Chapter One
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Fangs were down, sharp and ready to sink into her neck. It took a hell of a lot of willpower to stand there, but he gave her what she wanted. Claudia wanted to give to him, and he was going to let her.
He raised his arms up for her to pull his shirt off. Sitting down for the removal of his boots, he laughed at her struggles. When she had him down to nothing but his boxer-briefs, Dimitri pulled her to stand between his legs for his turn.
Though he unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans, she took them off, wiggling the material down her legs. He took her shirt off, leaving her to stand in her bra and panties.
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Dimitri wrapped his arms around her and rested his face against her breasts, hugging her close.
“What’s wrong?” She whispered the question, holding him close.
“Now I understand why Guardians never bonded,” he said. “The pain of knowing that the time we’re together before I go out could be our last.” He glanced up at her. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I couldn’t stop.”
Dimitri closed his eyes as she brushed her hands across his face, opening then again when she told him, “I completely understand what I’ve gotten myself into. But you need to understand that I would rather have a short time with you than none at all. Haven’t you heard that old saying ‘Better to love once, than never to love at all’?”
She finished with a smile. Dimitri smiled back at her. “Are you saying you love me?”
Claudia bent down and kissed him lightly. “What if I was?” she asked, blowing against his lips.
“Then I’ll have to say you are the very first person in my life to ever love me.” He touched the side of her face briefly, moving his hand down her neck to her shoulder.
Hooking a finger under the strap of her bra, he pulled it down.
Claudia reached behind her, unclasped it, and let it fall between them. “You have my heart, Dimitri,” she whispered. “Always.”
His gaze swept down her body and back up to her eyes. “And you have my soul, my forgotten soul.”
He lay back, carrying her with him. Their lips touched, lightly at first then with more hunger. Dimitri wrapped his arms around her, moved his hands down to cup her rear and tried to kiss her deeper, but Claudia had the lead. He was going to let her have it for as long as she wanted—or he could stand it.
The kiss to his lips ended, but not her mouth on his body. Claudia kissed his chin and made a heated trail down his neck to his chest with her lips and tongue. God, the Guardians 2: Forgotten Soul
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emotions that flooded through him, the sensations, and her love, were overwhelming and comforting at the same time. He wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to handle it all.
He’d always been the one in charge. With her, he wasn’t.
Her tongue touched his nipple, and he hissed with still another physical sensation.
Dimitri felt and sensed her innocence in the action, and fuck if it didn’t feel as though heaven had just landed on his head.
She teased the nub with the tip of her tongue before closing her lips over it, kissing it, giving it a bite.
“Hey, now.” He groaned with a smile. “You start biting, and I’m going to be tempted to do the same.” He made sure she saw his fangs and watched her shiver.
“Promise?”
“Count on it.”
She licked her lips, and once more a rosy hue crept into her cheeks. “I want to really taste you, Dimitri. All of you. Can I?”
I’m so fucked! His cock jerked, and he would have sworn he was on the brink of coming in his damn shorts just because she asked the question. It wasn’t his blood she was asking for, but his flesh.
His mouth went dry, and he wondered if he was going to be able to talk. He had to take a few deep breaths before he even attempted to answer her. “Whatever you want.”
She bit her lower lip and squirmed herself down between his legs. Dimitri held his breath, watched her, and feared embarrassing himself when she took hold of his briefs and pulled them down.
One thing he wasn’t going to tell her, at least not then, was he had never had a woman go down on him. He’d had sex in the past and fed from others, but when it came to any of his lovers going down on him—yeah, that never happened.
But it sure as hell was about to!
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Dimitri closed his eyes, fisted both hands in the pillow under his head, and tried like hell to steady his breathing. Fuck, if he could control shit. Her warm breath touching his cock was enough to make any sane man go nuts.
“I don’t know if I can—” he began, the word choking off in his throat. She took hold of him, and her mouth closed around the head. “Oh, fuck!” he cried in a moan.
She took not quite a third of his length into her mouth, sucking him hard. The pleasure exploding behind his eyes and left him hissing. Up and down she pulled, suckling on him until he knew, without a doubt, he was going mad from the pleasure.
He wasn’t going to last. Dimitri knew he wasn’t going to be able to hold back for much longer, and he sure as hell didn’t want to explode yet.
“Claudia.” He panted her name, fighting with himself to not buck and make her take more of his cock into her mouth or down her throat. “I can’t hold on.”
She released him with a popping sound, her hand still moving up and down on him.
“What? The big bad Guardian can’t handle something after all.”
He chuckled. “Oh, that does it!”
Dimitri spring, pulled her away from his cock, and he tossed her to the bed on her hands and knees. He ripped away her panties and with one powerful surge thrust inside her to the hilt. Claudia gasped loudly, arched her back, and pressed back against him.
He pushed her hair to the right side, kissed the back of her neck, and held still inside her.
“I love the way your pussy stretches tightly around my cock,” he said in that near purr she pulled from him. Claudia shivered, and he scraped his fangs against her neck.
“You were made only for me, Claudia.”
She dropped her head and sighed. “Yes.”
Fangs teasing her neck, Dimitri moved his hips slowly. He withdrew from her and sharply, powerfully thrust back in. She fisted her hands into the sheets, and he watched Guardians 2: Forgotten Soul
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her breathing, heard it leave in a sounding rush as he had during the time she sucked his cock.
He made sure to move slowly, wanting her to savor as much as he had. He pulled his cock out enough to have her push back and bury him into her body again, but he kept complete control. He wanted to build her up gradually, to make this night as special as he could just in case.
“Dimitri, please!” she begged.
As much as he hated to, he gave her what she wanted. Calculated plans be damned.
He let loose, moved faster, harder into her, and when her pussy tighten around him, he sank his teeth into her neck. Claudia cried out, contracting around him, and he drank deeply, fucking her harder, faster, until he could no longer control his body.
His balls swelled and exploded. He closed his eyes and drank from her as he spilled his seed deep into her. She yelled again with another orgasm, and still Dimitri moved and drank until sense returned.
Dropping to the bed, he took her with him, scooping her into his arms. Dimitri held her tight, breathing hard, closing the wounds at her neck. Claudia sighed and turned over in his arms, resting her head on his chest, her arms draped across his chest.
With sense came worry. The coming mission didn’t set well with him. His gut screamed in warning that something was going to happen, and his heart felt like it was cracking at the thought. What if something happened to him? What would happen to Claudia?
“I think I love you,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head. She snuggled closer, sighing in her sleep.
* * * *
Rage walked into the bedroom Renzo set up
for himself and the baby. She slept in the cradle, wrapped up in pink, sucking on a pacifier. Her fine hair stood up in the center 138
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of her head almost making a curl. In the corner, Renzo slept deeply, a bottle of whiskey on the floor beside him.
Rage scooped the baby up in his arms and walked out. He kept to the shadows, walked straight out of the lab to his car. He got in, placed the baby on the seat next to him and drove away.
The drive to the cemetery where Renzo murdered Serina took less than an hour.
Once he gave the baby to Denver, Denver would go down to wait for the Guardians.
Rage parked up the hill where he told Denver to meet him. Their plan was very simple on Denver’s part. Make contact and then go with them. How the hell could the man fuck that up?
Rage pulled in behind Denver’s car. Opening the door, he picked up the baby, holding the tiny body close to his chest as he got out.
Denver already walked toward him. “I can’t believe this worked.” Denver smiled, holding his hands out for the baby. “He let her out of his sight finally.”
Rage handed the baby over to Denver. “I drugged him. Only hope it lasts long enough for you to get to those people.”
Denver didn’t answer, gazing down at the baby.
“Take care of yourself and them, Denver,” Rage said. “I’ll see you again.”
Rage turned and headed back to his car.
“When?” Denver called out. “You can’t keep playing this game, Rage. He’ll figure it out.”
“I know he will.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“Because I have to.” He looked over his shoulder at Denver. “Go. Take the baby away from here. Get her to her father.”
“I’ll take her just as fast as I can. You take care of yourself.”
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Rage stood next to the open door of his car, watching Denver until he was out of sight. Instead of getting in and leaving, he brought out binoculars, went into the trees, and found a spot where he could watch everything that was about to happen. He wanted to be able to see her bright eyes again if only for a second. Besides, he had this nagging feeling that something might go wrong.
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Chapter Nine
“I have a bad feeling about this.” Shadow hunched down behind Dimitri who knelt next to Carissa. They left the safe house just before dawn and hid out in one of the crypts for the day. Dimitri wanted to go before Claudia awoke and Carissa before Julian came to, though the others hadn’t discovered her reasons until after they left. Finding out Carissa knocked Julian out right after telling him what they were going to do pissed Dimitri off. The plan had been simple. Rest after lunch, don’t tell Julian—not knock him out—and leave. What she did would only lead to trouble once the man woke up. Trouble, however, seemed to be Carissa’s middle name these days.
“Too quiet,” Shadow went on. “Something’s lurking. I can feel it.”
“If shit hits the fan, stick with the plan,” Carissa told him, bringing out one of her guns. She unclipped it, checked the bullets, and shoved the clip back in. “You get Denver and the baby out, no matter what. Think you can handle that?”
“And watch your ass,” Dimitri added, standing up slowly. “Don’t need to get it shot off. And you,” he pointed to Carissa, “when we get back, we’re going to have a long talk about your anger issues if Julian doesn’t beat me to it.”
“Yeah, did you teach him that fucking move to take a weapon away?” she asked.
Dimitri smiled. “Sure did.”
“You’re such an asshole.”
“Children,” Shadow snapped. “Can we focus here?”
With a curt nod, they started. Alone, Dimitri walked out of the tree line into the open. Carissa and Shadow went down further under the darkness of the trees to cover Guardians 2: Forgotten Soul
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him. About halfway to the building where Serina had died, Dimitri stopped. Eyes were on him. He could feel it.
He pulled out a gun, kept it at his side, and looked around. It was too quiet. Not even a bird chirped.
“This isn’t right,” he mumbled to himself. As much as he hated to, Dimitri called out for the guy, hoping like hell his gut and Shadow’s were wrong. “Denver!”
Gun fire rang out. Dimitri dropped to the ground for cover. Bullets hit headstones; tiny pieces flew everywhere, some landing on him. Breeds came out, some with guns, others with knives. All had a red haze over their eyes and drool dripping from their mouths.
“Fuck,” Dimitri snapped, going up to his feet, aiming, and firing his gun.
He dropped ten before he had to reload. Popping the clip, running, he reloaded, and fired. Off in the distance he heard the faint sound of a child screaming.
Shadow and Carissa came out of the woods, shooting their way towards him.
“Shadow, find Denver and get him the fuck out of here!” Dimitri yelled.
Shadow nodded and broke away from them. Carissa reached him, pulled out her sword from her back and sliced a breed coming at Dimitri’s back.
“So much for being easy,” she said.
“Nothing is easy,” he said back at her, shoving the smaller guns back at his holsters and reaching behind his back for the bigger ones. “Thought you learned that by now.”
The more breeds he shot down the more seemed to come out to replace the fallen.
They were outnumbered. Whether it was because they had been betrayed or because Renzo had some tracking device on the baby, Rage, or Denver, Dimitri didn’t know. At the moment, he really didn’t give a damn.
Out of ammo, Carissa turned to her blades. Dimitri got a quick glance to see her move with skill with her knife in one hand and the spring blade at her wrist. Skilled with both weapons, the knife had turned out to be her specialty.
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Dimitri was only slightly relieved when he spotted Shadow with Denver. Both were running to where they’d hidden the van. He trusted Shadow to get Denver and the child back to the house. That was his mission.
His sense of peace was short lived. Turning around to take out another set of breeds, Dimitri saw Carissa in serious trouble, the kind she wasn’t going to get out of alone.
More breeds came out of nowhere. They rushed upon her, taking her down. Dimitri gave his full attention to her, began shooting as many as he could and ran in her direction.
He didn’t get too far.
As unexpectedly as death could be, one single shot rang out and the bullet pierced the middle of Dimitri’s chest. Knocked backwards, feet away from Carissa, Dimitri landed hard, the breath knocked out of him. Pain gripped him unlike anything he ever imagined.
He panted for air, as he tried to control the pain, which had a brutal hold on him.
Tears came to his eyes as he thought of the pain Claudia would go through once she learned he was dead, and he was damn sure he didn’t want to die.
With crunching sounds, along with the grunts of the breeds, someone walked toward him. He heard the distinct sound of a shotgun opening and the shells popping out. More shells slid in, and the barrel closed. The fucker had used a slug on him.
“Dimitri!” Carissa yelled his name, but he couldn’t see her. What he saw was the end of the shotgun no more than a foot from his face.
Tears rolled down the side of his face. He knew the end was but moments away. He waited and heard a single shot fired, and the shotgun was no longer in his face, but too late. Carissa screamed.
Closing he eyes, he thought, I failed her. I failed Claudia. I’m dying! He could feel his life flowing away with the blood from his chest. The pain started to subside, as did the warmth in his body, replaced with cold and numbness.
“Forgive me, Claudia,” he whispered.
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“You don’t die today.”
All he saw was a man hovering over him, covered from head to foot in black.
The man pressed down on the wound, and Dimitri yelled, but the pain took him into a darkness he was powerless to fight and left him only dimly aware of anything more than breathing.
* * * *
Rage put pressure on the shotgun wound to the Guardian’s chest, pressing on the crude bandage made out of his shirt. He made sure the blood stopped pouring out of him at least, enough to hold him until help could get to the man. He was sure they would come back for him.
Things hadn’t gone as planned. He knew Renzo would show up eventually. He just wasn’t expecting him so damn early. He glanced around, making sure he was alone, but the way his luck had been the past few days, he wasn’t. One of the damn breeds was coming back, probably to finish off the kill.
Rage rolled his eyes, pulled out his gun, and shot the damn thing right between its eyes. It couldn’t go back to tell Renzo what he’d seen. Rage didn’t need extra aggravation, not since things had gone sour, and Renzo had taken bright eyes. That was definitely not part of the plan. Rage was going to have to put on a new fucking show for Renzo once he got back, long enough to get her away from that fuck.
“I don’t think you can hear me, but I’m going to say it anyway,” he told the Guardian. “She won’t die. That much I promise you. I’ll get her out, but I don’t know when or how. Fuck!” Double-checking to make sure the bleeding had slowed, Rage brought out his phone and called Denver.
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“Yeah, it’s me. Have that guy you’re with come back. His friend is down and will die if he doesn’t get help. The breeds are gone and have the girl. And check for a bug.”
He hung up before Denver could say anything. Then he stood and walked away.
“God Damnit,” he grumbled again. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.” He looked back once more, making sure no more breeds were out there. Only when he saw a blond man in black leather running towards the fallen Guardian did he let out a sigh of relief.