The Guardian Demon [A Taron Egerton FanFiction]

12: A Pyrrhic Victory

[A/N] WARNING!!! Mentions of drugs and heavy language.

Days passed, everything seemed to return to its normal pace, Mallory went back to business, she learned to ignore the previous incidents as she became more absorbed in her musical preparations with Barney and Kenny, who became a regular sight at her house. He would come over at undefined times, stay for hours, and sometimes spend the night if he was too tired, or too drunk, to go home.

Mallory got used to the company of Kenny, he was nice, he made her laugh, and the fact that he would always praise her talent no matter what brought a much-needed glee to her.

On the other hand, Kenny definitely had something for Mallory, he didn't express that out loud, but every once in a while he would bring her the chocolate she prefers, or surprise her with a studio full of roses, and he would watch her eyes twinkling in joy because of his simple, rather basic presents, he liked that.

Mallory was happy, she could feel that in her heart, she had a sense that Kenny would be the soulmate she was looking for, his appearance in her life at that time took it to another aspect, where she would forget about everything and everyone, even about her bodyguard who, as per usual, kept watching her from afar.

Taron was a constant reminder that an unknown danger still surrounded Mallory, but at the same time, she was grateful for his presence, because deep inside she knew that he would do anything to keep her safe, not only because it was what he was hired to do, but she had a feeling that he actually wanted to.

For the last couple of days, Mallory noticed that her bodyguard wasn't his usual self. Yes, he was still the same stony, impassive man she had been dealing with every day, and he still treated her with the same distance that she was accustomed to, but there was something different about him that she couldn't read through.

Taron's usually expressionless face held a permanent frown as if something was troubling him. Occasionally, he looked like he was drowning in deep thoughts, Mallory could never know what was he thinking of even if she wanted to, and God, did she want to, but for her, he was like a closed book with no title on its cover.

Unlike her mysterious bodyguard, Kenny was more honest than many people she knew, he laid everything she needed to know about him out in front of her without a blink, and he was earnest about answering any question she would ask, it was relieving enough for her knowing that he wouldn't try to hide something from her in the future, if they had a future.

Taron wasn't fond of Kenny's existence in Mallory's life at that period of time, well, the man was innocent enough to let him be at a very close proximity to Mallory, and she seemed to be pleased whenever he was around, but with all the current events he wasn't going to put his guard down, for him, everyone was untrustworthy.

It was a calm night, the dark, clear sky held a bright full moon, adorned by little, twinkly stars, sprinkled randomly around the yellowish circle, the sound of the tree leaves swishing as it swayed lazily with the breeze along with the low crickets noises added a bizarre harmony to the atmosphere as Taron wandered soundlessly around the house, finishing his routine security check-ups with his teammates and making sure that everything was as it should be.