Lion of God

The Poison Dagger
"Hello, Well I'm in town right now, just stay there. I will be there in a few. Yah see ya." He sighed after hanging up the phone. " Well we have to go home, someoe is there waiting for me."

"Alright. Let's go then." I looked over to him and he was frowning again.

He did that all the way to his apartment. We grabbed my things from the trunk and then he gave the doorman his keys and told him to take it somewhere I couldn't understand. We went striaght up to his place, he put down my things onto the couch and went into his bedroom. I heard it slam shut, then the yelling began.

"Why would you come here, you could have been kidnapped....or anything in between!" I heard Tidius yell.

"Stop yelling at me Tidius! I didn't want to hear people bickering at me all the damn time at home. It wasn't even that far away, just let me stay here for the night" A smaller voice said. He sounded younger than me, just by a little bit though.

They went on like that for awhile, I decided to change into something more comfortable like a pair of shorts and a cropped top tee shirt, I also took off my boots and placed my knives with the whole collection in my bag. Then I heard silence, and I put my things in a corner of the room. Just as I didn't a younger guy...that looked a lot like Tidius, only a few differences. He looked about fifteen or sixteen...plus the perminate frown made him look more like Tidius. I wanted to laugh but I could sense the intense atmosphere. So I cooled it and just stood there until Tidius came out as well. The boy saw me and his eyes went wide, he tried to walk back but Tidius pushed him forward. I smiled at him he just blushed. It was too cute.

"You have to be his brother." I smiled, he turned to his brother and then crossed his arms.

"Hmph." He turned his head away from me.

"Parker...stop acting like that or I'm sending you back home." Tidius moved out of the way and onto the couch where he sighed and rubbed his head.

"Fine, then how about this...Hi my name is Parker." He still didn't look at me straight in the eye.

"I'm Ariel nice you meet you. I'm Tidius' partner." I smiled

He rolled his eyes and sit down beside his brother with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Why do you have a girl staying in your apartment?" He frowned at his brother.

"Is it any of your business?" Tidius frowned back at him.

"It is if you are screwing her." I rolled my eyes.

"You are so wrong about that, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't dare to touch me without a knife through his heart." I laughed.

"You couldn't touch him! He is the best fighter ever...then I'm second." He finally smiled.

"Oh I see, sorry." I laughed, sitting between the two brothers. "How old are you?"

"I'm 16, almost 17." He looked proud.

"Only a few years younger than me, I'm 19." I smiled at him. "Your brother is an old man."
I turned to Tidius who was still rubbing his head. I took his face in my hands causing him to open his eyes.

"What are you doing?" He frowned again.

"I am guessing your age...shush!" I closed my eyes and hummed. "You are 64 years old!"

"Nope guessed wrong again, I'm 65." He laughed finally, Parker looked amazed.

"How old are you really?" I poked his nose.

"He is 22. Not that it matters..." Parker said crossing his arms.

Before I could say anything my ringtone on my phone went off in my bag. I jumped up and answered it knowing it was Lukas.

"Hello? Lukas calm down what happened? You had to do what? Your kidding me? Its almost curfew I can't go out. I'm staying with a friend. Just grab a bottle and drink at home you will be fine. I'm sure you will be fine, the King will be fine as well. You did your job...just calm down." I watched as the two brother's eyes widened as I talked to Lukas about the King. "Yeah call me tomorrow and sleep. See ya."

I hung up the phone and I could see Tidius was worried.

" Lukas and the other body guards had to take down assassins tonight...they were from another kingdom. Lukas said that they left a note saying something like this wasn't the last time. What the hell is wrong with people?" I sat down in between the brothers again, yet they still didn't say anything.

"Parker go in my room and do not let anyone in unless it's either me or Ariel. Ariel we need to go...well you don't need to go unless you want to come but this is serious." Tidius said in a commanding tone. Parker grabbed his brother's laptop, food and water, went into Tidius' bedroom and I heard it locked. I didn't know what was going on but I felt like I needed to listen.

"I'm going." I said as I put on a pair of jeans, my boots, and grabbed my favorite knives. Tidius called down to the doorman and told him to get his car and then we headed downstairs.

Tidius had a serious look on his face as we waited till the doorman came back with his keys. We literally ran into the car and drove away fast. I didn't know where we were going but I knew it had to do with the King. I also didn't know why he was so worried about everything. I looked over to him, he had an unending frown across his face, and he was gripping the steering wheel tight. We turned into the palace gates, Tidius flipped his ID and the guards let us in. Once we were out of the car Tidius looked at me and then sighed.

"I'm sorry that I'm putting you through this so early in our partnership. I tried holding it out as long as possible. But whatever happens in here just promise me one thing?" He pleaded.

"What?" I frowned.

"Don't treat me any differently...you are the first person that has ever treated me like a normal person." He sighed again, and looked down to the ground. He pushed his hair back, straightened his back and then looked to me. "Come on."

"Right." I Smiled. "And by the way...I promise, partner."

He smiled down at me, and then we started towards the giant doors where the night guards were standing and waiting with the doors wide open for us. I knew both of the guards, they looked at me with a surprised loo but then looked straight again once Tidius caught them. In the palace the halls were huge and full of servants rushing around, carrying random things like trays of food or pitchers of water. But they were all going in the same place. Two large doors with a golden frame kept opening and closing. I'm guessing we were going in there as well.

"This way." Tidius guided me by the small of my back to the golden doors. His touch gave me a shiver.

We got into the room, and my eyes widened at the sight of the King and Queen sitting down at the grand dining room table. As soon as we get in the King's Protector caught me off guard and grabbed the back of my arms pushing me into the wall, face first.

"You have got to be kidding me..." I said as I pushed off the wall with my feet, jumping up into a backflip, pulling my two knives out, I landed behind him pressing my knives to his neck.

"Ariel, let him go." Tidius said and I listened, putting my knives back. The King and Queen were watching.

"Tidius you finally got yourself a body guard? Good for you." The King said, smiling.

"No she is my partner...and that's not why I came here. What is this talk of assassins?" Tidius started walking up to the Royals. I was still confused.

A guy in a black robe come up behind him and placed his hand on Tidius' shoulder, smiling. He was a black panther...but I didn't like how he was touching Tidius. I started growling, but stopped when the panther eyed me down with a death stare. I don't like him, he gives me the creeps. That's when he put his attention back to Tidius.

"Prince Tidius, please calm down. We have the situation under control, no one got hurt other than one of the guards." He smiled like the devil.

Wait...Prince? That's why he asked me to not treat him differently? Why didn't he just tell me that he was a prince. It wouldn't have changed my view of him...I don't even know how to act in front of someone like royality. I guess thats why he didn't have a girlfriend and that he was so secretive.

"My father almost got killed and that's all you have to say in the manner...Joshua? I have no time for your antics." Tidius brushed off his hand from his shoulder. "Who were the intruders?"

"Tidius calm down honey, please? Your father has enough on his plate right now." The beautiful lion Queen said placing her long feminine looking hands on Tidius' arm.

I felt out of the loop and out of the way of things. Which I guess I should be since this was a family ordeal, even though I had so many questions of my own to ask everyone especially Tidius. I felt a pair of eyes on me, and I look over. The Royal guard I could have killed was smiling down at me, checking me out. I felt disgusted, his king was being threatened and he was checking me out. What an idiot.
When I looked over I saw a shimmer of something behind the window. When I was going to take closer look, it moved. I noticed it was I guy who was dressed in mainly black he had his arm up and held a small throwing knife. He was aiming for the king, I knew I had to do something. So I jumped onto the table slowly because I didn't want the intruder to see me, but the other didn't and before they could ask I started running towards the king fast. The intruder caught onto what I was doing and threw the knife. It caught me in the shoulder making me wince in pain. The intruder's eyes widened as I gripped the knife and pulled it out fast enough to throw it towards him hitting him in the shoulder as well only I pinned him to the wall outside. I quickly jumped off the table and went outside dragging the intruder with me inside.

"What the hell?!" Tidius said loudly. He was going up to me but I stopped him.

"Hush Tidius...The guards all gasped, along with everyone else in the room including the Royals. I wanted to laugh but it was time for business. I stepped over the intruder, pulling his mask off revealing another cat that I could place. "Who are you working for!?"

I asked him twice before I smiled and started pushing my foot onto the knife that was still in his shoulder. He screamed out in pain like I wanted, that lasted for a another two minutes before I asked again.

"Who are you working for?! Or I'll do something else you won't like." I dropped down, straddling his waist and lowering my head to his. "Tell me now!"

"You stupid bitch!" He spit in my face. The guards jumped at the oppratunity but I stopped them again. I wiped my face and pulled out my big knife.

"You can tell me now and I'll let you live, or I can slowly kill you with this knife. What will it be?" I said taking a glimpse off Tidius who was gritting his teeth. I didn't want to know what the Royal's faces looked like right now.

"Fine..fine. I'll tell you." He finally said as I was still pressing against the knife in his shoulder. "King Augustine...he told us that if we killed the king he would give us money. Now please pull it out! Please?"

He pleaded with me but I just jumped off of him. I wanted to beat him up more because if he had killed the king it would have hurt Tidius as well. I don't know why that matter to me but he did help me out when I was in need, many times.

"You can have him now." I said to the guards, and the pain kicked in from my shoulder. I hadn't noticed I was bleeding this much. "Ouch..."

Tidius jumped over the table to me before I fell to the floor, I could hear him call out orders but everything else was just ringing. I could feel myself shaking, and I didn't know why. The intruder laying on the floor was convulsating on the floor with foam coming out of his mouth. I knew I was posioned then.

"Tidius...poison." His eyes darted around the room, until they landed on the knife in the intruder. He gently layed my down onto the table, the queen got up out of her seat and started wiping my face with a cloth. I would have told her to stop but it felt so good.

"You will be alright, sweetie. We have the best doctor around." She smiled down at me. She was like the sun...I now knew where Tidius got his smile.

"Tidius?" I didn't see him and it caused me to start to freak out. I needed him by my side.

"He went to find the doctor, calm down." The queen said, but I couldn't calm down. My heart was racing a mile a minute, my body would listen to me. My breathing got hard to control as well. "Here he is...Tidius hurry honey she is going into shock."

Her voice was so calming that I wanted to sleep, but another voice chimed in.

"Ariel drink this...don't sleep. You can sleep when you drink this." The voice said but my eyes wouldn't open. "Mom hold her arms, Joshua hold her legs, dad can you get me a cold rag?"

I felt a warm sensation over my mouth and then liquid came flowing in, down my throat. Then a coolness onto my forehead, someone was stroking my hair as well. I then felt myself go into a deep sleep.