Tholan: Mystic Protectors: An Angelic Paranormal Erotica

by Kathi S. Barton

  “I heard. I guess she also stole his muffin. Judith said that he’s been in several times to get a few of them. Usually he never stays, but today, when he did, she said that she boxed him up some to take.” Tholan glanced at the body again. “What will happen now?”

  “She is to be cremated, from what I was told about her arrangements. And once she is, then she will be buried next to Parker’s father. It is only fitting, she told me.” Benny told him that wasn’t what he’d meant, but that was good of her. “I know that. I just did not want to think about what she is going to be doing today. She plans to beat the devil at his own game, or in this case, a demon. Do you think that they will leave us alone after this? She plans to make them think that they will all get this should they come sniffling around.”

  “Sniffing. But I don’t know. I wasn’t born to this group—I only married into the magic. But I have noticed, as everyone has, that she is stronger than anyone that I’ve met. I won’t say this in front of Lily, but even stronger than her.”

  They both laughed, and when the body was gone, some of the protectors from the compound came in to ask if they could take care of the room.

  Tholan knew that Boss had sent them. The room would never be the same if he hadn’t. There would be no trace of the carnage that had gone on in this room. The soot on the walls, the blood in the carpet. The furniture, all of it, would be destroyed—they were only splinters of wood and material anyway.

  Benny gave them his permission and the room was cleared of everything but the walls. In moments, less he thought, the room would look as pristine as it had when it had been new. Angela’s home, too, would go to Parker, and she said that she’d turn it over to one of the charities so that they could use it for a home for someone that was in need. Parker would also fill the rooms with the needed furniture.

  When he was finished at the little house, he met Parker and Heather at the mall. There were already several bags of things, he noticed, as well as a stack of books. Picking up one of them, his heart melted when Heather looked up at him and asked if he’d read it to her.

  “I will. I love this story. You will too, I think. It’s about a family that is living on an island after their ship was destroyed.” He noticed that she had several of the classics, as well as some mysteries and fantasies. “You are trying to find what you like?”

  “Parker told me that reading several kinds, it’ll help me learn faster and figure out what I enjoy the most. I’ve never had a book of my own before. The library, they wouldn’t let me check them out anymore because Dad would ruin them.” She touched the covers of the stack. “They smell good too, don’t they? Parker said you like to read too.”

  Embarrassed to be found out, he told her that he did love to read. Tholan liked romance books. The more romance, the better as far as he was concerned. While he didn’t have a favorite author, he picked his books out by their covers. He had seen once where as much time was spent choosing a cover as was spent writing the books.

  “It’s something that I do when everyone else is asleep.” He watched her with the books. They seemed to mean more to her than even the clothes and shoes. “Did Parker tell you that you’re going to visit Riss and his wife again? Not for all night, but for a visit. I think that they’re ordering pizza again.”

  “No, they said burgers.”

  When he saw the other women, he stood up. Neither of them talked about Angela other than for Parker to ask him if it was done. When everyone was seated, there were decisions about where to eat, and then they all left for the different places.

  Heather stayed with him. “Parker told me that my mom and dad are dead. That they killed each other by accident. Was it drugs?”

  “No, not drugs.” He and Parker had decided that if she wanted the truth, they’d give it to her, but for now, a watered-down version. “Do you want to know how, or would you like for me to tell you that I saw them, and they are very much gone?”

  “That way.” He nodded, and when she stood up, he thought she was going to join the others, but she crawled up into his lap. “I like not being all doped up any more. I can think. Can you think when you’re drugged up?”

  “I don’t use drugs—I never have. Not even for a headache.” He’d never had one of those either but didn’t mention that. “Are you happy living with us, Heather?”

  “Yes. Very much. I like having a bed and a shower that I can use anytime I want. Yesterday I took three of them. Parker told me that she thought that I’d not want to do that after a while. I don’t know. I really like being clean. And I can use a brush in my hair. I got my own brush and some pretty ties too. I’m going to have ponytails when we get home.”

  “Good for you. I love ponytails on little girls.” She was quiet for a time, and he watched Parker as she spoke to Jenny. They were in the line for Chinese food. Tholan had to smile when the woman behind the counter greeted them in her language.

  “I was wondering something. When you get more kids, will you put me out to pasture?” He asked Heather why she’d think that. “I don’t know. That’s what my dad used to say to my mom when she asked him if she was looking her age. I don’t know what that means, but if you do it, can I go there with a shower?”

  “Absolutely. If we put you out to pasture, you will most assuredly have a shower. I think that’s all the fashion now. To have a shower in a pasture.” She giggled, and he tickled her. “We won’t do that even if we have a hundred other children. You are and always will be our little girl, even when you’re old like me.”

  “You’re not old.” Tholan laughed again. If she only knew. “When you go and see the demon tonight, are you going to kill him?”

  Before he could ask her where she’d heard about that, Kala told him not to lie. She was looking at them, and that made the link they were talking through seem all the louder for her caution. Don’t lie to her, thinking that she’s not old enough to know. She is older than the dirt for all that she’s endured for one so young.

  “I’m not going to fight him, Parker is. She will win, if you’re worried about that.” Heather said that she wasn’t. “To be honest with you, I’m a little nervous about it, but I know the rules better than most for our kind, and I think she’ll come out a winner.”

  “I do too. When that lady at the store told me that I was a size too small for my age, Parker got all up in her grill. I never seen anybody fight for me before. She can sure be scary, huh?” Tholan said that she could be and asked about the lady. “She assumed—that’s what Parker said she was doing—that I was only six. I said I was nine and the lady just tsked at me, like I was lying. Before I could put the dress back that I wanted to try on, she took it from me and handed me a littler one. I saw Parker coming toward me and I backed up. I could see her meanness a mile away.”

  “Was she mean or defending you?” Heather looked at him. “There is a difference. Mean means that she was just being rude to the woman for no reason. Defending you means that she was making sure that you were treated as you should have been, and not the way the woman was doing to you.”

  “Defending, then, but I still moved out of the way.” Heather snuggled under his chin and he held her. “Can I call you Dad?”

  It took him several seconds to realize what she’d said to him. Or for his heart and mind to be on the same page with each other. He needed to do this right. To say the wrong thing, he knew, would make her hate him.

  Just say yes, Tholan. He did so and glared at Kala. You men take the longest time to get around a bush than anyone I have ever known. When someone asks you if you want to be Dad, you say yes. Or hell yes. See how easy that is?

  I wanted to do this right. Kala told him that he had—he’d said yes. What if she wanted more than that?

  Then she would have asked you. I’m sure that when she has a question, about anything, she comes to you or Parker, right? He told Kala that she did. Then you should know that this isn’t any different. ‘Can I call you Dad?’ That should have been a no brainer. Don’t go
looking for trouble when the answers to the problem are right there.

  Food was brought to them then. They had all gotten something different so that they could share. Heather seemed to be all right now, when they were together like this, and had no trouble voicing her opinion on certain things. Tholan noticed that she liked Chinese as much as he and Parker did.

  By the time they were finished shopping, Tholan was sure that they’d walked nine hundred miles, entered every shop at least three times, and had enough junk food, it had been called, to fill a truck. But they were happy, and so was he. The limo pulled up just as they were stepping out of the large building. Tholan thought that he could get used to this sort of service. Now he only had to think about tonight.

  Chapter 10

  Parker was about asleep when she sat down on the couch. What with last night in the hot tub and today at the mall, she thought that if she slept for a month, she’d still be exhausted. But boy, was she relaxed. Thinking about Tholan and making love to him had her smiling. He sat down at the end of the couch and picked up her feet to massage them.

  “Heather has decided to go to Riss’s now. The babies are a big draw for her, I think. And I sent her some jammies and slippers. Kala said that way if it was too late or if we needed to rest up, she’d be ready for that too.” Parker moaned when he hit the spot on her foot that was hurting the most. “I think that if you were naked, I could massage your back too.” He wiggled his brows at her and she laughed.

  “I don’t need to be naked for you to massage my back. But I do like where your mind is going.” He’d shown her last night how she could be dressed and undressed with her magic. Using it now, she watched the hunger in his eyes as he looked down her body. “I can feel your cock under my toes.”

  She massaged his cock with her foot. And when he turned on the couch so that he was facing her, she sat up and reached for his mouth. The man could kiss like it was his job, and she felt her own hunger spiral out of control.

  “When you rode me last night in the water, I could only imagine what it would feel like on a bed or couch. Please, love, ride me now.” She sat up over him, his cock so hard now that she could almost come. When he was naked too, she slid down over him and moaned again. “You are so warm over me. I love that I can be a part of you and touch you at the same time.”

  “I love that too.” When he took her breast into his mouth, she pulled him closer. “Nibble on my tips, like you did last night, Tholan.”

  With every thrust she could feel him surging upward. His hands at her hips would leave a mark, she knew that, but with this newfound power, she’d be healed almost before she realized that they were there.

  “I love your breasts. They are so full and soft. And your nipples are long and chewable.” He bit down on her right breast and she nearly came again. “Come for me, Parker. I want to feel you tighten around me again. I love the way your sheath squeezes and milks me.”

  She came hard, holding onto him for fear of flying away. And when she was ready again, Tholan took her to the couch as she wrapped her legs over his hips. Parker could almost feel his cock at the back of her throat. And each time that he filled her, his cock moving in and out of her, Parker could feel another release coming up, the way it ran along her skin, tightened her throat. And when he came, his body rising up over hers so that his cock didn’t just fill her but became a part of her, Parker screamed out his name, over and over, until he dropped over her.

  He wasn’t finished with her, it seemed, when he took them both to the floor. His cock pounded her hard—his body seemed to be trying to become a part of her. And when he grabbed her breast, tugging at it tightly, she came a second, then a third time. When she lay limp on the floor, his body atop hers in a way that had her completely covered, Parker closed her eyes and let sleep, rest, finally take her.

  “You will come to me now.” Parker looked at the demon and smiled at him. “You will come to me now before the day is out. Something has happened to my friend, and I fear that I am next.”

  “Oh, and why should I give a shit about you or your friend? In fact, I’d love it if you just fucked the hell off and left me and mine all alone. You’re a pain in the ass.” He thanked her but told her to hurry. “I’ll be there when I get there. You go away, and I’ll see you later. You’re fucking up my nice buzz.”

  “Buzz? I don’t understand. And you will notice that I don’t appear to care either. Come to me now, or I shall come to you.” She didn’t answer him. This was just what she was hoping for when Merlin disappeared. “Did you not hear me? I said to come to me.”

  “I heard you, and like I said, I just don’t care. Now, if you want to get this over with, then I suggest that you meet me here, in my yard out back, at six o’clock. That way, should you make a mess, I can have the gardeners clean it up and perhaps you’ll be fertilizer for the trees.” He growled at her and Parker laughed. “You are so predictable. Why would you want to come here and waste my time on a fight that you know as well as I do that you cannot win?”

  “I will win, and when I take you to my lair, I will show you how predictable I can be. I can do things with my cock that will astound you.” She asked him what he thought predictable meant. “I don’t care. I will see you at six, and make sure that you have taken care of all your things too. Your mother, she has it in her heart that living in your big house will be the best thing that could happen to her.”

  Waking up, Tholan was staring down at her. With a quick kiss to her mouth, she felt his cock move inside of her. This time when he took her, it was hard—wonderfully, painfully so—and she cried out her release five times before he took his own.

  “I am so sorry.” Parker stretched and asked him why. “I have harmed you. I don’t know what came over me, but it was necessary that I take you that way, to mark you with not just my semen, but with all of me. Even my hands and mouth.”

  “Not all the time, but when you have a desire to take me that way again, you do it. It was wonderful, and very stress relieving.” He grinned. “You are getting used to this, aren’t you? The two of us being a couple.”

  Willing them to their bed, she and Tholan spent the next hour just touching and talking. He was building her up, she knew that. Telling her that she was perfect, that she’d win this. Parker hoped so—she needed to. All this, all this going down, was going to solve a great many problems for a lot of people. The promise that she’d gotten from the king of the other world, the one she’d asked for when everyone else was shopping, was going to make it so the protectors, all of them, were protected themselves. She had his word on it.

  Making a bargain with the devil seemed like a stupid thing to do, but she trusted him. She had no idea why, but Parker decided that she would, and he told her that she was either very brave or very stupid. Parker thought she was a great deal of both.

  And this promise for them to be safe from my underworld, what will happen to my people should they go against what I have put forth? You know as well as anyone, I cannot see beyond my realm any more than your king can see beyond his. She told him that they’d get the same as the demon today. Ah, this showdown, you’re calling it. And you are that sure that you will win? I don’t think I’ve been that sure of anything for a good long time.

  On my father’s soul, I will win this today. Because I know something that you do not. I know that my love for him is as pure and as heartful as his was for me. I do this for him. Hell, as he said he liked to be called, told her that was a great deal of love. I have that much and more for the family that I now have too.

  Your daughter and husband, I take it. She told him it was all protectors and mystics, including Boss. I see. All right, Parker. You win today, and I will show my people just what it will be like to fuck with you. And I swear to you, I will tell you each time I hear about them breaking this law.

  And I will you as well before I take action. He told her that was more than he could have hoped for. Thank you. You’re not completely evil, are you?

&nb
sp; I am. You have just caught me on a good day.

  He was still laughing when the connection closed. After that, Parker devoted all her energy and attention to those around her, especially her daughter. Heather was going to be as loved and as happy as Parker had ever been with her da.

  At four o’clock, they got up and showered together. Tholan messed up three jokes that he’d heard, and she still laughed with him. After they dressed, they made their way to the decking that surrounded their home. The rest of the mystics and a few others that she didn’t know were already there. Thinking about his last joke, she smiled.

  Parker decided that she was going to get Tholan a knock-knock book and let him try those first. She thought that he needed to work up to the kind of jokes where there was a punch line. His delivery was all wrong.

  At five minutes until six, Hell showed up. He was dressed as a business man until Judith took him to task. Then he sat on the deck chair, beer in hand, shorts and a dirty T-shirt on. She helped him hide out by putting a shield of magic around him. So long as he didn’t move too much, she could make it so no one knew he was there until it was time.

  Warrior—or Rollin, she’d found out was his real name—showed up at fifteen after the hour. She’d expected him to be late and didn’t say a word to him when he simply appeared in the yard. Making her way out to him, she knew that Tholan was behind her.

  “Two for the price of one? How lovely. Why are you giving me such a treat, Parker Jane Brooks?” She told him that she was not. “When two come out onto the field that is for bargains, I will take you both. That is my rule today.”

  “Fuck your rules. Now, as I was saying earlier, you said that you wanted to get this finished, as you are missing a friend of yours. I know where he is.” He didn’t look convinced. “He’s been destroyed.”

  “You are so laughing. You cannot destroy a demon any more than I can one of your kind. Don’t lie to me again.” His voice had gone hard, like he was trying his best to make a point. “Now, I’m here to get my piece, and you are to come with me. I’m sick of waiting around for you to come to me. A deal is a deal.”