiding the strike.
“No, but it’s polite.” Slater caught him with a sweeping kick that cracked against his shin.
Dimitri cursed, staggering a half-step, but his eyes glowed red.
Slater’s chaos magic flared, spiking between them in red and black arcs.
Slater laughed. “You’re fast, but I hit harder.” He lunged, claws streaking toward Dimitri.
Dimitri ducked, rolled, and came up behind him, locking an arm around Slater’s throat. “Doesn’t mean you’ll win.”
Snakey coiled around Dimitri’s arm, instantly constricting, and Slater rammed an elbow back into Dimitri’s ribs.
The crack of impact echoed.
My heart squeezed in my chest watching them.
They broke apart, but Dimitri’s eyes sharpened. He stepped forward again and seized Slater’s jaw and forced eye contact. He simply said, “Stop.”
Slater froze mid-swing, claws half-raised. Even Snakey stiffened, fangs poised but unmoving.
I blinked at Dimitri in shock. “You can use compulsion?”
Dimitri’s shoulders tensed, but he nodded, voice tight. “It’s my special power. I can compel anyone I make eye contact with, but only as long as I maintain it.”
The room was silent.
“Dimitri wins,” Pops mused. “Interesting power. Very useful.”
Dimitri broke eye contact with a faint grimace.
Slater collapsed to his knees with a gasp, shaking his head.
Dimitri stalked off the mat, nervousness simmering in his aura.
Slater dropped his demon form as Snakey vanished into him. He blinked after Dimitri, then barked a laugh as he got up and slid into his chair. “Dude. That was fucking weird. Buy me dinner first next time.”
Dimitri rolled his eyes. “Buy your girlfriend dinner.”
“Oh, what a wonderful idea!” Slater’s gaze swung to me. “Isn’t it, venom baby?”
I pressed my lips into a line but nodded as Koa and Raze were called up to spar.
Raze fought as if he were going for the kill every time. His strikes were wild but brutal. Every swing of his fist cut the air with a whistle sharp enough to draw blood if Koa mis-stepped even once.
It unnerved me. I loathed Koa being on the opposing end of it.
Koa held his own, though. He moved with impressive dexterity. His phoenix flames trailed behind each step like liquid fire in his wake, and his phoenix wings flickered into existence before folding back into his form as he moved.
He shifted in and out of his phoenix form mid-strikes. A flash of his talons here, a sear of burning feathers there, but each motion was precise.
Raze snarled as his hits met only fire and feathers.
He lunged, his venom dripping on the mat, but Koa sidestepped, pivoting on one heel as he deflected the venom with a burst of heat.
“Stand still!” Raze growled, throwing another punch.
Koa tilted his head, eyes gleaming with glowing embers through the haze of his fire. “Why would I do that?” He cut through Raze’s defense with a sharp jab that sent him stumbling back a step.
Finally, Koa drove him backward with a sweeping blaze that singed the mat’s edges.
Raze backed into the corner of his mat, fangs bared, but Koa didn’t hesitate as Raze went to shift into his basilisk form.
A basilisk could not shift safely in here, but Pops didn’t intervene.
Koa closed the distance with a single fluid step and dropped him flat with a clean, brutal punch to the jaw.
“Fuck,” Raze sputtered, scales retreating. “You’re good.”
Koa only smiled faintly, his hand still glowing with residual flame.
“Koa wins. Lorian and Eleanor, you’re up,” Pops announced, typing on his tablet.
The tension was palpable before they even stepped on the mat, and it wasn’t regular tension. Eleanor stood tall while Lorian watched her with an unreadable calm. Though, I could see the interest in his gaze as he stared at her.
They fought softly. Her strikes were full of hesitancy, and his counters were almost gentle. Neither seemed willing to go for the throat, but their spar sparked with clear sexual tension.
When Pops finally stopped the match, he called a tie and announced Hawk and Aura’s match.
Aura trembled as she stepped on the mat, second-guessing every move.
Her imp magic popped off in distracting bursts, but that was all she could do.
Hawk, of all people, surprised me. He pressed hard with physical strikes, forcing her to stay defensive the entire time until she finally let her guard down.
Hawk’s final knee to the stomach sent her sprawling.
“I need practice,” Aura wheezed, lying flat on her back.
“Yes, you do,” Pops agreed helpfully.
Hawk helped her up after, stammering an apology that made Aura blush in embarrassment.
After Pops announced Hawk the winner, he called Zuko and I up.
The mat pulsed beneath my feet as Zuko and I stepped onto it with matching grins.
We circled each other, slowly.
Pop’s warning cut through the charged silence. “No fatal venom releases, Rune.”
I flicked my gaze toward my pops at the sidelines. “Relax. I wouldn’t kill Zuko. My venom wouldn’t work on him, anyway.”
“What do you mean by that?” Pops blinked in confusion.
“You wouldn’t want it to, would you, pretty little poison?” Zuko’s smirk widened.
“I’d never dose you with a fatal one.” I shot forward first. “Too bad for you, though, toxin,” I teased, brushing my fingers across his lips as though shushing him.
Venom seeped from my skin, and it was a disorienting neurotoxin.
He licked my finger on purpose. His eyes rolled briefly back, then steadied. He stumbled half a step, but his grin stayed. “Why too bad for me? Your lesser venoms still have a nice kick.”
“My venom doesn’t hit you the same as others,” I purred. “Too bad. I could make you feel so good.”
He lunged, catching my arm, twisting it behind my back. “You already know how to make me feel good.” His fangs grazed my neck.
A moan slipped out before I could stop it.
“Rune,” Pops’s voice cracked across the mats like a whip. “You are sparring.”
“Sorry, Pops.” My voice was breathless.
Zuko’s breath seared my skin. “That move would’ve made anyone else forfeit.”
“Too bad.” I smirked. “I liked it.”
Our magic collided as I laced my fangs with a whisper of aphrodisiac and turned, sinking them into his neck.
He moaned, trembling. “What the Fates are you doing to me?”
“Winning.”
He staggered back.
I followed, smiling widely.
“You want me to drag you into the closet and fuck you right now?” His words were half-snarl, half-plea.
“Actually,” I said, licking my lips, “I wouldn’t mind that.”
“Fates, I’m about to cry,” Pops muttered in emotional agony. “Please stop talking to each other.”
“Sorry, Pops.” I gave him a sheepish grin.
Zuko tackled me, the mat reverberating as we hit the ground in a blur of fang and heat. I let him think he was in control, and I allowed him to press close as he went to pin me down.
Then, I licked his jaw with a numbing venom.
His fingers slipped.
I twisted and pinned him flat instead with my strength.
My venom may not have worked well on him, but it still hit his system for a few seconds. That was all I needed.
“Give up,” I whispered, straddling him. “And I’ll let you do whatever you want to me tonight.”
His smirk was feral. “I give.”
Pops’s slow clap echoed like a gavel. “Rune wins.” His gaze cut sharp to me. “But please remember that I am here, Rune. Please.”
Zuko winced. “Sorry, Professor Bloodwyne.”
“I’m sorry, Pops. But I won.” I grinned sheepishly, un-straddling Zuko and helping him up.
“Being bitten by you would be an honor,” Slater announced solemnly.
I cocked my head, giggling. “If I said I wanted to sink my fangs into you, would you take it as a compliment or a warning?”
“Compliment. Obviously.”