This Side of the Grave (#5 Night Huntress)

I gave a pointed look at the less-than-aromatic river I was floating in. “Yeah, but I’m still in the water, so it didn’t work as well as you thought it
would.”
His grin widened. “Never said it wouldn’t take practice before you learned how to keep from crashing.”
I lunged for him, determined to plunge him into the water with me, but he neatly avoided my grab, chuckling. Then he hauled me out of the river by
my shoulders. An expertly controlled glide later—showoff—and I was back on the top of the bridge, soaking the metal ledge with my waterlogged
clothes.
“All right. Again,” Bones stated.
I glanced down at the river and then back at him, noticing he was far enough away to avoid any other attempts I might make at grabbing him.
Before we’re done tonight, I promised him silently, you’re taking a dip in that water with me. Necessity might have prompted him to insist on this
extreme form of flying lesson, but his smirk said Bones was getting a kick out of seeing me splat into the river while I struggled to find my vampiric
wings.
“I’d forgotten how much you used to enjoy giving me a hard time in training. Take every cheap shot, every low blow, right?”
His grin became more wicked, confirming my guess. “Be harder to stress you into flying now that you’ve already jumped once. Might have to
throw you off to get your blood up enough this time.”
“Don’t even think about it,” I warned him.
A brow arched. “That a dare, Kitten?”
He was somehow on the other side of me, moving with a lightning quickness that left me no defense. I felt an instant’s strong grasp, a push—and
then I was tumbling end over end toward the river, my curses flowing as fast as the wind and rapidly approaching water.
“Goddammit, I’m going to get you for this! You just wait until I get my hands on you—”
“Sticks and stones, luv,” I heard him call out in reply. Then I smashed into the river, cutting off more of my furious rampage. I came up sputtering
again, seeing Bones hovering over me, this time without even bothering to hold back his laughter.
“You look like a drowned rat. Perhaps you should try less flapping and more concentrating next time.”
“You are so going to pay,” I swore, lunging at him.
“If you want your revenge, come and get it,” he taunted, flying just out of my reach as I continued to swim toward him.
My gaze narrowed. He wanted to play games, huh? Well, maybe I’d forgotten how much he enjoyed being a hard-ass in training, but he’d
obviously forgotten that I was a fast learner. You’ve flown twice before, which means you have the ability. You just need to sharpen it, he’d said just a
short while ago.
Oh, I’d sharpen it. Right now.
I channeled all my plans for paybacks into picturing the air above me as a ladder I could climb, if I could make it solid in my mind. Bones
continued to fly in tight circles above me, asking how I enjoyed my evening bath and pondering that it must not be true that cats didn’t like water. I
ignored those witticisms, continuing to picture the air as something that was malleable.
Energy began to push against my skin, building until it thrummed with the same steadiness that my heartbeat once pulsed inside me. Remember
how the air felt before. It’s not empty space. It’s something you can shape and mold, propelling you up and after him, if you just concentrate hard
enough . . .
When I felt the air above me pulsating in time to the energy in my body, I vaulted straight up out of the water. Bones was in the middle of his next
pass over me and I barreled after him even though he yanked himself backward at the last second. That exultant feeling returned, like a shock of
adrenaline to my system, as I felt the air bend to my will, allowing me the momentum and support to catch him with an aerial tackle that flipped both
of us around.
And then, with a victorious snicker, I tightened my grip and tumbled us into the river, his answering laugh the last thing I heard before the water
closed over us.
Chapter Thirteen
Now I know why you chose a room located all by itself on the roof,” I remarked as Bones dropped us down in a graceful landing on the outside
courtyard of our suite. After several hours of practicing, I probably could’ve managed to land myself, but I might have taken out some of the wroughtiron
furniture in the process.
“Comes in right handy now,” he said, with a meaningful glance at his ripped pants and shirt, casualties of my midair grab on him before. Between
that, our wet clothes, and our dripping hair, we’d give any snooty patrons of the hotel a heart attack if we took the normal way in through the lobby.