Natural-Born Protector / Saved by the Monarch

by Carla Cassidy

  He caught sight of the guardhouse through one of the windows, saw the intense fighting in front of it, spotted four of his men dead on the ground. The enemy probably thought that his men were defending him, that he was in there. It would be only a matter of time before they broke through and found Judi. If she were still alive.

  A ball of ice formed in his chest at the thought.

  The brothers ran forward, met a small group of enemy soldiers who were using their rifles as clubs. They, too, were out of bullets. The six princes with their skill at sword fighting made quick work of them.

  Then they were outside the back door of the queen’s quarters. Two dozen royal guards blocked the entry, but they immediately let the princes through. Arpad warned them of General Rossi’s betrayal.

  “Have you seen him?” Miklos asked as he passed through.

  “No, Your Highness,” one of the guards responded.

  Good. They were in time then.

  Inside the spacious parlor they entered were six more guards, along with the captain of the guards. He immediately gave his report.

  “I’m in radio contact. The tide is turning. We have the upper hand almost everywhere except at the base of the South Tower. The army base has been taken back. More loyal troops are on their way.”

  “The queen is well?” Benedek asked.

  “She’s with her ladies in waiting, sequestered in her bedroom.”

  Miklos inspected his brothers. Janos had the least amount of blood on him; the small stains on his sleeve were barely noticeable. “You check on her.” No way was he going in there with his hand dripping blood.

  Janos took off, looking eager to go. And Miklos suspected it wasn’t all about their mother. Rumor had it he had his eye on one of the queen’s ladies. He was probably as worried about her as Miklos was about Judi.

  Pain pulsed up his arm. The drug Vince had given him was clouding his mind. He regretted taking it, would rather feel the sharp edge of pain and be in full command of his faculties if they were to win this battle.

  “We’ll need weapons,” Arpad was telling the captain.

  The guards immediately shared their arsenal with the princes.

  The dozen men, the guards and the princes, were reflected in the gilded mirrors that covered the parlor’s walls, giving the impression of a much larger force Miklos wished were real.

  Janos came back, reporting that the queen was well, given the circumstances. She was aware of what was going on to some extent, but was being shielded from the severity of the fight. “Dr. Arynak is with her.”

  “You stay with her, too. She might need you,” Miklos told his brothers. “I’m going to the South Tower.”

  “Collecting your princess?” Lazlo wiggled his eyebrows. “How charmingly old-fashioned. Prince Charming riding to the rescue.”

  His brothers were all grinning and flashing him looks full of meaning. Secretly, they were all probably happy that he was the first to lose his freedom and not one of them, instead. He had thought of it in those terms when he’d first been given news of Judi’s imminent arrival to the country, but his opinion had changed drastically since.

  Istvan, the cultural anthropologist, was mumbling something about mating rituals in different cultures. In response, Arpad made some lip-smacking noises.

  Juveniles, every last one of them. God help the monarchy. But when Miklos moved toward the door, they were right behind him.

  “You stay,” he said. “Especially you.” He glared at Arpad.

  “Just walking you to the door.” His older brother humored him.

  But they all walked out with him.

  Janos flashed a reassuring grin. “We’ll just walk you to the end of the hallway.”

  Which was a blatant lie. They had no intention of letting him go alone. Miklos was sure of that, but didn’t have time to argue with them.

  The rest of the royal guard stood in front of the main entrance of the queen’s quarters. Some wanted to go with the princes, but Arpad categorically refused. They were to stay and protect the queen and the ladies of the court.

  The princes got as far as the top of the stairs before they were first fired upon. His heart nearly stopped when Arpad went down.

  Miklos shot back, holding the attackers at bay. “Take him back,” he yelled at Janos. “He’s the damn crown prince.” Dammit. This was not supposed to happen. Shoulder-shot, he registered. “Make a compress!”

  Janos and Istvan took Arpad back. He looked more frustrated than in pain, even though blood was running down his arm in rivulets.

  “I’m good,” he said. “I can still go.”

  But his siblings weren’t impressed. All Arpad could do was shoot Miklos a dirty look as the other two forcibly dragged him off.

  Miklos forged forward, Lazlo and Benedek behind him. A businessman race-car driver and an architect. The two youngest of the brothers, the twins. If anything happened to them on his watch, his mother was never going to forgive him.

  He used the rifle he had received from the royal guard, then his sword when he was close enough to the enemy. He had always been the best swordsman among the brothers.

  They fought their way down to the ground level, only meeting small pockets of resistance. Bodies littered the stairs. The courtyard was where the fighting was at its fiercest. They threw themselves into the melee, loyal soldiers immediately grouping around them.

  He glanced up to the South Tower. He still couldn’t see Judi, nor could he see any of his men up there anymore. He needed to figure out what had happened to them.

  He uttered a fierce cry and charged into the battle.

  MIKLOS’S MEN HEADED down the stairs the second they saw him come from the main building. Judi was kept protected at the back.

  He was still alive. He was still alive. She kept repeating that to herself. She just about had a heart attack when he’d disappeared on the other side of the roof earlier. She’d thought that he had fallen, so she’d spent the last hour imagining him lying broken on cobblestones somewhere below.

  But he was in the castle yard, fighting. Still alive.

  There were only nine of his platoon left. She could barely stand that thought, knowing all the rest had died for her. The loss was inconceivable. They had gone one by one into the staircase to hold the enemy back from reaching the top of the tower.

  They were pushing that enemy back now. They met with Miklos in the nearly collapsed guardhouse. He had a fierce-looking sword in his left hand, like a hero of old, and was using that to fight. When he saw her, he seemed to gain new strength. He cut down the few enemies that still stood between them.

  Then they were moving outside, back toward the savage fighting in the yard. The men formed a circle around her. The battle was in its final stages, everyone bloody and exhausted.

  “Give me a gun. I demand a gun!” she yelled.

  The men ignored her.

  “Take the rifle.” Mikos offered the weapon slung across his right shoulder. She had to slip it off, as he had a sword in one hand, and the other one wasn’t working just now. It was ready to go; all she had to do was squeeze the trigger. Which she did, aiming at a soldier who was shooting at their small group from the top of the castle gate. She shot until she saw him tumble.

  Endless minutes elapsed before their group passed through the bloodshed and reached the main building. Loyal troops who were pushing the enemy back from the ground floor immediately formed a shield around them.

  “The castle is three-quarters ours again, Your Highnesses,” one of them said, and Judi realized that at least some of the men with Miklos were his brothers.

  When she looked closer, she realized that two looked exactly alike. The royal twins, she thought, recognizing them at last. They were both incredibly handsome. The tabloids hadn’t done them justice.

  That anyone would risk his life for her boggled her mind to start with, but that royal princes would be running to her rescue…It seemed beyond the realm of possibility.

  “My br
others Lazlo,” Miklos introduced the one who had a slight limp, “and Benedek.”

  The architect, she thought, and was immediately charmed when they apologized that they were too bloody to kiss her hand. Gentlemen in the middle of bloody murder. They sure were princes.

  The whole group was marching up the stairs. She tried not to squirm and be too embarrassed as the twins openly checked her out and silently communicated with each other.

  Then Miklos stopped in front of a gilded door. “These are my quarters,” he told her. “You go and check on Arpad,” he said to his brothers.

  Half the soldiers who’d followed them in stayed with Miklos, the other half went with the other princes.

  Then the richly painted, twelve-foot-high doors in front of her swung open and the opulence of the place left her speechless. They were in a large receiving room filled with the most beautiful furniture, the twenty-foot-high ceiling soaring above, a ten-foot fireplace on the wall opposite them. The walls were hung with tapestries that depicted hunting scenes. The whole room was done in silver and brown with royal blue used as the accent color.

  Everything was incredibly masculine and breathtakingly elegant.

  The quiet beauty of the room was a complete contrast to the raging battle in the courtyard, to the grime on both herself and Miklos, to the bloody bandage on his hand. Since she’d entered, she had a feeling that she didn’t belong here. But right at this moment, Miklos looked like he didn’t quite belong, either.

  It made her feel better.

  She had little time to admire her surroundings, however, or to relax. The next second she was in Miklos’s arms, and he was kissing her.

  His passion was hot and fierce. It possessed her. She had never been as happy or willing to give herself. All her fear, all the stress of the last couple of days, disappeared and released a huge wave of energy that turned into sexual energy between them.

  She wanted him with the same fervor that he wanted her. Right now, right here. On the floor, even; she didn’t care.

  But he picked her up, and long moments passed before she remembered his injured arm and began to protest. By that time they were in his bedroom and he was laying her on his enormous royal bed.

  His mouth possessed hers. She gave herself to him. Would it be so terrible to be married to me? he’d asked not long ago. Not if it would be like this. She wanted him. She couldn’t remember wanting any other man so much.

  She ran her hands up his strong arms, over his back, impatient for more. She wanted to feel his full weight on her as he covered her.

  But he didn’t join her on the bed.

  “Rest,” he told her when he pulled away, breathing as hard as she was.

  Fevered tension stretched between them. Rest was the last thing on either of their minds. She could still feel his lips crushing down on hers, and she wanted more. She wanted him to hold her, wanted to hold him until the reality that they were both alive had a chance to sink in.

  “It’s not safe to let our guard down. Not yet,” he said with frustration clear in his voice. With effort, he pulled back from the bed.

  She tried to get her racing heart under control.

  “There’s a bathroom through there.” He pointed to another door. “You can clean up if you want.”

  “Your hand?”

  “It’ll be fine for a little longer yet.”

  “No, it won’t! Miklos, please listen to me. This is senseless.”

  “My people need me.”

  “They’ll need you even more after this is all over. Let the soldiers finish.”

  “I’m a soldier,” he reminded her.

  “You’re an injured man. You’re a prince. You have a duty to stay alive, dammit.”

  A pained smile played at the corner of his lips. “Chancellor Hansen would have said the same thing.” His face clouded at the mention of the name.

  He went back for his rifle, which she’d dropped when they’d come in, and brought it to her. “Lock the door behind me and don’t let anyone in unless you hear my voice. The guards will stay outside. If anyone comes through that door, don’t ask questions, just shoot them.”

  “You can’t be going back to the battle.” Desperation pushed her off the bed at last.

  He bent to kiss her again, briefly this time, as if not trusting himself.

  “Don’t go. Didn’t that guy say that they had three-quarters of the castle back? Please don’t leave me. I couldn’t stand if anything happened to you,” she admitted.

  His gaze swirled with dark heat. But he turned from her anyway.

  “What happened to your family?” she asked as it suddenly occurred to her that she’d only seen two of his brothers.

  He hesitated, then turned back. Warmth filled his eyes. “My mother is well-protected. My brothers are a rough lot. They can take care of themselves.”

  And so could he. She knew that, but it didn’t make watching him go any easier. “Be careful. Stay safe. Come back to me.”

  “I plan on it.”

  On his way out, he walked to the bathroom to check it. And from the way he suddenly froze, she immediately knew that something was terribly wrong.

  Chapter Ten

  Judi took a step back, gripping the gun hard, fighting the urge to hyperventilate.

  Miklos backed away, too. A man followed him out of the bathroom. His uniform told her who he was: the general. The man had his gun aimed at Miklos’s head. The scene was enough to stop her racing heart midbeat.

  “It wasn’t suppose to happen this way. It was supposed to go quickly and quietly,” the man said, then added, “You were supposed to be spared.”

  She had no idea what the guy was talking about, but Miklos’s eyes hardened.

  “You thought you could use me after you killed my family?” he asked

  “If we had a royal on our side, the royalists would have been appeased. It would have been the easiest way. You would have lost your title, but you could have gotten a high-enough post in the new cabinet.”

  Miklos’s whole body was tense as he watched the man. He looked ready to spring forward, and she prayed that he wouldn’t. No matter how quick he was, a bullet from the general’s pistol would be quicker.

  The man watched Miklos with mild regret on his face. “I always loved you like a son.” He shook his head. “You should have been the crown prince. I could have made that work. None of this would have happened.”

  “You mean if I were the crown prince, you might have let me become king and tried to rule through me. We had a close relationship, which you never had with Arpad.” Miklos’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

  The general nodded.

  Tension was so thick in the room she could hardly breathe. She could do something, she told herself. She had a gun. She should do something.

  But neither man paid any attention to her, as if they’d discounted her altogether. Miklos to keep the general’s attention off her, she suspected, and the general because he correctly assessed the situation and knew that even without a weapon, Miklos was the more dangerous opponent.

  Didn’t take a genius to figure that out. He could probably see the rifle wavering with each tremor that ran down her arm.

  Anger rolled off Miklos in waves. “So this is where Arpad’s near misses came from. It’s why his plane almost went down last month, isn’t it? And that boating accident, too, had been planned?”

  “Those were fully investigated and ruled accidents.” The general’s thin lips stretched into a syrupy smile.

  “Investigated by a team you recommended,” Miklos shot back and charged forward.

  “Stop! Nobody moves!” Judi shouted and took one step forward, pointing the rifle at the general, wondering if she should shoot a warning round into the ceiling. Could she damage some priceless fresco, and hope that history would forgive her? She could and she would, she decided.

  The general looked more amused than scared. “Drop your weapon. You’re more likely to hit him than me.”

  H
e was right. Could she toss the gun to Miklos? She glanced at his damaged right hand. No way to know how good a catch he was with his left. And if she shot the ceiling, the royal guards would rush in. If the general felt trapped, he would shoot Miklos for sure.

  “Let her go,” Miklos bargained. “She has nothing to do with this. She’s leaving the country. We’re not marrying.”

  “Not indeed. She should have never come here. Wouldn’t have come here if I had more time to arrange it. Unfortunately, her arrival was rather unexpected.”

  A chill ran down Judi’s spine at his words. Especially when they were underscored with his cold stare.

  “I always hoped you would marry my daughter,” the man told Miklos casually.

  Surprise flashed through Miklos’s face. “She’s barely twenty.”

  The man’s raised eyebrow said that mattered little to him. He really was blinded by ambition.

  “Drop your weapon.” He barked his order to Judi, his eyes glinting with determination, the barrel of his pistol pushing into the skin of Miklos’s forehead.

  She lowered her gun, tears filling her eyes as she wished she were good enough to use it. But if she squeezed that trigger, if she hit Miklos, or if the general shot him, it would be all over. If all she gained them was a few more minutes, there was still hope that something could happen.

  And it did.

  Her giving up drew the general’s attention from Miklos for a split second, even if it was to gloat at her.

  At the same time, Miklos reached for his sword, and ran the general through in one smooth move.

  Surprise crossed the man’s face. But he was still standing, his finger on the trigger. And when Judi saw that finger move, she brought the rifle up and shot the man in the head.

  The lucky shot of a lifetime.

  It helped that by then Miklos had ducked out of the way.

  When the general collapsed, she felt like she was about to follow him down to the marble tiles.

  Miklos grabbed the man’s gun. Then he was at Judi’s side, gently removing the rifle from her trembling hand. “Take it easy, warrior princess.”