Chapter 30: 30__Holding grudges

Maia eyed Rogan as she prepared supplies for his wound. He ignored her gaze, scowling out the window of her attic bedroom.

Dropping the things, Maia put a hand on her hip and regarded him. “What exactly are you so pissed about? Do you think you have any right to be angry right now? I saved your life!”

Rogan let out a huge scoff and glared at her. “Saved my life? You got me stuck in a fucking portal! I might as well be dead!”

“You’re a Sorcerer! If you’re so mad about it then make a spell and break out of the portal!”

Rogan snarled at her, saying through clenched teeth. “You think I can make a spell out of my *fingernails* and *spit*?! I need my supplies! And if this a portal made for safety, you think it’s easily breakable?! Your damn Nana was probably from a Kingdom of pure Sorcerers since I didn’t know her, and you’re telling me to undo her magic when I’m literally half a Sorcerer?! Huh?!”

“That’s a fat lie! If you could put a spell over your house to keep out the Shifters and ghosts, you probably know your way around a portal like this one! Why’re you pretending?”

Huffing in indignation, Rogan shuffled on the table where he sat, moving away from her. “You know what? For our duration of stay here, refrain from speaking to me!”

Maia blinked as her mouth dropped open. “Are you serious?!”

He ignored her, glaring out of the window.

Biting her lip in fury, Maia stalked over and jabbed him in his injured shoulder.

“Arckkk!” Rogan yelled out, knowing very well that he was exaggerating. The wound didn’t hurt at all, but he had to make her think it did. If she felt guilty about it, she’d easily forget about his jackass move of trying to give her to the Shifters. “What’s wrong with you?!” he bellowed, squeezing his eyes tight and clutching his shoulder.

Maia winced and nervously scratched her arm, a stubborn pout swelling her lips. “W-well… why’d you have to go and make me so angry?!”

Rogan continued playing his role of victim to perfection, clenching his teeth together for good measure.

Maia bit her lip, raising a hesitant hand to touch his injured shoulder.

Rogan jerked his shoulder out of her reach. “No! Don’t touch it!” He looked at her, his eyes wide in alarm as he forcefully lowered his voice to a pitiful tremble. “Just… leave me alone.”

Maia felt her heart flood with guilt, but true to her stubborn streak, quickly remembered how Rogan tried to give her to the Shifters. She crossed her arms. “Well, y-you tried to give me to the Shifters! You basically tried to kill me!”

Rogan blinked. Quickly remembering the excuse he’d given for that, he clutched his shoulder again. “I told you why I did that! I… uh… wasn’t trying to give you to them! And what? You call that an excuse for nearly killing me with that arrow?!”

His inner voice chuckled. Oh, how lovely it would be if that arrow could have actually had any chance of killing him.

Maia’s arms uncrossed and hung at her sides as the guilt flooded her heart all over again.

Rogan watched her carefully, an expression of pain frozen on his face as he watched her.

“Geez, I didn’t even hit a vital spot. Fine, then!” muttered Maia, pouting at the floor. “I’m sorry!”

A devilish smile of victory curved Rogan’s mouth, but Maia didn’t see it as she turned to walk away. Lunging across the table, he grabbed her wrist and jerked her back, caging her against him with his legs locked around her body.

“Where’re you going?” He demanded, before indicating his shoulder. “Aren’t you going to take responsibility for this?!”

Maia huffed. “I… I said I’m sorry…”

Rogan released the perfect victim’s sigh. “That won’t do. You have to kiss it better.”

“You told me not to touch it.”

“I change my mind.”

Maia scowled at him as Rogan busily shrugged off his jacket and pulled his shirt off on the side that was injured so it say diagonally across his chest.

“Kiss away,” he said, looking off into the distance with a triumphant smile on his face.

With an eye roll, Maia slowly raised her hand and placed it on his injury, covering all the reddened flesh around the wound. If this didn’t work then at least she tried.

Rogan blinked and turned to look at her. “You kiss with your hands? That’s interesting… considering that those hands landed on my buck naked ass quite a few times last ni—”

He froze, his words dying off when he felt it. Her hand. It was doing something to his shoulder. The absolute last thing Rogan could have ever expected for her to be able to do.

Maia frowned in concentration, trying to do exactly what Nana had taught her. After a few more moments, she lifted away her hand.

Rogan looked down in cold shock at his shoulder.

Slowly, he raised his gaze and pierced her with it. “You… you can heal?”

**********

The six Shifters were in a straight row, their knees digging into the thick carpet as they kneeled with their heads hung low before their master.

“So…” said a dangerously quiet voice. “You let her get away?”

The leader of the pack could barely lift his gaze. “W-when... we chased her through the forest… we would have caught her, for sure! It was sure, Master! The entire army was there. She just… she just suddenly disappeared!”

Sharp blue eyes narrowed. “Disappeared? Do you think I’m stupid? You want your entire specie wiped out?”

The Shifters tensed, looking at one another. “No, Master!”

Their Master leaned back on the throne, looking with disdain at the Shifters. “My revenge will not be complete until I get that girl in my hands. If you don’t get her to me, both you and the ghouls will feel my wrath. Understand?”

The Shifter leader nodded desperately. “Y-yes, Master! We’ll do it!” He hesitated for a moment, peaking up at the throne before quickly lowering his gaze. “But… Master. There is something you must know.”

“Speak!”

The Shifter jolted before composing himself. “Sh-she… she’s being protected!”

A brow rose above the blue eyes. “I killed the Sorceress who protected her years ago.”

“Not the Sorceress, Master. Someone else.”

“Are we playing a goddamn guessing game?!” demanded their Master, eyes suddenly glowing green with fury.

“No, Master! Forgive me. She is… she is under the protection of a Vampire Sorcerer.”

A dark silence fell over the throne.

Very quietly, their Master said, “A… Vampire Sorcerer?”

The Shifter leader nodded and slowly raised his gaze to look at his Master. “Rogan.”

An even darker silence fell over the room, their Master’s shock clear.

“Rogan? Rogan is protecting her?”

“Yes, Master. He’s been protecting her for quite a while now. When she was enslaved by the Zoar tribe, he saved her and took her into Geminor.”

A scoff of disbelief came from the throne, a laugh following it. “That bastard.”

The Shifters sat still and in silence, waiting for their Master to decide their next step. The way things were looking, it clearly wouldn’t be easy to grab the girl as long as she was with Rogan. Since their Master and Rogan had had many disagreements in the past, they hoped there would be a way to defeat Rogan.

“You know what?”

The Shifter leader raised his head hopefully. “Yes, Master?”

There was a moment of silence, filled by the nearly audible hope in the Shifters’ hearts.

“Kill him.”

The Shifter leader blinked. “P… pardon?”

“I said kill him! Are you deaf?!”

“No, Master! Forgive me. I was just… really shocked.” He gulped. How the hell did their Master expect them to kill Rogan?! The bastard didn’t die. He just didn’t! They were so screwed.

“I know Rogan better than anyone,” their Master continued, voice tinged with bitterness. “He’ll never do that much for anyone unless he needed them for some selfish purpose. Just kill him and get him out of my way. Doing it myself will bring back too many old grudges between us. So kill him.”

Their Master leaned back with closed eyes.

“Kill him and bring me the girl. I’ll kill her myself.”