Carl (Guardians In Love Book 4)

by Brianna West

  ‘I know that there has been some connection between you, Conall, and Aidan. I realize that this is rather uncomfortable to speak about with me, but it is imperative that I know the nature of those connections in order to accurately diagnose the problem.’

  Sighing, I clutched the phone tightly. “I…let Conall take blood and we had a physical relationship as a result. However, I’ve made it clear that it will not occur again. Aidan and I seem to have grown emotionally and physically attached in a similar manner, but he…was the reason I went into heat.”

  I wanted to bury myself in a hole somewhere and never show my face to Victor again after this.

  Victor sighed, the sound unnatural for the angel. ‘I suspected that might be the case. You say that Aidan initiated your heat? Would you care to explain that a little more? Again, I realize that this is uncomfortable, but I ask only because it is imperative that I know.’

  Sifting through my hair anxiously, I calmed myself as much as I could with my stomach still knotted strongly and my chest burning. “At first, Aidan’s bite helped calm the withdrawal symptoms from Conall’s bite. But soon, we found that it caused…my heat.”

  ‘Only the one?’

  Oh Lord have mercy on me.

  “Two.”

  ‘And did either of them reach completion?’

  If Bernie was privy to this conversation, he’d have a field day.

  “Yes,” I answered despite the urge to throw the phone and damn it all.

  Victor hummed again, putting me unnaturally on edge. ‘This might seem a very odd question, but was there any unconjured magic when you two finally completed the ultimate act of lovemaking?’

  For the love of…

  Gritting my teeth and fighting the desire to groan, I answered as quickly as I could. “There was, yes.”

  ‘Where is Conall?’

  Confused, I paused for a second. “Conall?”

  ‘Are you staying with him?’

  I shook my head, peering around myself as if I’d find an answer to my confusion in the room around me. “No, I’m staying with Aidan.”

  ‘Very good. Remain there with him,’ Victor replied dubiously. ‘I must speak with Logan, because if my theory is correct, we may need to…yes, it would be best to remove you from Conall’s care. In the meantime, stay with Aidan and I will contact you after I have discussed what I must with Logan.’

  “Sir?”

  ‘Not to worry,’ Victor said dismissively. ‘However, should you feel anything unnatural at any point today, contact me immediately. I will reach out to you shortly.’

  Victor ended the call before I could pry more into it, and I was forced to stare at the screen, looking for the answer I knew wasn’t there in the bright glow. Clicking my tongue with agitation, I chucked the phone onto the bed and removed the privacy barrier. I smoothed down the vest I was wearing and touched the cool metal of my Glock before collecting myself.

  “Carl! Food! It’ll be complete shite, but it’s ready!” Aidan called out loudly, with timing that made me question whether or not the privacy barrier had worked. “Hurry your arse up, or I’ll drag you down here and feed it to you…” There was a short pause. “With my mouth.”

  Nope, he hadn’t heard a word.

  Smiling derisively, I sighed through the exasperation I currently suffered, tucking away my confusion and heading downstairs before Aidan could make good on his threat.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  It was somewhat into the afternoon when I noticed an uncomfortable heat building in my body. It wasn’t noticeable at first, and I worried that my night with Aidan wasn’t resolved with the one time but, as the time ticked on, the hot pain intensified and was entirely different from the heat I’d only just experienced the day before. Instead, it felt oddly like the times when I suffered withdrawal from Conall’s bite.

  Everything hurt.

  Aidan and I had stayed inside, our usual banter making it an easy few hours before the heat in my body started to become too much to bear. In an effort not to be burdensome, I excused myself and went to my room under the guise of reviewing a few documents sent over on Niko earlier that day.

  There wasn’t much in the way of information, but I was hoping with what I’d gathered so far, I might be able to find him in the coming days. I’d been given permission to do what I must, within reason, by Victor and the Council. But with no idea where Niko was, it was hard-pressed to do anything more than just hope I sort of fell onto some kind of information, or that the man himself came looking for me.

  But when I reached the room, I barely managed to do anything aside from battle the internal heat raging through my body. It was only a few minutes later when I heard the distinctive footsteps stomping through the hallway before Aidan knocked on the door, his voice booming through it and into the room as if there wasn’t a wall separating us.

  “I can feel it,” he announced angrily. “I can sense your torment. Let me in, Carl.”

  Without argument, I took careful steps to the door and opened it, legs close to buckling underneath me. “How can you—”

  “Does it really matter right now?”

  Aidan’s expression was dark as he bent down and took my weight into his side and then, very carefully, he wrapped one of my arms around his shoulders. He supported me all the way to the bed without another word, watching me silently as I wheezed in short, painful breaths against the unforgiving waves of fire consuming my insides.

  I hadn’t missed this feeling. If I hadn’t known any better, I would’ve been sure the pain was liquifying my organs. The pain transcended verbal description. The only thing that could even come close to describing it was pure, relentless torture. Even as a seasoned Guardian, I was having trouble keeping my wits about me when each crashing wave hit with greater force than the last.

  Gently helping me onto the bed, Aidan brushed away the wet hair on my forehead as the physical exertion of fighting against unending torment had made my entire body damp with perspiration. The image of Aidan’s face was unfocused as he hovered over me, his gentle hand soothing my rampaging heart. Then, cursing when he looked more intently at my face, Aidan cupped my cheek and regarded me with piercing, concerned eyes.

  “Where’s your phone?” he asked, glancing down as I controlled the abrupt desire to convulse.

  Inhaling sharply, I gritted my teeth against another burn of terrible heat. “Back-right pocket.”

  Aidan smiled apologetically, rolling me onto my side as tenderly as he could before retrieving the phone from my back pocket. When he’d made sure I wasn’t suffering from the movement, he tapped the screen a few times and dialed whoever he intended to speak with, holding the phone in front of him. But before the call could connect, the room shuddered and quaked with someone’s presence, which instantly made my vision sway and become even more unfocused. The air was so dense with their presence that it was difficult to breathe.

  “You,” Aidan snarled, his voice so violent I could feel the reverberation of it in the air above me, “I bloody knew it.”

  Overwhelmed by the heat overtaking my body, none of my usual senses worked, so I couldn’t adequately smell whoever had come even if I wanted to. With my vision blurred by the pain, I could only wait until something Aidan or whoever had come said clued me into who they were. But their voice was enough to figure it all out, and I trembled when I realized just what it meant to have him come with the state I was in.

  “You’re not usually so quick on the uptake, Aidan. You’ve made Papa proud,” the familiar voice said, instilling a great sense of dread within me.

  “Conall, what’s the bloody deal?! You have some fucking nerve.”

  Conall came into view, the glow returned to his skin and his appearance no longer haggard. It was apparent that he’d taken blood, and I didn’t need to be a genius to figure out from whom he’d gotten it. The way he moved was calculated, and every step he took put him closer to where I was laid out over the bed.

  But what was probabl
y the most disconcerting about his overall demeanor was how dangerous Conall felt to me, his broad smile intensely menacing. There was nothing inviting about the way he greeted Aidan, and I immediately deduced that the Conall we were facing was one that had been claimed by his bloodlust in some way.

  He had lost control.

  “Aidan,” I called out quickly, fighting the torturous burn scoring over my flesh in order to warn the other Guardian before anything could escalate.

  Aidan ignored me, his position changing as he faced off the other man. His wide back blocked my view of Conall, Aidan immediately standing in the space between us. The muscles in his body had tautened with his wariness of the half vampire, but still, the sounds of Conall’s footsteps continued to travel with no specific destination in mind.

  It almost felt as though Conall was toying with Aidan, and I was growing more worried with each passing second that Conall’s cleverness would win out over Aidan’s brawn. Incapacitated as I was, it was naïve to think I’d be able to do much in the way of fighting back. But I was already preparing for the imminent likelihood that I’d have to.

  There was a short pause before the room was overcome with sudden static, the surge of magic electrifying the air. I reached out to Aidan, hoping to warn him that Conall would likely bide his time for when Aidan was distracted, but I couldn’t reach him. I was swiftly seized under another wave of heat; this one tearing my insides apart and stealing every last bit of air from my lungs.

  My tortured cry cut through the silence, causing Aidan to immediately rush over to my side. But with his concern for me distracting him, everything was quickly set into motion.

  A burst of green exploded through the air and Aidan disappeared from above me, the violent thud of his heavy body hitting a far wall resounding within the room before the eerie glow of red and green entered my field of vision. My heart clamored as fear gripped me with its icy fingers. Worried for Aidan, I fought to sit up. As a result of my fear, the abrupt, body-wide pulse of transformation spread rapidly across my weakened figure, the electric current of power strengthening my exhausted limbs. The change helped some, and I quickly located Aidan the instant he groaned and got to his feet.

  Thank heavens that the Guardian had come out of the blast relatively unscathed.

  Aidan staggered slightly on his upwards ascent, but he easily recovered with a low, ominous snarl thundering from his chest. The rage currently ignited his pale-yellow eyes beat in a fervent surge, its alarming glow taunting Conall from across the room.

  I’d only just managed to summon what little power I could when Conall took hold of my neck with an expression unlike any I’d ever seen on the Irishman. The electric tickle of his magic surged over me, paralyzing my body before I could fight back. With no where to look but at him, I was faced with the familiar but incredibly unfamiliar red-green eyes and their fierce glare as Conall gripped me firmly and lifted my head upwards with very little resistance.

  “Carl,” he whispered hotly, fangs gleaming as if they were the very embodiment of his intentions.

  Aidan’s roar shook the room, the walls shuddering with the powerful echo, and Conall’s neck was instantly seized inside the Guardian’s massive hand. The obvious desire for violence in the partially transformed were-bear Guardian so strong that it could be felt in the very air around us.

  “Get your filthy fucking hands off of him, or I swear I’ll take your head clear off your shoulders, Old Man.”

  Conall’s eyes flickered with emotion as he stared straight into mine, undeterred by the grip around his neck. “He’s mine.”

  Aidan tensed visibly with the soft, almost inaudible statement. “Old Man…”

  I watched the red swirl in Conall’s green eyes as he stroked his thumb over my jugular, which was throbbing erratically with the sudden escalation of violence. Aidan kept a firm hold on the half vampire team leader, but his eyes had wandered over to where I struggled, paralyzed but somehow still writhing against the terrible flood of pain.

  There wasn’t an urge to go to Conall, however. Not like the last time. Instead, I was overcome by intense dread. It seeped into the very marrow of my bones, and it systematically poisoned my thoughts with its deep, impenetrable darkness.

  Seeing the quick dissention of a fellow Guardian had shocked me more than anything had in my entire life. I’d known others, seen the way the darkness claimed them and stole their Light, but it’d never been staring me straight in the eyes before. It was the most terrifying thing I’d ever beheld in my lifetime.

  “He’s my mate,” Conall claimed confidently, turning a sharp gaze to Aidan. Their violent stares connected, the two growling in united challenge. “He’s rightfully mine.”

  “The fuck he is!” Aidan barked, grip tightening around Conall’s neck.

  I managed to shake the pain long enough to intervene, the paralyzing hold on me momentarily weakening. “Enough,” I rasped angrily. “Conall,” I growled shortly, quaking under a wave of heat, “What the hell are you doing?!”

  Conall’s expression faltered, then the red in his irises bled out until it nearly eclipsed the green. “You’re mine.”

  Aidan roared in warning, the violent sound shaking the walls once more, but Conall skillfully shoved a burst of green magic into the other Guardian’s abdomen and sent Aidan hurtling backwards. Green enveloped our forms just as Aidan’s gold magic burst towards Conall, easily repelled by the translucent barrier.

  The crazed look from before was back in Conall’s eyes as he bent over me, his red eyes instilling core-deep fear within me before he attempted to pierce his fangs into my jugular. Aidan’s thundering roar reverberated loudly within the room, but nothing he did couldn’t penetrate the barrier. It caused the Irishman to pause, if only to look over, but it was an opportunity I wasn’t going to let pass me by.

  “Conall,” I warned as the half vampire hovered close, ready to sink his fangs into my neck, “Get ahold of yourself. This isn’t like you. I’m not your mate. You’ve lost control of your bloodlust.”

  His eyes no longer carried any green in them as Conall glanced my direction before the Irishman tensed. “You don’t understand. You’re mine, Carl. You’ve been mine from the beginning. There’s no use fighting it. We were meant to be together. It’s in your blood.”

  In my blood? Mates? In what way?

  There were too many questions, but not enough time to ponder them. The only thing I was left with was to fight. With the effects of not only the withdrawal, but the paralyzing hold Conall had over me, I couldn’t seem to move my body enough to shove him off. Even with the partial transformation strengthening my ability to do so, I was barely able to lift an arm.

  I heard Aidan’s growls and snarls even as his magic collided with the barrier around us again and again, but nothing could penetrate it. His roaring had only grown more violent the longer I was locked inside the impermeable magical barrier with Conall.

  The team leader was clearly not himself. I’d never seen Conall look so terrifying, so disturbed. Not even when he’d taken blood from me before. Whatever I tried, it’d be the only chance I’d get, so I had to make sure it was a perfectly calculated effort.

  “Carl! Fuck,” Aidan shouted in desperation, the obvious torment he felt tainting his voice. “Don’t let that bloody tosser bite you, yeah? I’m going to get you out of this bloody bubble if it’s the last fucking thing I do!”

  Bite me…that was it!

  Aidan’s magic slammed into the barrier again, the blast causing the room around us to shudder and moan with ominous warning. “And then I’ll tear you to pieces, Old Man! One limb and bloody appendage at a time.”

  I’d stopped hearing anything the other Guardian was yelling because, in my head, I was quickly devising a plan to overcome Conall in one last ditch-effort. Closing my eyes, I felt the sharp penetration of Conall’s fangs, which gave me time to conjure every scrap of power I had left inside of me. It swirled and strengthened, its potency growing like fading embers be
ing fed kindling. Then, using every bit of magic I’d developed, I forced the explosive power out of my body and into Conall’s.

  The barrier around us disintegrated as his body lofted up and away from mine. The gold and orange slammed into his abdomen in several bursts as long, red vines of my magic assaulted the airborne team leader until he was knocked back into the wall with enough momentum to crater it inward. Aidan had recovered, materializing in front of Conall and taking the Irishman by the neck before lifting him with a ferocious sound only a beast could make.

  “I think it prudent to end this battle here,” a voice said before a sweeping warmth I’d grown accustomed to feeling from someone’s touch flooded my weak body.

  Angels were among a select few who had the ability to heal any ailment. While it wouldn’t save me entirely from the feeling of withdrawal, it could ease some of the pain, much like Aidan’s bite had. My strength was renewed with his touch, and I breathed a thankful sigh as the pain lessened until it was subtly in the background—a mere echo of its previous intensity.

  Sky-blue eyes gazed down at me tenderly, the familiar smile putting my racing mind instantly at ease. “I think it would be best for Logan and I to handle the situation from here.”

  Huffing labored pants, Aidan’s hold on Conall weakened, letting the Irishman collapse to the floor while the massive Guardian collected himself. “He took blood from Carl and claimed him as his mate,” Aidan said in a mad rush, his chest heaving in and out with effort before he came to my side. “The old man has lost his bloody marbles.”

  “I cannot disagree with that assessment,” Victor responded kindly, his smile finally disarming Aidan’s hostility as the were-bear Guardian breathed a loud sigh and fingered absently through his hair with obvious defeat.

  Victor helped me to my feet after Logan’s white power knocked the Irishman unconscious. Then, the white power surrounded the team leader’s limp body and levitated him off the ground. Logan’s expression was grave when he finally turned to look at me. With a small nod at Victor and I, he and Conall’s levitated body disappeared from sight.