by Crymsyn Hart
“Talk. My pack will listen to what you have to say.”
I sighed. “This is important. I need to see you alone.”
My mate growled. He said something low enough that I couldn’t hear. After a few moments, the other members of his pack filed out of the room. Each of them snapped at me when they walked past. When they were completely gone, he got up from the couch, took a swig of water, and sauntered over to me. His prowling swagger was the first thing about him that made me desire him even more. It still had a heart-stopping effect on me. It made my heart hiccup and wonder if Tannin and he would get along. Then I remembered that Tannin didn’t want anything to do with me.
“We’re alone. What did you want? I noticed you didn’t come back last night. You find someone to fuck? It’s about time, you know.”
I looked down at the floor. “I didn’t think you watched anymore. Or that you cared.”
“You’re still my mate. I always check to be sure that you’re okay. Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing wrong. Someone came to the shop. They said that someone wanted to see me. My grandmother.”
He straightened up. “Your family is coming back here to take you again?” The tendons in his neck bulged.
I put up my hand. “No. It’s not like that. You once asked me about my past. And I never talked about it. Well, here it is. My mother was raped by a man, which produced me, but he wasn’t human. My grandmother found me. I met her and the rest of my family. I have a half-sister and I know what I am. The darkness inside of me is part angel with a demonic taint. I was never meant to be born. An angel watches over them. He’s my mate, Landon. I never thought I could say that about another being.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Wow. I’m shocked. At least you’ll have one another.”
I shook my head and laughed a sob. Tannin walking away from me flashed in my mind. “No. He doesn’t want me.”
“How’d you drive him away? Threaten to kill him?”
Tears slipped down my cheeks. “No. Landon, I know things between us are strained, but I need you. You told me if I ever needed you that you’d be there for me. I need you today. I need you now. I don’t want to beg. If you still care for me at all. I’d give anything to make it right between us.”
Landon stared at me.”How could you say that? Of course I still care for you.” Surprise brightened his eyes. I stepped toward him and placed a hand on his chest. His skin was so hot I had nearly forgotten how warm it was compared to mine. I laid my head over his heart and let the pain wash over me. More tears flowed as sadness gripped me for the past two years. The muscles tightened in his chest.
He wrapped his arms around me. Once his strong grip encased me, I was home. Landon moved the hair from my forehead. The disbelief was apparent in his eyes and from the small amused smile on his lips. The link between us was growing again. He tried to lock me out, but I wound my mind around his too quickly.
He growled and tried to back away. Get out of my mind.
I can’t. You’ve pushed me away for such a long time. Please hear me out.
The events of the past two years flowed through our minds. The Guardian inside of me opened its wings and came toward Landon. She showed him our wings and her love for him as well. He gasped. His fear bombarded both of us. She was the one who responded to him.
We love you, Landon. You have nothing to fear from me. But we can’t be alone any longer. Tannin pushed us aside. We need someone. She touched his face within our mind and then retreated, leaving only me.
“I can’t have you in this house without wanting you. And I want you. I remember the first time Nick brought me here. You argued with him about bringing me back here. You didn’t want anything to do with me. Then you touched me. At that moment, you knew we were meant to be together. Don’t you remember?”
He nodded. His walls were crumbling the longer we were together. ”I remember. I couldn’t think of sharing him with anyone, but then that sparked fire through us. I yearned to get to know you. To feel your body on mine.”
“Do you still want that? After what happened with Nick you pushed me out of your mind. I haven’t stopped loving you. I’ve shared your pain when you sleep. Please tell me that you’ve forgiven me.”
”I’m the one who needs to be forgiven. I panicked. I was an asshole. Cutting you out of my life was a mistake. I’m sorry.” Landon ran his fingers down my face and then fell to his knees before me. Tears ran down his cheeks. His head hung and he breathed in long breaths. His shoulders shook from sobs.
I ran my fingers through the soft strands of his hair. I sunk to my knees and drew him into my arms. The world melted away and I was left holding the man that I loved. Landon’s musky scent enveloped me. He wiped the tears from my face. There were still things we had to work on. Things that we had to repair, but we were on the way to recovery.
“How do we make this right?” Landon stroked my hair.
“Do you want me back in your life again? Before, you were a lone wolf. Over the past couple of years, you’ve amassed a small pack. How can I compete with that? How do I fit into your life now?”
“I might be the alpha of a pack, but they were all misfits. All those that found me were looking for a home and they have it with me. I always wanted to share it with you. So many nights I heard you crying. I stood outside of your door and shared your loneliness, but I was too much of a coward to go in there and apologize. It was a matter of pride. Nick’s death wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know what your brother would’ve done. I never wanted this. I was a prick. I still am. I’m scum. I—”
I placed a finger on his lips. “So you want to fix this?”
“Yes. By all the stars, yes. I want to learn all about this new side of you. But tonight, I don’t want to push things. Nothing can break this fragile peace we have.”
“I think that’s a good thing. Will you kiss me?”
Landon pressed his soft mouth to mine. His hard body conformed to mine. I ran my tongue over his lips and tasted cherry lip gloss. This was what the other girl he had kissed tasted like. I pulled away, but couldn’t let him go. He grimaced and sighed.
“I need to take a shower. I want to get their smell off of me. When the time is right, I’ll introduce you to them. There are others. The two that you saw assume they can fight one another for mate status, but you already have my heart. I know I acted badly. You’re the only one that I have ever wanted. I don’t know what I’d do without having you in the back of my mind. Without having Nick in my thoughts, it’s been a darkness that I couldn’t fathom.”
I nodded. “I know. I feel the emptiness too. And with Tannin.”
“He’s the one who turned you away?”
I huddled into the safety of his arms and thought about Tannin holding me earlier that morning. I had felt a sense of renewed faith. My grandmother had told me not to give up hope with my werewolf. She was right. That was what had given me the strength to confront Landon. I couldn’t bear living the rest of my life alone. “He doesn’t think that we could be mates.”
“He’s a fool then. To push someone so beautiful away; what an idiot. What’s inside of you is fantastic. I’ve never seen it before. Why has it unfolded its wings now?”
“I don’t know. She’s becoming part of me. My family couldn’t deal with the darkness inside of me. They were afraid and that was why they locked me away.”
“The next time you see him, make him see what he’s missing.” Landon cupped my cheek. “I’m going to get cleaned up. Shouldn’t you be at the shop?”
“Yeah. Melissa’s there though. Will you have dinner with me later?”
“I’ll make your favorite.”
“I’d like that.”
He lifted my hand and brushed a kiss over my knuckles. He backed away and I watched him go. I went to my room and thought about the rest of the day. There were many things that I had to do. Hope warmed my soul knowing that we were on the right path to fixing the broken relationship between us.
> Later that night, I sat before the television. My eyes drooped from the emotional whirlwind I’d been through. The sounds of the television dimmed. I tried to stay awake, but sunk lower into sleep until I hovered on the edge of the in-between. Darkness surrounded me. After a few minutes my eyes adjusted and I could perceive some shapes. The room began to lighten. I was in a circular space. I turned slowly and counted seven doors. They were closed. When I listened hard enough, I heard scratching behind the doors. The cries of those who wanted to come out. They begged me for escape. Their sadness and loneliness tugged on my soul. Their voices were sweet. There were so many of them I wasn’t sure that I could endure listening to the forlorn woes. I studied the doors. Each one had a different symbol on them. One caught my attention. A heavy wooden door with serpents intertwined on the sides. I put my hand on the wood. The door pressed outward. I trailed my fingers over the wood to the knob. Before I could grasp it, someone grabbed my arm. I spun around and saw my Guardian half.
“You mustn’t go in there no matter what scratches at the door or how intrigued you might be. No matter what whispers to you in your dreams. You can never open one of those doors. If you do, then you will damn us all. You will bring evil upon the clan and taint our soul. Is that something you wish?”
“Those are the gates to Hell, then, that our clan is supposed to watch?”
She nodded. “They are.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Tannin showed them to me when you were unconscious.”
“Don’t you mean when we were unconscious?”
She shook her head. “No. You lost consciousness because our wings were going to emerge. Our body couldn’t handle it yet. Tannin was inside our mind, showed me the doors and told me never to open them. He revealed this so I could tell you because he figured the evil would eventually draw you here. Hoping to catch you uninformed now that the link between you and the rest of the clans was open. I wanted to be sure that you were aware of them.”
“Well, that’s good to know. Thank you for the information. Wait, how is it that we can talk like this now, when all these years we haven’t been able to?” It was strange looking at my mirror image, and yet she wasn’t exactly me.
“You’ve finally opened the door between us because you’ve been delving into our power. Now we’re able to meet face to face. It’s something I am grateful for. We have been in the dark for so long.”
“I’m sorry. I thought that you were evil. The darkness that surrounds you is hard to ignore, and what happened with the deaths.”
She bowed her head. “I’m sorry about that. I was only protecting us. The witches didn’t understand us. They still don’t. They will come back for us eventually. They will break the spell that we put on them. Then they will come for us to take up the mantle as high priestess. We have to be prepared for that.”
I nodded. Eventually they would find me again. They would make sure that I paid for Eric’s death. Charles would make me his puppet and tear me away from everything I had. I didn’t want that to go away. “Yes, we do. What happened the night Nick died with the spell? I still don’t recall anything. I knew the magic was powerful. Whenever I feel out the spell, it’s a configuration that I can’t fathom. Can you tell me what happened?”
The scratching grew louder on the doors. The whispers were tugging on my consciousness. I shook my head and pushed them out. I wasn’t going to let them get to me. But the deaths that I had caused weighed on my soul the longer that I was here.
“I can tell you what happened. You’ve only scratched the surface to what kind of power I truly have. Combined with the power of the earth witch that you have, it makes us a formidable enemy. We’re becoming a master of the fire element. We’ve already started to feel the wind, but within the darkness and the light of our nature there is so much more. There is so much that we can pull from. The very ether of the universe. That is why it is so terrible when a Guardian turns to the darkness. What we did the night with Nick was to draw upon that very power. I wove it around us so that it’d keep us invisible to anyone who was prying with magic from the family and the coven. Anyone who meant us harm. When it’s time, the spell will weaken and we will have to confront the coven.”
It made sense. To pull on that much power meant that something would have to break. We had to face the past and tell the family that I wasn’t going to take anything from them. I was happy in my life. I missed my mother, but I didn’t want to sacrifice my mate to do that. I had already done that with Nick.
“I’m not ready for that. So what do we do now? The others said that we’d merge our personalities.”
“This is the first step. Seeing one another. Accepting one another for who we are. I’ve always been there for you. I’m not going to leave you.”
“I’m glad to hear that. We’ve been alone for a long time. First Nick, and then Landon. Do you accept his apology and him?”
A smile spread on the Guardian’s face. Her green eyes brightened. “Oh, yeah. I’m a part of you. We’re meant to be with more than one mate. Most Guardians have one particular person they’re supposed to be with. Since we are a hybrid, there are many possibilities.”
“So what I felt with Tannin was real. And he doesn’t want us.”
She hung her head. “I know you tried with him. I wanted to talk to him. I was stunned because I saw him in all his glory. He appeared to me in our mind with his wings. When we tried to show him our affection, he wasn’t able to accept it. I don’t know if he ever will. He will always watch over us. I’m not sure if we can live with the emptiness inside of us. It was one thing losing Nick. It was another to have Tannin turn us away. Guardians aren’t meant to be alone for long periods of time. He’s been on Earth for so long now that I’m not sure if we can sway him.”
The floor became spongy. My toes sank into the marble. The room began to lose solidarity and ran like wet paint around the edges. The world around me was collapsing. My body was waking up. I tried to fight it. My Guardian smiled and I knew she would be there when I closed my eyes again.
I opened my them and saw Landon leaning over me. I flashed him a sleepy smile. He grinned back. It was morning and I had to get to the shop. “Morning.”
“Hey.” I wrapped my arms around his neck. I pressed my lips to his and kissed him. He deepened the kiss and then broke it. I sat up and looked around, knowing that I was back in my room. “How did I get here?”
“I found you on the couch last night after dinner. You were muttering in your sleep, so I brought you back in here. I thought you might be more comfortable.”
“Thanks.” Landon was dressed in a suit and tie. I hadn’t seen him look so dashing in a long time. “What are you doing looking so spiffy?”
“I have an art show today that I have to get ready for.”
I perked up. “You’re painting again? I thought you gave it up.”
He looked down. “I needed something to fill my time after Nick died. His death made me realize how empty my heart had been. Will you come tonight and see it?”
I ran my finger down the line of his collar. “Were you going to tell me about this? I mean before.”
His brow furrowed. “I was going to leave you a note. I didn’t think that you wanted to go. God, Melina, we were heading down such a dark path. I was afraid that we wouldn’t be able to mend the rift. Now I can see us again. I can feel you inside my mind again. I want that you can be able to trust me. And if I ever meet this Tannin, I’m going to kill him for rejecting you.”
“I’m glad that things between us are healing too. You can’t go after Tannin. He’s more powerful than me. More powerful than the whole coven, I think. But I would’ve gone.” I took his face between my hands and kissed his lips. “I’d love to come tonight. What time?”
“It starts at eight.”
“I’ll be there then.”
Landon kissed my cheek and then left the room. I got up for the day and saw I was late for work. Melissa should have bee
n at the shop yesterday to get the deliveries and she was going to come in at noon today. When I arrived, the police were outside the flower shop. Yellow crime scene tape was wrapped around the storefront and no one could enter. I broke through the tape when an officer caught me.
“You can’t go in there, Ma’am. This is a crime scene.”
The front door was smashed in. Broken glass glittered in the sunlight as it lay littered on the pavement. Then all the added crimson registered. Blood smeared on the white tile floor. Flowers scattered everywhere. There had been a scuffle inside the shop. More crimson spattered toward the register, where I saw a hand. The ring on the finger was Melissa’s.
“This is my shop. What happened to Melissa? Was this a robbery gone bad? What happened?”
The officer looked at me. “Oh, shit,” he muttered. “Please stay here. I’ll get the detective.”