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He sighed in frustration "Anka, truly You don’t have to--"

"Are you ready?" she demanded, her voice lower and more purposeful

"Ready"

Impatience laced his voice, but she shoved it aside and kept on "Attack me"

Behind her, after a split second of hesitation, he tightened both ars in hers Once he did that she’d lose a big advantage She had to act now

Curling her hand into a fist, she braced it with her other hand and used the force of both arrunt acco the opportunity, she raised her foot, glanced down at the placement of his black boots, then stomped down on his toes as hard as she could

He howled and hopped away i his foot "Bloody hell!"

Anka winced She hadn’t meant to actually hurt him, just to see if she could perfor on one foot, he looked up and shot her a sharp glower that dared her to apologize and hinted it wouldn’t go well for her

She stifled a so of his foot and liain Stand with your back to me"

She did, shoulders tense, breath shallow Her senses felt heightened, her nerves dancing with electricity as anticipation slid through her Long seconds passed without incident She couldn’t hear Lucan,

Having his eyes on her was doing soes in her? What would he think if he saw her scars? She frowned, shoving the thought away He’d be every bit as horrified as she was, no doubt Lucan liked beauty, perfection He prized feminine loveliness, perfectly dressed and perfectly docile All the things she couldn’t be any the feel of his hands on her again, even as a training exercise was--

Lucan grabbed her fro, claainst hi away le, kicked in She tried to breathe, to remember this was Lucan, not Mathias, not a member of the Anarki He wouldn’t actually hurt her But panic bled into her thoughts and started crowding out all else She thrashed and screa over hers to trap her entirely

"Think," he growled in her ear

The lessons of the h her head and, alht, she rarunt of pain filled her with gri about to wrap around hers, which put him off balance Before he could compensate, she lifted her knee, then stoed her, and she cursed He tightened his ar

"C’ht er surged, burning through her veins If he wanted a bloody hellion, he was going to get one She twisted her body fro her other elbow into his ribs

"Fuck," he growled, backing away

She took the opportunity to shadow hi until he planted his foot, then srowled at her, then shook his pained foot, his sides heaving Was he trying to get his anger under control?

He turned and shot her a killing glare She’d seen hiry so few times in their mated life But her recollection was that he looked hted hi over her

"Good," he barked "Now let’s talk about a frontal attack If soet your knees and hands ready"

"To kick and punch them?"

"Not exactly I’ll teach you to punch eventually, but until you get good at it, you’re going to be easily blocked, and you’re not likely to get enough power behind the blow to stop anyone You’ll only hurt the hell out of your knuckles And if you’re not careful, you’ll break one of your fingers or your thumb Raiden did it with the first punch he threw"

She couldn’t help but sh at hi We had to call Conrad, the healer, and try to explain He doesn’t quite understand, of course Alants to knoe’re siic You know the answer to that, don’t you?"

"I re that Mathias had some human Anarki, that he’d ripped out their souls and used theic doesn’t work on them?"

Lucan nodded "They’re like zo flesh and the body teic Don’t waste your energy hitting their rotting flesh with a spell You’ll have to fight hu you can do is to take the heel of your pal the pad of flesh, "and drive it into the creature’s nose Shove hard You’ll only get that chance once Then they’ll definitely fight to kill They don’t seem to feel pain the e do, so you have to disable the body or brain entirely to keep the after you"

Anka looked at the heel of her palue direction with a frown "I can see how this would hurt, but if they don’t feel it, why do this?"

"Drives the bone in their nose into their brain, killing them instantly But you have to shove as hard as you can Hesitating or not putting your all into it can get you dead"

She nodded, understanding She’d seen the undead that made up a chunk of Mathias’s army, the Anarki They made her shudder and want to shrink away Now she’d have to stand and fight Palm to the nose, hit hard "Got it"

"The next maneuver is one you likely know The problem is, it’s your last line of defense physically By the tih to you to use this move, you’ve lost a lot of options in ter, unless you’re successful here, is unlikely He’s probably either reaching for you or got his hands on you You can’t panic You’ll have to look hiet closer" Lucan sidled up to her, his body nearly brushing hers "As he’s reaching out to grab you, you’ll have to latch onto his ared her body close, fitting her exactly against him, where she’d been thousands of times, cuddled in his protective eave way, and she had to reainst hione Instead, she sucked in a deter at how hard his body had become, then nodded "Got it"

"Use your arroin" He raised a brow "Gently for training purposes"

Carefully, she gripped his ar her body even closer, then raised her knee between his legs, barely touching the cushion of his sensitive balls When he gave a little gri back