Guardian’s Bond

by Morgan, Rhenna

  “So, what happens without the primos?” Alek asked. “Our race’s magic dies out?”

  “Not just ours,” Jade said. “The Earth’s magic.”

  Katy groaned, planted her elbows on the table and planted her forehead in her palms. “Earth magic. That’s insane.”

  Tate chuckled. “Seriously? You’ve seen your grandmother shift into a hawk, and been up close and personal to Priest fighting back his panther and you don’t believe in magic?”

  He was right. She’d seen Nanna shift. Watched her as a trance pulled her under and followed what she’d learned in her visions guiding them right to Priest.

  And Priest...no one could ignore the power inside him. She’d felt it the second she’d stepped across the shop’s threshold. Had been drawn to him in a way her mind still couldn’t find a decent way to categorize.

  She rested her forearms on the table and sighed. “I don’t know what I believe anymore. Maybe the Volán have magic, but you can’t tell me it’s out there for everyone. Normal life is just that. Normal.”

  Cocking her head, Jade studied Katy with a quiet intensity. “Maybe your definition of magic is too limited.”

  “Too limited how?”

  Jade scanned the parking lot below, her gaze lingering on the clusters of patrons milling beside their bikes and laughing like they had all the time in the world to enjoy the day. “The magic is everywhere if you’re open to it. The comfort you feel when you’re with your friends. In the quiet of a spring day or the rumbling thunder of a violent storm. That’s not just for the Volán but for the singura, too.”

  “The singura?” Alek asked.

  “Companionless humans.” Tate grinned. “Basically, what you thought you were.”

  Warming up to her explanation, Jade motioned to a couple on the lower patio. The woman was perched atop the wide protective rail that separated the patio from the parking lot, and the man stood between her spread knees, his arms possessively coiled around her. It was an intimate moment. Powerful in its simplicity. “Look at them. You can’t see something like that and not believe in magic.”

  Warmth blossomed beneath Katy’s skin, the all-too-vivid memory of how Priest’s muscles had felt beneath her palms and how his presence had enveloped her in a protective cocoon lifting to the height of her awareness.

  And his scent. She pressed her knees together under the table and fought back a groan. She could still smell him on her. A mix of summer storm, leather and the deepest woods. Her voice came out softer, when she answered. Deep and husky. “That’s just attraction. A chemical response in the body.”

  Jade grinned. “Is it?”

  She’s mine.

  The remembered words sluiced through her in the most exotic caress. Possessive at a level she both craved and railed against. She cleared her throat and laced her fingers together on the table, forcing a detached expression. “Priest said I was his before we left. What did he mean by that?”

  Jade looked to Tate, a request for guidance without a word spoken.

  Tate shook his head. “I can’t know for sure.”

  “But you think you know.”

  He hesitated, glanced at Alek as if gauging how well his temper was holding, then shifted his compassionate amber gaze back to Katy. “It’s not up to me to share. Priest will tell you.”

  “But the way he acted...how he lost control,” Katy pressed. “Surely, you can see why I want answers.”

  For the longest time, Tate merely studied her, consideration and concern marking his handsome features. “I do. It’s still something he should talk to you about, but I will tell you this.” He paused as though carefully considering his words, not just for her but for her brother who’d drawn scarily motionless beside her. “Of all the people who walk this Earth, there is no one safer than you.”

  Chapter Three

  White walls covered in Priest’s favorite artwork. His custom black tattoo bed still configured for the protective symbols he’d inked on Jade’s back. Gloves, glass jars filled with ink caps, rubbing alcohol and prep pads lined up with all the other equipment he used in his job along the side shelf.

  Bit by bit, the private room where he did all his work came into focus, the depth of the trance he’d escaped into with Naomi’s help leaving him numb but blessedly centered. Which meant Kateri’s brother was safe—for now.

  A soft indrawn breath sounded nearby followed by hushed movement. “You’ve been gone a long time,” Naomi nearly whispered, her voice both gentle and concerned. “How do you feel?”

  Like he needed to stretch and let his beast run for a good long while. Though the latter was impossible in town and during daylight, the color and sheer size of his massive panther a beacon guaranteed to send the singura into full-scale panic. “Better,” he said instead. He rolled his shoulders and craned his head side to side, loosening the tendons in his neck. “What time is it?”

  “One-thirty.”

  Fuck.

  Two hours he’d been out. Far longer than he’d intended or could afford with his mate unattended. Forcing his mind back online faster than was wise given his near-loss of control, Priest rose from the guest couch he’d collapsed on and scanned the empty shop.

  “I flipped the sign to closed before noon,” Naomi shared from the chair Jade usually manned behind the register. “I found some paper and put a note on the door, too, explaining you’d had an emergency and all appointments were cancelled for today.” She paused long enough to shrug one shoulder. “Not as professional as you might have liked, but I didn’t want to risk anyone interrupting your meditation.”

  Wise, considering even the slightest provocation could have set him off in the state he’d been in. “It doesn’t matter. They’ll come back.” They always did. Priest’s designs were legendary in this area. Highly coveted. Which was ironic considering the most sacred ones he gave were often executed without the recipient even knowing the gift they’d received. “Where’s Kateri?”

  Naomi lifted the phone she’d left on top of the display case filled with the charms Jade sold and waggled it. “Safe with Tate and Jade and apparently getting a crash course about our clan.”

  Priest grunted at her sly omission of Alek’s name, yet again proving what a wise woman she was. He prowled to the refrigerator at the back of the shop, his magic homing in on Tate and Jade’s location through the marks he’d given them.

  Two blocks down the street.

  The Cat House.

  He snatched a bottled water and downed nearly all of it in one go. Probably a smart place for his wards to take his mate. After the way he’d reacted to her and Alek’s subsequent interference, most people would need a fifth of whiskey to steady their nerves. Though the idea of his mate being exposed to unknown males without him there to warn them off made his panther bristle.

  But what if she wasn’t there? What if she’d left with Alek and they were just feeding Naomi texts to keep her unaware? He tossed the empty bottle to the recycle bin and stalked back to the front of the shop. “You’re sure she’s there?”

  Naomi smirked. “I might be old, but I’ve stayed up to date with technology the way you wanted us to. Her GPS shows her a few blocks down the street.”

  “And Alek?”

  “He’s there, too.”

  He settled in the rolling chair he used for work, the plastic casters whooshing on the industrial tile floor. His gaze snagged on the custom bed Jade had lain on only hours before and his right hand fisted. He wanted to see Kateri there, stretched out on the supple leather. To watch the ink take shape on her skin and pour his magic into every line. If he marked her, she wouldn’t be able to hide from him no matter where she went. Would have his protection even without his presence.

  Naomi stood and padded toward him. “Are we going to talk about it? Or just pretend this morning didn’t happen?”

  “Which part?
The fact that I almost lost control, or that you were almost minus a grandson?”

  “If Alek had been brought up with knowledge of our clan, he’d know better than to step between a high priest and his mate.”

  Priest wasn’t sure what surprised him more—the reminder that Naomi’s grandchildren knew nothing of their race, or that she’d so readily figured out why he’d acted as he did. “You knew?”

  “Of course, I knew. You forget I once had a man look at me that way.” She grinned. “And given the way Tate put himself between her and Alek on the way out the door, your wards figured it out, too.”

  Another colossal fuckup to add to his day. He was their high priest. The one who was supposed to keep himself in check no matter the provocation. Not let himself get thrown sideways by a male who’d not yet accepted his gifts.

  “As to almost losing control,” Naomi continued, “I’d say you’re being overly hard on yourself. You’re a powerful man who was caught unaware. It’s only natural for your beast to be protective when it senses a threat.”

  “It wasn’t just my beast.”

  The second the words were out, he wanted to snatch them back. Of the few elders still living, Naomi was the last he wanted to know of his situation. Of the ugly taint that moved inside him.

  Naomi kicked off her pretty flip-flops and settled on the couch across from him, crossing her legs under her the way many of his younger customers did when they watched him work. “What do you mean it wasn’t just your beast?”

  She deserved the truth. Deserved to know the risk her granddaughter would face if Priest pursued her the way his instincts demanded. But he sure as shit wasn’t looking forward to the fear and disappointment in her eyes once she heard it. “Because Draven’s darkness is in me.”

  No response save two slow blinks. As though she needed to rewind what she’d heard. “How?”

  The biting cold that always came with memories of that night rushed him. Smoke from the bonfire had streamed high into the star-filled velvet sky, one primo for each house anchoring north, south, east and west. Clan members sat on the ground behind them, as many as five hundred gathered for presect, only his second as high priest.

  And he’d failed them all.

  He shook away his memories. “You understand Draven’s intent that night?”

  “To steal each primo’s magic and take it as his own.”

  Priest nodded. “And to use their combined power to kill me. Without me in the way, he planned to lead our clan and retain our old ways.”

  “But you stopped him. You took their magic back, which means it lives in you.”

  He swallowed, hating how the truth tasted on his tongue. “I did and it does, but with it came all the taint from the things he’d done. I can’t get rid of it. No matter what I try or how many times I ask the Keeper to free me, it’s still there.” He paused long enough to let Naomi fully process what he’d shared. When she still looked on him only with slightly raised brows, waiting as if to learn the fatal blow, he added, “Fifty years ago I might have been fit for your granddaughter. Now it’s a very dangerous proposition. If you knew the way it wanted Kateri—the things it urged me to do when I saw her—you’d put her in your car and drive like hell from here.”

  She huffed a sharp laugh. “Hardly. More like I’ll cart her back here and start over. Only this time I’ll make sure Alek keeps his distance.” She paused and cocked her head, a sly grin tilting her lips. “You forget, I know how protective a Volán male can be. I don’t care how much darkness is trapped inside you, you couldn’t hurt her if you tried. She’s exactly what you need to find balance. More than that, you’re exactly what Kateri needs.”

  The response couldn’t have shocked him more if she’d stood and slapped him as she said it. “Come again?”

  Naomi sighed and reclined against the couch’s leather back, her shoulders sagging as her words flowed free. “My son shunned his gifts. Forbade me from sharing about our race or any of our ways. Kateri’s grown up too distant from her feelings.”

  She paused a moment, clasped her hands and studied them. “He never intended to share their heritage with them. Even urged them into mainstream society when they both wanted more free-spirited careers.” She looked up and a small smile crept back in. “It never worked with Alek. He flies only on instinct. More so lately than normal. But Kateri always wanted to please her dad and ended up locked in her self-discipline. She’s passionate. Almost frighteningly so. But she’s too afraid to let it out. She wanted a much different life for herself when she was young, but the way my son drove her to be rational—logical and methodic—he choked the passion right out of her.”

  The darkness stirred, tightly contained under the barricades he’d refortified, but testing every nook and cranny for an escape hatch.

  His panther stretched and purred, more than a little pleased at the challenge presented and eager to take it on.

  But it wasn’t just Kateri he had to look out for. Whether his beast had wanted to gut Alek a few hours ago or not, he was still a clansman. And an important one at that. “How old is Alek?”

  “Twenty-five.”

  “And no call to his soul quest?”

  “No, but he’s close. You saw how quick his temper fired, and he sleeps nearly as much as he’s awake.” Her face brightened. “He’s a natural at fighting. Every bit as skilled as Farron was, if not more so. Started martial arts when he was only six, though he had to beg his father for a year before he was allowed to enroll. If the Keeper wills it, he’ll make a fine warrior primo.”

  Outside the shop’s wide window overlooking Main Street, the treetops clustered around the old business fronts swayed in a soft afternoon breeze. A perfect early spring day.

  Except even the bright sunshine coating the cloudless sky couldn’t mask the emptiness encroaching. The lessening of magic that held the beauty of their world together. Without the primos, he’d never be able to restore it to the levels they’d enjoyed fifty years ago. If Alek was the first to bring him closer to a full council, he’d take him no matter what his skill set. But Naomi was probably right. The way he’d braced himself in front of Kateri and prepared to fight spoke volumes about his character. But there had been genuine fear there, too. Fear apparently triggered by their parents’ death. “That’s why you’re here? Your son and his wife are dead so you’ve brought them here to learn?”

  “That’s part of it.” She studied him a moment, as though gauging if he’d really gained the balance needed to withstand more. Whatever she saw must have been enough, because she nodded, stood and padded to her purse beside the display case. Carefully, she pulled a folded white felt cloth free and faced him. “Mostly I came to keep them safe.”

  The darkness inside him surged, an alertness on par with his panther scenting danger. Only the most sacred objects were stored in white.

  Or the vilest to protect the bearer.

  Moving closer, she unfolded the cloth. “I found this beside my son the day we found him and his wife murdered.”

  Nestled in the center of the fabric was the symbol he’d found only moments before their last full presect. A dagger with a serpent coiled around it.

  His brother’s mark.

  “You may have thought you killed Draven that night,” Naomi said, “but he’s alive. If my visions are correct, he’s out to find the house primos and finish what he started fifty years ago.”

  Chapter Four

  Draven was alive. Alive and hunting Priest’s primos all over again. In the time it had taken Priest to reach Kateri and Alek, usher them from the pub and get them all on the road, the harsh truth had pummeled him unmercifully, every instinct lashing him to move. To hide them both from his brother’s reach until he could figure out what to do. But it wasn’t until they’d settled into the thirty-minute drive to the home he shared with Tate and Jade near Beaver Lake that reality had thrown i
ts harshest punch.

  Kateri was the biggest target.

  More so than all the primos rolled into one. Because if Draven ever learned she was his mate, he’d stop at nothing to capture her. To use her to control Priest’s every move and the future of their clan.

  At the front of their mini-convoy, Tate rounded the last curve on the winding roads that lead to Priest’s isolated property, his souped-up, semi-restored ’69 Camaro roaring loud enough to match Priest’s Harley taking up the rear. Alek navigated between them, the minimalist sunscreen-only top to his Jeep leaving the rest of the occupants in full view—Naomi beside Alek up front, while Jade chatted up Kateri in the backseat.

  As she had many times throughout their trip, Kateri twisted in her seat and glanced back at him. Where some people hated the idea of so much wind, Kateri seemed to thrive on it, often canting her face upward as if to honor the air and sun on her skin. Not at all the rigid woman Naomi had painted her to be. She’d pulled her hair back in a haphazard ponytail, but bits and pieces whipped in the wind. Her blue-gray eyes were hidden behind a classic pair of silver-rimmed aviators, a barrier he wished like hell his powers allowed him to see through.

  Hell, if he’d had his way, she’d have been behind him on his bike for the ride home, her arms and legs wrapped tight around him and her heartbeat solid against his back. He’d almost insisted as much, but had opted for the expediency of getting her someplace safe over another head-to-head with her brother. Not to mention Kateri had eyed him with a wariness that rubbed both man and beast raw. Considering he’d been in her presence all of five minutes the first go-round, he’d apparently created some sizable relationship obstacles to overcome.

  Tate slowed and pulled into the drive, Alek tight behind him. Only then did Priest draw his first decent breath since he’d laid eyes on his brother’s talisman. The land Priest had bought after relocating to Eureka Springs was vast—enough to give his panther room to roam at will—but protective wards covered every inch of it.