Chyna.
The sound of a male voice saying her name inside her head caused her to jump. She pulled her hands back and put one over her rapidly beating heart. She turned, half expecting to find Jaxon standing behind her. That he’d been the one to call her by name. But the only person in the room was her. She had to be hearing things.
With a shake of her head, Chyna walked out of the room and shut the door behind her, deciding to leave the bread and beer where they were. She’d have to remember to ask Jaxon about that particular guestroom. No place else in the house had anything ancient Egyptian in it. Maybe he was a closet collector and didn’t want anyone to know.
Chyna headed for the living room and sat on the couch before she turned on the large LCD television. She soon became caught up in a movie that played on one of the movie channels. It was a psychological thriller that kept her guessing who the bad guy was. At one point, she heard some creepy laughter. She gazed around, swearing the sound had come from somewhere in the room, but in the end she figured it had to have been from the home theater system Jaxon had hooked up to the TV.
Blown away by the end of the movie, Chyna switched the channel to something else. It was starting to get late. Her eyes felt heavy. She stretched out on the couch with her head resting on the thickly padded armrest and turned on her side toward the TV screen. It didn’t take long for her eyes to drift shut a few times. Eventually, she lost the battle and they stayed closed and she fell asleep.
* * * * *
Jaxon returned home after an uneventful night of hunting. He hadn’t found one evildoer. Though he hadn’t encountered any prey, he’d put the time to good use. He’d thought about Chyna and what she was to him. Now that he’d spent more time with her, he no longer felt he needed to run away screaming when he referred to her as his mate to himself. He enjoyed being with her. And the whole idea that she would never be anyone else’s but his gave him a warm feeling.
Also thinking about Chyna in his bed sleeping, waiting for him to return, had his thoughts shifting to all the things he wanted to do to her once he was with her again. He’d wake her up with his lips and tongue, make love to her. His cock ached with the need to be inside her.
He unlocked the front door and walked inside, closing it behind him. Jaxon turned the lock before he headed for the living room where he could hear the TV playing. It was so late he’d figured Chyna would have gone to bed already, especially since she’d gotten up early that morning to go into work.
Jaxon stepped into the room and smiled when he found Chyna fast asleep on the couch. He crossed over to her and picked up the remote from the coffee table and turned off the television. She didn’t stir. He went down on his knees in front of her and ran his gaze over her beautiful face. She was worming her way deeper inside him. Since the bond had formed between them, his feelings for her were only growing stronger, no matter how much he tried to slow them down.
He leaned in and brushed his lips against hers. “Chyna,” he said quietly. “Wake up.”
She blinked open her eyes, then smiled when her gaze met his. “You’re home. I guess I fell asleep on the couch.”
“Then I better take you to bed.”
Chyna sat up, then shifted as he knelt between her legs. She put her arms around his neck. “You can take me to bed but not to sleep. Not yet, anyway.”
Jaxon pulled her closer until she sat on the very edge of the couch. “You missed me, huh?”
“Of course.”
Their mouths met in a heated kiss. Jaxon had missed Chyna as well. The feel of her against him, his arms holding her tight, felt right. As if she were the piece he’d been missing in his life and hadn’t even known she needed to fill it.
An evil-sounding laugh came from somewhere behind Jaxon. He only had enough time to release Chyna’s lips before he was thrown into the change. He groaned as his body shifted to his half-human and half-jackal form. Chyna’s eyes grew wide and the smell of fear radiated off her in huge waves. Her gaze shifted to a spot over his shoulder, her mouth opening and closing, but no sound came out.
Jaxon rose to his feet, tugging Chyna to hers at the same time, and turned to face the being who had dared to set foot in Jaxon’s home. The demon stood on the other side of the coffee table, his eyes glowing red. Jaxon positioned himself so Chyna stood at his back.
“Get out of my house, demon,” he said with a growl.
“I don’t think so, warrior of Anubis. I’ve been watching your mate while you were away doing your duty to the god of the underworld. I think she’d be fun to play with.”
“You won’t touch her.”
“Oh but I will. I can smell her terror.” The demon took a deep breath. “It smells delicious.”
Jaxon knocked Chyna back onto the couch, then kicked the coffee table out of the way as the demon launched himself at Jaxon with a sword in his hand. Jaxon willed his own into his hand and blocked the strike that would have cut into the top of his shoulder. With the blades locked together, he gave the creature a hard shove, pushing him away.
He tried to beat the demon back, but the creature’s strength was almost an even match for Jaxon’s. Even in this form, Jaxon didn’t have that great of an advantage. What ground Jaxon gained, the demon slowly took back, getting in a few good hits that left shallow slices across one of Jaxon’s biceps and his chest. Jaxon ignored his wounds, making a few of his own, as he fought to keep the creature away from Chyna.
But that strategy soon changed when Chyna jumped from the couch and tried to make a run for it. The demon lunged after her, his sword raised to strike her in the back. She must have sensed she was in danger. She spun around and held her hands up in front of her face as the creature’s sword descended.
Jaxon reached them in time to block the worst of the strike with his sword. The tip of the demon’s weapon sliced across Chyna’s forearm. Seeing the blood that welled from the wound sent Jaxon into a rage. Growling and snarling, he went on the attack, pulling on reserves of strength he hadn’t known he had.
Just as he thought he’d get a chance to take the demon out, the creature disappeared, then reappeared out of striking range. He bled from a number of wounds.
“Play time is over for now, warrior of Anubis, but you’re still mine. Remember that.” The demon disappeared.
Jaxon turned to face Chyna. She held a hand over her wound as she stared wide-eyed at him. As he willed his sword away and closed the distance between them, the shift tore through him until he was once again in his human form. His wounds healed with the change.
Even though fear still radiated off her, Chyna held her ground. “What the fuck are you?”
“I’m what the demon called me. I’m a warrior of Anubis.”
“So you’re telling me that changing into that beast thing is normal for you?”
“Yes. Let me look at your wound, then I’ll explain everything.” He reached for Chyna’s arm but she yanked it away.
“I already looked at it. I’m probably going to need stitches.”
He shook his head. “No, you won’t.” Not allowing her to pull away from him this time, he captured her wrist in one hand as he wiped away the blood with his other. “It’s already starting to heal. It’ll be completely gone in less than a minute.”
Jaxon held her arm where Chyna could see it. As he’d said, the slice wound disappeared in the amount of time he’d predicted without leaving a mark, not even a scar. He let go of Chyna’s wrist. She then twisted her arm this way and that, staring at it as she shook her head.
“What the hell was that?” she practically yelled. “That is not possible. I’m not supposed to heal like that.”
“It’s all right, Chyna. Calm down.”
Chyna backed up, breathing at too fast a rate. Her face was white. Jaxon felt a little worried that she was about to pass out on him.
“Calm down! How the frick do you expect me to do that? After what I just saw?”
“I know that was a lot for you to take in at once.
Let’s sit down and I’ll tell you everything.”
She shook her head. “Not on your life. I’m not getting anywhere near you.”
Jaxon looked Chyna in the eye. “You have my word I won’t hurt you. I only shift into my half-human and half-jackal form when I’m in the presence of evil. It’s not something I do when I choose to. And even if I were to shift in front of you again, I’d not harm you. It’s still me, able to talk and think the way I do now.”
“Except it’s a you who is covered in black fur, has a jackal head and a tail,” she shot back.
“Yes, but on the inside, where it counts, I’m no different.”
“I can’t do this.” Chyna slowly backed up a few more steps. “I really can’t.”
“I didn’t take you for a quitter, Chyna. You wouldn’t let me give up on you. Well, it’s my turn to not let you give up on me. And for better or worse, we’re tied to each other for all eternity.”
She came to a dead standstill. “What are you saying?”
“The demon was right when he called you my mate. You are. When I bit you in the hotel shower, I claimed you as the one meant for me. A bond formed between us. Now you’re as immortal as I am and we share the same life force. There’s no breaking it.”
If it were possible, Chyna’s face grew even whiter. “You made me immortal and tied us together with an invisible bond that can never be broken?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“What the hell, Jaxon? First you can barely stand the idea of seeing me past a night, then you begrudgingly gave me two months. Now you tell me you’ve made sure we’ll be together for eternity. How can a commitment phobe go from never wanting to settle down with one woman to that? But what really pisses me off is that you didn’t give me the choice. You got to make the final decision when I asked you to stay with me longer than a one-night stand. And why do you have to shift into that creature?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “It wasn’t as if I decided to do it without talking to you first. You don’t understand. Every time we made love, just before I came, I had the urge to bite you, to sink my fangs into you. The harder I fought against doing it, the harder it pushed back until I lost control. Anubis warned me something like that would happen if I kept denying what you are to me. I even told him I didn’t want a mate, ever, but there was no getting out of it. I am the warrior of a jackal-headed god. It also makes me bigger, gives me more strength over evildoers so I can send them to Anubis to be judged in the underworld.”
Chyna stiffened as if he’d slapped her. And Jaxon knew that instant he’d just fucked everything up. Royally. He took a step toward her, then came up short when she flipped him the bird with each hand.
“Screw you, Jaxon,” she shouted. “Here I was falling in love with you and all you could think about was trying to get out of having to stay with me. Well, I don’t need you. You can stay away from me or I’ll kick your furry, kilt-wearing ass into next week. And congratulations, you just made me so furious I’m no longer afraid of seeing you in your other form. Have a nice immortal life without me. Jerk.”
She spun on her heel and headed toward the room’s entrance. It was Jaxon’s turn to be afraid. With the real threat of losing Chyna forever, all the feelings and emotions he’d fought to extinguish when it came to his mate bubbled to the surface and spilled over.
“I love you, Chyna,” he said before she left. “Please don’t leave me.” She stopped but didn’t turn around. “I may have wanted to get out of claiming you as a mate in the beginning, but that’s no longer the case. My feelings for you grew stronger the longer I was with you. When I saw the demon go for you, and I realized how vulnerable you truly would have been if I hadn’t made you my mate, I knew what I felt for you was love. The thought of losing you makes my heart ache.”
Slowly, Chyna turned in his direction. The anger that had tinged her cheeks pink had faded. “I really want to believe that is how you truly feel about me.”
Jaxon crossed the room and cupped her face in his hands. “It’s the truth. I swear it on Anubis. You’re the first and only woman I’ll ever love. Let me explain everything to you. Give me another chance.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. Jaxon brought his lips down to hers and kissed her. He shook with the need to make love to her, but that would have to wait. He took her hand and guided her over to the couch and prepared to tell her the story of how he’d become a warrior to the god of the underworld. Something he’d never told to anyone else.
Chapter Eight
Chyna settled onto the couch as Jaxon took the spot next to her. Her anger at him had burned down to ash. The fear she’d initially felt was gone as well. In some ways, she felt a little numb. She had no idea what Jaxon was about to tell her, but she was more than willing to listen. When he’d said he loved her, she hadn’t been able to keep walking. It had been the last thing she’d expected him to say, especially in the heartfelt way he’d said it.
“All right. I’m listening,” she said.
Jaxon surged to his feet and paced in front of her. The coffee table still sat where he had pushed it out of the way earlier. It was a full minute of Chyna watching him walk back and forth before he spoke.
“I really was born in Dijon, France, but not in the year you originally thought. It was 1772.”
“So you’re two hundred and forty years old?” To look at him, Chyna would never have known he’d lived that long. Even though she hadn’t asked, she’d kind of figured he was a little younger than her. He didn’t look thirty.
“Correct. I’m that old, but I basically became frozen in time when I was twenty-six. That’s when I took my vow to become one of Anubis’ warriors.”
She’d been right. That was why he looked younger than her. Then Chyna realized she would forever remain looking like her thirty-year-old self. She’d never get any older. Not yet ready to dwell on that for too long, she pushed it away.
Chyna cleared her throat as she stopped herself from trying to freak out again. A little bit of the numbness had worn off. She needed to keep her head to pay attention and understand everything Jaxon said. “How did you become a warrior to an ancient Egyptian god when you’re French?”
“I was on the verge of death.”
“What happened?”
“I was a soldier fighting with Napoleon in Egypt. We were there to take the first step against British India, to drive the British out of the French Revolutionary War. On August 1, 1798, during a battle, which would become known as the Battle of the Nile, I was on a ship called the Orient. The British and French fought in the Aboukir Bay just off the coast of Egypt. Nelson led the naval attack on the French, with the British ending up the victors. My ship took a lot of cannon shot. I was badly wounded but managed to jump overboard before the Orient exploded. I barely made it to shore.”
Jaxon stopped pacing and stood to stare down at Chyna. From the look in his eyes, she could see he was reliving what he’d gone through during that battle, and it wasn’t a pleasant memory for him.
“Then what happened?” she prompted.
“Once I’d dragged myself to shore and a little away from the water’s edge, I realized I was in pretty bad shape. There was no one around to call for help. After fighting my way to shore, I was too weak to look for it. I was bleeding out from several deep wounds, the blood pooling around me. I wasn’t ready to die. I called out to God but He didn’t answer. I grew weaker, I knew I’d pass out and that would be the end of me. Being in Egypt, I’d taken an interest in the ancient gods that had once been worshipped there. Desperate to try anything, I called out to them, promising I’d do anything if they would just spare my life. That’s when Anubis answered.”
“What did he say?”
“He said he’d save me, but in return, I had to vow to serve him as one of his warriors for eternity. I didn’t even think twice about it. I was already a soldier. It was the only life I’d known. Being a warrior to an ancient Egyptian god wouldn’t be a hardship for me. So I g
ave him my vow, and he healed my wounds, granted me immortality and put his mark on the left side of my chest. Now each night since then I’ve hunted evildoers and have sent them to the underworld to be judged by Anubis. When I shift, I’m able to see every evil thing my prey has done, to make sure they truly need to stand before the god.”
Chyna looked up at the man with whom she’d fallen in love in a matter of days. If not for Anubis, she’d have never met Jaxon. He would have died at a very young age. Even if he had survived his wounds, he wouldn’t have been around for her to love. Old age would have claimed him a long time ago. Now that she’d met Jaxon, she couldn’t picture him not being in her life. And thanks to that same god, she would have Jaxon forever.
She stood and met his gaze. “If I could, I’d thank Anubis for saving you. If he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have had the chance to fall in love with you.” Jaxon pulled her into his arms and claimed her lips. She held on to him, giving back as good as she got. Once he pulled away, she said, “Being one of Anubis’ warriors, is that why you didn’t want something long-term with me?”
Jaxon kissed the tip of her nose. “I hate to say it, but no. That had to do with me. Even as a mortal I didn’t want a woman in my life. My mother died giving birth to me, and my father decided when I was quite young that I’d go into the army. He raised me to be tough and independent. I’d figured loving a woman would make me appear weak. But I think that opinion really formed when I was younger. I’d gotten close to a woman, thinking I could have that type of relationship with her. I ended up finding out she not only had me but another man and was playing us both. When I confronted her about it, told her what I was feeling, she laughed and said she’d never want a boy like me on a permanent basis, that I was just an amusement.”
“Do you still think that way?”
“No. My life wouldn’t be complete without you. Finding you showed me how much I’d been missing.” He brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. “Are you done being angry at me?”
Warrior's Surrender (Warrior Hunger, Book Three) Page 7