Kira, thank you for the encouragement. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one hooked to this story. I hope you will be glad to know that I'm doing my best to finish this story before the next episode airs. So... a few more chapters to do in the next 2 weeks :)

A few weeks into their training, Chris was beginning to despair with Melissa's slow progress. As smart as she was, as sharp as her intellectual reactions were, as well as she was getting to grips with the more theoretical aspects of the "Defense Against the Dark Arts" as Natalie Martin called it, Melissa's combat skills were just not improving. Fortunately, his other pupil was more adept at this so he didn't have to work as hard with both of them.

It took no more than two sessions for Chris to understand that the main impediment to Melissa's progress was her previous formation. She was a healer and even when he told her that she had to imagine herself fighting for her life, her first instinct told her to hold back. His discontent reached an apex a few weeks later, after he showed the two women a few new moves.

"Very good!" he exclaimed when Natalie blocked his attack using one of the new moves.

When he tried the same thing with Melissa, she froze and he had to change the direction of the blow himself or he would've hit her full in the face. Much to his satisfaction, she took advantage of the unbalance caused by this non-tactical move, and she threw him to the ground using the time honored technique of taking a step aside and pushing him, using his own momentum against him.

He hit the ground hard and was about to praise her initiative when she knelt next to him.

"Oh God, are you ok?" she asked with clear concern in her voice and reached her hand toward him as if to check.

He grabbed her wrist, pulled her to the ground and rolled on top of her.

"What did I tell you about pity?" he growled at her.

He was so furious with her for such a stupid reaction that he didn't even notice the usual surge of desire. He pinned her hands above her head and felt like screaming. All the frustration of not satiating the lust she ignited in him, all the bottled up anger for giving up a part of himself to protect her, and she wasn't even trying to learn to stay alive. He let all that dark energy show in an attempt to scare her, to trigger that stunted self-preservation instinct.

"Until the fight is over, you do whatever the hell it takes to be sure that your opponent is incapacitated. Until the lesson is over, I AM THE ENEMY!"

The darkness in him seemed to have reached critical mass and he was no longer pretending. He saw the fear in her eyes, and instead of letting her go, he squeezed her wrists even tighter, making sure she was feeling pain. If this wasn't enough to awaken her instincts, it was useless to try to teach her to fight.

She was almost immobilized under his weight, and she strained to lift her head enough to kiss him on the lips. He was completely unprepared for this and his brain shut down for a moment. The sensation overwhelmed his senses and he closed his eyes. Loosened the grip on her wrists. A part of his brain was trying to pull him back to reality but before it had any success, Melissa had pushed him off her, jumped up and grabbed a crossbow from the wall, aiming it at him.

Still dazed from the kiss, Chris looked at the arrow pointed at him, then further up, at the woman holding the weapon. The primitive part of his brain was howling, maddened by the glimpse of pleasure she had offered and snatched away. The teacher part of him was proud of her resourcefulness. The teacher part was winning and with the return of sanity, came the need to test her again.

He extended his arm toward her asking for her help to get up, in a reverse of the usual situation, in which she was the one needing his help to get up. Instinctively, Melissa lowered the crossbow and offered her left hand to help him.

"No!" he heard Natalie's cry, but the warning came was too late for Melissa to have time to react.

In the blink of an eye, Chris was back on his feet and had twisted Melissa's arm behind her back, pressing her hard against the wall.

"You just don't want to stay alive!" he said in a harsh, defeated whisper, resting his forehead against the back of her head.

Her T-shirt had fallen off her shoulder and he felt his beard scratching her bare skin as he spoke. The disappointment was mingled with arousal, and before he could make a complete fool of himself, he released her and stepped away.

She turned around immediately. He couldn't read much in her expression. She seemed confused and scared. But maybe that was just the way he was feeling.

"You have to decide if you want to be able to defend yourself. Really look inside and decide. It's nothing wrong if you don't do this. As long as you accept that you need to be protected."

He stormed out before she could reply. In all honesty, he was more than content that he was able to be this articulate. He had to hope that at least she wouldn't guess just how much she was affecting him. She couldn't possibly have missed his reaction to the kiss. Hell, he was still hard when he'd pasted her to the wall. She must have felt his erection quite clearly against her ass. Now that he was trying to think more clearly, she probably sensed his attraction if she thought of a kiss as a good way to distract him from the scariest mood in which she had ever seen him.

Something about this attraction was worrying him. He had no satisfactory explanation why he thought that it would be dangerous to ask her out on a date, like normal people but his instincts were warning him to stay away.

He drove back to his place, hoping that Melissa was going to choose to discontinue their practical lessons. His resolve to keep her safe was weakening. He would protect her from werewolves and witches, but he could no longer protect her from himself.