“No, you’re right.” The anger had washed away from his eyes. In its place was a dangerous new look that made my insides quake with longing. “You can’t help that you grew up in a horrible place like that with no training. And you can’t help everything that’s happened since.”
I closed my eyes and opened them again to make sure this wasn't some hallucination brought on by my spill on the floor. But no, Gabe was still standing there in front of me, the same smoldering expression in his eyes.
He closed the gap between us and placed his hand ever so lightly on my cheek, making me gasp.
“But you’re not weak and you’re not cursed. You are strong and willful and fearless. I am proud to be your partner. You’re everything I could’ve hoped for.”
I had to stare at him for a few seconds to let everything sink in. When it did, I only had one question.
“But, what about Luke and the board?”
Gabe sighed. “I’m not upset about that. How could I be? Just having Luke as a mentor has taught me so much already.”
I looked down at my hands. This wasn’t the way I’d expected this morning to go.
“Listen, I’m sorry if I upset you.” His fingers trailed down my neck as I met his fiery gaze. “But I wanted to bring out that girl I met weeks ago in the forest. The girl that thought she was standing up to a demon without a lick of fear. The girl that faced a shotgun head on and a demon of the most vicious kind. I was afraid that she’d died in that pyre. I’m glad to see I was wrong.”
I closed my eyes and concentrated on the burning touch of his fingers on my skin. He was right. I’d been locked up in the manor for so long I’d begun to lose the fire that had kept me alive in Hanna for so long.
“I want to make sure you’re more than ready when the time comes for us to face our first demons,” Gabe continued. I opened my eyes to meet his gaze. “So, I’m going to push you. It’s going to be hard, and you might hate me at times, but you’ll be better for it.”
I smiled. There was no way I could hate him. Although, he might not like me as much when he learned how clumsy I was with a knife.
“Sorry to break this up, but I was hoping for some time with my daughter.”
Luke stood on the fighting ring behind us, a curious and challenging look in his eyes. At the sound of his voice, Gabe dropped his hand from my neck and took a step back. I mourned the loss of his touch, but managed to keep my cool. Nothing like a new dad to step right into the role of protective father.
“Sure.” Gabe bowed his head half an inch and took another step back. Before he turned to leave, he gave me the smallest of grins. It made my heart flutter and I longed to plant a kiss on his lips. But we’d been there and done that, with disastrous results. I watched him leave the ring and felt Luke come up beside me.
“He’s a great warrior,” he said. “One of the best I’ve ever met. I have no doubt you’ll learn much from him.”
I smiled to myself. If only Luke knew what I was really thinking about learning from Gabe, he wouldn’t be so happy to let me train with him.
Chapter Twenty
By the end of a week, I could barely get out of bed. Gabe was intent on helping me awaken the latent angel abilities of the Nephilim as fast as we could. Super strength and super speed were all part of the package deal. He’d thrown me into fighting scenarios, worked me on the bags, made me run sprints and lift weights, showed me how to throw knives and fire my first pistol. Muscles I didn’t know I had ached and pleaded for relief. Still, my special abilities eluded me.
At the same time, Gabe had kept a maddeningly cool demeanor towards me. There were no exchanges of fiery gazes. No more fingertips trailing along my neck. And no more pep talks that made me want to push him up against the wall and kiss him. His distance was both frustrating and confusing at the same time.
It was safe to say, I was in major need of a break. When Raquel told me she and a couple of others were going to Rapid City in the afternoon, I jumped at the idea.
“It’s just one afternoon.” I followed Gabe to the weights where he set up a hundred pounds on the bench. My bench-pressing was still puny. “You know I’ve been working my tail off this week. Just let me go with Raquel to Rapid City. You still owe me from our bet.”
He raised his eyebrow. “I heard Ashley’s going. Are you sure you still want to go with them?”
I swallowed down the lump of disappointment. It wasn’t exactly the ideal trip, but it was better than nothing.
“Sure, that’s no problem. I can handle her.” More like, I would sit in the back seat of the traveling van and ignore her petty comments as best as I could.
“Fine, I suppose you do deserve a break. We’ll cancel training this afternoon.”
I managed not to squeal and jump up and down like an idiot in front of him.
“You should go get ready.” He looked up at the giant clock on the training facility’s wall. It was already noon, and the vans would be leaving at 1:30. Glancing back at me, a lopsided grin grew on his lips. “You look like you just got out of a pool.”
I looked down. My tank top was drenched and I was pretty sure my hair looked like a sopping mess. It was like a wet t-shirt contest without the sexy. Gabe had just finished putting me through sprinting drills. He got to look suave and cool on the sidelines while I turned into a hot mess every day.
“Don’t act like you don’t like it,” I said with a wink.