Protection

noun – 1. the action of protecting or the state of being protected. 2. a person or thing that protects.

For once the dictionary actually seemed to have gotten it right... sort of anyway.

Without James on my side, I felt strangely empty. I wandered around school, too low to even tell Xandrell to get off whenever he hung on to me. I saw both James and Charlie several times throughout the day, but whenever I waved or anything to them, Xandrell would throw his arms around me and say something about how much he adored me. James would turn up his nose and stalk away, while Charlie blinked at me and simply stood watching us pass. One best friend was blanking me, and another was treating me like something in a museum. School was officially hell.

"You didn't have to act the way you did earlier you know." I told Xandrell that evening. We were walking towards the park to attempt to find the remnants of my poor slaughtered bike.

Xandrell looked at me innocently bewildered. "What did I do, my love?"

"All that stuff with James and Charlie." I said sternly. "And stop it with the 'my love' rubbish. You didn't have to go and punch him, and then show me up in front of them."

"I thought he was hurting you!" cried Xandrell. "As long as I'm living, I will not stand for anyone hurting you!"

"But don't you get it?" I cried, feeling the anger mounting inside me. "You're hurting me!"

"How exactly am I hurting you?" he bellowed.

"You don't let me speak, and it's like you're constantly forcing yourself on me!"

"I still don't know what I've done wrong!"

"Oh for god's sake! Just everything you did before, and now you've totally alienated me from my friends!"

He frowned at me for all of a second, when suddenly his wristwatch began bleeping. He glanced down at it, and suddenly his mouth dropped open. "Oh no..."

"Oh God, it's lets emotionally torture Amy time again isn't it."

"No, Amy..."

"Oh, no wait, I forgot, that's all the time isn't it."

"Amy... get out of here..."

I frowned at him. He was telling me to get out? "You what? After all the times I've told you to go, now you're telling me-"

"MOVE!"

Suddenly he threw himself at me, knocking me to the ground. He put his arms over my head as we hit the ground, for all of a moment, I considered biting his hand to make him let me go, and then...

BOOM!

I felt the ground shudder around us. I gasped and clutched Xandrell's hand. There was a blast of heat around us and Xandrell tightened his arms around me... he was afraid... I was suddenly very, very scared.

"Xandrell..." I whimpered. "What's..."

"I... just hang on to me..." I slipped my arms around his neck as he slipped one hand under my back and one under my knees. Carefully, leaning forward so I was protected, he struggled to his feet and began to run. "Don't look back." he whispered, more to himself than to me, before clutching me a little tighter, pulling me into his chest. "Don't look back, Amy!" he repeated.

I obliged, burying my face in his chest, not wanting to hear the screaming bullets behind us, or to feel the blasts of heat either side of us, but it was inescapable.

Suddenly, he gave a yell and we both fell to the floor. I rolled away a little before stopping myself, clambering back up and rushing to him. For one second, I was convinced he'd been shot.

"Xandrell!" I cried. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." he said sitting up instantly and looking down at his smouldering trouser leg. He began patting out the embers. "They caught my trousers, nothing worse. Now let's..."

"Hold it right there, Princey." said a voice and there was the click of a gun being cocked. Xandrell and I turned our heads in unison to look up at the very handsome young man stood before us holding a small blue and red gun in his hands, pointed directly at Xandrell. He was incredibly attractive, with fair hair gelled up into unruly spikes. Behind him were two more men. They seemed older somehow with dark hair gelled back. They seemed a lot more muscled than the young fair haired man, a lot broader and beefier. I blinked at the younger man. 'Princey'? What the hell? "Come along 'your highness'. My mistress won't wait forever."

Xandrell growled. "I'm not going back Remo... I'm staying here."

The fair-haired man gritted his teeth, his lip curling. His hands tightened on the gun and he began to move forwards. "I warn you now, 'Prince Xandrell', Kaelen will not wait forever. She orders you to return."

"She's your mistress not mine. I won't obey her." growled Xandrell, edging to the side a little so he was defending me.

Remo saw the movement however and before I realised what had happened, I was on my feet several metres away, his arm around my throat, the gun pressed into the side of my face. "Let's see if this helps then, Xandrell."

Xandrell spun around, a look on his face somewhere between horror and fury. "Let her go!" he roared, sprinting forwards.

Remo pressed the gun further into my face. "Take another step, I'll blow her head off!" he yelled.

Xandrell froze. "Don't hurt her..." he moaned. "If you harm a hair on her head, I'll kill you!"

Remo chuckled cruelly. "Which hair?"

Xandrell's hands clenched into fists, his breathing became heavier as he became more and more infuriated. "I can't win, can I? What's the point in my coming back? I can't love Kaelen."

"And why not?" snarled Remo, his gun now seriously hurting my face. "This... you... oh..." He chuckled softly, his breath tickling my face. For some reason, his laugh chilled me to the bone. "So... you cannot fall in love with the princess of the rival land, as every one of your ancestors has, yet you can give your kiss to a pathetic little human?"

Who was he calling pathetic? I could give him such a kick if so inclined!

"Don't insult her..." growled Xandrell, his face darkening as he glared at Remo.

"We have run searches." murmured Remo. "She's not exactly the most attractive of her species is she?"

Oh, that was it. I grabbed his hand and sank my teeth into it. Remo bellowed and released me. I turned and began to sprint away.

"No you don't!" he screamed. "Lucidius, Tyron, get..."

"NO!" screamed Xandrell's voice.

I suddenly paused. Why was I running away? I turned and looked over my shoulder. Xandrell had thrown himself at Remo and was attempting to wrestle the gun out of his clutching hands. He had a look of such anger on his face that I was almost frightened. One of the men was standing behind him, a gun drawing from his pocket. "Xandrell, look out!" I screamed.

But he had already turned and pushed his hand upwards, knocking away the gun and at the same time kicking out backwards and incapacitating the guard behind him before rounding on Remo, stepping on his arm and wrenching the gun from his fingers and pointing it at him, breathing heavily.

"Don't kill me!" squealed Remo, writhing horribly under him. "I'll do anything, don't kill me!"

Xandrell's face slowly seemed to soften. He moved his foot from Remo's arm, threw the gun to the floor and stamped on it. The tiny pieces flew off in different directions. "Get off this world." he whispered, dangerously. "And never come back."

"We don't intend to." said Remo quickly.

Xandrell nodded once and turned to walk towards me. "Let's go, Amy." he said quietly.

I stared at him. What the hell had just been going on? "Care to explain?"

"Nope." he said, his eyes strangely unfocused. I moved to his side and carefully took hold of his hand. He glanced down at me, and for a moment, I thought he was angry with me. I winced and went to remove my hand from his, but then he smiled and tightened his grip.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang. His face looked slightly surprised before he slumped to the ground. His hands moved to his side, gripping at the area just below his ribs.

"That should give you something to think about." Remo sneered, handing the red and blue gun back to one of the larger men. "I'll be reporting all of this back to Kaelen. I suggest you consider your decision carefully." He clicked his fingers and gestured to the two cronies. They immediately turned and began to march away from the scene. Remo looked at me, one eyebrow raised slightly before turning and following them.

I felt myself shiver as I watched them go before looking down at Xandrell. I dropped to my knees beside him. "Xandrell?" I whispered, and I was shocked at how broken and piteous my voice sounded, but really I didn't care. Only one thing mattered. "Xandrell?!" I said again, my voice urgent. My eyes felt strangely wet.

He gave a groan and opened his eyes. "Rattinel..." he muttered. "That'll teach me to let my guard down..."

"Xandrell!" I cried as he began to sit up. Tears dribbled down my face as I threw my arms around his neck when he coughed and winced. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." he croaked, gently pulling my arms off of him. "Are you alright my darling?"

"I'm fine, wasn't hurt at all." I looked at him again. His face seemed so pale... "Xandrell, something's wrong isn't it?"

"No, no." he groaned. "I'm fine."

He tried to get up but as he began to stand, he dropped forwards to his knees. I cried his name and knelt down too, letting his forehead rest against my shoulder. Something was so wrong. Very gently, I reached out and pulled his hand away from his stomach. I expected there to be blood or something on his hands. What I didn't expect was a strange, gloopy, gold substance. "What is this?" I asked quietly.

"It's nothing!" he wheezed, carefully lifting his t-shirt to look at his stomach.

I gasped when I saw the damage that had been inflicted. "Xandrell, you're missing half your side!"

I wasn't over-exaggerating either. Most of the flesh that had been holding his organs in seemed to have disintegrated. The strange gold substance was pouring from the hole as well as several other strange things I had never seen before... I don't know how to describe them. They seemed in some ways almost identical to normal human organs, with the exception that they were so many different colours. Silver, gold, and one or two of them glittered like diamonds. I reached out, not knowing what to do.

He winced again and gently pushed my hand away. "Don't Amy..."

"But I don't know what to do!" I wailed. "Xandrell... oh God, don't die! Please don't die."

"I'm not going to, my love." he whispered, moving his arm around so he could see his wristwatch. He tapped it a few times and twisted the dial at the side before gritting his teeth and pressing it into his side. His face screwed up in pain as he did so. I stared at the gaping hole in his side as he pressed the wristwatch into it. Slowly... very slowly... the flesh seemed to be knitting over the hole. My mouth dropped open as the wound in his side healed. Slowly the organs spilling out of him slid back in and the gold substance that had spattered the ground vanished, as though it was evaporating. Finally, after a gruelling minute, the hole was fixed and he pulled the wristwatch away from his side and panted hard. I sat still staring at where not a few moments earlier, Xandrell had had a life threatening hole in his stomach. Finally, he lifted his head from my shoulder to smile at me as though nothing was wrong, then frowned. "You seem shocked, my sweet."

My mouth dropped open as I looked up at him. "I just saw a fatal injury healed in matter of seconds! Tell me that's not weird!"

"It's not weird." he said continuing to frown down at me. "Don't you have things like that on your world?"