Nexus

by C. L. Parker

  When Tori busted open the door to her room, she found Dante already lying in her bed, half naked with a grin on his face like the cat that ate the canary, or maybe it was more like the wolf who thought he was about to eat the cat. Whatever. In either case, it infuriated her even more. Oh, how she’d love to knock that arrogant smile from his face with a couple of pummels from her fist.

  Tori slammed the door and narrowed her eyes at him. “You lying sack of shit!”

  The self-assured smile fell from his face, which kind of disappointed her, but maybe she’d just pretend it was still there and beat the shit out of him anyway.

  “Excuse me?” he asked, his face twisted up in confusion.

  “How dare you lie in my bed like you’re about to get lucky after what you did to me? Get out!”

  “Calm down, Angel. What are you going on about?”

  Tori’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “Really? You’re going to lie there and play the ignorance card, Dante? Aren’t I the one who’s been ignorant all along? I’ve believed everything you’ve told me without question. So, tell me . . . what did you see?”

  “What?”

  “What. Did. You. See? In your sanctuary . . . when you lied to get me there all in the hopes of unraveling the big mystery that is the freaktastic Guardian of Mankind? What did you see?”

  Realization dawned and Dante hung his head. “You know about that, do you?”

  “Damn right I know about it! Tell me!”

  “It’s not what you think.”

  “Oh, it’s not? Because what I think is that you tricked me into going to your sanctuary with you so you could see the inner workings of my mind. But that’s not right? You didn’t do that?”

  No answer.

  “That’s what I thought. Bastard! I trusted you!”

  “Let me explain.”

  “I don’t want to hear your explanation, Dante. I just want to know what you saw.”

  Resigned, Dante looked up at the ceiling. “Nothing and everything.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “I only saw you, Angel. Nothing more.”

  “Don’t call me that!” Tori stomped across the room and threw the covers back from him. “Get up and get the hell out of my room!”

  Dante reached out and grabbed her arm, yanking her down to the bed with him.

  Tori pushed, shoved, and struck at any part of him she could reach. “Let go of me or so help me God, I’m going to scream loud enough that my father will come up here, and then I’m going to tell him all about how you used me.”

  “Not until you calm down.”

  Still she continued to thrash against him. “I don’t want you to touch me. I don’t even want you anywhere near me. I hate you, Dante Dickens!”

  Abruptly, he released her with pained hurt in his eyes. Good. He should feel exactly the way he made her feel.

  Tori climbed out of bed and crossed the room to get as far away from him as she could. Dante finally took the hint and got out of bed, grabbing his pants and shoving his legs into them.

  Tears fell unabated from Tori’s eyes as the severity of the situation hit her. She had put so much trust in that one man—trusting him with her secrets, trusting him with her body, trusting him with her heart—only for the one who was supposed to be her protector to be the source of her misery instead. Her stomach churned, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to throw up or attack him again.

  “I am so stupid. I can’t believe I believed you. You told me you wanted to take me someplace where only you and I existed. You told me that I made your sanctuary complete. It was all a lie. Every word of it. Wasn’t it? You played me like a fool, and I fell for it all—the good looks, the British charm, the promise of protection—all of it was a lie!”

  Dante’s head snapped up at her. “Oh, don’t give me that! I was concerned for your well-being and you wouldn’t tell me anything. I’m the Guardian of the Guardian, Victoria! How the bloody hell am I supposed to protect you when you’re more heavily guarded than the crown jewels? I did what I had to do for your own safety. Fat lot of good that did me, though. For some confounded reason I couldn’t see anything about you.”

  “Good! That’s what you get for trying to poke around in my mind when I hadn’t given you permission.”

  “And for the record, I never used you. If anyone was using anyone else, it was you.”

  Tori blanched. “Me?” she screeched.

  “Yes, you. As I recall, you’re the one who needed me to sleep with you to keep the nightmares away. You’re the one who needed my touch to keep all the bad things that are happening away, for that matter. Things you didn’t have the presence of mind to share with me. But I did it. I did it because not only is it my duty, but because I genuinely care about you.”

  Tori swiped at the tears in her eyes and guffawed. “Oh yeah, right. You care?”

  “No, I don’t just care. I bloody love you! And I’m not about to give up on you or us. I intend to fight for you, not because I’m destined to, but because I believe in what we have.”

  “What we had was all a lie, Dante.”

  “So, I’m just supposed to leave this room, leave you to suffer the consequences of your nightmares without me by your side to defend you. Is that what you’re saying?”

  Tori stuck her chin out defiantly. “Yes. That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do. But hey, at least you’re leaving with a consolation prize. You got my virginity, remember? Congratulations.”

  “Don’t you dare try to stand there and act like I tricked you into making love with me. That was all you.”

  “So now you’re saying you didn’t want to make love to me?”

  “No, Angel. I’m not saying that at all. I wanted it more than I wanted my next breath of air, but I let you lead, and I simply couldn’t resist your temptation any longer. It was the most spectacular experience of my life. Or at least it was, until you just tainted it by saying it was all a lie.”

  His words were like a mule’s kick to her heart. She couldn’t trust them to be true, just like she couldn’t trust herself to be in the same room with him any longer for fear she’d cave to his charms. The only true solace she’d ever had was in the arms of the man standing before her, the very same man who had brought on her heartache in the first place, and it would be too easy to fall back into those arms just to make the pain go away, only setting herself up for yet more pain down the road. She couldn’t. It was too hard to bear as it was.

  Tori dropped her head, unable to look into his eyes any longer lest she become even weaker. “Get out.”

  She could see Dante’s bare feet shuffle past her and feel the pull of the energy between them that always beckoned her closer to the man she was now pushing away. But she did nothing to stop him from leaving.

  He stopped once he reached the door to the bathroom that separated their bedrooms. His warm breath ghosted over her flesh as he looked down at her and she could feel how much he wanted to touch her even though he thought better of it.

  “I’m going to be right on the other side of this door all night. If I hear so much as a whimper from this room, I’m busting the bloody thing down to get to you. I don’t care how upset you are with me. No matter what you say, I still love you, and I’ll protect you until the day I die. End of story.”

  Tori closed her eyes, fighting back yet another deluge of tears. “You don’t get to say that to me. Not after what you did.”

  Dante’s only response was, “Sleep tight, Angel,” before placing a chaste kiss to the top of her head and leaving her to stand there all alone.

  Just as she was meant to be. All alone. Never to let anyone else close enough to hurt her again.

  Shuffling one foot in front of the other, Tori made her way to the bed, only barely registering that she was moving. What she did register, though, was the immense sense of loneliness. The room felt big and empty without Dante there to fill it with his larger-than-life charisma.

  But sh
e couldn’t bring herself to regret sending him away. She needed a breather, some distance to have a chance to put order to the chaos of emotions swarming in her heart. Full of the anger of his betrayal, devoid of the comfort from his presence, saddened by her foolish ability to fall so hard so fast for a man she barely knew.

  She trusted him. Dante knew it, and he used it to his advantage.

  Crawling into the bed and curling her knees up to her chest, Tori sobbed again, burying her face into a pillow to stifle her anguished cries. On a deep inhale, she threw the pillow across the bed. It was Dante’s, saturated in his scent. But even after she had discarded it, his aroma still lingered. He was everywhere, not only physically, but in her memories as well; his heated touch on her skin, his delicious kiss on her lips, his whispered words in her ear. His warm breath on her face as he told her he loved her.

  “Hold your breath, Angel. I’m going to take you under.”

  The memory of his words squeezed her heart like a vise and her body shook with yet another heave of fresh tears. He had done exactly that, and now she was drowning in her own misery. Had Tori known that was what Dante had meant by those words, she might have actually put up a fight to keep her head above water.

  Unable to stand the memories any longer, Tori jumped from the bed and ran down the stairs and out the door. She had no clue where she was running to, only that she was running away. But where would she go? The park most certainly wasn’t a place she wanted to be. Not when so many memories of how foolish she had been were there as well.

  Heading in the opposite direction instead, her hurried steps, much like her frantic searching, had no rhyme or reason. One turn led to another turn, which led to yet another turn until she was deep in the belly of London’s backstreets. She had no idea where she was or how to get back home, and that was just fine by her. It wasn’t really her home anyway. It was just a place that housed the people she loved and whom she thought had her best interest at heart. They all lied.

  It wasn’t just Dante. True, he had hurt her, but . . .

  Oh, cut the crap, Tori! She admonished herself, mentally. You’re not hurt. You’re pissed. There’s a big fucking difference.

  It was true. Playing the victim wasn’t going to get her anywhere. Hell, what had Dante done to her that everyone else hadn’t done as well? Dante knew there were things about herself that she hadn’t been ready to share, but she had . . . little by little. He had preached about their partnership and how they were in this thing—whatever that was—together, that she needed to trust him. And she did, but Dante took that trust and manipulated it to his advantage, taking liberties where permission had not been granted. It was her life, her decision as to who she allowed to share in her deepest, most guarded secrets, but Dante just couldn’t let it be. Whether he actually saw anything didn’t matter; his actions made his intentions very clear. He meant to strip her of the choice to share—he decided for her.

  Her parents? No different. All her life she had heard how keeping secrets had nearly destroyed the both of them. And what did they do? They failed to mention the real reason behind their little family vacation to London for the summer. Maybe Tori would’ve chosen not to meet the Guardian of the Guardian, but they had taken that choice from her as well.

  And then there was the damned universe and all the secrecy behind her destiny, her fate. Freedom of choice? Ha! What a fucking joke. Tori hadn’t been free to make her own decisions her entire life. Not once.

  Everyone forced her hand. Everyone told her what was best for her. Everyone. The whole godforsaken universe had been against her from the very beginning. Literally.

  She stopped at the dead end of a back alley, dirty and dark with the exception of the pale moonlight. The breaths pushing their way from her lungs burned her chest, erratic and loud even to her own ears. Practically clawing her skin in frustration as she buried her face in her hands, Tori leaned against the brick wall of one of the buildings and sank to the damp and filthy asphalt.

  Her head fell back and she looked up at the sky, wanting to ask for help, but the words never made it past her lips. Instead, a feral scream ripped its way up her throat and released into the night air. Dogs began to bark, while doves nesting in the eaves of the opposite building took flight as her strangled cries of frustration echoed through the alley.

  And then there was silence.

  A brisk breeze blew through the alley, chilling her to the bone as a pulsing presence pushed against her skin, nearly knocking her over.

  “Trouble in paradise?” a familiar voice asked.

  Tori looked up, seeing him in all his lethal glory, stalking toward her with a smooth stride that exuded confidence and familiarity. Moonbeams reflected from his diamond eyes like he had pulled down the stars from the heavens and placed them in his sockets, and then a panty-soaking smile spread across his face. Stopping before Tori, he stretched out his hand. He was offering her exactly what she needed in that moment. It dawned on her that for all her life that was all he had ever done.

  He was the one person who had never deceived her, the one person who had always given her comfort. The one person whose mere presence promised to make it all go away.

  Tori’s bottom lip trembled as tears welled in her eyes and she fought to keep them at bay, but the moment she touched his hand, the dam broke. One minute she was sitting on the cold, grungy ground and the next, she was enveloped in his arms with her face buried against his neck while she heaved out her misery.

  She heard him inhale a long, drawn out breath. His embrace stiffened, tightening until it was uncomfortable. Tori squirmed for a moment, sensing something malevolent in his demeanor, but he held her still. Dipping his head, his long tongue stroked from the base of her neck to her ear, tasting her skin.

  He growled, angry and ferocious, next to her ear. “You fucked him,” he sneered as he gripped her arms, squeezing even tighter with his displeasure. “I can smell him on you. I can taste him.”

  Tori frantically shoved at his steely chest, ripping her arms from his grasp only to back herself against the wall. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from the ire that exuded the cramping space of the small alley.

  He rushed toward Tori, pinning her against the wall before she had any chance for an evasive maneuver. His face twisted up—unequivocal beauty marred by the ugliness of anger and desperation. Tori gasped. For the first time in her life, she was afraid of him. His diamond eyes, once throwing off every color imaginable, turned cold and lifeless with the blackness of something sinister.

  “You’re mine!” he growled through clenched teeth. “You had no right to give to another what was meant for me!”

  Something inside Tori snapped at his words. Here he was, another person attempting to steal her choice, admonishing her for a decision that was hers to make. She was done playing the victim. It was time for her to take back the control that had been taken from her.

  She lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes at him in defiance. “I had every right. It was my decision to make.”

  He smirked down at her. “Really? And do you think you made the right decision?”

  Tori’s eyes dropped, her renewed confidence waning in the truth of the answer. “No,” she whispered.

  “He made a fool of you, didn’t he? He used you, told you all the things you wanted to hear, all for the sake of getting in that hot little cunt. And you fell for it.”

  An overpowering rage bubbled in her chest, and she shoved him hard. “Shut up!”

  Knocked off balance by her show of force, he stumbled back, finally giving her room to breathe. He didn’t charge back after her like she had expected. Instead, he laughed heartily.

  “You’re so easily manipulated. Easily tricked, easily coaxed into spreading your legs . . . you’re just plain easy. And you’re supposed to be the Guardian of Mankind? Ha! Laughable.”

  Tori’s chest heaved with her anger as she looked up at him. “I’m warning you . . .”

  “Aw, what’s wrong,
Tor? Did I hit a nerve? You don’t think what I say is true? Does it make you mad? Good. I want you angry. I want you to let it seethe and fester until you finally realize that what I’ve been telling you all along is the truth. You’re better off with me. Fuck these ingrates! They don’t appreciate you for all that you are like I do. They only seek to use you to their advantage. You’re a tool, nothing more.”

  “Shut . . . up!”

  He did stalk toward her then, taking her in his arms to hold her immobile. His mouth came down hard on hers, forcing his kiss. Tori pushed and shoved at him once again, but he held her tight in his relentless assault on her mouth. When his lips lost their hardness and began to move gently over hers, she was coaxed into submission, lost to his kiss, all fight gone. But that would never do; she wanted to be the one in control by her choice and her choice alone.

  With her palms to his chest, she put all the force she had in her body behind the push, sending him barreling across the alley. Not losing the momentum, Tori ran across the way and pinned him with her body instead. With her hands in his hair, she pulled him down until their lips met. She dominated the kiss, forcing his lips to part so that she could push her tongue into his mouth. He moaned, letting her have her way while his arms and hands molded her body to his. His taste was dark and sinful, and she feasted on it, feeling it take root as she greedily took more. This wasn’t her; she knew it. Something or someone inside of her had taken over, exploring his mouth with familiarity like a reconnection of lovers who had been separated for far too long. But Tori liked it. She basked in the raw surge of power it gave to her. Uninhibited and sultry, a primal base human need to claim, to control, to force submission. And submit, he did.

  “Mine,” she growled. Only it wasn’t her voice. This voice was the same that rendered her immobile in her sanctuary. This voice belonged to the mystery woman.