by C. L. Parker
“I do not tease you!”
“Oh? You just told me to take you to my bedroom and have my way with you. Just the other day, you stripped me while straddling me on my bike and having your wicked way with me, you throttle me every day in our training sessions, and you press your arse against my cock in bed. Don’t think for a second I believe it’s simply by accident.”
Tori smacked his chest. “I do not press my ass against you!”
“Oh, yes you do. Worse than that, even when you’re not physically touching me with some part of your body, you look at me like you’re begging me to make you feel like a woman, which I partially did this morning.” He winked with a self-satisfied smirk.
“Dante Dickens, you’re making all that up!”
“Am I? Why is it so difficult for you to be honest with yourself? I’m a man, you’re a woman, and we want each other. It’s simple maths. Add to that the fact that we’re bound together for a lifetime and it only makes sense that we bind ourselves together in more primal ways as well.”
“You’re killing me with your romanticism here,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“It’s romance you want, then? I can be romantic. I’ll bring you flowers and sweets every day, open doors for you, pull out your seat before you eat, whatever it takes to make you mine.”
He stopped walking and turned her to look at him. “I’m not just referring to the physicality of it all. I want you in every way that a man wants a woman, but more than that—and I can’t believe I’m about to say this because I’ve never felt this way about a woman before—but I want to call you mine, Angel.”
Tori didn’t know how to respond to that. Butterflies fluttered in the pit of her stomach and her pulse raced as blood pumped erratically through her veins. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a tall man dressed in black with white-tipped hair. Tori snapped her head in that direction, finding an older gentleman jogging by. She could’ve sworn it was him, but it wasn’t. Feeling him nearby, she turned to the other direction and just barely caught a glimpse of shimmering eyes in the bushes before they disappeared, too.
Could it all have just been a figment of her imagination? Was her mind conjuring up images of him out of guilt because she was starting to fall for Dante?
She had felt like she was betraying him by using Dante to keep the nightmares, and thus him, away. Could that be the reason she now thought she was seeing him everywhere, the reason she was plagued with guilt over her desire for more with Dante?
Tori shook her head. “I’m not ready for something like that right now, Dante. Besides, I’m only here for three months. What happens then? I can’t leave my parents to stay here with you, and what are you going to do? Pack up and leave everything behind to follow me to the States?”
Dante dropped his hands from her shoulders and shrugged. “I have nothing here.”
“You have your parents.”
“And they don’t need me here. My destiny is to be by your side. You have my unyielding devotion, unwavering loyalty, and impenetrable fortitude. It’s a vow I don’t take lightly.”
“Are you asking me to marry you, Dante? Because that sounds oddly like a proposal.” Tori laughed to lighten the mood.
“I can’t even get you to agree to be my girlfriend and you think I would be foolish enough to ask for your hand in marriage? My pride has been wounded quite enough for one afternoon, thank you very much.”
Tori stepped into him and fisted the fabric of his shirt over his stomach. “Look, can’t we just enjoy our time together while I’m here and see where things go? I mean, we’re having fun together, right? Why do we need to put a label on it?”
Dante smiled down at her. “You realize you sound like the guy in this relationship that isn’t really a relationship, right?”
Tori smiled back with a teasing in her eyes. “Does that make you my bitch, then?”
Dante let out a full-bellied laugh. “I am nobody’s bitch, Angel.”
She cocked her head to the side and furrowed her brows in contemplation. “Really? Because I’m pretty sure you were my bitch this morning when I was wiping up the mat with your pretty-boy face.”
Dante drew his head back and his eyebrows shot up. “Wiping up the mat with my pretty-boy face?”
“Mmmhmm.”
“Angel, you might want to run. Because if I catch you, I’m going to take you down to the ground and show not only you, but all the fine people of London, exactly who is wearing the pants in this so-called relationship, and then I may strip you of yours and make you walk back home in nothing but your knickers.”
“You wouldn’t!”
He bit down on his lip and looked her over. “Care to place your knickers on the line as well?”
Oh, he was serious.
Tori took a step back from him and he followed.
“I’ll give you a ten-second head start.”
With a giggle, Tori turned and took off like a bat out of Hell, knowing he’d be eating her dust, but not wanting to take any chances. Dominic had taken her to the high school’s track back in St. Augustine on a daily basis as part of her workout routine. She was fast, but she didn’t know how fast Dante might have been in comparison.
Regardless, she didn’t even chance a look back to see how close he might have been because she didn’t want to lose momentum. When she came upon a line of trees that separated the park from the dense forest, she broke through and doubled back toward the place where their blanket and things were still lying. With any luck, Dante wouldn’t have a clue and she’d be sitting there writing in her journal about how she buried him in yet another test of their skills by the time he found her.
She kept her eyes on the ground in front of her, watching for any obstacles she might need to hurdle, when out of the corner of her eye, she could’ve sworn she saw him again. The trees passed by in a blur, but the wind became colder and she knew she caught the glimpse of the sun reflecting off his eyes, but every time she looked, there was nothing. Of course, she was traveling at a high rate of speed for a person on foot, so it could’ve just been a trick of the light on her surroundings. Either way, it gave her an eerie feeling, so she broke back through the tree line and found herself just yards away from the London plane tree where she and Dante had been resting earlier. A quick look around and Dante was nowhere to be seen, so she slowed her pace to a comfortable jog before finally coming to a walk.
People meandered around the park, tossing a Frisbee to their dogs, wrestling with children in the grass, enjoying a picnic in the shade, and generally having a pleasant outing without a care in the world. Tori envied what they had. She had never known what it was like to be normal. Sure, she’d had playful times with her parents, and even the comfort of their dog, Millie, but nothing like what these strangers had. They didn’t have the threat of impending danger looming over their heads. In fact, they seemed oblivious to what most would call normal everyday dangers most mortals faced. Maybe it was true what they said about ignorance being bliss.
Tori passed by a mother sitting on the bench with a boy who looked to be no older than five beside her and a baby carriage on the other side. She stopped, pretending to tie her shoe so that she wouldn’t look stalkerish as she looked on. The mother and the boy each had a vanilla ice cream cone in their hand, and the boy giggled along with his mother when she tapped the end of his nose with her cone, leaving a smudge of ice cream behind. The mother swiped his nose with her fingertip and then licked the ice cream from her finger, still laughing. Tori stood, feeling herself smile, and wondered if she might ever get the chance to have a similar experience with a child of her own one day.
Just then, she blinked and time slowed down to a fraction of a second. When her lids opened again, the scene before her was markedly different and far more gruesome. Tori could hear the sound of her own breathing and feel the exaggerated thump of her heartbeat in her chest as she looked on in horror at the devastation before her. The mother and child were covered in b
lood, both mutilated and devoid of life. The mother had been decapitated, her head rolling on the ground at her feet, and the boy had deep, gaping gashes all over his body and across his throat. His ice cream cone, now splattered crimson, was lying in his mother’s lap, and his eyes were wide open with terror still evident in their depths. Tori’s eyes reluctantly shifted to the baby carriage, finding it mangled with thick blood dripping through the bottom into a pool on the ground beneath it.
She looked around, finding everyone who had been frolicking and full of life mere seconds before in a similar, blood-mutilated state. Body parts of men, women, children, and even pets were strewn about haphazardly like discarded pieces in a slaughter house. Death was all around her, closing in, and she searched frantically for Dante, not finding him anywhere.
“Dante!” Her voice did not sound like her own as she screamed, feeling her steps falter and her knees buckle. Another blink and she felt arms around her waist.
“Gotcha!” Dante laughed and time suddenly warped back to its original pace.
Tori could once again hear the sound of laughter from the mother and child on the park bench. She looked around, relieved, albeit confused when there were no traces of the horror she had just seen.
“Did you see it?” Tori spun around, dumbfounded and disoriented as she pulled away from him.
“See what?”
“You didn’t see them? They were all dead!”
“What are you going on about?” Dante asked, his voice belying the concern in his facial features.
“We were running . . . We’ve been running this whole time, haven’t we? I couldn’t have fallen asleep.”
“Angel, you’re scaring me. What are you talking about? Of course you weren’t asleep. What did you see?”
Tori finally looked up at him and took a step back. “Nothing. I didn’t see anything. I . . . I need to get out of here.”
She turned and ran back toward their blanket, but she could hear Dante’s hurried steps behind her. She couldn’t stop, wouldn’t stop. She needed to be alone. None of what had just happened made any sense and she needed to be by herself so that she could figure it out. She hadn’t been asleep. She hadn’t been asleep!
She reached the blanket and hurriedly gathered her things. Dante reached her before she could take off again, grabbing her by the arm and spinning her around.
“Talk to me, Angel. What just happened?”
She shook her head vigorously, refusing to look him in the eye. “I can’t . . . I don’t . . . I don’t know . . .”
She tried to pull away again, but he backed her to the tree and caged her in with his arms. Tori finally looked up at him, seeing the same fear she felt inside herself mirrored in his eyes. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him to her, burying her face in his neck. He was her safety, her home. In his arms, cocooned by his scent, she was protected. But the images of the mutilated mother and child refused to be erased from her mind.
Quiet tears streamed down her cheeks as she closed her eyes and whispered into his ear. “Bad things happen when I run away from you. Please don’t ever ask me to do it again.”
Tori wouldn’t tell Dante what the bad things were. In fact, she had adamantly refused to talk about anything that had happened in the park and had withdrawn into herself. During meal times, she picked at her food, but had otherwise put on a fake smile and acted like everything was all right for the other members of the household. Dante had known differently and he was pretty sure Dominic had as well, if his side-glances had been any indication. But he had seemed content to let it ride for the time being.
That wasn’t something Dante could do.
Tori didn’t want to go sightseeing. She didn’t want to train. She didn’t even want to take his motorcycle out for a ride. She would, however, agree to ride on the back of it for trips to the mound, but she was back to burying her face in his shoulder with her eyes closed again.
Dante didn’t think it was because she was afraid of the bike, but because of what she might see around her. She had only agreed to the fairy mound because they were alone there, and she felt safer that way. When they were at home, all she had done was sit on the window seat in her bedroom and write in her journal. He wasn’t even sure she had been going to her sanctuary, and for a Guardian that was a major red flag.
She had been like that for three days. And for three days, thanks to her foul mood, the rain and thunderstorms had been relentless. If Dante didn’t do something, and soon, they’d need to get to work on building an ark and gathering up all the animals two-by-two.
He didn’t have a clue how to help Tori, but he knew she definitely needed it, even if she didn’t want to tell him what the problem was in the first place. Seeing no other option, he went to his father’s study, thankfully finding him alone. Dante rapped a knuckle on the open door to get his attention.
Drew looked up from the worn leather-bound book he was reading and smiled. “Dante! How have you been, son?”
“Quite all right. I was just wondering if you might be able to spare a moment?”
“I always have time for you. You know that. Seems you’re the one who’s been preoccupied lately.” He gave Dante a knowing smile. “I’ve missed our chats. Come on in and have a seat.”
He nodded toward the oversized burgundy chair that sat opposite him and closed his book before placing it on the small table piled with yet more books at his side. Drew’s library was filled with a plethora of old, weathered tomes, mostly handwritten by his forefathers, containing everything they had observed and knew to be true about the Guardians of Light. Even speculations on messages they had received but had never come to fruition during their long days on the Earth. There was also a rather sizeable collection of texts written by theologians, as his forefathers had been enthralled by every theory of man’s coming of age. It was important to understand where man came from if they were ever to learn of their own true origins. Drew had inherited that obsession, and as such, this was his happy place aside from his sanctuary. Knowledge was power, and there was loads of the stuff right there in those ancient, age-worn books.
Dante closed the door behind him and crossed the room. When he took the offered seat, Drew leaned forward and clasped his hands together in front of him. “What’s on your mind?”
“It’s about Victoria.”
Drew grinned widely. “If it’s advice you need, you’ve come to the right place. Before your mother, I was quite the ladies’ man.”
Dante shook his head. “No, it’s not about that, and I’m sorry, but before we go any further I must ask that this conversation be kept in the strictest of confidence.”
Drew’s grin faded and his brow pinched as he registered the topic was of a serious nature. “Of course, Dante. You know I would never betray your trust.”
“Yes, I do. That’s why I’m coming to you.” Dante sighed, not quite sure how to begin.
He knew he could rely on his father to keep his word, but he still had to be careful about how much he told Drew because he’d promised Tori that he’d keep her secret about the nightmares.
“Something’s wrong with her, but she won’t confide in me, even though I know she trusts me. All I want to do is help her with whatever the issue is, but I can’t bloody well do that if I don’t know the root of the problem.”
“Is this a relationship issue? Do you think it has something to do with her feelings toward you?”
“No, I don’t think so. We’re getting along rather fantastically, which proves you were right about my role as her protector.”
Drew sat back. “I see. Well, I’m very glad to hear that. She couldn’t be in better hands, of that, I’m sure. But what’s happened to make you think something is wrong?”
Dante shook his head. “I can’t tell you that.”
“All right. Then how is it you think I might be able to help you?”
“Well, I’d ask to borrow the Ring, but it won’t do any good if she’s not willing to talk about w
hat’s wrong. I just thought that maybe you’d know another way, or could maybe suggest some other tactic I could use to get her to open up to me.”
Drew moved to the edge of his chair. “Women are a funny sort, Dante—puzzling even as mortals, but a Guardian?” He shook his head. “I don’t envy you. Judging by her parentage alone, I’d say Tori is about as stubborn as they come. You really have no hope of being able to coerce the matter out of her unless you can be very, very persuasive—maybe even a little tricky.
“On the other hand, Tori’s of the making that follows through on promises made . . . if you can get her to make the promise in the first place.”
“Fat chance of that. You were right; she is stubborn. You wouldn’t believe the manipulation I had to use just to get her to agree to let me teach her how to ride my motorcycle. Likely thinks I’m a nancy now, but it was worth it to see her smile and enjoy the freedom of it all. No way will that trick work again, though.”
“Hmm . . .” Drew studied the floor in thought, not that he was actually going to find an answer woven into the carpet.
Then again, maybe he had because after a moment, he returned his attention to Dante with a sly smile on his lips and a sneaky glint in his eyes.
“I know of another way. I’ve never told you this, but years ago, when I first met Kerrigan, I was convinced she was my soul mate. I was wrong, but that’s not the point.”
“Happens to the best of us,” Dante teased.
“As I said, that’s not the point,” Drew continued, taking the teasing in stride. “During one of our training exercises, I invited her into my sanctuary. That was when I first learned that she was carrying a child—Tori.”
“And?” Dante asked, expectantly.
“And she never told me she was pregnant. You see, in a Guardian’s sanctuary, no truth is hidden from us.”
Dante was taken aback. “So you’re saying if I take Victoria into my sanctuary I’ll be able to see what’s going on with her?”
