by Lexi Ostrow
"Got something on your mind, Stryder?"
Her voice was playful, different. He couldn't believe the change. Sure as fuck wasn't going to question it though. He'd thought about it constantly since leaving her. He had one chance to get her to stop throwing him back into his world. One chance to show her who he actually is.
"Sorry, happens sometimes. I promise I'm more than the demon killer you saw already." He wanted to sound sincere, but it came out sarcastic and she flinched backwards a bit. Cursing he extended his hand to her. She was cautious, but gingerly slipped her hand into his and he gnawed his cheek, praying she didn't look between his legs.
Her smile was delicate. “Just what do you have planned for me this afternoon?” The teasing nature was slightly present again, but he could sense her fear- demon skill.
He actually wiggled his brows at her and reached back into the doorway and snagged out a very mundane straw basket and fuzzy blue blanket. “I had hoped to try for a little outdoor meal.” This time her smile was genuine and lit up her face. His demon growled the warning again, 'mine' and he knew he couldn't screw this up. Forget whatever he had unknowingly promised to that trench coat dude when he'd signed on. She was his and he'd be damned if he would lose her. Somehow he knew getting stuck in a parallel world meant he would forever be without his mate. He’d seen Fasheem; he wanted his own mate. Sex was great, but sex with his mate? Damn it. He carefully adjusted his pants when she wasn't looking as they walked out of her apartment.
Laying the blanket down on the grass he couldn't help but glance at the female next to him, and almost tripped over his own foot. The weather was beautiful. The sun was playing a game of hide and seek with the clouds, creating a soft yellow glow and warmth that was not over powering. He didn't like birds chirping and insects buzzing, so he was grateful it was quiet, a benefit to the slightly colder winter day. The day didn't compare to the female walking with him to any extent.
“I hope you like demon food.” He was joking, but her face scrunched up in such a fashion it almost made her less than beautiful. When she sat on the blanket, tugged her knees to her chest and held them, blocking herself off to him. He cursed as he realized his joke wasn't a good one. “Fuck. It was a joke. Sorry.”
Not bothering to address what had happened, he sat next to her, kicking his legs out in front of him and turning sideways to get into the picnic basket. Fasheem's mate had been helpful in putting it together. She didn't sneer or tease him either as his brothers had. In fact she'd pointed out how hard Fasheem had to work for her attention and she was a demon herself and intimately familiar with their strange role in the world. He carefully pulled out the roasted chicken breast sandwiches and set six in front of her. "I hope that's not too many."
She shook her head no and he continued pulling out two bottles of beer, potato salad, a bottle of water for her and a bag full of chocolate chip cookies. When he finally turned fully back to her she was staring at him, mouth slightly agape.
"What is all of this?"
He chuckled. “Strange, I thought picnics were a common event everywhere. Not that I knew anything about the reality of worlds, but I still thought it would be ok since you agreed last night."
She snorted and he pulled the cap off his beer and wrapped his lips around the neck of the bottle. His mind picturing his tongue swiping across her tongue and not a beer bottle. His cock stirred and he growled again. This was not what was supposed to happen. Leaning on his hands he shifted his weight again, his cock not hiding a damn thing.
A few moments passed. Quietly she ate and he drank. He wondered if he had offended her, ruined his chance. Just as he was about to make an impassioned plea for her to speak with him and tell him how to help she cleared her throat.
“Not to be blunt, but I think we need to actually discuss this.” She gestured between them and for a second he thought she meant his boner and paled in color. “You know I don't want you here. And you certainly know that whatever was promised to you in return for protection isn't happening. I will release whom I choose.” He was just looking at her and she glared. “Just what were you promised, Stryder?”
Chuckling low in his throat he couldn't stop the smirk that crossed his face. “Well, sweetheart. That would be telling and I don't think we're quite at that stage yet.”
When her cheeks pinkened with annoyance, he wasn't sure whether to chuckle at how cute she was or curse himself for acting like his moronic self. He went with chuckle.
“Anyone ever told you that you're...adorable when you're pissed off?”
She huffed and tossed the sandwich down which only made him laugh more as he finished off his beer and popped open another. “You do know that you're not making the best first impression right?” She raised a brow at him and tugged at her dress, re-situating so she probably didn't wrinkle and tear that damned fabric that wrapped around her so well.
He grinned and picked up the sandwich she tossed and took some. “True and I apologize. I am who I am. Ask away, sweetheart.” That seemed to appease her because she playfully snatched the sandwich back from him and finished it quickly.
“These are delicious by the way. Ok to start- you already know I don't want you here. I'm sorry for that. I really am. It's not your fault that Alcott and I were a team. You weren't even created into existence then, based on the publication date in your book.”
He growled and his lips pulled back to revel the fangs. Damn her for that. Damn her for pointing out he was nothing. “I don't feel like nothing, Ciara Miller. I may not be your traditional definition of a grown up, but I have all the memories and experiences of someone many thousands of years old and if we are going to get anywhere, you're going to need to respect that.” He softened his tone now that his point was made and did his best to uncurl his lip and retract his fangs. “Just as I have to accept that you do not want me here. Deal?”
Eons seemed to pass as she ate some of the fucking potato salad, eyes averted the whole time. She was going to be the death of him. He was going to go bat shit crazy trying to deal with her and go rush off and do something stupid that killed him.
“Well?” He was going to need to be blunt at some point, tell her the whole truth if he expected any fucking cooperation and he knew it. Knew it and was terrified of it.
* * *
She knew she needed to answer him. It wasn't that she was ignoring him. He'd made her feel awful. All this time, all she had thought about was Alcott. Or she thought it was all she'd been thinking about. How all the fun times they had planned were gone. If she'd been honest she'd only been forcing herself to so as not to focus on the strange date that was about to begin. She needed to grow up and accept that for whatever the reason Stryder was here. Not to mention she needed to stop feeling the all consuming need to climb into his lap, wrap her arms around his neck and slide her tongue along his lips, seeking and demanding entry.
Images conjured in her head and she shook it forcibly to clear them. When she finally looked up he was staring holes into her and she swallowed. “I am sorry, Stryder. I've been very rude and callous. I don't want you here, but you are here and rather than fighting with you until the next Guardian appears or I turn twenty-seven, we'd better call a truce.” She held her hand out to him to shake. When his large hand slipped into hers she gasped at his touch and the sensations it swept through her. She wondered if her cheeks flushed with her embarrassment. If they did he gave no indication he saw her.
“Sounds good, sweetheart. Now back to the point of all this. You need to trust me, hell you to need like me. So, question me.”
There was so much she needed to know if she was to trust him. So many questions and she didn't want to offend him in anyway. She hated to admit it, but she cared about him. He'd already saved her once and was preparing to do it many other times when she drew out the evil from the books. “Start with the beginning. I want to know it all. All of it. And I'll just sit back and continue to eat this amazing picnic lunch.” Flashing a smile at him she grabbe
d another sandwich from the basket.
The smirk on his face didn't falter as he ran a hand through his hair and she pictured doing it to him herself. “The beginning is an awfully long time ago. Especially since most is in that book...” When she didn't interject, he kept going. “We were created as backups. Insurance plans if you will. Destined to take the place of the Horseman after the Apocalypse.”
She didn't mean to interrupt, and planned to let him talk and then ask questions, but it slipped out before she could stop herself. “Just why is that? What's supposed to happen to them once it starts? Your brother's book doesn't say, just that when it does, you guys take to the front lines.”
His eyes narrowed into slits and she prayed silently she hadn't pissed him off. “They just vanish. Poof. Gone. They're job is to start it. To set it in motion and allow hell to literally break out on Earth. Don't ask me why they poof. I don't know. Lucifer isn't exactly a chatter about certain things. Fuck about anything. We're the insurance policy. Once shit hits the fan we're the gifted demons who are supposed to be able to ensure Lucifer's win over the heavens and domination over Earth. So the deal is he had them sleep with specific archangels and then they were, for lack of a better term, our fathers. They raised us, trained us to follow in their footsteps and of course we gained their, um, their talents due to DNA. After that he plopped them into stasis to protect them. Lock and key so no one can kill them off and stop the war. For instance, the Initiative members. Who might I add, have no intention of stopping the war, the way they tell everyone.”
He stopped to take a swig and she realized she was leaning closer to him. It was like reading a novel, learning all of its secrets.
“Nope they want to capture, study and emulate demons. Train them to work for them, so if the war happens they have their own little horde. The fuckers. They're no more pure than the demons they hunt. Not that the angels can see that shit. We only know because of the few demons that have escaped them and made it back to hell.”
The revelation startled her. They had been portrayed as so noble. She frowned a little wondering if he had just ruined some cataclysmic secret in one of the books for her. Childish as it seemed, she had to keep reading them- it was her nature to finish anything she started. Having a living incarnation in her life wouldn't stop her from wanting that first hand feeling that came from reading.
“Judging by that look I just blew the spoiler of the century. Oh well, you'll live. Ready for another spoiler? We're not going to be doing it.”
She almost spit her sip of water at him. “Excuse me?”
“We aren't going to help them. We had a big talk a few thousand years ago. Humans aren't all bad. We've had sex partners, businesses partners and even drinking buddies from time to time that were human. We see no reason to eradicate or control you. We can control every other demon really, why bother? Plus we're not too thrilled about being pawns and all.”
She could only imagine what her face looked like. A gaping open mouth and bug eyes she'd bet. He was so different. She'd known there was a twist like that, but she assumed it came from falling in love. Otherwise they couldn't really be romantic heroes. But that it had been the plan all along? She felt a sense of awe she didn't know how to explain.
“That is one strong spoiler, Stryder. I don't know what to say. I misjudged you. Or I think I did. It's hard to say so early on. But maybe you aren't the egotistical jerk I pegged you for in the book.”
He grinned so wide she was confused. She'd insulted him and he just smiled.
“Sweetheart, I'm every bit that. But you still picked me.”
Smugness oozed off of him as he grabbed his third sandwich and laughter erupted from her. She couldn't help it. She had picked him, despite her low opinion of him, and here she was having a perfectly pleasant afternoon with him and constantly having to remind herself there was no room for repeats. She loved Alcott and this was just her heart's stupid cry for help, missing him, for knowing she did need a Guardian after all.
By the time she'd stopped laughing she was laying back on the blanket, eyes watery with unshed tears from laughing so hard. She didn't know how, but she'd leaned toward Stryder when she laid down and his hand gently stroked her hair as he looked down at her with that grin of his.
“One more question. Can you die?” She didn't know why fear gripped her as she asked, but it did.
He continued to stroke her hair as he answered. “The short answer is yes. The long answer is it's damned hard. Very little can hurt us severely, and so long as we can feed from each other, well think of it like instant rejuvenation. Like when you use IV's to transfuse blood.”
She nodded, immensely upset at the idea that he could be killed. She'd thought him immortal and it did upset her, despite her unwillingness to want it to. “Ok, your turn because after that revelation, well I'm too damned stunned to think of my other questions now.”
“Easy. What do you see in the human?” His question took her off guard. She knew he meant Derrick and wondered if Stryder was jealous, maybe even under the impression they were still together.
She started to sit up and push his hand away, but he gently pushed her down, but moved her head to his lap and stopped touching her. “I don't think that's a fair question. But you answered mine. We've just been together a very long time. He had my heart for a time and I wouldn't change that.” She cringed.
That didn't sound very romantic, even to her ears. That was precisely how they'd realized they weren't right for each other. She supposed she should have said she could write poetic lists about what she loved about him, but she couldn't. Her brow creased at the realization that first love really wasn't necessarily real love.
Instead she focused on how pleasant and normal this all felt. The sun was still warm and it was quite peaceful around them. She did wonder if anyone was curious as to why she was picnicking alone, but decided not to question it. At least they only saw her and not a floating sandwich. Thankfully for some reason, anything a Guardian touched seemed to vanish to the eye for normal people, except of course, her.
“Pretty damn stupid if you ask me.” She was about to bolt up when he continued. “But as you wish. That doesn't mean you're going to be immune for others. Just remember that, Ciara.”
When he called her Ciara she melted a little inside. Not that she didn't when he called her sweetheart, but it was rare that he used her name and she liked it. She would never admit to him that she already wasn't. That she wanted him more than she wanted to and it didn't bother her as much as it did when they'd first met. She didn't know what had happened, but every second spent with him changed her. Changed what she thought to be true of the world, and her own place in it.
Lost as she was in her own thoughts, she didn't notice his shift in weight as he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. But that was all she didn't notice. The small moan that passed between them was definitely from her. His growl of satisfaction sent heat through her. Without hesitating she sat up and just barely stopped herself from kissing him again.
But not because of being worried about being sexually promiscuous, but because of what she would look like. He growled again, angry this time, and she raised a hand to explain it wasn't what he thought. But just like another kiss, that didn't happen either.
Chapter 11
"Well what do we have here? A little Horseman mimic who has lost his way? I might not be able to kill you, but I can sure fuck you up, demon." The sneer in the Initiative male’s voice had his eyes shifting.
Stryder breathed deep to keep his focus. Ciara was mere feet behind him and one wrong move and she'd be exposed for the grabbing. He'd jumped up and shoved her behind him at the sound of his enemy.
He wasn't sure what he was doing. He was used to letting his demon do the fighting. But he didn't want his demon to scare her and he didn't want to be locked in a blood induced haze with this many Initiative men surrounding his female. Jonathan and he had a very familiar relationship. That bastard had slipped a toxic
coated knife into his arm a few months back, a paltry victory, as he wasn't dead. But enough to give the human group hope there was a way to stop them. He snorted at his own thoughts. Ignorant fucks, didn't even realize the angels and the demons were on the same playing field sometimes, they were so blinded by the damn angels.
"Oh come on. Do I really have to deal with your ignorant ass right after awesome sex? Talk about bringing down the high, Jonathan. Really classy. Mind if I sneak up on you next time you're banging a prostitute?"
The growl in his direction didn't surprise him. Ciara's gasp reminded him that he really needed to watch himself if he didn't want to completely disgust her. Shit, ok Stryder, lies equal a no go.
"You think you can stop me? The Initiative has been around since the middle ages hunting the likes of you."
"Ah and you're doing a mighty fine job of it- with me and my brothers still breathing."
"Stryder…" Ciara's voice behind him sounded panicked. He turned to see her flinging her hand outward at the closest Initiative member. And nothing happened.
He wondered what the fuck she'd been thinking flinging her wrist. Some power he didn't know about? Apparently as powerful as she was, she still didn't have a clue as to how she did shit. Wonderful, abso-fucking-lutely wonderful. He didn't waste time thinking when her scream cut into the air next.
Grabbing a throwing star from his boot he launched it into the throat of the human threat. He dropped, blood oozing around his fingers as he tried to yank the weapon out. In a flash Stryder had stepped on the throwing star, embedding it in the man's throat and severing his artery. "Well, who's going to try and touch the lovely lady next?"
"You think you can best us?" The other six men joined in with Jonathan's laughter. "So we have a deal, like you. We aren't in some story book now."
Stryder's brow raised and Jonathan's twisted smile curved wider.