Protector

by Nancy Northcott

  Someone tapped on the door. Edie would’ve jumped back, but Josh held her closer. “I need cover,” he whispered before calling, “Come in.”

  Harper opened the door. Behind him stood Davis.

  Harper’s expression went carefully blank. “We should go in a minute. Come out when you’re ready.”

  Edie’s cheeks burned. She hadn’t felt this happy, excited, and embarrassed, all at once, since she was a teenager.

  Josh grinned, then kissed her forehead and stepped back. “I gotta think about aircraft engines and torque for a minute, angel.”

  He paced to the window and stared out. Edie sank into a chair to wait. Surely there was no harm in watching him while she did.

  Despite their almost-intimacy, she hadn’t seen him so close to naked since their night together. If Harper hadn’t arrived, she might’ve traced the hard edges of his pecs, stroked the soft, brown hair in the center of his chest, and followed it downward over the washboard of his abs.

  Maybe later. If Josh wanted. Because it was time to admit she definitely did. Even if being with him led to awful heartache later, she wanted to touch him, to join with him and be fully with him one time.

  “Okay.” He turned from the window and held out his free hand. “Let’s do this.”

  8

  Two hours later, Josh and Edie sat with their backs to each other on a pentagonal slab of clear quartz seven feet across. Harper had said they shouldn’t touch for retuning chakras, but they weren’t far apart. Josh liked it that way.

  Maybe that made him a masochist. He was going to miss her like hell when they walked away from each other. But a growing friendship with some side benefits did not imply a good long-term match. He and Edie would be a horrible bet for a relationship.

  Still, she was special. He’d be a fool to deny it. If she wanted to take those benefits to the ultimate stage before they parted, he would more than meet her halfway.

  “Josh? How do you feel?”

  “Better. You?”

  “Also better.”

  She sounded more relaxed, more hopeful. He was trying not to hope just yet, but he couldn’t entirely suppress the optimism bubbling in his head.

  “It’s a beautiful night,” she said.

  “Yeah. Not too cool. That’s an advantage to living in south Georgia.” He could enjoy this night even more if they were lying under the stars in each other’s arms.

  With no medical staff watching over them from the grove’s edge. Harper left them alone so his presence wouldn’t interfere with the magic’s flow, but he was within shouting range. And watching range.

  Sex was supposed to have magical powers in some cultures. Would he and Edie recharge faster if they—

  “Josh, you okay?”

  He’d fidgeted without thinking about it, bumped her. “Fine. My legs are getting a little cramped. Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I like having you touch me.”

  Oh, yeah. He smiled. “Ditto.” Too bad they weren’t in a position for him to show her how much he liked touching her. For now, considering their audience, he would have to go back to thinking of engines.

  He scanned the grove around them. The magic trees were planted in five quintets, one of each sort in each group, so they formed a pentagram.

  The five quintets formed a larger pentagram. In its center, the slab of clear quartz he and Edie perched on absorbed the energy the trees and the grove’s magic generated.

  Balanced across his knees, his basket-hilted broadsword hummed with power. The air vibrated with it. The quartz under his butt felt warm, not from mild air of a September midnight or the fires burning at the compass points but from the magic that suffused the air and even the ground.

  “I meant to ask you about the conscience ritual you and Dr. Harper mentioned,” Edie said. “What is it?”

  “At the last full moon of the year, everyone who wants to participate comes here at moonset. The High Council lights the braziers and taps the magic, the way they did tonight. Then we meditate over any regrets, anything we feel guilty about or need to make amends for, from the past year. A little while before dawn, we take slips of paper and write down anything we regret, then drop the slips into the braziers.”

  “Erasing them, in a way. Clearing your consciences.”

  “Exactly. They tell me the ritual grew out of some Persian goddess myth.”

  “Hmm.” Long moments passed with no sound other than leaves rustling in the breeze and the fires crackling. Then Edie said, “I regret something but not from this year. I wish I’d gotten to know you better when we worked together.”

  “So do I, and it’s my fault we didn’t talk more.” When this year ended, he wasn’t going to have failure to be honest with Edie on his conscience.

  “I could’ve tried harder.”

  “It wouldn’t have mattered.” Josh took a deep breath. Maybe it was a good thing she couldn’t see his face. “I was attracted to you almost from the beginning. I didn’t think it could go anywhere, and I don’t start things I know I won’t finish. Or lead anyone on.”

  He tensed, waiting. Edie said nothing for several moments.

  When she answered, her voice held none of the irritation he’d feared. “It still isn’t going anywhere, Josh. But I can tell you I’ll walk away with much warmer feelings toward you than I had before. I care about you so much more than I thought I could.”

  “I can say the same. Walking away is going to be harder than I’d expected.” He was going to hate it, in fact.

  “But still the right thing to do.”

  The reply stung, maybe because she sounded so calm about it.

  “I dated this guy,” Edie began. “He was a good guy, smart, funny, and kind, but he had ambitions. He wanted to climb the corporate ladder. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but he figured that climb needed a socially available and adept wife.”

  “I’m guessing that wouldn’t include fighting wildfires all over the country in the summer.”

  “Definitely not. It included giving and attending parties, dressing fashionably, and joining book clubs.”

  “He was an idiot. That’s not you, and trying to cram you into that mold is crazy.”

  “Is it?” she asked, her voice wry.

  “Hey, I’m not trying to force you into a mold.”

  “No, you aren’t.” Edie sighed. “You’re ruling me out because I don’t fit the one you like. I guess that’s marginally better, but the thing is, Josh, that runs both ways.”

  “Excuse me?” How was he not a good fit for—

  “I need someone who accepts me as I am and supports my ambitions.” She paused. “I need someone more flexible in his thinking than you are.”

  “Okay.” She was right, no matter how much her comment stung. What mattered was that they were on the same page.

  While they were being honest…“There’s one thing I’ll regret if it doesn’t happen before we leave here.” Josh took a deep breath. In for a buck, in for a bundle. “I’ll regret it if we don’t make love.”

  After a moment of heart-stopping silence, Edie softly replied, “So will I.”

  He half-turned to look at her and found her shifting to look at him.

  “After all this, we deserve a celebration,” Edie told him.

  “Definitely.”

  Despite their awkward position, the kiss they exchanged was warm and sweet. Josh started to turn farther, to take Edie in his arms, but Harper called from the trees, “Save it for later. You don’t want to change the energy currents.”

  Edie flushed crimson and dropped her head to Josh’s shoulder. “I forgot he was there.”

  “Me, too. Later, angel.”

  “Definitely, flyboy.”

  Josh turned back around. Good thing his cross-legged position made the kilt bunch over his thighs and groin. Harper might be a doctor, but Josh preferred not to have anyone see his hard-on except the woman who caused it.

  Kra-kow! The boom of an energy blast smashed the silence
.

  Josh jumped as Edie bumped his back. They turned to exchange a startled look as another blast boomed.

  “What the hell?” Josh said. “That came from the direction of the main gate.”

  “Stay there,” Harper called. “I’m checking.”

  “Check fast,” Josh shouted back. “Edie, if we have a problem, stay behind me.”

  Her eyes flashed annoyance. “If something comes at us, we’ll handle it together.”

  Josh set his jaw. Edie could say what she liked, but if the need arose, he would keep her safe.

  Harper ran into the clearing. “Ghoul attack. We’re going back inside.”

  “That’s a damned first,” Josh muttered. Ghouls had never attacked the Collegium before.

  He and Edie scrambled off the quartz slab. The firelight caught glints of fury in Harper’s eyes, and his jaw had a hard set. Edie’s eyes were huge with fear, but she held her shoulders square and her chin up.

  “Is either of you strong enough to translocate?” Harper spun a shield around them all. “I can take one of you but not both.”

  “Take Edie—”

  A bolt of muddy gold energy slammed into the doctor’s shield. Its force staggered him, but the shield held. Josh spun his magic into it and felt Edie doing the same. The three of them turned to the main building, where ghouls rushed down the hillside and fanned out.

  “Better not translocate now,” Josh pointed out. “It’ll leave you too vulnerable.” Shielding did not survive translocation. If there were ghouls around the building, they would have the advantage when the doctor and his passenger emerged from transit.

  “Ghouls took out the front gate,” Harper said. “There’s an escort on the way.”

  That was a good thing, too, because the three in the grove were trapped. Hell.

  The ghouls were coming closer. Josh assessed the odds. He felt better than he had in days, but he and Edie couldn’t last long at less than full power. With his broadsword in the ready position, he stepped up beside Harper.

  “Seven of them coming at us,” Josh said, his voice hard.

  Tough odds when two of the three mages facing them were at less than half strength and one had no combat training. Where was the—

  A flash of light in front of them heralded Valeria Banning, Griffin Dare, petite blond Chief Deputy Reeve Sybil Harrison, a sturdy deputy Josh didn’t know, and Davis.

  The five ducked and rolled, evading muddy energy blasts. An instant later, the glow of shielding appeared around them, Dare and Banning sharing an aura.

  The ghoul blasts rebounded from the shield Josh and his comrades held. Then the escort gained their feet and engaged.

  The flash of energy blasts made seeing the fight difficult. Dare dropped back and tossed Harper a sword.

  The doctor shoved his hand through his shield to grab the hilt, then expanded the protective barrier.

  Dare struck at a ghoul with a glowing blade. Watching for a foe to engage, conscious of the need to keep Edie behind him, Josh felt a prickle on his neck. He glanced over his shoulder. Three ghouls ran from the trees at the edge of the clearing.

  “Oh, hell. On our six,” he snapped, wheeling. “Three of them.”

  Harper turned to face the new threat.

  The Collegium boundaries were heavily warded, and ghouls couldn’t translocate. How the hell had they reached the trees?

  Behind him, Davis said, “Let’s go.”

  “What about the rest?” Harper asked.

  “I’m coming back, and I’ll send reinforcements.”

  Josh, Edie, and Harper let Davis’s shield merge with theirs. Davis gripped Josh’s shoulder, and Harper put an arm around Edie’s waist.

  Four more ghouls fought a rearguard action beside the main building against mages who wielded glowing broadswords.

  “We’re going to the main building’s back entrance,” Davis shouted over the noise of clashing magic bolts and shields. “Two guys’re shielding an area for us.”

  Harper and Edie winked out. Davis reached for the space between life and death and flung himself and Josh into it.

  Reality shifted. An instant of icy pressure on his chest, and then they arrived at the rear entrance. The steel doors glowed with shielding, as did the mages standing between the new arrivals and the fight.

  “Everybody okay?” Davis asked.

  As Edie nodded, Josh put an arm around her. “We’re good.”

  “Then I’m gone.” Davis saluted them with his blade and charged toward their comrades pursuing the ghouls.

  “Thanks, guys,” Harper told the shielding mages. To Edie and Josh, he said, “Let’s get inside.”

  * * *

  A few minutes later, the other mages rejoined them in the rear exit of reeve country, a wide lobby with benches that served as a staging area. Edie tried hard to control the shakes. Now that the danger had passed, reaction was setting in. Davis performed quick introductions.

  Without saying anything, Josh put his arm around her. She leaned into the comforting warmth of his body.

  “They’re gone,” Sybil Harrison reported. The petite blonde looked solemnly at Josh, Edie, and Harper. With a nod to the tall, dark-haired mage standing across from her, she said, “You can thank Griffin, here, for anticipating the ghouls would go for the three of you who were outside.”

  “They like to take hostages if they’re going after something they know they can’t reach otherwise,” Griffin commented.

  Josh said, “Like an orb in a heavily guarded building.”

  “Exactly.” Griffin shook his head. “They want that thing very badly, to risk attacking here. With only a couple dozen in their group, they must’ve expected surprise to carry the day.”

  “How did they get onto the grounds?” Edie asked. “I thought Collegium properties were heavily warded.”

  “When they took out the front gate, that opened a gap in the ward,” said the tall, tawny-haired woman who’d been introduced as Valeria.

  Josh shook his head. “That doesn’t explain how they reached the trees, which are pretty far from the front gate.”

  Griffin and Valeria traded a grim look.

  “Traitor mages,” Harrison supplied. “Ghouls can’t translocate, and the wards were not breached. We would know if they had been.”

  “Something else weird,” Davis noted. “The bodies of the ones we killed spontaneously combusted.”

  “We don’t know what they’re up to,” Harper said, “but there were rumors they were doing some kind of experiments.”

  “Let’s hope they don’t learn to translocate,” Griffin commented. “They’re enough trouble already.”

  “I’ll leave that to you,” Harper said. “I have patients to examine. Let’s go back to the quarantine suite.”

  The group began to break up. Walking away, Edie heard Valeria ask Griffin, “How did the sword work?”

  “Ran out of juice.” His carefully neutral voice seemed to cover great disappointment. “It’s not the same without my own fuel.”

  “We’ll find something,” she assured him.

  What was that about? Edie glanced at Josh, but he showed no sign of having heard. She dismissed the subject.

  When they reached what Edie’d come to think of as her and Josh’s suite, Harper seated them on the sofa.

  “Close your eyes, Josh,” he directed. He held his hand up, palm out, fingers spread, in front of Josh’s forehead. The doctor’s eyes lost focus.

  After a long moment, he lowered his hand.

  “The inflammation is less.” At last, he withdrew his hand. “But your power level doesn’t feel right. Have you been recharging?”

  “Before the fight.” Josh glanced sideways at Edie. “I feel stronger.”

  “So do I,” she agreed.

  The doctor nodded acknowledgment. “Good. It seems the rite will work if we can perform it fully, but only trying to destroy the orb will confirm that. We won’t try again until you’re free of its influence. Edie, let me
check you.”

  He reported the same results with her. Smiling, he said, “This is a good sign. We’ll finish this tomorrow night.”

  “What if they come back?” Edie asked.

  “The grounds are patrolled heavily now,” Harper replied. “They won’t get in. Once the orb is destroyed, which we’ll see done once you’re free of it, they’ll have no reason to attack.”

  “Except they hate us,” Josh commented.

  Harper nodded. “True, but they aren’t suicidal. Order something to eat if you like. We’ll resume at moonrise tomorrow.” He wished them a good night and left the room.

  Josh took Edie’s hand. “You okay? Ghouls are damned scary the first few times you see one.”

  “No argument here. I’m glad you weren’t hurt.”

  “Ditto. I was so damned proud of you. You’ve never been in a fight like that, but you held the shield and didn’t panic. That’s brilliant, Edie.”

  “I felt useless. And scared, not brilliant.”

  “Yeah, but you didn’t let it get to you. That’s courage under fire.”

  The kiss started softly, a tender, grateful whisper of Josh’s mouth over hers. Edie sighed against his lips and slid her hand into the soft hair at his nape.

  Josh deepened the kiss, tightening his hold on her. When he cupped her breast, Edie went momentarily blind. Then he was kissing her neck, nipping it gently, and heat pooled between her legs.

  She kissed the sturdy, smooth column of his neck. Under her fingers, his muscles flexed as she explored his back. He felt so good. She wanted him in a way she’d never wanted anyone before.

  Josh kissed her gently. When he raised his head, the tenderness in his eyes pierced her heart with longing. “Yes or no, angel?”

  “Yes, definitely yes.”

  His smile lit up his face. Edie twined her arms around his neck. Josh slipped a hand under her legs and stood. “Your place or mine?”

  “Yours is closer.”

  She traced his sculptured pecs, as she’d longed to do earlier, and stroked the soft, curling brown hair in the middle of his chest.