He conceded that with a grunt and a slight tilt of the head.

“Plus, if you help her, you’ll also have peace of mind that she’s learning to better protect herself. That’s important to you.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I’ll do it.”

As soon as Reuben weakened Salem’s gift, we began. When the first slap hit, I was surprised. It actually felt like a slap across the head, but inside my head – acting as a jolt to my mental equilibrium and awareness. It didn’t hurt as badly as I’d expected, though. Still, every time a psychic slap came my way and I didn’t manage to evade it, Salem would wince or curse.

When Sam realised he’d started to go easy on me, she threatened to pair me up with David. The impact of his psionic boom when weakened apparently felt like a burning zap to the brain. Unwilling to allow David anywhere near me with that gift, Salem had relented.

Then he turned into a total bastard and attacked me without mercy. It should have pissed me off, but I actually did a lot better after that. Mostly because I knew that he would no longer pull his punches – no pun intended – so I’d need to move my skinny ass fast. Plus, I saw the guilt that flashed on his face each time I flinched at one of his slaps. It made me more determined to improve.

By the time the session was over, I was pretty good at it – even if I did say so myself. Not that it made Salem feel any better. He turned broody and growly, which I probably shouldn’t have found cute or amusing, but I so did.

We had an hour long break for lunch, and then we were back in the arena. We repeated the same exercise again, which I was certain was going to make Salem explode with anger at some point. The only thing that kept him relatively calm was that what he was doing was actually working.

Near the end of the session, Sam gathered me and the other girls together. “Now it’s time for me to pair you with someone from your own squad who will suit you during battle – who has a gift that can complement your own. Alora, you’re with Maya.”

I wasn’t surprised by that. We’d discovered that Alora’s gift of communicating with animals allowed her to fully understand Maya when she was in her jaguar-form – to understand the meaning behind each hiss, chuff, and growl. Not only that, they could communicate telepathically using pictures while Maya was in that form.

“Paige, you’re with Imani,” Sam then announced.

That wasn’t much of a surprise either. Paige was extremely protective of her friend, and I’d seen them work well together during battle. Imani would disable her opponent as she’d done with Butch, and then Paige would use her gift of transferring injuries to destroy them.

“Lastly…Jude, I’ll be matching you with Cassie.”

I understood that, too. Jude’s gift wasn’t offensive, so it would be best if she worked with someone like Cassie, whose gift of mind control could help protect her. Also, Cassie wasn’t the best fighter in terms of combat, whereas Jude was well-trained in that area so she would be good at watching her back.

Sam gave me a faint smile. “Unfortunately, that leaves you without a partner. But that’s only for now. Three more will eventually join the squad, and one of those will be paired with you. During this battle, you’ll have Salem as your shadow anyway.”

That was true, so I didn’t mind so much that I was without a partner. As such, I was in a damn good mood when I got home. Salem, however, was in a very foul one. “Must you be so miserable?” I asked with a smile.

He pulled me to him. “I hated hurting you. It goes against every instinct I’ve got.”

Aw, so sweet. I looped my arms around his waist. “You wasn’t hurting me. You were helping me learn to protect myself against someone who gladly will. That’s important.”

He rested his forehead against mine. “I don’t know if I can do it again.”

“Sure you can, because it’s working. Besides, Sam was right. You’ll go bat-shit crazy on anyone who hurts me, even if they are part of your squad.”

He just grunted, clearly unhappy that I’d won that argument.

“I think Reuben’s going to be mad at me for a while.”

Salem’s mouth twitched. “You could be right.” His hands framed my face. “Such an innocent, pretty package for a deadly female.”

“It’s probably wrong that I’m more flattered by ‘deadly’ than ‘pretty’.” I smoothed my hands up and down his back soothingly. “Stop sulking.”

A frown. “I don’t sulk.”

“You so do. It’s sort of adorable.”

“I’m not adorable.”

“Ooh, here comes the growling. Makes me all gooey inside.”

A glint of humour entered his eyes just as his mouth curved. “In theory, your teasing should further piss me off. But it seems you can weirdly calm me down this way.”

“Does this mean we can leave out the arguing and skip straight to the make-up sex?”

His mouth curved a little more as he scooped me up. “Works for me.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

(Ava)

“I think I have paint in my ear.”

Alora gagged. “I think I have it up my nose. One thing’s for sure, it’s going to take me some time to get it all out of my hair.”

“Same here. We must look like rainbow cookies.”

As part of our training, Sam and Jared had taken us, the squad, and the rest of the girls to Sam’s tactical training field deep in the rainforest. We’d played a few games of paintball, all of which were designed to help us learn battle tactics like how to best engage and eliminate an opposing team, and also how to defend and hold outposts.

Even though we’d worn camouflaged overalls, padded gloves, and safety masks, paint had still managed to make its way into places it had no right being. Our socks and the collar of our t-shirts were also stained with blobs of paint. Feeling some squish between my toes wasn’t a pleasant sensation.

After the games were over, Sam and Jared had sent us and the other girls ahead of them so that the guys could engage in a few much more advanced games. Jude, Paige, and Imani were giving Maya and Cassie a tour of the rainforest. Alora and I, however, were returning to our apartments to shower and change, since we were due to meet with Ryder soon to have our minds scanned for ‘demon interference’. I seriously doubted that my mind had been compromised, but I wanted to be certain.