Protected (Book 1 in the Ariya Adams trilogy) (31 page)

“Oh,” wa
s all I could say once he explained. “Are you sure they don’t need you in there?”

“No, Ariya.” Nick smiled. “They are going to be fine.”

We waited for what felt like forever. Nick had flicked on the T.V. for background noise, but I wasn’t even watching. My leg bounced up and down in anticipation of Caroline and James coming out of the room. I had no doubt that they weren’t in danger at this point. I just wanted it to be over. I wanted to find out who Audrey was.

“Nick, who is Audrey?”
I attempted to get information out of him.

“I think it’s best if James handled that question.” Nick’s brow creased
, and my heart rate kicked at the reaction. My vampires were worried. Audrey must be bad news.

The door finally opened and James walked out straight towards me. He kissed my hair and grabbed me
, holding me close to his chest. It was quickly becoming my new favorite place to be.

“Did you…” I couldn’t finish the senten
ce.

James shook his head. “Care
finished it.” He nodded towards Nick, who took off to the room.

“They’ll take care of it.” James sat on the couch without le
tting go of my arm until we were sitting and I was firmly planted next to him.

He ran his fingers through his hair and over his face. He looked
worn down. It had been a rough couple of days for everyone. More than anything, I just wanted a little bit of a break from all of the madness that had become our lives.

I put my hand on his knee and stroked my fingers across it, trying to comfort him in some way. I waited patiently to ask my burning question, knowing that it would be a
nswered when everyone was back.

It didn’t take Caroline and Nick long to finish cleaning up. When Caroline came out
, she grabbed me from behind the couch and squeezed her arms around my neck. She didn’t say anything, but I patted her arm to acknowledge that I loved her, too, and understood. I didn’t want her thinking I was afraid of her now that I had seen her lose it. It was what I would have done if someone threatened her, and I had the ability to be scary.

“I’m sorry you had
to kill her, Care.” I whispered.

“I’m glad she’s dead.”

My eyebrows rose for a moment before I realized they all probably were glad she was dead, and if I was being honest, so was I.

“It’s true. Sorry. She was evil and now she’s gone. That’s a win for the good guys, Ariya, no matter how you look at it.”

Caroline w
as unforgiving in her statement, and I knew it was because of the threat Emma had been to me. She was still taking on the big-sister role, which made more sense now, knowing she was actually one of the main people in my life who’d been protecting me.

“
I want what we learned kept between us. We’re going to have some digging to do and I’d prefer we keep quiet about it. It could be dangerous, but if we work together, we might be able to figure this all out. There isn’t another person I trust more than the three of you in this room. Like I said before, I’m not really sure who else is out there that we can fully commit to trusting beyond us right now.” James was speaking to us as if we were our own personal army and there was work to be done.

“Of course,
” Caroline said reassuringly, and Nick nodded in turn. “Do you think it’s true?”

“It seems
impossible. I don’t see why she would have lied. She thought she was going to live. If it is true, there is a lot more we have to learn about what’s going on. We’ll have to start right away, because this means more danger than we realized.” James paused before looking at me briefly.

“Audrey knows more
about Protectors and the bloodline than she should as it is. Adding her into this mess is ... certainly challenging.” James seemed to notice my fear.

“But
, you’ll be safe.” He grabbed my hand, bringing it up to his lips and giving me a soft kiss before releasing it and turning back to the others.

“We can handle the challenge, James. We’re with you, no matter what. She can’t be human. Wherever this leads, we’re here,” Nick asserted.

James didn’t speak.
This was really hurting him, whatever it was, and I was at a loss on how to comfort him. I was on the edge of my seat and finally struck up the courage to ask him my question.

“Who is Audrey? Was she a P
rotector?” They looked at me for a while before James answered.

“Audrey is
… was … my mother...” he trailed off.

“But I thought your mother was dead
, James,” I asked softly, placing my hand on his arm.

“So did
I,” was all he replied.

A feeling of dread hit me full force and I knew we were about to start down a dangerous road of discovering
if there was truth to Emma’s words and what it was we needed to know to stay safe.

James was right. H
is mother would be someone who knew about Protectors and about the bloodline since she’d been involved with information from both James’ father and James himself. It would be going against someone who knew all of the Protectors’ tricks.

How would James be able to fight his own mother for me? How would we be able to all stay safe and get throug
h this if she knew the Protectors weaknesses?

James looked up at us again
, this time with fury in his voice. “If Emma was telling the truth, my mother is alive and she’s after Ariya.”

Want more Ariya Adams?
Here is a SNEAK PEEK at Book 2 in the Ariya Adams trilogy (Coming out November 2013)!

Chapter 1

“All right, Caroline and Nick are in the lead, followed by me and James, and then Mom and Dad ... Well, you two are working hard and I know you’ll get some points soon,” I announced, and we all laughed.

“I think your father and I concede. We have nothing on you guys. Come on, Brian. Let’s let these kids have some fun.” My mom patted my dad’s leg to go and kissed my head.
“Goodnight everyone.”

“Goodnight, baby.
Be good,” my dad said, kissing my head.

My parents walked out of the room leaving Nick, Caroline, James, and me alone for a speed round of Catch Phrase. We had been playing with my parents for an hour now, relaxing and having a fun, quiet evening. Well, maybe not so quiet while we were screaming out answers in the game.

“All right, boys versus girls! Let’s go!” Caroline smiled as she hopped up to switch spots with Nick.

We had been with my parents for a week, and it was pure bliss. The four of us got to spend time together in a safe place away from the craziness of the past semester. My parents were safe, my friends were safe, and I was now preparing for my favorite holiday. It made for the perfect recovery from a rough end of semester.

Time here at home with everyone was much more relaxing than being tied up, beaten and almost killed by Devon, the insane werewolf who worked with my vampire relative Emma, my now boyfriend’s ex, in that plot to kill me. It’s hard to believe that had actually only been about a week ago. James saved my life from Emma and Devon. Both of them were now dead.

Having that threat out of the picture should have brought more comfort, but before her death, Emma had revealed that James’ mother might be behind everything. The problem is James thought his mother had died over 200 years ago before he turned into a vampire.

Yeah, I’m dating a vampire. It still feels strange, this new world I’m a part of. This was all news to me last semester. No biggie at all though, right?

We had all come here for our Christmas break, mostly because they all needed to protect me, but also because we had become a collective unit. We were searching for answers to this unraveling mystery together, the four of us.

They also kind of had to be with me. Along with discovering that vampires, werewolves, and warlocks exist, I also discovered I was part of a bloodline endowed with the ability to heal vampires who have been staked.

Members of my bloodline have always had vampire Protectors around them so that the gift doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. I had been introduced to the world of vampires when my best friend, Caroline, had been staked in front of me. Thankfully, I had the power to save her and discovered that she was vampire, as were her boyfriend Nick, and my Protector, James.

I was a descendant of a long line of innocents who were watched over until they had a child of their own and turned, or, had a child of their own and remained human without the gift. I wasn’t thrilled at the
having a child
part of the rules, but I wasn’t known as much of a rule-follower. So for now, I could relax.

As my Protector, James was under very strict rules to keep me safe. From the moment we met, there was something more there, and he and I headed down a tough road of trying to push our feelings aside. Besides an extremely passionate kiss or two and stolen glances here and there, we were semi-successful. Then, when I was almost killed, all bets were off, and we decided life was too short to be without each other.

So now he was with me, breaking Protector rules, but still with me. Being home for break meant that James had to be around his father, something I knew he didn’t enjoy. His father, Marik, was my mother’s Protector. Marik was also in charge of all the Protectors. He definitely wasn’t a fan of James breaking the rules, which meant things were a bit tense since he was in fact breaking their laws to be with me.

When did my life get so exciting? Well, exciting and terrifying. This trip home has been a refreshing change for James and me.  He has been so different ever since Emma and Devon abducted me. He usually hides his feelings and tries to put on this unemotional, no-nonsense Protector face. But, on this trip, we were laughing together, getting to know each other more, and enjoying the moment we were in. I never wanted to go back if this was what it could be like. Things were perfect right now.

“Ready?” I heard Caroline say to Nick, snapping me from my train of thought back to the game at hand. “Go!”

Nick and James started going back and forth, trying to rack up as many points as they could. They knew a lot about each other since they had been friends for about a hundred years. They were pretty good, but I glanced at Caroline, who smiled back at me as if to say,
we got this.

I turned my attention back to Nick and James as the buzzer went off, signaling the end of their turn. They had ten answers, which
is definitely good, but, as Caroline said with her glance, it wasn’t going to be good enough to beat us if we were on our ‘A’ game. I grinned. 

“Not bad boys, but I don’t think it’ll be good enough,” Caroline smirked.

Nick shoved the game into her hands while planting a kiss on her lips.

“You aren’t beating that score, babe. I don’t care what you think.” I glanced at James, who shrugged slyly proving he agreed with Nick.

I stuck my tongue out and he smiled, causing the butterflies in my stomach to flutter out of control.  He easily had me wrapped around his finger and sometimes I couldn’t help but think about how he must know that fact so well.

“We’ll see. Ready, Ariya?” She smiled wickedly at me and I nodded, bringing my gaze away from James. I knew if I stared any more, I wouldn’t be able to think of anything else.

“Christian Bale was the best…” She stared our turn.

“Batman.”

“Your only date with Johnny was at a…”

“Carnival.” I thought I saw James frown at that and tried to flash him a reassuring smile.

“I can’t believe you went out with Johnny,” he muttered.

Johnny was roommates with Riley, my other best friend. Nothing serious had ever happened with Johnny. It dawned on me that James probably knew about that already since he had been looking out for me since I’d started school at Kingsbrook. Oh, what embarrassing things he had seen!

“No interrupting!” I said playfully.

Caroline continued shooting questions at me. After a couple more, I worried time was ticking down. We were really good at this game, and I was pretty sure we already had more points than the boys.

“The one thing you hate most being dressed in?”

“Sequins.”

“Riley’s summer job.”

“Mascot.”

“
Time!
It has to be time!” Nick yelled.

“You do this on a star…” She rushed to squeeze in the words.

“Wish!” I shouted. As soon as I had, the buzzer went off. Caroline jumped up.

“Twelve! That’s twelve, guys. Sorry about your luck.” She danced around, rubbing it in their faces, making me to giggle.

“You guys are ridiculous at that. How is it possible? I’ve known James longer!” Nick said, shaking his head.

That comment just made Care laugh at him more.

“You’ll be punished later for embarrassing me,” Nick teased her, and I beamed over at them.

Caroline was head over heels for Nick. She had told me he turned her fifty years ago, but it looked like they were still in their honeymoon phase.

Suddenly, I felt myself being dragged backwards across the floor. I let out a squeal when I realized James had just pulled me closer to him. He had successfully pulled me back into him as he sat leaning back, with one leg propped up, and me resting on his leg. He leaned down and kissed my shoulder, which was bare because of the off the shoulder shirt I had chosen to wear. That sent a shudder through me.

“Tired?” he whispered in my ear. I nodded, knowing he just wanted to go upstairs, which was completely fine by me. “A
ll right, kids. Let’s call it a night,” he said to the others.

Caroline shoved into me playfully as we stood up. Our arrangement was that girls slept in my room and the boys had the guest room down the hall while we were at my
parents’ house. However, since my guests were vampires, they could sneak around quietly and quickly with no notice. This mean that the original sleeping arrangements lasted only long enough for the parental check, which I still got even at twenty-one years old.

We were sneaky and switched back in the morning with my parents having no clue what was going on – at least I hoped they didn’t.

The parental check consisted of my dad poking his head in a couple minutes after we came upstairs and settled in, and then again early in the morning. He was overly protective, but I was his little girl and only child. Everyone else in my life was over protective anyways, so I was used to it.

It wasn’t like he had a ton to worry about with James and
I sharing a bed anyway. I had always been very reserved in my “extracurriculars,” as Caroline called it. It wasn’t like I was a prude.  I’d do what I felt like with guys, but I was saving myself for the one. I know that now that’s considered quite lame, however, I just always felt like I would get way too emotionally attached if I just slept with whoever, whenever. Now that I had waited this long, what did it hurt waiting a bit longer? What scared me was that part of me thought James was in fact the one, however, he never pushed me to do anything I didn’t want to do.

We got ready for
bed, and Caroline and I went to my room to wait for my dad to check on us.

“So, have you and James done it yet?”

“Done it? What are we, fifteen, Care?” I said, pushing back at her.

She chuckled softly into her hands so as not to make too much noise. “I’m kidding. I’m kidding. Are you having a good time?”

“Yes, I don’t want break to end,” I said sadly.

“Ariya, we still have a good week left before we are going back. Christmas and New Year’s we’ll be here, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. Its just been so wonderful.” I smiled at her, and she smiled knowingly right back at me.

We heard the door creek open. I shut my eyes and I knew Caroline pretended to do the same. When the door closed again, we stifled our laughs, and Caroline hopped out of bed. It felt like only a second later, a different body was in the bed with me. He was hovering above me before I could even turn to face him.

“That took too long.” He smiled and leaned into me, wrapping his hand in my hair and kissing me.

I’d never in my life been kissed the way James kisses me. There is something there behind his passion that I didn’t think was possible.

His kisses were beyond what I had ever hoped for when I was younger and daydreamed about being kissed. I tilted my hips up into him, wanting more of him. I felt his smile grow and his hands pulled back the blanket that was between us. I rolled over on top of him to straddle his waist. It was moments like this when I was truly amazed at everything he did to me and for me.

I smiled down at him and he grinned back up at me. I loved when he was so relaxed. His ice blue eyes and wavy brown hair that always looked perfect was a lot to take in. He belonged on the cover of GQ so everyone could enjoy how wonderful he looked. Sometimes he could be quiet and reserved when we were around others, because he was being watchful. But then there were moments like this one where he was completely himself and completely free.

He smirked at me only for a moment and I knew what was coming next. James was faster and stronger than me, since I was just a mere human, and I wasn’t giving him what he wanted. My heart fluttered in anticipation as I felt the movement of him pinning me right back onto the bed.

“Where was I?” he whispered as his breath tickled my skin. He trailed his lips down my neck. I sighed.

He pulled back and looked at me. “Yes?” he smiled.

“Nothing, it was a happy sigh. Honest!” I promised him.

He went back to where he had left off.

“Do you have any idea what you do to me, Ariya?”

I squirmed, loving the sound of his voice saying my name in such a breathy way.

“If it’s anything like what you to do me, yes,” I teased, smiling.

His lips left my neck and continued down my body. Vampires were naturally a bit cooler to the touch, I’d discovered, yet when James and I were alone together like this, his body radiated heat. Or maybe that was just my body radiating enough heat for both of us.

Bringing his mouth up to mine, he lowered his body so I could feel just what it was I was doing to him. Feeling him hard against me made me moan.

“James,” I whispered. It sounded like I was praising him.

With expert movements, he maneuvered around my loose boxer shorts with his fingers until he was gripping my hip in his hand. The feel of James’ hand sliding around my hip bone, slowly, was a blissful torture, and I thought I might combust right there on the spot. His tongue brushed mine seductively before he nipped my bottom lip lightly.