Chapter 14

Don’t Growl at your Guardian

The hunter stalked towards him. Truly, no man could be so terrifying and yet there he was, a pale elven demon with a grudge and a sword. A shudder of terror ran through Jasper, and he backed away, bumping into one of the trees.

Roscrow took no more than two menacing steps before he found his path blocked. Making the same sound deep in his chest that his dragon would make, he turned those reflective eyes down to her, face twisted in spite and defiance. S’re’s neck craned back to glower at him.

His will was incredible for the discomfort he felt denying her entrance grew exponentially the longer they maintained contact. It was a discomfort only a Guardian knew in the gaze of his Tamer– a forced submission Roscrow refused to surrender to. In only seconds, she saw a lifetime of unyielding self assuredness, lessons both dark and tender and all in between, but he would not let her deeper than the surface and that was still further than he wished.

“You are a rapscallion,” she broke the tense silence matter-of-factly.

His brows shot up. His expression changed from murderous to prosecuted in a blink, and he pointed to himself, his voice as clear and deep and rich as the twinkling night sky above them. “I have lived 154 years and never have I ever!”

If the situation were not so tense, S’re would have laughed, pressing her lips together as she struggled with a little smile. “Somehow, I doubt that.”

Shaking his head, his brows pinched back together in irritation. “What you should not doubt is that I have killed for less than trying to set me on fire!” His gaze finally broke hers to snarl at Jasper.

“Uh, s-sorry ‘bout that,” he started, moving to keep S’re between them. “I-I didn’t know, I swear...”

“You just don’t like being beaten.”

Those shimmering centers snapped back to her with an intensity that burned hotter than any fire she had stood in with Jasper.

“I was not beaten!” he snarled. “I was vulnerable, and your little ra’paki ambushed me! Now, he hides behind you like a coward...”

The slap cracked across his face with a brief echo through the trees loud enough that the dragons, who had been glaring at each other, now took an interest in the people’s affairs. Though unmoved, Roscrow’s expression was deeply bewildered. Touching his face, he peered down at S’re.

“Don’t you dare call him that!” she fumed, tightly clenching the hand she had struck him with, nose wrinkled in her own snarl. “He has saved me from any one of a dozen situations anyone would have the right to balk at, and I am not in the mood to hear that from someone like you! You’re fucking terrifying, but he saved me from you!”

The Guardian’s brow cocked up, glancing between them in a tense and contemplative silence for a moment. Sheathing his sword with a vexed sigh and roll of his eyes, he bowed in a traditional elven apology, hands together with palms out. “ny’Salohm, you remind me of my hubris. Ohm’raha, saipaki. Be at ease.”

Though still visibly shaken and apprehensive, Jasper nodded at the giant, accepting the unenthusiastic apology.

S’re perked. “Wait, what ... did you call me?”

Straightening, Roscrow repeated himself. “ny’Salohm. You are a Tamer. They have always been royalty.”

“That ... that being called me ‘ny’Salohm of the eternals,’” she remembered softly.

“That ‘being’ would be Du’un,” Roscrow explained with disdain. “He has appeared to all newly awakened Tamers and their unwilling Guardians since he drew up this curse.”

S’re gasped. “That was you? At the other end of those ... strings?”

His face fell to a deep, exasperated frown. “Quite unfortunately.”

Brow pinching together, she growled at him again. “Don’t blame me for this! I didn’t want this anymore than you did! I don’t know anything about any of it! I had a perfectly fine life before all of this happened! I don’t even know your name and now I know more about you than I would ever care to! Why would I have chosen any of this?”

Staring at her hard with an aggravated inhale that was quite telling of the sharp things he wished to say, he let it out in a sigh to match. Standing to his full height, making them crane their heads back, he gave her a rigid salute. “Guardian Roscrow alt Szizander, in your service. Commander of Academy’s 2nd regiment and Lord of Syvin Court.” He added his titles with mild pretentiousness.

Realizing she had no titles or even a last name, she nervously rubbed her arm. “Oh. That’s impressive. Um, well, my name’s S’re and that’s Jasper. And, um, th-thanks for saving me back there. I thought things were ... going to go a lot differently.”

“I already know who both of you are, and it was not difficult to find out more about you both during this needless hunt than I would ever care to.” A knowing smirk made him quite impish, leaning closer to her with a hand on his hip. “Jan and Jermal’s Massage? Really, S’re, you are a Tamer. You should be more discerning.”

Her breath sucked in sharply. “Oh, uhh...” Her bright, flustered blush only deepened his amusement.

“I’m sure people would tell you anything when they’re scared to death,” Jasper muttered under his breath.

Roscrow’s head whipped around to glower at him. Just as quickly, he smiled slyly. “You’d be surprised just how discreet and friendly I can be.” Stepping closer to S’re, his smugness deepened into a sultry stare, his face softening until one could call it sensual. Just as he knew how to tilt his eyes to make them glow, he knew how to make them appear abyssal. “I don’t always need to be terrifying to get what I want, saipaki.”

Standing so close to him, the deep, silky purr accompanying his words made S’re suck in her breath with a shudder. Her face flushed hot as she felt her body betray her, goosebumps rolling over her skin. Glaring up at his smirking face, she crossed her arms indignantly to hide her nipples poking against her shirt while his attention was still on Jasper in a silent conversation between the two men.

“You like it too much,” she chided him.

Now the shimmer of his gaze snapped to her from the corner of his eye. Gesturing to himself, his grin grew grander. “How can I not?”

Not giving her the chance to respond, he straightened to tower over them and crossed his arms, his face returning to its drawn sternness. “Had you simply stayed at South Outpost 7, this whole chase and all its harrowing moments that tugged me every which way could have been avoided. I missed you by merely an hour and had to spend a fortnight untangling myself from my own affairs just to come on this excursion! Trying to leave at such a crucial time was nearly impossible. Do you have any idea how far that fire spread? Your little saipaki very nearly started another war! Zaparow paid reparations to avoid full on conflict because Mardarow thought they started it on purpose.”

Glancing over his shoulder, he returned the fist to his hip, glaring back at S’re. “Our very presence here is going to start a war if we don’t get moving. As nice as it would be to stand here all night and get acquainted, our extensive lifetimes will afford us plenty of opportunity to do so later. I’d like to keep my head start as long as I can.”

“What could you possibly be afraid of?”

Roscrow snarled at Jasper, causing him to shrink back. “I fear nothing! I simply do not have any desire to be a political prisoner in a foreign country. Mardarow has had a rather gruesome history with their Tamers, as well as their prisoners of war, and I quite prefer my mountain where I am a god over anything that could await me, or you for that matter, here. And should he catch up, things will end up very tense, to put it lightly. The man has well over a millennium on me, and while I quite pride myself on my own prowess, I am also no fool. There is always a bigger dragon.”

Jasper gasped. “You’re talking about Balgarir?”

Again Roscrow glared at him, giving him a tight lipped smile. “Very astute.”

“Yeah, okay, but there’s only one problem. Those bounty hunters drugged Randel. I don’t think he could wake up even if S’re ... tried again.”

Eyes narrowing, Roscrow inhaled in aggravation and let it out in a rumbling growl, glaring at S’re. “If it was within my power, I would simply throw you over my shoulder and be gone from here. Must we take him?”