He raised his head up, smiling now. "Yeah, I'm not crazy about McKee guarding you either, but he has two classes with you. At least I've got an even amount of time with you. Two to two."
My focus quickly shifted with that statement. "Why are you in school?" I had been meaning to ask him that, but I always got sidetracked.
He laughed again. "I like to keep an eye out for new witches. They're always sixteen or seventeen when they come, depending on the allowance for guardianship and the strength of their blood. They're usually juniors or seniors. It's the best place to start looking.
"My family and I have been guarding new witches for a while. You were the first one I had to reveal myself to though. I'm just glad that it gave me the opportunity to steal your attention from McKee." He winked playfully.
"You didn't have to try to do that. You've had my attention since the first time I saw you. I'm glad it was you that stayed in my room." I blushed slightly, possibly being a little too brave with my words.
He spoke with laughter in his tone. "Oh, I had no intention of letting McKee sleep in there. I would have kidnapped you before I let that happen." He reached over and kissed my hand.
I sucked in a breath because it felt so good to have his incredibly soft lips touching my skin.
"I'm glad you didn't."
"I'll be there again tonight, too."
I looked up, trying not to blurt out anything stupid. I was controlling my breathing so that I didn't sound overly excited. "How did you swing that?"
"Your grandmother actually asked me to. She called me just a little while ago. She said she feels like you're safer with me there. I have to say that it made me feel pretty good. The fact I saved your life won me some brownie points. She trusts me a little more than she does McKee, since he lost his grip on you in the woods. The fact I can blow things up probably has something to do with it, too." He snickered smugly. "She wants me to stay with you as much as possible."
I was kind of embarrassed by that. That made me feel like he was obligated to be with me. I didn't want that to be the reason he was staying with me.
"Sorry. I didn't know about that."
"Hey, it's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it," he joked.
"You don't have to. I can get McKee to do it." I bit back my smile when his smug grin faded into a scowl.
"I think I have it under control." Then he jumped to his feet and grabbed me up. I was being carried bridal style before I even realized it as we made our way over to the wall of open windows.
I looked down at the large drop. "What are you doing?" I asked shakily.
He grinned at me and raised his eyebrows. "The meeting should be over now. It's time for the fun stuff."
I didn't realize what time it was. We had been talking for at least forty-five minutes.
He stepped up on the window ledge. "You might want to hold on tight. And no, that's not a line."
He winked and jumped out of the window. A gargled squeal slipped through my tightened lips. I was holding so tight that my knuckles turned white.
He landed on his feet with me still delicately placed in his arms, barely even letting me feel jostled. I didn't want him to let me go, but he did.
I looked around and spoke with a bit of guilt. "Sorry we missed the meeting. I didn't realize it had even started."
He looked at me and touched my chin, leaning over to kiss the top of my head. "I missed the meeting on purpose. It was nice having you all to myself. The meetings are always the same anyway. Desmond will fill me in if there was anything new. I just wanted you to watch them duel. That's the fun part."
My eyes widened with a bit of surprise. I wasn't sure how to respond to that, or if I even heard him correctly. "Duel? That sounds dangerous."
He laughed. "Not really. It's not like the wild west - take ten paces and shoot, or anything. Desmond is pretty good, but dad usually always ends up on the top of the podium. They set up a string of obstacles and they have to change all the way through it to get to the end. It's sort of a changer's version of the Olympics. We have a lot of newbies tonight, so it should be pretty interesting."
I shrugged slightly. "Why?"
"Because they have a hard time swapping from one animal to the next as effortlessly as the older ones."
There was an oversized tree trunk that Desmond picked up and moved out of the way. Two birds flew high in the air, holding hoops. Then there was a giant wall of broken down trees. I still didn't understand what was going on.
"Certain obstacles require different creatures. You'll be disqualified if you use an unapproved animal for certain obstacles. For instance, if there's a climbing obstacle, you can't use a bird to simply fly over it," Tallis said, continuing to explain some of the rules.