by Emma Dean
Kenzie was a bit nervous. The strength she’d felt in Hunter’s hand…did they all have it? Most likely. This was a good idea for her too. She would know exactly what these guys were capable of – at least physically.
Finnick’s grin widened like he knew exactly what she was thinking. Kenzie glared at him. Not that kind of physical. Not having her fucking scent charm on was throwing her off.
She didn’t remove her shoes. It would give her more of an advantage, and she still wanted the opportunity to run if she needed. Though the more time she spent with them the less nervous she became.
They were exactly like the stories about fox shifters and yet, nothing at all like them. They weren’t selfish from what she could tell – and that’s where the schism was. They were assholes for sure, but not selfish ones…
Weird.
“What do you want to start with?” Kenzie asked, tying her hair back. She hid the way she studied him as she fussed with her hair.
Finnick was tall, and nothing but hard, corded muscle even if he was slim. But out of the three of them he had the broadest shoulders. If she had to guess he was about six foot two and a hundred and eighty pounds, probably more though since he was a shifter. He moved deliberately if a bit looser than Ash and Hunter.
He was trying to hide his tells in the swagger.
“We can start with you attacking me,” Finnick said, watching her openly now – eyes tracking her every movement.
Kenzie considered their differences. Not only did she have barely above average human strength, she wasn’t very tall. Five foot five was considered normal for a human, but was a bit short for witches. Selene was a full three inches taller and towered over her.
Something else she’d managed to fail at.
Despite all that, she’d spent most of her life building up her physical strength and skill. Brute force could only do so much if it could never get its hands on her.
Her muscles were a bit tight, but she’d worked out before going to her job so that should help once she started moving again. Kenzie did a quick stretch to limber up, never once taking her eyes off Finnick.
As a rule she didn’t like to attack first and he probably knew it. Being the first to move would give away too much.
But Kenzie wasn’t just trained in one style or one martial art. She’d trained in everything that interested her. She had medals and the bone strength to prove it.
So…what should she start with? It would make sense to save the best for last.
Once she’d chosen her body fell into the right position, knees slightly bent, like it had a million times before. Finnick’s grin widened even farther which she honestly hadn’t thought was possible.
He took out his phone and tapped a few times. Then hard, fast music blared just loud enough she couldn’t focus on his breathing anymore. Tricky bastard. “It’s so the neighbors don’t think I’m murdering someone down here,” he told her playfully.
Oh, that was how he wanted to play it? She wouldn’t be the one begging for mercy if she had anything to say about it.
Kenzie aimed a kick and let it fly, twisting her body as she did so. Tae Kwon Do had been one of her favorite martial arts. It was fast, effective, pretty, and more structured than some of the other styles she’d learned.
It was the first she’d started with and it had helped hone her speed.
Finnick blocked the kick easily, hardly moving. But the smile dropped from his face when her knee came up into his stomach before he could comprehend that she’d already moved into the next combo. Tae Kwon Do had her thinking six steps ahead like a game of chess, that was how fast she had to be.
And she couldn’t allow him to get his hands on her. She wasn’t sure what he could do exactly or how fast he was, but she knew for a fact he was a hundred times stronger than her.
The air left his lungs, but it didn’t seem to put him at much of a disadvantage because he swung hard in a simple, but extremely effective jab. Kenzie adjusted her pattern so she could dodge and came right back up to kick him in the chest so she could put more distance between them.
Her kick landed, but Finnick grabbed her foot and she had to decide quickly what she was going to do next or he could break her ankle with half a thought.
Time to switch.
Dropping and placing her hand on the mat she swung her other leg up and around.
Finnick moved to block her roundhouse kick, but that wasn’t what she’d been going for. The fake worked and she slid her foot around his neck into a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu hold. It brought him down to the floor when she yanked with him already off balance.
His laugh when he smacked the mat made her smile, but it didn’t slow her down.
Kenzie couldn’t afford to grapple with him. He was just too strong. Instead she punched him hard enough to daze even a shifter for half a second and then somersaulted over his head to put space between them again. All those years punching trees were all that kept her head above water with other paranormals.
She hopped up on her feet, keeping her weight on her toes as she watched him.
At this point, in a real fight she’d have tased him, sedated him, tied him up with enchanted cuffs, or run for her life depending on the situation. Kenzie had never had to actually kill someone – but she was prepared to if necessary.
Finnick used his feet to kick himself up and flipped back to a standing position. His hand came up and brushed across his lip. His delighted laugh at the blood there made her question his sanity. “Oh Kenzie, give me everything you got girl. I want it all.”
Then he came at her.
Kenzie had to use every ounce of her training and skill to keep him from knocking her into oblivion or getting his hands on her. Not only was Finnick strong, but he was fast as fuck. He was so fast he had her panting for breath within five minutes.
The problem with being little more than a human in the paranormal world was that she didn’t have the endurance the rest of them did. She could wear out a human no problem, but shifters and hunters were built to endure for days.
He slammed his knee up and into her ribs but she brought up her own knee to block and then struck with her foot, high and hard. Finnick didn’t let it land this time. Shit, it was time to pull out her ace.
After she’d been invited to the U.S. Olympic team and walked away from it all Kenzie had taken some time off from school and begged her grandmother for the money and freedom to travel. Surprisingly Edith had done so without question. She’d even covered for her and said she was sending Kenzie to an overseas boarding school.
First Kenzie had gone to the Shaolin monks. Part of her wanted the vicious training – the pain she knew would be a part of it. But this pain would be her choosing. The other part of her wanted to see what their lifestyle might do for her.
The training had been brutal. She’d almost given up – almost quit a thousand times when the monks threw new and excruciating ways for her to endure, to learn control.
But they were only human and she was a witch, even without powers.
So Kenzie had learned to take a hit, to endure pain, and to think through it so she could take the fight back for herself.
She let Finnick land his next hit. Kenzie didn’t block the punch to her chest. It wasn’t with all his strength. That was all that kept her from flying across the room, but since he was being mostly gentle with her she planted and took it.
Kenzie accepted that pain into her, wrapped it up in a cozy blanket, and then absorbed it.
Instantly Finnick stopped, no doubt scenting her pain – she could smell his concern and stress that he’d really hurt her. She used that opportunity to attack full force, switching styles once more.
After she’d found what she needed from Shaolin Kung Fu she’d moved on – looking for something a bit more her style.
She’d stopped in Thailand to watch one of the fights there and instantly recognized herself in the Muay Thai fighters. These were poor men fighting for their life, rising through the ra
nks of shit they’d been born into. Each fight was one step closer to the championship and one step closer to freedom.
There was a desperation to their fighting style she understood completely. Kenzie spent a few months in Bangkok, learning what she could. Then she’d gone to Chiang Mai – where the best female Muay Thai fighters were.
While Kenzie recognized a certain level of desperation in the male fighters that she knew she had, it was the females she related to the most. They fought for very different reasons. The females usually fought for money, and weren’t always poor, but used the income for their family, university, things like that.
What she wanted the most was their freedom, their skill. Female fighters fought a lot in Chiang Mai and with so much practice they were better than good, they were perfection. She spent two years there honing her skills until she could fight the best of them and win.
Finnick pushed forward, but she was ready for him. It took nothing to block his attack and land a front kick that pushed him back far enough to give her the room she needed. Kenzie followed that up with a roundhouse kick that flowed right into a knee to his ribs.
He sputtered and tried to attack again. His blow glanced off her jaw but she absorbed the pain and instantly retaliated with a left hook, low kick, cross punch combo that flowed right into a body kick.
She was going to wear him down, get him to yield, or knock him unconscious.
Blocking his next kick, she launched and landed a spinning kick to push him back again. They were nearly out of room, but she could land one more hit. Kenzie took the long step and used all her weight and momentum to launch into a superman punch that dazed Finnick enough he stumbled into the wall.
It gave her the time she needed to grab the knife strapped to her calf and rest it against his throat.
Kenzie was breathing hard and sweat dripped everywhere, but she was grinning. Whether he was soft on her or not, that had been fun. “Gotcha,” she whispered.
Clapping from behind her made her spin around in a low crouch with the knife up so her forearm could protect her face. Then she realized it was just Hunter and Ash and her instincts eased up a bit.
Kenzie blushed and stood slowly. Why she thought something was going to attack them, or why she’d set herself up in front of Finnick was something she didn’t really understand.
“What else can you do?” Hunter asked, tilting his head to the side like he did when he was trying to understand something. “You move like you know your body better than most know how to walk.”
“Guess you’ll have to find out,” she said, still trying to catch her breath.
This time his slow smile didn’t scare her. “I look forward to it.”
Chapter Ten
Kenzie
Hunter and Ash left with little smiles.
Kenzie turned back around to see Finnick without even a hint of a grin or smile on his face. It was strange to see and he looked like a totally different person. “Are you all right?” she asked, running her gaze over him to make sure there wasn’t any lingering damage.
Most shifters had insanely fast healing, but what did she really know about them? Only the wolves and the cats were well known.
“I’m fine,” Finnick told her. “Why did you try to protect me?”
Kenzie bristled at the question. “You were hurt. I was doing you a favor. You’re fucking welcome.”
“If I died you’d only have to go through two more of us to get to that potion. I know you have a gun in that pack. I can smell the silver.”
Her pack was spelled. He should smell nothing. “When did you have time to go through my stuff?” she asked.
“It doesn’t matter. Why did you protect me?”
Kenzie huffed and went over to the table they had set up next to a water cooler. She wiped down and wondered what she should tell him. “I made a deal. I’m not going to kill you for the potion or let someone kill you so it’s easier for me. I can’t pull off this job alone – and I want it done. I’m sure you have your uses.”
Suddenly Finnick was right there, pushing her up against the wall. The towel fell from her hand as she scrabbled to get free, but he was so strong. He snarled right into her ear, softly – gently.
“I can smell your half-truth. Tell me why you turned to protect me and I’ll let you go.”
When she gave in and quit struggling Kenzie met those blazing green eyes of his. They searched her own, looking for something – desperately. He needed the answer more than he needed her to like him.
Why that pulled at her heart, causing a physical reaction in her chest, she had no idea.
“If you were hurt from what I did and there was a threat,” Kenzie said softly, wrapping her hand around Finnick’s wrist. He still had her pinned to the wall. “Then I didn’t want that threat to get to you while you recovered. I don’t know why.” She stretched and angled her neck, trying to get more room between his hand and her skin, but it was useless.
He didn’t blink as he studied her, taking in her answer, and listening to whatever she couldn’t hear that he could.
Then suddenly without warning his hand softened and his thumb traced the line of her jaw. His intense interest shifted as he looked down at her lips, at the invisible line his thumb made on her skin.
The way he looked at her made her breath catch and Kenzie’s heart pounded. For a moment she panicked, knowing he could hear it. What would he make of her reaction? But when Finnick bent to rub his nose along the curve of her neck, she no longer cared.
All she wanted was to know what it felt like to touch him the way he touched her, to see how soft his lips were. What did his skin feel like wrapped around those muscles of steel?
“You’re the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever come across,” Finnick whispered. “But I don’t trust you. I don’t like the way you make me feel – like I can’t trust myself.”
Despite his words he didn’t stop touching her. He even took a step closer so that they were pressed up against each other, her tits against his hard chest. Kenzie’s breathing quickened as the smell of him surrounded her – as she became acutely aware of every point of contact between their bodies.
What was this reaction? She knew nothing about him.
“I feel the same way,” she whispered back, like they were hiding something. And maybe they were. “I don’t know you at all.”
There was that cocky smile again, but it was distracted as his eyes finally left her lips to study the scarred runes along the top of her shoulder. “You think I’m gorgeous?”
Even though he was teasing Kenzie knew she couldn’t lie. “Yes.” Her breath hitched when he kissed the scar right where her shoulder met her arm. “I’m not blind.”
Finnick chuckled at that. “Tell me about this one?”
Finally he released her neck and for some reason she felt cold without his hand there. But then he traced the glittering scar tissue and Kenzie had to tell herself to calm the fuck down.
“When I was five my great-grandmother, and matriarch at the time, thought if she carved runes of power into my skin it would help jumpstart what should have already been in my veins,” Kenzie murmured, watching him as he touched each scar on that shoulder. Then he pulled down the neck of her shirt a bit to see the rest on her chest. “The runes are the only scars I have to prove what they did to me. The burns, the bruises, and everything else faded. Witches heal faster than humans, but slower than shifters and hunters. Because these held power, they couldn’t remove the scars that never faded past what you see now. It became a part of me forever. Eventually Selene did create a potion to remove them. It took her years.”
Finnick finally looked at her eyes again and she saw her pain reflected there. It was strange to see. It was as though he could feel the pain from her memories somehow. “But you still have them.” It was a statement and not a question.
Kenzie blushed and had to look away. “Yes, I kept them to make a point, but I was vain enough to allow my sister to remove the ones from my
face.”
Then his thumb pulled on her bottom lip and Kenzie felt compelled to see what he thought about that. Finnick didn’t look disgusted or disappointed. He only appeared thoughtful. “Here,” he said, pushing into her lip and then he made a line from the center of her bottom lip down to her chin.
Her reaction was visceral and completely out of her control. Kenzie’s hands came up to grasp his arms, and she moved to push him away but he was solid and immovable as a rock. A strange shock went through her and her eyes went wide as she stared at Finnick.
How did he know?
Without speaking he traced the ones under each eye. She’d been so scared when they’d held her down. Kenzie had thought for sure they’d slip and she’d lose her eyesight. Her voice had been nothing more than a rasp for weeks from screaming for hours.
“I can take away the pain,” he told her, cocking his head in question.
Kenzie was breathing so hard she thought she might faint, pinned between his large, strong body and the wall. How did he know?
She might have said it out loud or he may have deduced her question in that way of his. “The scar is gone, but the pain and the memory are still there. Runes hold their own kind of power as you know. Our unique skills allow me to see if I look hard enough.”
“No, I don’t want you to take away the pain,” she murmured, gripping his arms hard enough to bruise a normal person. “But thank you. It’s mine and you have enough of your own.”
Those words made him release her so suddenly she fell to the floor in a heap. The absence of his touch and presence was jarring – almost painful after the warmth and comfort that she hadn’t even been aware of until it was gone.
Now Finnick was the one breathing hard. She could hear it even with the music. It was as though they both became aware of it at the same time. He turned off the song, but never once looked away from her.
Was he so rattled because she’d been able to see a hint of his pain as well?
