"Aurora and Shade, I want both of you to attack me" instructed Asher holding up his sword.

Shade and I hesitantly walked forward and stared at him blankly.

"That's not a fair fight," I said trying to work him out.

"Just do it and don't hold back" commanded Asher.

Shade drew his daggers and I did the same, I watched quietly as Shade approached Asher at a run and began to attack. I wasted no more time and jumped into the action. I blocked and attempted to strike blows to disarm Asher but he was incredible, with me and Shade attacking either side of him, he spun, jumped, dodged and attacked fearlessly. He was a warrior.

I swung for Asher again but tripped over Shade who had the same plan, I landed face first in the grass and narrowly avoided Asher's blade as it crashed down towards my back. I sprung to my feet and attacked again, this time Shade was the one to get cut off. He jumped for Asher's unprotected side just as he spun out of the way and ended up knocking me over, sending burning pains all over my body. I sighed heavily and pushed him off of me, he looked down at me quickly before rolling me out of the way of Asher's incoming attack. I got to my feet and faced them to see Asher holding a blade to Shades neck.

"Whats the lesson here?" he asked panting slightly

"Your badass and we shouldn't mess with you?" asked Chase causing small laughs to break out.

"The lesson is that you are stronger as a team" stated Asher as he pulled Shade to his feet.

we all exchanged glances and looked towards Asher confused.

"But... Aurora and Shade worked together" said Sylvia.

"No, no they didn't. It is true that both Shade and Aurora were attacking me, but they were most certainly not working together" said Asher, dusting himself off.

I looked over to Shade and frowned. Of course, we spent more time tripping over each other than actually attacking.

"If they had worked as a true pair then they would have been able to defeat me, their opponent. I chose those two to fight me in order to show you that as a result of their hatred, they would have ended up dead if this were a real fight" he explained authoritatively.

"Now that you know what you did wrong, I want everyone else to attack Aurora and Shade so they can correct their mistakes," ordered Asher.

My mouth gaped open as I watched them line up ready to attack.

He can't be serious, can he?

"I told you this would be hard" smirked Asher.

I snapped back into focus and walked over to Shade.

"I guess we're gonna have to get over whatever is going on between us," I said looking up into his crimson red eyes.

"Good, it was getting old princess" he grinned.

"Alright, just stop with your excessive mood changes and we'll be fine," I said holding back a smile.

"Aww are we gonna be friends now?" he mocked rolling his eyes.

"I think we can stretch for acquaintances," I said whacking his arm lightly.

"Have you two kissed and made up yet?" called Asher.

"We haven't kissed yet but I bet she'd be more than happy to" mocked Shade sarcastically.

The only kiss he would get from me is the kiss of death I thought as I hit his arm again but this time slightly harder.

He rubbed his arm and narrowed his eyebrows at me with a fake pout on his face.

"Ready!" I shouted holding up my daggers.

"Oh, before you start, your allowed to use all of the powers that you possess but don't call your dragons," said Asher slyly.

That confirmed it, Asher was trying to kill us.

I laughed at his smirking face and watched nervously as Zack and Sylvia formed lightning at their palms, causing a storm to ripple overhead.

Shade lightly elbowed my side and I turned to face him.

"Wings" he whispered.

I concentrated hard and made my dark wings form on my back, Shade did the same but to surprise, his wings had the usual immaculate, white feathers. His gaze wandered over my wings curiously before averting back to our attackers. Chase jumped into his gigantic brown wolf and growled threateningly, while Max drew his bow and Verity her sword.

"Begin!" bellowed Asher.

I watched sharply as our attackers began to form a circle around us, I turned away from Shade and we stood back to back, skin on skin.

"This can work, we just have to be smart" I whispered so only he could hear me.

The whistling of an arrow sliced at my ears, I span around just in time and caught the arrow before its round, painted edge hit my face.

Nice try Max.

I snapped the arrow and mentally thanked my vampiric reflexes. I peered up at the storm that Verity and Zack created and smiled.

They are going to regret that.

I held up my arm and absorbed some of the lightning, allowed it to surround me before I stepped forwards and cast it straight at Sylvia who was still struggling to get her wings to appear, upon contact, she flew across the field and landed on her back with a groan. Satisfied, I pivoted around Shade to see that he had struck Verity in the heart centre with his paint bow, marking her out.

Angry that we had already marked two of them out the others lunged forward, preventing us from doing this the easy way. I looked at Shade and he nodded curtly. He had a plan.

He waited until they were almost on top of us before zooming into the air, he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me with him before throwing me onto Chase's back. Chase yelped in surprise and I swiftly pressed my dagger to the part of his back that led to his heart. I leapt off his back, using my wings for extra support and sped around Max, just as I were about to land an attack, Orpheus came out of nowhere and latched onto my foot and began to pull me to the ground.

I screamed in strain and yanked him up into the air with me and flung him towards Shade, who caught him instantly. Shade tried to stab him but Orpheus plunged his teeth into Shades neck causing him to scream out in pain, Shade lost his flight concentration and began plummeting to the ground. I zoomed over to them and grabbed Shades torso breaking his fall, when they were on the ground I grabbed Orpheus by the neck and flung him away from Shade.

"You ok?" I asked stepping in front of him, drawing my bow.

"Peachy" he groaned as his neck started to heal.

I shot an arrow at Orpheus but he caught it easily. He and Max approached us with their weapons in hand while Zack hurled another bolt of lightning.

I gasped loudly and jumped on top of Shaded back, making my wings surround us, my wings absorbed the lightning and I jumped back to my feet. I gently pulled Shade up beside me and he nocked an arrow to his bow.

Orpheus shot forwards again and I shot the lightning at him knowing he couldn't block it and as soon as it hit him, Shade released his arrow which found its mark on Orpheus' chest.

There was only Zack and Max left. I retracted my wings and used my vamp speed to approach Zack but he somehow still managed to hit me with his lightning. I fell to the floor and the static sensation coursed through my body, I forced myself to my feet and swallowed the bile in my thought.

My brain raced frantically, trying to find a way to win. I looked and Shade, who had now healed and smiled on my face as an idea formed.

"Follow my lead" I whispered.

I winked at him and ascended quickly into the air, I soared swiftly above Max, and Shade above Zack.

Without hesitation I retracted my wings completely and transformed into my wolf form landing directly on top of Zack, he collapsed to the ground and I held my jaw around his neck. He held up his hand and I got off him slowly, making sure not to draw blood with my razor-sharp teeth. I looked over to Shade to see that he had also been successful in his attack.

"Well done," said Asher, who had been observing from the sidelines.

I transforming back into my human form and walked closer to him.

"You all have a lot of talent and with a bit of training, you all will be able to kill higher ranking demons with ease. You will make a great Elite team," he said proudly.

"Good work," said Shade appearing beside me.

"Thanks, you too," I said looking up at him with a genuine smile.

He smiled back and the others approached.

"Asher was right! you two do make a great team" said Chase excitedly.

Asher smirked over at us and winked.

"We all make a great team," I said, slapping the hand that he held up in front of me.

We all formed a line and looked at Asher, awaiting our next instruction.

"You're all dismissed for today, see you all tomorrow," said Asher with a smile