Excalibur {Complete}

24

I woke to voices in the room, the lights were turned off and the only thing that illuminated the room of Kilia's medical ward was her computer. I shifted a bit as I looked over to where I was hearing the voices. They were soft, muttering tones that at first I couldn't quite figure out who they belonged to. As I strained to listen, catching words here and there, I finally recognized the pair of voices to be that of Kilia and Tristan. Kilia's slightly deep feminine voice was rather nice to listen to. Not too high, not too low either. Tristan's deep, vibrating tones were very easy to make out as he spoke in smooth, rolling sentences.

Still, I couldn't make out what they were saying, only a few words. Even then, it took me quite a while to even piece together the tiny bit that I could and figure out what the subject was. The broken conversation was so hard to follow. I heard a lot of 'he' and 'she' though, but I didn't know who it pertained to. Then I heard 'Excalibur' and I went still. They were talking about Excalibur? Did the case we brought back have some of the drug in it? Did Kilia find out something about it?

A thousand questions shot through my head as I lay there in the dim darkness, trying not to move too much so as to alert them to my being awake... and eavesdropping. I blushed a bit, feeling the heat across my cheeks as I frowned, biting the inside of my cheek. On the bright side, I didn't feel like I was going to be sick or pass out, so that was a good thing, right? My body still felt a little weird, but it was bearable now at least.

Tristan moved in the darkness, his thick frame easier to spot over Kilia's. His movement pulled me from my thoughts and I watched him as he folded his arms, his voice rising just a bit. I could hear them, and it was slightly irritating but a little sweet at the same time.

"She didn't mean anything by it," Tristan said, his voice speaking of his irritation.

"That's not the point. It affected him, and it pissed him off. Come on Tristan. Are you seriously going to be so damned stubborn on this subject? You're going to drive him away. He's not the kind of boy to just take something lying down. If you piss him off too much, he'll leave."

"I'm not trying to piss him off, he has to understand that Ahmeil just isn't going to express anything other than stone."

"Tristan," Kilia's voice grew dark and even I flinched in the darkness, "I'm not saying that Ahmeil has to change. Neither is Valkyrie. All he wants is for her to stop making rude remarks at him. Did you know she referred to him as a 'whipped dog'?"

Silence met her question, "I... didn't know."

"Well he told you that didn't he?"

"We were arguing, Kilia I wasn't really listening," Tristan sighed.

I almost sat up and yelled at him again, but Kilia beat me to it so I forced myself to stay as still as possible, "He told you. And you need to pay more attention. Ahmeil is a good woman, and she's done a lot for you, I know. But he doesn't know. All he see's right now is a bitch trying to drive him into a corner because she doesn't think he belongs here. She's testing him and he's failing because he doesn't realize that all she wants is to see if he can protect you."

"He doesn't have to protect me."

"You might say that, but that's not what Ahmeil thinks. Tristan," her voice grew exasperated, "You know damn well how she thinks. Valkyrie thinks you're protecting her and ignoring him outright. I know he didn't handle it well, but neither did you. God, why am I even doing this? I'm not a fucking councilor. Figure it out, Tristan! If you don't it's not going to be Alik that takes him away, but you driving him away."

I shivered. Even though I didn't see it, I was sure she was glaring at him and just the thought put cold chills down my back. Kilia could be seriously scary at times, and it even struck Tristan, which was amazing. I didn't think anyone could scare him, but she'd gotten it down to the letter. Maybe I should take lessons from her. Tristan didn't reply but turned and started to leave. I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to be sleeping.