Bite Club Page 0,48

about my offer?"

Oh, man. It took me a minute to sort out what kind of offer she was talking about; that smile made a bunch of offers that had nothing to do with the gym. "The advanced sparring group," I said. "Right?"

"Yes." Her smile took on a mischievous, knowing curl. "Whatever else could you possibly be thinking of?"

Stop this. Stop it now.Some part of me was angry, trying to shake me out of it, but it was a very small part, and the rest of me felt...calm. Right. Like all this was inevitable--fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it.

But at the very least, I wasn't going to go chasing after some vamp girl, no matter how pretty she was. I couldn't do that to Claire, and deep down, there was always going to be a part of me that a vampire couldn't touch. I hoped. So I said, staring straight into her clear blue eyes, "I'm just here for the fighting, lady."

"Glory," she said. "Gloriana. But you can call me Glory."

Of course. I'd seen her before, and it came back to me clear as day this time; I'd seen her at her welcome-to-Morganville party, but not close up. She'd been trying to drag Michael off then, and she hadn't been focused on me at all. I'd thought she was pretty, but not, you know,pretty.

Not until she'd turned that smile and those eyes on me. Then I understood how swept away Michael had felt. It was like being hit with a tsunami of hormones, and, man, did it feelgood.

"You came for the fighting," she said, and pushed off the railing. She dropped twenty feet and landed like a cat, barely flexing her knees to absorb the impact. Her gaze never left mine, and her smile never faltered. "All right, then. You should get what you came for. Follow me."

I expected her to take me to the mats in the center of the room; there were people working out there, doing throws, kicks, blocks, that kind of stuff. Your basic martial arts sort of activity.

But she took me another way, through an unmarked door at the back, down a plain hallway, and through another door marked private, into a room with an actual boxing ring on a platform. Two guys stripped down to form fitting shorts were whaling on each other, and they were doing serious damage. I stopped and watched, analyzing speed, force, agility, endurance.

"They're good," I said.

"They'd better be," Glory said. "Do you think you can hold your own?"

"Yeah." I said it without any particular sense of bragging; I just knew I could. These guys hadn't grown up with my dad. "Bring it."

"I need to match you up with a partner," she said. "Vassily? Who do you think Shane should spar with?" While she asked, Gloriana reached into a big, black refrigerator on the wall and pulled out a sports-drink bottle, which she held out to me. I frowned at it, but she raised her eyebrows and gave me a charming little smile. With dimples. "Trust me. It's good for you. Protein drink, special recipe. Free with your membership."

I took it and very cautiously sipped. I know, stupid, right? Who takes something from a frickin'

vampire? But there was something sosafeabout her. It was like I couldn't distrust her, even though I wouldn't have ever taken any damn drink from another vampire, ever.

And it tasted good. Gritty, the way protein shakes do, but with a buzzing edge. Caffeine, maybe. It raced through me with a hot shiver. Made me feel amazing--alert, strong, pumped.

"Shane?" Vassily, the vamp who'd been teaching that first class, the one I'd put down, came over. He'd shed the gi and was wearing standard gym clothes, and he'd left his long, thick hair down to spill over his shoulders. "Ah yes. This one. Let's have him spar with Jester. That should be an interesting matchup."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Jester." Vassily smiled and beckoned someone over from the shadows, where he was leaning against the wall. As the man crossed into the light, I recognized the pale skin, the slightly too-bright eyes. Vampire. Unlike Gloriana, I didn't feel warm and fuzzy about him, not at all. "Jester, meet Shane. You'll be sparring."

Jester glanced at me, dismissed me, then stared at Vassily. "Hell no," he said. "I'm not fighting some punk human. They break."

"Suit yourself," I said. "Saves you a good ass kicking."

"What did you say?" Jester looked honestly surprised and puzzled, as if he couldn't believe I'd had anything