Guardian (4 page)

Then, Grace relaxed against me as if more than just my hand had the calming power I held over her.  Did everything affect her that way?  I wanted to test every single part of her body with my own.

That power had been there since kindergarten and then it was annoying but formed a friendship that would start as strategy and turn one day into obsession.  It wasn’t like that with anyone else, and I’d never told anything to anyone about it otherwise.  Some secrets get you killed.  I figured that might well be one of them.   She watched
me
as I watched
her
during the entire class. 

  Her mind wandered back to the first day of class when I forced our partnership for the semester.  Our last lab class...ever.  With Kinsler and Pike both near her in the class, I couldn’t avoid it.  She had to be safe and beside me was the only option.  Besides, when she blew stuff up, someone had to be there to pick up the pieces.  Chemistry seemed to be the only class she didn’t excel in.  That frustrated her to no end.   

The lab teacher told us to share our experiments with each other.  Mike and Jason said Grace’s name a time or two obtusely trying to complete their own lab experiment.  I ignored their
disgusting
crude behavior as she did following her lead. 

Grace explained the experiment to the class when it was our turn.  She raised her hand and allowed herself to get called on and get it over with so she could relax.  I had a feeling it was to help silence the jerks behind us.  She started word bashing them in her brain the way she did with big words I’d never heard of.  I’m by far not unintelligent, but she just loved the thrill of words no one else knew and made her able to bash their brains with unidentifiable retorts.  At least, that’s how I rationalized it.  Either way, it caused me to smile at her sweet innocence and know how much I’ve been able to shield her all these years.  Her idea of evil was solely focused on a guy named Kinsler.

After class, we headed to the parking lot with the droves of other teenagers eager to exit even if it was pouring waterfalls outside.  It was the earth’s music for those who listen.  Few did.

“Are you riding with me?” she asked in hope while I stared at the rain coming down in sheets before me.  Normally I rode with her and retrieved my bike later on a rainy day, but today I had to keep a close eye on Kinsler to be sure he kept his distance.

She seemed able to read me on the antsy-ness but said nothing.  She read me better than I liked on some things, but absolutely went crazy about other things.  Like the way her mind described my eyes when she stood too close to me now.  That drove me insane with things I shouldn’t be thinking.  At least not yet. 

I drove the Honda Shadow that she named Lav after years of tortured reminders that it was purple.  I’d allowed the dealership to send it to me without checking first.  When I had Pike order one for each of us and told him blue, he overly used his mad skills of deception to make sure he’d have the better bike.  I called it the Shadow around Grace just to tease her for naming it a girl name, but Pike I tortured constantly by exchanging his helmet sometimes with a pink one I found in a thrift shop with Grace once.  He deserved it.

I’d actually filed for a license plate like the other humans deciding that if I was lucky enough to keep Grace in the long term, I would enjoy her riding on the back of it with me when she finally knew she was really mine. 

I followed Kinsler on his Harley like I’d done for the last two weeks.   He wailed all manner of cursed things in his head at me for keeping a forced distance from Grace all day.  I could care less about the dimwit of a man.  He didn’t deserve her any more than I did.

I followed after him and trailed for a while until he turned off away from the direction of where Grace was headed.   I meandered back and pulled my bike beside giving her a shock.  Her mind questioned it, but decided I would avoid telling the truth anyway.  She was right. 

I smiled under the helmet, but my sad eyes were hidden from her that revealed how horrible I always felt at hiding the truth.  In the past few years, it was significantly harder to stretch the truth like I had too. I’d done it for so long I wondered if I’d be able to stop or if I would simply continue fearing her safety always.  I would be glad when it was at an end, an end I preferred. 

Friday night at the Starmen residence with a bag of chips and a night with the stars with my best girl!  Nothing could take me away from missing it.  Not even Kinsler’s annoyance at losing the battle of today.  Before we could start though, we headed to the Rec Center for Grace’s nature meeting.  I secretly loved her for caring for the earth since that was my court’s forté.  Being from the summer court had its advantages in the wild when it came to growing things and escaping danger.  Of course, that’s not why Grace had it in her to love it; she just didn’t know it was
in
her.

We headed to the Rec Center not far from school.  It wasn’t raining now which allowed us to stop at Mighty Joe’s Quick Stop to pick up some of Grace’s favorite munchies.  A highly full of sugar soda and salty cashews. Danella balled me out every time I filled the fridge with them, but Grace loved them.

The meeting was small with two students and the older ladies who never missed.  I suspected they only came to be near the young ones, but then again, not many aged in my world past the human equivalent of over fifty.  So I wasn’t a good judge.

She eyed several books just in the door she’d been wanting to check out but always decided she was too busy lately to read.   Some of the tales and such would make mush of her brains, but she loved them.  She would sigh at all the parts about the knight taking the princess away as I’d come to see it from her eyes.   Seems most romantically inclined girls were this way in the human world and my own.  Only, Grace could live it if she wished.  I’d give it to her too.  If she wished.

She thought of Ben and then Kinsler simply acknowledging their existence and tearing me apart.  I ran my fingers through my hair to hide the agitation of hearing her think of other men.  It almost killed me, my heart hurt so much.  I would destroy the Ben guy’s face if he hadn’t been so nice to her.  As soon as her mind returned to the meeting and what she wanted to accomplish, my anger subsided.

I saw her look up watching me as I leaned on the nearby bookshelf like I always did purposefully angling the way she liked.  This was one of her silent hints of what she couldn’t put into words or wasn’t able to with just being friends.  Girl talk for what a guy should have all figured out and read their mind like so.  Have I got it all figured out?  Not by a long shot.

After a long staring contest of nervous tension she cleared her throat and blushed immensely. Her smile could have lit up an entire high school football stadium.

My head twitched backwards towards the door and my arms flew out as if she stood beside me to cover.  Out of my peripheral I saw Grace rub her hands together in pain.  I worried about that sometimes, but something distracted me from it every time. 

Kinsler!   Walking in at the end of the meeting again like last month.  He strutted up to my girl and asked what he missed only eyeing me once.  She shrugged and started messing with the papers in front of her as he rushed in closer.  I started to move, but her words stalled me. 

Ha!  She called him a friggin’ stalker.  How classic is that?  Not to his face of course, but he heard it nonetheless.
 

She scooted back and let one of the old ladies get between the two of them.  He laughed aloud, his eyes crinkling just a bit to show his humor was not intended to be funny.

She rolled her eyes at him and said bravely, “Buzz off!” 

The one Grace called Gladys, the little blue haired lady, pointed her wrinkled finger towards his chest and told him, “Buzz off, young man.  Wait for the young lady to give you her blessing.  She doesn’t seem to find you very attractive so go find someone else to harass.”

Kinsler made a rude noise and backed up acting like she was a tiger about to pounce.

Grace told the lady thank you and then turned to Kinsler and gritted her teeth, “The meeting is over Kinsler.  See you Monday.”  He grabbed her bag and then her.  That is where I stepped in.  I’d kept my distance allowing Kinsler to assume I was only a wall decoration until he touched her.  I lost my control over all thought and reason. 

My arms went around her from behind and her mind surged with less than honorable thoughts of me and what she wanted to do right then.  Oh, Grace. 

I refocused seeing Kinsler’s fist aimed at me.  He didn’t care for her needs being met by me, but I enjoyed her images going through his mind.  It was friggin’ awesome.

“You can do without this ruffian,” Kinsler grunted like a madman on drugs as he waved his fist in my face again and again.

I felt Grace burn a thought into her brain that I’d never seen before.  About me.  The emotion behind it was immense.  She felt compelled to defend  me and shouted loudly, “He’s mine.” 

She shocked herself by the look she gave me.  I didn’t stop the satisfied smile that widened across my face and hated that her mind thought to ask me for forgiveness in saying it. 

“One day, Grace.  One day you’ll see my way!” Kinsler said gruffly holding her arm still.  I saw her tender, exquisite creamed skin start to bruise already from the contact enraging me more.

She tugged
my
arm to lessen the pain and told him, “Never!”  I was bitterly mad and she knew my threshold was losing ground.  She screamed in her head like I’d never heard anyone in mine or the human world ever do before. 

My head burned from it so I knew Kinsler’s had too.  His hands let go and grabbed his own as the pain ebbed on.  That didn’t get by my inspiringly brilliant Grace.  As Kinsler fell onto me, I cussed him silently and righted Grace to standing again.

She scoffed me in her brain for letting go.  How humorous her mind was flirting with me without knowing that I possibly knew and within a dangerous situation at that. She talked often of her knights, damsels, and white horses.  She very much wanted the fairy tale that all human girls seem to want.

She suddenly giggled at her own fantasies and my sideways glance told her to control it.  When she looked away embarrassed I feigned ignorance though I technically knew nothing but of the inappropriately illtimed giggle. 

She turned back to Kinsler whom she suddenly termed as beautiful. Ha!  I thought clearly enough.
Manly enough lately dude or are you sporting your momma’s dresses around town again?

Kinsler glared at me.  He wanted a fight that I wouldn’t give.  I will defend if needed, but I never went looking for one.  They just always seemed to find me.

Grace caught us both off guard.  She half squealed and then shouted a little too loudly,  “Why do you bother me so much?  Why do you irritate me intentionally?  And please stop following me halfway down the interstate if you hate me!”

His meant to be a tool smile spread across his face like he was so glad she asked. He turned his body to me in a confrontation wanting a challenge right then and there for the girl.  It wasn’t going to happen.  Ever!

"Your boyfriend here could tell you a few things if he’d talk.  Having trouble with that still, tree boy?”  He gestured to me.

Tears sprang to her eyes and she choked out, “His name is IAN!  Say it.  Not too hard for your pea brain!”

“No pea size anything coming from here, babe!”  Kin flexed his Neanderthal arms in front of her hoping it impressed her.  She was disgusted thankfully.

She had winced at the word boyfriend, but that stood to reason.  She told him again, “Buzz off!”

Kinsler cussed under his breath low enough Grace couldn’t have heard and stomped out the revolving Rec Center doors.  But he mumbled loud enough for both of us to hear, “Parting is such sweet sorrow.  Soon!”  He turned back at the last second and said with all hell in his voice, “Very soon, Queen of the
Damned
.”

“Corrosively rude!” she defended herself to the crowd watching and quoted another dead guy in her head.  She did that as much as the big worded definitions when she was worked up. I wondered if there was a running list of phrases that I could pull from the Fey unknown to her current world to shock her with in the future.  The thought of her face finding out that many of her favorite writers were Fey would be the icing on the cake to her ironic words.

Grace told the group that I would get her home safely and away from Kinsler.  Damn straight!

The women all hugged.   Gladys said to herself mostly, “…when I get my hands on him, I’ll…” and she disappeared out the door.  That I would like to see.  Her old lady friend called me a friggin’ dreamboat.  Classic.  I smiled wishing I had the guts to tell Grace she should listen to her older friends.  Grace stood there watching the door, not facing me causing me to jerk my head when she pictured me in priest attire.  That was horrid, and thankfully it was to her too.  Why did her mind wander off so easily?  I could never seem to predict her odd directionally unsound thought patterns.

“Just ignore him. He’s just trying to get to you,” I turned her around with a swift, but gentle tug on her arm.  She fell into me unintentionally but lasted there a second too long to not hide her hesitation to stir.  I loved it, but hid my palpitating heart from her.