Warden (Elemental Paladins Book 1) (12 page)

“I don’t think so. That tends to be more of a warden thing. They’re all attractive and talented and powerful. If they weren’t so important, I’d hate them all.” The female soldier said.

Axel nodded, “I agree. I’ve tasted my fair share off the warden menu. They are very tasty.” He smacked his lips together.

Max knew she had been correct about him – he was a he-slut. Cali slapped him up the back of his head on her way past. The act was casual like it was an everyday occurrence and spoke volumes of the kind of relationship the paladins had. They were obviously as close as family and Max didn’t really believe they were here on a temporary basis or out of some misguided belief that they were all rejects and needed to stick together.

“Can I join you?” She asked. It had been months since she had the opportunity to spar with others. She didn’t want her skills to get rusty.

Axel shrugged, “Sure. Just try not to fall in love with me when you see my fine moves.” He winked, those azure eyes of his twinkling. Max barely refrained from sighing at the flirt.

“I’ll go get my other blades.” Max said as she rose. She had her tanto sword on her as usual but she had a few other knives in her pack.

“Whoa there cowgirl. Why would you need blades?” Lark asked.

“Um, so I can practise with them …” Max said slowly, Lark hadn’t appeared dim witted before now.

“You’re not practising. Not with knives, not with anything.” Darius’s voice was firm but Max was confused.

“What? You guys just said I could come!”

“Of course. Come out to watch. There is no way you will be participating.” Darius explained.

Max stood and planted her hands on her hips, “And why not? I need to train Darius. Those phantoms or chades or whatever won’t magically stop coming after me just because I have some scraps of information now.”

Beyden rubbed her shoulder, “You don’t need to train sweetie. You are a warden and therefore naturally passive. It is a great injustice that you have been forced to do battle in the past but those days are over forever now. You will meet your own paladins and if by chance the chades are still drawn to you, then it is your knights’ honour to protect you.”

Max glanced around the room to see similar expressions on the faces of the men. Looks like they were all on board Beyden’s bullshit train. The only person apparently not riding was Cali, naturally!

“There is so much wrong with what you just said,
sweetie
, I don’t know where to start.” More frowns from the men except for Axel who was grinning as if in anticipation. “One: I don’t have a passive bone in my body; Two: I have been doing battle my entire life, it’s not a hobby or a choice; Three: I don’t have paladins to wipe my arse for me and even if I do one day, I can assure you I’ve been folding my own toilet paper quite successfully for years now!”

The tips of Beyden’s ears were red. “Jeez, Max. Paladins don’t go around wiping … you know.”

Was he for real? Could he really be that sweet? There was no way she could stay mad at him, not when those amber cat eyes of his were looking at her imploringly. She stroked his arm, “It’s okay Bey. You can make it up to me by letting me kick your butt.”

“Max, I know you’re not the type of warden we’re all used to and that fighting has been a common part of your world, but you’re in our world now. You are a Life Warden. No more fighting.”

Wow, Darius was using his Mr Stern voice. Too bad she didn’t give a fuck. “I’ll tell you what. If any one of you can beat me in hand to hand, I promise to never ask to train with you again and I will be a good little warden. I’ll even learn how to knit. How about that?”

Silence. Nothing but silence. Seems the poor saps still weren’t quite used to her. “Well? Axel? Lark? You guys have seen me in action before. Remember poor Bounce?” She asked.

Axel winced and grabbed his crotch. “I recall. And if that’s the type of training you have in mind, you can rule me out.”

Max held up her right hand, spreading her fingers so a vee formed between her two first fingers and her two last. “I promise to stay away from the goodies … scouts honour.”

Mr Stern exhaled forcefully and shook his head. “That is not the scout pledge. That is the ‘live long and prosper’ sign from
Star Trek
.”

“Well, well, well. What have we here? Sounds like Sir Darius is a closet Trekkie!” She teased.

“There’s nothing closeted about it. He’s out and proud.” Axel revealed, “He has all six television series and all thirty seasons. That’s seven hundred and twenty six episodes.”

“Just when I thought you couldn’t be any more perfect.” She cooed and pinched Darius’s high cheekbone. “Say you’ll run away with me?” She batted her lashes.

“You can’t charm me you little demon.” He said smilingly as he tugged on her hair playfully.

“You can’t charm me either and I haven’t seen your mad skills yet, so I accept your challenge m’lady.” Cali mock bowed in her direction.

Max whooped and fist-pumped the air. So did Axel. “All right! Girl on girl!” This earned him a slap to the back of the head as Ryker walked past but surprisingly he didn’t can the idea. He had returned in a much better mood only minutes earlier. Must have worked out some of his tension on a poor unsuspecting recruit.

Five minutes later Max found herself outside next to the gym, on the dirt, facing off against four ancient knights. Her life was awesome!

FOURTEEN

Ryker had watched the proceedings with amusement initially. He knew Darius, Axel and Lark had said that the warden had killed a chade on her own and he had seen the way she handled that freaking sword of hers. She gripped it like an expert, caressed it like a lover and kept it on her person at all times like it was a limb. Only people who had extensive training and motivation treated their weapons like that. His own set of sickles were kept in a black velvet lined box for cripes sake! But as the paladins lined up one after the other to get their arses handed to them, sometimes two at a time, Ryker had stopped being amused. The woman was good. Fuck, she was beyond good. She would put half the paladins on active duty to shame and she had some moves that even he had never seen before. Nobody achieved that level of skill without a massive load of discipline and motivation. And the Goddess knew, fleeing from the chades was a major motivation.

The others had been amused, then shocked, then stunned, and then proud as they had sparred and lost to the short warden. They had all left a little in awe and a little dazed to go and clean up and get ready for dinner. It meant that Ryker now had the opportunity to observe the woman alone. She had stripped down to a sports bra and her leggings in order to make good on her deal of the hand to hand. She was dirty from being thrown and rolling on the ground and a fine sheen of sweat covered her exposed skin from her exertions. Even though her breasts were tightly restrained, there was no denying their fullness and her waist dipped in before her hips flared out in the timeless shape of the female form. She was the very epitome of a woman. He watched as she glanced down and swore colourfully before chewing off a fingernail that had obviously been broken from all the exercise.

She might have been a woman but she was by no means a lady.

It was all Ryker could do not jump her and mount her right there on the dirt. Her sleek muscles had stretched and bunched just as her arse and tits had flexed and bounced with every move she made. But that wasn’t what turned him on the most, no, it was the look in her eyes. She had the look of a warrior; confident, lethal and charmed by the violence. He bet she would be the best screw of his life. And to top it all off? She had a massive tattoo covering the whole length of her back. He couldn’t make out the design in its entirety but it looked to be some sort of comic book pattern in hues of greys, blacks and whites. There were specks of colours here and there, but again he wasn’t close enough to figure out what they were.

Ryker loved tattoos.

“Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to take your turn?”

Shit! She was looking directly at him and talking. He was practically standing there with his dick in his hand and Max had managed to catch him off guard. It took him a moment for his big brain to compute what she had said. “I’m not sparring with you.”

Her head cocked to the side, messy hair escaping the loose confines of her hair band. “Why not? The deal is still on the table. I did say if any of you paladins could beat me, I would back off. You could redeem the honour on behalf of your fellow knights.”

“No dice.” He said, deadpan.

Her cyan eyes sparkled with mischief and challenge. “Scared?”

Hell yes, he was scared!
Scared of fucking you into the ground
, he thought. Instead of saying that though he answered with an alternate truth, “No need for a re-match. Anyone who can fight that well deserves the title of Victor.”

“Really?” She narrowed her eyes and drew the word out as if suspicious.

“Yes, really. You’re a skilled fighter. It must have taken you hundreds of hours and many years of discipline to be this good. I have no doubt you are a worthy opponent for any soldier or any chade as I am sure has been the case.”

She sauntered slowly toward him, sweat gleaming enticingly on her exposed abs.
Eyes up, soldier!
He commanded himself. When she was within touching distance she paused and eyed him from top to toes … twice.

“Who are you and what have you done with the Inmate? The only time I hear you do more than grunt is when you’re insulting me or being a prick in general.” She said finally.

Although not thrilled with the nickname she had chosen for him and not exactly his intention, he was actually pleased with the perception she had formed of him. He did not want her getting comfortable here and he definitely did not want her discerning little butt noticing his inappropriate attraction to her. So instead of answering her, he merely grunted. Unfortunately, she found that to be amusing as a deep-set dimple flashed from one corner of her mouth. It wasn’t present on both sides and Ryker found the asymmetry oddly alluring.

“So you’re not going to spar with me?”

“No sparring.”

“Because I’m hot shit and way awesome?”

Way awesome?
“Your words. Not mine.” Ryker answered, reverting to his stunted vocabulary.

“And it’s not because I have a vagina?”

Ryker laughed – he actually laughed. He had no idea what the woman was going to say or do next but he found himself thoroughly enjoying her, despite the fact that she was a warden. The look of astonishment on Max’s face said she was just as surprised by his amusement as he was. He answered her;

“No. It’s not because you have a vagina. Cali and Diana, although you haven’t met her, both have vaginas as well and they are two of the best paladins I have ever had the pleasure to work with.”

“Cali made a few comments that made me think your whole warden/paladin society thing is a little misogynistic …” Max let the sentence trail off inquiringly.

Ryker snorted rudely, “That’s an understatement. Female paladins are few and far between. Those that are born are accepted in society but never really as warriors. They accumulate vitality the same as the males do so they still have a purpose in serving wardens but they are rarely recruited to be soldiers.”

“Then why do you allow Cali – and Diana – to fight? Why do you have two female paladins in your Order?” She questioned.

Dammit. He should never have opened a dialogue with her. There would be no shutting her up now, he figured. But the most expedient way to get down to the bottom of the Max-Mystery would be to share information with her. Once she was lulled into feeling secure with them, he could then pry those secrets she had buried deep out of her in return. She had revealed very little personal information over the last two weeks. So he replied, “Firstly, we are not an Order. Secondly, because it doesn’t matter to me. They sacrifice and serve just as well as any man. They uphold the paladin creed with every fibre of their being. I don’t care what’s between their legs.”

She did that whole body once over again with those peepers of hers and he forced himself not to react physically to the visual caress. She then searched his gaze for a moment before scrunching her nose adorably. No, not adorably he amended. He didn’t find anything
adorable
, not even baby bunny rabbits with flopsy ears. And wardens were absolutely, completely, unequivocally, very
un-
adorable.

“You surprise me. That doesn’t happen often.”

“Why?”

“I pegged you for being sexist ... like, super sexist.”

“Why?” He repeated, curious despite himself. He was a firm believer in equality regardless of the situation. What the fuck did he care if someone was male or female, black or white, gay or straight? As long as they didn’t piss him off, he could care less what they did.

“Well, you’re very …
Alpha.
” Her gaze turned dark and her voice lowered about three octaves on the word ‘alpha’. It took on a smoky, husky quality that had his dick straining the confines of his pants for freedom.

She was correct; he was exceedingly Alpha.

But being a leader and having a dominant personality did not preclude having a brain. It also seemed that the thought of him as such turned the feisty little warden on. He had been correct in his initial assumptions that her eyes would darken with desire. Now if only he could find out if they would lighten in ecstasy …

“Can I touch your scar?”

“What?” Now that made his blood rush north again.

“Your scar. Can I touch it?”

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her to fuck off. Here he was with his fantasies of a naked, rosy Max and she was bringing up the very obvious, very public symbol of his disgrace. The offending mark throbbed in remembered pain from the horror of the day fifty years ago when he had received it. He went from horny to livid in a millisecond. Berating himself for his stupidity for allowing a conversation to develop between them he scowled down at the woman, ready to blast her. He found himself stilling in astonishment when he saw her eyeing the disfigurement and licking her lips. The heat in her gaze was smouldering and he patted his shirt in case it had been burned off him. His initial assumption had been way off the mark. Scars clearly turned her on.