Guardian (28 page)

“A mistake? How can you say that?” His fingers tightened. “Everything is right when we’re together.”

“No,” she pulled from his grasp. “The only time I feel all right is when I’m with Damon. He makes everything better.” 

“Nikki, don’t trust Damon Vessler.”

She felt her eyes harden. “Damon protected me.” 

“I’m telling you, he’s an evil man. And I’m the one who can protect you.”

Her chin jutted forward. “We’re about to find out who killed my parents. Once we’ve avenged their deaths—” Damon told her she’d never be able to move on without closure. That the mystery of their deaths would cripple her. She had to find the killer.

“Nikki, do you hear yourself? The path of revenge only leads to death. Revenge harbors hatred, and hate destroys everything. You’re only hurting yourself by continuing this. You can’t bring your parents back.”

Resolve overrode the pain in her eyes while vengeance wrapped around her. If she spoke the words rising to the surface, they would destroy any hope of a relationship with Mace. Ever. But if he kept talking, he might convince her the risk was worth it. Clenching her teeth, she barreled on. “And you didn’t protect them.”

His hands dropped. As if physically pushed, he stumbled back. “What?”

She let her fury gush forth. “You could have protected them if you’d wanted to.” So much hurt wafted from him, she had to step back for fear of being caught in its orbit. 

“No,” he shook his head. “I didn’t know.”

She swallowed. She had to, because if she didn’t, she’d vomit. He’ll survive, she assured herself. Mace is a survivor. So she continued, pushing him to the absolute brink. “I’ll never forgive you for it. You didn’t save them, Mace.” Piece by piece, her heart was cracking. “And I don’t need you to save me. For the first time I realize I have to face things on my own. When I return home, I’m moving out of Damon’s mansion and back into my own house, but I don’t want you there. I need you to stay away.”

His tone became a plea. “Nikki, listen to me. We can’t cross a human’s will. If you say I can’t come onto your property, I won’t be able to. No matter what.” Everything in him pleaded. His eyes, his body language. “Take it back, baby.”

“Why? It’s what I want.” Her head tilted defiantly. “And if you remember, you promised earlier to give me whatever I want.” She pulled from his touch and disappeared into the room.

When she was sure he’d gone, Nikki collapsed onto the bed, trying to erase the picture of him from her mind. Lying there, she understood what it meant to be heartless.

Two days later, she settled in at the home she’d grown up in, but Damon had bought new furniture for the space. Good thing, because she’d gotten rid of most of her parents’ belongings. “You don’t need anyone to raise you, since you’re grown,” Damon had told her. She agreed. He’d said she was free to choose between living at the mansion with him or at her own house with a full staff. She’d almost laughed. How much of a staff could one teenager in a three-bedroom ranch house need?

Despite her wishes, Mace appeared every few hours and stood at the edge of her property. She could feel his presence. When he drew near, her chest ached. Every. Single. Time. And she hated him for that. Or maybe she hated herself. Though she couldn’t help it. She felt strangely disconnected to her past, like it wasn’t her own. Again, her memories seemed more like a long, sad movie than reality.

The following morning, Damon arrived with a bouquet of fresh flowers. He handed them to the housekeeper and barked for her to put them in water. He’d also brought a case of the imported water she’d grown so fond of. Crossing the living room, he took Nikki’s hands in his. “Are you settling in, my lady?”

“I am.” But his grasp sent a cold chill through her.

Making sure the housekeeper had disappeared into the kitchen, he grinned. “We found him.”

“What?” The whoosh of anxiety took her by surprise.

“The man responsible. He had your father’s wallet, your mother’s credit cards, and the case of swords. He’d sold one for three hundred dollars, and was attempting to sell the others on eBay when we found him.”

Anguish and disgust fueled her hostility. My parents' lives reduced to a few hundred dollars and a classified on the Internet. “There’s no justice.”

“Worse than that, a police officer who’s a friend of mine says the evidence is circumstantial. If turned over to the authorities, he’ll likely go free.”

“No!”

“We have to make our own justice, Nikki. I can order a kill on him, but—”

“But what?” she insisted.

His black eyes cooled. “Nikki, you need to make this kill.”

“What?” She grabbed his arm for support and detested her reaction; so filled with weakness. Hadn’t she wanted that very thing? Hadn’t she invested the last month into training to do exactly what Damon proposed? But now that the opportunity arose, she couldn’t imagine taking a life, even one that didn’t deserve to continue.

Damon’s suggesting it himself also seemed wrong. She’d kept quiet about her desire for revenge, fearing Damon would try to talk her out of it. Instead, he suggested it. Shouldn’t he want to protect her? Seriously, what kind of man urges a seventeen-year-old to kill someone? Maybe she’d misunderstood. He couldn’t have said what she thought.

Then he repeated it. “You need to make this kill—to set you free. Then you can move on. It’ll all be over.”

On the outside her emotions were raw and bleeding and eager, but far deeper she knew she couldn’t murder. It just wasn’t in her. She shook her head. “No,” she mumbled. “I don’t think I can.”

His once-gentle touch became painful. “You can! Think about them, Nikki. Your mom and dad, robbed of the chance to see you graduate. Imagine your wedding day, with no father to walk you down the aisle. This man has taken everything from you.”

Her teeth clenched while visions of a familyless life played in her head. Everything she loved, stolen from her by someone who deserved to die.

Damon slid her hands into his. “Come outside with me, Nikki,” he purred. “Show me what you can do.”

His words pounded in her head, a drumbeat growing in intensity. Joining the anger she already felt, her emotions coalesced into a frenzied desire to destroy the monster who’d shattered her world. She allowed him to lead her outside. With each step, blackness hovered at the edges of her vision, darkening the boundaries, but the center was in sharp focus.

Once on the lawn, Damon caressed her hair. “You know my ability as an opponent?”

She nodded, trying to separate his words—so soft, so caring—from the fury burning in his eyes. “There is none better.”

“Try to kill me. You won’t succeed, but you have to let it turn. Forget about my life. Only see the killer. Do it for your parents, Nikki. Do it for yourself.”

She blindly obeyed by raising her hands and sliding into a fighting stance. An image of her parents’ attacker emerged in her mind. Nikki jumped and landed a front kick to his chest.

Damon reeled back, but his quick reflexes made it appear as if she’d never made contact. “Good girl.”

Something deep within churned. Her reason dimmed like a streetlamp that had outlived its life span, flickering before finally going out. Once it had, a tarlike loathing inched through her, suffocating every desire to preserve life.

The killer stood before her now. His smile a sickening gloss of hate. His smug posture, tilted head, his coaching her like she was a first-year karate student. She tuned in to the fury driving her, and it was glorious. More vivid than the most beautiful of paintings, sweeter than the choicest of fruit. She faked a punch, spun, and connected a ridge hand to his head. His skin compressed as she felt bone, then sliced as her fingernail slit his cheek.

Seeing the bright crimson beginning to leak, she dropped her hands, and the shadowy veil fell from her eyes. What am I doing?

When she retreated, Damon struck and pain exploded across her face, then down her neck as her head snapped back violently.

“You gotta do better than that,” he scoffed, his tone condescending. “Poor little fatherless girl,” he continued to taunt, shoving her to the ground. She landed with a thud. He hovered above her and screamed, “Come on, Nikki. Try to kill me. Pretend I’m him. Because I did it. I killed them.”

Calm descended on her, like the quiet assurance she’d experienced whenever jumping off the high dive. Water is below, and soon it will swallow me.

“And you know what?” He leaned within a breath of her face. “I loved it. The way your father pleaded for your mother’s life. The way she cried and called out your name. She was calling for you, Nikki. You could have saved them if you’d been there.”

Her bent fingers flew out and grabbed his pompous, gelled hair. She entwined her digits and jerked his head down while using her legs to fling him over her head.

He landed flat on his back, air hissing from his lungs.

Nikki jumped up and had to suppress a feeling of giddiness rising in her throat. Do you want to see what else I can do, Mr. Vessler?

He gasped for air as she pressed her foot into his chest. The toes of her tennis shoes dug into his throat. “The thing about having the air knocked from you is that if enough pressure is then applied, it will collapse your lungs,” she said with soft, controlled words. “Eventually your respiratory system will shut down.” She pressed harder. “I bet you didn’t know that.”

His arms flailed as he attempted to suck gasps of oxygen, but she made sure his efforts were in vain. Vessler’s face reddened.

She pressed a little harder.

His eyes bulged.

Nikki fisted her hand. She had no intention of waiting until eventually. One blow to the throat—that was all it would take to stop the pathetic sucking and wheezing sounds. She drew back, ready to finish him. And she would have if she hadn’t heard the voice.

Nikki, no!” Mace yelled as he touched down at the edge of her yard. He started to step, but couldn’t. She’d ordered him to stay off her property.

At least his interruption gave Vessler just enough time to squirm from under her grasp and lumber to his feet. As much as Mace hated to see the guy live, watching the girl he loved commit murder was far worse.

Nikki, tell me to come and save you, Mace pleaded. She looked across the lawn to him but only shook her head. I’m already dead.

While her attention was on Mace, Vessler, who’d regained a bit of breath, seized the moment and punched her in the stomach.

She doubled over.

Nikki. Don’t give in.

Vessler swept her leg, causing her to land on her knees. Raven appeared beside Mace and started to step onto the property. “No.” Mace stopped him after a moment’s shock. Raven must have seen him leave in a hurry and followed. “She’s ordered us to stay back.”

Raven’s weight shifted from side to side. “You, maybe. She’ll die.” His foot moved onto the blades of grass.

Mace grabbed him and dragged him back. “If you cross her will, you’ll disappear from this journey.” He shook him. “Raven, you know that.”

Turning their attention to the center of the bright-green lawn, they watched helplessly.

While Nikki was on her knees, Vessler grabbed a handful of hair along her hairline. As she started to writhe he punched her in the kidney then jerked her head back to examine her face.

Her eyes met Mace’s across the lawn. He watched the gold in them darken, deepening almost to black. He staggered, grabbed Raven for support. She can’t be … Will said it would be impossible to hide.

Damon slowly fisted his hand.

Nearly black eyes shone on Nikki’s face.

Raven stammered, “She’s a …”

“She’s a Halfling.”

Mace turned to Raven, and the expression on his face confirmed they were thinking the same thing. “That means she’s not human, and we don’t have to honor her free will.” The Lost Boys charged onto the lawn.

Mace caught Nikki before she could hit the ground.

Leave it to Lover Boy to give me the dirty work. Raven dove on top of Vessler. Like an animal, he attacked him, sinking deep blows wherever he found an opening.

At one point it seemed Vessler may obtain the advantage. As Raven shifted in an attempt to regain the upper hand, he noticed Mace was laying Nikki softly in the grass and preparing to enter the fray.