Darkblood Prison - G.K. DeRosa Page 0,48
friends.” Talon pressed his thick arms across his chest and stared down at the floor.
“Whatever…” I muttered under my breath.
“Azara, you need to lay low for the next few days. Let’s hope Lucifer comes through for us.” Logan turned to the sulky dragon, and he straightened. “Like glue, do you understand me, Talon?”
“I got it.” He jerked his thumb at me. “Tell Miss Independent over there.”
I threw him a good eye roll. After my near-death experience and eventful outing in the boneyard, I was starting to feel a little less self-righteous.
“Azara…” Logan raised a brow.
“I got it, too.”
“Good. Now get some rest you two.”
I’d just slept for half the day and was feeling surprisingly refreshed considering the stressful day. What I really needed was some sort of release. “Hey, Logan, remember we talked about some training?”
He nodded.
“You think you could hook me up with that? Flix mentioned some kickboxing class or something.”
“Of course.” He ticked his head at my tall, dark shadow. “Talon, when you guys have some down time, I’d like you to work with Azara on harnessing her powers, along with some basic hand-to-hand combat.”
“You can’t be serious,” he growled. “You know what she did—”
Logan raised a hand and cut him off mid-sentence. “And that’s exactly why she needs to learn to control it.”
Talon muttered a slew of curses and shook his head. “Fine, but don’t blame me if she soul-sucks an entire cell block.”
“Hopefully, I’d start with you so there’d be no one left to blame.” I shot him a narrowed glare, biting down the hurt his words stirred.
Logan wagged a finger at me, and it reminded me so much of my dad that my heart hurt. “Behave, Azara.”
“Sure.”
Talon stood, and I obediently followed behind him. We trudged back to our cell in silence, the corridors quiet as most inmates were in the mess hall for dinner. Which reminded me I was starving.
“I don’t even get to go for dinner?” I finally asked.
“Hayden will bring you something back to our room.”
I nodded and continued our silent march. Talon’s big arm nearly brushed mine, and he sidestepped as if I’d burned him with my touch. When the quiet got suffocating, I glanced up at my unwilling bodyguard. “Why do you hate me so much?”
He shook his head, his jaw grinding.
“Just tell me.” If this guy was supposed to keep me safe, shouldn’t he at least not hate my guts?
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does. I’m sorry but how can I trust someone to keep me alive if you can’t even stand the sight of me?”
“Don’t worry, Azara, I’ll do my job. What happened today was a mistake, and it’ll never happen again. I don’t have to like you to keep you safe. Trust me.”
The crazy thing was that I did.
Chapter Eighteen
I muttered a curse under my breath as I smacked into the wall and slid down the sleek stone with a thunk. Fiery energy ignited in my core, and anger rushed my veins.
“You okay there?”
“Fine,” I growled, pushing myself up as I glared at the cocky dragon. I was going to wipe that smug smile off his face.
“Not feeling murdery are you, demon?”
“Not yet.” Shaking my shoulders out, I strutted toward Talon. Who knew there was a fully equipped training room in the basement of this godforsaken prison? And why did Talon have access to it when it was definitely not on the blueprints Flix gave me?
“Okay, come at me again.” He bounced from foot to foot and beckoned me closer, sweat glistening on his bare chest. His half naked torso was annoyingly distracting—the perfectly chiseled muscles along with that shimmering dragon tattoo had me all flustered.
And that was never a good thing when my power was flowing freely.
After over a week of having my abilities suppressed by that cuff, it felt like a hundred-pound weight had been lifted off my shoulders. A buzzing energy filled my insides, coiled like a snake ready to strike. And right now, the hotheaded dragon was the only person in sight.
My mind whizzed back to training with Mezlor and our yoga sessions. I needed to harness some of that Zen right now. Because that demon never pushed my buttons like this guy.
“One thirty-eight? Are you going to hit me or what?”
“Don’t tempt me, Talon.” I curled my hand into a tight fist, pulled my arm back and let it fly. All the pent-up energy and aggression coiled in my bicep and exploded out through my knuckles.
Okay so I didn’t manage to hit him