This Side of the Grave (Night Huntress, #5)(30)

His grin became more wicked, confirming my guess. “Be harder to stress you into flying now that you’ve already jumped once. Might have to throw you off to get your blood up enough this time.”

“Don’t even think about it,” I warned him.

A brow arched. “That a dare, Kitten?”

He was somehow on the other side of me, moving with a lightning quickness that left me no defense. I felt an instant’s strong grasp, a push—and then I was tumbling end over end toward the river, my curses flowing as fast as the wind and rapidly approaching water.

“Goddammit, I’m going to get you for this! You just wait until I get my hands on you—”

“Sticks and stones, luv,” I heard him call out in reply. Then I smashed into the river, cutting off more of my furious rampage. I came up sputtering again, seeing Bones hovering over me, this time without even bothering to hold back his laughter.

“You look like a drowned rat. Perhaps you should try less flapping and more concentrating next time.”

“You are so going to pay,” I swore, lunging at him.

“If you want your revenge, come and get it,” he taunted, flying just out of my reach as I continued to swim toward him.

My gaze narrowed. He wanted to play games, huh? Well, maybe I’d forgotten how much he enjoyed being a hard-ass in training, but he’d obviously forgotten that I was a fast learner. You’ve flown twice before, which means you have the ability. You just need to sharpen it, he’d said just a short while ago.

Oh, I’d sharpen it. Right now.

I channeled all my plans for paybacks into picturing the air above me as a ladder I could climb, if I could make it solid in my mind. Bones continued to fly in tight circles above me, asking how I enjoyed my evening bath and pondering that it must not be true that cats didn’t like water. I ignored those witticisms, continuing to picture the air as something that was malleable.

Energy began to push against my skin, building until it thrummed with the same steadiness that my heartbeat once pulsed inside me. Remember how the air felt before. It’s not empty space. It’s something you can shape and mold, propelling you up and after him, if you just concentrate hard enough . . .

When I felt the air above me pulsating in time to the energy in my body, I vaulted straight up out of the water. Bones was in the middle of his next pass over me and I barreled after him even though he yanked himself backward at the last second. That exultant feeling returned, like a shock of adrenaline to my system, as I felt the air bend to my will, allowing me the momentum and support to catch him with an aerial tackle that flipped both of us around.

And then, with a victorious snicker, I tightened my grip and tumbled us into the river, his answering laugh the last thing I heard before the water closed over us.





Chapter Thirteen

Now I know why you chose a room located all by itself on the roof,” I remarked as Bones dropped us down in a graceful landing on the outside courtyard of our suite. After several hours of practicing, I probably could’ve managed to land myself, but I might have taken out some of the wrought-iron furniture in the process.

“Comes in right handy now,” he said, with a meaningful glance at his ripped pants and shirt, casualties of my midair grab on him before. Between that, our wet clothes, and our dripping hair, we’d give any snooty patrons of the hotel a heart attack if we took the normal way in through the lobby.

I smirked. “Told you I’d get you back.”

His laugh was its own caress on my senses. Even wet and smelling like a stinky river, Bones still managed to entice me. His clothes might be ripped and his leather jacket dripping water, but he made that look sexy. Maybe because being waterlogged meant his pants and shirt clung to all the lines of his body with explicit snugness, highlighting the lean muscles and hard planes like they’d been molded onto him.

He leaned down. “Dare I hope that vengeance was sufficient enough to make you forget your other vow of retribution?”

My hands trailed over his chest, pausing near his nipples, which were rigid due to his wet clothes—or because he knew how those tight buds practically screamed to be touched. Without conscious thought, I licked my lips.

“And let you go back on your promise to work hard to change my mind?” I couldn’t keep the husky catch from my voice. “That wouldn’t be smart of me, would it?”

He moved closer, pressing his chest more firmly against my hands until I could feel all the play of his muscles as his arms rose to encircle me.

“No, not smart at all,” he murmured, his breath landing on exactly the right spot near my ear.

I closed my eyes, savoring the sensations rising in me. Then I pushed him away and began digging in my pants. Just a short distance away from us was a bedroom. That’s where we needed to be, and the sooner the better.

“Hope the room card didn’t fall out . . . ah, thank God for button pockets,” I said, pulling out my card. This outdoor courtyard had key card entry access, though I’d bet it hadn’t been used as the first way into the room before.

But when I went to the exterior door, Bones following closely enough for his energy to throb along my back, nothing happened when I pressed the card to the slot. I did it again, double-checking that the arrow was in the right position. It was, but still no green light.

“Try yours,” I said, frowning.