Guardians of Magic: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (Guardians of the Fae Book 1)

by Elizabeth Hartwell

  “To bring light to your situation,” Cole says. “Let’s start with some light first though. Tyler, Noah?”

  Cole gestures and they go around, flipping open shutters, removing curtains from windows, and generally opening the place up. Tyler elbows one window and it breaks, letting in cold but fresh air as well as helping rays of golden light flood the room we’re in. It banishes the last of the darkness, improving the atmosphere while alleviating my fear.

  Now that the room isn’t cloaked in shadows, I can see it was a magnificent house at one point. The lofty ceilings, exquisite workmanship, and overall decayed luxury are almost a little sad, because I know what built this place. Slave money. The Broadmoors were slavers at first before they settled in Haven. Perhaps it’s appropriate for such splendor, obtained at such misery, to decay. Maybe the right thing to let happen is for this to crumble and become dust in the wind.

  Once the windows are all open, Noah disappears before coming back with two chairs from another room. He sets them down, then offers one to me before taking what looks like expandable batons from Jacob, sighing.

  “Please sit. Talk with Cole. My friends and I will watch the windows to make sure you are uninterrupted.”

  I don’t know what other choice I have, and since they’re not worried about my gun, I take a seat, keeping the automatic in my lap. Cole settles across from me, his golden eyes burning with intensity and interest, my body tingling at what I see there. I clear my throat, wondering how it is I can go from almost dying to being aroused so quickly, and try to focus. “You called me a Halfling?”

  Cole nods. “You are a half-breed, yes. Half human, half faerie. Although the term half-breed is frowned upon.”

  I let out a laugh. “That’s funny. Really, I can’t believe you came here to tell . . .” My voice trails off as I see his serious expression. “You’re not bullshitting me, are you?”

  “No . . . bullshit,” Cole confirms. “It’s why we showed up last night—”

  “Good thing we did, too,” says Jacob, coming around. He hands Cole a rather long knife or short sword before turning to look me over, unabashed lust in his eyes. “It would have been sad day to see such a beauty perish.”

  “Thanks . . . I guess? But let’s stop while we’re ahead, okay? Don’t make me pop a silver bullet in your ass.”

  “Please do,” says Noah as he picks up a curtain to wrap around his fist before busting out another dirty window pane. “I’ve suffered his bad jokes for far too long.”

  Cole rolls his eyes. “Regardless, the fact that you are a Halfling is not the primary reason we came to the Earth realm, even though you are an unregistered Halfling, which is unusual. We are here because of what you possess.”

  “And what do I possess?” I ask, looking around.

  Cole leans forward and looks into my eyes. “A gift. Powerful Fae magic, the likes of which is born once a generation. And in your case, maybe not in over a thousand years.”

  “Oh, come on,” I respond with a huge laugh. “This is too much. Don’t you think I’d know if I was some kind of sorceress?”

  Cole snorts, shaking his head. “You do have magic. You just haven’t harnessed it yet. It is an energy, as measurable as gravity and as mysterious as dark matter. While your myths and fairy tales might not help you understand it, accept it. And you, Eve Carter, have been born with something that most Fae only dream about. All of us, to some limited degree, can feel this energy and use it, to an extent.”

  “You can do magic?” I ask, and Cole shrugs.

  “All Fae can. Men . . . most of our magic is tied to the physical realm, enhancing strength, speed, agility . . . things like that. Women are more projectors, although there are some exceptions and certain basic magics that all Fae can use. But you are a nexus, a focus of so much Light Magic that you are remarkable. I’ve never known of such power existing in a Halfling.”

  I shake my head. These men, or faeries, might be sexy as hell, but I’m still not buying it. It’s madness. I can’t be a Paranormal. I just can’t. I police them.

  “The voices in your head, the headaches, the outbursts of manipulating objects,” Cole says, cutting through my thoughts, “all of those things are your gift trying to manifest itself. You can’t keep it repressed forever.”

  “That’s just me having a headache. I work too damn much. It’s from all the stress,” I reply, trying to convince myself. “In fact, I must be imagining all of this.”

  Cole, Noah, Jacob, Tyler . . . face it, Eve, they must be hallucinations. Guardian angels who look like them don’t just drop out of the sky looking like the world’s sexiest badasses. I watch them and they stare back, seemingly undressing me with their eyes and just making it all seem even more surreal, and another thought hits me. What if I’ve been imagining the past several days?

  What if all of this, from the first time I started feeling headaches, is nothing more than my going off the deep end, all the stress and working and things I see on a daily basis catching up to me? I need a doctor. Maybe a psychiatrist.

  I reach forward and slap Cole across the face. His head barely snaps to the side, while the other three stiffen. “What was that for?” Cole asks.

  My face turns red as he turns those almost disquieting golden-flecked eyes back to me, not angry but just . . . absorbing me. He feels real, warm, not even pissed that I just slapped the shit out of him. “I–I was making sure I wasn’t hallucinating,” I admit, sitting back. “That you guys are real and not some . . . fantasy.”

  “Couldn’t you slap or pinch yourself to find that out?” quips Jacob. “I mean, that’s what they do in the movies.”

  “Okay, so maybe you’re real. But it doesn’t mean what you’ve been telling me is. How would I not know? I’m human, through and through.”

  Cole shakes his head, resting his temples in his steepled fingers, looking at me like I’m being rather stubborn. “The more you deny who you are, the more outbursts you will have. Like this morning’s, which the four of us all felt. You nearly ripped the fabric of reality there, whether you knew it or not.”

  My brows furrow. I can sense that he’s leading me somewhere with this conversation, but at least he’s being more open than the dark smoke. And he hasn’t tried to choke me, so that’s another point in his favor. “Okay, I’ll admit I had a weird event with the captain. Let’s just pretend, for half a minute, that what you’re saying is true. What do you want me to do about it?”

  “Learn to control it,” Cole says. “Right now, you’re dangerous.”

  I laugh, shaking my head. “You mean like this?”

  Cole stiffens, but instead of raising my gun, I thrust my hands out at him, mimicking like I’m casting a spell. “Be gone!” I roar, willing a beam of light to come forth.

  Of course, nothing happens. “See? Nada. I have no powers. You have the wrong girl.”

  Cole sucks in a deep breath like he’s trying to be patient with me while Jacob laughs. “I like this chick. She’s feisty.”

  “You can’t just activate your powers like that. Right now, you are extremely dangerous because you have no training, and so you have no control, conscious or otherwise,” Cole says.

  “And what, are you supposed to be my trainers?”

  Cole shakes his head. “We cannot train you beyond a few basics. Our ability to use magic is very minimal compared to your potential. But you must learn control because that potential is like a bomb inside you. Used correctly, it can burn or be used helpfully . . . if not, you could damage far more than you even suspect. So, we’ve been tasked to bring you back to the faerie realm, to help you gain control of your powers.”

  “Tasked by whom?” I ask, realizing that we’re at the crux of his argument.

  Cole’s eyes go reverent, and he almost unconsciously touches his chest with his clenched fist. “By Queen Cassina XI, the ruler of Lunare and Queen of the Fae. She is the one we serve.”

  For some reason, the thought of these four serving some far-off faeri
e queen annoys me. All four of them are clearly sexy, the sort of guys women dream about. Considering I’ve seen them all naked, from slim and lean Tyler to chiseled man-mountain Noah, I know they’ve got everything that a woman could want. To serve some Queen . . . it makes me more than a little jealous.

  But I’ll die before I’d admit it. Besides, they’re strangers, and Paras at that. I’m silly for being jealous. More importantly, Cole’s angle is the same as the demon’s . . . he’s just being nice about it. He wants to manipulate me into going with him. “Well, tell Queen Cassina that I’m not going any damn where,” I growl. “This is my home!”

  “To insult the queen is blasphemy,” Cole says, but he doesn’t sound as shocked or insulted as last night. “It is a punishable offense around Lunaria, our capital city.”

  I cross my arms across my chest. “What can I say? I’m a sinner with a lot of darkness in my soul. You four stick around long enough, I might even tell you why. But you can spout all the psychobabble you want. I’m not going anywhere with any of you!”

  I’m not sure what happens next. One instant, Cole is seated across from me, his elbows on his knees and his head hanging, and the next, I’m pressed down into my chair, his hard body on top of me and his gleaming white teeth inches away from my face.

  “You’re going to listen to what I, we, have to say for the next hour, or I’m going to forcefully take you in front of the queen and flay your naked backside myself . . . got it?” he growls. I reach for my gun but realize that my hands are trapped, not that he cares. “Try it, Halfling. You’ll find the weak natural magic of silver does nothing to the likes of me. It’ll just . . . annoy me.”

  I stare into his face, oddly turned on more than scared. Slowly, the foursome surrounds me, and I realize I have no choice but to do as Cole commands. Also, there’s passion behind Cole’s words. It’s fire versus the demon’s icy sneer. That heat’s directed at me for more than just talking shit about Cassina, I think, and deep inside me, I feel myself relax. He wants me. That means I have at least an ounce of power in this situation if I have to use it.

  “Fine,” I whisper. “But don’t make me test that little theory of yours about my gun.”

  Chapter 10

  Eve

  “Fucking faeries,” I say, shaking my head as Cole locks the door to the big condo. We’re in Old Haven, on the outskirts in one of the apartment buildings that were more or less abandoned during the war. It’s not quite squatting to live here, since nobody is complaining, but you’re pretty much responsible for your own repairs, and utilities are spotty at best.

  I’m still rattled by all of this, so I sit down on a couch as Noah sets a hot steaming tea on the coffee table in front of me and I try to absorb all the information. The ride down from the Broadmoor place felt like a total mind overload, even though Cole said little, trying to let me focus on driving.

  Still, I’ve got enough running around in my head that I barely remember the drive. I sip the tea, not sure where Noah got it from. Probably safer not to ask, but it does taste safe, at least, and feels good going down my throat.

  “Damn, sweet tits,” Jacob complains, unstrapping his knives and setting them on the table. The apartment’s still furnished, although it does make mine look luxurious, except for the square footage. Apparently, faeries like their space. “Relax. You’re too tense. Cole just told you we exist, not that it was the end of the world. Here, let me help.”

  Jacob comes behind me, and before I know what he’s doing, he starts to rub my shoulders, his fingers—I hate to use the word—magical. I want to shrug him off. I still don’t even really know these guys, but it feels so good. I can’t help but let out a moan and a soft chuckle as he works on the little knots, easing them away. His hands feel so good, I can’t help but think it might have something to do with his being a faerie.

  “Still, it’s hard to absorb all the info I just got. I swear Cole just dumped me to a living stupor.”

  “Imagine what it was like for me the first time I saw a human city,” Jacob chides. “What did he tell you?”

  “Well, for one . . . you’re all a few hundred years old,” I reply, shaking my head. “You all look about thirty.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s a product of Fae genetics,” Jacob says, his voice low. “We men live about nine hundred human years, on average. And I’ll be happy to tell you that I’m only five hundred and twelve, thank you very much. Cole’s the oldest, and Tyler’s the youngest.”

  I chuckle, sighing as Jacob works away more of my tension. “So, you don’t think it’s weird that I’m about . . . shit, around a twentieth of your age? Never was good at math.”

  “Tell me more,” Jacob says. “Just close your eyes and relax a bit. I’ll take care of you.”

  It feels like such a good idea, but I fight to keep them open. “This is just a lot to take in. I thought I knew everything about Paranormals. So . . . you’re human?”

  “Not quite,” Jacob corrects me. “Maybe thousands of years ago, long before written history, but we’ve evolved along parallel paths.”

  I nod, understanding as his fingers work down over my shoulders, sending relaxation and warm, sensual, sexual tingles down my arms and across to my nipples. “So, faeries were humans who were naturally connected with nature and had the gift of magic at their command. Why’d we separate?” I ask. “Cole was a little hazy on that.”

  “Because of what we value,” Jacob says, his fingers stroking up and down my arms. I shouldn’t be turned on. I barely know him, but something has my hormones raging out of control. He pauses, coming around, and I open my eyes to see him kneeling in front of me, undoing my boot. “My ancestors loved light and laughter. Humans were fascinated with war.”

  I want to protest, but thinking about the violence I see every day, I can’t argue. “What happened?”

  “As our magic grew and our disagreements continued, those who could pulled back more and more, retreating to a place we could live peacefully. Those left behind—”

  “Became the shifters,” I reply, moaning as Jacob works up my calf. “So why give a shit about us?”

  “Because the . . . barrier between realms is porous,” Jacob admits. “Violence in the human world directly affects the realm of the Fae . . . if it’s bad enough. It’s why my friends and I exist, to deal with the intrusions from the evil that seep in.”

  I nod, and my knees part on their own as Jacob moves higher up my leg, and I can almost imagine him sliding a hand up higher . . . if I weren’t wearing jeans.

  “I just can’t believe it. Why? Humans don’t want violence.”

  “Well, believe it, beautiful,” Noah says, setting down a duster and staring critically at the furniture.

  The faeries have done a decent job of cleaning up the former penthouse, with some help, I suspect, from their innate faerie magic which seems to rearrange and clean things when they pass. The place almost looks like it’s slowly being restored to like new. “Don’t want to do too much. You’ll have curious neighbors.”

  Noah chuckles and sits down. “Faeries are just one of the many Paranormals humans don’t know about. There are many more.”

  Jacob gets in a real good knot in my right calf and I nearly groan out loud. I look down at him and start to wonder if his tongue is as good as his thumbs.

  What the fuck is wrong with me? Did I really just think that?

  Jacob stops as Tyler clears his throat, and I blush. Can you guys hear me?

  After a moment of their staring blankly at me, I sigh in relief. “Well, that’s a relief.”

  “What?”

  I shake my head with a chuckle. “Go on, Noah. I feel like we’re scattershotting this, but just let me ramble. I’ve always thought this way. Other Paras?”

  “Demons. Like the one who fled the house,” Noah says. “Nephilim, shadow wights, witches, sorcerers . . . shall I go on?”

  I shiver and reach over for my cup of tea. “I used to think there were more Paras out there. But at
a point, I thought maybe there weren’t. If there were, we’d have found out. And you guys are saying that my power, this gift I have, is causing havoc in the faerie realm?”

  It’s still something I can’t get used to. How do I have powers? I get out of bed and put my left foot in my right shoe some days. The idea that I could unintentionally be causing a problem that crosses dimensions, or realms, or whatever they want to call it, is terrifying.

  Noah shakes his head. “Not exactly . . . not yet. But it could eventually. What happens in this realm can affect the others, and sometimes vice versa. But . . .”

  “But what?”

  “The veil between our realms is weakening.”

  “From everything you’ve told me, you make it sound like a terrible thing. With everything going on in this world, we could use some light and laughter. And some good massages.”

  For once, Jacob doesn’t smile. “But it’s not just our realm where the veil is growing fainter. It’s the demon realm as well. Your power has the potential to dump all three realms in a blender and hit puree. And demons . . . they want both realms for themselves, and they thrive on chaos.”

  A cold chill runs down my spine. “Demons in your realm?”

  Noah nods. “Yes. For some reason, your power is weakening the veil between all three realms.”

  “I don’t believe it. How can I be causing it?”

  Jacob sighs, sounding a little sad. “It’s true. The four of us wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important.”

  “Show me, then,” I challenge them. “I’m a peace officer, but I need to know. Give me proof.”

  The four Fae look at each other for a moment, then Cole nods, speaking again for the first time in a while. “Come with us. Nature helps.”

  We go up to the roof, where the wind ripples at my hair and a light rain’s starting to fall. This rain feels different, though, as the four Fae surround me, linking arms before Cole rests his hands on my shoulders. “This isn’t perfect. I wish we were in the woods. But focus on the air, on the natural beauty of the night. Feel the life in the rain, how it’ll nourish the Earth and make it fruitful. When you can do that, close your eyes and clear your mind . . . then look.”