Defending Kyra (Guardians Book 1)

by Susan Hayes

  “I love you.” She spoke without thinking, offering him her heart with those three words. The moment they were spoken her heart twisted and all her doubts came screaming up from the back of her mind, only to be drowned out by his answer.

  “I love you, too, Kyra.” A smile transformed his face and gentled the dark edge to his features. “My Kyra.” A whisper of possessiveness entered his voice and his smile turned into a smug grin. His hips moved, and her entire body rocked with the force of his possession, his thrusts gaining in power as he seemed to lose himself completely in the moment. So thick, so hard, his cock slid along her inner channel again and again. The sound of their lovemaking filled the room, harsh breaths and the liquid slide and slap of flesh meeting flesh.

  Bound and bowed beneath him, Kyra let the experience wash through her. Never before had she given up control. Never had she let anyone give without the need to reciprocate, to balance the scales. Pleasure built on pleasure, and she let it all go, indulging herself in every wanton moment, feeling freer and more alive than she had ever been.

  She felt him tense, his cock growing impossibly harder and his thrusts wilder as Gareth teetered on the edge of control. His hand left her hip and reached beneath her, pinching her clit and sending her rocketing into another orgasm two thrusts before he found his own release. Lights exploded behind Kyra’s eyelids, a rush of searing heat following in the wake of her climax, radiating outward until even the tips of her fingers felt as though they were glowing. Throughout it all, aftershocks of pleasure rippled through her, and she collapsed onto the bed with a final, wordless moan of satisfaction.

  “That sums it up for both of us,” Gareth murmured, his own voice still rough and deep from their love play. He lifted his weight slowly off of Kyra and came down beside her, his hands immediately reaching up to free her from her impromptu bonds. Once she was free, he gathered her close and kissed her with more tenderness than she had thought him capable of. Like the softest of rains after a summer storm, his lips caressed and lingered, promising her more than words could ever say. She cuddled in close, draping her arm over his ribs as she returned his kiss with equal tenderness and soft emotion.

  Finally, they settled back into the pillows, and Gareth tugged up a portion of the quilt to cover them. One of his arms stretched out beneath her head, and she settled into the crook of his shoulder. “Does blood bonding work both ways?” She finally broke the silence with her question.

  “I don’t think so.” Gareth’s brow furrowed slightly as he looked down at her. “Why?”

  “I was hoping I could blame all this on pheromones, too.” She gestured to the two of them entwined beneath the covers.

  He barked with laughter and planted a kiss on her brow. “This isn’t pheromones, sweetheart. Not for you and not just for me.” His eyes darkened, and he stared into her eyes. “I’ve been dreaming about you since I was a barely out of my teens. It’s taken me years to find you.”

  She felt her eyes widen, and her mouth opened, but for a moment no words came out as she tried to pick out a single train of thought from the myriad of questions suddenly whirling around her head. “Dreaming? I thought I was dreaming of you, not the other way around.”

  “You didn’t read the file on me yet, did you?” he asked. “If you had, you’d have noticed my dad’s a psychic, and so is my sister. She got more of his gifts than my mom’s, which is why she isn’t a hunter. Her talents are better used elsewhere. I don’t have much of his ability, but sometimes I get gut feelings, a sense of what’s to come. I’ve only ever had one vision, one recurring dream. You.” Gareth stopped and smiled at her. “You all right with hearing this? Or have you had enough weirdness for now?”

  “I want to know why you’ve been dreaming of me. And why I’ve been dreaming of you.”

  “I can answer part of that, but only part.” He settled deeper into the bed and started explaining. “I don’t normally get prophetic dreams, only ever had the one. I never saw your face, it was always impossibly dark. But I could hear your voice and there was always the lingering scent of cinnamon and spice. Just before I met you the first time, the dream changed, and I heard you tell me I’d find you soon. And I did.”

  Kyra smiled up at him. “That’s a lot more romantic than pheromones and blood bonding. If we have kids, I vote we tell them that story instead. I only dreamed of you twice, the night of the first murder, and then again the next night. It was the same as you, it was so dark I couldn’t see anything, but I could hear music playing. I thought I was in the nightclub. You were there, I heard you. You found me, kissed me and then you said ‘soon’ and disappeared. The first time I was daydreaming, the next time it was a full-on dream, but then I think Vlad came and made me dream about him instead.”

  “Maybe you have a touch of the gift, too,” he murmured and leaned in to kiss her thoroughly before continuing his train of thought. “Or maybe the powers that be were just letting you know someone was coming to protect you.”

  “Gareth, I want—” She stopped and reorganized her thoughts. “I don’t need to wait for this to be over to know I want to be with you. Always. So whatever it is you need to do to make this bonding permanent? I think you should do it.”

  With satisfaction and possessiveness written all over his face, Gareth nodded. “All right.” He kissed her gently and then cleared his throat as a sheepish look took over his face. “Now comes the confession. I don’t actually know how it’s done. For vampires, it’s a blood thing. The simple version is this. If they drink yours, it forms a connection. If you drink theirs, it causes a conversion into what they are. I assume that’s how it works with my kind, but we’re not blood drinkers, so I am not sure. And since it’s very rare, I never bothered to look it up.”

  “Tomorrow, first thing, we’re finding out,” Kyra informed him. “I have no doubt your family has looked it up already and will be quite happy to fill us in.” They both laughed at that, and somewhere between the laughter and the warmth and the softness of the bed, Kyra fell into a deep and dreamless sleep, both of them holding tight to the other.

  17

  GARETH WOKE to a booming roar and the sound of glass shattering, his ears ringing and his throat thick with dust and acrid smoke. He reached out for Kyra, and icy panic gripped him when found nothing but empty space where she’d been lying. “Kyra!” He roared her name as he leaped out of bed, struggling to see through the smoke that cloaked the room, his hand already on the hilt of the silver-bladed sword he’d left by the bed. His senses screamed, warning him that a vampire was near. He fought the urge to go blindly searching through the smoke for Kyra and instead grabbed his jeans, tugging them on one-handed as he reminded himself fighting naked was never a good idea. A shadow moved to one side, and he spun to face it

  “One more step, half-breed, and I won’t let you say goodbye.” A voice slithered out of the smoky darkness. Vlad’s voice, cold as the grave and filled with insufferable smugness. “I told you I’d be coming for her. Did you really think this place was protection enough to keep me out?”

  “It should have been,” Gareth growled as the smoke cleared and the cold gleam of the setting moon streamed through a gaping hole in the outer wall. What he saw by that dim light made his heart ache and his soul scream. Kyra was hanging in Vlad’s arms, her pale limbs dangling and her throat exposed as her head hung limply over one arm. She was wearing one of Gareth’s T-shirts, one shoulder exposed where it had slid down and her legs bare past where it fell high on her thighs.

  “Maybe a century ago this might have kept me out, but now?” Vlad shook his head. “Did you think only mortals could play with the wondrous toys that fill this world you’ve built? Glyphs and wards can’t hold me back if they don’t exist.” He glanced around the shattered remains of the room they stood in. “It would seem magic isn’t proof against explosives.”

  Gareth’s fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword, feeling the familiar touch of leather and wood against his palm. “You still ha
ve to get through me.”

  The vampire’s laugh grated, glittering shards of sound that set nerves his on edge. “You’re over there, and I am here. I don’t have to go through you to leave. I simply have to step outside.” Dark eyes gleamed with malice. “But I don’t think I will leave. I’m going to take her right here and let you watch her die.”

  The door flew open, and Gareth knew without looking that his parents were the first through the door. “Get back.” He held out his hand, stopping them in their tracks. “Please, go back outside the door. There’s no room in here to fight if you all come in.”

  “All right. We’ll be here when you need us.” He heard his mother’s words and understood the unspoken message. They’d seen what was happening and would do all they could to help.

  Vlad’s eyes went blank for a split second, and then he smiled, his fangs flashing. “Since you seem to have acquired reinforcements, I called up some of my own.”

  “The redhead?” Gareth asked with forced calm. “We thought you’d turn her.”

  “Oh, you know? How disappointing. Does she?” Vlad’s gaze dropped to Kyra, still out cold in his arms. “I hope you didn’t tell her. The one coming is a gift, a servant for my new consort.”

  “Kyra’s not going to be your consort. She’s too good for you.”

  “No? I think she was made for me.” Vlad leaned down and inhaled slowly, his tongue darting out to taste the skin of Kyra’s throat. “She’s incredible, isn’t she? She was created just for me, half-breed. I’ve waited for one like her for so long.” He curled his lip and snarled. “Since your thrice-damned family took my countess from me!”

  Rubble shifted, and another shape scurried up over the ruined wall and into the room. “This is Dawn.” Vlad nodded at the redheaded arrival, who stood up and then hissed, her pale face contorted in hatred as she looked at Gareth.

  “She’s a bit temperamental, I fear. A touch unstable. She’s hungry, too. You know how they are in the beginning, always hungry, always wanting. I imagine it will be decades before Kyra’s appetites fade. For years she will be in my bed, half-breed. Craving my touch.” Vlad’s lips twisted into a leer. “Not yours.”

  Dawn sidled closer to her master and sniffed, then reached out for one of Kyra’s wrists. Vlad’s blow landed so quickly Gareth never saw it, only the effect as Dawn flew through the air and landed with a whimpering crash against the wall.

  “Not this one, she’s mine.” Vlad snarled at his thrall. “Keep him away from us.” He pointed to Gareth and then used the same hand to caress Kyra’s throat and bared shoulder.

  “Wake up now,” he crooned in a voice devoid of tenderness. “Wake up, Kyra, it’s time.” The fingers stroking her curled inward, and Vlad carved his nails into her flesh, scoring four lines down across her shoulder, leaving her bleeding.

  “You’ll pay for that,” Gareth snarled.

  PAIN. Kyra’s mind registered the sensation as she struggled to come up out of the murky darkness of sleep. Her head throbbed, and then fire tore at her skin, and she roused the rest of the way to consciousness in a flare of red agony.

  “Hello again,” a voice crooned, and air, foul and fetid as a graveyard fog filled her nostrils, nearly making her gag. She turned her head and groaned, pain splintering through her skull at even that slight movement.

  “Kyra.” She heard the broken note in Gareth’s voice and turned her head further. She struggled to smile through the pain as she saw him standing only a few feet away, and she realized whose held her.

  “Remember what you promised me,” she whispered and fought back a nearly overwhelming sense of grief at the thought of never having another day with Gareth. “And what I told you earlier tonight.” She hoped he understood, but she couldn’t bring herself to say the words again, not when she knew what pleasure it would give Vlad to know he was breaking two hearts when he took her.

  “This is all very sweet, but time grows short.” Vlad lowered her feet to the ground and she fought back a wave of dizziness as she came upright. Her back was pressed against his front, and she was pinned there by an arm that might as well have been made of steel for all she could move against it. She squirmed and then stopped in horror as the obscene proof of Vlad’s desire for her pressed tight against the small of her back. “It’s time to say goodbye to these weak fools and take your place at my side.”

  Kyra took a deep breath and lifted her eyes to Gareth’s. “This isn’t your fault, Gareth. Please remember that,” she told him and then closed her eyes as she felt icy hands tug her head to one side, exposing her throat.

  “Of course it’s his fault, little one. He should have protected you better.” Vlad’s breath stank of decay and rotting things as it fanned over her skin.

  Kyra winced as the arm around her middle crushed her to his unyielding body, and then there was nothing but the immediacy of her pain as he tore into her throat and fastened his mouth to her neck. She could feel every shuddering swallow he took, the fangs locked into her body as hot liquid flowed down her bare skin. She heard screams she knew were her own, but somehow it all seemed distant and disconnected. There was only pain and looming darkness. Far away she heard other noises, too, hisses and the meaty thump of flesh being struck and the roar of an animal enraged.

  Those noises grew louder, and in the fugue she thought she heard Gareth’s voice calling her name. She tried to answer, but something was forced against her mouth. She gagged on a thick syrupy liquid that was fouler than sewage, her mouth and nose blocked by something cold and stinking of the grave. Her stomach heaved and she felt herself falling, sliding down into an abyss so cold and dark she feared she’d never see light again. Ice water replaced the blood in her veins and she shivered as her body slowly went numb.

  Just as the darkness closed in completely, she heard Gareth’s voice again, and she latched on to that sound with every ounce of her will. She was so cold, but his voice was stronger now, and she fought to hang on to it, to him. She conjured an image of him in her mind, painting the lines of his face over the darkness again and again until her world started to lighten once more. Warmth returned and banished the ice from her veins, and she finally came back to her senses, free of the abyss that had almost claimed her.

  The first thing she heard was the vampire’s droning voice slowly forming into actual words as her world came back into focus. She could feel the floor beneath her, and she realized she was huddled at Vlad’s feet, the toes of his shoes wedged under her thigh.

  “…mine now, Harkness.” Vlad was gloating. Kyra opened her eyes and saw Gareth standing a few feet away, a sword in his hand and its blade dark with blood. There was a body between them. She could have reached out to touch it if she cared to. Red hair framed a face she’d only seen in her nightmares. Pale blue eyes stared at her unblinking, the dead woman’s cheek resting in a spreading pool of her own blood. Kyra moaned in horror and moved backward before she remembered who stood behind her.

  “Ah, she’s come back to us.” Vlad reached with one long-fingered hand, offering it to her. “Come, my dear, stand up and we’ll take our leave. I’m sorry to say Gareth killed my gift to you in some ill-conceived attempt to stop the inevitable. I promise to find you another one, soon.”

  Kyra nodded and forced herself to take Vlad’s hand, moving slowly as she came to realize that somehow she was still herself, still alive. Whatever hold Vlad should have had on her, it wasn’t there. She had survived, and now she was going to have to keep that revelation hidden from Vlad if she wanted to keep breathing.

  “I want another present, then.” She tried to sound slightly petulant and indifferent to the death and gore around her, though it nearly broke her heart to see the pain in Gareth’s eyes as he watched her. “Since he broke mine, I want it from him.”

  “What would you have of him?” Vlad asked, his tone full of dark amusement.

  “That sword.” She lifted a hand to point at the sword Gareth carried, his fingers so tight on the hilt that his knuckles
gleamed white. “I want the sword that broke my present.”

  “Give her what she wants, half-breed,” Vlad sneered. “Do it, or I’ll gorge on the blood of everyone you hold dear and leave you alone with your grief. You lost her, just as your family always loses to me. It’s your fate.”

  Kyra took a single step forward, her bare toes landing in the pool of blood that flooded the floor. She choked back a scream and forced a look of disdain onto her face as she kicked the corpse aside. Half naked and bleeding, she stood there, her heart racing as she fought to stay calm and waited for Gareth’s decision. Please, oh please, let him agree. She begged whatever gods were listening to her silent prayers. And please stop him from killing me before I can make him understand I’m still me.

  “Harm her, and I’ll kill them all so slowly you’ll be hearing their screams for years.” Vlad’s threat hissed across the distance between them.

  Gareth’s voice was the whisper of a broken man. “If I do this, you swear to leave my family alone?”

  “You have my word, half-breed. Kyra is mine now. Why would I care what the rest of you do after we’re gone? You’ll never find us.”

  Kyra watched the light go out of Gareth’s eyes and he nodded once in her direction. “Come get your gift, Kyra.”

  She straightened and walked the short distance between them with every bit of grace and power she could muster, desperate to maintain the masquerade. She could feel her feet squish inter the blood-soaked carpet, every step taking her farther away from Vlad. Finally, she stopped and reached out a blood-streaked hand for the sword, praying her trembling hands wouldn’t give her away to the monster behind her.

  Gareth tensed, his gaze still lowered to her feet, and she nearly turned and ran as she sensed him gathering his strength, preparing to keep the fatal promise he had made to her. As the hand that held the sword moved upward, he finally lifted his head and met her gaze, determination filling his haunted eyes. Knowing she had only this one moment, Kyra winked at him and mouthed the words “I love you.”