Cowl
Andria was already at the pub by the time he arrived.
Hoping that he wasn’t late, Cowl looked at his cell phone. It was an amazing device, one that he’d truly just begun to feel confident with. It boggled his mind how many different things it could do, but even more so was how attached to theirs everyone seemed to be.
He walked around the streets a lot, eschewing cars to foot transportation where feasible, and all too often he was forced to dodge people who were looking at their phones and not where they were going. It was absurd to witness, but he was forced to chalk it up to a changing of the times. After all, they hadn’t had anything even remotely similar when he was born. Things were bound to change.
The time showed that, as he’d suspected, he was fifteen minutes early. Greg, the bartender and sometimes-cook who handled the morning shift, was just getting ready to leave. They exchanged polite nods. Nothing more needed to be said.
“You’re early,” he remarked, sliding into a circular stool in front of the bar.
Andria kept reading her textbook for a moment before looking up. “Class got out early.”
“Ah.” He hoped it sounded a little more sage to her than it had him. “Is today where you finally explain to me—”
“Cowl, I told you, I—”
“What all the words in that book of yours mean?”
She fell silent. “Right. The book. That’s what you were talking about. Of course.”
He took pity on her. “How did your class go today?”
“It was fine.”
“And the rest of school?”
She was brightening, happy for the out he’d provided, so that they didn’t have to revisit a topic she seemed to want to keep locked away. Cowl wasn’t sure how much longer that was going to be feasible, however. He suspected Jake wasn’t going to just let it go, and he was going to need to be prepared for that eventuality.
“School is good. I really like what I’m studying. That’s why I decided to do a Master’s in it.”
“A Master’s?” He’d caught the emphasis on the word, but he didn’t know what it meant.
“Like, graduate school? You know, that thing between an undergraduate degree and your doctorate?”
“Ah, right.”
He had no idea.
“Anyway, I know I’m a little old for it, but I think that’s helped me gather a better appreciation for the material as well. I’m certainly getting better grades than I ever would if I’d done this when younger.”
“You’re not old?” Now he was thoroughly confused.
“For school? Sure I am. I took two years off after high school to save up money to go, and then another three years before I decided to go back for a Master’s. There aren’t that many twenty-eight-year-olds in my class.”
Cowl frowned as she laughed, an awkward-sounding thing that she used to try and cover the embarrassment of her remark.
“You should not care. Seriously. Everyone else should be in awe of you for how hard it sounds like you’ve worked to get to where you are. I admire that dedication. Anyone who doesn’t is an idiot and I’d be more than willing to let them know that.”
Andria shook her head. “That’s not necessary, Cowl. But thank you. It can be awkward to be in the same class as people in their early twenties at times.”
“I bet you’re doing better than all of them.”
“I’m not sure I would go that far.” She was blushing now, feeling good about herself.
That was exactly how he wanted her to feel. How she should always feel, every day. Andria was amazing. He just wanted to bask in her presence, to make her feel more confidence with every passing day.
“Well, you certainly know what all this means.” He tapped her textbook with a finger.
“This? Oh this isn’t that complicated.” She opened the book to the first page. “It has a lot of big words, and if those aren’t your thing, then yeah it can sound complicated. But really it’s all just about the interconnectivity of the spine to the rest of the body. In short.”
“Right. What exactly is it you’re studying?”
“Kinesiology.”
At his blank stare she elaborated. “The study of the mechanics of body movement.”
“Ah. Of course.” So many advances. Cowl had a lot to catch up on. He was going to have to start doing some research to fill in the huge gaps of his knowledge base. The courses the military had put him through had been designed to help bring him up to speed. Language, history, how to use his cell phone, things like that.
Where they were woefully lacking, however, was on everyday knowledge, as he was quickly finding out. But they had taught him the search function on the internet, and he could begin to look it all up. There had to be some sort of website that had all this aggregated information.
“How much more school do you have?” She liked talking about her studies, and he wanted to keep that going. The way her face brightened and she became talkative was like watching a rose blossom, spreading its petals wide. He wanted Andria to reach far and wide, to never be afraid of striving for more.
“I’ll be done in April.” She looked away. “Hopefully. So just eight months left.”
“You sound eager to be done.”
“Hell yeah. I’ve been working toward this since I was sixteen. I’m so close now, and then I can finally graduate and blow this town.”
“You don’t like it here?”
She laughed, a bitter sound. “No. Not at all. I want out. I’m going to move to the coast, to a big city there. I’ve got contacts out there from various conferences. I think I can get a job. Anything to get me out of Barton City.” She stopped abruptly and looked up at him. “What about you? Are you going to stay in Barton City?”
Cowl nodded. “Yeah. I think so.”
This was where the portal was. There really wasn’t anywhere else for him to go, unless the Outsiders came through and overwhelmed Barton City. Then he would go with the military. Cowl knew he was going to fight. His brothers were unsure, but he wasn’t.
How could he view the threat that was coming and then stand by and do nothing? If there was one thing Cowl was not, it was a coward. He was not afraid of any fight. The Outsiders hadn’t truly faced an ice dragon. Not yet. When they did, they were going to regret it.
“Oh.” She looked sad.
“Can I ask you something?” He wanted to switch the topic.
“Sure.”
“Last night Jake said that I was just a bodyguard for you. Is that true?”
Andria bit her lip, unwilling to meet his eye. “No, Cowl. I hired you!”
He reached out and lifted her chin, forcing her to look at him. “I wasn’t looking for a job, Andria. I came in to have a drink. You didn’t even know my name.”
“Right. Well, maybe I do like having you around. You’re big, strong, and you don’t take shit from people like Jake. But you work hard too, and I don’t regret hiring you at all, even if it was a spur-of-the-moment thing. Maybe I just recognized a good worker when I saw one, and made my decision then and there.”
Cowl glanced around the bar before replying. “But you’re still not going to tell me why you need a bodyguard in the first place, are you?”
She shook her head. From the moment he’d asked the first question, he was seeing the other side of Andria—the timid, uncertain creature that replaced his mate whenever this topic came up. He hated this side of her, and wished he could wrestle whatever demon she was fighting away from her. Cowl wouldn’t hesitate to bear her problems, but first she had to tell him.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s humiliating and embarrassing. I don’t want to talk about it, and the fact that you don’t already know is nice because you don’t look at me like everyone else.”
“Well I should hope not.” He clamped his mouth shut, fearful that he’d already said too much.
“You’re a nice guy, Cowl. You really are.”
He cringed. Six hundred years, and that phrase still meant the same thing. She still saw him as just a friend. Or was trying to convince herself of that at least. He wasn’t sure which one, though based on some of their prior interactions, he suspected the latter. He hoped it was that.
“You can go, though. You don’t need to stick around. You don’t need to be my protector.”
“Wait.”
“What?” She was fidgeting, and once again looking anywhere but at him. The conversation was making her uncomfortable, but instead of letting the topic change as he usually did, Cowl persisted.
“I never said I wouldn’t.”
“Wouldn’t what?”
“Be your protector. I would be honored to assume that spot in your life.”
“You…what? Cowl, I hired you to work the bar, not be my bodyguard. I don’t need a shadow, no matter how big and strong and capable you might be.”
“I think you’re wrong.”
Andria’s eyes flashed brightly, the dark green glowing with light after being told she was wrong.
“You don’t want a protector, but you need one.”
“Jake would never actually harm me,” she said instantly, but there was no conviction in it.
“Maybe not. That’s why he has that other guy.”
“What other guy?”
“Drinks too much, green eyes like jade. Evil.”
“Danny.”
“Sure. Don’t care about his name. But he’s bad news, and he won’t hesitate to hurt you. Trust me, I know these things.”
Andria seemed poised to argue his point, but by changing the topic from Jake to someone she didn’t know as well, he’d driven home his point.
“Maybe. I doubt they would go so far as to do something physical though.”
“They won’t if I’m your protector.”
His mate worked her jaw for a moment longer, then she caved, wilting slightly as she conceded the point. “Maybe. What does this mean?”
He leaned over the bar. “It means I go wherever you go.”
Andria’s eyes grew wide. “Oh no no no. You aren’t following me around!”
Cowl smiled. “That’s the best way for me to protect you.”
“I dunno, Cowl.”
“I’ll be invisible. I promise.”
She looked him up and down, making certain he saw. “You. Invisible. Right.”
He smiled to reveal his teeth. “You won’t even know I’m there.”