by Olivia March
“I’ll find somewhere for us—” she began, but Helion raised a hand, in no mood to hear it.
“As amusing as that idea is, I have no time to indulge your fantasies. My men are killing the Scourge battalion outside these walls but more will come. This city isn’t safe for you to wander around with no protection, stumbling into battle lines unknowing. You will come with us now. We will take you somewhere safe.” Helion beckoned her forward with his free hand, ready to conclude this matter and start planning the next engagement.
“No, we won’t go with you. There is no safe place you can leave us, there’s no safe place anywhere on Earth anymore. I’m grateful for your help but if you would just let us go now—”
“There is safety to be had, human. I will escort you to a refugee camp for your kind. They are protected from Scourge attacks. You will be safe there.”
Helion stopped then, amazed when a surge of terror came over the woman’s face. She backed farther away from him, shaking her head, her eyes wide and pleading. He turned to look at his men and saw the same confusion on their faces.
“Please, not a camp, don’t force us to a camp, we’d be better off dead. Just let us go, we have a better chance of survival on our own, please!”
The woman was close to having a breakdown. Helion could smell her terror and anxiety, could hear her heart beating madly. He also heard the little one squeak in distress, her mother suddenly holding her too tightly.
With two thousand years of experience under his belt, Helion was a good judge of character and of a person’s honesty. This girl was terrified of going to a refugee camp with her own people. But why would that be? He made a mental note to investigate the refugee camps. Another branch of Keepers was in charge of keeping their perimeters safe and supplies coming in but the camps were organized and governed by humans themselves. He’d not given them much thought other than making sure not to engage the enemy near them, but if this woman was terrified to go there…
Now this situation had become even more difficult. He couldn’t disregard the woman’s terror and potentially send her into another dangerous situation. But neither was he willing to let her roam unprotected around the city where other Scourge battalions were scouring for human victims. That left only one option, though he was loath to take it. He had no time to babysit a female and her infant but he was pragmatic. The Keepers would soon have this city secured and with order restored, it would be safe for the girl and her child to go their own way. Until then… He sighed.
“Fine, female, if you won’t go to a camp with your own kind, you will come with us to ours. There you will stay until we secure the city or find someplace safe for you both. Come.”
He beckoned again with his free hand, impatient to leave. He sensed the fighting outside was wrapping up and he was eager to move on to killing more Scourge. But to his annoyance, the female once again shook her head.
“We’ll be safer on our own, we don’t need your protection. Please just leave us alone!”
Helion clenched his hand into a fist, the only outward sign of his temper, but one the woman seemed to observe with fear. It was a struggle not to be offended once again. She was a small, fragile woman and had nothing to fear from him. But the taste of her terror was coating his tongue, curling his lips with distaste.
“You don’t have a choice in this, female. You will come with us now. I do not have the time or the inclination to argue with you,” Helion drawled, frosty with displeasure. He stalked toward the girl, ignoring her attempt at retreat and the wild glances she threw around the room as though looking for an escape. There was no escape and best she learn that quickly.
“Do not fight me. Think of your offspring and behave yourself,” he said as he cornered her in the far side of the small room. Small whimpers were erupting from her throat and her gaze darted from his eyes to his naked blade. He sheathed it, hoping to lessen her terror before grabbing her by the arm and pulling her with him as he exited the room. Unsurprisingly she dug in her heels and tried to pull away but he ignored both efforts and gently dragged her out of the building.
His men formed a protective circle around the woman as soon as they exited the building but there was no real need. Helion saw nothing but huge piles of dead Scourge. So he’d missed the rest of the fighting. That was no surprise—his men were extremely efficient killers. They’d even begun the process of stacking and burning and it looked like there was minimal damage to the surrounding buildings. Add that to their success in saving two human females and what they had here was a very good night’s work by all measurements.
“Good work, men,” he called, receiving their exuberant calls with a grin. He felt the girl shrink away from the roars and shook his head at what a frightened little mouse she seemed to be. Considering how pathetically weak her struggles were, one would think she’d welcome the protection of a strong male. Her death and that of her child was a certainty without their protection. Small helpless creatures usually had a better instinct for self-preservation than this one had.
“Commander!” called Tohran, Helion’s second in command, jogging up to reach Helion’s side. “All the Scourge have been dispatched. Nothing unexpected occurred, no casualties on our end,” he added, eyeballing the human who continued trying to remove her arm from the Commander’s grip.
Helion saw Tohran’s gaze linger on the woman as she struggled to get free, his cocked brow showing curiosity. Helion kept a firm grip on the woman with one hand but otherwise ignored her. His men, however, were not as discreet. They stared with obvious curiosity and Helion couldn’t blame them. This was the first human female many of them had seen up close so it was only natural. He’d let them stare as long as they didn’t try to touch. He’d saved the girl and her offspring, which meant she was now under his protection. Helion didn’t know if his kind could even mate with her kind but he wasn’t willing to let anyone experiment with his new charge, not as curiously protective of her and the infant as he felt.
“Excellent. Let us get back to camp and begin plans for the next assault,” Helion replied with a grim smile.
“Of course, Commander, but the humans…what’s to be done with these two?” Tohran asked.
Helion had never been in a situation like this. Usually any humans they encountered were dead civilians or soldiers. They’d seen some human females but only from a distance, as their unit was here solely in a combat capacity, not a diplomatic one. The girl had frozen at the question but still a fine tremor ran through her body, one he felt through their connection. He was used to others finding him intimidating, enjoyed it even. But he’d never had one literally quaking in fear like this one was. He felt the urge to take those trembling lips with his own and replace all that terror with pure, unadulterated lust. Now, however, wasn’t the time.
“It appears the human refugee camps might be somewhat…deficient. We will be taking these two with us to camp. Tell the men to fall back there now and get food and rest and medical attention if they need it. We’ll move out again in six hours.” He ignored the surprised look on Tohran’s face, as well as the renewed struggles from the girl, and turned to his other lieutenants.
“Lightstep back and supervise preparations. I’ll be along shortly with these two.” He wanted to have a few private words with the girl before they left for camp. Her resistance needed to be put paid to. It irritated him. When his men bowed respectfully to him and stepped away, Helion finally looked back at the stubborn woman.
“What’s your name, female?” he asked abruptly, glancing down at her averted face. When her head jerked up in surprise, he was treated to another glimpse of those beautiful eyes set in her dirty face. Tired eyes, but no less attractive for that. Exhaustion, wariness and fear. He saw all these things. But deep underneath all that he was surprised to also see a hint of something else, something new, something perhaps…hope.
“Gwen. My name is Gwen Daughtry,” she replied softly, obviously fighting the battle once again to maintain eye contact with
him. She clearly didn’t want to go with them, even though they hadn’t harmed her and indeed had even saved her life. And though she’d tried over and over to slip out of Helion’s grip, he’d neither reprimanded her or harmed her. He hadn’t even tightened his grip; it was firm and unbreakable, but he wasn’t hurting her.
“Very well, Lady Gwen, you may call me Helion. Here is how this will go. You are coming with me now. You cannot escape and if you’re intelligent, you’ll realize you are much better off with me and my men than out there alone. You will not be harmed and neither will the child but you are under my protection. That means you will follow my commands. Once this city is secured and order restored, I will release you and the child as you desire. Do you comprehend me?”
Helion followed the motion of Gwen’s throat as she swallowed hard, and then watched her free hand as it stroked down the mound of her baby over and over. She betrayed her nervousness with these gestures, but he’d have known it anyway. The girl’s emotions were prominently displayed on her face and in her scent. He could tell she wanted to escape him still, perhaps even let fly some angry words, but she tamped them down out of fear.
“I understand,” was all she said before lowering her head to the child’s for a sweet kiss. Her love for the tiny girl was clear and it touched a primal instinct in Helion he hadn’t ever felt in his long existence. This woman, a mortal, a young mortal, had offspring to carry on her line. That was something Helion could not boast, even living a thousand years. His seed had never quickened in any of his lovers, much to his disappointment.
“Very well. Just know if you disobey me, attempt to escape and put your life at risk, there will be consequences,” he added.
“You said you wouldn’t harm us,” she replied, clutching her daughter tighter.
“And harm you I will not. But there will be consequences. You would be wise not to test me in this matter. Understand?” He waited for her nod, then reached down and swept her up into his arms, baby and all, ignoring her gasp of alarm.
“Close your eyes, human, lightstepping will be disorienting for you.” Without waiting to see if she complied, he gathered them close to his chest and stepped quickly in the direction of his camp.
Chapter Three
Gwen did as her captor ordered, mostly so he wouldn’t chance to see her reaction to being held in his arms. As a plus-sized woman, this was the first time she’d been lifted in all her adult life. She’d lost a lot of pounds over the last few months but even so she was no lightweight. But it didn’t seem like holding her strained him at all—he was freakishly strong. He held her too close to his gore-splattered armor but she didn’t complain. On the contrary, feeling his strength all around her drained her own.
Her reaction to him still amazed her. Back in that small office, this Keeper had stood out from all the others. He was taller than the rest, with a more compelling presence and an air of command. He also had glowing white hair, currently slick with the blood and bits of the Scourge. But it was his eyes that stunned Gwen the most. The color was like variegated jade, intensely green. But they glowed, actually glowed, with emerald fire. Just looking into them made Gwen feel strange. She was scared but…not.
She felt safe with him, dangerous as that idea was. It was just…he felt so solid, so hard. She’d been on her own for so long and it had been so difficult and so stressful. It was tempting to let someone take care of her for a change. She didn’t plan to give up—she still planned to escape, but it was so tempting to just lean on Helion’s strength. But for now, she just clung tight to Evelyn and kept her eyes tightly shut. Helion had her and her limited acquaintance with the sexy Keeper assured her she couldn’t get away while he was determined to keep her.
The idea of being held by these Keepers was only slightly less terrifying than being taken by Scourge. At least she would know what to expect from them—horrible torture and a gruesome demise. Keepers, on the other hand, were a giant mystery. No one saw them operate but they left huge piles of dead and charred Scourge in their wake. They claimed they were here to aid humanity against their common enemy but they didn’t cooperate on military strikes with human soldiers. So far they didn’t seem to be a threat to humans but who knew what they would do once the Scourge had been dispatched? Gwen couldn’t risk Evelyn’s life on the big question mark that was the Keepers, no matter how compelling their leader was.
She had no choice for the moment, however. The wind bit into her limbs with such force she knew they had to be traveling at a crazy pace but she didn’t want to look. And all too quickly the rush of air stilled, signaling their arrival at the Keeper camp. The elusive Keeper camp. As far as Gwen knew humans couldn’t find these camps on their own. The Keepers had some sort of cloaking ability that hid them from humans and Scourge alike. She opened her eyes then with genuine curiosity, wondering what a Keeper camp looked like.
The first thing she saw, however, was Helion looking down on her and once her gaze was snagged on his, she couldn’t look away. He was like sex on a stick, but this tasty treat was deadly. How could he have such fire in his eyes but be so cold and emotionless at the same time? His face was so expressionless she couldn’t tell anything about how he felt. Carrying her had to be straining him but his face gave up not even one single twitch of discomfort.
“Welcome to our camp, Gwen Daughtry,” he said, his voice bland. Surely he knew the prolonged eye contact was making her uncomfortable, but he kept at it, as if he was daring her to be intimidated by him.
Gwen pressed her lips together and glared back at the arrogant tool. What did he expect, a thank you? She was here against her will, desperately afraid for her life and that of her daughter. And this cold bastard was having a good time mocking her.
“Could you put us down now, please?” she asked stonily.
Being held so effortlessly against Helion’s chest was… Okay, it was hot. In any other circumstances if a man did this it would almost be a panty-dropping moment. But not with this Keeper, never with him.
“Ah yes, there are two of you, are there not? Your daughter is somewhere hidden under all those wrappings. What is her name?”
His eyes shifted to said wrappings but barely an inch of the infant was visible. Gwen had made sure of that. Her hands tightened over Evie again in a reflexive movement. And because she was watching so closely, she noticed the amusement in Helion’s eyes wither.
“Evelyn. Her name is Evelyn, or Evie,” Gwen replied, clutching the baby even closer to her chest. “Please put us down.”
“All in good time, Lady Gwen. First I will take you to our camp healer. I want you both inspected for illness and injury before you get settled in for the night.”
“We don’t need a healer. We’re not injured.”
Gwen’s protests, of course, fell on deaf ears. The annoying Keeper would not put them down and walked quickly through his camp, so quickly Gwen barely got a look at anything before they were standing in front of a strange tent.
“You will be seen, nonetheless, and Evelyn as well,” he said on arrival, before finally setting Gwen on her feet inside the tent. Gwen didn’t fail to notice he stood in front of the tent flap as though to prevent her from fleeing back through it, but Gwen wasn’t fool enough to try to get by him. Even if it were possible, she’d only run into hundreds more like him right outside the tent.
“Welcome, Commander. What can I do for you?”
Gwen threw a quick look at the speaker. This had to be the healer, though he was definitely like no doctor she’d ever met. He had lavender-colored eyes, a color she’d never seen before, and dove-gray hair.
“I know you’ve not treated a human before, Nathal, but I want you to examine this female and her offspring. Check them for injuries, diseases and overall health. They will be guests in our camp for the foreseeable future.”
Helion’s voice was bland, as was his expression, as if he wasn’t requesting Gwen put her faith in a total stranger. As if she wasn’t supposed to let him touch her and her da
ughter, no questions asked. Frustration and fear mingled in her gut unpleasantly but she knew no matter how much she resisted, Helion would force her compliance one way or another.
“As you wish, Commander,” Nathal replied. Gwen’s mutinous glare didn’t seem to affect him in the least but that didn’t stop her from doing it.
“My lady, if you would please unwrap the child, I will see her first.”
Gwen’s gaze darted between the Keeper with the strange purple eyes, and Helion. Neither was acting aggressively but to trust them with her child…she was so scared to do it. But one look at Helion’s face told her all she needed to know. He wouldn’t let her leave this tent until his order was obeyed and though she hated him for it, she knew there was nothing she could do but comply.
“What will you be doing to my daughter?” she asked sharply, clutching Evie again. The poor thing was no doubt tired of her mom’s nerves but her only protest was a restless wiggle. Gwen knew she’d need to feed Evelyn soon but they’d need to get through this current ordeal first.
“Just a scan, my lady. I will cause the young lady no pain or discomfort,” Nathal replied, holding up his hands to show Gwen he had no weapons.
He looked harmless enough, as far as he compared to the other Keepers Gwen had seen that night. That gray hair didn’t deceive her that he was elderly but it was a soft color and those strange purple eyes reflected no overt hostility. The healer wasn’t armored and carried no weapons. So, reluctantly, Gwen began to unwrap her child. The healer drifted forward to watch the process, curiosity alive in his face.
“May I?” he asked, reaching for the delicate little body.
Though Gwen would really rather not, one more look at Helion’s implacable face convinced her. She reluctantly pulled Evie away from her chest and placed her in Nathal’s hands, an almost imperceptible whimper falling from her lips. The healer was especially gentle though, perhaps sympathetic to the terrified distress she couldn’t hide.