The person pulls off their hood and for the first time I get a look at their face. Her skin is a light mocha, and long black braids shower over her shoulders. She looks younger than I expected, barely older than me. Even though her goal is probably to kill me, I have to admit she's really pretty.
Zay stalks towards her growling loudly, and she raises her hands in an "I'm innocent" type of way.
Zay pays it no heed and continues his advance towards her. He pushes her against the wall and grabs her neck, covering it with one hand.
"Simmer down there," she rasps. "I'm guessing your dad hasn't told you who I am yet?" She smiles brightly at me, despite her situation. "Hey there Amber."
I stay standing a ways back, not responding to her greeting. Zay however growls and tightens his hold on her. "How do you know her name? Who sent you!"
The smile fades from her face as her air supply dwindles. "Can't answer... if I can't breathe," she chokes out.
I'm about to call his name to make sure he doesn't kill her without answers but his dad appears, beating me to it.
"Zyler, let her go!"
A look of confusion crosses his face, and his golden eyes flicker, but he doesn't budge.
"It's okay son. She's not an enemy."
"Then who is she? I smelled her at school, and Amber said she's been following her."
"Let her go, she can't breathe," he repeats, but Zay still doesn't move. The girl looks like she's trying to cough, but is failing miserably due to the lack of an air passageway.
I expect his dads next move to be to remove him by force, but surprisingly he looks at me. "Amber."
I raise my eyebrows like how in the world am I supposed to get an angry werewolf off of a girl that's half his size?
But then it's like I'm acting out a play that I've rehearsed a million times. My body moves like it already knows what to do, knows how to calm him down and get him to listen.
"Zay, let her go. At least hear what's going on." I put my hand on his back and I swear I can feel each muscle relax until the ones in his fingers loosen. His eyes find mine over his shoulder, their color a muted brown.
She sinks to the ground gasping for air, clutching at her neck. She struggles there for a moment until Mr. Maclo goes to her side and helps her up.
He glances at his son. "Jesus Zyler, you could have killed her."
"Well who the hell is she?"
"She's a guard in training. I asked her to keep an eye on Amber when you weren't around. I simply changed her guard to a female. I thought you both would be more comfortable with that."
Zay takes a deep breath and rubs his eyes. "And you didn't think informing me of this would be a good idea? Both of us have been freaking out for the past hour."
"I didn't foresee it being an issue but I should have realized with everything... You're right, I'm sorry. I should have said something."
Mr. Maclo turns to the girl. "How about you introduce yourself?"
The girl's face has returned to its normal shade and she has stopped massaging her neck. If it were me I would still be writhing on the floor, or just be plain dead.
"My name is Diamond Asia," she says with the same bright smile from earlier. "Before you ask, yes, the gem and the continent. And no, Asia is not my middle name, it's part of my first name. I have people call me Dasia, I think it's a pretty combination."
"She's Julian Stone's granddaughter," his dad explains.
"Oh. Really?" Zay says with mild interest.
"Who's Julian Stone?" I ask wanting in on the loop.
"An old friend of ours. We've known him for a long time."
"We were never formally introduced, but I was with the group of us that went into the human high schools," the girl, Dasia, tells Zay.
"Oh, yeah. Now I remember you."
"Now. Remembering me ten minutes ago woulda been nice."
"Sorry," he says with the decency to sound apologetic.
"Yeah, yeah," she says dismissively. "Amber. First I'm soo sorry you thought I was like, out to kill you or somethin. Huuge misunderstanding. And second, did you get your skittles?"
"It's fine, and um. Yeah," I say which is only half a lie. I technically did receive them, just didn't keep them.
"Great! I spent the last of my change on that. Figured I scared you off, had to make up for it."
This makes me smile, and all of the fear that revolved around her unknown being dissolves and is replaced by a friendly aura.
"So... you're like them?" I ask curiously.
"If by 'like them' you mean I grow a tail and fur, then yes. I am very much like them."
"And one of the good guys," I state the question.
"Yes. Dasia Stone, your walking talking form of protection."
"She has me," Zay says a little defensively.
"I think me and her both know a woman can do a job twice as good as any guy," she says, winking at me.
"Bias jury," he mumbles.
The smile she gives out is contagious. Mr. Maclo's amused face mirrors mine and even Zay has stopped scowling. Now, with her mysteriousness pushed out of the way, I get the feeling that I'm gonna like her.
***
Two hours and a meal of lasagna later, Dasia has left and me and Zay are laying down on the couch in his living room.
"Well Dasia really isn't who we expected her to be," I say, bringing up the topic again.
He squeezes my hand. "Yeah, and that's a good thing. Anything that keeps you safer."
"Why didnt she change or anything she, just let you choke her. She didn't fight back. Like at all," I point out.
He has a light smile on his face. "Maybe because I'm too strong and she knew she wouldn't have a chance."
"Well, we can't have you running around out of control like that."
"Please, I was in control. I would've snapped her neck in half if I wasn't."
"Keep that energy for Ryder," I half joke.
But a sudden outrage appears on his face, and it's fierce. "I promise, when I get the chance I will kill him."
I bite my lip at a thought that's been nagging at me. "Have you ever killed anyone before?"
His expression falters. "Why?"
"I don't know. Just wondering."
"No, I haven't."
"So do you really think you could do it? Like, kill him kill him?"
His eyes glow. "I definitely could. He's put me and my dad through so much pain... And on top of it threatening you.."
"I understand, but you can never get that innocent part of you back."
He laughs to himself, "Only you would think what I am is innocent."
I lean closer to him. "I'm serious."
"I'll do whatever I need to do to keep you safe Amber," he says tenderly.
"Okay," I say, pushing the topic away. "In the mean time, lets see if we can figure out how the Pythagorean theorem relates to graduating."
This makes him chuckle. "It's easy to forget we have unimportant things in our lives like homework."
"At least drawing pictures and solving math equations are simple."
We spend the rest of the night doing last minute homework and wishing our life problems could be solved with a calculator.