Venom smiled, displaying the canines she"d seen weep poison, his face at once starkly beautiful and unalterably alien. He"d not only lost the suit, he was dressed only in a pair of flowing black pants that shifted like liquid as he moved, his body as sinuous as the snake that looked at her out of those eyes.
And that body . . . yeah, it was definitely worth a second look. But she was more concerned at the ease with which he played with the foot-length curved knives in his hands. They reminded her almost of some short swords she"d seen, but they were a little too short, a little too curved.
Not sickle-curved, but more of a soft, smooth flow. Blades meant for lethal grace.
Of course, identifying them didn"t matter. It was what he could do with them that counted. She met his smirk with one of her own. “You didn"t catch the knife I threw at you in New York.”
He shrugged, gleaming dark gold skin over pure, lithe muscle. “I caught it.”
“By the sharpest edge.” She tested the long, slender blades Galen had handed her. Shorter than the rapier he"d started her on, they were weighted so she could throw them, too. If Venom"s blades were made for grace, hers were made for power and maximum damage, both edges razor-sharp—she could gut someone with surgical precision if necessary. “Sloppy of you.”
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“I guess I"ll have to make up for it today.” Lowering his body into a semicrouch, he began to circle her, his movements almost painfully slow.
She moved in the opposite direction, wanting to get a handle on his style. Most people telegraphed their next move with some type of a tell. She was very aware of her own tell—her feet. It had taken years of training to ensure they never pointed in the same direction she intended to move. Venom didn"t telegraph with his feet.
She shifted her attention to the next most common tell—the eyes. All the air rushed out of her lungs at the contact. Her brain continued to have trouble accepting what she saw when she looked into Venom"s eyes. Just then, the slitted irises contracted and she took a startled step back.
A soft laugh.
Bastard was playing with her. Gritting her teeth, she kept her gaze locked to his as they continued to circle each other. It was on the second complete rotation that she felt herself blink, stagger a little.
Fuck!
She threw one of the blades without warning. He moved aside with snake swiftness but still ended up on his back on the ground with a nasty gash in his arm.
Galen was beside them in a single instant. “What was that?” he snapped, his jaw a hard line.
“Throwing away your weapon before the fight starts isn"t exactly going to keep you alive.”
Elena didn"t take her eyes from Venom. The vampire held a hand over his bleeding arm, but his smile . . . Slow. Taunting. Daring her to call him on it. Dropping her head, she lunged . . . and slammed the second blade right between his legs.
“Fuck!” He scrambled backward, flowing to his feet in a way that was simply not human.
Normal bodies didn"t move with that kind of liquid fluidity.
Galen was looking at Venom now. “Did you try to entrance her?”
“She should be prepared for the unexpected.” Venom"s eyes glittered bright green as he returned his gaze to Elena. “I would"ve had her in another half a turn.”
“I could"ve also cut off your balls if I"d aimed a little higher,” Elena said, retrieving her weapons. “You want to play more games or can we get to work? We"re on a deadline.”
“This"ll take a few minutes to heal.” He removed his hand to show that the wound was still gushing blood. “Now I can compare notes with Dmitri.”
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Ignoring his sly words, she set about practicing the moves Galen had drilled into her when she wasn"t throwing knives at Illium. The terse angel watched her go through the entire set and gave a short nod at the end. Feeling unaccountably pleased, she pointed the tip of one blade at Venom.
“Ready?”
He twirled both weapons in his hands. “I never did get a taste of you.”
“Come here, little hunter. Taste.”
Everything went cold, quiet. She was no longer aware of the taunting heat in Venom"s eyes, the light layer of snow on the ground, Galen"s watchful presence. All she knew was the hunt.
Venom struck without warning, moving with the swiftness of the snake that was patently a far bigger part of him than just his eyes. But Elena was already gone, her blades crossed in front of her as she moved, one hand slicing out to run a thin line of blood across the vampire"s chest.
He said something as the blow landed. She didn"t hear it, her mind set to kill.
This time, the monster wouldn"t get in, wouldn"t murder Ari and Belle, wouldn"t break her mother"s heart so badly that she never left that kitchen saturated with the screams of her children.
Her eye picked up the minute tensing of Venom"s thigh muscles and she struck before he could.
This time, he avoided her blades, but not the foot she swept out to trip him. But she"d made a mistake. A line of fire rippled up her side.