Protector (4 page)

Chapter Six

I am completely and madly in love with this room.  Heaven on earth!

“Self inflicted or the giver?”  Hearing the words “madly in love” coming from her lips made me body twitch on it
’s own.  I wanted her to say that to me and hearing it from her mouth, or even thoughts, made it even more so.  In fact, it seemed to drive everything I do since she was in danger less than twenty-four hours ago.

“Huh?”

“You enjoy the pain or dishing it out?”

“Neither,
Thorn
.  I enjoy my thrills in other ways.”  I could tell that didn’t come out the way she intended sending an accommodating blush up her cheeks and even in her eyes.  “I mean...I simply...enjoy the sound that the wind makes when the blade sizzles through the air towards my target that I assure you, I never miss.”  

Her angered kitten lashed out and backed me two steps with her finger to my chest trying to redeem her outburst, “I get a thrill when the whistle of my arrow makes a split opening my opponent
’s arrow.  I tremble at the thought of pegging my target with the sharpest pebble in the sack gouging out marks of the targets predecessors.”  Then she asked herself a very important question that I personally would love the answer too,
What was with this boy?  He gets me so mad.  Pushes all my buttons.

“
Well,” I pushed against her finger, “I can see perhaps I have met my match.”  After all, she was quite the ninja princess as a young child and the skill had only developed.

“Not hardly.
”  She curled her brows up and drew in her lips.  When she zeroed in on my eyes, I caught a spark in them.  I wondered then which way that spark went.  Me or the chance at the weapons.     

There are lights in here, right?

“Only to block the sunlight.”  I bent to pick up the weapons I had left out from cleaning the steel yesterday.  Her mind told me exactly what she was eyeing on my backside and she hated herself for it.  I didn’t. 

Try blocking! 
She wasn’t happy I knew any of this. 

Blocking!  Blocking!  Blocking!

I chortled at her useless efforts and tried to ease the strangeness in the air by readying the room for her.  It worked for her for the moment, at least. 

I could get lost in here and never leave
. 

“You
’d get hungry.”

“But I
’d die happy.”

“Would you?” I challenged her happiness.

“What would you know about my happiness in life?  I don’t know any other life.”

“Maybe I know more than you give me credit.  However, I
don’t see me convincing you of much, Kissa.  Your tough exterior does not match the inside.  You should let others see your light more.  It shines brighter than most would guess.”

“And I suppose you have seen a lot of lights in your time.  Conquered many?” 

She must like me if she is jealous of the unknown.

I solidified the hold on the knives in both my hands, “No, no lights in my eternal darkness.  You are the first and only sun in my sky.”  I mumbled the final words hoping for her to catch them and also not.  I was such a sissy. 

I moved on to easier things to talk about as I opened the top drawer to the small kitchen area and yanked out a bar of chocolate, “You have chocolate!” 

How did you know?

I shrugged off the happy note of her shocked face, her face paling more than usual but more from anger she held back.  I hoped that she did this because it was me.  I would hate to be on the receiving end of her real anger. 

She kept chocolate in her bedroom (not that I had been there), her weapons room, her tutoring room, and everywhere in between.  Szar questioned my asking him.

Her own excitement picked up as she neared the target for her knives, her hand in a spasm.  Maybe it was the still there anger.  She was good no doubt, but what about with distractions.  I watched her throw two of them dead on.  Her own, not the ones I had laid out for her. 

“What
’s next?”  Her inner ninja was feeling arrogant.  She was better than that even.

“Again!” 

“Why?”

“All of them.”  I hadn’
t meant to look at her shirt, but I knew what awaited there.  It made my body twitch with knowing she might pull the rest out now...in front of me.  When her shirt lifted for the two knives she had just thrown I couldn't help but have a fantasy of my own.  And now...she would wonder
how
I knew.

Stuck in my fantasy, I realized a second after the fact that she was headed over to retrieve her two knives she had just thrown.  Using vampiric speed had its advantages.  She didn
’t stop herself to use me as a crutch and I didn’t bother to deter her. 

“Whoa, Superman!”

“It comes in handy with opening the doors of higher ups, being a gentlemen, and getting chocolate for certain individuals who require it for their heightened adrenaline rushes.”

Higher ups.  Harrumph!
“Whose house is this?”

I ignored my own folly and her question.  That
would
build a wall.

Was I just a “higher up” in his eyes?  Surely not!

“Hardly, Kissa.  You happen to have been born into a life you didn’t choose, but everything at this point is completely your choice.”

“And you chose your path?”  She rolled her pretty green eyes at me. 

“No!  It was chosen for me,” I answered her this time feeling safe with the question.

She raised just one brow at me, “And you have no choice in what is to come?”

“No, you make that choice for me.”  I whispered the absolute truth knowing she read my fear.  She thankfully thought that she didn’t want to know more now.  I relaxed my tense shoulders.
 

She held my gaze as she took the knives I had retrieved for her and then bent over in front of me to pull out of her shoes her #3 and #4 as she called them.  I followed her as she removed #5 and placed it beside #6 knowing all too well where they were kept.  More fantasizing took place. 

She was testing my knowledge of her since she knew now I was more aware of her then any normal new acquaintance should have.  Three inches from me she arched her back making her chest rise in my direction.  I would have freaking fallen apart right then if I wasn’t so sure she would do more.

She
was noting the yellow in my eyes and found it fascinating.  One second it was my eyes, the next she was counting in her head.  Her scream was quiet but to anyone else she was deadly.  To the enemy who crossed her...lethal.  If she could tame the rage when the time came.  I couldn't force my body to move when she didn’t throw a single one. She came out of her stance and shook her hands out as if to limber them up.

Your move first, Romeo. 

I blinked at her odd reference to me then jumped up and snatched her knives. 

MINE!
 
What are you doing? 

I fixated on her holding tight to my pirate
’s gold and wanting the island princess more than the tangible treasure.  She
was
tangible treasure.  

I counted as she did and steeled my gaze on her till every single target was met.  Her eyes left me only to check for accuracy. 

Impressed, but what else can you do?  And why do I care?
 

She questioned her appeal to me but I knew it was there.

I handed her the bow from the range.  I handed her two arrows and kept two for myself. 

Do you know what to do?

Do you?
she laughed inside.  I knew she did, but antagonizing her was such a thrill.

I arched the bow and she followed my lead.  Inside I heard her count and she heard mine. 
One.  Two.  Three.  Release.

In sync till the second the arrows hit.

Impossible.

Is it?

Again?

I arched back for the second time with the second arrow.  She was one hundred percent working off adrenaline now, as I.  I counted off.  Her heart rate increased super express mode in a matter of seconds and alarmed me, but I readied my arrow and listened to her own counting.  One. 
two.

Are you going to kiss me?

Chapter Seven

The bow bellowed backward sending the arrow straight into the target but the bow made the only sound left in the room as it slapped the ground. 

Impressive.  I heard distractions were an issue for you. 
My eyes must have grown because she said,
Yes, I can hear too.

My threshold for keeping my hands off her was getting dangerously close to nonexistent.  I flipped around facing the new look on her face I had never seen made around me.  Fear gripped her.  My hand braced my leathers to keep from attacking her.  I wanted her.  I think she knew it too.  Her too patient smile formed on her lips that I
didn’t deserve or should be trifled with accepting. 

She took the lead since I was caught up and fully tangled up in her.  Someone had too.

“Shall we?” she left without a thought and walked to the slingshot, readied, and fired without counting. 

When she turned for an appraisal I was hard as stone pressed to the place where she left me.  All the frigid locked up feeling inside released when she thought of the Hunter. 

Stunned
. 
Calum...pain.  What am I doing with this guy?  And a vamp, no doubt.  And why do I feel the need to keep asking myself this same question?

Her words lifted my feet in her direction as I managed to copy her lead.

“Swords!”

I was joking with you, Thorn.  I
didn’t mean to scare you.

I
didn’t mean to ignore her.  I just didn’t know how to respond to her turn-about is fair play attitude.  She was doing to me what I had planned for her. 

Guess I was off the mark in thinking you were a nice guy. 

My head snapped back to the present.  I rolled the drenched sleeves of my shirt up a notch.  When she saw the scar on my shoulder her curiosity peaked.  It wasn’t a very old scar. 

That was courtesy of you also.

“Me?”  

Later
.  I was spent from the small amount of affection she afforded but guarded.  I couldn't afford to give it back and be rejected in such a way that I couldn't return from it.

“No, you promised me answers today,” she demanded pouting her bottom lip out but trying to look angry.

Threshold, NONE!

I played on her hidden teasing and refused to hide my laugh hoping to join her in the game.  “Your eyes darken when you
’re mad.”

And you are the authority on me now?  You seem to know my face better than me.

I  shrugged.  “Swords and we talk.  Deal?”

I will get all the answers.  I have ways of making people talk.

Oh, how I raised my eyes at her sweet threat.  I wanted to come back on that statement with a vicious delight.    She smiled back like she might be having fun with this little parade of hers.  Her flirtatious side was delicious and self-satisfying as long it was only with me.   However, I don’t feel she is to the level with me as I am with her.  In fact, I don’t think she has even contemplated it. 

“Deal?”  I asked her again as she finished her little banter of the mind. 

“Deal!”

Feeling out that she knew the mats well enough to practice on, I laid out her sparring gear and offered to help her get it on, but she smirked at me and completed the task on her own.

She considered what she could do that I wouldn't see coming.  Of course, she knew I could read it before she charged forth.

“Any chance I can have that ring before we start?” she asked.

Under my breath I rattled a sound that probably registered more of the devil may care desire that was rising in me each time she batted those sexy eyes my way in an attempt to gain something. 

Guess not.  Fine.
  “Begin!”

Already
there, my little lioness.  She matched my every move and I hers.  Equal ground when in full concentration.  After an hour of a pure rush on both our parts, we thwarted each other between breaths and continued. 

No one could give me this much freedom to unleash.  This is amazing.

I know!
I told her.

Neither of us had spoken since we started except a few moves I let her have to make her feel stronger with a heads up telepathically.  I kept my mind open for the sparring moves ability to group her predict my moves.

She stepped out of bounds and so I twisted her hands across her back and bent her over sideways with the sword in her neck in a very compromising position that I rather liked.

“That is why you can
’t have the ring.”

“Why?” she strained her voice towards the ground. 

“Because you match my every skill.  If I can predict your move simply off your thoughts, and mine, you will never survive. I want you to know how to make
you
unpredictable.”

“And why would I want
you
to show me?”

“Because no one else can.”

“You cocky, sly…arrogant, ever?” she huffed and dug her fingers into her side.

“Simply giving you “freedom to unleash” your awesomeness.”

“Compliments give me hives.”

“Remind me to refrain then.  I wouldn't want to cause you discomfort.”  Though she should have more to accentuate that lovely face even when she was tiger mad, just learn how to receive them.  It was a shame that no one had ever doused her with the loveliness that surrounded her.  I thought about the fact that I could be one of her first perhaps and she wouldn't ever think of any other at hearing them.  I resolved right them to remedy that little problemo!

Yes you would,
she thought
.
“And what makes you think I will continue to go along with anything you have to say?”

“
Your choice, always.”  I have never considered myself completely moral being what I am by nature.  The term moral and Vampire just don’t hang out in the same corners.  But I don’t judge lightly either.  The laws that surround the supernatural are guided down different paths than that of the human court systems.  An eye for an eye was taken literal. 

I have my own set of guidelines.  Laws.  Code if you will.   She would always have a choice. 

She harped even now on the idea of having that choice as if she wanted me to force her to do something giving her the open to clear the room, house, area anywhere near me.  It would never happen.  I was selfish and that self-seeking attitude applied only to her.  Consider it dishonorable, but I was unwilling to give her up.  Never let be disguised as anything else.

“When will I get to leave?” she almost shouted.

Never if I had my way!  “A few more days and your friends will be here.”  I let go of my grip on her.

She hid her face from me and I dearly believe she blocked her thoughts.  Then, like magic they were back.  She
didn’t want to stay here. 

“Are we done?  Can I clean up?”

I started to clean up the room in silent defeat.  She thought of her own selfish needs from her time at court where she never cleaned after herself.  I had always wanted to give her a good slap on the backside for being inconsiderate to those most loyal to you. 
Arrogance!
I told her mind.

She whipped around on me, too close.  “How dare you?  You kidnap me, force me to stay with you, make me show my supposed worth, and now judge me!”  She
didn’t appear to hold back. 

“Anastacia, I
didn’t kidnap you, I volunteered to house you, I am not forcing you, you could have left at any time, I know your worth, I don’t need it proven, and you have judged me from the moment you laid eyes on me.  If I offend you in any way, feel free to lock yourself in your room, flee if you have too, or realize that I have our best interest at heart in more ways than you will ever know.  I will remain in your service until my last breath leaves my body.” 

Her breath hitched as she asked herself more than me,
What the heck does that mean?

Angry and feeling like an ass, I turned and went up the stairs leaving her standing on the stairs.

When she didn’t move I waited till she made up her mind to follow.  Did she not know I would stand here all night if I had too?  Mad as I was, I saw her face and it all disappeared.  Yet, I let her walk right by.  I heard her scream in her head and wondered if that was for me or herself.

When she began to cry, I broke.  When I realized I heard the shower also, I fought to block her and not run straight in there and apologize for being such a total pain in the ass. 

Why would this Vampire boy affect me so?  I don’t even know him or want to know him.  He is not Val.  He is not on my side.

A little while later
...Or is he?

She sobbed so loud I
didn’t need the connection to know. I checked the door and listened hearing her mention something about yellows and assumed I was safe.  I knocked softly on the door to not startle her.  I needed her forgiveness.  Her bare thighs were disappearing from my sight when I emerged. 

“Don
’t you know how to wait to be welcomed?” 
He is sooo
—

“I
’m sorry.  I thought you were done,” I threw my hands in the air apologetically and said hastily as I closed the door back, “brunch will be served in thirty minutes.”

In my haste and panic, I went straight to the weight room hoping to blow off some steam before I unleashed it on her.  I could devour her.  I could scream at her.  I couldn't wait to have her.

I couldn't read her thoughts still.  Maddened beyond belief, I raised the bar on how much I lifted.  If I exhausted myself, I couldn't hurt her again.

An inner familiar feeling zapped me to attention when the doorknob turned.  As I turned my head in disbelief at what I knew to be stark and utter fear she was there, in the doorway, staring at my naked torso. 
And the mark.