by Abella Ward
"Okay," I said slowly, brow furrowed. "That's the most I've heard you say at once. What of it? So, you guys are hippies. What does that have to do with me?"
Victor rested a hand on the back of my chair. "You're a beautiful woman. If I gave you your payment immediately, then we would be on equal footing, since you clearly have no respect for my bloodline. I would be honored if you would allow me to share your bed."
I jumped to my feet. He had to be joking, right? I whirled on him, but his expression was as emotionless as I'd seen it. Either this was some sort of deadpan humor or he was being serious. Either way, now was hardly the appropriate time to be asking for sex.
"We're not on equal footing," I snapped. "I can shoot you."
His expression didn't change as he nodded. He walked to the other side of the room again, and silence fell once more. I glared at him for another moment before slumping on the chair. I didn't know whether to be flattered or insulted, so I decided to just push the whole thing out of my brain and hope that trolls would attack us. Violence seemed like a pretty good answer to my situation right now.
Chapter Three
I hardly slept during the night, and in the morning I knew I was in no state to drive. Even still, I didn't like handing the keys over to Owen. Not that he wasn't a good driver, but I liked to hold my fate in my own hands. Besides, without having something specific to concentrate on, I was afraid I'd nod off and get scolded by the elf prince. Not that I cared what he thought of me.
Banff in the summer was something I could never get used to. The dark evergreens were sprinkled with a generous helping of leafy trees and bushes, giving it a mottled effect. The grass growing along the tall deer fences that separated the road from the forest was tall and blew in a gentle breeze, spotted here and there with bright-colored flowers. The animal bridges, wide overpasses built over tunnels so the animals could pass from one side of the forest to the other, teemed with herds of whitetail deer, and we even saw a wolf. Owen insisted on pulling off to the side of the road and taking a picture of it.
In the back of the hummer, Charlotte and Victor had their heads together. They whispered to each other, but my hearing was good enough to pick out a few words. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to be speaking in English, and I couldn't understand it anyway. My mood grew even darker. What if he was telling her all about last night? When she laughed, was she laughing about how defensive I had gotten?
"Can you get me one of those protein bars back there?" I asked, not bothering to hide my grumpiness.
Charlotte fished one out for me, and Victor leaned between the two front seats to hand it to me.
"I hope you and I have a chance to talk again soon, in private," he said. "I'm afraid there were a few things I said that I… perhaps should not have. I would like the chance to explain."
I tried not to think about how beautiful his blue eyes were as I took the protein bar. My failure in this regard only made me grumpier. "I understood just fine."
"Understood what?" Owen turned bright eyes on me. "What did I miss?"
I glared at him, but even as I opened my mouth to tell him it was none of his business, a sharp thwack in the side of the hummer made us jump. I glanced out the mirror to find an arrow embedded into the gas tank. Another thwack, and an arrow sunk deep into the hood of the hummer. I cursed as a plume of smoke burst into the air.
"Stay down," I shouted at the elves while Owen slammed on the breaks.
Elves burst out of the ground in the grassy knoll between the split highway and the rocky ditch to our other side. They threw off robes covered in grass and gravel and charged, shouting and waving clubs and rock-tipped spears. I cursed again, climbing into the back. The elves attacked the hummer, shouting and stomping their feet. We rocked back and forth as their weapons dented the sides. One of them smashed a mace into the windshield. The glass fractured into a spider web pattern but held. It wouldn't survive more than a couple more blows, though.
"Protect the princess," I ordered Owen, then slammed my door open into an elf that was stabbing at the lock with a knife. I yanked out my gun and shot it into the air.
The elves drew back, allowing me to get out of the hummer with time to shut the door behind me. I pointed my gun at the elf with the mace. "Drop it! It takes you far longer to swing that thing around than it does for me to pull this—"
Victor jumped from the vehicle. He had two daggers in his hands and leaped among the enemy elves at once. I wheeled about, slamming the door shut behind him, but my distraction cost me. The mace-wielding elf lashed out. My gun was the casualty, ending up crushed between the mace and the hummer door. I howled as I withdrew. My hand just barely escaped being crushed.
If the elves thought that was the end of my fight, they were sorely mistaken. With another feral howl, I threw myself at the mace-wielder, knocking him off his feet. I brought my palm to his nose and kicked him between the legs. As he doubled over, face twisting in pain, I tackled another elf. When I blocked a punch and drove my fingers into his sternum, I caught sight of Victor.
Time literally stood still. He had thrown off his robe, revealing a pair of tight-fitting pants and not much else. His bare chest was completely hairless and sculpted with such precision that he could have been carved straight out of a woman's fantasies. His abs flexed with his movement, going from a six to an eight pack depending on how tightly he held his body. His eyes were steely, determined.
But what really had the drool pooling in my mouth was his fighting style. He looked more like a dancer as he faced off with half a dozen opponents. His knives flashed and flew with such quickness that I could hardly track them. The other elves threw punches at him, but he nimbly dodged them like he was untouchable.
Wow. I found myself gaping at him rather than fighting off the enemy. Even after I shook my head and returned to knocking over elves like bowling pins, I couldn't help myself from sneaking glances at him. I had never seen anybody fight like that before. I should have taken him up on his offer the previous night. We could have been in the bathroom… I never did get my shower.
A solid punch to my jaw brought me back from my distraction. I pummeled the guy who had hit me, then kicked the feet out from under a second attacker and mightily lifted a third to throw back into the group. I grabbed the mace guy's face and smashed it into my knee. He stumbled back.
"Retreat," he shouted.
They scattered, climbing over the deer fence nimbly and disappeared into the forest. I turned back to the hummer and threw open the door to check on Owen and Charlotte.
"You guys okay?"
Owen nodded, though his face was drawn tensely. It had probably killed him to have to stay in the vehicle watching us fight. He was like me: he hated being on the sidelines.
Charlotte was tucked down behind the driver's seat, stuffed into a Kevlar vest. Not that Kevlar was actually much use against knives or arrows. If we had known that other elves would be attacking, we would have gotten some decent arrow-resistant armor. Kevlar was good against bullets and that was basically it.
"They slashed all four tires," Victor said, stepping up beside me. His chest gleamed with sweat and, for the first time, I noticed he had an earthy scent that I enjoyed quite a lot.
Great. I shook my head.
All a man had to do to catch my eye was fight well. After the beautiful performance Victor had just given, I'd be a puddle for days. Maybe I would have to reconsider the whole conversation we had the previous night. My gun was ruined, so it wasn't like I could shoot him. That put us on equal footing, right? Finding a place to be together would be trickier, though…
I shook the thoughts from my head. Now was not the time.
"We have extra tires in the back," Owen said. "The real problem is that."
He pointed at the arrow still protruding from the hood of the hummer. Smoke still belched from it. I went around to check it out, but I didn't need to be a mechanic to know that there would be no starting the vehicle up again. I grimaced, glancing at Cha
rlotte's pregnant belly.
"No cell service," Owen said, holding his phone into the sky. "So do we sit here and wait for another vehicle to come by and help us out, or do we start walking?"
"I chose this road because it's not well-used," I said. "I wanted to be able to speed up a little. We'll be about an hour away from the nearest city by way of driving. But walking with a woman so heavily pregnant…"
"I'm strong," Charlotte said. "I can walk."
"We might not have to." Victor pointed to the opposite side of the road. A large semi-truck rounded the corner.
I sighed in relief. "Good. Let's just be careful about it."
As if he hadn't heard me, Victor darted across the median onto the other side of the highway. He planted himself in the middle of it. I grabbed my spare gun from under the seat and ran after him. The semi pulled to a stop a few feet from the elven prince. The driver leaned on his horn and screamed at us, face red.
"Hey," I shouted at him. "You don't go around throwing yourself in front of vehicles. What is wrong with you? Did you want to get hit?"
"They stopped," Victor said.
His calmness did nothing to help me. I prodded my finger into his chest, about to start screaming, when the blaring horn suddenly cut off. A grunt behind me made me turn. Owen fell to the ground, a surprised look on his face as blood blossomed from his face. The driver of the semi grabbed Charlotte around the waist and lifted her into the air. She screamed, but the driver stuffed her into his truck before I could raise my gun.
I caught a glimpse of the driver's face, ball cap pulled low, large glasses hiding his face before he stepped on the gas. Charlotte's mouth was open in a scream and the semi barreled towards Victor and me. I dropped the gun and grabbed Victor, yanking him from the semi's path. Owen leaped over us as we fell, swinging his hook. It sunk deep into the semi's back, and he scrambled up onto it as it drove away.
I rolled over and grabbed my gun, but it had already turned the next corner and was gone.
Chapter Four
"Stop!" I called.
Victor ignored me, still running hard, sweat sliding down his smooth back. I wasn't out of shape by any means, but I carried a lot more muscle than he did. At least, that was what I told myself as an explanation for why I was panting with every step and his breathing was still even. I put on a burst of speed and grabbed his arm, dragging us both to a stop.
"They're miles away by now," I gasped out. "We can't keep chasing the truck. We need a plan."
The prince narrowed his eyes. He yanked his arm from me. "You should have stopped them. You have your gun, you could have blown out the tires!"
"Okay, one, it's not that easy and two, if I had done anything differently, you would have been smooshed into nothing but red gore on the pavement. You weren't even moving!"
"Then you should have let them hit me. I am paying you to protect my sister, not me."
I rolled my eyes at that. "Why, I didn't think of that? Of course, the royal family at Raindrop will be outraged that I didn't let their prince be killed. You know, now that I think of it, I should have let you die. I'm sure your parents wouldn't have gone all elf-berserk on the dwarves if I'd done that and, you know, lost Charlotte anyway because I was in the semi's path too. Or should we both have died?"
Victor frowned, but I guess he saw my point because he didn't continue the conversation. He scrubbed his hands over his face and pinched the bridge of his nose. "If we can't catch them on foot, then what is your plan?"
"Owen is very good at our job. I know he looks like the muscle of the group, but he's smart and he's like a pitbull when he decides on something. He's going to stay with Charlotte no matter what. With any luck, he's already beat that driver to bits and is coming back with Charlotte as we speak."
He looked torn for a moment but nodded reluctantly. "What does he want with her, anyway? Why take her?"
"I don't know. You think maybe her baby daddy hired him?"
"Doubtful. Damien might be possessive, but there are rules about how he can stop her from marrying Prince Thomas. He can't kill us and hiring an outsider… it's not his style."
"It would have been good to know they weren't going to kill us before we got attacked." I narrowed my eyes. "What if I had killed somebody? I thought they were trying to kill us, but if they weren't and I had killed one of them—"
"Oh, you're not an elf," Victor said with a shrug. "They might kill you."
"Great. Just great. Sit down. I'm tired of standing."
We moved off the road to sit on the shoulder. I tried to swallow, but my throat was sticky and dry. We would need to get something to drink. How, though? There were no water bottles sitting on the side of the road.
"You say Owen is good at what he does?"
I nodded firmly. "He's very good."
Victor picked a piece of grass and shredded it. "I wondered how a male dwarf ended up in your protective guild."
My hackles rose. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Just that from my understanding dwarves have rigid gender expectations."
I remained silent.
Victor paused a moment, then pressed on. "Among dwarves, children are named daughters of Brimir or sons of Blainn, are they not? Girls are considered to have sprung from Brimir’s blood, while boys sprang from Blainn's bones."
I nodded reluctantly. "And girls are thought to be more fluid or cunning, suited for protective duties, while boys are stronger and more suited for working as physical laborers. Yeah. It's a load of nonsense, though. Owen's as good at protecting people as anybody, and I'm more than capable of doing the heavy lifting."
Victor's gaze roamed over my shoulders and arms. "I can see that. You are very strong."
Was it just my imagination that his voice suddenly took on a husky tone? I felt blood start seeping into my face. I might not have enjoyed the way he was looking at me before I saw him fight, but now I knew he was more than just a fancy-pants prince. I chewed on my lower lip before I shook off the thoughts and got back to my feet.
"Going through the forest will be faster than sticking to the road," I said. "We'll have to get to the nearest settlement to track Owen."
"What about reinforcements?"
"We don't need them."
Victor narrowed his eyes. "I don't doubt your abilities, but we don't know what numbers we are against. It would be prudent to—"
"The guild doesn't do reinforcements. They call us. We don’t know anybody except for the people who trained with us, and I never really… bonded with them. I don't have any numbers to call. Owen and I do things on our own."
I was afraid of getting the same scolding that I always got from my superiors and parents whenever this subject was brought up, and I braced myself for Victor's disapproval. However, there was no judgment in his eyes as he nodded.
"Which way?" he asked.
I hesitated as I glanced around. I knew which road to follow and approximately how far away it was, but navigating through a forest wasn't my strong suit. Owen was the one with the tracking abilities. His time underground left him with an excellent sense of direction. I relied too heavily on him for that. There was something about moss on trees and north, though.
Victor understood without me having to say a word. "I took a look at your maps while we were driving. It's this way." He pointed.
I frowned. "If you know, why ask me?"
His eyes sparkled. "I thought that if I just said it without consulting you, you might get offended and decide to shoot me. Besides, I didn't want to assume that you were uncertain where to go."
I scowled at the truthfulness of his statement. There were some things that I just didn't like to admit, and one of them was when I didn't know things. In my line of work, I had to be self-reliant in most situations. Friendships, even with our partners, were discouraged. Owen and I broke this rule because of his dogged insistence on being nice to me. Personally, I thought it was partly why we were so successful – along with our stubborn determination t
o prove everybody else wrong – but it was still hard to break free from years of conditioning.
"So elves have a mystical sense of direction, huh?"
"No. But we have to go north-east and as you can see by the position of the sun—"
"Okay, you don't have to give me a lesson."
Victor shrugged.
We climbed over the fence and headed through the forest. The air was cool and I worried about Victor, soaked in sweat, but he showed no signs of being cold. Squirrels chattered and birds sang. I kept a hand on my gun, keeping my ears sharp for any unfriendlies, whether elf, wolf, troll or other.
After some time Victor spoke. "So do you really not know how to tell the direction from the sun, or were you just trying to make me feel better?"
"I wasn't taught that sort of thing," I admitted. "My training was… Well, I wouldn't say that I had a real childhood. It was all very highly regimented and there wasn't a lot of adult intervention in interpersonal problems. That was for us to figure out and deal with, not for them to take care of. Great for some of the girls, but for someone like me… I was an easy target."
Victor nodded as he hopped nimbly over a fallen log. I scrambled after him, envying his grace.
"Charlotte was my only companion growing up," he told me. "You are right in thinking our society is highly stratified. I befriended one of the servant's children once and they were punished for it. Not me. Them."
"That's fair," I murmured sarcastically.
"There are many injustices in my society. Our parents would love to see Charlotte marry the man who sired her child, but Damien is a hard man. He is set in the past. Charlotte wanted to create her own destiny." He stopped and turned towards me. "I want to create my own destiny as well. That was why I… approached you in the motel. You are a beautiful woman, and you are strong and brave. I didn't mean to insult you."
