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![\"Kicking](\"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Kicking-It-399x600.jpg\")
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Luc stood in front of me in my smallish dorm room in Cadogan House holding a glossy black shoebox and a pair of the sexiest boots I\u2019d ever seen. Nearly knee-high, buttery black leather with pointy toes and stiletto heels long and thin enough to be weapons on their own.<\/p>\n
I stared down at them with obvious lust, but kept my arms crossed and my fingers away from leather I knew would be smooth as silk. \u201cYou bought me boots,\u201d I said, for the fourth time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the shoe fits,\u201d Luc said with a crooked grin, which was just as effective as the curls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need boots.\u201d<\/p>\n
He gave me a flat look. \u201cSince when did that stop you from buying anything? You have five pairs of black heels.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019ve explained this a hundred times.\u201d I counted them off on my fingers. \u201cStilettos, kitten heels, patent, round toe, open toe. A girl needs options.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe point is,\u201d he said, \u201cI don\u2019t care if you need the boots. I just want to see you in them. And clothes are completely optional.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you didn\u2019t need to buy me anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about need,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about want. I wanted to buy them for you, so I bought them for you. There\u2019s no expectation, Linds.\u201d<\/p>\n
I knew he was telling the truth. It was clear in his expression, in his magic, in the way he looked at me.<\/p>\n
I was gifted\u2014or cursed, depending on your perspective\u2014with empathy. It was a rare gift for a vampire, and not always a welcome one. Every bad mood in the House leaked into my subconscious, and I\u2019d had to learn to filter out others\u2019 emotions or risk them overwhelming me.<\/p>\n
So, yeah, Luc was being honest, and I could tell.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t that simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuc\u2014,\u201d I said, but he shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to talk about it again. I don\u2019t want to talk about moving too fast or not fast enough.\u201d He put the lid on the box, and the box on the bed, only a couple of steps away. And then he pulled his best cowboy move, putting a hand around my waist and whipping me against him.<\/p>\n
He smiled cockily down at me. \u201cI\u2019m not afraid of your issues, Linds.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have issues,\u201d I said. \u201cAnd we need to get downstairs. Maybe we should talk about this later.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a walking issue,\u201d Luc said, nipping at my earlobe before releasing me. \u201cFortunately, you\u2019re also a hottie and a very good guard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the best guard you\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n
He shrugged carelessly, obviously trying to rile me up. \u201cYou\u2019re all right.\u201d He walked to the door, opened it, and gestured into the hallway. \u201cLet\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Cadogan House was several stories of European opulence and vampire drama. Situated in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, it was home to nearly ninety vampires. Or more accurately, ninety vampires and the psychic stew they cooked up on a nightly basis. Their happiness, their sadness. Their angst. Their fear. I lived in a cauldron of vampire emotions, in a neighborhood of human emotions, in the third-largest city in the country.<\/p>\n
Collectively, there were a lot of emotions out there.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d been a vampire long enough that I\u2019d learned to turn down the volume, but each person\u2019s mood still bobbed like a buoy in my brain. Little tricks kept me sane. For lack of a better word, \u201cstuff\u201d helped filter out the extra noise. That\u2019s why my room looked like I\u2019d been hoarding souvenirs from my hundred and fifteen years as a vampire. The knickknacks, pillows, posters, and other odds and ends worked like insulation, which was also the reason I spent so much time in the House basement.<\/p>\n
Granted, I worked down there, too, but that was mostly a coincidence.<\/p>\n
The first floor of the House held the offices and public rooms, and the second and third floors were mostly the dorm. But the basement was where the magic happened. Luc\u2019s Operations Room was there, as were the old-fashioned, wood-paneled training room and, my personal favorite, the House arsenal. Weapons galore\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. and even more insulation.<\/p>\n
Luc and I headed into the training room. The other official guards, Kelley and Juliet, were already there and stretching for a workout, with Merit, the House Sentinel. She wasn\u2019t a guard per se, but the job was close enough that she trained with the rest of us. Merit was a relative newbie to the world of vampires\u2014only ten months out. She was finding her place as Sentinel\u2014and as the Master, Ethan Sullivan\u2019s, girlfriend\u2014but she was still learning the moves. She\u2019d picked up the moves of vampire swordfighting remarkably quickly, probably the perfect mix of Ethan\u2019s vamp-genetics\u2014transmitted when he changed her from human to vampire\u2014and her dance training.<\/p>\n
Ethan was also already in the room, shirt off and wearing the same martial arts\u2013style black pants that Luc favored. While Merit, Juliet, and Kelley sat on the edge of the woven tatami mats that covered the floor, Ethan stood in the middle, stretching his arms over his head, flat stomach and abs tensing as he moved.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t fault Merit for her taste in men. Ethan was tall, blond, gorgeous, and imperious as fuck. I appreciated the first three, but preferred a little less control freak in my relationships.<\/p>\n
Luc slapped me on the ass and stepped onto the mats. \u201cEyes on the prize, sunshine.\u201d<\/p>\n
I rolled my eyes and took a seat beside Merit. With long dark hair and a fringe of bangs across her forehead, she was pretty in an almost old-fashioned way. Regally so, like a princess from a different time. It was probably appropriate that she\u2019d been studying medieval literature before Ethan made her a vampire.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did good, you know,\u201d I said, gesturing toward Ethan.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, I know,\u201d she said. \u201cHe reminds me at every opportunity. And with much detail.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apparently not to be outdone by Ethan, Luc unbelted his martial arts\u2013style jacket and dropped it to the floor, revealing that perfect fuzzy chest, the very bitable nipples, and the lines of muscle at the base of his hips that ached for roaming fingertips.<\/p>\n
I gave him a hard time. I knew it. We\u2019d been friends for a very long time, and I didn\u2019t want to lose that connection. In my experience, romance came and went. Attraction came and went. Yes, we spent a lot of time together. And technically, we were exclusive. But I didn\u2019t want to put a label on it, something that would create expectations and lead us to hate each other when we couldn\u2019t live up to them.<\/p>\n
I was smarter than that; I wouldn\u2019t let us fall into that trap.<\/p>\n
Luc chose that moment to catch my eye and wink, which thrilled me\u2014and made me feel guilty at the same time.<\/p>\n
He looked over the small group and clapped his hands to get our attention. Not that that was necessary. His audience consisted of women clearly intrigued by the two bare-chested athletes standing before us, barefoot and ready to rumble. Who wouldn\u2019t pay attention to that?<\/p>\n
\u201cGood evening, my minions,\u201d he said, looking us over. \u201cTonight we\u2019re going to talk evasive maneuvers. Escaping from enemies in hand-to-hand combat, as opposed to trying to get out of House patrol duty on the basis of \u2018fang ache.\u2019\u201d He actually used air quotes. He also looked directly at me, because I\u2019d been the one who\u2019d tried the excuse.<\/p>\n
Vampires had quick healing abilities, which explained why I\u2019d been freezing my petite ass off on patrol a few minutes later.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, it\u2019s crucial to remember that evasive maneuvers\u2014getting out of a grapple, breaking a hold\u2014are all about physics. Using your opponent\u2019s body weight and weak spots to your advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if that fails, just knee him in the grapes,\u201d Kelley muttered. I bit back a chortle, but not very well. Ethan didn\u2019t seem to mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cA time-tested strategy,\u201d Luc said. \u201cAnd if an enemy\u2019s attacked you, he\u2019s given up any complaint about the sanctity of his grapes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGrape sanctity,\u201d Merit whispered. \u201cSounds like the name of the world\u2019s worst sacramental wine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe human body has various and sundry pressure points,\u201d Luc said, raising his hand to gesture, but pausing in mid-motion, his eyes on the door.<\/p>\n
We all glanced back and saw a girl in the doorway.<\/p>\n
She wore jeans, a Loyola sweatshirt, and a dark gray messenger bag slung diagonally across her body. She was tall and sturdily built, with long blond hair, pale coloring, no makeup\u2014and absolutely no need for it.<\/p>\n
I was so surprised to see a human in the doorway that it took a moment to peg her as family.<\/p>\n
Human family.\u00a0. . .<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Order KICKING IT now at:\u00a0<\/strong>Amazon<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Barnes & Noble<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Books-A-Million<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0IndieBound<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0iTunes<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Luc stood in front of me in my smallish dorm room in Cadogan House holding a glossy black shoebox and a pair of the sexiest boots I\u2019d ever seen. Nearly knee-high, buttery black leather with pointy toes and stiletto heels long and thin enough to be weapons on their own. I stared down at them[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2866,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3759","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3759"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7556,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3759\/revisions\/7556"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Note: \u00a0I am an Amazon affiliate and may earn a commission if you\u00a0buy goods\u00a0at\u00a0Amazon through\u00a0one of my links.<\/em><\/h6>\n