┌─────━┿──┿━─────┐

𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 : 𝐎𝐍𝐄-𝐕-𝐎𝐍𝐄

└─────━┿──┿━─────┘

The fog rolled in overnight. It coated the ground in white, the air a startling cold compared to what spring weather we were supposed to be having. The fog stayed heavy until mid morning and broke completely around lunchtime.

Blondie, Winker, and I ate in the courtyard with the sun shining down on our backs but it still didn't warm us completely. The chill in the air was just as heavy as the fog had been. By the time we went to training that afternoon, the chill had fallen back significantly and for a moment, I thought we'd finally get warm weather, but we all knew it would never be truly hot until the last month of summer where the chill would be fighting back through the night.

I couldn't wait for that time.

But you'd never make it 'til then. Foolish of you to think so.

I arrived later that Wednesday afternoon at the church to find Eva looking through her small but growing collection of guns. She had a case with her, proped open on our little table, and was showing Blondie one. The girl held it in her hands and didn't look too pleased but kept up with the engagement and we all knew it was only to appease the demon.

"We're working on one v. ones today," said Winker as I approached. He wore an old lacrosse jersey and I wondered if he'd come straight from practice or if it had been canceled. It was beginning to feel like Twilight, where on our one day of sun, we were all set loose and free from any responsibilities. "Monroe against Cass and Eva against the two of us."

"Who's going first?"

"Me, then Cass, then you."

"What are the odds we beat them?" I asked with a hint of a smile coming to my face as I sized up the way Eva was standing. She looked far too at ease.

Winker matched my smile but this one was pitiful as he sighed. "Slim to none."

Eva placed the gun she'd given Blondie back into the case and turned to face us as we quieted down. There wasn't a smile or indication of any type of happiness on her face and it was even more evident in her voice but it was the most pleased and interested she'd been since we made the knives.

"Today, we'll be focusing on close hand-to-hand combat," she explained, hands folded behind her. "Mainly on only one opponent. This will help us gage whether or not we see that you're fit to continue into this fight. If you lose, which is what we're expecting," her eyes ghosted over us, "then we'll have to go back to the basics. You've been working on this for a few weeks now, you should be more than prepared to keep up with me for the ten minutes I'll be allowing us to spar for. If not, then we'll reassess."

"Reassess how?" asked Winker, his arms crossed. If I didn't know him the way I did, I'd say he was confident in how his fight would go but the way his shoulders were a little too tense and the way he was working his fingers into his forearm told me otherwise.

"More training. More agility work. More one on ones."

"Basically, we'll be worked to death," muttered Blondie under her breath before planting on a smile. "And what happens if we don't perform to your standards?"

Eva, with her hands still behind her back and her posture still just as deadly as before, smiled. "I don't think you'll like our punishments."

Not needing to dive into that because we already knew it'd be something completely undesirable and probably something that'll make us want to vomit after doing, we prepared for the first match.

Winker bent down and made sure the laces to his shoes were tied tightly before approaching Eva in the cleared out space opposite the freezers. We moved the table near the office door so we could sit and watch and bite our nails in anticipation. I sat close against the wall near a nervous Blondie, keeping my eyes trained on the way Eva carefully chose what weapon she'd be attacking with.

Somehow, it didn't make me feel better watching her pick up the knife instead of the gun. It made me think she had a plan for her other weapon and that plan could've involved me. I watched her clean the blade with the end of her shirt before finally approaching Winker.

The whole fight lasted around fifteen minutes. Eva had lied when she said it would've only been for ten minutes because at the ten minute mark, Winker was throwing a punch across Eva's jaw and kicking out one foot. In the end, Eva won, but Winker came out feeling like a champion. He had a cut on his ear and a bruise already forming on his cheek but he was grinning. They had danced and ducked around each other, Winker narrowly missing the tip of her blade more than once. He'd gotten good at dodging, thanks to lacrosse and football, so he had the advantage.

When it was Blondie's turn, her fight surprised everyone.

She attacked first and quickly, surprising Monroe and nearly knocking him off his feet with her charge. Her hand was wound tightly in his hair and her elbow dug deeply into his ribs before he had the chance to even think of an attack plan. For the majority of the fight, Monroe was on the defensive and Blondie was taking each advantage she could. Their fight lasted only eleven minutes and ended with Monroe on one knee and Blondie holding a good sized clump of his hair in her fist.

When it was my turn, Eva only nodded once to tell me it was time. I walked across the room, settling in front of the open space, sweat building up on my palms. Seeing how her fight went with Winker, I wasn't sure I was going to last more than five minutes, probably even half than that. My strength came from Spiorad and without her, I didn't know how I was going to fair. Turns out, I was a bit too distracted with my thinking when I turned to face her.

I didn't even notice the gun in her hand until she had it pointed at me.

I held my hands up and rushed out, "Whoa, whoa! Put that away, are you crazy?!"

Eva turned the safety off with a click and a sickening feeling overcame me in a cold sweat. "Give the girl something she can fight with."

I was appalled when Monroe handed me a knife and I held it out like it was something disgusting as I laughed to hide how scared I was, "How is this fair?! She gets a gun and I–I get a knife?"

"It's a training exercise," said Eva, "it has to be realistic. Not every fight will be fair, learn to adapt." She motioned with the gun for everyone to step back and crowd against the table and wall. "Learn how to stop me with an ordinary knife, even when I have the upper hand."

The gun went off and I barely had time to duck, her aim was for off my right shoulder and I dropped to my left, desperate for the ground. A gasp left my mouth, my knife fumbling in my hand as I got to my knee to shout, "Are you crazy?! You could've killed me!"

Eva smiled darkly. "Isn't that the point?"

The gun went off again and I dove for the ground with a hiss, clamping a hand down on my bicep with a gravelly curse laced on my tongue. Peeling my hand back, there was a thin line of blood against my palm and spreading through my t-shirt. Panic seized my lungs.

"You–you shot me!"

"It's only a flesh wound," said Eva, one hand on her hip and behind her, I watched my friends retreat towards Crow's office. They peered out from safely behind the door as Eva chuckled. "You're making yourself an easy target. Sit there all you'd like but it won't end well for you."

"You shot me," I whispered in a harsh breath, that same panic that had encapsulated my lungs was squeezing down on my heart. It was different from the first time I'd been shot but the memory was still there, painful etched and carved in my skin. My side throbbed.

"And you'll live."

My eyes picked up at that and something calm washed over me, replacing my cold sweat with something hot. She was right, this wasn't going to kill me and maybe this was why she was doing all of this. Showing me that a bullet can harm but it won't kill, you can still fight after, you can still survive. It eased some tension off my chest but not enough for me to be comfortable standing and approaching her and the weapon.

"Now stand and fight back," she said to me, motioning with the gun for me to move. "Get up or I'll shoot again."

"No."

Her eyes narrowed and her head tilted to the side. My god, I was the prey, I was her toy. "Stand." It was a command, a demand, something awful and authoritative that made me want to keep myself rooted to the floor.

I was all too aware of the blood trickling down my arm, getting lost in my sleeve. When I met her eyes and she realized I wouldn't stand, she raised her gun until it was level with my head. I heard the gun go off and I shielded my face and waited for the eventual impact but the sound had stopped suddenly and the room was quiet.

The gray was beautiful, a serene silence and like a cold blanket. I hadn't even felt the headache come on because as I dropped my arm, Blondie was peering down at the bullet stuck in the air inches from my face. She was pressing a finger against the copper, pushing it through the air like something moving through jelly.

"You're lucky I show up when I do," she muttered as she pushed it in a different direction. "It's almost like you're summoning me now with your panic."

"Thank god you're here," I said back, getting to my feet slowly. It was strange how the blood on my arm still bled and a short wave of panic swept over me before it vanished. It only reminded me how easy it would be to be lost here like her, dead and gone.

Pandora looked towards Eva, approaching her slowly. She dragged a finger through Eva's hair and then down her neck before smiling. "John won't be able to stop us when we're like this together, but even with her, I can feel her fighting through the gray." Pandora dropped her hand to her side. "Her skin's vibrating, come and feel."

I walked up to her side, running a slow finger over Eva's face. Pandora was right. Her skin was moving and was generating a strange heat. We watched for a moment and Eva's eyes twitched.

"She's trying to break the veil," explained Pandora with a sigh, "and if she's able to do that, then it'll be easy for John to shatter." She took a step away and examined the demon slowly. "We've been here for a few minutes which means we can hold her off for a few more, which means...?" She was looking at me, expecting an answer and I gave her a blank stare. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Which means we'll be able to hold off some of John's more annoying toys."

My lips parted in realization and she smiled as I said, "Ace."

"Bingo."

"Do you know where he is?"

She shook her head. "They're all foggy, Blaire, you know that." Waving a hand towards Eva, she said, "Take her gun before I go, she's beginning to feel a bit too hot."

I nodded and peeled Eva's fingers off the gun, feeling just how quickly she was now vibrating under her skin, like her bones were rattling. Pandora didn't give me much of a warning before she left but I had the bullets in my palm. The leftover sound from the gunshot went off and I heard the bullet crack into the brick wall behind me as I turned on Eva. The bullets fell from my hand and I threw the gun at her with all my might.

It bounced off her shoulder and skidded across the floor as the demon yelped in surprise. I came at her with my knife and swung carefully, catching her shirt and I watched black droplets veer into the air as the blade glided through her perfectly chiseled flesh.

"Surprise," I said with a grin as she clutched her stomach.

The anger in her eyes told me she was healed and ready for vengeance. She lunged at me, grabbing me by the waist and knocking us both to the ground. She wrestled the knife out of my hands and had it against my throat with a snarl, "How'd you do that?!"

"Do–what?!" I kept one hand on her wrist and the other on her shoulder, trying to push her back the best I could.

"The gun! I could see you, moving in fucking slow motion!"

Her knife cut just barely into my neck and I let out a whimper. She was insanely stronger than me but she wasn't sitting on my hips, she was perched up on her knees. I had enough room to move my legs, to even thrust upwards and knock her off.

"You keep forgetting," I grunted through clenched teeth, readying my hips. "I'm the necromancer."

I was able to knock her forward, rolling to the side to avoid the glide of the knife as she was propelled awkwardly off of me. I wrapped my arms around her waist like she had done me before and took her back to the ground. Pressing a hand against the side of her face, I kept her against the ground as I worked the knife out of her fist with surprising strength. I didn't have much of a plan for what I'd do when I got the knife but it was in my hands and I felt like a winner as I tried to lurch away from her.

But she was sitting up, biting and snarling at the air and I fumbled for the knife. It fell from my hands as she knocked me backwards and the knife clattered to the ground somewhere behind me. It was getting harder to keep her off of me, to batter her hands away from my face.

When we were both finally on our feet, I let out a huffing breath. "You guys keep forgetting what I'm capable of, I've got tricks up my sleeve, you know–"

She swung a fist at me and I barely dodge in time, hearing her hand swipe through the air by my ear. She swung again and I reared backwards, nearly tripping over my feet. How long had we been at this so far? Surely it had to be ten minutes by now.

Eva was getting more angry by the second and I held up my hands, panting slightly, "Listen, we don't have to keep going, okay? You win, we can stop–"

"It won't be done until I win!"

She had me by the neck and on my back with the charging force of a lineman. The air was knocked out of me as I gasped for breath, my vision dancing with black spots as she got her hands around my neck. There was a terrifying moment where I truly believed she would not let up until I died. Even as I clawed at her hands, trying to reach up towards her face to even get a slash at her eyes, she tightened her grip and I felt the pressure build up in my skull.

I brought my hand up as hard as I could, knocking into her jaw and I heard her teeth clatter as she snarled at me like a rabid dog. Her grip eased only slightly and I coughed and wheezed in a few desperate breaths.

"Combustum," I breathed deeply in a scratchy voice.

(Burn. Scorch.)

Eva howled, her hands releasing from my neck as they blistered. She waved them in the air as the spell died but she was off of me and I was able to sit up on my hands to glare and say, "You competitive bitch!"

As she watched her hands heel, I crawled backwards for the gun that had been lying in wait on the floor. I was able to grab it and then head for the bullets that had rolled near the wall. Working carefully, following the way Eva had done it days before, and loaded the bullet. When I turned, finger on the trigger and ready to shoot her down if she came at me, I realized I would never have the chance.

She'd thrown something at me and I stumbled back against the wall in surprise. I'd felt a pressure like this before but this was different. It was much sharper and I could feel it cut and shift with every breath I took. The handle of the knife stuck out of the center of my gut perfectly and I felt my head spin, lightheadedness swirling around me as I slid down the wall.

"Blaire," breathed Eva, "oh god, I'm so sorry–"

She stood up and quickly made her way to me as I wrapped a hand around the knife and pulled. I felt it leave me with a sickening pop but it was all numb by then, even the warmth from the blood pooling in my shirt felt like nothing but soft ice.

"S–screw you," I whispered, my teeth clenched as she dropped to a knee next to me.

"I'm so sorry," she urged, panic now taking its hold in her and not me. "I can fix this."

I pressed the gun into her gut and pulled the trigger before she could even react. She let out a small breath, like she was deflating as she hunched forward. "I...win," I snarled into her ear, noticing the bullet lodged in the ceiling above us.

Eva was hunched over her knees, cradling herself and hissing, but she only gave herself a few seconds to readjust from the pain. She didn't waste time grabbing the knife as her body healed. I was beginning to become envious of these demon fucks with their instantaneous healing, leaving me high and dry, well...not exactly dry. The blood was pooling in my midsection and the world was spinning, black dots dancing through my vision.

"Drink," said Eva in a distant voice, holding out her bleeding palm.

I recoiled back against the wall with a groan. "N–no, I've s–een The Vampire D-Diaries, I'm not drinking that–"

She grabbed the back of my head with her free hand and thrusted the bloody cut into my mouth with her other. Forcing me to take some into my mouth, I reluctantly swallowed. It was thick and tasted like metal, like something stronger than copper, the tinge almost burned. It ran down my throat nearly like fire, like strong alcohol. I felt it hit my stomach and a warm spread over me quickly.

"When the injuries are internal, it's better to consume the blood," explained Eva as she wiped her hand off on her thigh. "You won't turn into a demon from consumption, you know that, Blaire."

"Not my fault I'm all delusional," I muttered with a thick mouth, "I just got stabbed."

The door to the office opened and everyone filed out slowly. Macabre came out with a towel and disinfectant spray in hand as he shook his head at us.

"I told you it'd be better if Monroe or even I went up against Blaire," he told Eva as he handed her the bottle and towel. "You're too competitive with her."

"Like is like," said Eva with a shrug, taking the supplies and beginning to wipe up the bloody mess left on the blood, red and black mixed together. "I'm pushing her."

"To death."

She rolled her eyes and got to her feet and I wondered how easy it was for her to heal and move on. My stomach still felt like it was stitching itself back together. Demon blood liked to work its magic but not that quickly for a human, even a special human like me. Blondie dropped to a knee beside me and brushed some of the sweaty hair off of my face and offered me a weak smile.

"I think this is a good time to ask for the day off on Friday, right?" said Blondie, glancing over her shoulder and at the demons.

"A day off?" asked Macabre with a frown.

"There's a party," said Winker with a laugh, "and Cass wants to go."

She scoffed. "Oh, don't act like you don't want to go either."

He made a face and she made one back at him, earning a laugh from Macabre as he said, "A day off will be good, it'll allow you all to focus on your school work as well as the package Blaire will be anticipating."

I'd almost forgotten. I nodded. "Still meet tomorrow?"

He nodded and held out a hand. I took it and he eased me to my feet, careful to take hold of my elbow when I wobbled for only a moment. "We'll go light tomorrow but prepare for a heavy weekend."

"Even if the package is basically, like, an explosive?" asked Blondie. "And it takes up our entire weekend?"

"Even then." He clasped his hands together, stopping us from walking away as he added, "We need to go over your individual scores from the day."

He offered the floor to Eva who reluctantly came to stand in front of us with Monroe by her side. Her hands were folded behind her back and she seemed annoyed, mostly towards Macabre but she regarded us with a hard stare before she began to speak.

"Luke, you displayed good defensive skills," said the demon, jutting her chin up slightly to appear as if she were looking down her nose at us. "But, you were hesitant to attack. You held your punches and the kick you delivered was weak but effective. Your friends have told me about the sports you play and would you wait for the quarterback to make his throw or would you attack before he could make his move?" Winker nodded and she nodded back, satisfied. "You're skilled, athletic, and you have a defensive mindset that is important for these one on ones, but it's important to throw in a few attacks to beat your opponent. While you can wait for them to tire themselves out, it will be unlikely with a demon. Now for Cassandra..."

Monroe took that as his turn to speak. "Surprising but your attacks were sloppy. You were going for anything you could get your hands on," he motioned to his hair, "and although that worked, it won't in the long run. You had strong attacks and sometimes it's good to come at your opponent first but with John's men, it's best to wait for their advances. We won't know their strength until their first attack. Otherwise, great job." He gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up as Eva turned on me.

"You can't talk your way out of a fight," she told me and I squared my shoulders to keep myself looking at her rather than the floor. "You have no plan, you attack on instinct and with what you think you can get away with. It's worked in the past but you were not dealing with the devil then. John is going to strike hard and fast and with a plan. When you 'wing it,' you're extremely sloppy and rely on petty banter to keep their guard down but..." She sighed and rolled her shoulders, as if she was fighting herself to speak. "...but you show a great defensive mindset as well as skills I wasn't aware of you having."

She shifted her weight between each foot, giving us unbothered looks before Winker asked, "Okay, but did we pass?"

There was an expectant tension running through the room from both my friends. They'd both done better than well with their one on ones, the answer was obvious, even from Eva's critiques. The demon glared at us before she spoke in her usual slow manner.

"We're giving you an off day," she grumbled, "you tell me."

a few short chapters coming up after this one to lead into a big reveal hehe any guesses as to what it could be??

also....rip blaire in this chap, she never catch a break and she still wont in future chaps </33