Wolfe noticed it too as he made his rounds. “Come on, boy! She can’t try to escape if you don’t try to hold her. She’s not going to hurt you, and you won’t hurt her.”

The maneuver in question was actually one that would’ve been helpful the night I’d been grabbed in the alley. So, I was eager to practice it and frustrated that Adrian kept only half-heartedly helping. He was supposed to put an arm around my torso and attempt to cover my mouth. Unfortunately, his efforts were so weak and his hold so loose that I didn’t need any special techniques to escape. I could have simply walked right out of his arms.

With Wolfe there, Adrian made a slightly better showing as an assailant but immediately resorted to his former ways once we were alone. “Let’s switch,” I said at last, nearly wanting to pull my hair out. “You try to escape me. Make up for last time.”

I couldn’t believe that Adrian’s sluggish attitude had turned out to be the problem here. I’d expected the hang-up would be me not wanting to touch a vampire, but it didn’t bother me at all. I wasn’t thinking of him as a vampire. He was Adrian, and my partner in this class. I needed him to learn the move. It was all very pragmatic. If I didn’t know better, I’d almost say that Adrian was afraid to touch me, which made no sense. Moroi didn’t have those hang-ups. Was something wrong with me? Why wouldn’t Adrian touch me?

“What’s going on?” I demanded, once we were in the car and headed back to the city. “I get that you’re not an athlete, but what happened in there?”

Adrian refused to meet my eyes and instead stared pointedly out the window. “I don’t think this is really my thing. I was all about playing action hero before, but now… I don’t know. This is a bad idea. It’s more work than I thought.” There was a flippant, dismissive tone in his voice that I hadn’t heard in a while.

“What happened to you finishing things you started?” I asked. “You told me you had changed.”

“That was for art,” said Adrian quickly. “I’m still in those classes, aren’t I? I didn’t jump ship on those. I just don’t want to do this one anymore. Don’t worry. Now that I’ve got more money, I’ll pay you back the class fee. You won’t be out anything.”

“That doesn’t matter,” I argued. “It’s still a waste! Especially since what Wolfe’s showing us isn’t really that difficult. We’re not ripping ourselves apart like Eddie and Angeline would. Why is this so hard for you to stick with and learn?” My earlier self-doubt returned. “Do you just not want to work with me? Is there… is there something wrong with me?”

“No! Of course not. Absolutely not,” said Adrian. In my periphery, I saw him finally look at me. “Maybe there are only so many things I can learn at once. I mean, I’m supposed to also be learning to drive a stick shift. Not that I see that happening.”