Eternally

by Maureen Child

  Steeling herself for the rest of the story, Julie asked, “What exactly is a Guardian?”

  “A warrior. In the end, that is all we are.” He shifted his gaze from hers to the lights of the city stretching out into the horizon. Walking to the roof’s edge, he planted both hands on the battlements and leaned forward, staring off into the night.

  “We are given a choice,” he said, his voice almost lost in the soft sigh of wind, “at the moment of death. We can choose to remain dead, allow our spirits—our souls—to move on. To go to whatever waits for us…or, we can choose to continue to fight.”

  “To continue…how?” She could hardly believe she’d asked the question. Was she believing this? Did she really think that Kieran was a long-dead warrior looking for new battles?

  He glanced at her over his shoulder and his pale eyes seemed dark, somehow. There was no light there. No warmth. There was only…

  acceptance. Of his destiny? Of her disbelief?

  She couldn’t be sure.

  “We become Immortals.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “Is it?” He spun around to face her, moving so quickly, she hardly saw the movement. Then he leaned one hip against the cold, stone wall and studied her again.

  He looked like a man who belonged in a castle. His broad, bare chest gleamed in the half-light. His too-long hair whipped in the breeze and his hard eyes were narrowed into slits. “The castle you saw when we kissed. Black stone. Glittering in the sun.”

  “Yes.” She saw it again as clearly as if she’d been born there.

  “Edinburgh Castle,” he whispered reverently. “A fortress like no other. It looks as though it were clawed out of the stone by the hand of God Himself. Nearby, the sea crashes against the rocks and the ships you saw firing on the castle were English.” He said that one word with venom.

  “While my Queen was gone, the English attacked.”

  “Your Queen?” Julie whispered.

  “Mary,” he said, straightening up in an instinctive posture of respect,

  “Queen of Scots.”

  “Oh, my God…”

  He turned from her, stared out over the light-dusted darkness and continued, more to himself than to her. “The battle was fierce. Unexpected. We fought bravely, but the cannonade from the sea defeated us. We couldn’t withstand the continuous volleys from the ships.”

  Julie was lost in the haunted sorrow of his voice. He spoke in an agonized whisper that tore at her heart even as it defied belief.

  “I directed the men,” he said, his hands now fisting on the cold stone. “We held and the sounds of swords clashing and the ringing of blows on armor was almost like music. Wild, vicious music. And then it was over.” His voice hardened, his jaw tightened and his right fist punched the wall as though it were the enemy who had once defeated him.

  “How is this possible?” she asked, not really expecting an answer.

  “An English knight charged through the fallen Scots, kicking their bodies out of his way as he ran to me. I grabbed my sword…” He stared into space, seeing it all again.

  Just as Julie was. Her brain replayed the images she’d seen only moments before. She watched the knight charging across bodies, feet sliding in pools of blood that gleamed on the black stone. She saw him lift his sword and bring it down onto Kieran.

  She felt Kieran’s shock as he blocked that first swipe with the edge of his own sword, his opponent’s blade just barely catching the side of his head. Watched him sidestep the first blow only to stagger in shock and pain before falling beneath the second when his attacker shouted “For Madeline!”

  “I died that day,” he said tightly, turning to look at her, burning his gaze into hers, daring her to not believe. “It was May, in the year of Our Lord, 1573.”

  9

  T hough her stomach was twisting and turning with the flurry of nerves and confusion rattling there, Julie looked into his eyes and knew that he believed what he was telling her. Truth or not, it was clearly his truth.

  “I don’t even know what to say,” she finally admitted and silently added or think.

  “You need say nothing,” he countered and the rigid set of his jaw tightened. “I don’t tell you any of this to win your pity. Or your derision—”

  “Kieran…”

  “Don’t deny it,” he said, the words clipped, “I can read your disbelief in your eyes. Though you saw it all clearly enough when we kissed.”

  “I did, you’re right.” Julie took a step closer to him, drawn by some inexorable need to touch him. She laid one hand on his arm and felt the muscles beneath her palm bunch. “I don’t understand how that happens. Why it happens. But how can I believe that what you’re saying is real? Immortals? Demons? It’s like a bad TV series.”

  Moving with a liquid speed she didn’t see coming, Kieran grabbed hold of her waist and pulled her flush against him. His chest was like iron and other parts of his body were just as hard.

  “Woman,” he said with a tired shake of his head, “you ask for answers and when you get them, you discount them. Hear me now. This is all you need to know. I am a Guardian. I hunt demons that escape their own dimensions through portals into ours. I return them to their hell. It is my duty. It is who and what I am.”

  The heat of his body slid into hers, driving away any chill brought on by the wind or his words. His strength surrounded her, his eyes demanded she listen. But believe? How could she? It was all too fantastic. And yet…

  “There are portals between dimensions?” she murmured, wondering why one more unbelievable statement should surprise her at all.

  “There are.”

  “How many?” she asked, hiding her own confusion by falling back on her instincts to gather information. “Dimensions, I mean.”

  “Infinite,” he said and his hands moved on her back, his strong fingers kneading her flesh through the silky material of the shirt he’d loaned her.

  “And portals?”

  “As many. Or more.”

  The one problem with asking questions was that sometimes, you didn’t like the answers.

  “This is too much,” she said and heard the tremble in her own voice. Though she could admit, at least to herself, the tremors rocking her had as much to do with his touch as what he was saying. “How can you expect me to believe all of this?”

  “Believe or don’t. It doesn’t matter,” he said, looming over her until Julie had to tip her head back just to keep looking into his eyes. His grip on her tightened, holding her to him so closely, Julie could barely draw a breath.

  “Then why am I here?” she countered quickly. “If it doesn’t matter what I believe, why would you tell me any of this?”

  “Because we are ‘connected,’” he admitted and he didn’t look very happy about it.

  “The telepathy thing?”

  “Yes.”

  His hands on her back moved, sliding up and down the length of her spine, kindling fires that burned low and deep. Was he trying to seduce her, soothe her, or distract her? All of the above were working. She sighed, closed her eyes and swayed into him.

  “So you can’t do it with everyone?”

  “No.”

  His thumb and forefinger unhooked her bra with an ease that spoke of experience. She sighed as his hands swept around her back to her front to cup her breasts in his big, warm, palms. Wow. Her blood hummed, her body jolted with anticipation. His fingers teased her hard nipples and the sweet sensation shot straight down to her middle.

  “Oh, my…” She swallowed hard, shook her head and tried to keep thinking, despite the distraction. Think, Julie… But it was so hard to think with his hands on her. “Why can you do it with me?”

  Still tormenting her breasts, he dipped his head and tasted her throat.

  “Stop talking,” he muttered, breath dusting her skin. Lips, teeth, tongue, explored her flesh and sent tendrils of expectation flooding her body. Her brain heated up, thoughts melting as she gave in to the need near
ly strangling her. How had she let this happen? How had she allowed herself to be so distracted?

  Oh, yeah, she thought as he dipped one hand down, farther, farther, until it slipped beneath the waistband of her jeans, under the thin elastic of her panties and reached down to cup her heat. That’s how. She grabbed hold of his shoulders, knowing she should push him away until she had all the answers she needed. But it had been way too long since she’d had an orgasm that wasn’t centered around her shower massage. He rubbed the hard core of her center until fireworks exploded behind her eyes. Her knees went weak and she wobbled unsteadily. She moaned softly and moved into his hand, wanting more, wanting him to touch her inside. She held on as if for her life, fingers gripping his bare shoulders tightly. Her head tipped back and his mouth continued its gentle assault. One hand on her breast, thumb brushing over her hard nipple again and again, one hand down the front of her jeans, his fingers caressing one small, oh, so sensitive spot.

  “Kieran…” She sucked in air as need built and fired within. Spirals of something delicious unwound inside her and she rocked her hips into his hand eagerly.

  Every inch of her body was alive and buzzing. Her stomach fisted, her throat tightened as she felt the waves of desire rise higher and higher within. And just as release was so close she could taste it, he slid his hand lower, dipping first one finger and then another into her hot, slick depths. All she wanted was to strip off her clothes, stretch out on the stone roof and have Kieran’s body drive into hers. How could he make her feel all of this with a touch? With a kiss?

  How was it possible to need so much?

  He shifted, lifting his head to look down at her. He moved his hand from her breast to the back of her head. Threading his fingers through her hair, he pulled her head back and watched her eyes as she trembled and shook in his grasp.

  “Please,” she murmured, seeing him through a haze of passion that nearly blinded her. “Oh God, please…”

  “Come,” he ordered, a deep-voiced demand issued through gritted teeth.

  “Come and let me watch you.”

  She stared into his eyes, where fires flashed in those pale blue depths. Her thighs parted, her hips lifted, welcoming his touch as his hand stroked her harder, faster. Inside and out, he claimed her, rubbing, caressing, tormenting, pushing her to the edge and finally, finally, over that edge.

  She shouted his name as her body exploded and as she gasped for air, he took her mouth again, plunging his tongue inside. She met his hunger with a rich new need of her own. She’d never known anything like this before. As he kissed her, she saw his thoughts again and this time, the images were of her. Naked, sprawled across a sumptuous bed, with Kieran atop her, driving his body into hers until they were both breathless. And even while her body sizzled with an incredible release, a fresh, even stronger desire clamored in its wake.

  “That,” he said when he finally tore his mouth from hers in a breathless rush, “is why we are linked. There is a bond between us. A destined bond.”

  “Destined?” she said as he slowly released her and stood her on her own shaky feet.

  “Our minds, our bodies. When we join, we strengthen each other.” He smoothed her hair back from her face with a surprisingly gentle touch. “I was not looking for you,” he admitted, his voice now as quiet as the wind still drifting across the roof. “But you are here and I cannot deny it any longer.”

  Julie’s brain was still buzzing from the force of her climax and here he was trying to have a conversation. For Pete’s sake, she couldn’t just turn passion on and off like that. But, she was pretty sure she’d heard him clearly. “We strengthen each other?”

  “Yes.”

  “So when I see your thoughts, you see…”

  “Yours, yes,” he said, then added, “you miss your family. They are too far away and you don’t see them as often as you would like.”

  Julie blinked up at him. True. Her parents and her younger brother were still in Ohio and being apart from them was harder than she had thought it would be. But having him “see” that reality in her mind was disconcerting to say the least.

  “I had no family,” he said softly, almost wistfully and it caught her off guard.

  “No brothers? Sisters?”

  “They died as children.”

  “I’m sorry.” What else could she say?

  “Times were harder then. Life much shorter.”

  “In ancient Scotland.”

  “You believe me?” He asked this with the smallest curve of his lips.

  “I’m not sure,” Julie admitted. But she’d seen too many of his memories not to be more than halfway convinced. They were clear and sharp images of a long gone time. Images that only a man who had lived them could produce.

  “You are…more than I expected,” he said and lifted one hand to brush her windblown hair back from her face.

  “There is a softness in you that calls to me.”

  “I’m not a softie,” she protested, proud of her innate strength, her ability to take care of herself. To rebound from disaster.

  “Softness in a woman is nothing to feel shame over.”

  “Maybe in your world,” she said and turned her face into the wind. God, was she really starting to accept that he was more than four hundred years old? Could her mind actually bend far enough to acknowledge that possibility?

  And if she did, how much more would she have to accept? “But here,” she continued, “if a woman wants to get along, she has to be stronger, harder, faster, smarter than any of the men she works with.”

  “I’m not a stranger to your time, you know,” he said with that all-too-brief smile on his mouth again.

  Julie wanted to bite it.

  “I have watched as the world changed. And some of those changes are good ones.”

  “Gee, thanks.” Shaking her head, she looked into his eyes and said, “I’m standing here, looking at you, feeling your hand on my cheek and all the time, I know this can’t be real. I hear you say you’ve looked into my mind. I know I’ve seen into yours, but it’s impossible.”

  The frown she knew so much better than his smile reappeared briefly.

  “You would still try to deny what lies between us?”

  “The destiny thing you talked about you mean?” Julie sucked in a gulp of cold night air and shifted her gaze to the distant jewel-like lights of the city. “How can I not? I don’t believe in destiny,” she said tightly. “I believe we make our own choices. Our own fates.”

  “Then why do I know so much about you?” he countered, gently turning her face with his fingertips until she was looking at him again. “How do I know you love ice cream and hate sushi? I agree with you there, by the way. Raw fish cannot be appetizing. I know that you enjoy cold weather and you hate being hot. That you prefer rainy days to sunshine. That you dream of writing books, but haven’t the confidence yet to try.”

  “Stop,” she whispered, as a cold chill tiptoed up her spine. Too much, her mind screamed. He knew too much. How could he know all of this? How could he know her so well?

  “And,” he added, “how do I know that the man you thought you loved betrayed you?”

  Julie went stiff as a pole.

  “You are better off without him.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Your husband,” he said, his voice no more than a soft rumble of sound in the night. “He was a cheat and a liar. He wasn’t worthy of you.”

  “You saw…” Mortified, Julie just stared at him, unsure of just what she could say. Thoughts of Evan flooded her and in a blink of time, she compared him to this man standing in front of her. And Evan came out pretty badly in the comparison.

  Kieran MacIntyre was a different kind of man entirely. Strong and sure of himself, he moved through his life with purpose, doing what he considered his duty whether he wanted to or not. Evan had drifted through life, just as he’d drifted through their marriage.

  “Your father never liked him,” Kieran said, then added, “a
wise man.”

  “Okay, knock it off,” Julie countered quickly. “I’m not going to stand here with you prancing through my mind picking out little pieces of my past to talk about.”

  “I do not prance.”

  She ignored that and the offended look on his face. “Oh and while we’re at it, I don’t ever want to talk about my marriage again. Okay?”

  “Agreed,” he said amiably enough with a nod of his head. “And in return, I ask that you not discuss the day of my death again.”

  “Deal.” God, she had just made one of the weirdest bargains of her life. You don’t brain peep on me and I won’t on you. How the hell was this happening?

  “I’ll take you back inside now,” he said, cupping her elbow with one big hand.

  She dug her heels in. “Why?”

  “I have to go out.”

  “To hunt for the demon.”

  “Yes.” He steered her toward the stairs and his strength pretty much ensured her cooperation. “You’ll be safe here.”

  She looked behind her at the darkness surrounding the castle…at the lights from the city…at the half-moon glowing in the sky. Safe?

  Safe from the demon—if there was one—maybe. Safe from Kieran MacIntyre…she wasn’t so sure.

  Kieran moved through the house riding a wave of irritation and annoyance that was choking him. He hadn’t meant to take her like that. To touch her, lose himself in her. Hadn’t meant to dip so deeply into her mind that he saw her family, their love for her and each other. To feel that awareness of family and to be reminded once more that he himself had never known such closeness. Such intimacy.

  In more than four hundred years, he had never allowed himself to become attached to a mortal. Their lives were too short. To open himself to friendship, affection, would have invited pain. And he’d known enough of that in his own lifetime to last him an eternity.

  Yet, just an hour ago he’d broken his own code with Julie Carpenter. And knowing that his power had grown and strengthened because of it only fed the rage engulfing him.

  Because of what he’d received from their moments in the darkness, even here, in his house, he could feel the demon’s energy signature. So he knew that his time with Julie was worth whatever irritation was sparking inside him. If he kept Julie close, if he allowed himself to develop this connection with her, then the demon would be caught that much sooner. Fewer people would die.