Blood of Eden: A wolf shifter romantic suspense (The Guardians Book 1)

by JJ King

  “Why are you here, Quinn?” She turned away from him then and walked back to the chair she’d sat in for hours. The warmth of her body heat had faded during the time she’d been talking to Quinn and the cool of the leather felt good against her legs.

  He moved to stand in front of her and pulled the wooden coffee table before her chair. He sat down and put his hands on his legs, acting as though he needed to brace himself for what he’d say next.

  “I came here because the elders sent me to find Raphael before he could discover the identity of someone very important to my people, a woman from your lineage.”

  She studied his face. He’d told her this much already but he’d always claimed to not know the identity of the elusive woman. The new essence of power within her thrummed with energy as she thought about Raphael’s tests on her body, the torture he’d put her through with silver. A shiver ran through her as she finally understood. The need to scream and fight the knowledge inexplicably didn’t come. When she spoke, Katherine heard her own voice as though it came from a stranger’s lips.

  “Tell me.” She put her hand on his chest, over his heart, and looked into his eyes, using her own eyes to plead with him, “I need to hear it.”

  “It’s you, Katherine.”

  She didn’t speak, couldn’t speak. The silence was deafening both in the room and inside her mind.

  “He didn’t cross you off the list after your escape. He just took a step back to figure out his next move.”

  Maybe she was in shock. That would explain the weird silence and calm she was feeling when she should have been freaking out. At the very least she should have been full of questions. There was nothing about this situation, about what Quinn was telling her, that made any kind of sense even though she felt in her soul that it was all true. She tried hard to think of what to ask next and finally came up with, “What does he want from me then?”

  Quinn signed deeply and lowered his head slightly. Katherine couldn’t see his eyes anymore but she could tell by his voice that he’d finally come to the crux of the conversation. “He knows who you are and how important you are.” His voice was low, reluctant. “He wants to punish my people by killing you.”

  “How would killing me hurt your people? Aren’t you almost immortal?”

  “Where did you hear of the Geliget, Katherine? How much do you know?”

  She chewed the inside of her lip, “My cousin Damien is a folklorist. He gave me the details he was told by a very old woman of our pack.”

  “Well,” he began slowly, “My people come from a single family, a big family, full of amazing wolves. The Old Ones chose us and blessed us with long life and abilities like mine to help us watch over and guide wolf kind. We have had thousands of years to gather knowledge and watch the world become what it is now. We’ve helped steer wolves along the evolutionary path. As blessed as we were, and are, the Old Ones saw fit to keep our lineage contained, in case someone, like Raphael, tried to overrun the family and turn us against our purpose.”

  She remembered him talking about his sister and her failed pregnancy attempts. Another piece of the puzzle snapped into place. “You can’t have children,” she exclaimed.

  He nodded. “It wasn’t always this way. We started noticing the pattern around two thousand years ago. We had no babies anywhere in the family. No new blood to teach. We went the scientific route first and tested everyone, male and female to see if the reason was genetic. When our family became the Guardians in the first place we had members of other families married into our own so the children weren’t from the same genetic pool. We always wondered when we would get to the point of genetic degradation and it was the first obvious thought. But it was ruled out quickly. Members of our family have been marrying wolves from outside for as long as we remember, in order to keep the lines clean. There was no answer to be found.”

  Katherine was intrigued and really glad he’d explained about the new blood. Her mind had gone straight to Game of Thrones type incest. “Do you know now?”

  Quinn nodded.

  “When I was a small boy I fell asleep and slept for over two months, something that Dreamers sometimes do. It’s actually how we found out that I was a Dreamer. When I awoke, my mind was packed with images and words that made me a little crazy. Normal crazy, not Raphael crazy,” he assured, patting Katherine’s hand.

  “Turns out I was given a prophecy back then that explained everything. I just didn’t realize it until I put the pieces together. In my Dream, the Old Ones came to me and told me of a time when our bloodline would be diminished to the point of extinction. When that time was upon us, we would find a woman, born of royal blood, like us but not of us, who would replenish the bloodline and give birth to a new line of Guardians. She would have our ability to heal and long life will be hers despite her birth. She would be called Mia. It means Mother.”

  The memory of Raphael stroking her hair and crooning “Mother” over and over filled her mind. She sat back hard and stared at Quinn, waiting for him to finish.

  “You’re the woman from the prophecy.”

  Katherine sat there in silence, allowing his words to wash over her. Her ears filled with a loud buzzing that made it hard to concentrate but she tried to accept Quinn’s words and fit what he was telling her into what she’d already figured out on her own.

  She closed her eyes and forced herself to remember the night Raphael had taken her, to relive in her mind what she just wanted to forget. She remembered Raphael’s voice as he mumbled about prophesies and how she was the one. The one, Mia, Mother.

  At the time, despite the pain and the fear of her abduction, those words had struck a note within her but she hadn’t known why. Now she heard them again, from the mouth of the man she loved and felt deep within herself that it was true, all of it. It all felt so right even though she didn’t know how it could possibly be.

  “How do you know it’s me? How can you be absolutely sure?” she asked frantically.

  “Raphael figured it out first. Those tests,” his voice broke and he covered his eyes with his hand, scrubbing away the tears that he couldn’t hold back. Her heart broke as she felt his grief. “The prophecy said, she will be like us but not of us. Silver can hurt us but it can’t kill us like it can your people. The only part that doesn’t make sense is why he didn’t kill you when he had the chance. If he was so sure, why did he let you go?”

  “Oh my God.” Katherine’s mind was in overdrive. Bits and pieces kept coming together faster than she could handle it. The brightness inside of her was filling her mind, bringing it all into focus. “The hunter was working with Raphael! It explains everything. How he knew who we are and where to find us. Raphael was providing him with all the information he needed to lure us into traps and kill us.”

  Quinn’s eyes were bright now too. He followed her logic, “But the hunter didn’t kill us. He just provided the final proof of your identity! You didn’t die from a direct shot to the heart with a silver bullet.” He shook his head, “But…”

  “Why didn’t he shoot me in the heart himself when he had me? He had silver bullets and a gun.” Katherine jumped in. She wriggled in her chair, barely able to contain the energy emanating from her body.

  The question felt like a brick wall had been thrown up in front of them.

  Her stomach roiled as she thought of a new possibility. “What if…” she shuddered and forced the words to come out of her mouth, “what if he wants to start his own bloodline?”

  Quinn’s jaw fell. His forehead furrowed and he looked down, away from her. Finally, he looked at her, his eyes incredulous. “How in the world did you see that when some of the most brilliant minds in wolf kind could not?”

  She smiled sadly and rubbed her abdomen. The energy that had coursed through her body when she connected to Quinn’s dream still pulsed within her, bringing her peace and calm, but a shadowy memory of silver blades piercing her skin snuck into her mind.

  “I guess none of them looked
into his eyes like I did. You really get to know a man when he’s torturing you.”

  “Katherine…”

  “Don’t go there, Quinn. He’s not you.”

  “No,” a gravelly voice interjected from across the room, “you are most definitely not me.”

  Adrenaline surged through Katherine’s body and fused with the energy whirling in her midsection. Terror filled her but she focused on the white heat and refused to let her fear control her. It wasn’t time to let her emotions rule her and seize up her body. It also wasn’t time to jump into battle without first knowing what advantages the crazy wolf had brought with him. For all she knew, Raphael might have contacted another hunter to help him.

  “Quinn,” she rasped, her throat suddenly dry, “we need back up.” She reached for his phone on the coffee table with quick hands and snatched her hand back just in a nick of time as the coffee table exploded into shards of phone and wood.

  “I brought a gun if you were wondering,” Raphael sneered, a cocky grin spreading across his distorted features. Even in the dim light, Katherine thought he looked as if he’d aged since she’d seen him just days before.

  Quinn stood still as a statue beside her, keeping his eyes on his cousin’s every move. Katherine glanced at him and then past him to the front door, praying to the Old Ones that no one in league with the rogue would come crashing through. They didn’t have the manpower to divide their attention. It would be just focus and pray he was alone.

  “Cousin,” Quinn’s voice was curiously soft despite his unchanging granite stance. “It’s just me. Look at me.”

  Raphael’s eyes slid past Katherine’s body to Quinn.

  “You would call me “cousin,” cousin?” Raphael scoffed. “You weren’t exactly calling me your cousin when the council was banishing me from our home, were you?”

  Quinn shook his head. “No, Raphael, I wasn’t and I’m sorry. I trusted in the elders’ decision to banish you but maybe… Raphael, it’s all true, what we talked about as kids. She’s real. She’s real and you were the first to find her.”

  Raphael’s eyes brightened and he jerked his head back and forth, looking first at Katherine and then at Quinn. “Yeah,” he boasted, his tone proud and more than a little unhinged, “I found her. Me! You didn’t even know who she was when you were pressing your body against hers, when you were making her unclean and stealing her purity! You had no right to her, cousin,” he spat the word. “I found her. She’s mine, not yours.”

  Katherine wanted to speak up for herself, to rail against the insanity spewing from Raphael’s mouth, but something stopped her. Quinn hadn’t spared her a glance since the gun had gone off and from his words, she could only assume he was trying to lure his mad ass cousin into a false sense of fraternity so he could disarm him. Not for a second did she doubt his loyalty to her.

  She breathed slowly and felt the heat from her middle flow like thick syrup through her blood, calming her with every beat of her heart and focusing every synapse in her brain.

  Without being obvious, she scanned the room for a weapon of any kind and noticed several potentials. Unfortunately, the mad man wielding a gun with silver bullets stood just several feet away from most of them. The iron poker she really wanted to lay her hands on was the closest to Raphael. She had no idea how to get that close without being taken down by the lunatic first.

  Then again, she thought, the bullets wouldn’t kill neither her nor Quinn unless Raphael managed direct shots to the brain and, if one of them moved and sacrificed their safety, the other would have that time to disarm him. She went still and tried not to give away her reaction to the brilliant thought, careful to act like she’d been just moments before.

  It could work, but it wouldn’t if she and Quinn stayed close together and so far away from Raphael. The worst obstacle to the plan was the large chair she’d been sitting in while she and Quinn had talked. With it between her and Raphael, there was the potential that he could react fast enough to shoot both her and Quinn in the chest before either one got to him, giving him the chance to do whatever he wanted while they were down and out, recovering.

  Katherine wished she could speak to Quinn in her mind now the way she could in wolf form. She couldn’t count on Quinn knowing what to do once she moved into action but she had to trust that he would figure it out. Both their lives depended on it.

  “That’s it,” she growled out, going for furious since it was the only emotion that would make genuine sense at the moment, “I’m fucking done with this bullshit!” She took a few steps to the left and swiped her arm across the small table, smashing the lamp that had stood on it to the floor. She whirled to face Raphael as he raised the gun and pointed it at her chest. She was thrilled to see his eyes shift wildly back and forth between her and Quinn, his gun jerking.

  “You want me?” She took a step closer, “You think I’m yours?” One more.

  By now she was within eight feet of Raphael and a wide angle away from Quinn, giving him the best opportunity to dive for cover or a weapon, or even Raphael himself once she went for it.

  This time, she went for a derisive tone, “Do you honestly think you’re enough of a man, enough of a wolf, for me? Look at you! You’re too afraid to fight for me without a gun. How could you ever be the father of a new race if you can’t even fight for your woman?”

  “Shut up!” he growled at her, keeping the gun at chest level but moving back and forth between her and Quinn. “You think I don’t know what you’re doing? This gun,” he raised it to point straight at Katherine’s head, “is my leverage and I’m not crazy enough to give that up. You can goad me all you want, but I’m smarter than you, smarter than all of you. I know things you don’t have a clue about.” He looked at Quinn, “You think you know your people? You don’t know a thing! You have no idea what’s been happening behind closed doors.”

  Quinn remained stock still, “Then tell me. You’re so proud to be in the know. Fill me in before you put a bullet in my brain.”

  Raphael’s laugh ricocheted off the walls. “You don’t think I’m going to let you off that easy do you? No, no,” he mocked, “rhetorical question. No need to answer. We all know I’m going to have a bit of fun with you before it’s all said and done.”

  Katherine had an intimate knowledge of what Raphael considered fun and she wouldn’t let him anywhere near her mate. Obviously, he was much less unstable than they’d believed, but she was still his weakness.

  She sprang forward and to the left, away from Quinn, and heard a deafening boom reverberate through her skull as a bullet tore through her left shoulder and slammed her body against the wall.

  She watched through pain dulled eyes as Raphael swung the gun towards Quinn, who had launched himself at the man with alarming speed. His previously serene face was now a thing of nightmares. His eyes were wild and his mouth was open wide as he growled with rage.

  Quinn was fast but he had too far to go to reach Raphael’s outstretched gun hand. Katherine pulled her body together and coiled, then sprang forward just as the gun boomed another shot, heading straight for Quinn’s head.

  She was screaming in fury when she reached Raphael. She knocked the gun from his hand and backhanded him with all her strength. He was a big man, bigger than her, but her body was pumping with adrenaline and a white hot heat.

  The poker was in her hand before she realized she was even reaching for it.

  Raphael didn’t see it. He had recovered from her blow and now had his hand raised to strike her back, to bring her to her knees before him. His arm came down.

  The poker slid into his chest with the unmistakable crunch of ribs breaking. His eyes went wide and he blinked. Once, twice, three times. She stared at them and saw the light, so fierce just moments before, start to dull. She knew the poker wouldn’t kill him, so she enjoyed the moment and felt no shame for it. She was a warrior, not a murderer.

  As soon as he fell unconscious, Katherine pushed hard against the poker and sent it and
Raphael’s body crashing to the floor. She whirled around and ran to Quinn, who lay on the floor unmoving.

  In the dark room, it was hard to see where the blood was if there was any. She ran her fingers around Quinn’s head and sobbed in relief when they came back clean. He would be ok.

  His moan was the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard. She moved to look into his face and smiled down at him. “We’re alive.” Her fingers kept gently moving over his clothes. “Where were you hit?”

  He raised a hand to his collarbone and winced. “He wasn’t far off his mark. This is going to be a bitch to heal.” His opposite arm lay useless by his side.

  “Oh, poor baby!” She laughed, rubbing her wounded shoulder.

  The moonlight shining through the window caught them in its glow and she stared at the man she loved, the man she’d almost lost.

  “Let’s go home,” she whispered.