by Brianna West
“Did you speak with Victor?” Lucas questioned from behind me; but since I had felt him even before he strolled into the room, I was hardly surprised by it.
I brushed some of Gustave's fringe from his eyes, admiring the beauty of his face for a moment before turning to look back at Lucas. “He will be here shortly. Cecile and Prince Charming are going to be staying with us for a while.”
“I had expected as much,” Lucas returned with a small lifting of his lips—his signature smile. “Come here,” he ordered, inviting me with an outstretched palm. I walked the short distance to him, gasping slightly when he immediately drew me up and into his arms, holding me impossibly tight. “We were incredibly fortunate today.”
“Don't you mean, 'Thank you, Izzy. You're incredibly powerful and rescued my handsome self from a psychopathic angel leader'?” I supplied with a little waggle of my eyebrows.
“Your propriety in such matters is astounding,” Lucas said despite his eyes being illuminated with good humor.
I shrugged shamelessly. I couldn't argue with that point. My awesomeness couldn't be ignored. I had to strut it like they strut their muscles since it was my selling point.
“Just say it. You're glad I talked you into my coming along,” I baited.
Lucas was shaking his head, rejecting the statement, before saying, “I am in no way content with your having come and put into danger, of which could have easily resulted in our deaths, Izzy.”
“You would have been killed if I hadn't been there,” I growled in reply, “and then I would have been an empty shell. I don't think you understand my feelings for you. You are not the only one that wants to protect the person they care about. I want to protect you as much as you want to protect me.”
“I would have returned with the others,” Lucas replied coolly.
I huffed with annoyance. Pulling away from his embrace, I brushed past him and headed for our room.
I refused to argue with this British bastard especially when his god complex was about. Lucas was absolutely insufferable when he got this way.
I stormed into our room, shutting the door behind me and hoping to send the message I would prefer it if Lucas didn't follow, but our vampire-angel was not perceptive on the hints of an angry woman and easily reopened the door to follow me inside.
I rounded on him, hands flying to my hips to ground me. “You don't seem to get it, Lucas. As often as we argue over this, I am one of you. I am just as much a part of this as you are. You don't get to lock me up like some bird in a cage, keeping me there for my supposed safety, and battle the big bad wolf yourself. I am a Guardian. I am part of this team, and I deserve the same consideration that you give to the others,” I finished nearly breathless with the long-winded speech.
Lucas' face had drawn down into a frown, and his jaw tightened against the words he was suppressing. He closed his eyes, probably doing his best to calm down before reopening them and gazing at me.
“Most Guardians train for years, Izzy, and experience, at their discretion, circumstances to develop their abilities. While it was I who first exposed you, I was unaware of who we faced. This group that we fight, this leader that has some sort of personal vendetta against myself, are incredibly powerful and have trained themselves against our kind for hundreds of years.
“Tonight, two seasoned Guardians were captured and used to lure us out. We were fortunate that they were not killed. We were fortunate that you somehow managed to defend yourself against someone with such a degree of power,” Lucas stated as if biting every word from his mouth.
He continued with a sober expression. “I am not discounting the strides you have made or the incredibility of your power, Izzy. However, what you gain with your power, you lack with your experience and stamina. It is too dangerous to expose you to them. They could easily overpower you and then...I cannot Izzy. I cannot possibly risk losing you.
“Do you not understand what they would do to you in order to accomplish their overall goal? I will not risk losing you. Tonight proved only that of which I feared. Should we face this leader once more, I might not be strong enough to protect you,” he finished, his voice having lost some of its volume towards the end of his monologue.
His monologue, however, had rendered me speechless.
I was incredibly frustrated with my own inexperience. I wanted so desperately to argue that I was capable of protecting myself and that he didn't need to worry that I was going to be defeated so easily, but a large part of me agreed with what he said.
This leader had easily immobilized Lucas and could have killed him. I could have caused his death by just merely being there because Lucas would have done absolutely anything he could to protect me even at the expense of himself.
I turned away from him, fighting the burn of tears in my eyes.
I was so weak. I was dragging the entire team down with my lack of experience and endurance. It hadn't been very long since I discovered this part of myself; I was a mere child to their adult.
However, I felt such an intense need to help that it was disrupting my keen sense of judgment. Okay, I never really had a good sense of judgment, but that was hardly my point.
Instead of voicing my agreement, I simply nodded my head and slid into bed, hoping to sleep off some of these repressed feelings of frustration. My chest was incredibly tight with them, and my stomach was coiled into knots.
“Izzy,” Lucas called gently as he joined me beneath the sheets. Pulling my body to himself, his voice rumbled against the ear pressed against his chest. “You have become my weakness. If I could cage you, I would. I would bind you to the bed and never let you leave the protection of these rooms.
“I know that this is a selfish notion. How could I possibly think it when the very reason I fell in love with you is your strong sense of self? Your eagerness to lend a helping hand, the way you so optimistically face each day, even your unrivaled obstinance are incredibly desirable qualities that make me entirely too infatuated.
“You are so strong, Izzy, that you leave me hopeless on how to possibly contain you. So the only way I could hope to keep you safe is by somehow imparting the degree of peril we face every time you involve yourself.”
There was the heart breaker I knew and loved.
It was speeches such as these that had women discarding their values and modesty in hopes that he might treat them like a lady for a night.
The intensity of his words had turned me to mush. There were no words, no possible response to such a heartfelt speech. Every bit of my feelings for Lucas were put into words and returned to me.
I pinched my thigh, unable to believe that this was not a dream, and when the pain registered, I was pressing a firm kiss to Lucas' lips as if my life depended on it, as if this kiss would somehow root me to this reality.
Our lips were so hungry for each other that it didn't matter where we touched as long as we were touching. I skimmed my hands across his chest, tearing at the material of the shirt and growing increasingly frustrated when it barely yielded to me.
Damn leather shirt. Why did Lucas insist on wearing clothing that was almost impossible to get off?
I disregarded how much of pervert that question made me into. We knew all too well that I had some serious issues when it came to the level of perverseness in my thoughts.
Guessing what I was up to, Lucas shifted and easily discarded his own shirt before attending to mine. I was stripped from my clothing almost instantly, shivering when the cool air of the room bathed over my heated flesh.
Thankfully, Lucas was quickly snaking over me, pressing hot kisses to my exposed abdomen and reheating my cooling skin with his touch. I sat up on my elbows, watching the way he moved over my skin, mapping and tasting it any way he could.
It was an arousing sight to say the least. I wanted to imprint it in my memory and save it for later when I was left alone and horny.
The sudden knocking at the door startled me mostly because I knew who was on the other side by the
magnitude of their essence.
“Shit,” I groaned as I quickly hid myself beneath the bedding.
I watched Lucas instantly redress himself—vampire speed proving a useful ability in such circumstances—before he was opening the door and greeting the head honcho.
“I hope I wasn't interrupting,” Victor stated with a knowing smile.
Bastard.
Victor’s eyes captured mine, glittering with mirth.
“You know you were,” Lucas responded angrily. “I assume you have come to comprehend the events as I perceived them?”
It wasn't really a question, but Victor responded nonetheless, “Yes. I also hoped I might speak with you privately as well, Lucas. On another day, perhaps?” That had my attention. I watched Victor, hoping to show an eagerness to involve myself. “This will be for Lucas and Lucas alone, Izzy. I hope you understand that there are things in which I do not wish to involve you.”
Great. That makes two now that saw me as simply a nuisance.
I was mumbling angrily as such when Victor smiled towards me and said, “You have proven yourself, time and time again, as capable, Izzy. While I do agree to some degree with what Lucas expressed, I feel that such a risk is what we all take in this. I will support whatever decision you two come to.”
Oh god. He heard the discussion. Worse, he probably knows everything that has been going on...in the bedroom. I felt sick.
I looked over to Victor while biting my lips with embarrassment.
“I have managed to close our connection at such times, Izzy, rest assured. I would never purposely impede your privacy. I may be a great many things, but a closet pervert is not one of them.”
Holy hell. He caught that, did he?
Shit.
I gave him my best apologetic face. Hopefully he'd get the message, but knowing Victor, he would.
“I am openly perverse, Izzy. No need to apologize,” Victor said in response to my thoughts.
Touché.
“I really dislike it when you respond to her thoughts,” Lucas admitted.
“I had never pegged you for the jealous sort,” Victor responded in jest. “I have discovered a great deal of new qualities in you over the past couple months that have me increasingly fascinated.”
Victor being fascinated was unnerving. Lucas' jaw had tightened, which hinted to the fact that he wasn't exactly elated by this discovery either.
Victor had a way of saying things with a smile that hid the true depth of his meaning. He was a mysterious guy to say the least. I'm pretty sure the seven hundred plus years spent with him only increased that fact to Lucas.
However, every one of my thoughts were cut short by the peeking head just behind Victor in the doorway. Cecile gracefully maneuvered her way around the head honcho before running towards me and wrapping me up into a hug, taking a good bit of the bedding with it.
“Izzy,” she breathed joyfully, “you are alive!”
Wait, what?
“Alive?” I questioned before her hold tightened and effectively squeezed the words out of me.
“Oui,” she replied still holding fast. “I saw you, in that room, on the floor...” she trailed off, pulling away finally. I saw the tears trailing from her eyes and was startled by them. “The man in the mask, he showed your lifeless body to us. How are you alive?”
My lifeless body. How did he manage that? An illusion? It must have been convincing enough to Cecile and Gustave.
“You say that you saw Izzy seemingly deceased?” Victor questioned from behind us.
I was still very naked under these sheets and silently hoped that they would finish this conversation somewhere else so I could get dressed. I was interested to find out what Cecile and Gustave had seen, but I also really hoped to be less naked while I found out.
“Oui,” she said simply while nodding her head.
Guess clothes would have to wait.
The tears still streamed pathways down her cheek, which made me want to reach out for her and hold her tightly to reassure her I was still very much alive. However, I didn't want to flash the room or anyone else who might come to see what was going on.
“An illusion?” Lucas questioned.
Victor was rubbing his chin thoughtfully before he came to some sort of understanding. “An illusion of this magnitude would have only been accomplished by someone extremely gifted in that sort of classification magic. An illusionist harboring an insurmountable power. There are only a few people that would fit such a description.”
“Any of those angels?” I inquired, forgetting my nakedness for a moment.
“One,” Victor stated with a frown.
“Tristan,” Lucas supplied gravely.
Victor nodded his head. “He would be the only one capable of such an ability.”
“I didn't imagine that creating an illusion would be so difficult,” I commented idly.
Victor glanced at me with a small smile. “Illusions are easy enough. However, this was not an illusion that was created only in image, Izzy. This person somehow managed to create a carbon copy of you with enough of your essence to appear as though it was, in fact, you. Shortly after we die, there is a small amount of energy still within us. This energy is faded enough that we can determine that the individual has passed but enough to detect their identity.
“When Cecile and Gustave stumbled upon this creation, there was a faded essence that was just as yours is. This feat is not easily accomplished. Only someone with a great deal of expertise and power could accomplish it. From Cecile's memory of the events, it was how they managed to catch them unawares.”
It all made sense.
Now that we identified that it was Tristan, we could plan our attack. However, we still weren't sure why he was doing such a thing.
There was a heaviness in the pit of my stomach. I had spent time with this man and had even come to like him.
Why didn't he attack me when he had me there? Was the Sicarius his doing? Why did he rescue me?
Sighing, I asked, “What do we do now?”
“Do not concern yourself with this,” Victor replied coolly. “I have an idea for what our course of action should be, but we must tread lightly. He is a formidable foe. We cannot risk underestimating his network, so for now, we will hold until I discover the level of corruption in the council.
“He may not be acting alone, and as I have been in close relations with him for a very long time, it will be easy for him to detect when there is something amiss. I need to continue as normal as not to alert him to our discovery.
“In the meantime, I will have you helping the Guardian group out here in London. They have reported a disturbance of demons recently and requested back up. It will be a perfect facade for keeping Cecile and Gustave here in London without arousing suspicion.”
Though Victor was still smiling, I knew that he must be dealing with a great deal of emotions at such a betrayal. There was no way that this didn't affect him to some degree.
Forgetting that he heard my thoughts, I silently wished that his pain would end soon.
Victor's eyes watched me from their place in the doorway. You really are quite the woman, Izzy. Should Lucas somehow manage to ruin things between you, I would like you to consider me an option. I would be undoubtedly honored to stand beside you.
Holy hell.
I was blushing pure crimson at the immensity of the words and how they were nearly whispered in my head, speaking as a lover would. Lucas, being the ever observant boyfriend, had somehow concluded the reason for my sudden embarrassment and gazed sharply at Victor.
“You are overstepping your bounds, Victor,” he growled.
Victor laughed richly, patting Lucas' shoulder in reassurance. “I only wish to offer the lady all of her options should one...not deliver.”
There was that infamous Victor glint.
I was shamefully flattered by it. I really was turning into a hussie. These handsome men were wearing on my morality.
“I will l
eave you and return tomorrow after you have once more settled,” Victor announced. “Adan will arrive shortly as he has also been tasked to help with the disturbance reported here. I will keep in contact with Izzy in regards to anything that pertains to the Bleeding Stars. As for the disturbance here, I shall expect a full report once you have spoken to the local Guardian group.” Victor disappeared, and it was all I could do not to breathe a sigh of relief.
Cecile smiled at me, wiping some of the stray tears from her eyes. “I shall go check on Gustave.”
“When Prince Charming wakes up,” I called out to her as she closed in on the door, “send him straight to me.”
“Of course,” she replied with a giggle. “He would do it even without my having told him to.”
When everyone besides Lucas and I finally left the room, it was all I could do not to dive out of the bed and dress myself quickly. This thought was stopped dead in its tracks when Lucas made his way over almost instantly and gathered me up tightly to himself.
“What were you discussing with Victor?” he asked firmly.
“Jealous?” I teased.
Lucas pressed a rough kiss to my lips, making me go weak in the knees and forget what I had intended to say. “And if I was? Would you ease my worries and disclose just what was said?”
“I might need more convincing,” I replied, my voice dropping as seductively as I could manage.
One side of Lucas's mouth edged upwards with interest. “And how might I convince you?” he asked in a deep, husky timber.
His mouth kissed the line of my jaw and followed it slowly towards my lips before taking them in one swift movement. I was pressed backwards, lifted, and then quickly deposited on my back against the sheets. He straddled the opening of my legs, reminding me just how clothed he was to my naked.
“Too many clothes,” I mentioned with frustration. “I can't be the only naked person in this room.”
Lucas smiled with amusement. “That would be very unkind indeed.”
He slowly stripped his shirt, giving me a front row seat to the land of muscles. I almost licked my lips.