Call of the Water (COMPLETE)

37. IF LOOKS COULD KILL

My body always froze when faced with an unknown situation. I suppose the reason for that was the fact that my mind needed some time to process what was going on before choosing the reaction it considered to be the proper one.

Mathias did not react in the same way.

The moment we became aware of the presence of another person, the wolf side of him took over. He moved as fast as a lightning. Before I knew it, he dragged someone from behind a blooming jasmine bush.

"Let me go!" Mathias' body blocked my view of the person who said those words, but I recognized the voice. Opal.

"You were spying on us?!" he said in a voice interlaced with anger.

"I was not spying! I saw you creeping up on Azora. I was worried about her!"

She was worried about me. After the way I treated her today, she still cared enough to follow a werewolf just to make sure I was safe.

"Let her go!" I yelled as I stepped up to them. Mathias was gripping the collar of her shirt while his eyes were shooting poisonous arrows in Opal's direction.

She didn't seem scared at all despite the fact that her toes were barely touching the ground. The way she returned his stare made me think of that expression humans sometimes used; if looks could kill, he'd be a dead man. Or in this case, a dead werewolf.

"Mathias, let go of her!" I repeated as I reached for his hand.

He looked at me, wrinkled his nose at my proximity and released irate Opal. He then backed away in three hasty, long steps.

"That's more like it." Opal straightened her shirt. "Now, to get back to the important matter, Professor Cyan is an Aquantien!? Is that..." She didn't get the chance to finish the question because Mathias leaped to her and covered her mouth with his hand.

"Shut up!" he hissed through clenched teeth, but only a moment later he jumped back, pulling his hand away. "She bit me!" he said and shook his palm.

"You interrupted me!" Opal exclaimed without a shred of patience.

"Never bite a werewolf!" he warned her, towering over her.

"Never silence a dwarf!" she responded, tilting her head to stare at him.

For a few seconds they stood there, their eyes locked, their jaws clenched, their nostrils flared. The tension was almost tangible and I felt that I had to intervene before things got out of hands.

"You both made mistakes," I tried to reason with them. "Opal, it was wrong to bite Mathias. Mathias, it was wrong to silence Opal."

"Very wrong," she added and took a step closer to him without a grain of fear. I could use a sip from the fountain of her courage.

"Get away from me," he told her. "You too," he said, looking at me with a wrinkled nose.

"What did she do to you?" Opal stood at my defense.

"Nothing," I decided to explain. "He just really dislikes the smell of Aquantiens."

"Seriously?" she asked and I nodded in response. She shook her head and said, "You know which smell I dislike? The smell of male specimens of human race who use too much aftershave. I've met one of those last week. Yuck!" She shivered at the thought. "I wanted to send him to stand out in the wind for an hour or so."

I looked at Mathias with both eyebrows raised and I shrugged my shoulders.

"So, you think she stinks? What about me?" Opal still had questions for him.