Protected

by April Zyon

Hopefully, she doesn’t ask Alex, though. Bastard would likely tell her.

  “Fine, I’ll just call up Alexander and ask him.” Yep, she had picked that up from his mind. “Care to tell me why the two of you have such a hate on for each other?” she asked sweetly.

  “We’ve never really gotten along,” he said with a shrug. He redirected the flow of the water and turned his face up into it. Shaking out his hair, he looked to her. “In a battle, we have one another’s backs. It’s what we do as guardians. Any other time, I avoid him as much as I can, and he does the same.”

  “Okay.” She let it go. Obviously, there was more to it than that, but she didn’t want to push or pry. “Well, one person you can never avoid?” She was back to teasing him to get him to smile. “Me. Sorry, bub, but you’re stuck with me. Such is life, right?”

  “Why would I want to avoid you?” he asked with a frown. “I love you, Vivian. You’re the last person on this planet I’d ever want to avoid. You make me a better person by being in my life. So don’t go getting ideas about problems that don’t exist, sweetheart. And I happen to think that the Fates chose wisely when they figured on putting us together. I couldn’t have been more blessed than I am to have someone as perfect as you in my life. And, in my eyes, you are absolutely perfect, Vivian.”

  “I’m glad you think so. Because I think you’re perfect, too. Just so you know.”

  “Of course I am.” Puffing out his chest, he flexed an arm and grinned at her. Laughing, he caught the hand she smacked him with and kissed her fingers. “I also know I’m only as good as those I have around me. Which would be you.” He moved her under the water. “Now wash up so we can get some sleep. Preferably before you have the urge to jump my exhausted, much-too-sexy body again.”

  That had her snorting out laughter.

  Kissing her, he handed her the soap. “Wash, quickly, I’m ready to crawl into bed for a week.” Drawing back, he grabbed the shampoo and squeezed a bit into his hand.

  Soon they were out of the shower and in bed. Vivian curled up against Jason with her eyes closed. She yawned again as she rubbed her cheek to his chest. “Goodnight, Jason. I love you, sweetheart.”

  “I love you too, Vivian. Sweet dreams.” He pulled her in closer and gave her a gentle squeeze before relaxing in her arms. “Never letting you go,” he murmured as he slid into sleep.

  Epilogue

  Two days later, Jason was summoned to Mercury’s office. Vivian, sweetheart that she was, decided to go visit with her sister instead. She really was a smart little cookie.

  Rounding the corner, he was a bit surprised to see James coming from the other direction. “Hell, I’d have thought the docs would have tied you down to the bed to keep you in medical longer.”

  “They tried,” James said with a sneer. “They just didn’t know who they were dealing with. I’ve gotten out of stickier messes than that. Hell, I’ve broken out of jails back in my time more secure than that place.”

  “Yeah, don’t tell that to Mercury, or he’ll up the security around it,” Jason warned.

  “Good point. Speaking of the head honcho, what’s going on with the summons?”

  “I may have an idea about it, but I’m hoping I’m wrong,” Jason said with a sigh. “Might as well head in and find out.” Knocking on the door, he pushed it open at the gruff “Come” from within.

  “Sit,” Mercury demanded, pointing a finger at the chairs opposite him. The man did not look very happy. Then again, it really was hard to tell with him. He rarely had any sort of expression on his face. Today’s just happened to have slightly lower brows than normal.

  Grabbing a seat, Jason stretched his legs out and slouched down. James was a little more careful as he settled in, obviously still feeling the results of being run through with a sword. Jason could sympathize, considering he’d had his fair share of such run-ins over the years.

  “Jason, how you feeling?” Mercury asked.

  “Uh, fine. It wasn’t much more than a nick and a split lip,” he answered.

  “Good. James, the docs say that despite how you’ve not been behaving for them, you’re on your way to a full recovery. You all good?”

  “Yup, feeling better every day. Still hurts like a dickens, but I’ll be back in top shape soon enough.”

  “Good, good.” Mercury nodded. Reaching out, he picked up a couple pieces of paper. “Glad to hear you two are doing so well. Because you may not be by the time I’m done with you. What the ever-loving hell did you two do to rack up a four thousand dollar hotel bill?” he bellowed.

  “Four thousand dollars?” James asked in horror.

  Oh, right. Jason hadn’t actually gotten around to telling James—or Mercury—about the state of the room. Oops.

  “The movies, I get. You’re a reprobate, and I don’t even blink at that anymore. But the condition of the suite! By the gods, what the fuck did you do—throw a party in there with every loser on the planet and give them free rein?”

  “What are you talking about?” James asked. “The room was perfectly fine when I left and went with Jason and Vivian to the island. Yeah, there was probably a pair of socks somewhere there shouldn’t have been, but nowhere near four grand for repairs, boss.”

  Staring up at the ceiling, Jason felt both pairs of eyes land on him.

  “Care to explain what the hell, pardner?” James asked, his drawl getting heavier.

  “Okay, I may have left a few bits and pieces out of my report. But I was honestly distracted by the fact we couldn’t reach you,” Jason admitted. “And the fact that you were on an island with monsters, as far as we knew. Which was proven fact, as you recall.”

  “Jason.” Mercury snarled his name.

  “Look, Vivian and I got back to the mainland and headed to the hotel. We stopped at my room, which was perfectly fine, by the way, and we ended up distracted.”

  “They were doing the horizontal tango while I was stuck on an island with the flower child,” James muttered with a glower his direction.

  “We got sorted out, packed up, and I checked the messages on my phone because we realized we hadn’t heard from you. It’s about then we figured out there was a storm brewing and we wouldn’t be getting back to the island. Anyway, one thing led to another, we went for dinner and then came back to grab our stuff because Vivian saw someone working at the restaurant we didn’t really want to deal with from her past.

  “She spotted a camera in a vase of flowers that hadn’t been there earlier. We did a little more poking around, and she found a microdot microphone. Doing the smart thing, we got the hell out of there and went to James’s suite to get his stuff. When we walked in, it was trashed.”

  “I didn’t do it,” James said.

  “Whoever was in there was obviously looking for something. I did a check of the room and then we grabbed everything of yours, stuffed it into your duffel, and got out of there. Thinking back, there was a distinctive smell in there, but I was more worried about Vivian than anything else.”

  “Oily residue was found in several spots on the carpet that made it impossible to fix, and it had to all be torn out and replaced. Fifteen hundred dollars,” Mercury put in.

  “The monsters were in my room?” James asked, sitting up straighter. “Why the fuck would they have been in there? Why just tear up my room and not Jason’s?”

  Jason shook his head. “They had been in my rooms, too. I'm sure they’re the ones who planted cameras and listening devices.”

  “Which means they followed you back from the island. Why search the rooms, though?” James asked.

  “To figure out who you were. Our traitors would have given them profiles on each of you. But they need to know which ones you are to kill you,” Mercury answered. “You each have something on you that you all carry with you no matter where you go that they would have likely been told about. It’s something that I’ve tried to break each and every single damn one of you of but you refuse. You all want that tie to your past. Find that one item, and
they know which guardian you are and know where to strike to kill you from afar with a sniper rifle, otherwise they will have to face you sword to sword and take your heads.”

  James scowled. “We need to find those damn traitors and kill them, Mercury.”

  “I couldn’t agree more. Finding them is the issue. If we can grab the one that tried to kill Emily, we’ll be one step closer.”

  “How’s that going?” Jason asked.

  “Alex and Eric are on his trail. Apparently, he’s on the move. As of three hours ago, they’d cleared the north border of Florida and were heading up the coast. No clue where he’s going, but they’re following in the hope that it leads them to a nest of these things, or maybe even Billy.”

  James flinched at that. Jason sympathized with him there. James and Billy had known one another in their first lives, been thick as thieves during Billy’s tenure with the guardians. When Billy had been taken, James had searched high and low for him.

  Then Billy had turned up on the wrong side and tried to kill James. Only his reflexes and a quicker draw had saved his life, but it had been close, millimeters close. No one wanted Billy the Kid found more than James. And no one wanted both the traitors strung up more than Gaius.

  “I’ll keep you both updated, and Gaius, and Hector, and every bloody one else in this fucking place,” Mercury said. “Get out of here. I’m docking both your pays for this.”

  “We get paid?” James asked, with a grin on his face.

  Jason grabbed his good arm and tugged the other man out of the office when Mercury snarled at them. “Quit poking at him,” he said with a smirk. It was amusing to see Mercury off balance, but it also tended to get them all in hot water.

  Walking with James, Jason noticed the frown on the other man’s face. “What is it?” he finally asked.

  James stopped at an intersection of the corridors and looked around. “At the house on the island, Sophia kept calling me Billy. Maybe she wasn’t referring to me as Wild Bill, Jason. Maybe she was actually talking about William,” he said quietly. “Maybe she thinks Billy is the one for her, but he’s already a part of the other side of this mess. What happens to her when we kill him off?”

  “Not a thing,” Jason said. “She’s not bonded to him. She’s not bonded to anyone. If it is Billy the Kid she’s been talking about, then she might feel a bit of loss for a time, but not for long.” He moved closer to his friend and leaned in. “But here’s something to think on, Wild Bill. What if she’s not talking about William?” Shooting him a smile, Jason pivoted on a heel and walked away, leaving James standing there staring after him.

  Taking a quick look back, he saw the other man exactly where he’d left him. Shaking his head, Jason rounded a corner and picked up his pace. He needed to find his woman and warn her that he may have just been a bad, bad boy. Maybe she’d even want to punish him for it, if he was lucky.

  The End

  www.april-zyon.com

  Other Books by April Zyon:

  www.evernightpublishing.com/april-zyon

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  Evernight Publishing ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  The End