Cowl
Andria closed the book in front of her and glanced up at the clock.
“Time to close up!” she announced, sounding far too excited.
In Cowl’s opinion, this was the worst part of the day. Not only was he to part with her, but he was forced to do so at night, leaving Andria on her own. His brain knew she would be perfectly safe. A city like this never truly slept, as he was discovering, and there were lights everywhere to guide her home. Night was no longer something to be feared quite the same.
That changed nothing. Night was still when the darker things in life came out to play, preying on the weaker and less fortunate. Andria had a strength of personality that surprised him, though she so often kept it hidden away from others. Even in his short time with her he’d noticed that. To him she was one type of person, but to others she was quiet, closed off, not quite the same.
All of that aside, she was still human, and unfortunately vulnerable. Without him by her side looking out for her, something could still happen. He doubted Jake would be the one to do anything, but one of his cronies—particularly the one with the evil eyes of hardened jade—would. Cowl was certain of it.
Letting her head out into the night on her own, knowing that bad men like that were out there, made his skin crawl. He should be with his mate, protecting her, guarding her. Keeping her safe. That was his job, something that had been ingrained upon him since he was just a young wyrm. Once you find your mate, you do whatever it takes to keep her safe.
How was he supposed to reconcile that with the current situation? Cowl had always assumed that his mate would know he was a dragon from the start. That she would be aware of his sometimes-overprotective tendencies. With Andria however, she had no idea he was a dragon, let alone that they were destined to be mated together forever. Springing all of that on her at once was probably not the wisest way to end his second day on the job. Not if he wanted to come back.
“Can you put the chairs up on the tables?”
Cowl leapt to make it happen, while Andria wrestled with a big yellow bucket, filling it with water. As he worked he watched her add some sort of chemical to it, and then mix it up with a long stringy thing attached to a pole. Then she let that sit and grabbed a broom, sweeping the floor clean behind him.
“I’m going to do the cash and the till. Can you mop for me? Do you mind? I’d normally do it, but I got distracted tonight.”
He smiled confidently, shooing her off to go do her other jobs. “Not a problem.”
It was a problem. Cowl stood regarding the contraption. What the hell was he supposed to do with it now? This was a mop. He knew that much. It smelled like cleaner. So it was supposed to clean something. He glanced around.
Big dragon meant big brain, right? Of course it did. Now all he needed to do was put that big brain to work deducing what he was supposed to clean. It wasn’t tables; those had been done and he knew how to do it. Nor was it chairs. They were up.
The walls? That seemed silly. There were pictures and signs labeled everywhere. Cowl glanced up. The ceiling was far too high for him to reach, and certainly out of Andria’s shorter arms. That only left one option.
Please be right. Please please please.
He splashed the mop around a little, and then started to scrub the floor with it.
“What are you doing?” Andria was watching him from behind the bar.
Shit. It wasn’t the floor, was it? It was the walls. Dammit, he’d known it was the walls!
“Uh, mopping?”
“You don’t need that much water. Wring it out first with the strainer bit on the bucket.”
“Oh. Right.” After a brief struggle he figured out how to use the strainer and got to work, happy for the distraction to help burn away the humiliation.
Any confidence he’d had about his progress in learning to fit in had gone out the window. He couldn’t even handle simple menial labor yet.
That aside, the night had gone better than he’d ever expected. He’d gotten to spend time with Andria, learning a little bit more about his mate, and he’d made it known to Jake that she was his and off-limits. Hopefully he listened this time. Cowl wasn’t interested in giving him a third chance.
“All done,” he rumbled after a bit, wheeling the mop back over to the sink she’d filled it in. “How’s it going up there?”
Andria emerged from the little office next to the stairs where she’d stowed the cash register and had been working on some paperwork.
“Done here, too. Let me just clean up my own stuff, and we’ll be on our way.”
Cowl watched her pack up the book she’d been reading for most of the evening. He’d gotten a look at it, but the words had left him puzzled and confused. It was obviously scholarly, but on what, he wasn’t sure.
“Ready to go?” she asked, slinging a backpack over one shoulder and turning off the rest of the lights.
“Yeah.” The truth was no, he wasn’t. He wanted to stay and spend more time with her, alone, without anyone else around.
Or perhaps take her back to his place, where he could wipe that smile off her face and replace it with something more sensual, more intimate. Cowl just knew she was wound tightly, stressed about far too many things. He longed to solve those problems and help her unwind.
Andria locked the front door and then together they headed for the rear exit, where her car was parked, and where the garbage he still had to move was located. Apparently there was a service that came around to empty the bins and remove the garbage for them.
What a fantastic time to be alive.
Cowl pushed through the door first and held it for her.
“Why thank you.” She giggled and strode through it, shoulders straight and head up, pretending to be somebody important.
“Wait!”
Andria froze. “What? What is it? What’s wrong?”
Cowl started to look around frantically, as if he’d lost something.
“Did you forget something?” Andria was sounding worried.
He sighed, putting as much extra effort and sound into it as he could. “I swear I had a roll of red carpet around here somewhere.”
Andria groaned. “You had me worried there for a moment that something was actually wrong!” She punched him in the shoulder. “Don’t do that!”
Cowl grabbed at his shoulder, pretending to be hurt.
“Nope. See, now I don’t believe you. You’re not actually hurt.” She hissed and started to shake her hand. “I’m the one that hurts. Dammit, do you have steel bars in your arms or something? I think I broke my hand!”
“Are you certain? Do you need medical attention? I can get you to a doctor.” He began calculating the swiftest route to the nearest hospital, one of the locations in town he’d memorized upon arriving. “Come on, this way.”
Andria started laughing. “No, Cowl, I’m joking. See, it sucks when you think something is wrong when it’s not.”
“You were teasing me?”
She nodded.
“Don’t ever do that again.”
Her laughter stopped immediately. “It was just a joke. Cowl. Relax. It’s okay.”
“I didn’t find it funny.”
“I was complimenting you, if you think about it. Saying how big and strong you are.” She reached up to squeeze his biceps.
Cowl was okay with that.
“You don’t even feel real. How the hell are your muscles so solid?”
He flexed, just to see what would happen. Andria jumped as his arm bulged in size, and the T-shirt he was wearing ripped.
“Good going. You destroyed your own shirt trying to show off,” she admonished.
Cowl just smiled. Yes, he might have. But he’d seen the way her eyes grew large. She liked it.
“Go put the garbage out before you hurt someone with those things.” She pushed him in the direction. “Just drag them out to the curb here, and place them parallel.”
He didn’t say anything, his grin growing wider as she checked out his arms again. Then he just started to back away, looking right at her the entire time. His mate thought he was attractive. He’d been pretty sure of that already, but this had been a pleasant confirmation.
The garbage bins were in a nook of the building right next to each other. Cowl wondered how Andria usually moved them, since there was no room to get behind them they were jammed in so tight. For him it was child’s play. He just reached up, grabbed the top lip, and walked backward, hauling it after him.
Metal wheels unused to moving screeched in the still of night, disturbing some birds and at least one creature that ran between his legs before disappearing nearby. Cowl pushed it into place and went back for the other. He had just began to haul it when he heard Andria’s voice. Who was she talking to at this time?
The words were tough to make out, muted by the traffic on the city streets all around them. But he could hear two voices. The other was male. Cowl gritted his teeth and prepared to finish hauling the garbage, but two things stopped him.
The first was the sound of glass breaking.
The second was Andria’s startled cry.