Page 3 of Guarded By the Yeti

He looks up from his phone, and he’s trying to look tough, but it doesn’t work on me. Compared to my tall stature, he’s a dwarf. I think his sister is taller than him.

“Then where are you taking her? No, don’t tell me. But let me tell you this: the Draganettis won’t go looking for her at the end of the world. With her gone, I’m no longer weak. My father was weak and look where it got him.” His eyes shift to the mess in the middle of the room. He purses his lips, sniffs loudly, averts his gaze. “I’ll have to call in a cleaning crew. Find a mortician. Someone with experience, someone who can... fix them.” He cringes. “There won’t be any open caskets, but I have to honor them as best as I can in these terrible circumstances.”

I glance at Ysella. She hasn’t moved from her spot. All that’s changed is that she’s lowered her head onto her knees and closed her eyes. She’s trying to isolate from her surroundings. I need to get her out of here. Not just because it’s my job, but because this is no place for a creature like her.

“I’m not taking her to the Himalayas, so I don’t need a private plane. Arrange for a helicopter. I can pilot it myself.”

Artie studies me from head to toe, which is no small feat, seeing how he needs to crane his neck to look at my face. “Fine. You’re her bodyguard. You know best. I’ll make a few calls.”

I nod and let him to deal with that. He’s not my problem anymore. He’s on his own, unless he pays the MSA extra to use his father’s panic button when he fucks up and gets himself strapped to a chair again.

I walk over to Ysella a third time and tap her on the shoulder to draw her attention. It’s the first time I touch her – just a brush of my fingers over her satin-covered skin. She unfolds herself and looks up, and when I offer her my hand, she nods and takes it. She’s heard everything. She knows she has to come with me, and she’s doing it willingly. I wonder what her brother was saying to her when I came in. Probably something that convinced her before a shadow of a doubt. Ysella seems to listen to her brother dutifully, like she probably listened to her parents. They trained her well. Otherwise, I can’t fathom why a woman like her would accept to leave with a monster like me.

Finally on her feet, she tries to walk and stumbles. I catch her and pull her to my side, and her trembling hand comes to rest on my stomach, underneath my heart. She’s tiny next to me, even though I was right – she is taller than her brother.

“Here, I’ll carry you. If that’s okay.”

I wait for her to protest, but she doesn’t. She nods again, and I wonder why she’s not talking to me. Is it because I frighten her? The way she looks into my eyes as I lift her off the ground tells me that’s not it. Once secured in my arms, she rests her head on my chest, and all I can do is try to stay calm. Collected. She’s so close now, her lithe body pressed to my monstrous one, and my nostrils are full of her. Where she touches me, her skin cells seep into my fur – or so I imagine it – and that makes my heart thrum in my chest so loudly that I’m afraid she’ll feel the vibration. Yetis don’t need to wear clothes. We’re never cold. Up in the Himalayas, we don’t bother with such technicalities. We’re used to being naked, as our fur covers our private parts. But in the human world, I can’t get away without wearing pants, at the very least. I’m fine with it, even though no matter what kind of pants I wear, they always itch. I wanted to live among the civilized, and this is what civilization means.

I stomp down the stairs to the ground floor, where everything is just as messy, but at least there isn’t as much blood. I count three bodies – human males. Draganetti soldiers. I haven’t lost one man, so maybe that’s why Lucia said the operation was a success. Had I lost anyone in this senseless war that wasn’t ours, I would’ve never forgiven myself. Had it been up to me, I wouldn’t have said yes to this assignment, but the higher ups couldn’t refuse the mafia’s money, especially when there was a good chance the Carvassi boss would’ve never even pressed the button.

“Where are you going?” Artie runs after us, gesticulating wildly. He’s pointing at the ceiling. “I got you your helicopter. Stupid ape.”

Right. The rooftop. My bad. To be fair, I’m not thinking straight right now. I’m holding a woman in my arms, and I haven’t held a woman in... too long to remember.

As I climb back up the stairs, Ysella throws her brother a scathing glance, and that warms my heart a little. Artie doesn’t notice. He’s already moving in the opposite direction, yelling into his phone. Two young men burst through the front door, and when he rushes to them, already giving them orders, I conclude they’re his men. Scrawny, if you ask me. Even if he gathers a few more, how is he going to avenge his parents with an army of scrawny men?

Not my problem. How does the saying go? Not my circus, not my... apes?

We emerge onto the rooftop, and the helicopter is waiting already. Ysella pats me on the chest, and my heart skips a beat. That’s my first reaction. Then a realize she wants me to put her down, so I do, but make sure to keep my big paw on the small of her back, barely touching her, gently guiding her toward our ride out of this nightmare. She’s a bit steadier on her feet. The helicopter blades are still going, and the strong air currents lifther brown hair. It whips behind her, and I think she’s the most amazing creature I’ve ever seen. With her dress torn in places and stained with blood, she looks like a warrior princess.

The pilot throws me the keys and leaves us to it. One thing Artie Carvassi wasn’t lying about: he still has money, power, and connections. His parents’ empire is in shambles, but as much as I dislike the guy, maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt. For Ysella’s sake, at least. He’s the only family she’s got left. And at some point, when all this is over, I’ll have to return her to him. Now I catch myself hoping he will, in fact, prevail, because I’d like to have someone to return Ysella to.

I help her into the helicopter, in the back, and I know this is temporary. I will protect her for as long as she needs, but it won’t be forever.

I climb in the front and put on my headset. I’ve given her one, and when I look at her over my shoulder, she has it on. I give her a thumbs up – such a human gesture – but she looks at me like she isn’t sure how she’s supposed to respond.

“Are you okay back there? Ready?”

No reaction. Only her dark, bottomless eyes staring into mine. I raise my eyebrows, thick and bushy as they are, hoping I don’t look like a cartoon. Lucia once told me that when I make this face, I look like a cartoon. If anything, maybe it will make Ysella smile. It doesn’t.

“I want you to know that you are safe with me,” I say.

She doesn’t seem worried or flighty. She’s in shock. Yes, that must be it. My heart aches, because I should’ve realized this sooner. She is stunned about what happened right in front of her, about what she was forced to witness, and here I am, making her promises.

“It might not look like it, but I have a plan. This place I’m taking you to... Those barbarians will never find you there.”

She doesn’t ask where it is. Her haunting, relentless gaze is starting to unnerve me. What if I don’t know how to take care of this creature? I know how to guard and protect. That’s my job, and I’m damn good at it. But Ysella needs more than that. She needs me to take care of her. How will I do it right if she doesn’t talk to me?

I give up and turn to the controls. I’ve flown helicopters before, much like this one. Back home, a lot of places are only accessible by helicopter, and my brothers and I used to run errands for the Yetis in our community. Good times, I’m not going to lie. But I wanted more.

“That’s our Kael,”my mother used to say.“He always wants more. Never enough. Nothing is ever enough for this one.”

God bless her. I hope she’s well in her old age. I hope my brothers are taking good care of her. As I pull up into the sky, I think about home. I can’t help it. Artie Carvassi brought it up, and now all I can think about are the snowy peaks of the Himalayas. And Ysella. I’m thinking about my charge, too.

Alaska isn’t the Himalayas, but it’s far enough, isolated enough. There are a few Yeti communities, scattered close to the North Pole, and I have a cabin between the unmarked borders of two such communities, tucked away in the mountains, far from prying eyes.

What Ysella doesn’t know is that I have to protect her threefold: from the Draganettis, from myself, and from the Yeti males that might catch her scent.

---