The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga (35 page)

There was a definite dripping of sarcasm wrapped
around his words, but any inkling of offense Avery might have taken
from his comment was wiped away when she heard her name said in his
silky voice.

When he walked out of the shadows and sauntered over
to his throne, Avery was shocked to see, not only a young man in
his early twenties, but also one of the most hauntingly handsome
men her eyes had ever beheld.

The man was tall, about six foot, and lean, without
being thin. He had thick midnight black hair that came down to just
below his ears. His dark eyebrows and lashes were the same color
black as his hair, making his bright electric blue eyes even more
prominent than they would have been. His skin was pale; more like
someone’s who doesn’t go out into the sun, than Avery’s naturally
porcelain skin. He wore fitted black leather pants, tucked into
black boots that went up to just below his knees, and a white
tunic, with a black leather belt clasped around his waist. Attached
to the belt was a black leather scabbard, which held a large
silver-handled sword.

After the shock of the initial first sight of him,
Avery collected herself and played back his comment in her mind.
She really didn’t know how to respond to it. So, instead, she
decided to get straight down to the reason they had come.

“Gumptin sent us.” Avery told him, trying to maintain
a polished looking calm as she stared into his eyes. No one should
have eyes that blue, she told herself, it’s just not fair. Then,
realizing her mind was drifting from the topic at hand, she gave
herself a mental slap.

The man walked over to the black throne and leaned
his arm up over the top of it, “Yes, I know.” The man said to
Avery, fixing her with a crooked side smile, “Your little magician
sent me word early this morning, telling me to expect the honor of
your presence.”

Again, his words were twinged with sarcasm, and this
time Avery couldn’t find it quite so easy to ignore.

“Is that all he told you?” Avery asked, wondering if
Gumptin had mentioned the reason for their visit.

“Should he have told me something else?” He asked
quickly, staring at Avery intently and not answering her
question.

Avery hated it when people answered a question with
another question. It was one of her pet peeves. She reminded
herself to stay professional, just as she had instructed Jade to
do.

She opened her mouth to simply tell him, no, when,
from behind her, Sasha blurted out, “I’m Sasha, by the way, Sasha
Seraphina. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Avery slowly turned her head towards Sasha, giving
her a ‘what the hell are you doing’ look. When Avery turn her head
back towards the man, he was smiling broadly at her, flashing a row
of straight white teeth. He clearly enjoyed Avery’s displeasure
with Sasha’s comment. Avery found it amazing how quickly his good
looks had gone from mesmerizing to irritating.

The man moved his eyes from Avery, over to Sasha,
“And it is a
pleasure
to meet you.” He told Sasha, smiling
his side smile at her, “I’m King Draven Night, but you can call me
Draven.”

Avery could almost hear Sasha smiling from ear to ear
behind her. It made Avery want to gag.

“Anyway,” Avery said, putting an end to that little
interlude, “we came here to ask you for the use of your army.”

Draven stared fixedly at Avery for a moment, and then
burst into a slow deep laughter.

“
You
,” Draven said, through his dying laugher,
“came here to ask me for the use of my army?”

Avery failed to grasp the humor in her last
statement.

“Well, it’s not like we’d need you to give us the
army right now.” Avery said, only making Draven laugh harder.

That was it; Avery was officially completely over his
good looks.

“Look,” Jade said, standing next to Avery, “we don’t
have a lot of time to waste. So, if you could just listen to her,”
Jade pointed towards Avery, “it would be really helpful.” Jade must
have listened to Avery; because that was the most polite she had
ever been to anyone who had even slightly annoyed her.

Draven stopped laughing just as quickly as he had
started, which led Avery to suspect that his laughter might have
been just for show.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” He said to Jade, “I wouldn’t want to
keep you from running off and getting yourself killed again.”

Avery felt Jade’s body stiffen next to her. Jade took
a deep breath before telling Draven, “We were thinking about
keeping that off of our ‘to do’ list.”

A serious look came over Draven’s face, darkening his
blue eyes, “I’m not sure that would be a very safe bet.”

“Who do you think…” Jade had started to take a step
towards Draven, but Avery grabbed her by the arm and pulled her
back, stopping Jade not only in her tracks, but also
mid-sentence.

Draven smirked, watching Avery take control of Jade,
“I believe Havyn’s missing five little girls.” Draven told them,
wiggling his fingers, signaling them to leave, “You should run on
home now.”

Avery had had enough. She wasn’t going to go back to
Gumptin and tell him that they had failed miserably. She could
already see the horrible look of disappointment in Gumptin’s eyes.
So far, in the matter of a few minutes, Draven had mocked her,
laughed at her, and called her a little girl. Taking all of that
into account, Avery was going to make damn sure he at least heard
what she had to say before being dismissed.

“No.” Avery said sternly.

She stepped up onto the platform and walked up to
stand in front of the throne. When she approached, Draven flinched
back slightly, not expecting her to get so close to him. He took
his arm off of the back of the throne and crossed his arms, as if
he was creating an invisible shield to block her with.

Avery could tell she wasn’t going to get anywhere
with Draven by being overly aggressive. She also knew that if she
was too passive, he would just walk all over her. Avery came to the
conclusion to take Gumptin’s advice and just be herself.

“I know that I didn’t…” Avery tried to think of the
right way to say what she wanted to, “think to highly of you in the
past, but I don’t remember any of that. Who I am now doesn’t think
of you that way at all.”

Draven broke eye contact with Avery for a brief
second, looking down, but then immediately looked back up at Avery.
Avery saw his throat move up and down as he swallowed hard. It was
the first time Avery had seen his cocky façade crack, even just
slightly, and she was thankful for it. It meant that she just might
be able to get through to him.

“I’d really like for us to start out with a clean
slate.” Avery stuck out her hand in front of her, “I’m Avery
Kimball.”

It took Draven a moment to pull his eyes away from
Avery’s and glance down at her hand. He hesitated for a few
seconds, then stuck out his hand and took hers in his own. They
shook hands longer than necessary. Avery’s delicate hand fit
comfortably in Draven’s bigger, slightly rough hand.

“I’m Draven.” Draven told Avery, his face soft,
although he wasn’t smiling.

Standing there having her hand held in Draven’s,
Avery almost forgot why she come to the castle in the first place;
she almost forgot about the other girls standing there watching
them, and she had definitely almost forgotten that less than a
minute ago she had thought of Draven as an arrogant jerk.

Of course, all of those things came rushing back to
her when Draven, seeming to realize they were still holding hands
after more than a few seconds, cleared his throat and dropped
Avery’s hand back down to her side. He stepped down off the
platform and away from Avery

“Well…um,” Draven was uncharacteristically searching
for words, “just because you don’t hate me anymore, doesn’t mean
I’m going to hand over my army for you to play with.”

It hit Avery again why she had thought him an
arrogant jerk.

Avery rolled her eyes, “It’s not like we’re gonna go
play, storm the castle. We do actually have a plan, and you…”

“I’ll have to think about it.” Draven said shortly,
cutting off Avery.

Avery bit her tongue, keeping all the insults she
wanted to throw at him to herself.

“Fine,” Avery said, knowing it was probably the
closest thing to an answer she was going to get, “you think about
it, but before we go we need to see the records you keep on your
army.” Avery didn’t ask if she could see them, she demanded it. She
didn’t want to be turned down again, so she thought it best not to
give Draven that option.

“Why?” Draven asked.

Avery shrugged, she really wasn’t sure. It was just
something Gumptin had told her to get. He wanted the army records.
He wanted to know how many men and regiments the King had and where
they were all positioned throughout Orcatia.

“Gumptin wants to see them.” Avery told Draven, “When
we return them, you can give us your answer.” Avery added the last
part to let Draven know that she fully intended on getting an
answer from him.

By the way Draven was looking at her, Avery thought
he may try to argue, but instead he strode over to the throne room
doors and pulled them open. He stepped outside and Avery heard him
saying something to General Stone, who was waiting outside the
door. When Draven walked back inside, General Stone was following
him.

Draven pointed to General Stone, “Ferris will take
you to the records room and make sure you get what you need.”

As the girls began to follow Ferris out of the room,
Draven asked, “Avery, could you stay behind for a moment?”

Avery and the others stopped in their tracks. She
stood completely still, just staring at Draven for a moment,
wondering if she actually heard him say what she thought he had
said.

After a moment, without Draven correcting or
elaborating on his statement, Avery hesitantly said, “Alright.”

The rest of the girls turned and followed Ferris, all
except for Jade, who stayed by Avery’s side, not moving.

“Alone.” Draven said to Jade.

Jade still refused to move, “Whatever you want to
discuss with Avery, you can talk about it with me here.”

Draven smiled at Jade, a smile that didn’t reach his
eyes, “Run along little watchdog.” He told her, motioning with his
hand for her to leave, “I promise I won’t hurt her.”

“Watchdog?!” Jade hollered

Before Jade could say something that Avery would
regret, Avery grabbed Jade around the waist and pulled her to the
door, where Ferris was waiting.

Avery whispered into Jade’s ear, “He’s a king, he’s a
king, he’s a king, let it go.”

Without bothering to free herself from Avery’s grasp,
Jade turned to her and whispered back, “Well, the
King
just
called me a dog.”

“Remember what I said about being professional.”
Avery told Jade.

To which Jade responded, “Remember what I said about
assholes.”

Avery had to literally push Jade outside the throne
room doors, “Just go.” Avery said, pointing down the hall to where
the other girls were waiting, “I need you to go to make sure we get
the right records anyway. Bunny will forget the information Gumptin
wanted, Sasha won’t care, and Skylar will get distracted by the
first hot guy or sparkly object she sees!”

That seemed to strike some sense into Jade, which
Avery knew it would. Jade may at times try to appear apathetic and
indifferent, but she hated not getting a job done properly.

“Dammit!” Jade said through clenched teeth, then
pointed at Avery, “Fine, but don’t take long.”

After Jade and the others disappeared down the hall,
Avery slowly turned back around towards Draven.

Avery smiled nervously, “She’ll be fine.” She told
Draven, hoping Jade’s almost outburst wouldn’t affect his decision
about letting them use his army.

“I’m surprised you get anything done with that one
safeguarding you all the time.” Draven told Avery, walking over and
closing the throne room doors back up.

It was one thing for Draven to give Avery a hard
time, which she really didn’t appreciate, but it was a whole other
thing for him to talk about Jade. It was something Avery wouldn’t
tolerate from people who didn’t even know her.

“She’s my family. We protect each other.” Avery said
to Draven. Making sure her voice was stern enough for him to get
the point to leave that subject alone.

He got the point. Draven shook his head, looking at
Avery from out of the side of his eyes, “I’ve offended you.” He
said.

Avery wasn’t sure if he was asking a question or
making a statement.

“It wouldn’t be the first time today.” Avery said,
laughing slightly, so Draven wouldn’t think she was too upset by
it.

Draven smiled, “I’m sorry.” He said, and sounded more
sincere than Avery thought him capable of, “I don’t have a lot of
contact with people. So, I can sometimes come off a
bit…abrupt.”

He walked over to the window he had been standing
next to when the Protectors had first walked in. He leaned back up
against the wall and stared out the window. Avery walked over and
joined him, curious as to what he saw outside that window.

It was the same view that she had seen from the large
window on the second floor. Except, the position of the room
allowed Avery to see over the castle wall and partially down into
the valley below. She saw a few of the farm houses and where the
Main Road disappeared into the forest.

As Avery gazed out of the window, trying to count how
many people were walking along the Main Road, she gradually became
aware that Draven was no longer looking out at the view, but was
instead staring at her. When Avery looked up, he quickly glanced
away, back to staring out the window. Avery turned away from him
and as she did, her shoulder grazed his chest. He shifted away
uncomfortably, and she took up position leaning on the other side
of the window. It made Avery happy to be at least a few feet away
from Draven. It made it easier for her to think. She tried to think
of something to say, anything to break the awkward silence starting
to form between them.