"Booyah!" Mer said as the mixed magic flew from her palm and sparked into each test dummy target before bouncing to the next. Gasping to catch her breath, she brushed her sweat-soaked chestnut curls from in front of her eyes and looked over to Rush just in time for his sigh. "Oh, come on, Rush! I've gotten way better than a year and a half ago. That was a solid dark lightning spell."

The dummies ahead of her smoked from her magic, but the venting in the anti-magic rooms absorbed it. There wasn't much in the training rooms but solid white walls that absorbed or repelled magic depending. It was better that way, so mages didn't ruin the furniture every time they practiced.

"Yes, Meredith," Rush said in monotone. The man was her owner by vampire law, but since she'd chosen to stay with him instead of being returned to her family under the last peace treaty, he'd eased up on his tension around her.

Their relationship was a work in progress, but she was breaking his tough exterior down. Even if he sat there in all his brooding dark magic glory, she loved him. That wasn't to mention the man meat. Since she'd fallen into the world of vampires and mages from her regular life, there had been no shortage of that. Rush had wide shoulders and toned muscles down his arms, leaving him at average build if in a shirt, but when he took it off, sheesh, he was built like a tank.

"You have power and now direction, but you need control." Rush narrowed his lovely viridian eyes because she wasn't paying attention.

It wasn't her fault he was so attractive. With short brown hair that rolled over his forehand and tickled his ears, he had a defined jaw but softer features because he used so few harsh expressions. That, and it was hard to concentrate with him around. Rush didn't normally come to the mage complex to check on her training, so she was more used to him... well... naked.

Rush enjoyed taking his clothes off, just as much as Mer was getting used to stripping him. It was one thing to have her vampire lover tear off her clothes in a heartbeat and pounce of her with hunger and desire, and completely another for her to slowly peel off his shirt, button by button as he waited impatiently below her with growing lust. They played both sides in bed and no one was complaining.

"Powerful mages" –Rush deepened his tone as she zoned off again– "don't wear themselves out with one medium-grade spell. You should be able to cast dozens if you could control how much magic you put into them. If you used that in combat, you would get two to three hits maybe. It consumes both dark and light magic. We need to broaden your abilities to balance your power and not lean on Shiva as a crutch."

Shiva was the weapon that she housed inside of her body, a blade that sprouted from her back like wings and thrived on her mixed magic. It was also sentient and much too interested in her love life, stoking her desire for Rush when she'd never asked. Shiva was powerful, but it could also drain her completely of magic and kill her, so she had to be careful how much she relied on him...it. It was a blade but also a tremendously hot divine spirit that lacked a shirt most times that they communicated in her mind.

Men had difficulties keeping their shirts on around her.

"Rush, I know that, but a little positive reinforcement wouldn't kill you," Mer complained.

She wasn't cut out for fighting and magic, but she was trying. This was all new to her. Before she'd been given to the Shades as a sacrifice to settle some diplomatic kerfuffle, she'd been an average society dwelling college zombie. Not only that, but she housed dark and light magic inside of her, something that was unprecedented for a mage. Operating her body was like a five year old trying to sit up tall enough to see outside of the windshield of a car while pressing the pedals.

Impossible.

"At least I learned how to expel excess light magic so I don't blow your arms off," Mer countered. That had been one of her low points as she learned what it was to be a mage. Most mages learned as children, but she'd learned as a dysfunctional mid-twenties adult.

"That is something I'm glad for," Rush said, leaning back in his chair that he had shoved in the back corner. Despite there being no furniture here, he'd brought his own because he was too lazy to stand. That poor thin wood chair creaked under his muscle weight.

It was only once a month or two that Rush came with her to the mage complex. The mages didn't like him here because he was a dark creature, and he didn't like being conscious in the daytime. Still, he wanted to see how she was progressing and learning on occasion so that he could help her at the castle.

Thankfully, Rush's castle was only medieval times on the outside. The interior was carpeted in the bedrooms, had long rugs running down all the corridors, and electricity in the whole thing. They hadn't exactly integrated heat because as vampires, they didn't need it. The rooms were warmed by hearths tended by the Shade family servants. They had a water heater put in for Mer's shower after she'd begged for months after freezing to death. As much as Rush enjoyed her nipples showing through every one of her shirts after a subzero shower, she did not gain as much amusement.

Every time she showered he had his hands on her breasts in moments, and then she had to shower all over again after they tussled in bed. Rush has zero recovery time between activities in bed, which had to be a vampire thing. In all the things she'd explored in the last almost two years with Rush, she hadn't asked him how stuff worked down there for vamps.

"Meredith has mastered several dozen spells in the last few months," Damien said from the furthest corner, jolting her out of her inappropriate meandering again.

It was so hard to focus with Rush here.

"You could try to be a little more positive." Damien had a hand on his hip and had thus far been brooding in the furthest corner from Rush this morning. Damien was never thrilled to see her vampire owner.

Mer wished she could call Rush her boyfriend, but he hadn't committed to more than physical attraction with her. That wasn't anything she was complaining about. Rush was an excellent lover in bed, very skilled. At times she wondered how many women he'd slept with, but then thought better about asking.

Damien was her father and he had his reasons to hate Rush. Before she was even old enough to know him, her father had been lost to madness that dark magic had wrought on his body since birth. The Arc vampire's leader had changed him and stabilized the dark magic that he'd been cursed with. So, as a vampire, her father had been able meet and spend time with her for the first time.

The dark magic had drowned out her father's once light features, drenching the blue of his eyes with a shadowed grey, and darkening what had been chestnut hair to completely pitch. That was common in mages too though. Her aunt Lia, or Luna, used to have blond hair and blue eyes as well, but they'd been bleached to white by her light magic that fed from the moon. Mer worried she'd soon be part of the Adams family with half white and half black hair. Please no.

For the last six months, they'd been training twice a week, and she was a lot better than when she'd started. They had to focus on not using Shiva for the most part, because he tended to hit too hard and give her less to work with. Yes, his spells were powerful and effective, but only if she stunned her opponent or found an opening first. They weren't all fodder like the idiots she'd killed almost a year ago when Vincent Arc had attacked her family. Those vampires hadn't thought she was a threa, and they had all perished at her and her father's hands.

They knew better now.

It had been hard to keep her existence a secret after Vincent Arc's death, and every vampire house now knew that the Shades had a pet mage to do their bidding. While that wasn't how it was, she just rolled with it. Who cared if they thought she was Rush's personal weapon? At least that meant they would be warier of attacking him, and she liked him alive.

"Don't give Rush too much trouble, Dad. He's been doing some training of his own. I'm teaching him idioms. Isn't that right?" Mer came over to his side and elbowed him, but he remained silent. "Oh, come on, Rush, don't give me the cold shoulder."

"My shoulders are always cold, Meredith," Rush responded with utter seriousness.

"I know we went over that one, Rush," Mer chastised. "You know what it means, so you can't pull my leg here."

"I am not touching you, Meredith."

Mer stared incredulously. "Please, Rush, don't beat around the bush on this."

"Why would I fight in foliage?" Rush craned an eyebrow.

She couldn't help the smile that wrapped her face as she grumbled and returned to her father's side. Rush was so stubborn about change, whether it be admitting he liked her, or using new parts of speech.

"What's wrong, Meredith?" Rush called after her, and she turned to catch the glint of his fangs as he smiled. "You don't like the taste of your own medicine?"

"What have I done? I've created a monster." Mer groaned.

"Remus was a monster before you came along, Meredith," her father countered, and she chuckled.

"You two are the worst people to leave together." Mer dabbed her forehead with a damp towel and stretched as he father and Rush exchanged glances.

Rush hated Damien, because Damien had been an exceedingly powerful battleground mage while alive, felling many of his kind. Damien hated Rush for just that reason, that he was a vampire dating his daughter. At one time, they had been on opposite sides of the same fighting field, but now they were both dark creatures. That didn't change decades of ingrained hatred for each other though.

"Rush, are you heading home to sleep while I eat with my dad and Paul at the coffee shop?" Mer asked.

The sun was starting to get higher in the sky, and Rush turned into a slithering brick under it. Vampires didn't burn in the sun like in the stories, but it sapped their strength and made them horrible conversation partners at breakfast outings. It was like letting aunt Martha bore all the neighborhood kids with stories about her cats.

"I will return to the castle. I would rather have my arm blow off than spend time with a nothing." Rush spat the word as if he'd drank spoiled blood. The animosity was fair though, since Nothings were anti magic creatures that could paralyze vampires with just the sound of their voice.

"You can't freak out when my dad drops me off then. I know you don't like him in your territory, but he still has to come with me when I use my transportation spells so I don't get stranded if my magic goes wonky." Mer had been getting better with her transportation spell, but it sometimes didn't like being cast with mixed magic and dropped her in a random location in the battlefield. If Damien didn't immediately transport her to the right place, a vampire would think she was an infiltrator and off her.

"I won't relish his presence, but as long as he stays out of the castle, I'll tolerate it." Rush yawned and headed with her father out of the training room.

With the antimagic all over the complex walls, no one could transport themselves in or out of it with magic. Rush couldn't leave until he was outside the walls, which made being in the mage complexes dangerous for him. With the peace treaty between his house and the mages in this area though, he was allowed to come and go unhindered.

As soon as they were outside, the sun weighed on Rush, and he bared his fangs in discomfort. Giving her a final brush of his hand over her hair, he slid through a dark magic spell and back home. There, he'd pass out on the bed and not wake until sundown. Some weeks, she lived the opposite schedule with him, but with her training at the mage complex she had to be up during the day. It wreaked havoc on her internal clock.

Paul was waiting outside for them, and she ran over to jump into his arms. His long green hair tickled her face with its black tips before he released her back to the ground. A lifetime ago, Paul had been there for here at the coffee shop every morning to greet and talk to her about her troubles. As a child, he'd walked her to school, helped her with her homework, and been her confidant.

Beyond all that though, Paul had been her father's best friend in his human life. Damien had sheltered Paul when he'd been an orphan nothing, protecting him from the mages that sought to use him, and Damien had asking nothing in return but a decent pot of coffee. That was how Paul's coffee shop had started, and when Paul had feared Damien dead, he'd loyally watched her in his place.

They were the closest friends, so Mer wasn't surprised when Paul slid up and jumped on Damien like a child. Paul was only a few years Damien's junior, but the nothing man looked up to her father with reverence. Since Paul had learned that Damien was still alive, he'd reattached to his side. Unfortunately, Damien lived in vampire territory, and Paul couldn't go with him. As such, they valued their time together when Mer trained.

"How did it go today?" Paul asked as they headed into the coffee shop that was just a brisk walk from the complex.

"I can off people, but it still exhausts me." Mer frowned, sitting at a table as Paul made her and her father coffee.

Behind the counter, Caelan was navigating the other customers like her did every day that Paul came to meet them. The well-muscled nothing-lycan half-breed had emerged a bit from his shell since they'd met, and he drew in customers like moths to a flame. With his spikey gold hair slicked back and tied for work, he'd dropped his normally snide looks for friendly smiles at the customers. He laughed at one and it glittered into his blue eyes. Mer had to wipe the drool off of her chin, and Cael flicked her a knowing smirk.

Caelan was her guard dog, literally a lycan who lingered wherever she went if Rush wasn't with her. The man could also read her mind constantly, as could Paul. Both had gained the ability through a strange spell that involved her full name and them consuming her blood. Sorta of gross, but both men protected her fervently, so she traded a bit of privacy for that feeling of safety.

"How are things at... home, Damien?" Paul asked as he came back with their coffees.

She guzzled hers immediately, enjoying the roll of caffeine into her bloodstream. If Paul didn't make hers cooler than normal people's coffee she'd destroy her throat, but he knew her too well.

"It's going well," Damien smiled but dipped his eyes in a way that had Paul prying immediately.

"Come on, Damien. I know you too well. What's up?" Paul prodded, nudging his hair with a hand. The man had plopped down right in her father's personal space but neither of them minded the closeness.

Home for Damien was the Arc territory where he served under Neil Arc, their new house head since she'd killed his father, Vincent Arc. They had all worked together to down the tyrant, so Neil didn't hold a grudge against them, but he was also a vicious little Schnauzer sometimes. Under all of his vampire pride and bravado, Neil was sort of adorable. They'd become friends over the last year and a half, though his friendship was still hesitant with a mage sacrifice as he called her.

"It's just... Neil has been spending more and more time awake during the day to grow stronger, which is good but..."

"But?" Mer asked, remembering how Neil turned into a violent self-preservation machine when woken from daytime sleep. It was actually quite frightening how his mind wasn't there.

Damien rubbed his face with his hand. "Neil doesn't want me anywhere near him. He goes off places all the time, and I worry he's gotten himself mixed up in something dangerous again."

"You know that Neil joining angelus last year was just a front, Dad. You worry too much about him," Mer said, patting his hand and he groaned.

"I know, but he's distanced himself since then. I worry that my not trusting him has formed a rift between us, and I want to fix it. Every time I offer to train him to be stronger or ask to go with him in the daytime, he sputters some excuse about needing to go it alone. The man keeps saying he needs to be independent, but I fear he is just keeping me from something."

"Maybe he has a girlfriend?" Mer joked and Damien spit his coffee all over himself. All three of them laughed, Paul, her, and Cael behind the counter.

"I do not want to think about that possibility," Damien said as Paul toweled him off like a servant. While her father tried to get him to stop, Paul whistled and froze him with his power to finish cleaning him off unhindered. "I'd rather he be off causing issues with mages," Damien growled when he was able to move again. "Those are much easier to deal with than a female vampire getting a power trip off being the mate of a house head."

"I mean, how much trouble could Neil be causing with mages?" Mer chuckled. The last she's seen on him, he'd been so weak he could barely defend himself, but that had been almost two years ago now, way back when.

Perhaps he'd gotten stronger?

Nah.

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Word Count: 3136