Walking out of the school, the Furies automatically headed for Raven’s Rest. It was too late to go to Ludus Noctis and the Cherries would understand if he missed a session. Cesare knew they’d hear about the meeting long before Cesare had to explain why he missed class.

Alexandra peeled away from them as they entered Raven's Rest, heading for the dummies. Cesare got Anastasia set up on her cushion before making his way to the vampire.

Alexandra was on the cusp of a new normal. She was so used to being stagnate that she hadn’t realized she’d been breaking limits for weeks. She was ready to take the next step along the path to a legend. All he had to do was push her to use it without getting killed.

Cesare knew she was aware of him, a tingle across the skin, a tightening in the air, it spoke of two predators sizing each other up. There was no such thing as safe when you were a killer, there was only not today. Cesare's body shifted, a subtle tilt to the head, a grounding of the foot, saying what needed without words. A challenge that another killer, a predator, would see and respond to.

Turning slowly with lethal grace, Alexandra faced him. This wasn’t a spar, but it wasn’t for keeps either. It was in that gray area that so many fights fell into, not life and death, but blood would still hit the ground. Flesh receded from her face; starvation done in fast forward. Cheeks hollowed out; eyes cast in shadow from cavernous sockets. Alexandra’s skull cut in stark, razor sharp relief as scarlet power filled her.

The Root Chakra spilled hot power into Cesare. The world transformed, eyes, ears, and taste, disappearing as Aleph stripped them from his consciousness, supplanting them with its dissecting vision. Void black devoured the blue of his eyes, leaving only pits of abyssal midnight. Splayed out around him, reality quivered under the cold, uncaring knowing of Aleph.

Veins of parasitic needs spasmed with power as Beth surged her power into meat. Lifelines went black as she claimed his body, stygian black rushing down fleshly paths, their claiming mirrored by her dominance of his nadi. Unhallowed power wedded itself to muscle, hardening bone, sheathing skin cells in eldritch energy old before time was birthed.

Black yoga pants molded to Alexandra’s thickly muscled legs and sculpted ass, the mass of power shifting and rippling as she readied herself. A black tank top left her hugely muscled shoulders and arms on display, a black sports bra keeping her breasts in check as she eased forward hungrily.

Staring into those greedy eyes, Cesare knew this wouldn't be easy. He had to force her, to hurt her, bleed her, and try to break her, only under stress would she reach beyond herself. Pressure and heat made iron into steel.

Cutting through the air with a rush, she came for him. As soon as she got in range, she let loose with a jab packed with enough power to rupture flesh. That was the problem with fighting Alexandra. She was so monstrously strong, even her jabs could send him sprawling onto the ground bleeding. She didn’t need to rely on power moves. She could settle for quick, darting strikes, confident that her overwhelming strength would make up the difference.

Knifing into her side, his stiffened fingers tore muscle as he side stepped out of her angle of attack. He had to pull her apart, tear at her flanks and cut into her support structure. Even as the thought flowed over the side of the moment, Cesare twisted to the side, barely dodging her follow up punch.

Moving with him, she kept up the pressure, barreling through his strongest blocks with horrific ease. She set the pace for the simple reason that he couldn’t contain her. Each strike she landed, tossed him around with an ease as frightening as it was common. He was a child going against a grown man, that was the gulf between them. Punches staggered him, forcing him to scramble to keep his feet. Kicks sent him rocketing away, rolling to bleed off kinetic force.

Cesare focused on being where she wasn’t, only attacking when she'd missed and was recovering. His punches lanced into her body, tearing hardened muscle, hammers of bone sending the vampire reeling back, kicks pummeled her legs, each forced her to keep a steady supply of healing blood moving through her flesh.

Cesare was getting his shit kicked in even with Beth running over his skin, protecting him from the worst of it. Alexandra was a meat grinder; you might avoid the blades for a second, but eventually she’d chew you up. Abraxas had found that out the hard way.

Slipping around a kick that would have sent him to the ground, his elbow came down in a crushing blow against her knee cap. Shattering under the force, the leg flopped grotesquely as Alexandra staggered back, eyes wide at the hit. They had an unwritten rule to never go for the kill, they might come to the edge, but they never crossed it.

Fury warped her face as her leg flexed, bones realigning, muscles snapping into place under the power of her vampiric blood. Charging forward, she came for blood. Bone breaking power was thrown into her punch. Ducking under her arm, Cesare slashed at her thigh, a quick, precise strike parting muscles under his fingers.

Rolling away from her knee at the last moment, Cesare caught her foundation leg with his arm, lifting Alexandra off the ground, sending her crashing to the ground. Surging up in a blur of rage, her front kick was too fast to dodge and too strong to stop. It caught him in the stomach, throwing him into the air, he was still tumbling when he hit the ground.

She was there before he’d even gotten to his feet. An arching elbow came down with enough power to split his head open. Dodging to the side, he leapt up and came down with his own elbow, her shoulder joint parted under the force of the hammering hit. Her arm gave a sickening crunch as it popped back in place under the vampires will.

Coming back at him, she swept a kick forward, too powerful to stop, snatching her foot as it passed, he twisted the ankle, snapping it under the vampire’s own power. A follow up kick rocked her head back, tearing through her balance, sending her stumbling back. A low hiss sounded from the vampire, fury bleeding into lethal intent.

If he hadn't had months of experience fighting her, Alephs senses, and Beth's protection, he'd be long dead. He knew how she fought, what her go to moves were, could feel the muscles twitch in their sheaths of fat. The difference between him fighting her and anyone else less than a carved second, outcome long since determined. But this was the only way to get her to shatter the chains she'd woven into her flesh. To drive her insanity into a frenzy of savage need by hurting her.

Rushing him, jabs streaked through the air, a set up for the big take down. Normally he’d be able to avoid being maneuvered but not against Alexandra going full out, she'd shatter his arms if he tried to stop her. She harried him, pushing him back into a corner of the fence.

Lips tight in a barbarous smile of glee, she unleashed her big guns. A kick hit his ribs, muscles turning to pulp under terrible power, ribs cracking as soft tissue ruptured. Her punch snapped his head to the side, splitting his lips in a burst of blood and pain. A follow up punch caved in the side of his face, skin ripping and tearing, Cesare staggered away in a desperate need to flee. Only luck kept her from cracking his skull from the punches, the slightest angle of chance keeping them the punches from connecting fully.

If she’d let him go, she might have won. But Alexandra was caught in her fury. Grabbing him by the throat, cocking her other fist back, murderous need lit her eyes with a cancerous glow.

Instinct, training, and the clawing power to live joined together in a stark, hopeless moment of time. His arm came down on her elbow, snapping the joint and releasing him from her grip. Cesare’s knee flashed up, body jackknifing, piercing her cabled steel abs and tearing into the organs behind them. Twisting, hips leading, core crying out in agony, his elbow hit her face, fracturing cheek bones and an orbital socket.

The damage added up quickly and her own survival instinct kicked in. Alexandra staggered back, looking to open space to heal, but Cesare wouldn't let her go. Threading through Alexandra’s desperate strikes, his own fists flowed from a core as hateful as a starving child’s eyes. Punches stabbed into her sides, parting connective tissue, digging into the vulnerable places beneath. Knees thrust forward, each a ram fueled by a need to see her bloody and broken.

Under that onslaught, she pulled from her body what she’d never had to pull before. Only when you’re on the bleeding edge can you know yourself. Everyone has parts they never face, slices of themselves dark and mean. You only know how far you can go by being broken.

Exploding, she swept both her hands out, fingers stiffened into claws, air whistling as digits sliced, missing taking off his face by an inch. Warping, her face healed along with her body in less time than it took to think it. Straightening with confidence, a new power thrummed through her body as she gave a vicious hiss of satisfaction.

He could see it in her, feel the threat she posed ratchet up as instincts blared at him to run. But if he ran, she'd follow, and she’d kill him. It wasn’t just her instincts but the madness threading her soul. Monstrously deadly, she killed as a way of life. If he wanted to survive, he had to face her.

He let his stance go, he couldn’t fight his way out of this. As she was, he could only buy time. But now that she had tapped into her new normal, she was leagues ahead of that. Stronger, faster, harder to hurt, her body saturated with murderous power unfettered by sanity. Alexandra's own stance was unwavering. Glaring at him, legs tensing for a rush of insanity fueled slaughter. “You going to murder me, killer?”

The nickname jarred the insane light in her eyes, the sickly diseased flame flickering. “How do you feel?” Quiet and dark, the words smoothed out the air, velvet wrapped poison and black despair with stars of hope. “This is the strength you’ve earned over the past months; this is your new reality.”

Insanity warred with less civilized things in her eyes. Dragons of instinct, lust, and hate, savaged each other as the vampire trembled under the force of her own heart. She wanted to kill him, needed it the way a man needs a woman’s wet warmth, yet, her heart and soul fought against that ravening need. The torment spiraled, cutting her insides as she struggled under the power of the conflict.

Alexandra's stance hardened in readiness to kill even as Cesare stepped forward into her strike range. Reaching out, he smoothed her hair back as he gave a slow, gentle smile. There were no words that could be spoken, those that lived in the dark knew words were venomous things never to be trusted. Actions were the only thing that mattered to the lost.

Alexandra’s muscles locked as she pushed against the sable tide of madness, her determination gaining power with every caress. Slowly, agonizingly, she rose above the black sea of crazy, eyes clearing as she asserted her dominance over psychotic needs.

With recovery came understanding. “You did this to show me.” Standing his ground, Cesare nodded grimly, unwilling to stop his hand from running down that golden river of braided silk. “I was going to kill you.”

Smiling, Cesare stared into frantic, despairing eyes. “But you didn’t.”

“There had to be another way,” Alexandra said, anger at herself and him twisting together.

“You’ve been able to do this for weeks Alexandra, you wouldn’t see the signs for what they were.” Cesare stopped; words soft as baby’s breath. “Too many people have given up on you, you’ve struggled for so long, that in your heart, you’d given up too. I had to drown you in your need to kill. Only when you reached the purity of that rage, could you break the walls you’d put up.”

Her eyes gleamed with unshed tears. “I’ve been stuck for years, no improvement, no steps forward, no matter what I did. After only a bare few months of training with you, I break the mold. There are knights who took decades to reach what I was, and even more than a century elder to me before reaching where I am. What took them the span of human lives to gain, you’ve given me in months.” Looking down at her fist, she clenched it with sadistic satisfaction.

Reluctantly, he pulled his hand away from her hair and stepped back. Snatching his hand, she searched his eyes. “You knew if you pushed me, I’d come for your throat.” It was a statement, the truth, a raw, pulsing thing between them. “No one's ever been willing to die for me. I’m supposed to die for them.”

Cesare took in the volatile mix that spilled from her eyes. “I’d never let you die for me. You have everything ahead of you, and I have nothing. If you thought for one moment, I’d let you give up your future for a nothing like me, you need to think again.” Tightening his grip on her hand, he pulled her close enough that his breath flowed over her face. “You’ll make it out of here alive. I'll make your dreams come true, even if I have to drag you there with deaths scythe flaying the skin from my bones.”

She stared at him in shock. “I don’t deserve that; you know what I am …”

He cut her off. “You’re my friend. That’s the only thing that matters to me.”