The Princess Guard

Chapter Eighteen

The attack

"That was an interesting trip. Good thing you got to give away your little gift." Salem broke the silence in the car after about 30 minutes of me silently stewing over that teacher.

"Yes we both gave things away didn't we" I muttered irritably and he laughed.

"Well technically I didn't give her my phone number. She gave me hers." He retorted and I didn't bother to look at him. I didn't want my face to give me away. I wasn't jealous. He could take the numbers of a thousand women, who cares. Not me.

"You're jealous, I get it." He laughed quietly and I looked at him and glared.

"Please, I'm not jealous." I scoffed and he shrugged, smiling to himself.

I wasn't jealous.

"I'm simply going to tell her that I appreciate the flattery. It's not like I have time for a dating life. I didn't want to just shoot her down." He muttered quietly and I looked out the window. He was right..he didn't get to have a dating life really. Not when he had to be by my side 24/7.

"I'm sorry" I whispered, suddenly feeling guilty. I really took his life away when he became my guard.

"It's fine I knew the terms. I think Emma was enough dating for me, thank you very much" he joked and I rolled my eyes.

"You on the other hand have to start looking for that special someone" he said this in a singing tone, mocking how much I didn't want to find a suitor.

I crossed my arms and shook my head.

"You should start looking for ways to be less annoying" I growled back and he laughed, acting like he was locking his lips.

I sighed in the silence, continuing to stare out the window. We were hardly halfway through the day yet I was exhausted. Too much had happened today, too fast.

Salem suddenly leaned forward, staring hard out the window. His whole body tensed up.

"What's with you?" I looked wearily in the distance, trying to see what he might see.

"Driver stop!" He yelled, trying to hit the button to lower the privacy screen. It was vampire proof, basically. Given that our driver was a human he definitely wouldn't be able to hear us.

I felt panicked suddenly, not knowing what he was seeing.

"Stop the car!" Salem shouted once it was down and he looked at us in the rear view mirror.

"What's wrong?" He sounded panicked now too.

We neared an intersection and I caught a glimpse of a semi truck coming from the cross street, they weren't slowing down. The driver slammed on the brakes, the sound of the squealing filling my ears.

Salem grabbed me and pulled me to him, shielding me with his body as the semi smashed into us.

The world around us spun, the sound of metal colliding made my ears ring as the car flipped. Time seemed to stand still..like everything was in slow motion. It felt like we rolled forever. I screamed in panic, blacking out for a second.

When I came back to I was curled into a ball on what would've been the roof of the car, Salem's body was above mine.

"Shit shit shit shit" he whispered frantically and I gasped for air, panic filling me. Something dripped on my face and I opened my eyes. Salem had one hand pressed against the grill of the semi that had smashed through his side of the car, his other holding up the seats that we should be sitting on. Blood was dripping down his head and his arms. He was keeping the car from collapsing on me.