She drew her bottom lip between her teeth and tried not to cry again. For a girl who had lost everything, she felt as if every single wish she’d ever had was about to come true.
“Sweet girl, I truly believed that I came into this world whole, with everything I needed to do my duty and fight back the Darkness. And for centuries I completed my missions. I served the Light and protected the world and not once did I experience any feeling more than the fury of battle or the satisfaction of a job well done.
“Until I met you.”
Ella’s heart stuttered. Kees raised a hand to cup her cheek and she turned into it, savoring the warmth of his rough, leathery skin against hers.
“You have shown me that I was a fool, a bigger fool than I called you. You tried to shut away the magic because you believed it has cost you the people you loved, but I tried to shut away emotion because I didn’t believe a Guardian needed to feel in order to do his duty. I thought emotion was a weakness, but how can it be when two bound together are so obviously more than either is alone?”
He smiled, slowly, tenderly, and brushed his thumb across her lips. “Little human, I love you.”
Ella felt new tears rolling down her cheeks and smiled. She felt as if her heart had just cracked—not painfully, but because it could no longer stretch wide enough to contain her joy. It had cracked open, like the stone skin that had held Kees frozen in place for centuries. In both instances, the result was perfect freedom, Kees from sleep and Ella from pain.
“I love you, too,” she whispered, and leaned down to press her lips gently against his. “Forever.”
“Ah, sweet girl,” he purred, his eyes sparking brightly, “do I have some things to tell you about forever.…”
Chapter Eighteen
When Ella finally checked her cell phone the next morning, she had twelve messages, all from Felicity, but it was hours before she could return them. First, she and Kees had a little cleaning up to do.
They took care of the demon first. Ella collected the dagger with carefully gloved hands and laid it in the hole Kees had dug a good half mile behind the cabin, deep in the deserted woods. She used an entire box of salt, both as a bed and a covering for the cursed item, making sure every last inch of it was covered in the stuff. Then they covered it with three feet of heavy, rocky soil.
Straightening up the yard turned out not to be quite so simple.
She felt a little like a mafioso, looking out over her front yard and picturing the faces of the people she’d destroyed in the spots where they had died, but unlike the average character on The Sopranos, she at least didn’t have to get rid of the bodies..
Magic obviously had its benefits, even if it felt weird to be happy about the all-consuming nature of the Darkness.
The one thing they did have to deal with was the practicalities of the cars the nocturnis had used to get to the cabin. They had been parked on the road a half mile from the cabin. She and Kees ferried them to a remote parking area at Porpoise Bay. When the authorities finally investigate the abandoned vehicles, they would wonder what had happened to the owners, but the location would point toward lost hikers or kayakers, not to a group attacking the Harrow cabin.
Dealing with the practicalities here had made Ella nervous about returning to Vancouver. Ever. By now, she felt certain the police would have begun looking for Detective McQuaid and his partner, assuming Harker had also been with the force. Kees told her not to worry. For one thing, he pointed out, the men had clearly not sought her out on official business, so there was unlikely to be any record of their visit to her apartment, and therefore nothing to link their disappearance to her. For another, there were ways—magical ways—to alter the memories of people if they did start poking around.
Ella clearly had a lot to learn about the potential inherent in her powers. She got the feeling she’d be hitting the books pretty hard in the near future.
When they had moved the last of the cars and returned to the cabin late in the afternoon, Ella finally brought up the one thing that had begun to bother her since the night before.
Forever.
“We can’t be together forever,” she blurted out while Kees built a fire in the hearth.
She’d told him she was too tired to bother with lighting one, but it got cold this time of year, especially at night, so he’d won that argument. When he dropped a giant log on his foot, she realized maybe she should have eased into the discussion.
Rising to his feet, Kees kicked the log away and stalked over to the sofa where she sat. He stopped immediately in front of her and folded his arms across his chest, forcing her to look up and up and up to see his face. The jerk had intimidation techniques down pat.
“What are you talking about?” His snarl tipped her off that she definitely should have eased in.
“You know I’m right,” she said, glaring at him. In for a penny, and all that. “There’s no way we can be together forever. I can’t be forever, period. You might be a Guardian, but I’m just a human. I don’t get to be immortal. I’m going to get older and older and uglier and uglier, and you’re going to stay gorgeous and perfect just the way you are now. And it’s not even like in the vampire novels, where you can bite me and make me like you so I can stay young and live with you forever. Frankly, it just blows.”
Then he laughed, and she wondered if she wanted him around forever anyway.
Kees saw her eyes narrow dangerously and struggled to wipe away his smile. She could see him do it. For a man who’d been created with a stony expression, he had an awful hard time keeping a straight face these days.
Reaching out, Kees scooped her into his arms and took a seat on the sofa, settling her into his lap. Rather than cuddling close as she usually did, Ella held herself stiff as a board and continued to glower at him.
“Little human, sometimes I think you just enjoy having something to worry about,” he teased, pulling her close in spite of her rigid resistance. “You’re right that this is not like the stories humans have written about vampires. I cannot change you into something like me, nor would I want to. You know how I have lived, trapped in endless centuries of sleep, just waiting for the call to battle to stir me awake. Always alone. Never experiencing even the most simple human emotions. I would do anything to prevent you from living that torment.”
Ella frowned. This was the first time Kees had described his life as “torment,” even though she, personally, had always thought it sounded like a pretty lousy deal.
“But if that’s true, what kind of future do we have? There’s a threat growing right now, sure, but if we can do what we have planned, we’ll be able to put a stop to it. We’ll knock the nocturnis back into the Stone Age, the Seven will stay confined to their prisons, and the threat will be gone. And then, what? You say, ‘So long,’ and turn back to stone? That sounds like a pretty crappy version of forever.”
Kees pressed a kiss to her forehead and laughed softly. “Such a baby mage you are. You always forget about the magic, silly girl.”
Ella thumped him in the horn. “Don’t patronize. Tell me what you’re talking about. Is there a spell that can make me live as long as you do?”
“No, but there is a spell that can make me live as long as you do.”
“You mean the thing that Alan did? Will that last forever?”
“Little human, you know that I was summoned to stop the threat of the Seven and to guard against its return, but I am not the first Guardian, and I will not be the last. My brothers and I might be immortal, but as you yourself saw, we are not invulnerable. At times, one of us will fall, and when that happens, the Guild gathers together and another Guardian is summoned to take his place.”
“So?”
“So, while I cannot and will not abandon my duty while a threat looms, I have served humanity for over a thousand years. I believe I have earned my rest.” He met her gaze and hugged her close. “Once this threat is defeated and the Guild is back on its feet, I will request to be released from my
duties. I will step down from the Guardians and ask that another be summoned to take my place.”
Ella stared. “Can you do that? Is it even possible?”
“I believe that it is. I have never seen it, nor even heard of it, but I read something very interesting in the grimoire that Alan Parsons passed on to you. The mage who authored that volume wrote that he had heard an unusual story once, a rumor that intrigued him so deeply, he spent years pursuing it and still did not fully understand what it meant.”
“What was it?” She poked him impatiently.
“The mage wrote that some people said that the first Guardians ever summoned had been truly cold and unfeeling, emotionless as I had pretended to be.”
Ella snorted, but Kees simply ignored her and continued.
“They were very good at battling demons, but they lacked the understanding of why they fought because they felt no attachment to the humans or the world they defended. Many argued that this was not a problem until one day when there was need, the Guardians would not wake. Because they felt no motivation to protect the humans, the threat of the demons did not register and they slept through the call of the Wardens.
“See? What did I tell you? Feelings are good for you. They’re a strength, not a weakness.”
“Hush and let me finish my story.”
She humphed, but subsided.
“There was great panic because demons had begun pouring through into the human world and still the Guardians did not wake. Even the Seven began to stir, and the Wardens knew that humanity would not survive unless the Guardians awoke, so they searched frantically for another way to rouse them.
“Eventually, and completely by accident, the Wardens stumbled on a solution. Or rather, they stumbled on someone who had stumbled on a solution. A woman, a woman of power, had come to the Guild offering her help to wake the Guardians, but the Wardens turned her away.”
“I knew they were misogynists. Everything anyone says involving the Guild or the Wardens or the Guardians, it’s always ‘he,’ ‘his,’ ‘him,’ like women don’t even exist.”
Kees ignored her grumbling. “They turned her away, but she wouldn’t go quite so easily. She demanded the opportunity to kneel before the chief Guardian and pray to the Light for his release so that he could fight the demonic threat. They agreed with great reluctance because—”
“Because they were male chauvinist pigs.”
“—because the woman gave them no choice. Her power held them at bay as she walked herself to the feet of the Guardian. She knelt before the figure and asked the Light for aid, but before she could complete her prayer, there was a tremendous noise and the stone encasing the Guardian cracked and he stepped forward and seized the woman.”
She looked at him, the beginnings of a smile teasing the corners of her lips. “Hm, I wonder where this is going.…”
“Hush,” he scolded. “Let me finish. He seized the woman and claimed her as his own. He dared the Wardens and demons alike to take her from him and vowed to slay any creature that threatened her. When she told him of the threat not just to her but to her family and friends, to all the humans living in the world, he felt rage for the first time and knew the demons must be defeated.”
“It always takes a woman to point out what needs to be done.”
“And it appears that I have a mouthy one,” Kees growled, nipping her lips teasingly. “The Guardian went out to assess the threat and realized he would need his brothers to help with this battle, so the woman called together all the women of power she could reach, and each knelt and prayed at the feet of a son of the stone. Some walked away having failed, but Fate had woven her threads and one by one, the right woman appeared and the Guardian she was destined to bond with woke. Each in turn they repeated the actions of the first. Together, they went to battle and drove the demons back, imprisoning them in the barren planes where they belonged.
“When they had finished and the world was safe, the Guardians brought their women before the Guild and demanded to be released from their duties. Each had fought honorably and done a great service to humanity, and now they wanted to live beside the women they had claimed, their mates, for as long as Fate allowed.”
“And did they?” Ella bit her lip and crossed her fingers.
Kees smiled. “They did. The Wardens released the Guardians, although the action demanded sacrifice. No longer would they be able to shift forms. They remained bound to their human forms, but retained their strength and senses, because the threat of the demonic is never truly absent, and they demanded that they still be able to protect their mates from any who would harm them. Their human forms aged, and eventually, like their mates, their lives ended, but none of them ever expressed a single regret for the choices they had made.”
Ella reached up and cupped Kees’s face in her hands. She looked at him, soaking in the sight of his gray skin and black eyes, his devilish horns and the fangs that flashed when he spoke or smiled or laughed. She loved everything about him in this form, and in the other. His form was just a form. She loved Kees, no matter how he looked.
And he loved her.
Still, she asked, “What about you? Will you regret it?”
“Never.” He spoke firmly and without hesitation, and love blazed in his eyes, a bright, crimson fire that glowed whenever he looked at her. “I love you, Ella. You are my mate, and I will love you forever, alive or dead, Guardian or human. There is nothing for me without you, not in any time, not in any place.”
She smiled. “In that case, I think I should make a phone call.”
Kees pulled back and looked confused. “A phone call?”
“To my friend Fil. Not only do I need to tell her I’m still alive, but I also need to ask her for one more favor.”
“Oh? What do you need to ask her that is more important than telling me that you love me?”
“You know very well I love you, and I’m going to be telling you often, every day of our lives. I even promise to tell you again as soon as I’m done with this conversation, but this is important.”
Kees sighed. “Why?”
“Because now that Fil has found the next Guardian, I think I need to convince her to kneel.”
“And pray?”
“Baby, we should all pray.”
Don’t miss these other novels of The Others from New York Times bestselling author
Christine Warren
Hungry Like a Wolf
Drive Me Wild
On The Prowl
Not Your Ordinary Faerie Tale
Black Magic Woman
Prince Charming Doesn’t Live Here
Born to be Wild
Big Bad Wolf
You’re So Vein
One Bite with a Stranger
Walk on the Wild Side
Howl at the Moon
The Demon You Know
She’s No Faerie Princess
Wolf at the Door
And look for her novellas in the anthologies
The Huntress
No Rest for the Witches
From St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Praise for New York Times bestselling author
Christine Warren
Drive Me Wild
“Warren is back with another sexy, sassy romp, focusing this time on the oh-so-sensuous Rafael De Santos. As always, there is a great deal of humor, sizzling sex, and off-the-wall adventure in Warren’s Others series, which makes for a truly lively, amusing read.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Christine Warren sets the pages ablaze once again with Drive Me Wild!”
—Joyfully Reviewed
On the Prowl
“Christine Warren brings her blend of humor, romance, and thrilling mystery to On the Prowl.”
—Fresh Fiction
“Christine Warren has created an incredible, alluring world and then populated it with the most amazing heroes and heroines. Never a disappointment, Christine Warren continues to dazzle our senses with her books of the O
thers.”
—Single Titles
Not Your Ordinary Faerie Tale
“Warren has made a name for herself in the world of paranormal romance. She expertly mixes werewolves, vampires, and faeries to create another winning novel in The Others series. Not Your Ordinary Faerie Tale showcases Warren’s talents for creating consistent characters with strong voices and placing them in a fantastical world.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Not Your Ordinary Faerie Tale is a delightful read from the first word to the last. Christine Warren has created two amazing characters, given them an incredible plot, and laced the story with witty conversations, lots of snark and a hefty portion of danger.”
—Single Titles
“Christine Warren merges lust, laughter, and intrigue magnificently in her latest installment of The Others. Not Your Ordinary Faerie Tale is a fun and fast faerie adventure.”
—Joyfully Reviewed
Black Magic Woman
“Excitement, passion, mystery, characters who thoroughly captivate, and a satisfying romance make [it] a must-read.”
—Romance Reviews Today
“Will capture your senses and ensnare your imagination. Another great novel from Christine Warren.”
—Single Titles
“Sexy, action-packed romance!”
—Joyfully Reviewed
Prince Charming Doesn’t Live Here
“Christine Warren’s The Others novels are known for their humorous twists and turns of otherworldly creatures. Like her other Others novels, Prince Charming Doesn’t Live Here is an excellently delicious story with great characterization.”
—Fresh Fiction
Born to be Wild
Heart of Stone Page 27