Authors: Stacie Simpson
“We’ll do what we can to keep them safe Rook, but it would
be a whole lot easier if Angela was willing to stay here at the resort,” Dragon
said from where he sat behind his desk.
I ran my fingers through my hair pushing it back from my
face while I paced from one end of the room to the other. It was still damp
from the cold shower I’d taken at my place after leaving Angela. “Don’t you
think I know that? Don’t you think I’ve told her that? She won’t listen to me.
She’s too worried about her career, and nothing short of mind control will save
it once they get wind of her staying here.”
He shrugged. “I could go down and have a talk with her
lieutenant.”
“No.” I shook my head. “We’ve talked about that. It would
take too much mind control to keep the entire police department from suspecting
us of doing something shady. Every time another witness stumbled into the
precinct with a complaint we’d have to go down there and wipe everyone’s minds.
It would eventually fry their brains.”
“Then what other options do you have?” He leaned back and
steepled his hands.
“I want to convince her that she doesn’t need anything in
the human world. She’s too independent for me to simply say she doesn’t have to
worry about working anymore because I can take care of her. So I need to find
something in our world that she could sink her teeth into. Something she could
be just as passionate about as she is her police work. I also need to get her
alone. I accept that she has a daughter and that Rachel needs her, but
interruptions like the one we had this morning are not helpful.”
Dragon chuckled. “Do you remember when you sent Liam to get
me when I was in front of Lilith’s with Serafina?”
I glared at him which only made him laugh more. “That was
different. You were going to claim your mate in a public place before she knew
anything about our world. I was behind closed doors in a private suite
upstairs, and Angela already knows all about us.”
“It’s still funny to see you with the shoe on the other
foot. I’ll have to think about what kind of job we could offer Angela, but in
the meantime, if Angela agrees, we can assign someone to keep Rachel occupied.”
“I’ll check with her and ask for volunteers. I’m going to
ask Solomon to go out to Angela’s house tonight to set up a ward. It won’t be
as good as the one here, but it’ll be better than nothing.”
Dragon got up and came around his desk to where I’d stopped
wearing a path in his carpet. “I’m sure he won’t mind doing that for you.” He
clapped me on the back and said, “Why don’t you take some time off and take
care of your mate? Serafina and I don’t have any plans to leave the resort and
you’ve done a good job training the security staff. Even with a possible
traitor living amongst us, we should be safe.”
“We have Clarissa under constant surveillance. If she steps
one toe out of line we’ll know about it. We still don’t know if she was
involved in Serafina’s kidnapping, or if she was just an accidental informant.
She hasn’t had contact with her sister Ivanna since we spread the word that she
was working with Travali.”
Clarissa was the sex demon who managed the dancers at
Mystique. Ivanna was her sister, and she was also Garrek’s bride. Ivanna
conveniently left the table to powder her nose right before the bomb went off
that killed her new husband. Then Dragon smelled Ivanna and Travali’s scents on
his terrace after Serafina was taken. Other evidence led us to believe Ivanna
had helped set Serafina up when Malachi attacked her as well. But none of
Ivanna’s actions would have been possible unless someone inside the resort was
providing her with information. We knew that someone was Clarissa, but we didn’t
know if she had just been gossiping, or if she was an accomplice. We decided
the best way to find out was to watch and wait, thinking maybe we’d get lucky
and Clarissa would help us learn what Travali was planning next.
“I have faith in you and your people. We’ll catch Clarissa
if and when she slips; it’s only a matter of time.”
I left Dragon’s office and went to mine to set up security
details for Angela and Rachel. They’d each have at least one of my people
trailing them at all times. Once that was taken care of I tracked down Solomon
and found him with Serafina in the office he’d moved into after The Gateway was
destroyed. He agreed to set up the ward as soon as the sun went down. Sometimes
living with a bunch of people who couldn’t go out in the daylight could be so
annoying. But that was one of the reasons Dragon opened a casino resort; no one
would ever question why it was so dark all the time.
While I was talking with Solomon it was obvious Serafina
could use some help around the office so I explained the need to keep Rachel
occupied and we all agreed that asking her to work with Serafina would be a
good idea. That would keep her busy during the day and Solomon offered to
escort her to The Catacombs at night. Now I just had to clear our plans with
Angela.
When I went back upstairs Angela was alone in the sitting
area of the suite and I asked, “Where’s Rachel?”
Angela’s eyes were a bit sunken with dark circles under them
and I wished there was something I could do to make all this easier for her. “She’s
in the other room. I think she finally cried herself to sleep. I told her about
Emily and she feels like it’s all her fault.”
I sat down beside her and took her hand in mine. “I’m sorry
she has to go through this, but she’s lucky to have you here to take care of
her. You’re a good mother, and someday Rachel will realize that just like we
all do when we finally grow up enough.”
She gave me a small smile. “Were you the same Rook? Did you
think you knew better than your parents, or think they didn’t understand what
you were going through?”
I shook my head ruefully. “I was one of the worst because I
didn’t want to be a Guardian. I wanted to be free to choose what I wanted to do
with my life. And I wanted to spend my youth joking and laughing, and playing
pranks on all the shapeshifters like my friends did. Instead I spent almost
every waking moment training to be the best Guardian I could be because I had
no other choice.”
“So you didn’t choose to be a Guardian?” she asked
curiously.
“No, I didn’t choose this life, but now I wouldn’t trade it
for anything. Guardians are chosen by our Goddess just as their charges are.
One Guardian and one charge are born on the sacred day every century. The
charge is paired with the Guardian from the previous sacred day and the baby
Guardian is trained for the next hundred years until his or her charge is born.
We know which babies are chosen because they bear the mark of the Goddess
somewhere on their bodies. I was born with the tattoo on chest and that’s how
my parents knew I would be raised as a Guardian. The mark would have faded
until it was barely discernible like Dragon’s did if not for the bonding ritual
on the day of his birth. Guardians are bound to their charges using ink infused
with magic and the blood of their charges which is used to trace over the mark
of the Goddess.
When Dragon was first born I resented him and the prison I
felt he’d trapped me in. But with time I discovered that being a mentor is
actually very rewarding. He had parents, but he learned a lot from me, he even
picked up my accent, though both of us have almost completely lost that now.”
“I’ve noticed your accent before but couldn’t ever place it.
I thought maybe it was from Eastern Europe but our linguistics people said no.”
She lay down on the sofa with her head in my lap and I combed my fingers
through her hair while we talked.
“It doesn’t come from human civilization; it comes from my
people, the time demons. I think Dragon actually worked to pick it up because
all the ladies seemed to like it.”
She laughed and the sound lightened my heart.
“Anyway, when Dragon was about fifty I finally realized that
my parents and my trainers had been right about so many things that I had to go
back and thank them for putting up with me all those years.”
She turned her head and smiled at me. “That sounds about
right but in my case it was a teacher who never gave up on me. My parents never
did a single thing to help anyone but themselves.”
“I’m glad you had someone in your life to give you hope and
guidance, since your parents weren’t up to the task. And on that note, we
should talk about Rachel.”
She sat up to face me with her brows drawn together. “What
about Rachel?”
I took a moment to choose my words. “Angela, you are a good
mother and you love your daughter very much. Anyone who knows you can see that,
but sometimes we all need a little help. You can’t always be there for Rachel
because of work and because you deserve to have a life of your own. That’s
where mentors and friends come in. Rachel hasn’t been doing a good job of
choosing friends lately and she doesn’t appear to have any mentors. I think it
might be beneficial for her to spend time with adults who could help point her
in the right direction.”
“Okay, I agree with most of that. What did you have in mind?”
She was biting the inside of her lip again. It was such an endearing habit that
made me want to suck her lip into my mouth and nibble on it myself.
Pulling my gaze from her tempting lips I told her, “I spoke
to Serafina and Solomon earlier and they would like Rachel to help fill in
while Solomon’s assistant Renee is out of town. Renee usually does the work of
three people and with Serafina being pregnant we’re all worried about her
trying to handle that workload on her own. It’d just be general office duties,
maybe making some phone calls.”
She tilted her head to the side while she thought and her
hair fell behind her. I imagined my tongue sliding along her neck, my teeth
nipping at her earlobe.
“That sounds like a good idea. I’ll see what she thinks when
she wakes up.”
“There is something else.” I paused knowing she wasn’t going
to like this.
“Just spit it out Rook, that slight twitch in your eye
already told me you’re worried I won’t like whatever you’re going to say,” she
enlightened me with a smile.
I was blown away. No one knew me that well, not even Dragon.
I took a deep breath and blew it out. “Here goes nothing. Solomon offered to
take her to The Catacombs tonight to help get her mind off of everything and to
keep her out of trouble.”
“Are you insane?” she asked incredulously. “Do you know what
he does with women in The Catacombs?”
I gave an amused snort. “Yeah, I’ve seen the show many times
and it’s not restricted to the confines of The Catacombs. Solomon has no shame
and wherever the urge strikes him he’ll open his pants and fuck the nearest
female. Honestly, it’s a shapeshifter thing but most of them learned to control
themselves as the world became more civilized.”
“And you want me to let him take my daughter out on a date?”
The look on her face was so full of disbelief I had to
laugh. “It wouldn’t be a date Angela, even Solomon has limits. Emotionally
Rachel is still a child even if she is legally an adult, and children are off
limits. She’d be perfectly safe with Solomon and after the interest she showed
in him last night, I don’t think she’d object to him taking her anywhere.”
Angela stood up and started pacing. “It’s that interest that
bothers me. Rachel isn’t just boy crazy like a normal teenager. She sees sex as
a tool, something that can help her get money or whatever else she may want.
How is Solomon going to be able to resist her once she really starts trying to
get his interest? I may see her as a child and you might as well, but
physically, she is not a child.”
“Trust me, there’s a lot more to Solomon than the horny
Gothic teenager most people get to see. When I first met him he was a shy,
studious young man. Granted that was a few hundred years ago, but in his heart
he hasn’t changed. Intellectually he is off the charts, a true genius, and you’ve
seen his shows, he’s creative as hell. He inspires everyone around him to
expand their knowledge and apply what they learn in new and interesting ways.
He’d be a very good influence on Rachel and since he appears so young, she’d
probably listen to him more than she would any other adult.”
She was biting the inside of her lip while she paced. “She
can’t go to The Catacombs anyway, she’s not twenty-one.”
“Don’t worry, I know the owner. He won’t mind, and I’m sure
he can convince the police to look the other way too.” I’d been going for
serious but couldn’t keep the corner of my mouth from curling when she rolled
her eyes at me.
“I’m serious Rook.”
“So am I Angela.” I got up and stopped her in the middle of
the floor, needing her to agree to this. With my hands on her shoulders I
looked down into her pale blue eyes and said, “We need something to keep Rachel
entertained and out of trouble, preferably something inside this resort. Once
Solomon is finished setting up the wards at your house he can come back here to
get Rachel and we’ll have the rest of the evening to ourselves.” I knew there
were silver sparks in my eyes as I visualized what I’d like to do with her once
we were alone.
When the meaning behind my words sank in her eyes darkened
as her tongue slid across her lips. The temptation was too much to resist and I
dipped my head to kiss her. I met her lips softly with light teasing licks of
my tongue while my hands smoothed up and down her bare arms. She stepped closer
to me until her body pressed against mine, then she wrapped her arms around my
neck as she deepened the kiss. A growl rumbled out of my throat when her hand
fisted in my hair just tight enough to pull without causing pain. I loved when
she did things like that. Like this morning when she’d rolled me to my back and
taken charge.
I picked her up by the backs of her thighs with one thought
in my mind - get to the bedroom. If we didn’t start moving now I was going to
take her right here where Rachel might walk in and see us. I’d waited so long
to be with her, touching her now, having her kiss me like she’d devour me; I
didn’t want to wait any longer. Her legs went around my hips as she moaned into
the kiss.