(This story follows right after "From spiders and eagles")

~~~~~~

"Why have you been with this bastard, hm? I told you thousand times you should stay away from him!" Ricky was about to explode. Short time ago, he noticed that his sister still wasn't back from her walk into the village, and now he saw her on the street, side by side with Adair, who just headed away behind the old barn and in the next moment shifted into an eagle and flew close over his head, back to the academy.

[Elizabeth] "Why I have? ... Bastard? ... Ricky, are you mad? Adair just saved me from a guy who ambushed me!" She angrily glared at him. "And, by the way, you won't tell me what I should do!!"

[Ricky] "He ... what? My little sis, are you alright?!"

"Of course I am - thanks to him! Get it into your bull-head: you won't lay a single finger on Adair, or I will lay my fingers around your neck! And then you will regret you ever touched him!" >:(   She stared at him, with an angry glittering in her eyes.

*@_@* ... Ricky hushed. Saved? She had been ambushed, and he, her big brother, wasn't here to defend her? How could he lose sight of her, and was it only for a moment?! And Adair, this airhead, this careless wannabe-elf, this shapeshifting bastard! He of all people should have saved her?!

"Mark my words, Ricky! I'm absolutely serious about this!" With these words, Elizabeth left him standing alone.

***

Strange men generally, and men who were after his sister in particular, were for Ricky like a red rag to a bull. And this fact would certrainly never change. However, what his sister told him - he couldn't get it.

In the night, while keeping watch, he thought about it, tried to get an answer, but he failed. Finally, shortly after midnight, he made a decision. Ricky jumped over the roofs, to headmaster Morituri's castle, where Adair had his rooms. It was easy for him to get into his bedroom in the second floor - Adair's window was open. Ricky sat on the window sill and waited. Adair surely would sense him and wake up soon by himself.

Indeed it didn't take long time until Adair woke up; he felt somebody watching him. He wirled around and saw, sitting at the window in the moonlight, Ricky, silently looking at him.

[Adair] "... Ricky? ... What the heck are you doing here? Stabbing me in my sleep?"

[Ricky] "Talking."

Adair took a deep breath. "...Oookay ... that's new ... and yes, you are just talking very much indeed," he said sarcastically and waited what Ricky would have to tell him.

"... could you shift?", Ricky asked. "Seeing you like this is waking up the blood-beast in me."

"Oh - yes ..." Adair shifted and got into his pants. "And now?"

[Ricky] "Why did you help her?"

"Help her?" Adair echoed.

[Ricky] "Elizabeth. She told me what happened."

"Ouh ..." Adair raised his eyebrows. "... and now you seriously ask me - why I did this?"

[Ricky] "Yes."

Adair sighed. "What kind of stupid question is this, Ricky? She was in danger. It was very obvious what this guy had in mind. And I never would tolerate something like that. Especially at Elizabeth."

"Especially her?" Ricky repeated, lurking. Adair didn't know what happened to Elizabeth in her past. "What do you mean with that?"

"You're really asking strange questions ... especially her because—" Adair hesitated, but then decided to say the truth. "Because she means much to me. I know you don't want to hear it, but I ... care for her. I would finish every guy who would want to lay hand on her."

Ricky could sense instantly when somebody was lying to him. But here, as hard he tried to recognise one, there was no lie in Adair's words. He said the truth. But there was another question Ricky wanted to be answered.

[Ricky] ò_ó - "... So why did you let him live?"

Adair made a harsh laugh. "Kill him?! Oh yeah - good idea! I think she would have enjoyed if I sliced him up with my claws like I wanted to do. I bet she would have clapped her hands! Killing him right before her eyes - would you have done this?? And furthermore, Ricky, there are many people who are afraid of shapeshifters, and she is afraid of them. That's one of the reasons why Morituri told only a few people what I really am. Luckily it was enough to threat this idiot with giant spiders - and if he ever comes back, believe me, a particular giant spider will pay him a visit he never forgets!"

Ricky paused (thinking 'O_o .. giant spiders??'), then he looked at him with a stern face. "Mind, Adair, if I ever find out that you toy with Elizabeth, I'll pick-you-in-pieces!" A faint smile whisked over his face. "And if you see him next time, tell me. I want to enjoy the sight how you creep the heck out of him!"

Then he climbed out of the window and disappeared in the darkness of the night.

Adair laughed quietly. "This guy's absolutely crazy ... He has the head of a bull gone wild, the hottest temper I can think of, and he's more dangerous than a horde of shapeshifters. ... And yet - it could get interesting with him in the future!"

***

This is a fan-story of AvalonTheQuin's "The Nicht Watchers".

Ricky, Elizabeth and Headmaster Morituri belong to AvalonTheQuin

Adair belongs to me :)