Guardian’s Bond

by Morgan, Rhenna

  Why her grandmother insisted on using the name when even the man it belonged to refused to honor it was beyond her. But then, her grandmother had forgone much of her heritage in the last fifty years, choosing to honor her son’s choices rather than keep with the ways she’d grown up with. Maybe using Priest’s given name was just her way of making up for lost time. “Yeah, Nanna. He’s right here. Is something wrong?”

  She paused, but movement sounded through the line before she lowered her voice. “Oh, no. Quite the opposite. Let me talk to him.”

  Quite the opposite, her ass. Very little in this world nudged Naomi Falsen off her calm and cool demeanor. Even in the face of finding her son and his wife gruesomely murdered, she’d kept her head. The tears might have flowed as openly as her grief, but not once had she lost her focus. Her groundedness in the face of the most horrifying upheaval.

  “What’s wrong?” Katy demanded.

  “Just let me talk to Priest. I’ll explain when you get home.”

  The warmth that had blossomed under Priest’s touch chilled in a second, and a prickling unease rippled down the back of her neck. She handed the phone to Priest. “She wants to talk to you.”

  Face blanked of emotion for the first time since she’d met him, Priest took the phone, turned and paced the length of the small space. “Yeah.” He paused beside the window that overlooked the small parking lot used only by building tenants and stared out at the cloud-coated sky. “How long has he been out?” Listening, he planted one hand on his hip. “What was he like before that?” Whatever the answer, it made him glance back at Katy before he nodded. “Right. We’re on our way home.”

  Rather than offer a formal goodbye, he punched the end button and handed Katy the phone. “We need to get home.”

  Yeah, that part she’d figured out the second she’d heard Nanna’s voice. The real question was what had everyone tied up in knots. “Is something wrong with Alek?”

  “Nothing’s wrong with Alek. He just needs my help.” He held up the black leather jacket he’d given her to buffer the crisp spring air on their morning ride to the shop. Of all the adventures she’d been on in her life, riding on the back of his bike had been an unexpected and delightful first. Between the engine’s power and the wind streaming all around her, she’d never felt more alive. More rooted in the moment.

  Until this second, she’d looked forward to the return trip. Had even toyed with asking Priest to take the longest way home possible. But now all she could do was jam her hands in each sleeve and wish she could genie-blink herself back to Priest’s house. She faced him and shoved the overlong sleeves up as much as the thick leather would allow, the temper she’d fought to keep tamped down bubbling perilously close to the surface. “Can you elaborate? If my brother’s in trouble, I deserve to know.”

  If he was fazed by her sharp reprimand, he didn’t show it. Just opened the back door, splayed his hand low on her back and urged her ahead of him. “Your brother’s not in trouble and he’s not in any kind of danger.”

  “Really? Because all the cloak-and-dagger behavior and veiled wording makes it sound like you’re trying to cover something up.”

  Priest slung one leg over his bike, righted it and knocked the kickstand back. The engine roared to life, the deep growl of it eerily similar to the sounds that came from his panther and oddly comforting in light of the unease scampering around her chest. He met her gaze. “We’re not covering things up, kitten. We’re being mindful of something that might upset you when you’re just beginning to learn about your heritage. Now hop on so I can take care of your brother.”

  “Take care of my brother how? Why does he need you?”

  His lips crooked, the confidence of a man about to level an I told you so moment. “Because, unless I’m reading it wrong, the soul quest I’ve been sensing all day is your brother’s.”

  Chapter Ten

  Twenty minutes. Normally, the drive from Priest’s shop to the lake took a solid thirty, but between his mate’s tension whipping him to hurry and her arms urgently banded around his waist, he’d taken the winding curves at breakneck speed.

  Kateri hadn’t protested in the slightest. Hell, if anything she’d leaned into each turn like her active participation might somehow make the bike go faster. Another indication how anxious she was to be with her brother.

  He backed his Harley into its covered spot and killed the engine.

  The roar hadn’t even died down before Kateri jumped off the back, but he snagged her wrist before she could get away.

  She tugged against his hold and stopped just short of snarling, gaze locked on the front porch. “Let me go.”

  Like hell he would. She’d had enough upheaval in her life the last few weeks. And while a soul quest was something the people in his clan not only expected, but looked forward to, an outsider wouldn’t be nearly prepared for how things would look. “Not yet. Not until you understand a few things.”

  She frowned, but at least she stopped fighting him.

  He leaned his bike onto its stand and swung his leg over the back, not daring to release his grip. “One of the things we’ve fought with the new generation is a lack of awareness. Too many of our race don’t know the signs and symptoms of a soul quest and they react to it the way a singura would.”

  “What signs and symptoms?”

  “To you, the early stages would mirror the flu, only without the fever. You don’t want to eat and you’ve got no energy. The only thing you want to do is find a place to lay down and pass out.”

  “Is that what Nanna told you he was doing?”

  “That’s what he was doing two hours ago. By now, he’ll be much deeper.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “How deep?”

  “Deep enough you’ll question if he’s breathing, but I promise you, he is. And he’s absolutely safe.”

  Her lips tightened, but she lifted her chin a notch higher. “Anything else?”

  So brave. Determined to face whatever life threw her even when it defied the order and logic she’d buried her emotions under. But she was waking up. Unearthing her Volán nature and the rich vitality that came with it bit by bit.

  And he couldn’t wait to see her in full bloom.

  He fanned his thumb along the pulse point at her wrist, drew her flush against him and anchored his hand low on her back. “Only that where he’s going is sacred. A gift. Definitely not something to be afraid of. And I’ll be with him.”

  Her answering expression warned of a cutting retort queued up and ready for launch, but something raw and vulnerable chased it away. As if some new and awkward thought had dared to lift its head. She swallowed hard enough it looked painful. “I want to see him.”

  Inside, everything was quiet, the cloud-covered sky bathing his home in a sleepy, lazy afternoon feel. Though, as soon as the closing door ricocheted through the entry, soft footfalls sounded down the stairs, followed by Naomi’s excited voice. “Eerikki?”

  He fought the grin that always tried to emerge when Naomi insisted on using his given name. Knowing his luck, Kateri would pick that second to turn, see his response and lash him up one side and down the other for not taking the moment seriously enough. The truth was, a soul quest was reasonable cause for not just smiles, but celebration. “Yeah, we’re here.”

  Kateri beat him into the living room and met her grandmother at the bottom of the stairs. “Where is he?”

  Naomi calmly blocked her from heading up, grabbed her by the wrists and met Priest’s gaze. “You told her?”

  “I won’t ever keep anything from her. Besides, she already knew I’d sensed someone’s quest was close. Another minute or two and she’d have figured it out anyway.” He motioned them both up the stairs, the familiar tug behind his sternum urging him to get a move on. “Let’s go.”

  Tate’s room wasn’t much. Just a full-size bed, an old couch with a p
ull out, a dresser and a desk in the corner. Aside from Tate’s moody mid-to-late teens stretch, he’d always preferred to spend his time outdoors or with other people, so his space was more about function than personality. A few mementos from NBA games he’d gone to with Priest were tacked up on the wall along with some of the first designs he’d inked on early clients, and a picture of his parents stood alone on the corner of his maplewood dresser, but the rest of his décor consisted of hoodies, T-shirts and jeans tossed over the desk situated in front of the wide window.

  Thankfully, Naomi had drawn the curtains wide. If she’d left them closed the way Tate preferred them, Alek would have looked more like a corpse on top of the hastily made bed. Instead, the overcast skies did a decent job of highlighting the fact that his skin tone was that of a healthy man in his prime.

  “Alek?” Kateri sat beside him and clasped his hand in hers. When he didn’t answer, she twisted to Priest beside her. “Can he hear me?”

  Priest shook his head. “Not now. He’s too deep. Like a dream.” Actually, it was more along the lines of what she’d consider a coma, but he wasn’t about to add to her stress level with unnecessary details.

  The pull from the Otherworld intensified, the radiating burn deep in his chest warning that Alek was close. If it were anyone else, he’d settle in for the journey in his own room, or at least find someplace quiet and dark, but with Kateri this tense, he couldn’t quite force his feet into motion. Not to mention the fact that she’d probably see such isolation as desertion rather than the need for focus.

  Naomi must have sensed his turmoil, because she inched in behind Kateri and cupped her shoulders. “Go ahead, Eerikki. I’ll stay with her.”

  “No. I’m fine here.” He crouched beside Kateri, squeezed her thigh and lowered his voice. “I need you to promise me something.”

  She shifted her gaze to his, the confusion and discomfort on her face making both man and beast bristle.

  “No matter what happens—no matter what you think is going on or whatever fears come up while he’s asleep—I want your word you will not leave this house. Not for anything.”

  “Why would my leaving be an issue?”

  A good question. And likely not something that would happen considering how tightly she gripped Alek’s hand. The harder part was his answer. Especially since he’d yet to share what she was to him. “Because inside this house and on my property my brother can’t find you. Away from it and without me to protect you, you’re exposed. I need to focus and take care of Alek and I can’t do that if I’m worried about you being safe.”

  And because you will always take precedence over any living soul on this Earth.

  Her gaze narrowed as if she’d heard his unspoken thought, but instead of questioning him further, she dipped her head. “I won’t leave. Just take care of my brother.”

  Priest shifted his gaze to Naomi, who gave her own nod, then settled on his ass beside the bed. The heavy nightstand was solid wood and had been a bitch to carry upstairs even with his strength, but it still groaned as he leaned his weight into it.

  The burn inside his chest deepened, a fist-like sensation building between his solar plexus. But still he couldn’t close his eyes and focus. Couldn’t force his thoughts off Kateri and the obvious worry on her face.

  You don’t have to go, the darkness whispered. She’s more important. There’s no law that requires your presence. Let him take care of himself. We take care of her.

  Maybe not a law, he argued back in his thoughts. But it is my responsibility. My right and honor. And nothing would piss our mate off more than to leave someone she loved alone and unguided.

  The counter argument won, his shadow-self curling in upon itself and stilling enough that its constant drone was little more than background noise.

  His eyelids grew heavy and the real world began to blur, Kateri’s still form beside the bed misting with layers of gray. He tightened the grip he’d kept on her thigh and she laid her free hand over it a second before he saw nothing at all. Could only feel her palm against his as his spirit slipped away.

  Seconds later, his destination came into view. Why he was surprised by the environment the Keeper had chosen for Alek he couldn’t say, but Alek was clearly confused. Standing in the middle of a traditional Korean dojang, Alek scanned the two stories of black sliding doors with their ivory paper panes as if both fascinated and stymied.

  He must have felt more than heard Priest’s presence, because he spun and braced on the balls of his feet, prepared for a fight.

  “Relax,” Priest said. “You’ll probably get a fight before this is over. Or several, from the looks of things. But not from me.”

  Alek straightened and lowered his hands to his side. “I don’t get it. What’s going on?”

  “What’s going on is your soul quest.”

  Behind Alek, the center door slid silently open and a man with short-cropped black hair and a lethal focus strode through it. The Keeper.

  Priest dipped his head to indicate the newest arrival and grinned. “Welcome to the Otherworld.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Seven hours Katy had waited—every minute except for two insanely fast bio-breaks—spent in Tate’s tiny bedroom either holding Alek’s and Priest’s hands or pacing a path around the bottom half of Tate’s bed.

  Oh, and straightening clothes.

  Whether Tate appreciated it or not, every article of clothing he owned was now not only neatly put away but fanatically organized. Odds were good he’d read her the riot act the way Alek did whenever she encroached on his sacred space, but by the time she’d given in and slipped into OCD mode, she’d been desperate for something to do. Surely, he’d cut her some slack considering the circumstances.

  Now, she was cooling her jets all over again. Only this time her brother was very much awake, and she didn’t want to move because what she was seeing was nothing short of fascinating. With Nanna seated on the ground and watching beside her, Katy stretched her legs out in front of her and braced her hands on the soft soil behind her back as Priest and Alek battled it out.

  If you could call it a battle. More like two super humans exploring their hyped up skills and showing off all rolled into one while the Tiki torches Priest had lit with only a thought accented every move against the night skies. From the time Alek was six, she’d watched her brother spar with people, but what he was capable of now boggled the mind. It was like watching the Matrix minus the leather, hair gel and sunglasses.

  But his speed, skills and agility hadn’t been the only things to change.

  Alek was different.

  Focused. Centered and grounded like she’d never seen him before. Gone was the wildness he’d fought in recent weeks, replaced with an easygoing peace. As if in the time he’d been asleep he’d matured by a decade instead of hours.

  Ironic, because by the time he’d woken up, she’d been strung tight enough to launch straight through the ceiling.

  Alek landed a punch to Priest’s jaw that sent his head whipping to one side, the jarring thud that went with the contact almost sickening.

  Priest shook his head and laughed, which of course only made Alek laugh, too.

  “Men,” Katy muttered. “They’re idiots.”

  Naomi grinned, but kept her gaze riveted on the action. “Yes, but you have to admit, for idiots, they’re fun to watch.”

  When Katy didn’t answer, Naomi broke her rapt stare and lifted both eyebrows at Katy. “What? You can’t tell me you’re not impressed.”

  Oh, she was impressed all right. The first time she’d watched Priest go head-to-head with her brother, her stomach muscles had contracted so hard she’d barely been able to breathe. But this time Priest held nothing back, pushing Alek in a way that said he had nothing but confidence for her brother and was intent on teaching him even more.

  Plus, Priest had ditched e
very stitch of clothes save the track pants he favored when lounging at home or outside, this pair dark as his panther’s fur. Working with Priest alone every morning the last several days had been an exercise in temptation, but watching his slick, graceful moves with firelight glinting off his sweat-slickened, muscled torso seemed downright sinful.

  When they finally took a break from their ninja slugfest, Priest glanced at Kateri over his shoulder then muttered something to Alek she couldn’t quite make out with the distance between them.

  A strange look moved across Alek’s face. Surprise maybe? No, more like uncertainty. Which explained why it was so strange, because it was an expression she seldom saw on her brother. Still, he nodded and trudged up the slight slope to the raised ridge where she and Nanna had watched the show.

  “Well? What do you think?” Alek asked as they drew close. Like Priest, he was drenched in sweat, but smiling like a ten-year-old boy who’d just scored his first bike.

  He might not have asked the question in an arrogant way, but he was still her brother and had an ego the size of Texas. A fair amount of sibling ribbing was not only allowed, but a little sister’s guilty pleasure. “I think all those years you wanted to be the Black Power Ranger have finally paid off.”

  Priest barked out a laugh and gave Alek one of those manly backslaps that would have knocked her face-first to the ground. “A punch to the gut and she didn’t even lift a finger.”

  Surprisingly, Alek just grinned and rolled with her playful comment—another glaring indicator something big had happened to her brother in the Otherworld. Something special, just as Priest had predicted. “Hey, don’t knock Zack Taylor. He could fight and dance.”

  Happy to see the laid-back brother she’d grown up with back among them, Katy cocked her head and smiled up at him. “I’m only teasing you. You looked great. How do you feel?”

  “Fantastic.” He rolled his shoulders and pumped his fists a few times as though checking his fatigue level and finding it nonexistent. “It’s weird. Even after all that, I don’t feel tired. More like I’m warmed up and ready for the main round.”