“Oh.” This was embarrassing. “Well, I got him when I was twelve. And back then I thought it would be cool and romantic to call a horse … um…. Ebony Wind.”
Balthazar didn’t laugh. “Why not?”
“It sounds a little silly now. Besides, even within the first week or so, I was already calling him Eb.”
“So you knew his name from the start.”
Balthazar’s smile made Skye feel as though something within her was melting, going deliciously liquid and soft. She could have leaned over to him—their horses were that close—could have kissed him, right then, and she knew if she did, he would respond.
But she didn’t. The next time they kissed, Balthazar was going to have to be the one who made the move; Skye was determined on that point. Though it was hard to remain firm. Why did he have to possess so much willpower?
He said, “It’s good of you to come to the basketball games, but you really don’t have to. Even with me there, going home is safer for you.”
“Also more boring for me.”
“Yeah, but—I know it’s tough for you.” Balthazar shifted in his saddle, slightly awkward in the way he was when he thought he had to do something for someone’s own good. “With Craig being there. Britnee, too.”
Skye shrugged. The cold wind whipped past them, stinging her cheeks and making her tuck her scarf in more snugly around her neck. “It’s not as hard seeing them together as it used to be. I mean, I’m still angry. But… I don’t want to be with Craig anymore. I guess I’ve moved on.”
“Ah.” That was all Balthazar said, but Skye knew he was happy to hear it.
Because she believed that someday, probably soon, Redgrave would be back, Skye also used that time to learn how to defend herself.
She learned from the ideal teacher, of course.
“Okay, keep a wider stance.” Balthazar wore ordinary street clothes; Skye wore yoga pants and a camisole. They were in the basement of her house, an unused “family room,” which was almost bare of furniture and thickly carpeted and thus ideal for use as a sparring ring. “A wider stance is a steadier stance.”
Skye planted her feet farther apart. “Now what?”
“You want to protect your throat. Technically a vampire could bite you anywhere, but we tend to go for the throat—for the jugular or the carotid. It’s a powerful instinct.” Balthazar’s eyes were locked on her bare neck, which Skye figured she should have found unnerving, but didn’t. His black T-shirt fitted his broad chest and taut abdominal muscles like so much body paint.
“And how do I do that?” As Balthazar began lifting his hands, apparently in demonstration, Skye shook her head. “Don’t show me. Make me do it. That’s the only way I’m going to learn.”
“You mean—”
“Yeah.” Skye tossed her hair as she met his eyes. “Attack me. Don’t hold back.”
Faster than she could see, almost faster than she could think, Balthazar pounced on her, his body slamming against hers so hard that it took them both to the ground. Skye flung her arms up to block her throat in the instant before he brought his mouth to her neck.
For a long moment, they paused there, motionless. Balthazar’s lips were only inches from her hands—his legs straddling hers, his enormous body blocking her on every side. “Good,” he said, his voice low. “That’s good.”
“But not enough.” Skye tried to keep her voice from shaking and her mind from wandering. This was vitally important. “If Redgrave did this to me, he wouldn’t stop here. What would I do next? What are a vampire’s—I don’t know, vulnerable spots?”
Balthazar remained above her, his arms framing her shoulders. He never took his eyes from hers. “There are only two ways to kill a vampire,” he said. “Fire or beheading. It’s possible that a blade dipped in holy water might do it, but I’m not sure about that, so it’s not worth risking your life to try.”
Fire or beheading. Check. Horror-movie details swam in her mind again, and she had to ask: “What about a stake through the heart?”
“A stake can paralyze, but not kill. In a situation like this one, it’s fine to settle for staking. You might have a chance to come back and burn or behead the vampire later; even if not, you’ll definitely have a chance to get away. Anything wood will do, but it has to pierce the heart.”
Skye nodded slowly. “What if we’re—if I’m like this, and I can’t grab something to use as a stake?”
“Then a vampire’s vulnerable spots are the same as a human being’s, more or less. The windpipe is useless—we only breathe from habit—but a blow there hurts. You can always try to go for the eyes.” Balthazar then looked slightly sheepish. “With a guy vampire—well, strike at the obvious.”
She jerked her knee up between his legs, stopping just short of hitting him someplace that would’ve hurt a human male a lot. “Like this?”
Eyes wide, he said, “You’ve got the idea.”
The final element of her daily routine was the end of the day, when Balthazar left her. Although Skye knew he entirely trusted Redgrave’s fear of the wraiths to protect her—and she trusted it in return—she sensed that he would have preferred to remain in her home to protect her. But, he said, they never knew when her parents would start spending more time at home, and they had to keep up the student/teacher facade.