by Mia McKimmy
“I know, I know,” Riana nodded. “But for some reason I am intensely attracted to him. And when he kissed my hand, a spark of electricity shot up my arm and tingled all over my body.” Riana lowered her voice and moved closer. “I mean all over my body. That’s definitely something I’ve never felt from a mere touch—no matter how hot the guy was.”
Elle burst into laughter. “Maybe you should just go for it. If kissing your hand does all that, just think how much fun it’d be if he were kissing…lower.”
Heat radiated from Riana’s face. “No, this is too intense. Even if I could be with someone as violent as a Protector, I’m not interested in a one night stand, which is all it would amount to. What I need is to stay as far from that man as possible.”
“Well good luck with that.” Elle pointed to the mirror over the restroom sink. “Take a good look at yourself. I’ve never seen anyone have this effect on you.”
Riana leaned closer and gazed into the mirror. Her face was flushed, and her breath fast, like she had run a one minute mile. Her eyes were bright and her pupils slightly dilated. She placed her fingers over the bounding pulse in her neck and checked its rate.
Normal. She turned back to Elle. “Have I looked like this since he came over to our table?” Alarm in her high-pitched voice echoed throughout the empty restroom.
Elle shrugged. “Pretty much. Don’t get all worked up. Maybe you’ve just never been attracted to anyone on this level.”
Riana pointed to her face in the mirror. “Well, whatever caused this, it needs to stop.”
Chapter 8
Vind stood in a dark corner in what he could only describe as a back hills pub, in a back hills town, somewhere in North Carolina. At a nearby table sat his brother and that piece of shit friend of his, Miles. I should have killed him when I had the chance. Vind listened as the two of them went over their nightly plans to hunt down and kill his scouts. Little did they know, there were no more scouts to hunt. They had served their purpose well, and the one who got away the other night had been handsomely rewarded. When that scout returned and told him he knew Cygan’s location, it was a gift beyond compare.
After all this time Vind stood directly in front of his brother, looked him straight in the eye, listened to his every word, and Cygan didn’t even have a clue. These events couldn’t have come at a better time. His scientists had been working for decades on the same project. Only two weeks earlier, they had informed him the dissolvable compound that renders its user invisible was completed. Finally, he could kill Cy, take his rightful place on the throne, and they wouldn’t even see him coming. Afterwards, he would take out Oz. That pious prick should have died before they ever left Sivadia.
Vind listened as Cy and Miles talked about the human female who was bartending. Cy’s voice trailed off mid-sentence and his expression went blank. Vind followed his gaze to a group of females across the room. See something you like, little brother?
Interested in what was about to happen, Vind followed Cy and Miles over to their table. The one introduced as Riana had piqued his brother’s interest.
Pathetic.
Cy couldn’t take his eyes off the girl.
Excitement coursed through Vind as he realized the training compound must be nearby. It would be full of young, Sivadian females ready to enter their first reproductive cycle.
I have hit the mother lode.
His soldiers needed some new toys in their camp. The offspring that resulted would go far toward replenishing a new generation of his army. Vind decided since he had the whole invisibility factor working for him, he might as well hold off a few days before taking over their compound. He’d rushed things before. This time he would take his time and plan this attack to perfection. Cy and his Protectors were all that stood in his way of having everything he wanted. And he wouldn’t stop until every one of them was dead—dust beneath his feet.
Vind needed to draw them out of the bar and follow them back to their compound. He glanced around and spotted the barmaid his brother and Miles had spoken of fondly. With her purse and keys in her hand, she left through the back door.
Ah, I believe I’m a bit hungry. That should send them scurrying back to their precious compound like the rats they are.
***
Cy breathed a sigh of relief as Riana and her friend came out of the ladies room at the rear of the pub. He hadn’t taken his eyes off the door since they’d entered. An uneasy feeling had beat at him all night. Or, maybe it was the protectiveness he felt for Riana, which seemed to grow stronger by the minute.
“Kam.”
Kam glanced around the girl he’d just pulled into his lap. “Yeah, boss?”
“Miles and I are leaving soon. When the ladies finish their drinks you need to take them back to the compound.”
As Kam opened his mouth to protest, Cy flashed him a threatening look.
“Okay, boss, will do.”
Cy stood when the girls returned to the table. “Riana, I have to leave in a moment, but I wanted to ask if you would do me the honor of having dinner with me tomorrow night?”
A stunned expression crossed Riana’s face. “I don’t date Protectors,” she blurted, and looked away.
He glanced at Miles and grinned, then focused back on Riana. “May I be so bold as to ask why?”
“I prefer to date guys who are more…more…settled.”
“And I’m not settled enough,” he said, making it a statement. “You know this about me because I’m a Protector?”
Riana gave him an exasperated look. “Aren’t you and Kyra an item?”
Cy’s brows drew together. “Kyra and I have never been anything more than co-workers. Why would you think we’re an item?”
“Just the way she looked at me yesterday when we met at the gate.”
Cy nodded. “Kyra’s a no nonsense type person. She was impatient wanting to know what happened in town.”
Bright green eyes searched his as if she were deciding if he was being truthful.
“Do you mind if I ask why you don’t like Protectors?”
“Violence…I don’t care to be around violent people.”
“By nature, I’m not a violent person. As a Protector, I swore a blood-oath to stop the violence against innocent people. No different than your friend over there,” he said pointing at the blonde detective.
As Riana opened her mouth to reply, a girl ran through the door and screamed, “Someone call 911!” In the next second, Cy and Miles were beside her.
“What is it?” Cy asked the hysterical girl.
“It’s Maggie! She’s in the parking lot!”
Maggie was lying beside her car. A large pool of blood surrounded her body. They knelt beside her, but trying to find a pulse was useless. Her entire throat had been ripped open. A “V” written in blood across her forehead told them exactly who had killed her.
“Vind,” Cy growled, as he and Miles exchanged looks over Maggie’s body. They both recognized the bloody signature. It was the equivalent of Vind leaving a handwritten confession. He had always claimed his kills this way. His inflated ego wouldn’t let him pass up a chance to rub their faces in the fact he’d killed right under their noses.
Rage consumed Cy. Vind had taken yet another innocent life. Maggie was someone he cared about, and one of the kindest humans he knew. She wouldn’t take crap from anyone, but if someone was in need, she would have given them anything. She’d planned to sell the pub in the spring and move to Florida to be near her granddaughter. Now, that child would grow up without the love of her grandmother. How could he have a twin brother who was such a heartless, piece of shit?
Cy swung around as footsteps approached quickly. Riana ran toward them with Kam and the other girls on her heels. Cy stopped her before she reached Maggie’s body.
“I’m a doctor. I can help!”
“No honey, you can’t. She’s already dead.”
“What happened to her?”
Cy’s gaze dropped to the ground.
“She was killed by a feeder.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you know her?”
“She was a good friend.”
Cy walked Riana back to where Kam herded the other girls away from Maggie’s body. He motioned for Miles to step away from the crowd. “I need you to stay here and handle the police. Make sure there were no witnesses. I’m going with Kam to take the girls back to the compound.” He wasn’t willing to trust Riana’s safety to anyone other than himself. Before he could concentrate on finding Vind, he needed to know she was safely inside the compound walls.
After the girls were loaded into the Hummer, Cy called the other Protectors who had chaperoned groups of girls, and told them to return to the compound. He decided to issue an order that none of the girls were to leave the compound for any reason, even with a chaperone. Until they found his brother, no one outside the compound was safe.
Cy turned in the front seat and watched Riana talk in a low tone to her friend. Her fingers fidgeted with a long lock of hair. He sensed her nervous energy as though it were his own. She raked her hair to one side, revealing a slender, creamy expanse of neck that pulled him in. He had a sudden urge to bury his face under that mass of silken hair and inhale the essence of wild lavender deep into his lungs. His body hardened, yet again. He took a slow, cleansing breath and turned back around.
I have never become hard just looking at a beautiful female. Then he remembered a conversation with his mother when he was young.
Not long after his father had died, she explained what it would be like when he met his true etamlous. The Sivadian term for the person destined to share his life. Humans called them life-mates.
She’d said there would be an undeniable pull the moment he laid eyes on her. Check.
The need to be with her and protect her would be so strong nothing could stand in its way. Check.
If anything kept you apart, it would forever feel like a piece of you were missing. God, I hope not.
After that conversation, Cy had felt sorry for his mother because she had to spend the rest of her life without her true life-mate. She had suffered terribly since his father’s death. Not wanting to add to her misery, he had never brought it up again.
The subject was off limits with Miles, too. His young life-mate had died at the hands of Haagons before they’d left Sivadia. After her death, he’d watched his best friend self-destruct too many times to count. He’d picked up bits and pieces from others, but because of his mother and Miles’ loss, and their resulting pain, he’d put it out of his mind. He’d hoped to keep it there.
When they reached the compound, Riana got out of the Hummer. She kept her eyes cast down, not meeting his gaze. In spite of himself, a wave of desire hit hard as she walked away. A part of him he didn’t understand wanted to run after her.
“Get your head in the game, boy,” he chided. “Put her out of your thoughts. The best thing you can do for her, and everyone else is to find Vind and rip his cold blooded heart out.”
Cy looked up as Kam came around the side of the vehicle with that aggravating grin on his face.
“Can we go now? If you’re finished being your own personal cheerleading squad—”
“Shut up, Kam,” Cy interrupted.
“That’s yours, Miles, and Oz’s favorite thing to say. I think I’ll have it tattooed across my Johnson. Maybe it’ll remind me to do less talking and I’ll get more action.”
Cy snorted. “Yeah, why don’t you do that? I want to be there when you get it. Nothing would please me more than hearing you scream like a little girl. Besides, more action is the last thing you need. If there’s such a thing as overuse, it’s going to fall off and put you out of your misery.” As soon as the words left his lips, he realized since he’d met Riana, he was no different than Kam. The perpetual erection was driving him mad with need.
“It’s a good thing there’s no such thing as overuse,” Kam said as he crawled back in the driver’s seat. “Can’t have my little buddy falling off my body.”
Cy realized they did tell Kam to shut up a lot. But, dang, sometimes that boy could get on your last nerve. Even if he was one of the best Protectors they had.
Cy and Kam left the compound and headed back to the pub to join Miles in the search for Vind, and the monsters he brought with him.
Chapter 9
The full moon shone bright over the compound as Riana and Elle walked back to the lodge.
Elle removed the band holding her hair back. “I never thought I’d say this, but it’s kind of a relief to be back here.”
“I know. Finding that woman dead in the parking lot took a toll on everyone.” The misery on Cy’s face as he stood over the woman’s body popped into Riana’s mind.
Elle pointed toward the gym. “I’m going to see if it’s still open. There’s no way I can sleep with all this pent-up energy.”
“You go right ahead. All I want is a hot shower and a bed.”
Riana went back to their quarters and got her night clothes out for her shower. Someone knocked on the door. “What did you do, forget your key?”
She unlocked the door, surprised when her mother stood there instead of Elle. “What on earth are you doing here?” A flurry of movement to the left drew her attention, and the commander stepped up to the door. Her mother’s eyes were red as if she’d cried for hours.
“What’s going on? Is someone hurt?”
They both stood without uttering a word and stared at her. “Will someone please say something? You’re scaring me.”
The commander took her mother’s elbow and eased her through the doorway. “Can we sit down for a moment? Your mother has something she needs to tell you.”
They sat at the small dinette table. Her mother’s trembling hand reached over and captured hers. She gave Riana’s hand a gentle squeeze.
Well, that can’t be good. Mom has never been the touchy, feely type. What frightened her most were the opposing emotions coming from her mother, something she normally kept tightly locked away. Fear, love, regret, admiration, they were all over the place. She was an emotional mess.
Analae took a shuddering breath. “Baby, before you were born I wanted a child more than anything in the world.”
A knot formed in Riana’s stomach as her mother hesitated and stared at their joined hands.
“When I met your father, I knew I’d met the man I wanted to father my child. I loved him, and he had all the qualities I admired. He was smart, strong, determined, dedicated, courageous, and kind. And you inherited every one of those characteristics. Only one thing led me to believe he wouldn’t be good for you. He was extremely dedicated to his job, which was very dangerous. He put his life on the line every day. Riana, please understand that I never wanted you to feel the kind of pain I did when my father died.”
“Mother, what are you talking about? You’re making no sense.”
“Your father never knew about you. I went to the fertility lines alone, and when I became pregnant I left him. Baby, I want you to know I take full responsibility for what I’ve done. I lied to you about your father’s death.” Regret, or maybe it was guilt, filled her mother’s face as she looked over at the commander. “Honey, Oz is your father.”
Riana could’ve sworn someone under the table kicked her in the stomach hard enough to lose its contents. She searched the commander’s eyes, trying to make sense of what she’d heard. She glared at her mother and jerked her hand from her grip. “So, let me get this straight, Mother,” she snapped the last word like a whip. “You have lied to two people, who you say you loved for twenty-five years. And you’re saying you did all this to protect me from the pain of losing my father? Did you ever consider for one moment what it was like having a mother who worked all the time? When you were home, you stayed engrossed in your research. I practically lived at Elle’s, or I would’ve gone mad from loneliness.” Riana’s voice cracked as her eyes met the commander’s. “A father could have taken some of that away.”
Tears flooded h
er mother’s cheeks. “I know, honey. To bury myself in work was the only way I could cope without him. I’m so sorry. At the time, I thought it was the best thing for you…for everyone.”
Heat radiated from Riana’s face. She didn’t want to look at either of them. All she saw was a mother who was a liar, and a father who was a stranger. She got up from the table and opened the door. “Please leave,” she demanded, blinking back tears.
Oz stood. Analae looked up at him but remained seated.
“Just leave!” Riana turned on her heel and strode down the hallway, leaving them in the room alone.
“I’m sorry, honey,” her mother called after her.
“Just give her some time for this to sink in. She’ll come around,” the commander said in a low voice.
Riana slammed and locked her bedroom door, crawled into bed and pulled the covers over her head. Until that moment, she’d managed to fight back tears, but now the floodgates were wide open. All she wanted was to stay in bed and lick her wounds, metaphorically speaking. Her mother had made a lie out of her entire life. More than anything else, she was hurt. Just because her father’s death had screwed her mother up, didn’t give her the right to decide she should live without one at all. And the worst part, if Riana hadn’t stumbled upon him here, her mother would’ve never come clean.
A few minutes later, someone knocked on the bedroom door.
“Go away!”
“It’s Elle. Are you alright?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure? The stress level hit me hard when I walked through the door. I just saw the strangest thing. It looked like your mother and the commander. His arm was around her and they were headed toward the Protectors’ Lodge.”
Riana wiped her eyes and got up to unlock the door. “You saw right.” She flopped back on the bed and pulled a down-pillow to her chest for comfort. “It seems my mother lied concerning a few important facts about my father. Number one, he’s not dead. Number two, he’s Commander Oz.”
Elle’s eyes widened. “No. Freakin’. Way. I guess we know now why she’s always hated Protectors. She doesn’t seem to hate him at the moment, though. She hung on to him like a lovesick teenager.”