The Profilers Shield [COMPLETED]

Eight – Attack and Tea

Minutes went by, people started to murmur amongst themselves, trying to give each other a valid reason to kill Dagur without feeling guilty. King Malik turned impatient, after all his life was on the line and that was far more important than Dagur. After barking at his guests to make a decision, a little more than half of the guests were left. Some people had morals, of course. Dagur would’ve slipped away with that crowd that left, but King Malik was right in front of him, watching his every move. At least Ember was ok.

Ember could hear the kings’ voice and was relieved, even if she couldn’t hear what he was saying; she was glad that Dagur probably found him by now. Vincent was pretty alright to talk to. He was saying he was proud to find out what ability Dagur had until that same ability was growing by the minute which worried both him and the clan. Vincent also found it pretty funny that Dagur, the socially awkward person himself, had actually got a Mate. “Does he satisfy you?” Vincent jokingly asked, Ember turned bright red and shook her head. “He doesn’t seem the type to be good in bed; I bet he even has a tiny di-”

“NO!” Ember shouted a little too loud, it echoed in the empty room. She didn’t want to hear any bad things about her Mate. Size didn’t matter anyway.

‘Our Mate is perfect!’

Ember heard Cleora dreamily say in her head. She cleared her throat. “We don’t do anything like that; we haven’t done the mating ritual or even kissed…” Ember mumbled the last part, but vampire hearing was pretty good. Vincent laughed heartily, tears streamed down his face and he clutched his stomach. “He’s really something.” Vincent said after his laughing session as he wiped the tears from his eyes. “You have to take initiative with guys like him.”

“He did kiss my head just though.”

“True, doesn’t mean he doesn’t need guidance. At least he’s showing interest.” Awkward silence greeted them, they both looked around the empty room trying to find more conversation, but hearing the entrance doors open surprised then and put them both in high alert. “People leaving this early?” Ember muttered, mostly to herself. Back in her home country, it was considered rude to leave this early after you had been invited by royalty. Was it different here? “Something isn’t right.” Vincent whispered to her. Shouting was heard. Angry shouting. “I think that’s our cue to investigate.” Vincent said before he swiftly opened the door, hardly waiting for Ember to follow.

Dagur panted as he punched another man to the floor. The man groaned but still hobbled back up on his feet, blood draining from his head. Dagur was battered and beaten. Bruised and cut. Note to self, Dagur thought; bring hidden weapons to another one of these things. His loyalty to King Malik had been betrayed and nothing more than rage replaced what he felt towards the man. That rage fuelled him, his anger was felt through every punch he dealt, every kick he sent flying. He felt it was never ending. Greed really changed people; both women and men wanted a piece of Dagur at that moment, and not for the good reasons. He spun in a circle, assessing his situation and deciding what to do next. Being surrounded was not fun for him and he wanted to give up to his inevitable fate.

At least Ember was safe, he kept telling himself, which also fuelled his strength. He only just got someone he wanted to spend time with, hopefully for the rest of his life but now he was surrounded by deranged people who bought into the empty promise of their king. Whilst he fought off the hoard he decided to cling onto a feeling he had felt during his time with both Ember and her dragon, Cleora. He felt… satisfied, content, just by being in her presence. Some type of emotion had been trying to swell in his heart for a little while, probably since he met Cleora. Ever since he opened up his heart a little. He tried battering them down during that time though, making sure he didn’t get attached to her or the feeling she caused just by being in the same room as him. He felt the need to take care of her, give her everything she wanted without anything in return. It felt nice. Dagurs trail of thought broke when someone launched themselves on his back, he could tell it was a woman due to her screeching and her nails clawing into his back, ruining his suit and causing blood to start trickling down.

He reached over his back and grabbed the woman by her hair that was falling out of the impeccable place she put it in just hours before. He pulled; the woman soon fell over his head and cracked her head against the floor, not able to keep up her mauling as she lay there limp. Dagur remembered his bottled up abilities he had taken from other people, weapons and even his emergency strength essence that he saved were all at home, stupidly sat on a shelf in a room dedicated to that stuff. Why was he stupid? His punches weakened and everyone could tell which spurred them on more. They were killing each other to get rid of the competition. It was disgusting. Dagur felt his face scrunch up in revulsion as he flicked blood off his hands, causing even more damage to his suit. He looked around and found a small knife someone had dropped, he bent to quickly pick it up but he felt a blunt object hit against his bloodied back, plummeting him onto the floor. Defeated, Dagur lay on the floor and held his head for little protection whilst receiving hit after hit, and kick after kick.

Vincent shrieked when he walked into the main hall, it was a battle cry that vampires in his clan could hear from miles away to rally them up. Even if Dagur was an ex member of the clan, he was still widely respected in their vampire community. Ember couldn’t believe what she was seeing and she felt her food trying to rise back into the throat. Dagur was surrounded; people trampling on what she knew were dead bodies to batter her Mate who she could vaguely see on the floor. Red coursed through her veins, lighting up every inch of her skin, her eyes flashed brightly and within seconds a dragon emerged in the room. Ember had no control, it was Cleoras domain now. Even if Cleora was a small dragon, the strength of a huge one was there, she roared, anger seeping out through every pore of her body.

‘NOBODY TOUCHES MY MATE!’

Cleora roared through her mind, Ember agreeing with her as she ran across the room, or more like took two giant steps towards the massive crowd. Whilst she was kicking bodies, both dead and alive, away from her Mate the sound of glass could be heard as a swarm of bats flew in and changing into their vampire form mid-air, causing loud cracking sounds as they landing on the now broken floor in a perfect formation. Vincent barked orders as they started to fling people left, right and centre to disintegrate the crowd. It was Cleoras turn to use her horns on her head to hurl people, they hit the ceiling with a loud cracking of their bones, and fell back down dead, and their bodies mutilated and in a shape that was inhumanly possible. Their bodies twisted, or blood drained out of them, depending who fought who. Vampires were quick killers, and almost silent, the only thing you would hear would be the tell-tale sign of teeth sunk into flesh and the body turning grey in a matter of seconds depending on how skilled the vampire was.

And these were very skilled vampires.

Vincent controlled the clan as if they were his dominant hand, clear and concise instructions were bellowed out via a mind link, but in Cleoras eyes it looked like he was relaxing in the corner, his arms crossed in front of him, but the concentration in his eyes told her another story. Soon enough the crowd thinned, but there were still a good few people stupid enough her harm her Mate. A low, threatening growl made them turn, their eyes wide and most of them backed off, the rest who didn’t get the message were made to. Cleora didn’t bother sparing them a glance and let the vampires do that dirty work, the ones still roughing up her Mate were a different matter though.

In the corner of her eye, Cleora saw Malik watching the scene. He didn’t deserve the king title after what he did to her Mate, not like he deserved it before then anyway. He looked happy with himself but soon changed his tune when he made eye contact with Cleora. He started to run and she gave him a head ten second start before chasing after him. Predators chased their pray after all, and it wouldn’t be fun if she grabbed him right there and then. Cleora slowly made her way to where Malik went. As she made her way outside, Cleora had to take in the beauty of the scenery; she had to appreciate Malik’s agricultural tastes. Or should she thank his gardeners instead? Up ahead Malik ran, almost tripping up along the way. What was with his outfit? Didn’t he know pyjamas weren’t appropriate for a party, especially one he had initiated? It didn’t take long for Cleora to catch up; she was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a challenge involved. She knocked him down when he finally started to tire and he looked up in fear. A dragon was pretty intimidating. Smoke emitted from her nostrils, a hint that she was moving the fire in her body towards her head. Malik tried to get up onto his feet, but clear pinned him down, her claws tearing his clothes. He doesn’t deserve to live after what he’s done to her Mate. All that Cleora could see was red as she snarled at his smug face.

Dagur felt less thumping over his body, it didn’t make him hurt any less. He groaned and felt himself being lifted up. That was it; it would be the last feeling he would feel before finally giving in to death by whoever wanted the reward the most. He couldn’t gather what was going on until he slowly opened his eyes after realising he wasn’t dead after a minute. Familiar red scales were in his eye line. Dagur groaned and couldn’t bring himself to lift his head. He could only lightly move his fingers to pat his dragon, the smell of smoke invading his nose as he passed out.

When he woke again he was lying on his sofa in his penthouse. What happened? How did he get there? He then smiled, remembering his little dragon carrying him on her back. Dagur tried to stir, but he was pushed back down. “Dragon!” Vincent called, almost in Dagurs ear which made him wince. Thumping and running was heard before Ember skidded on the hardwood floors to his side. Dagur opened his eyes and were met with eyes staring at him. His ex-clan all cramped in his home, their right fists on their dead hearts and their head bowed down as a sign of respect. “Shit.” Dagur grumbled in his Old World language, his hand flying towards his thumping head. “Don’t get up too quick. I’ll help you.” Ember said softly as she helped Dagur sit himself up. He felt pain all over, he looked down, his top half exposed and he never knew his body could look like a tie-dye t-shirt made from blues and purples. He must’ve lost a lot of strength essence if he wasn’t able to recover quickly. He rubbed his hands over his face and a cup of tea was forced into his hands which he instantly dropped, burning his torso and further down. He hissed and the mug was soon pulled away from Ember. “Don’t do that, Vincent, he just woke up!” She snapped, the clan members looked at each other with shock, no one spoke to clan leaders like that, especially Vincent. He simply laughed. “I’ll leave you two to it; it looks like you’ll need to clean him up.” And with a wink, Vincent was gone with the rest of the clan. Ember silently fumed, he did that on purpose!

Dagur was still in his suit trousers, which were now ruined because of the attack and tea. He tried to get them off without much luck. Ember lifted him up, his arm around her shoulder as she somehow managed to lead him to the bathroom, all the while Dagur muttering profanities in his original language, Old World English. “Aren’t vampires meant to heal quickly?” Ember complained as she ran the bath, adding some lavender bubble bath Dagur bought her from their shopping trip. “Not enough essence.” Dagur grumbled and hissed as he undid his belt and trousers, his muscles wrapped in knots and pain shooting through his body. “I’ll go now.” Ember squeaked out before seeing something she shouldn’t. Dagur got naked and got in the still running bath, it was a little too hot and it made his wounds sting but he didn’t care. An hour went by, and then two which made Ember a little worried. She ran off not wanting to invade his privacy but should she have stayed? She knocked the door to the bathroom but no reply. Oh god, had something happened? Panicked, Ember tried the door and almost fell in, expecting it to be locked. She sighed a breath of relief when she saw him sleeping, his chest rhythmically moving indicating he was breathing.

Whilst she was creepily watching Dagur breathe, Ember noticed how naked he was. What should she do? Leave him or…?

‘Watch him!’

Cleora decided to make her appearance to appreciate the view.

‘I’m not going to watch him! It’s private!’

‘Why? He’s your Mate…’

‘Because I’m not a perv!’

Whilst her conversation kept her busy, Dagur stirred. Waking up feeling like a prune wasn’t nice, but what was nice was seeing Ember having an internal battle with herself. Why was she there? He cleared his throat to get her attention. Reality seemed to set in and she squeaked, covering her eyes with her hands. “I-I was just seeing if you ok, you’ve been in there for two hours…” Ember trailed off her jumbled words, not really knowing what to say. Dagur gave her some help. “I could do with some clothes.” Embers eyes lit up.

“Yeah I can do that!” She rushed out. Dagur took that opportunity to get out and dry himself off, making sure not to aggravate his wounds and gently patting his bruises. He was able to move by himself which was nice, the bath relaxed his muscles enough to ease the pain. He wrapped the towel around himself, making sure he was decent enough and wandered to his room. Ember was rummaging through his drawers when he opened the door. “I’m sorry I couldn’t find-” She cut herself short when she turned round and saw Dagur at the door, practically naked.

Dagur went towards her, Ember stood frozen, not really knowing what to do whilst her Mate was walking around with just a towel on. He leaned over her and grabbed something from the drawer she was just looking in. Pyjama bottoms. Dagur went to another drawer and got out some underwear. Ember stood out of the way, her hands messing with one another in front of her as she watched her Mate move around the room. She took the time to admire what was hers. Dagur was muscular, but not obnoxiously so, just enough to form a faint 6-pack. Just her type. His clan markings swirled around his top half and teasingly down towards the towel but Ember decided to be modest and not let her eyes wander. He didn’t skip leg day, which is a plus and his arms were strong enough to carry her before and she could see how with how defined they were. Dagur was attractive, no doubt about it. Dagur was kind enough to go through a door, an en-suite bathroom maybe? And he returned with the articles of clothing on, still leaving his chest bear, which was a given considering its current state.

“I want to talk.” Dagur said after a moment’s silence, or rather after Ember scanned her Mate with eyes of approval, slightly biting her lower lip. She soon snapped out of her daydreams and finally looked at Dagurs face. He knew exactly what Ember was doing and he smirked, enjoying her blush. “What about?” Did he want to reject her? He gave her some document and she realised it was their contract. Ember looked at him confused. “Burn it.” Ember wanted to say that two words were hardly talking, but instead she said, “You don’t want a Shield anymore? Was I not good enough?” Doubt seeped into her mind; she wasn’t good enough for a Shield, never mind a Mate. So what was she good at? “You’re fine.” Dagur said but didn’t elaborate. “Burn it.” He repeated and Ember obliged, seeing the papers turn into ash in a matter of seconds. “Good. Now that that’s out of the way, we can be Mates officially and not have a contract hanging over our heads.” Ember didn’t know what to say. She stood there like a moron, her mouth slightly hanging open with shock. “So…so you want me?”    

“I wanted you from the start, granted for different reasons but yes, I want you.”

“So you want to spend the rest of your life with me?” Ember was confused.

“Yes.”

“You can’t be with anyone else you know that, right?”       

“Yes and I’m ok with that.”    

“Really?”

“Really.”

“You’re awfully calm about this all things considering.” Ember was sceptical, sure it seemed like he was serious but it was new and exciting for him. Dagur sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “Look, I know you’re sceptical but your dragon would know who her Mate is, right? This is my first time feeling something for someone else and I want to hold onto it for as long as I can.” Dagur came a little closer cautiously. “I know I’m not what you expected in a Mate but I’ll try to treat you like the princess you are…” Dagur trailed off; a little embarrassed he was confessing all this. “I’m serious about this...” Dagur gingerly held out his hands and Ember looked at them for a few seconds before sliding her hands in his. Was this all real? “About you…” Dagur added before lifting her left hand up and awkwardly pressing a kiss on the back of it. Not once did he break eye contact. Embers breath got caught in her throat. She still didn’t know what to say. “So what do you say? Shall we give this Mate thing a try?”

“You’ll seriously be stuck with me for the rest of your life.” Embers said as her eyes started to swell up with tears.