by Brianna West
It had been earlier that day I had my last day at the library when I had come across Lucas and Pavel for the first time. I was at “The Bar” with Nattie to drown my sorrows. I had kept it from Nattie until a few nights before when she and I shared that delicious four meat and cheese pizza.
In our drunken ramblings, I had told her my intention to become a writer. Well, that was before I met Lucas and my entire life became an unwritten paranormal romance.
I was beginning to wonder if our story would be a tragic love story. It was hard to know with Lucas' moods changing with the wind; not to mention, I was currently being sought after by the Dark.
Romance seemed to take a back burner with my impending doom looming over us like a dark cloud.
“As for my family,” I continued, thinking about my father holed up in a house somewhere, drinking himself until he passed out, probably with the memory of my mother. “Well, let's just say that I won't be missed.”
Lucas was watching me with an intense stare that had me unintentionally wanting to hide for fear he might discover the true depth of that last admission.
My mother had passed away several years ago, twelve to be exact, and my father had never truly been the same since. He had taken to drinking, heavily, from that day twelve years ago.
Nattie had since become my only real family. My extended family had never really been in the picture due to bitter relations with my father; and the glue, my mother, had died and so the final thread of that relationship disappeared with her.
I bit my lower lip and kept to my task. I had intended to remain upbeat for Lucas but thinking about my father and mother made my stomach suddenly heavy and my chest painfully tight.
I could barely compare it with what Lucas went through, but it hurt in my own way. Holidays had become a serious bummer.
Thank god for Nattie.
She was all about waving our asses at the moon and running naked through the streets, making my previously uncomfortable memories presently uncomfortable memories.
“Izzy,” Lucas said as his hand stopped me from moving further way.
He pulled me gently towards him, and as if unable to resist it, I fell into his chest. His arms wrapped securely around me, as if protecting me from my own memories. His head rested atop mine like a puppy.
A very big, masculine puppy.
“You will always be needed right here,” he stated firmly. His arms tightened around me, nearly crushing me. Good thing that my obsession for donuts had made me nearly solid. “I will never abandon you.”
I wanted to believe him. I truly felt like with more time I could, but our relationship was complicated. It was so complicated that I wondered if it would be worth it to venture forward.
I loved Lucas. It was quite clear that I did.
Was love enough? Could it be enough when everything was working against you?
My arms lay lax at my sides, neither pushing away nor embracing Lucas. I merely stood there, receiving the embrace but not truly accepting it.
–
We arrived shortly after noon, the house appearing just as it did when I had first stayed there. It was disturbing how much I missed the usual appearance of Pavel upon our arrival.
Usually, Pavel would be bounding full speed like a great big ogre—a very handsome and mouth-watering ogre—towards the car to greet me. Instead, there was no greeting awaiting us until we entered the home. I inadvertently looked for Pavel upon our entry.
Victor was there to greet us at the door. His shiny, pearl-white smile had my heart warming almost instantly. He was still drop-dead gorgeous as I remembered him.
His long hair was tied to the side, exposing his face in all of its magnificence. Ice-blue eyes studied me, and I could hear his thoughts as if he had spoken them out loud.
You suspect someone, the deep voice said.
I was so startled by the voice that I nearly jumped backwards. I was stiff as I watched the smile widen on Victor's face.
Do not be hasty. There are those that would take advantage should you become overeager. I will be watching the two of you closely in the meantime. You have my full support in your attempts to unveil the truth.
I was confused. Very.
I couldn't fathom how Victor would figure out so quickly that there might be another and that we suspected who it might be.
How did you know? I asked in my head, feeling just a little bit silly as I did.
Only crazy people talked to the voices in their head.
Victor's face never faltered as he replied. My arms reach much farther. Very little escapes my ever watchful gaze.
Yeah, okay, Buddha.
This earned me a chuckle as we were led further inside.
It would seem our little chat went unnoticed by Lucas. He was chatting with Victor about our next move.
Currently, the Dark had retreated and everything was quiet. The Guardians had disposed of most of the Dark in the area affiliated with the occurrence.
The other Guardians, to my dismay, had returned to their posts. Only Victor remained.
“I will be departing,” the head honcho announced. “I expect that you have matters to attend to. Should you require anything...”
“I will contact you,” Lucas finished. “And what of Pavel?”
It was as if all the good humor had been suctioned from the room and a dense solemnity had taken its place.
So much for a happy home coming.
“He will remain imprisoned while the council deliberates on his punishment,” Victor replied evenly.
I was curious to comprehend the level of punishment the council took. I only knew what people concluded from their own sense of belief—you know, God, hell, and heaven—but I wanted to know just to what extent those were truths and misconceptions.
Where were these criminals imprisoned? What were they forced to do? How long were they forced to do it?
Questions circled about my head as I watched the two men near me.
It didn't seem right that we all were relaxing with our hands in our pockets while Pavel, who was not entirely at fault for all this, suffered unimaginable things in prison with all the other sick creatures they captured.
He was an arrogant perverted jerk, but I didn't really want him to go gay. Certainly not against his will.
He is safe. Victor's eyes capture my own.
I nodded my head with a sigh of relief.
I would ignore the fact that Victor was reading my thoughts rather easily today, which was completely unnerving and entirely too invasive for someone proclaiming to be a man of God. Whatever that meant.
In his infinite wisdom, it would seem Victor played his cards, and he played them well. Maybe since he was so old he had seen a few betrayals of this sort a time or two.
“I'm hardly old. I am young enough to pursue a woman of your standards and expectations,” Victor stated while coming to stand beside me. “Especially in the bedroom,” he added in a low, husky timber that was whispered directly into my ear, causing unbidden tremors.
I was gaping rather openly at the statement, and I am pretty sure my face was an inspiring collage of red.
I didn't know angels could talk dirty, but apparently this one could. I should have figured that Victor was a closet pervert.
Every man was.
I side-stepped from the deviant angel and did my best to regain my calm. I was going to hit my max on hotties if there was any more talk like that.
Lucas was coughing—Victor's statement having probably gone down wrong—which made his voice raspy as he said, “Victor, that is hardly appropriate.”
“Some may even say its sexual harassment, boss,” I added with a smile after recovering from shock.
Victor was quick to say, “Since the two of you have yet to fully consummate your relationship, I only assumed there was still wiggle room that I might steal Izzy's affections.”
Holy hell.
I was shell-shocked despite knowing that Victor was all flattery and very l
ittle intention. Still, it was making me swoon against my better efforts not to be affected.
Lucas was speechless. He stood with eyes wide, jaw lax, and body stiff as a board. It would have been funny if I wasn't dealing with my own little fantasies of running away with an angel.
We would make beautiful babies.
“Victor,” Lucas finally managed.
Victor merely smiled in reply and disappeared from the room.
“Victor really knows how to lay it on thick,” I said to no one in particular.
I was starting to wonder if you needed to be well versed in seduction to become a Guardian, too. I was going to fail the test; I just knew it.
Lucas was beside me, doing much like I was, staring at nothing in particular before saying, “He is not a man that speaks lightly of others.”
That made little to no sense.
“Meaning?” I asked.
“He must be quite fond of you,” Victor elaborated.
Fond of me? Fond of me like he wanted to adopt me into the family, or fond of me as in make me go “oh” and “ah” all night long until I couldn't remember what my name was and became his sex slave 'til death do us part?
I knew it could all be in play, since this was Victor we were talking about, but I couldn't deny that the image of getting randy with the head honcho wasn't making me just the slightest bit feverish.
“Izzy,” Lucas called out to me, pulling me away from my fantasies.
I was suddenly ashamed by the gaze of the man I had proclaimed love for.
Dear lord, I was like some horny beast craving any affection that may mosey my way. I needed to get laid.
Lucas was dressed in a navy-blue, form-fitting t-shirt and dark slacks. Blue really looked good on him. Amazingly good. I could make out all of his strong curves, of which there were too many to count.
He had run a hand through his hair just before my assessment and so parts of it were pulled back from his face and exposing the hard, angular lines of it. His lips were parted, and I had this terrible urge to suck on the bottom lip.
No, bad Izzy.
I was salivating like I was in heat, which could very well be the case. His handsome, no matter how many times I saw it, affected me strongly.
His eyes were especially entrancing as they gazed into mine unaffected. It reminded me just how easy this hunk was able to turn it on and off.
I fashioned him with my best glare before leaving the room to search out my own. I needed to get my thoughts in order before his handsome made me brainless.
–
I called Nattie later that afternoon. They had wiped her memories of course—poor girl was sure to have brain damage by now—and so we never spoke about what happened.
It was comforting to know that she would never remember the terror that kidnapping brought. I still very much remember the fear I felt, even though my kidnappers turned out to be the good guys. I still retain the memories of those head bashes.
Cecile called me directly after I got off the phone with Nattie.
“Bonjour, Izzy.”
“Hey, Cecile,” I replied as I rid myself of my jeans and started to put one leg into my sweatpants. “How are things with you?”
“Oh, just lovely,” she sang in that lovely voice I so missed. “Though it is a shame we could not stay to see you.”
“I'm one of you guys now,” I mumbled as I hopped on one foot before landing the other into the leg of my sweats, “so I'm sure we'll see each other again.”
“Ah, yes,” she replied enthusiastically as though she had not realized it before. “I had almost forgotten.”
“And Gustave?” I threw off my shirt, muffling my voice slightly. “How is that sexy brother of yours doing?”
Cecile's laughter was musical as she replied, “He still swears only to you despite knowledge that you most likely belong to Lucas. It is a wonder how he managed to remain this way for so long. He has never been so smitten.”
“Maybe he's become delirious,” I offered with a laugh of my own. I tried to keep the note of hesitation from my voice. I would like to believe that I belonged to Lucas but that was still mystery. “Are you busy over there?” I asked while pulling a tank over my bare chest.
“Only with the usual occurrences,” she responded with a sigh, and then a moment later, she was laughing once more. “Gustave mentioned how he was to sneak away to help once more with your training, but Adan discovered him just before he successfully did.”
I laughed softly. I definitely missed having her musical laughter filling the room.
Spanish was still the most rule-bound of the bunch. He oddly reminded me of Lucas in that sense.
I was starting to really miss the chaos that the lot of them brought to the household. It was my hope that we would soon be together again.
I talked for nearly an hour with Cecile before we ended our call. My shoulders felt the slightest bit lighter.
After I finished applying very light makeup, not at all thinking of dressing up for the man downstairs, I headed for the kitchen.
Lucas was sitting at the table, keying something quickly into his laptop with his phone pressed against his ear. It looked like Guardians never stopped working. His eyes jerked towards me for an instant before they returned to the screen.
Well, hello to you, too.
My chest felt tight as I busied myself with making some coffee. This was one hell of an awkward air we had between us.
I missed Pavel's chatter which almost always seemed to break the ice. Dammit, that was tenth time I thought about the perverted Russian. It was starting to become a disease.
My hands moved on their own as I continued to make myself busy.
I never cleaned; I wasn't a cleaner. But here I was, cleaning the nearly spotless counter top to ignore the real issue which was directly behind me, tapping away on his computer.
Suddenly, a phone rang.
“This is Lucas.” His voice was all business and had me pivoting to look over to him. “Understood.” Lucas stood from the table, disappeared, and then reappeared with a coat and his handy bag-o-weapons. “We're leaving.”
Well, you didn't need to tell me twice.
–
I was riding Lucas, and not in the fun sort of way. It was the sort of way that made my hair whip and lash at my face at the crazy speeds he was going—and it fucking hurt.
Lucas had assured me that this would be the easiest way to get to our destination.
Well, Lucas, I just swallowed a bug, and I'm pretty sure that it wasn't my first one of the night, nor would it probably be the last.
“We are almost there,” Lucas assured me over his shoulder.
Well, I had already eaten a bug, so I doubt things could get worse.
It was nearly instantaneous. I could feel the heavy pulse in the air. There was this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, as if I had swallowed a large rock.
I clutched tightly at Lucas in an effort to dispel the unease that the feeling was creating.
When we finally arrived, I nearly lost my footing. I could see a large opening ahead as if someone had sliced into a large canvas, exposing the darkness behind it. The deep resonating eeriness was seeping out of the opening as if it was bleeding the damn stuff.
The dark pulses had something deep within me responding. I could feel it as if it was traveling beneath my skin. It was a creeping sensation that gave me the heebie-jeebies.
“This will be a true test,” Lucas informed me as he pulled the heavy bag. “Practicing can only take you so far, Izzy. Stay beside me.”
I hated tests. I was beginning to resent Lucas for comparing this to one. I couldn't fail this test or it would be my life.
I breathed out the anxiety and prepared myself. And then, I watched Lucas as his body tensed with anticipation.
The pulses around me were incredible, and in minutes, the large beasts were on us. I couldn't think as the first one made contact with Lucas. He easily dodged to the right, grabbing m
e around the waist and pulling me with him. My legs kicked out in surprise.
Another beast appeared beside us, eyes the color of lime green and skin as dark as night.
It was time to put all my practice to use.
I grabbed one of the weapons from the jacket I equipped myself with before throwing myself from Lucas. Cecile had shown me just to what extent my power could be used physically. It was incredible as I flew above and behind the snarling creature.
My dagger pierced its flesh, tearing and cauterizing the wound as I pushed my essence into it. The demon let out a high-pitched wail as I made my way through its body effortlessly.
Gross. The smell alone made me want to vomit.
I removed my dagger before parrying another attack beside me.
“Izzy!” Lucas called out loudly.
I barely had time to register the deep growling from behind me. Hot pain seared through me from my shoulder. I hissed, throwing small orbs at oncoming demons. There were so many of them.
I cringed as the pain once more throbbed in my shoulder. My entire back felt wet. The little bastard probably cut through a good bit of my shoulder with that hit. I forced my eyes to focus as the demons around me seemed to grow in number by the second. I harnessed the energy around me, sending it in deep pulses through the air and knocking down the surrounding mass.
I could catch glimpses of Lucas taking down one demon after the next with his fluid, dance-like movements. His body was hard to trail for ordinary humans, but I was now able to view the full grace in his fighting abilities. He was calculating each movement as if it were his own, tearing down his opponents without so much as a skim to his person.
I felt the burning pain into my side, causing me to jolt out of my gaze. I had lost focus. The blood loss was making my vision sway. I blocked several attacks from demons nearby, harnessing and pulsing out small surges of energy to cut through a circle around myself.
I fashioned my knives, gliding them through the air to cut down the demons that came too close. It was as if my body barely registered thought and merely did. However, despite the many demons I destroyed, there were many more to take their place.