Protector (12 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Back at the Hunter school and hidden just outside the wooded area she asked me, “Can I tell you something?”

“Anything.” And I meant it.

“
I  am meeting Calum here at ten o'clock.  He was going to take me to see my brother.”

I know.

I need him.  To help me solve all this.

I know.
Doesn't mean I like it.

I have…we were kind of together when I left.

Not on my list of topics to talk about right now.

She squirmed even more with each statement.
  I am not now, obviously.  But I need to tell him in my way.  He is still somehow apart of all this.

To hear her say it was calming enough.

I know.  I waited. 
Hated every friggin’ minute of watching it fold out in front of my eyes.  The pain was like a knife.  I tore up more trees during her time at the Hunter school.

You saw us.

I nodded.  What else could I do? I squeezed my eyes shut.  I wish she would just hurry.  I didn’t even have words to say to her about this.  At least, not nice ones.

I mean, thank you for waiting.  I am sorry. 

You shouldn’t be.  It took me a long time and we needed the right moment to come
. 

She was right, but I would never let it rest easy in my mind.  I managed to tell her,
I'm here now.

But
you can't stay,
she knew to say.

I will be here tomorrow night. Five till nine.  
I kissed her and moved away before I said something about the Hunter I would regret.
 
                           

I watched from the woods.  She
didn’t know I had sensed him near. 

“Ready?” the Hunter asked her.

She jumped, no doubt still thinking only of me.

“Actually, I have a better idea.  Instead of chancing off campus time, will you help me get in the library to do research where no one will see what I am researching?”

Wow!  She was good.  Fed-Ex express thinking for one supposedly drowning in my love.  I would have to remedy that.

“Okay.  Not sure that leaving might be more safe, but yeah, if that is what you need,” Hunter boy answered saying it a little too much for her benefit.  Guess in some small way I got him.  I knew the feeling.
Small
way.

She gave him one of her smiles, but it was fake and nothing like she gave me.

He smiled his ugly mug back.  He tried to put his arm around her and she cringed.

Hell yeah!

“Time.  I need to focus.”  She tucked her bracelet under her shirt sleeve and followed him until they both disappeared through the doorway, together.  She was safe.

I needed to...hit something.

I should have left.  I shouldn’t have eavesdropped.  But I wanted to see for myself.  Jealousy was a poison in itself.

They had to pick the farthest away from the windows.  They were both silent for a long time and Hunter boy watched her every move.  I knew that look.  It was my only way to breathe when I couldn't touch her.  To see her and hear her thoughts made it bearable.

He didn’t have her thoughts.

The Hunter ducked his head to her hair and she rolled her neck away.  He
didn’t waste time.

“Do you still like me?” he asked her.

I held back the outward laugh.  And inside just in case.  Were we all like this when a girl made us into graveling, needy slaves.  Gods, I wanted her right then.  Take her away from him and have my way. I reigned myself in the best I could.

“Yes, Calum.  You have been such a blessing in my life.  I could have never survived without you.”

Sweetness and deviant all rolled into one right now.  That was her. Hunter boy couldn’t see it.

“You
didn’t answer my question.”  The shit kissed her.  I was tearing the wall apart just about to get in when she pulled away and commanded, “Calum,  I don’t know what I think.  I don’t think we should see each other right now.  I need time.” 

Was she not sure?

“But I need you.  I can’t do this alone.”

Pansy.  You
don’t need her.  You need a body bag. 

“Let me show you something,” Stace changed the subject like she could do so easily with anyone.  No one denied her.

She told what all she found on the computer.  She talked of all of us, except me.  Did she purposefully didn’t include me?

They were having lunch together tomorrow.  I was angry
about that too until she asked if her other friends could join them.  Better!

At lunch the next day, I stayed to the shadows and went to see about the
lunch
. 

They acted as old friends.  Jealousy of that alone seethed my lonely heart.  I was always alone.  I
couldn’t have friends and be who I was.  I had friends, but they were just working buddies, nothing else. 

The group gave themselves various jobs to do.

Spy boy would check the warehouse for anything out of the ordinary.  Her friend Maze would sneak into Dr. Green’s files for anything fishy.  Calum agreed to accompany them both.  Anastacia sat this one out feeling it was too close to after the incident. 

Overall, I was satisfied with the distance he kept from her.

Chapter Nineteen

She was dressed in jeans and a pink tank with a pink scarf slid around her pretty neck. 

“I know you are there,” she crooned.

How?

“I'd know that scent anywhere.  Your scent,” she told me.

And I
’m the Vampire.  Who is the predator and who is the prey here?

I lifted into the air with my prize.  I aimed to win her one way or another.

“You never remove your knives?” I asked her as we moved through the night air.

You can feel them.  Do you not like them?

It's not that.  I can’t feel you.  They hide me from you.

Oh!
  she blushed worried she'd receive permanent blush marks.

Most assuredly.

“That could prove very embarrassing.”

“Not to me.  I rather like that I affect you so.”

That you do.  That you most assuredly do.

At Szar
’s door, her father was standing just inside.  His very dark look made the two of us separate fast. 

“I thought I
’d say hello since I missed the previous night’s visit,” he said to her only.  He had never sounded anything but businesslike to me, but tonight he sounded...like a parent.             

“I will leave you.  Have fun.”  He aimed his fatherly eyes at Stace, “It is good to have you here Anastacia, even if not for me or your court.”

Was I letting him down?  I hadn't thought of that before.

Not letting him down.  Just undecided.  He knows that.

Thanks, but still doesn't hide his disappointment. 

He will come around.  And you will too.

What's that mean? She
folded her arms across the front of her.  I followed her arms and she caught my stare.  I liked to watch her.

She glared.

Ouch!

It means, that you will figure all this out.  But for now, we will take it one day at a time.

I enjoyed her arms not covering her front like usual or rather on me so  I held them out wide at my fingertips closing in tediously swift and exact.

“At it again you two?  Normal people will not be able to be around you for the simple fact that you look like mime
’s dancing the tango and doing the horizontal in sign language lingo.” 

Neither of us looked his direction, but Stace barked at him with sisterly love, “Szar!!!  Stop acting like your some kind of parental.”

“Ah, she speaks!  ALOUD no doubt.  Shall we get the speaking parts over with so the two of you can tongue tango without my presence.’’

She blushed and looked at the wall where she thought no one would know.  I would never tire of that. 

He is so maddening.

But he is so enjoying watching you squirm.

My cell buzzed in my pocket.

She turned on me, “And you
’re not?”  And just like that, she was angry like a kitten who let the mouse get away.

I couldn't stop the laugh at her cuteness as I saw Liam
’s text that the bar was clear and no one had died tonight.  Why that place attracted so many humans was infuriating. 

She wrinkled her nose up and growled as if the phone stole my attention away.  But oh, that growl gave me fantasies I shouldn't have just yet, but repeatedly    did.

My eyes must have changed altogether that immediate because her own eyes did the same.  Heck!  That was something to examine later.

“Come on you two.”  Szar led us into his sitting room.  He had a table of snacks out and we all three sat down.  Szar ate half the table.  I tried to remain
a gentlemen and not look like her brother as I saw in her own eyes as a “pig headed fool” that he could no doubt be in front of her.  But it was a show for her, to goad her on and make her riled up.  She didn’t see how much she affected others into gaining her attention.

“I see you know her as well as I do,” I offered.  She huffed at me.

“She is a picky one.  She wouldn't eat if I didn't have what she wanted,” Szar gave his best brotherly laugh aimed at her.

“So what else do we know?” Szar asked Stace in midbite.

I helped her tensed look with, “She wears pink a lot though I prefer the sunshine.”  I was definitely affected by her.

She moved
, I followed. With my eyes.  I didn’t let her leave my sight even when she left the table and swept the room landing back at the table across from me now.  She seemed to sense my intended gaze with a few glances back to see if I was looking.  I made sure she knew I was. 

We are not doing this in front of him unless you're hinting for me to leave with you and head straight for my home.
She made herself busy with the grapes and then turned her eyes down and licked.her.lips.

I came undone.

She recovered enough from our little interlude and told her brother while looking only at me, “I talked with Calum.  Told him most of what we knew.  He knows he is a part of it somehow, but really he already did.  I caught him up on most of it.” 

Uncomfortably she continued, “I found everything you said mostly in bits and pieces on the net.  I think, consider me wrong if you will, that we must talk with the faction leaders somehow.” 

She smiled knowingly at me and I read her thoughts.  She was proud of who I was.  That I couldn't have predicted.

I'm not worthy of that praise.

She drew her eyebrows in. 
How do you figure that?

I never answered.  Did she not she consider me the evil one once?

She continued once more for Szar, “And possibly find out who the next Hunter leader will be.”

Szar
’s bonehead self glanced at me reminding me that we already had the answers she seeks, but would wait till her father gave the okay to share that knowledge.  Even Calum had some limited knowledge now but was lacking in the majority of it.  Anastacia didn’t seem to catch it though I am never sure of what she really catches in the air.  She hides more than she reveals.  Perhaps we are more alike than either of us knew.

She
didn’t pause much, “Talk with the Weres and assure them they haven’t a need to hurt me.  And ask father who he intends to make his title to.  I feel foolish speaking like I know what I am talking about, but we will not get anywhere sitting around and the powers that be seem to be waiting for something.”  She aimed that pretty smile at me meaning nothing but what she dictated.  And her dictatorship was my every command to follow.

Both Szar and I successfully avoided the ruler of the Val court comment she made.  No way was I touching that.
             

“Wow!  You have been overdoing that brain of yours,” Szar snided.

“Thanks bro, but save the sarcasm.”

“
Touchy.  Thorn, make sure to relax her tonight.  She needs a detox,” Szar supplied his own explanation.

Stace
’s chest picked up an even pace of heartbeats that were significantly faster than a minute before. 

“How did you turn out so ill mannered and I…”

“What sis?  What am I?” Szar stood up yelling at her.  Man, he mood swings like a girl when he is with her.

“I see the two of you are still at odds.  Perhaps we will do well to stay away from family business,” I grabbed her arm and glared at Szar.  He went too far sometimes in the piss her off stage.

“Father aims to give you the title.  But recent events have made him question if it will happen.”  Szar was giving her a little more information.  I was mad as hell at him, but his diplomatic ways were at times well thought out. 

He was lying to her.  It would never be hers.  Why was he trying to appease her with something that could never happen?

“Meaning?” she asked her brother.

“He waits to see what you choose?” Szar gave me a glimpse of his regret in his voice.

Anastacia was dumbfounded.

“I see.  Doubt it.  I know you are lying to me.  And I have a feeling that title is going your direction, brother of mine.  I have no desire to be at this court again.  You can rest easy and shut the—

“What about the Hunter title?” he interrupted her.

“Dr. Green will take the title next week.”  I gave up on giving her something too.  This would anger her, but she was at a point she needed to know if her
brother  fueled the first fire.

“NEXT WEEK?” she bellowed.

“Calm down, Anastacia.  He has that right.”  Szar was a putz sometimes.  He had no couth.

And Calum would be next in line.  This is too much.

I moved my arm across her legs to comfort her and squeezed her knee. 
              She asked, “Is there anything else?”

Szar nodded.  “Suicide.  You are not going into the
Were’s den and ask them to please not hurt you.  They will kill you and ask your party what you were there for afterword.  They don’t want this, remember?  We will set up a meeting after talking with father and Dr. Green.  Borgon and his piss ant followers will stop at nothing to take you.   If you are so stupid that your ego is going to get in the way of creating a democracy, then step down and let them kill you now.  It will save some time.”

I gripped her knee tighter.  I had a feeling it would go like this. 

“Okay, fine oh so loving brother.  I know you only mean half of what you say, but please save your snarky comments for someone who freaking cares.  Because it.is.not.me.  For now, I will focus on Green.  But if you are in line for the Val court, so be it. 
I don't want it.
  I want no part of being at this court ever again.”

Szar was offended of course.  She could goad him just as easy I see.  “Why not?”
             

“Because.  It was this court
who hid me.  Hid secrets from me.  Kept me from living life.  Wanted me to be forced to marry who they wanted.  Hid me from friends.  Not you.”   

...
what I would do to laugh at one of the many factory owners who sent their upcoming sons to take over the family business and take a wife of royalty to assure his fortunes.

She laughed out loud still thinking ninety miles per hour in her head.

...here with a Vampire lord holding my hand, my brother next to me possibly taking over my own court, and an ex-boyfriend back at school who would eventually take the Hunter throne.  Was this all planned?  It dang well had to be because no one would believe it unless it all came to pass.  And what of the Weres?  I’d have to figure it out.

“Well, then that is that.”  Szar checked his watch.  “I need to go.  I will leave you two.”  He pushed play on the wall projector and the movie started up.  “Twilight.  Figured you two could bond.”

“Funny!” she scoffed. She turned off the projector.  Szar was gone before she stood.

What's wrong?
I
let my hands fall on her shoulders.

He just tries to make me angry.

And
he
is
always
this
successful
, I told her like it was a question but it wasn’t.

And of course, you know that too.

No, but it's a little obvious.

She turned around to give me a piece of her mind, but I interrupted her open lips and said in into her mind,
Let’s just sit and—

“No.  I want a movie date,” she interrupted my interruption.  I chuckled at her insistence.

I found the perfect one.
She bent over  in front of me sliding the DVD into the player.

Feeling good, I ignored my own hormones and gave into her humor, “I like that one.  Pop quiz, hot shot.  You have a boyfriend who is extremely hungry, wants popcorn, what do you do?” 

She froze in mid step,
Boyfriend?

Um, yeah…what else would I be? 

She paused way too long.
 
“Or not.”  Pissed, I started for the food.

“Cas, I
didn’t mean…I do love the idea.  You just caught me off guard.”

So fast, I closed my arms around her small frame.

“So, is it okay then?” my hair fell in my eyes.

She
didn’t talk to me when her thoughts went haywire.

...
six foot three dark angel was showing a very sensitive “boyfriend” like side of himself.  He wasn't this hardcore heartless lord of the Vampires I had made him out to be all these years. 

“Yes.   It is very okay,” she told me. 
Ja!

I was a happy man even when she mentioned the Hunter
’s name a few seconds later because it was to tell him to get lost since she had me now. 

When the bus exploded in the final scene, I brushed my face against the softness of hers feeling and hearing my overgrown five o
’clock shadow tinge her skin red.  It seemed to have an effect on her as well as when our noses kissed.