this long wasn’t a good idea, but the thought of leaving her room or coming face-to-face with Analie or Christoph only brought that odd, sick feeling back, killing her hunger for a while.
Now that it was a new day, she couldn’t wait any longer or she’d risk hurting whoever she ended up biting. Like the other vampires in the building, many of her donors stayed in their own homes, and she would go to them instead of keeping them close to hand. Aside from Christoph, she only had one in the building; a quiet, bookish young man named Timothy Stetzel, who was an assistant in the accounting department at Royce’s corporate office.
Like Mouse, Timothy was quiet, shy, and agonizingly embarrassed about the fact that he enjoyed being bitten. He didn’t interact much with anyone else unless he had to, with Mouse being the lone exception. She hoped he hadn’t left for work yet, and prayed she wouldn’t run into anyone in the halls as she made her way toward his room on the second floor.
* * *
Christoph had been pestering Ashi to teach him some fighting moves. Christoph was a warrior, yes, but he subscribed to the “swing your claws around at stuff that moves” school of combat. Combining blinding speed and bone-crushing strength with an actual technology of fighting appealed to Christoph very much.
So he asked. When that didn’t work, he bugged Ashi to no end. When that only earned him a bloody nose, he appealed to the higher-ranking Were that Ashi used to be and said he wanted to learn from someone whose skill was obviously superior to anyone else’s.
Ashi agreed to show Christoph some basic moves. Christoph was delighted.
Christoph was less delighted when he discovered that Ashi’s method of teaching was along the lines of, “Once I show you how to do this, I will hit you until you get the move right. You will know you got the move right when I can’t hit you anymore.”
So Christoph got hit. A lot.
Tae Kwon Do wasn’t his style. It was certainly Ashi’s style, but he knew other schools as well, so he agreed to teach Christoph judo. It went better, mostly because Christoph had much more bulk than Ashi and it was harder to throw him. Still, Ashi managed.
Which led to sparring in the living room when Thad and Sebastian weren’t around.
Which, in turn, led to Christoph taking down the living room door and winding up in a heap in the hallway, moaning in lament for his spine as Ashi barked, “What the hell happened to your right arm? Is it on vacation? Are you worried about your hand modeling career? Because I thought it was supposed to go behind my neck. And the door is your fault, by the way, since you didn’t move fast enough.”
Mouse stopped in her tracks at the top of the stairs.
One part of her sorely wanted to check on Christoph and make sure he was okay.
Another part of her was terrified of facing him after what happened yesterday.
Yet another part wanted to hit Ashi hard enough to turn him into a fine red mist for hurting Christoph.
A much larger part was very much aware of the blood trickling from the cuts and splinters Christoph received by getting so up close and personal with the door.
So she stood there, wide-eyed, torn between too many conflicting desires to move.
Christoph picked himself up and staggered back inside, grumbling. Ashi wasn’t even breaking a sweat. In fact, he was back in position and waiting for Christoph.
“Hurry up. You move like a buffalo in a slurry pit.”
Christoph didn’t know what a slurry pit was, but he took offense. He launched himself at Ashi, planted his feet and got his arm behind his neck, shoved down and kicked out his knees, and suddenly Ashi was airborne. Just as he was about to grin, Ashi’s leg hooked around the back of Christoph’s neck and Christoph had to use some unfamiliar muscles just to stay on his feet. Ashi regained his footing and kicked Christoph back into the hallway in a very un-judo-like move.
“You’re not a total disappointment after all. I want you to come at me and go for my right side this time and—”
Christoph shoved off the wall and barreled into Ashi, drawing satisfaction from the look of surprise on the smaller man’s face just before Christoph’s shoulder made contact with his sternum. He spun around and hurled Ashi into the hallway and laughed triumphantly at the sound