Protector (3 page)

Chapter Four

I could sense her comfort level starting to grow.  A little.

She examined the dining hall and found it not unlike her own back at her court.  She was feeling a little more comfortable with her surroundings though her guard was still up in every way.  We sat on the one end of the table Claire had set for us.  When she ate the first bite, she closed her delicate mouth and let a whisper of a moan escape.  When her tongue darted out to lick the corner of her mouth I was in a wad of pain.  She was heaven and I was the cloud trying to get to her as expeditiously.  Claire outdid herself.  There was fettuccine Alfredo, lasagna, breadsticks, oil and vinegar dip, and her favorite red wine. 
All of her favorites in fact. 

How do you know what I like?

“I told you.  I know you, Anastacia Anat Hathown.”  I paused on the syllables of her name very slowly seeing her watch my mouth.  Was she afraid of me?   

“You know, that
’s kind of creepy,” she bit into her breadstick and chewed as if shaking off the thought I couldn’t just read.

What, my mouth?

After she watched me and chewed for a while longer she asked without talking and breaking her own request,
What do you want from me?

I told her,
I just want your time for now.  That is all.

“What do you like to eat?” she pried not missing a beat.  If I thought I could put anything past this vixen of sweetness, I
’d be lying to myself.  “Why are you not eating food?” she asked again when I didn’t answer.  What she didn’t figure out right away, she pondered and asked again later.  I knew that of her personality.

“I can eat food.  I like food.”

“So what is your favorite food like my kind of food?”

She was acknowledging our differences.

“Pizza!  With pepperonis!”

She paused and asked another question aloud, “Do you live alone?”  She looked out every doorway she could see in the room. 

“Yes!” 

Whose manor is it? 
“Do you have protection?”  She tore off another bite of bread and swallowed it after chewing it a long time.

My face went blank with horror.  What was she insinuating I would do to her?

... I don’t see any guards.

My eyes danced with the instant she believed this in her mind telling me she meant my guards and not something impolite, “Yes, well guarded.”  I
can’t take any chances with her safety.

“How old are you?”

Did she know she was breaking her own rule of switching back and forth in the talking aloud and then not?  I stared at my plate and let Claire know to take the plates then told her, “Eighteen.” 

“Plus?” 

She was guessing me to be like the others she knew.  Would she not listen if she knew me to be younger?  Or older?

“Just that.”

She “hmmed” in her head
.  
“Who was your mother?”

You are more clever than I gave you credit
.  I let down the block I had placed from my thoughts.  She wasn’t ready for all my mind had to offer.  Her head snapped up figuring me out so high-speed I was in awe.

I can hear you only when you want me to I
am guessing! 

“I am the son of a woman who fornicated with a… a man named Ra.”  So I went for blunt.  It would show her I
don’t harbor all my secrets.

“Okay.  I
’m following you mostly, I think.   Is that why you have the sun hanging above the sofa?” 
Who says fornicated?  Ah, the cat comments.  Egyptian history anyone?

“You connect well.”

“Are you married?”  She didn’t look at me and I enjoyed it this once.

“No!” 
I smiled. 
I’m only eighteen.

“Ever married?”

“No!” I smiled large and even laughed out.

“Not sure why I asked you that?” she moved nervously in her seat. 
I like Cas. 
“You’re name.  I will call you Cas.  Unless I am mad at you.  My father calls me my full name when I am mad.  And do you worship cats in your pastime or do you just torture me with them?” she decided and asked all at the same time.

Instead of answering with the
much deserved sarcasm she deserved in return I told her, “Let’s move back to the other room.” 
I only worship one.

We stood and I held my hand out to let her lead the way back to the room before not allowing her to analyze my last statement. 

Her mind lingered on the arranged marriage her father intended for her.  I sighed a breath of relief at assuming that is why she asked about me being married, but then tensed at the thought that she had connected the dots and was only asking because she was sneakily trying to find out if I had one also.  Meaning, I was like her in some way.  Her sneaky she-tiger ways were causing pain to more than just my ability to predict her moves.  I liked it too much.

Back in my den, she walked ahead of me to the edge of the balcony and looked down.  Unashamed, I looked her over more than once blocking all the while.  She was perfection in every way, body and mind.

Was she hiding thoughts of escape?  Could she hide her thoughts from me already?

She grabbed the back of her neck and moved her fingers around the soft curve beneath her hairline.   I wanted to move my fingers across the same spots she touched now.  I could watch her forever, except for the torture of wanting to be nearer.  I still had hope.

Joy.  Could I feel that?
She was developing more in her emotional database being near me.  I knew this because I had done the same.

I stood beside the rail and looked off in the distance at the same tall trees she recognized from earlier.  “
No more questions?” I asked of her.

“
Why am I here?”

“Another one for tomorrow.”  I
didn’t look at her still content with just being close.

“What is your favorite color?”  Okay, we are starting with kindergarten.

“Yellow.”

“Wow!  That is awfully bright for such a dark kind of guy.” 

“I like yellow.”  I watched her when she faced me noting the way her hair softly moved in the time it took to turn. 

“Favorite book?”

“Hamlet.”

She seemed shocked and stared at me unabashedly.  “Great sad story.  Whole royal family dies.  End of story.”

“No, Fortinbras continues on the royal court.”

“True, but still the entire line was lost.”

I nodded to close the fact that we had established I could read wanting to move the conversation back to her.   “And your favorite read?”

“Aha!  He asks a question.  Surely you know the answer already.”

“Humor me.  Elizabeth would understand.”

She
didn’t hate this confirming deed of telling her all I knew.  She didn’t even call me a stalker.  She did however launch into a full blown lesson on connecting the story to her own life.  “You see.  But then you already know that Elizabeth saw through Darcy’s arrogance and only me attitude.  Never did he once seem to give fancy to what the girl needed or cared about.  She was just supposed to marry the highest bidder.”  She took a breath only after the last word. 

“Favorite weapon?” her eyes darted nervously around the room and back to me.

“You!” Her sweet mouth dropped open and stayed there in a little O pattern.  Her ability to switch subjects so quickly kept my mind well focused.  I had to be.  But I sincerely loved seeing that I could throw her off balance.

“What
’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

“Only you are capable of anything.  And I rather like that.  You could take anyone Kissa.”

Huff!  “I’m not that versatile.”

“Knives.”

“What?” she gasped a little showing how quick she was at tracking my line of thinking.

“
Your favorite.” 

Big surprise,
I thought but hid from her.  “You once threw one of your knives at me.” 

What?

I hesitated but pulled the black t-shirt I wore to the side exposing the shoulder blade that gave her a glimpse of her own handiwork. 

The vamp at the warehouse.
  It was him!  And I almost stripped you naked! 
“You were the goon.  Well, not a goon.  Why were you there?” she blushed a wonderful shade of pink across her cheeks.
My brother was there. Were you going to torture him?

“I was there to escort for your father.” 

“My father?”

“Yes, he needed my services.”

And?

“I was there to make sure nothing happened to you.”

Chapter Five

“What? Me?  This is getting really crazy now.  You better give me some answers.”  She cursed under her breath. I didn
’t like her pretty mouth saying such things.  I gave her a knowing look, but she ignored it.

“A few.  The rest, tomorrow.”

She growled. 

I laughed under my breath.

How dare he!

You
’re mouth curls up when you’re mad.  It’s nice.

She growled audibly reminding me just why I picked the nickname I had for her. Then her words matched her sneer.  
My mouth is going to say some not very nice things if you don’t talk.

“Fine.”  She crossed her arms across her chest to give a small amount of defiance as if trying to keep her cool and prove her point.  She wasn
’t used to not being the dominate figure in her arguments. 

“Your father had me keeping an eye on you.   I was to make sure you left alive and in one piece.”

“My father and you know each other?” She didn’t budge her hands or any part of her body, but her face turned into something different.  I could read her better than she knew.

“Yes!”

“And does he know that I’m here, with you, alone.”

“Yes!  Now let
’s get you some rest.  Tomorrow will be busy.”

“Busy with what?”

“Training,” I stood tall beside her small frame.

“Training for what?”

“Tomorrow.”  She didn’t take the hand I offered, but she did follow.  Knowing she was a step behind me and her instep closer than I thought she knew to be made her run into me when I turned back to stop her.  The heat between us was instant.  Her hand landed on my chest to balance herself and I knew my eyes were speaking volumes where my mouth and thoughts were closed up tight in a balled tightness.  She noted my warmth in her brain and then asked with her hands still splayed across my front, “Why are you warm?”

Then...heaven looked up at me. 

Hello, he is so—

She moved taking her halo of hair too far away from what I termed the safe zone.  My first thought was that I
can’t keep her safe when she is that far.  My second was anything but clean.

I managed a finger in the air towards her room swallowing the lump in my throat.  My hand went to her shoulder in front of the second room down the long corridor.  I opened the door with my only other hand because the other one refused to let go of her.

I’m only warm to you. 

“Why?”

Tomorrow.

The red in her cheeks were anger, not a flare of embarrassment as she slammed the door in my face. 
What a—Whoa!  This room
.  Claire had lined the walls with candles like I had requested.  The same picture of the sun hung above the four-poster bed that reminded me daily of her while anticipating her being in my home.  The bathroom was stocked with all of her needs.   

She would find the dresser full of her own clothes.  I
didn’t want to impinge on her privacy more than I had but I was torn between how she perceived me at this point and how she liked her accommodations.  I tried to have it all.  Her favorite t-shirt and jeans were lying in the top drawer as well as other needed items that my housekeeper saw to adding for me. 

I heard my name and focused on her again.

...Cas put them here?  ... Thorn.  I wonder what his real name is.  That will be my first question tomorrow.  If I hadn’t been so busy looking at his hot bod maybe I could remember his name.

I would never understand the way a girl is wired, but hearing her reason things out in the total opposite way that a guy does, is like a slam in the face every time.  It is just unreal.

She didn’t hate me.

The walls she had built up were falling, maybe.

Then she thought of the Hunter again, but not exclusively.  She wanted to know more about me.  She knew now I was on her side, or at least her father’s side.

I should stop listening.  I should close off the connection. 

She moved around her room thinking just about everything and nothing I could predict.  She wanted to know why a Vampire was sent to save her. 

I did save you.

Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
STOP IT RIGHT NOW!

I heard a thud on the floor.

Ha! 
She heard me laugh even then.

She shut me out the best she could and moved her thoughts on.  She knew Szar helped.  How did she puzzle that out?  I would have to remember her aptitude to gather information and decipher it so well at such a quick rate. 

When she took a shower I closed her off long enough for her to finish in the bathroom with privacy.  I didn’t think I could handle it anyway.  Too much temptation.

  When I re-attuned with her she was spreading her knives around on the bed for protection.  From me!  That was a laugh I hoped to remind her of one day when she was hopefully mine. 

An hour after she fell asleep, I knocked on her door.

I opened the door to knives at the ready. 

I could have been naked.

I knew you were not.
             
How?

“Sarah, the night maid, checked on you a half hour ago.”

“Oh!” 
How did I miss her?

“She
’s more stealth than help sometimes.”  That still wouldn't comfort her, for she hated having to admit someone got by her.  But I hadn’t.  Hmm!

I watched only her eyes for I knew how much her tight clothing revealed and what it did to me.  She looked down at her lacy little shirt I think chicks call a cam-a-saw or something and realized her marks were in full disclosure.  I
didn’t have to peek to know.

Her nose rose as if catching something on the air. I had showered myself and made sure to be clean for her.  My hair still damp, perhaps she was finding my intentional overuse of a heavy musk I like to use.   

“Rathorth.”

What?

“My real name.”

She was still standing half-naked and staring up at me though the inappropriate entrance was looming in the air.  She asked anyway.

“So Thorn is a nickname so to speak.  Rathorth.  Did I say it right?”

She watched my face and commented on my apparent sissified red cheeks. 
Can they do that?
she asked looking at my face too long.  Crap!
 

“I
’m not hungry right now.”

Oh!  I thought you said your name was Cassius.

“Cassius Rathorth.”  Her jumping around thoughts made me a friggin’ jacked up mess.  I wanted to sit her down and move in close to talk.  I shouldn't have come in here.  She should put some clothes on.

“Last name?” 
Who are you?

“Later.”

She scoffed and turned her nose up at my denying her.  I think right then I hated most denying her more than anything.

“Your friends are fine.  They all made it back to their living quarters without any serious injuries.  They think you are safely hidden.  Your brother too.”

I doubt Calum thinks I am safe.

I cringed visibly.  My low threshold of apparent jealous rage was on the verge of a meltdown.  I wanted to smack the wall every time she said his name.  I rolled my fist back out so she wouldn't see the reaction. 

“You listened to me all night?” she accused feigning mortification of her thoughts being invaded and not my reaction to her Hunter boy.  Maybe she couldn’t read me so well. 

“I
can’t help it.  I can block you out some, but your thoughts come to me as easily as my own.”  Yeah, I spent the entire night benching over two hundred plus just to release the killer thoughts she had in her dreams alone.  And she slept very little, but morning came and time was running out.  I didn't want to wait any longer.

“Then why did I not I hear
you
all night?”

I ran my hand down the side of my face rubbing my cheek.  “Actually, you did.  I slipped twice.  Once, when I was thirsty.  And second when you were questioning my motives for taking you last night.”

This is going to be freaking great.  I can’t even shower without you invading my brain.

Nor I.  

Really?
  Her too tight breathing picked up noticeably.  She told herself how crazy this all was.  But she was excited visibly.  Of that much I was sure.

“Um, I can block it for about fifteen to twenty minutes before I am too weak.”

“How?  Teach me?” 

I grimaced. 

Then she added, “You have an unfair advantage.  Besides, I am still here and don’t think for one minute that I couldn't have gotten out of here last night.”

“I know!”  I smiled loving this catty side of her.  When she pointed out my dimples to herself, I closed my mouth tight.  I couldn't hide the thrill it shot through me.

“Teach me,” she almost begged.

Get dressed and I will teach you in the
Sun room as you call it.  You know which one that is?

She stopped short in the
door frame seeing me on the balcony.  She seemed to hold her breath and even held my gaze for longer than three seconds.  That was the record.  Her mind noted the color of my clothes.  Interesting.  I faced the sky and called to the air to breath in something other than her.  I was consumed by all things her.  “Close your eyes.”

“No.”

She defied me.  “Close them.”  I closed the distance between us not taking no very well in my vocabulary.  No one told me no.  She relentlessly obeyed for one reason or another.                “Now, find a quiet place in your life where you chose religiously to just think.”

“Place?”

I didn’t answer.

“Got it!” She thought of her home in the garden.  That really was one of her favorite places.  Once she was focused, I started to scream on the inside. 

“Anastacia.”  Her shoulder rocked back against mine.  She opened one lid first and then the other.  Dizzily, she held on to my arm.  “You did it.  You blocked out my screaming at the top of my subconscious mind.”

“I did.  How?”  Drained, she let sadness wash over her.  Why? 

“You put yourself in a quiet place where no one could find you." 
You let your mind relax.

“What about the ring?  Doesn
’t it do the same?”  She figured out the ring has other qualities.  Great!  My frown was noted by her down edged eyebrows.  “Yes to both your thoughts and you spoke aloud, but then I can’t find you when you are in danger and that I can’t handle.”

“Then why did Dr. Green want me to have it.
”

“Dr. Green does not always know what
’s best.  They want to make sure you still have your free will.  I will not take that from you.”

Okay! 
“Do I get it back?”

“When you know exactly how and when to use it.”

“When is that?”

“We
’ll see.  Time for training.”

I held my hand out for her to lead for the third time since her arrival.  “
I don’t know where we're going.”

Turn right, down the second stairs, and in the only door.

Is this the dungeon where you sleep?

No, my bed was on the opposite wall of where you laid your head last night. 

Maddening!

What is?

Oh nothing.  Uh!  Blocking, blocking, blocking!

“That
’s another way of doing it!” I laughed under my breath.

I opened the door letting her step into the hallway that led down the main
stairwell.