by Lexi Ostrow
At that moment the movie started playing and she gave him a playful glare and went right on saying the lines.
"You do know that that might be the most annoying habit of yours." He reached across the table to grab the book and suddenly she didn't want him even reading it. She wasn't sure why, but she didn't want Derrick to know anything of this book and it's too sexy male hero and his family.
She pushed off the couch in an attempt to take the book from him and was distracted by the movie, something about the scene in the temple always drew her in, made her laugh and this time was no exception.
"You know there's something wonderful about watching you watch a kid movie."
Taking the book from his hands as calmly as she could, she tossed it into the bedroom, not really caring where it landed at this point. “You do know you tell me that almost every time we watch one?”
He laughed and tugged her back onto the couch next to him. “Yes, I'm certain I do. Good thing you don't mind repetition.”
She started to say something back to him when he put a finger to his lips.
“Shh or you'll miss your favorite line.”
Smirking, she didn't even bother to look back at the TV while making a sound effect and making air quotes with her fingers as she quoted Chell. “Are you serious?”
They both laughed and she grinned at him before leaning against him on the couch. She would miss nights like these the most. There was something so serene in just being yourself, lazing around on the couch.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully, two more kid’s movies popped in for good humor, a delicious steak dinner and the two of them polished off the entire tub of ice cream before a yawn slipped out and Derrick sent her off to bed while he finished up some last minute car loading for the next day.
As she snuggled into the warmth of the blanket her thoughts were a mess. Images scattered through her subconscious and she struggled to settle into sleep. The thoughts were a mixture of good memories with her parents to the tearful goodbye she never got to have with Alcott this morning. She wasn't sure when sleep finally took her, but she was grateful.
Chapter 5
It had been twenty four hours. Twenty four hours since she'd sent him back home, back into a freaking book. He hadn't even known he'd lived in a god damned book until she'd become a part of his life. But now it irritated him. He was home and he should have been ecstatic. He hadn't really been thrilled with the whole Guardian idea. He should have been able to screw the pretty brunette demon who was essentially between his legs too.
Should have, but couldn't. He couldn't even feel her. All he could feel was how Ciara felt in his arms as he carried her, crying, up to her apartment. How her chest felt pressed against his.
Fuck! He was getting hard just thinking about her when he hadn't been able to get an erection with the female demon in front of him stroking him. Snorting, he pushed her away, tossed her off onto the next guy who would most gladly take a piece of willing ass.
Stryder just sat there waiting for the guy in the trench coat to pop back into the bar and explain what the hell had just happened. The guy who'd set him up with the crazy bitch who'd just sent him packing. Shit, if he was honest, he needed the guy to show back up. He might not be thrilled with the Guardian idea, but he sure as shit needed to sleep with her so he could move on if she was just going to reject him from his apparent new job. Figure out just how the fuck he was supposed to pass the next countless millennia knowing the girl he’d waited centuries for tossed him to the fuckin' curb.
"Hey, dickhead!"
He jerked to to see Demarcus standing next to him.
"You plan on ever leaving that there stool? Or you planting roots and laying down your weapons?"
Stryder stared at him and looked down at his lap before letting out another curse. "I'm waiting right here till the trench coat SOB shows up." His brothers had been there the other day and the laughter almost coaxed him off the stool to shove his fist in Demarcus's face.
Smiling, Demarcus took a shot at his pride. "Geez get over it, dude, piece of ass notwithstanding, move the fuck on. Whatever the hell is going on, she don't like you, deal with it."
Stryder was up with his hand around his brother's throat before he could really comprehend how much the comment, and his reaction to it, bugged him. "You will shut up right here and now or we will find out who really is superior between Death and War. We are capable enough to make the decision without the real horsemen."
"Actually, the idea is he's the strongest of us because Death is the end of us all," said Jameson, Pestilence's apprentice, with a smirk.
"Ya know what, pest, maybe I'm choking the wrong brother."
A laugh from behind the three had them all turning and Stryder felt his blood run hot when he saw the man in the trench coat smirking at them all. "No I believe either of them would be the appropriate brother, War."
Launching across the counter Stryder reached out to grab the man in the trench coat's face to slam it down into the bar. Sadly, he only fisted at the air.
"Now, now, War. Did you really think if I were to be the one in charge of seeing that the most powerful Word Speaker in centuries makes it to her twenty-seventh birthday that you would be able to keep up with me? I mean the bravado is there, but the brains appears to be lacking."
Seeing red, Stryder knew his fangs were slipping out and his eyes were turning black as his demon slipped out little by little in his anger. He clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles quickly turned white. "I do not use that name. I am not him, I appreciate the distance as I'm not an entirely bloodthirsty evil fuck, thank you very much."
His brothers and he had long ago decided to never assimilate to those names, they were merely trained seconds, nearly as strong and capable, but not carbon copies. If they used them, every cock sucking demon wandered up to them and every human ran screaming. Not a fun life- not when they couldn't do a damn thing really without both heaven and hell agreeing to it, and then they were just pawns as to which side claimed them first. Supposedly though, it would be hell as the angels had humans to fight with them and the demons had no one. So they weren't the real deal, not really, since the deal was that with their mixed blood, Heaven or Hell could use them in the meantime, not just Hell.
"I don’t know who the hell you are, but I need to see her now!” More infuriating than the bastard’s speed was the chuckle he kept uttering.
“My, Stryder. She really ruffled your feathers.” Smiling big, he walked over and put his hand on Stryder’s shoulder. “Good I needed to know that. I don’t have the slightest clue how she was able to do that. How she was strong enough to shut the doorway. Pretty damn impressive at her age though.”
Stryder stared at him. Just fucking stared. This was crazy. The whole damned situation. Guardians and being a fictitious book character and doorways and guarding people. He was talking to some kind of cryptic nut job extraordinaire. Grabbing a shot out of someone’s hand, he tossed it back. Letting the tequila slide down his throat his eyes flashed solid black when the idiot was stupid enough to start to saying something to him about taking the shot. Which quickly squashed the look and comments, and the guy nearly tripped over his chair as he jumped out of it. Humans. Correction, humans from books. Fuck this was a damn trip.
The guy in the trench coat rolled his eyes at the entire interaction and Stryder was slammed down into a chair. “Listen and listen good, second in command. She is important. Too important for a potential fuck up. We’re going to see her and you’re going to convince her to keep your pathetic ass around and move on from Alcott because you’re the first and strongest person she's connected with in years. If you can't make that happen they'll be one less Horseman. She picked you and that means only you, so whatever you said or did to piss her off, you will fix it.” In the blink of an eye the man was gone.
Stryder had been going to point out Ciara didn't seem to want to be connected to him, but he didn't have a chance.
Stryder
felt a slight weight lift off of his chest and he was able to stand up out of the chair. Pissed that his brothers hadn’t lifted a finger to help him, he turned to rip into them. But they were frozen. Absolutely frozen in place. The whole damned bar was and he still couldn’t see where that bastard went.
“You have five minutes, War,” the voice sneered. “ Five minutes and then we are going to pay her a visit.” Stryder whipped around and saw nothing. “Oh and War, in that time do something about that hard on. She isn’t going to want to be greeted with that shit.”
Stryder heard the annoying chuckle in the silence before the sounds of the bar crashed back over him. “Fuck!” Five minutes, he thought. Five minutes. Turning with a shit eating grin to his brothers, “I’m to get that girl, boys.” Walking toward the bathroom, he felt very smug. As soon as he did this, he was going to show her the penalty for rejecting War's protégé. A little tough love in the bedroom had all women begging.
Pushing open the bathroom door, he let out a growl. “If anyone is in here, get the fuck out. This is War's second speaking and I need and want you out now!” Eyes glowing black as a warning, a small, lesser demon fled from a stall with his pants around his ankles, causing Stryder to smirk.
Walking into one of the stalls even though the lesser demon would spread the word to stay out, he closed the door. Allowing himself to fully remember everything about her; how she felt tucked against his chest, her eyes wet with tears and skin flushed. Gods he could smell her shampoo, lilac and vanilla touched his nose even though it wasn’t real. He could feel the tears hitting his arm as she cried over someone he could not see. It almost ruined the moment, but he thought of her breasts crushed against his chest, her body rubbing against his as he had walked up the stairs and he was harder than ever.
Finally he got the visual just right, just where he needed it. As he unzipped his pants it was her small hands sliding the zipper down in his mind. She was the one releasing his throbbing cock from the pants and boxers into his hands. He wished he couldn’t feel his war calluses because it was ripping him out of the fantasy. In his mind she was looking up at him, into his eyes, licking her lower lip and then nibbling on the bottom as she reached down to take his hard length in her hand.
His hand moved up and down his cock, gripping and tugging as he pictured her hands doing the work. Grabbing his balls with his left hand he continued to pump himself with his right, groaning and straining as he pretended her tongue flicked across his wet head and sucked him deep into her throat.
His fingers gripped him hard, squeezing and working his thick length while his mind felt her mouth hot and wet around him.
Bucking his body into the phantom hand that was hers, he moaned out loud. Growling as he came, silently cursing that it was not actually her as he pulled his pants back up and checked his watch. “One minute left. Damn if she’s that good when I get her in bed she’s never getting out of it.”
He quickly washed up, not wasting more than twenty seconds, then rubbing a hand over his face, he pushed open the door and growled. “Where the fuck am I, you bastard?”
The bar was gone. He was in what had to be the opposite of purgatory. Everything was white, but an out of focus, blurry, kind of white with colors swirling through it. He knew he was on solid ground, but he damned sure couldn’t see it for the layer of fog that covered his feet.
“Well, you bastard? Where the hell am I? Fuck, where the hell are you?” He was losing his temper and he could feel his demon form sifting to the surface and he didn’t want to great Ciara like that. She’d run screaming, despite what she was used to seeing.
“We’re in a doorway, you brute. Your doorway to be exact, think of it as the only entrance or exit to ever matter. You’d better check those manners at the door, cause she sure as shit isn’t used to being treated that way. You’re replacing a perfect Guardian. A Guardian who if not for his growing attraction to her, would still be her damn Guardian. He wasn’t strong enough, an attraction would be lethal in an attack. He was slipping anyway in his duties because he was too busy wanting her and their union wasn't the right one. Yours is. Again, check the shit at the door literally, if I can figure out how to open what she did.”
“Wait a minute, Mr. All-powerful- trench coat-bastard, can’t open a little human’s door? If some big hot shot like you can’t open it, how the hell do the bad guys?” He crossed his arms over his chest grinning like a fool at the turn of events.
The man turned to him. Then his face contorted. His eyes were glowing red and fangs were now protruding. Stryder felt the hit and then the bone breaking slam as he hit into one of the swirling white walls; which were not as soft as the swirls made them look. The man stomped over to him and Stryder tried to push himself up to avoid another attack that might come, but he couldn’t stand. Well shit, this guy might actually win this and that didn’t sit well with War.
“FUCK!” the man’s curse rang out and seemed to roll and echo off the limitless wall. “Don’t move, you brain dead fuck, I broke your back.” Reaching down to Stryder the man placed his hand on his back and closed his eyes.
Stryder was expecting to feel a tingle or something. Like they say you do. He didn’t. He didn’t feel anything at all actually. One minute he was sitting on the ground and the next the guy was helping him stand.
“She’s blocking you. This is your godforsaken door! I don’t know how she’s blocking, but if she can do this against those that have attacked her once to know who they are your life is going to be a lot easy as her Guardian. Now please don't talk. Stand there and look like you’re sorry for her loss.”
“What loss?”
“The one you’re about to fill. Now shut up.”
He grabbed Stryder’s arm and dragged him straight into the door. Stryder braced his body for the impact that never came. In front of him was a room. The room. But it wasn’t the room that almost brought him to his knees. It was the girl laying in the middle of the floor. Huddled there really. Her black hair was cascaded over her face, blocking it from him, which he supposed was a good thing or he would have not had the courage to ignore her. She was crumpled in a ball, legs underneath her and torso bent over her legs. If he listened closely, he could hear the quite sound of her crying.
It broke him. His was walking toward her before he knew it and was stopped dead in his tracks by her voice. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” She lifted her head and turned to stare at him. Her eyes were bloodshot and wet. Her face puffy as hell and red. Her shirt was covered in tears, her cheeks wetter still. “I can sense you a mile away. I could sense you both at the doorway.” Her voice was gravely, laced with pain, but her tears were falling slower now. “I could always feel him, too. Always. I don’t want to be able to feel you. Get out. I’ll just close the door on everything. I don't know how, but I will, or maybe I just won’t read anymore.” Her voice was a nasty sneer on the last part and the other male walked toward her and she flung her hand out. “I said I wouldn’t do that,” she repeated herself.
An icy stare from her made him stop cold and thank the gods it wasn't directed at him, yet, because he'd be damned if he was going to leave her. He would fix her, get rid of that other man and take her home with him forever.
The other guy wasn’t moving. He looked baffled as hell, but he wasn’t moving. He wasn’t sure if she’d been trying to stop him or slam the door on him, but either way the guy was going nowhere anytime soon. Damn if it didn't make Stryder chuckle seeing the ass confused as shit.
The tears were falling again and he couldn’t remain there impassive. Something was screaming at him to go hold her. Probably his fucking conscious. Great 5,000 years since he was created and now he gets protective of someone other than his brothers. Wonderful.
His feet were walking and his arms grabbing onto her, lifting her up into them before she could snap at him again. She thrashed violently, trying to get out of his arms before a small gasp escaped her and she stopped struggling and went utterly still in his ar
ms.
Chapter 6
“How did you do that?” No one from the books could touch her if she was paying attention to them. Her guard had to be down in order for them to be able to reach across the plane, even those attacking needed her to be distracted for a doorway to open and allow them through. Or she had to be over with them. But she had been staring right at him as he’d been walking toward her. Shoot, she’d even been thinking about how much she didn’t want him to pick her up and locked her eyes with his. And then he’d been holding her and she was infuriated.
Not hearing an answer or feeling him let go, she looked up at him and a second gasp pushed past her lips. The intensity in his eyes was enough to kindle a small flame and he was looking at her. She thought about shifting her position and putting their bodies in better alignment to deal with the heat passing between them.
Realizing what was happening as she began to shift her weight she just stopped struggling again. There was no way in hell her body was doing this just a few hours after saying goodbye to the longest relationship of her life and after Alcott was torn from her by this very man. That she could even not be completely irritated and disgusted by his presence annoyed her. Or maybe that was the explanation, why it was all happening. Loneliness.
A low, raspy voice that sounded more like a growl brushed over her ear. “Sweetheart, the only thing I know is, that if you move again…fuck…if I don’t put you down, you and I are going to end up in that bed of yours.”
She couldn’t do anything but stare into his eyes. They were a solid black, soulless and empty. She thought if she stared back hard enough into the depths of them, that she’d see something, but nothing human appeared to be in his eyes at all when they were like this.
Another voice in the room managed to tear her gaze from his.