Darker Side of Worlds (Guardians Book 2) (The Guardians Series)

by Lexi Ostrow

  Dale had never heard her sister’s voice, but he could only imagine that was who was shouting through the door.

  Breena hastily tugged at the zipper, and he wondered if he should point out that most of her hair was out of its braid. He liked it like that, tangled from sleeping with him. She was at the end of the bed an instant later and threw his clothes onto his chest.

  “Put these on. Now!” His dark sprite hadn’t completely vanished, she still had her spirit. “Just one more second, Megara. I actually need you to come in here, there’s something I need to tell you.”

  Dale dressed as quickly as he could. He had just finished tugging on his jeans when the door opened, and a woman almost as beautiful as Breena walked in and promptly screamed.

  “Megara, shh…be quiet. Just a moment.” Breena’s hand flew over her sister’s mouth, and Megara’s eyes widened in terror. “I’m going to take my hand away. Don’t scream. Please, please don’t scream we haven’t time for that.” Slowly, she pulled her hand away, and to her sister’s credit, she didn’t scream.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing that can be explained in the time we have before you are to be crowned Queen of the Unseelie court.”

  Breena looked around, and Dale spotted the crown on the floor before the mirror, just where he’d originally touched her. He hadn’t even realized it had fallen off her head.

  “You’re speaking nonsense, and how did a human get in here?”

  Dale made a note to ask if he smelled of her kind could just tell.

  “He is a gift, a wonderful man from another world. I can’t explain any more than this, but he needs me to help fight in a war. I’m good at that Megara. I’m good at war. I don’t do diplomacy and ruling. That was you and mother. I’m too much like Father to ever do things of that nature, and we both know it.”

  Megara’s face didn’t look as if she understood anything, but when Dale stretched his hand out and offered her the crown, she gracefully took it and held it.

  “What are you saying to me? Are you running away then? Like always.”

  He watched Breena flinch and wished there was something he could say, but the moment was not about him. It was about them.

  “I might be able to return one day. But, for now, our clan needs someone like you. You have the hand of a kind ruler and a man waiting to be your husband. Let there be two sitting upon the throne for the first time in so many years. Let me be myself for the first time ever.”

  Dale’s heart broke at the words, and he knew he made the right choice in coming back for her. They shared a moment then, one he couldn’t possibly understand, as nothing was said. Moments of silence passed with the pair of sisters simply staring at each other. And then, as if some understanding had been reached Megara offered the crown to Breena, who took it and put it on her younger sister’s head.

  “But what will I tell them?”

  Breena grabbed her sister and hugged her tight. “You will tell them that I have run away, like always, and that you are ready to fill my shoes. You will be the ruler I could never be, and if my hunch is right, there might finally be able to peace in our land, in the Court of the Fae.” Breena released her sister from the hug and walked over to Dale, picking up his hand in hers. “Know that I am happy, Sister, that this is my choice and if I am able to one day return, I will.”

  Megara sniffled back tears, and Dale felt awed that the two could do such a goodbye and remain so level.

  “I hope he brings you happiness, Sister. I will make you proud. Sontan and I will make you proud.”

  He felt Breena’s body shake ever so slightly, and he let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around her. She was nearly as big as he was, but she felt so small and perfect inside his arm like that.

  “Goodbye, Sister.”

  Megara nodded, took a deep breath and then walked out the door, leaving him alone with Breena.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The glass whizzed past his head so quickly, he barely noticed it before it smashed into the wall and shattered into a million little shards. He turned his head and looked over at his brother.

  The bar around them was frozen. He’d tried to escape to the normal world, the Word Speaker’s world, for a drink. He apparently couldn’t, which meant his brother knew what he knew. That he’d lost another one.

  “Temper there, Demus?” he said looking straight ahead and wrapping his lips around the glass, downing the scotch.

  “You cheated!” Demus roared and tried to punch him, but Huracan’s interference had his brother’s hand slam into the wooden bar top, splintering it.

  “I did nothing of the sort. I waited until Dale was once more on my side. I do believe it might have been thanks to your influence that it happened. Or maybe it was just because your choice of Guardian had more of a desire to walk in the light than you ever imagined.”

  Demus growled, and when he turned, he saw his brother’s eyes flickering between their bright gold and flaming red. His fangs were out, and the look on his face was more demon than human—fitting given the way his life was turning out.

  “You won’t get away with this. You won’t”

  He casually wiped the spit of his face, sucking in a deep enough breath to calm the anger his brother was rapidly inciting. “I don’t have to get away with anything. I’ve learned the rules again, Demus. I paid my penance. I will not be interfering in any way that our positions do not allow.”

  He stood up off the bar stool and pushed back, reaching to the right to grab his coat. Another glass shattered as it sailed past him, and he wondered just what it would take to break the magic Huracan had placed on them. Because, with his brother so riled and his name revealed, there wouldn’t be much to stop him from finally killing him. The war couldn’t happen if the leaders didn’t exist, and his brother had slid so far away from his humanity, it wouldn’t actually be as if he had killed his brother. Not anymore. Not in years, but truly, not anymore. The ceremony to change his name had warped him just that much further, and he doubted Demus knew anything but rage and destruction.

  “You’re mine, Brother. So help me, I will find out what you’re fucking calling yourself, and we will go to Huracan together to lift this ban. I will meet you on the battlefield long before our warriors are ready. This battle is between us now, not just them.”

  His brother’s angry tirade grew and continued as he focused on opening the doorway to his own home. There was nothing he could do. With a wave of his hand, he freed the people his brother had frozen and walked through the doorway.

  Dale’s heart was racing in his chest as he opened the doorway. It was a rapid thumping in his ears that he couldn’t ignore, didn’t want to ignore because of how happy he was. He’d had no clue what to expect after deciding to come after Breena, and in less than a minute, he was going to have released a Guardian into the world. Hopefully on the side of good, but either way, she was his and they would make their own destiny, whose ever side it was on.

  The world spun and distorted, just like every other time. His living room came into focus, and he shook his head and focused on the hallway. They needed to try something before they could go inside. The room scrambled, and all that was visible once it was back in focus was the gold “832” on his dark cherry wood condo door.

  Dale smiled and turned back to Breena, holding out his hand to her. “Are you ready to give this a try?” His brain wasn’t fully off the high of hearing her tell him she loved him, really loved him.

  Breena nibbled her lower lip, and he wasn’t certain if it was the action or the idea that she could be so insecure that shot a jolt of lust through him. “What are we doing?”

  He leaned over and kissed her softly, chastely. “I want to make sure you’re real and that we did this right. Then, tonight, we can finish your story together and see how the author wanted it to end.” She slipped her hand into his, and he stepped one foot over the doorway.

  Together, they both went through the remainder of the way
. He wrapped his arms around her and breathed in deeply, smelling the scent of pine on her. “This is the last time, Breena. I’m going to close it now.”

  He felt a tremor run through her, and then the motion of her head nodding yes. With all the concentration he could muster in his excitement, he closed the doorway on Breena’s world for the final time. The space that held one lone throne distorted and closed up, leaving them only with his carpeted, dimly lit hall. She spun in his arms, and he kissed her, nothing deep, but enough to make him wish they were inside already.

  “What are we trying?” Breena asked when the kiss ended. Her eyes were wide and her lips were a slight bit darker from his kiss, but her words were calm.

  “Just another few seconds, and I’ll tell you.” He was giddy and his heart pounded even faster, something he wouldn’t have thought medically possible without bursting through his chest. “Why the fuck don’t I own a watch?”

  “What are we doing?”

  “We’re waiting for me to think it’s my birthday since I don’t have a watch. So you’re real, and not just something in this world for me. But you can be here for you too, and anyone else that you see and come across will see you.”

  She raised a brow at him, clearly not sharing in his delight. His foot tapped, and he grinned at her. “Aren’t you going to wish me happy birthday?”

  Her laughter rang out then, light and whimsical. If there was any darkness left in her, he certainly couldn’t find it.

  “Oh, all right, you big child. Happy birthday.”

  Dale grinned wider. “I want you to knock on a door. Any door. You’ll see what happens next.”

  Breena raised a brow at him and pushed her hair over her shoulders, leaving a few blonde tips in front. Her eyes looked left to right, and he realized she must have noticed there was only one other door on the floor.

  “Big choices you give me.”

  “Sorry, I forgot we didn’t really have this conversation the last time you were here. I may have lost my job, but I have a lot of money stored away from a smaller business I sold first. I’m kind of a genius.” He grinned and she snorted. “Which means my place isn’t the size you’re used to, but it’s certainly big for Seattle standards. Just use the other door. The one across the way.”

  She hesitated a second before squaring her shoulders and lifting her chin. That was more like the Breena he knew. The warrior. She walked gracefully over to the door and didn’t pause again as her hand knocked.

  A moment later, the door swung inward, and both he and Breena flinched.

  Holy shit. It fucking worked, it seriously fucking worked. Dale was barely able to contain his shout of joy and bit hard into his cheek by accident.

  “Son of bitch!” he shouted. His neighbor, Steven Turner, and Breena looked at him. He flushed and wished he had his glasses to hide behind. “Sorry, bit my cheek.” He crossed the space and put his arm loving around Breena’s waist. “Steven, meet my girlfriend Breena. Breena, this is Steven. She’s moving in today, so I just wanted to make certain she knew a friendly face in the building, should she ever need anything.”

  Steven was in his mid-forties, but his grin of approval made him look much younger. His eyes looked at Breena from head to toe, and Dale felt his pulse jump significantly.

  “Well, well, well. I’m glad to see Dale isn’t spending all of his time holed up with video games and himself.” Steven nodded. “Welcome to the building. I run a concert hall, so I’m out late and sleep late, but if you need a cup of sugar, I might be able to oblige.”

  “Nice to meet you, Steven. Thank you very much, I’m sure,” her tone was sickeningly sweet.

  Dale wondered just how many different sides to the female sprite he didn’t know about. The door closed and squeezed Breena against his him, covering her mouth with his. They stood locked in the embrace, mouths working together, pulses racing and lust rising for the better part of five minutes. He remembered that wasn’t all he wanted to do and pulled away.

  “There’s one more thing I need you to do for me before we properly welcome you into the world, Guardian Breena.”

  She grinned and took the outstretched hand he offered. They walked back to his door, and he opened it.

  “I like the sound of that you know. Guardian Breena. It has a wonderful ring to it. Better than Breena of the Unseelie Court.”

  He turned on her and narrowed his eyes angrily. “Do not forget who you were. I love all of you, Breena. Even the parts that touch the darkness because they match up with the parts of me that dwell there too.”

  She nodded and stepped past him inside his condo. Dale tried to shake off the momentary anger that she didn’t like any part of herself. She had flaws, they both did, but to each other, they should be perfect.

  “What was this you had in mind about properly welcoming me to your world, Dale?” She grinned and pulled the long deep purple dress up at the hem and over her body.

  His entire mouth went dry. She wore nothing underneath. The way her muscles rippled as she pulled it over her head and tossed it to the floor sent a rocket of lust through him so strong, he had a feeling the phone call was going to be much quicker than expected.

  “You, stay over there. If you come any closer, I’m going to lose my damn mind, and what I want you to do is important. You’re important, and while you have been here twice before, you haven’t met anyone in my life. You weren’t able to, and now that you are. We are going to fix that pesky problem.” His eyes traveled up her toned stomach. “And then I am going to ravish you in a way no one ever thought a gamer nerd could touch a woman.”

  She shuddered, and he liked it. He fumbled to pull the cell phone from his pants pocket and was grateful they hadn’t left it behind when they were getting dressed again. That would have been a pain in the ass to replace, since it had numbers he never bothered to memorize it in.

  Double tapping the screen to wake it up, he pressed the green icon of a phone and pushed the number two and then call. He hadn’t realized he was nervous until the phone began to ring. When the click happened, he swallowed hard.

  “Mom?”

  “Everything okay, sweetie? A visit the other day and a call so close together, that’s not like you.”

  He grimaced, feeling guilty at his lack of interaction with his parents and debated telling her about work. But the call was about Breena.

  “Everything is great, Mom. Fantastic actually. There’s someone I want you to meet, and before you yell at me for waiting so long, I just wanted to make sure everything was going to work out before I did.” He paused and grinned at Breena, who was actually shrinking away with a look of fear on her face. “Mom, get ready to say hi to my girlfriend, Breena. She’s moving in with me.”

  His mom let out a shriek of delight and called for his father to come to the phone as he was passing his to Breena. A part of him felt a little upset that his mother was that excited over a woman moving in with him, but he couldn’t blame her.

  Breena nervously took the cell phone as he mimed putting it to her ear, and she did so. “Hello, Mrs. Evanhart, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Breena.”

  He heard his mom’s second squeal of delight, and then a rush of questions flying at Breena. How did they meet? What did she do for a living? Her face was full of terror, and he chuckled and dropped down onto his couch. She gave him a fairly good death stare and started responding to his mother.

  “When did we meet?” She looked at him and grinned wickedly, the fear transforming into pure mischief. “Why just the other week, of course.”

  Dale bolted out of the chair and snagged the phone, no longer phased by Breena’s naked body because he had some serious damage control to do.

  “Mom, she’s joking. I swear she’s joking.” He shot an angry look her way as he sat down on the couch again.

  Breena slunk over and sunk into his lap. His mind raced and reeled as her lips suckled his neck, and he tried to hold a coherent conversation with his mom. His dick throbbed, and he almost lo
st it when she gently ground against him, like a lap dance.

  “Mom?” he squeaked out. “I have to call you back.”

  Dale didn’t wait for an answer. He tossed the phone across the room and grabbed the naked sprite in his lap. “I think I need to teach you how you’re supposed to treat your Word Speaker…..”

  Epilogue

  He couldn’t help but smirk at the open viewing doorway as he watched the interaction play out. Breena sat perched on Dale’s lap, smoothing his growing hair behind his ears and smiling down at him. Naked unfortunately, but it was still a beautiful sight for him.

  The way they interacted indicated none of the evil that had once truly flowed through both of them at one time in their lives, was present any longer. All that remained were a pair of warriors for his side, and a couple who had fallen in love when there was so much against them. Nothing had gone according to Demus’ plans, and every single thing that had been destined to happen, clearly had. He popped the collar on his trench coat as he slid the garment on.

  The outcome of Dale Evanhart had been enough to shock him and his brother both. The scene in the bar moments before was enough to indicate that much. The idea that, when all was said and done, both Dale and Breena could overcome their natures, as given to them by their fathers, was astounding. He hadn’t had any faith in Dale. Not even when he’d transferred him the powers, and now it might be time to change his view.

  He never would have realized how perfect the sprite and human were for one another had they not figured it out themselves. Huracan may have allowed for Dale to choose a book his brother had picked, but no one had counted on the king’s darkness being the cause of Breena’s. Love had been enough to conquer the best of men in battle, and in that instance, it had been strong enough to tear down the wall two people had created to run from the world that had used and rejected them.

  Now stop watching them and go figure things out. The war is yours to lose once more. He turned away from the open doorway at the thought and smirked once more.