Her Guardian Series Box Set

by G. Bailey

  "Jewels, will you help Leigha guard the house?" I ask Jewels who stretches out her huge paws, the leather sofa creaking as she moves. I take it as a “yes” when she jumps off the sofa and comes over to me. She presses her head against my stomach gently and follows Leigha through the door to the kitchen.

  Dabriel takes my hand and leads me through the other door into a small corridor with some stairs at the end. We go up the stairs, and there are four doors, two on each side of the hallway. One is slightly open, and Dab takes me into it. It's a small double bedroom, there's a bed with a pile of folded blue sheets on the end and a small wardrobe made of wood. There's also a small window, and I go over to look out. We’re in a small street with a grey road in the middle. The houses are average and detached. Each one has a brightly coloured roof that matches the flowers outside their homes. I wonder if there’s a reason the houses are painted in such a way. I can see from here that the mountains do surround the city. After opening the window, I only hear children’s laughter in the wind and catch a very flowery scent that reminds me of how Atti smells.

  The city is lovely and so unusual.

  "The secret city, humans refer to it as the Lost City of Atlantis," Dabriel says as he sits on the bed, then lies on his back. I wonder for a second if it’s uncomfortable for his wings to have his body lay on them, but he doesn’t look uncomfortable. In fact, he looks at home; he takes up nearly all the double bed. I wonder how I’m going to sleep later, most likely on top of him. I glance at the firm muscles I can see from where his shirt has risen up, and a blush fills my cheeks.

  "This is Atlantis, like the movie?" I ask, changing the subject, and I’m actually interested. I liked that film; the Disney one was the best.

  "Yes. When the goddess was alive, the city wasn't hidden, and humans were welcomed if they managed to travel over the sea. I’m unsure why the city was hidden, but I'm guessing the times when they started burning witches didn't help. You remember what I told you about the witch ancestor?" he asks me, and I nod.

  “This was the part of the land he ripped apart. The jewel trees in the middle are where she was apparently buried, and the trees appeared to remember her. They are as beautiful as she was said to be,” Dabriel says. I can’t see the trees from here, but I remember the ring filled with the shiny trees from the castle.

  "Where is the city exactly?" I ask, as I know it’s not on any globe I saw growing up.

  "In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean," Dabriel smirks, like it should be obvious. I shake my head with a small smile.

  "How do human scanners not find it? With all our technology and boats, someone must know about this place," I say.

  "The higher-ups in government know of its existence, much like they know how angels have a massive town in America that humans aren't welcome in. They are aware of the supernatural world, and cover up many of our secrets," he tells me.

  "So, apparently Google Earth isn't as good as it seems," I say. I never really saw the point of Google Earth anyway; all I ever did was Google my own house. I guess I must be a little lame.

  "No, it's not," he laughs. Turning slightly to face him, I watch as he gets off the bed and comes to stand close to me.

  "Can I survive this?" I ask, while he looks down at me.

  "I won't let you die in that arena. I’ll stop it if I think you can't do it, but I believe in you," he tells me. Dabriel always believes in me, I’ve noticed. He’s always on my side. My protector.

  "Why?" I ask quietly.

  "You are far stronger than you look, Winter," he says, and he leans down to kiss me.

  I pull back when he stops moving, and I frown up at him as he straightens.

  His eyes are completely white, and he’s shaking slightly.

  “Dabriel?” I ask him, I shake his arm, but he doesn’t move. He just looks in a trance. Did my kiss break him?

  "Atti, Leigha!" I shout, not knowing what to do.

  Atti rushes into the room a minute later while I’m still shaking Dabriel, and he takes one look at him and sighs. "I thought something was wrong," he relaxes against the door.

  "It is, look at him," I wave a hand at Dab.

  "It's normal. He’s having a vision," Atti says and sits on the bed, his huge form taking up all of the bed as he lies back and rests his head on his arms. I don’t know how I didn't notice before, but Atti's shirt is missing, and his hair is messy like he has been running his fingers through it. I get a glance at his tight stomach, pecs, and the little blond hairline that stops at his jeans.

  "Winter," Dabriel says, snapping my attention to him. His eyes are back to the normal purple I love, and he looks worried.

  "The first fight is with a Dentanus," Dabriel says, and Atti sits up straight in bed.

  "You have got to be fucking kidding me!" Atti roars, he smacks the bed as he stands up and paces by the door. Muttering something rude about a witch and murdering a city.

  "No, I only saw Winter and a Dentanus in the arena. I don't know how it ends," Dabriel says with a worried look in my direction as he crosses his arms. He looks two seconds away from flying my ass back to somewhere safe, and keeping me there.

  "What's a Dentanus?" I ask quietly. I know I'm not going to like the answer.

  "A Dentanus is a dragon that’s thought to be a demon. When faced alone, it can cause its victim to be consumed with everlasting terror, a vicious cycle that renders them helpless. The last one I know being on earth was when I was a baby. It took twenty witches and my parents to kill it. They nearly didn't," Atti answers me, but he doesn’t stop his pacing by the door.

  “This one was young, not half the size of its adult form. Winter may have a chance,” Dabriel says, yet his eyes give away his lie when he looks at me. I know he doesn’t want to say it, but fucking hell, it’s a dragon, and I’m well, me. I might as well walk into its mouth.

  “Demons are immune to silver! That includes the dragon; the only way the last one was beaten was to remove its head,” Atti says and looks at me.

  “Winter loves animals. Unless she plans to charm the dragon into some tea and biscuits, we are screwed,” Atti says sarcastically.

  “My mother could control animals, and my grandmother created a lot of them. Maybe I might be able to at least calm it down. I used to be able to calm any animal growing up; I loved them. I was training to be a vet for a reason,” I say.

  "A dragon is a big step up from a cat, Winter," Dabriel says gently.

  "This is not happening," Atti says, shaking his head.

  "Dabriel already saw me there, so it is. We need to find out what weapons work on it and fast. If not, I’m going to work on my blue power and running away fast," I say to them both. They glance at each other.

  "Demons aren't weak to silver or anything I know of. This is a major concern, considering your demon grandfather likely has a large army full of demons, and we have little ways to kill them," Dabriel says.

  "Then we have a week to find out anything we can. I can ask Milo. He might know," I say.

  “If you can understand anything he says, other than ‘more food’,” Atti says, and it makes me smile a little.

  “To be fair, I understood when he told me about seeing you in the shower. I believe he described your thingy bob as a large stick,” I say, causing Atti to laugh with Dabriel and me.

  “I think the mini-demon has a crush on me,” Atti says, and I nod with a grin.

  “Oh, I know he does. You do realise he has been sleeping in your bed every night?”

  “That’s not at all creepy,” Atti shivers.

  “Milo tells me all about you when he comes to wake me up in the morning. Jaxson and Wyatt think it’s funny. They both said I shouldn’t tell you,” I laugh when Atti groans.

  “Didn’t know he was your type, brother,” Dabriel says, and Atti chuckles.

  “Nope, he isn’t. We share the same type,” Atti says and winks at me.

  After a moment’s silence, Atti says quietly, "You could die." His words are spoken slowly
as he moves to stand in front of me. Atti moves his whole body close to mine, until we’re touching, and I’m forced to tilt my head up to meet his eyes.

  "I will destroy the whole city if you die. I will destroy the world if I lose you, Winter," he says, each word filled with an image of my fun-loving Atti losing it. It reminds me of his ancestor; how he lost his wife and literally tore the earth apart. I could never put Atti through that pain; I care for him too much. I vaguely hear the door being shut behind Dabriel as Atti and I stare at each other. Atti’s sweet scent fills my senses, and I breathe him in.

  "You won't lose me. We can do this; we can take back what is ours and do what is right. We will always do what is right," I say, each word a quiet whisper, but my words are powerful enough to be considered a warning to our enemies.

  Atti lowers his head and brushes his lips against mine, once and then twice until all I can focus on is his sweet lips. He always kisses me like he is savouring his favourite dessert, every kiss slow and leisured, making me desperate for him–more than I can admit. I’m sure my body is telling him everything I’m thinking as I tighten my hands that have found their way into his hair. He groans as his hands slide slowly down my back, until his large hands squeeze my bum.

  He lifts me, and I wrap my legs around him, as he deepens the kiss.

  "Winter, we can't, not yet," he says and breaks away from me after putting me down. It hurts to see him say no, and I don't really understand why.

  "Why?" I ask quietly.

  "Winter," he groans and pulls me to his chest. "I want nothing more than to strip every little piece of clothing off you and show you how much I care about you. We can't because it wouldn't be just sex; I want to mate with you. Our first time, I'm going to mate with you, and make you mine," he says. I understand. The urge to be with him is hitting me strongly too. I never imagined being with more than one person for the rest of my life, but it seems impossible to imagine a life without all of them at my side. My life is a lot longer now too, longer than I know how to deal with.

  "I want to show you something. I know we have a lot of crap to deal with, and you might hate witches after this, but let me show you our city," he says and kisses my cheek. “The city and people are not all evil. I know you haven’t had the best introduction to dark witches or light, but I swear that some of the kindest people I know are witches. We survived a war much like the wolves’ and vampires’ war, so I want to show you what we fought for,” he tells me.

  "I would love that," I smile, and he grins at me.

  "Come on then, Love," he holds out his hand, and I take it happily.

  We find Dabriel in the kitchen with Mags, Atti’s other familiar. Dabriel is currently feeding Mags, in her normal form, pieces of chocolate but stops when he sees us. She lifts her big white head to stare at Dabriel until he gives her another piece.

  "Not chocolate, man, she gets pissy if I don't feed it to her," Atti groans, she doesn’t even look at him. I don’t blame her.

  "Mags loves chocolate," Dabriel shrugs.

  "More than anything else, including me. She will stomp and try to eat me if I don’t give it to her when you leave."

  "I think I've found my spirit animal," I say, staring at Mags with love.

  "It was only a little," Dabriel chuckles and puts the bar back into the fridge. The kitchen is more modern than I thought it would be. It looks brand new with black counters and white drawers. There are all the appliances you would expect, and a large coffee maker. Atti must be a coffee man. In the one corner are two massive pet bowls, both pink and have his familiars’ names on them. I have to admit, that’s cute.

  "We’re going out, I want to show Winter the city." Atti pats Dabriel on the shoulder.

  "Count me in," Dabriel says.

  "I think Leigha is coming too," I tell them both.

  "No, she can stay and watch the house. You’ll be safe with us both," Dabriel replies.

  "You’re telling her then," I say, and Dabriel gives me a shrug like he doesn’t see the problem. He really doesn’t know the warrior princess.

  "Sure," he says and walks out the front door. It takes two seconds before Leigha is shouting her rejection of his idea and threatening to kick his ass.

  Atti looks at me, and we both burst into laughter.

  Fifty-One

  Winter

  After what felt like forever, Dab and I finally manage to convince Leigha to stay at the house. Atti said Leigha scares him and stands a distance away, letting us handle her. I will admit she scares me a little, too, but I know Atti is just being a dick. Leigha takes protecting me really seriously and demands I at least take her dagger with me. I think she feels like she will fail in some way if she isn’t there to protect me. At least with the pack, I was safe, and she didn’t need to worry, here is a different matter. Atti walks with me close to his side, his arm around my waist. I glance up at him, he’s wearing his black cloak, and the hood is up. Dabriel is close behind, also wearing a cloak, to hide his wings and hair. It makes him look massive, with oddly-shaped shoulders, so it’s not too obvious he’s an angel. We walk down the quiet street; it’s strange because there are no cars. Other than the one time we went camping, I’ve been used to the noise of roads and cars. This place is so peaceful. Dabriel moves to my other side when the path opens up. The city is slightly cold, with a hint of a sea breeze in the air. I pull my leather coat closer around me as the wind blows a little.

  “Do you like the witch city?” I ask Dabriel, as we turn around a corner.

  “The island and city are called Atlantis,” Atti adds in before Dabriel can answer.

  “Yeah, but I just think of the film every time I think of the real name, so ‘witch city’ it is for me,” I say to Atti who chuckles, and I look at Dabriel to answer my earlier question.

  “I’ve never been around the city. I visited Atti’s house a few times, but we didn’t risk coming out,” Dabriel replies.

  “Ah, I forgot people don’t know you grew up as close friends,” I reply. I glance at the house as I go past; the front garden is filled with different flowers. Some I recognise, like the roses, but some are so different from anything I’ve ever seen with a range of multi-colours and strange shapes.

  “No, they don’t; I believe Taliana was shocked to see me at Atti’s side. She will take into consideration that I’ll heal you after the fights,” Dabriel says, and I look away from the garden at him. We move out of the way when a few witches walk past us, their hoods up, so I can’t see them.

  “Less talk of the fights for now, I want to be a normal tourist for a bit,” I say, and Dab laughs.

  “Normal is not a word I would ever use to describe you,” he says, and I whack his chest with my hand. Unfortunately for me, it just makes him laugh and hurts my hand because his chest is like a rock.

  I stop in my tracks when we get to the end of the street because the sight is striking. There's a paddock of hundreds of different-coloured trees with sparkling jewels hanging from them. Each one is tall, built like an oak tree in shape, and they have little crystals hanging from them instead of acorns. There are so many, more than I can see, and a grey road, which looks like it goes around the paddock of trees. In front of the grey gates that keep the jewel trees in are dozens of stalls. It looks like a flea market, like the one my mum used to take Alex and me to sometimes. The only thing that is a lot different is that the witches walk down the streets with a mixture of different animals next to them. A woman walks past with a huge snake wrapped around her arm and neck. Another witch has a polar bear walking next to them; a small child is riding on the polar bear’s back and pointing at things. All the witches have their hoods up, it looks like I’m nearly the only one that doesn’t. The closest stall to us looks like it sells the crystals from the trees in different types of jewellery. The stall next to it is selling different-coloured powders.

  "This is so amazing," I say in wonder, and Atti chuckles.

  "Those are the trees I told you of once, and this is
the market. People sell and buy everything here. I told you once our people live equally, and money isn't a thing here," he tells me.

  "So, what do you trade?" I ask.

  "We trade our magic using the stones or we trade for work," he tells me and pulls out a translucent purple stone; it looks blue inside with dozens of little sparkling magic things. I miss the old necklace Atti gave me, even if it was just used to hide my appearance. I liked that it was from him.

  "Here, this will buy you anything you want," he tells me and places the stone into my jeans’ back pocket. His hand slides out slowly, and being a typical man, he gives my bum a little squeeze.

  "This place is so different, is it like this with the angels?" I ask Dabriel, who is looking around, and several people are stopping to stare at us now. Well, at me, being as I’m dressed weird–in jeans and a leather coat. At least I ditched the crossbow and arrows before we came out. The dagger is out on my hip though, so I still look strange.

  "No. The angels live a little differently from humans, but we aren’t as hidden from the world. They prefer to just watch humans from a near distance," Dabriel says.

  "Things are changing for all of the supernaturals," I say, thinking of the vampires in the new castle.

  "Your Majesty, I am sorry for the loss of your mother. She was a true queen," a man says, and he bows to Atti. I’m surprised anyone recognised him under his hood, but this man clearly does. He is the only man I can see; the rest are shaped like women.

  "Thank you," Atti replies with a small nod and lowers his hood.

  Several other people suddenly start to notice Atti, and they bow, removing their hoods. I hear “true king” whispered in my mind as people look at us.

  “Why are there so many women, and only one man that I’ve seen?” I ask Dabriel. Atti is watching the women with a blank expression; giving me the feeling he’s talking in their minds.