by Unknown
“Dimitri, please!” she begged.
As much as he hated to, he gave her what she wanted. Calculated plans be damned. He let loose, moved faster, harder into her, and when her pussy tighten around him, he sank his teeth into her neck. Claudia cried out, contracting around him, and he drank deeply, fucking her harder, faster, until he could no longer control his body.
His balls swelled and exploded. He closed his eyes and drank from her as he spilled his seed deep into her. She yelled again with another orgasm, and still Dimitri moved and drank until sense returned.
Dropping to the bed, he took her with him, scooping her into his arms. Dimitri held her tight, breathing hard, closing the wounds at her neck. Claudia sighed and turned over in his arms, resting her head on his chest, her arms draped across his chest.
With sense came worry. The coming mission didn’t set well with him. His gut screamed in warning that something was going to happen, and his heart felt like it was cracking at the thought. What if something happened to him? What would happen to Claudia?
“I think I love you,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head. She snuggled closer, sighing in her sleep.
* * * *
Rage walked into the bedroom Renzo set up for himself and the baby. She slept in the cradle, wrapped up in pink, sucking on a pacifier. Her fine hair stood up in the center of her head almost making a curl. In the corner, Renzo slept deeply, a bottle of whiskey on the floor beside him.
Rage scooped the baby up in his arms and walked out. He kept to the shadows, walked straight out of the lab to his car. He got in, placed the baby on the seat next to him and drove away.
The drive to the cemetery where Renzo murdered Serina took less than an hour. Once he gave the baby to Denver, Denver would go down to wait for the Guardians.
Rage parked up the hill where he told Denver to meet him. Their plan was very simple on Denver’s part. Make contact and then go with them. How the hell could the man fuck that up?
Rage pulled in behind Denver’s car. Opening the door, he picked up the baby, holding the tiny body close to his chest as he got out.
Denver already walked toward him. “I can’t believe this worked.” Denver smiled, holding his hands out for the baby. “He let her out of his sight finally.”
Rage handed the baby over to Denver. “I drugged him. Only hope it lasts long enough for you to get to those people.”
Denver didn’t answer, gazing down at the baby.
“Take care of yourself and them, Denver,” Rage said. “I’ll see you again.”
Rage turned and headed back to his car.
“When?” Denver called out. “You can’t keep playing this game, Rage. He’ll figure it out.”
“I know he will.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“Because I have to.” He looked over his shoulder at Denver. “Go. Take the baby away from here. Get her to her father.”
“I’ll take her just as fast as I can. You take care of yourself.”
Rage stood next to the open door of his car, watching Denver until he was out of sight. Instead of getting in and leaving, he brought out binoculars, went into the trees, and found a spot where he could watch everything that was about to happen. He wanted to be able to see her bright eyes again if only for a second. Besides, he had this nagging feeling that something might go wrong.
Chapter Nine
“I have a bad feeling about this.” Shadow hunched down behind Dimitri who knelt next to Carissa. They left the safe house just before dawn and hid out in one of the crypts for the day. Dimitri wanted to go before Claudia awoke and Carissa before Julian came to, though the others hadn’t discovered her reasons until after they left. Finding out Carissa knocked Julian out right after telling him what they were going to do pissed Dimitri off. The plan had been simple. Rest after lunch, don’t tell Julian—not knock him out—and leave. What she did would only lead to trouble once the man woke up. Trouble, however, seemed to be Carissa’s middle name these days.
“Too quiet,” Shadow went on. “Something’s lurking. I can feel it.”
“If shit hits the fan, stick with the plan,” Carissa told him, bringing out one of her guns. She unclipped it, checked the bullets, and shoved the clip back in. “You get Denver and the baby out, no matter what. Think you can handle that?”
“And watch your ass,” Dimitri added, standing up slowly. “Don’t need to get it shot off. And you,” he pointed to Carissa, “when we get back, we’re going to have a long talk about your anger issues if Julian doesn’t beat me to it.”
“Yeah, did you teach him that fucking move to take a weapon away?” she asked.
Dimitri smiled. “Sure did.”
“You’re such an asshole.”
“Children,” Shadow snapped. “Can we focus here?”
With a curt nod, they started. Alone, Dimitri walked out of the tree line into the open. Carissa and Shadow went down further under the darkness of the trees to cover him. About halfway to the building where Serina had died, Dimitri stopped. Eyes were on him. He could feel it.
He pulled out a gun, kept it at his side, and looked around. It was too quiet. Not even a bird chirped.
“This isn’t right,” he mumbled to himself. As much as he hated to, Dimitri called out for the guy, hoping like hell his gut and Shadow’s were wrong. “Denver!”
Gun fire rang out. Dimitri dropped to the ground for cover. Bullets hit headstones; tiny pieces flew everywhere, some landing on him. Breeds came out, some with guns, others with knives. All had a red haze over their eyes and drool dripping from their mouths.
“Fuck,” Dimitri snapped, going up to his feet, aiming, and firing his gun.
He dropped ten before he had to reload. Popping the clip, running, he reloaded, and fired. Off in the distance he heard the faint sound of a child screaming.
Shadow and Carissa came out of the woods, shooting their way towards him.
“Shadow, find Denver and get him the fuck out of here!” Dimitri yelled.
Shadow nodded and broke away from them. Carissa reached him, pulled out her sword from her back and sliced a breed coming at Dimitri’s back.
“So much for being easy,” she said.
“Nothing is easy,” he said back at her, shoving the smaller guns back at his holsters and reaching behind his back for the bigger ones. “Thought you learned that by now.”
The more breeds he shot down the more seemed to come out to replace the fallen. They were outnumbered. Whether it was because they had been betrayed or because Renzo had some tracking device on the baby, Rage, or Denver, Dimitri didn’t know. At the moment, he really didn’t give a damn.
Out of ammo, Carissa turned to her blades. Dimitri got a quick glance to see her move with skill with her knife in one hand and the spring blade at her wrist. Skilled with both weapons, the knife had turned out to be her specialty.
Dimitri was only slightly relieved when he spotted Shadow with Denver. Both were running to where they’d hidden the van. He trusted Shadow to get Denver and the child back to the house. That was his mission.
His sense of peace was short lived. Turning around to take out another set of breeds, Dimitri saw Carissa in serious trouble, the kind she wasn’t going to get out of alone.
More breeds came out of nowhere. They rushed upon her, taking her down. Dimitri gave his full attention to her, began shooting as many as he could and ran in her direction. He didn’t get too far.
As unexpectedly as death could be, one single shot rang out and the bullet pierced the middle of Dimitri’s chest. Knocked backwards, feet away from Carissa, Dimitri landed hard, the breath knocked out of him. Pain gripped him unlike anything he ever imagined.
He panted for air, as he tried to control the pain, which had a brutal hold on him. Tears came to his eyes as he thought of the pain Claudia would go through once she learned he was dead, and he was damn sure he didn’t want to die.
With crunching sounds, along with the grunts of the
breeds, someone walked toward him. He heard the distinct sound of a shotgun opening and the shells popping out. More shells slid in, and the barrel closed. The fucker had used a slug on him.
“Dimitri!” Carissa yelled his name, but he couldn’t see her. What he saw was the end of the shotgun no more than a foot from his face.
Tears rolled down the side of his face. He knew the end was but moments away. He waited and heard a single shot fired, and the shotgun was no longer in his face, but too late. Carissa screamed.
Closing he eyes, he thought, I failed her. I failed Claudia. I’m dying! He could feel his life flowing away with the blood from his chest. The pain started to subside, as did the warmth in his body, replaced with cold and numbness.
“Forgive me, Claudia,” he whispered.
“You don’t die today.”
Dimitri stirred slightly, struggling to open his eyes to see who spoke. The jarring of having his shirt hacked off helped to force his eyes open to no avail. He couldn’t focus. All he saw was a man hovering over him, covered from head to foot in black.
The man pressed down on the wound, and Dimitri yelled, but the pain took him into a darkness he was powerless to fight and left him only dimly aware of anything more than breathing.
* * * *
Rage put pressure on the shotgun wound to the Guardian’s chest, pressing on the crude bandage made out of his shirt. He made sure the blood stopped pouring out of him at least, enough to hold him until help could get to the man. He was sure they would come back for him.
Things hadn’t gone as planned. He knew Renzo would show up eventually. He just wasn’t expecting him so damn early. He glanced around, making sure he was alone, but the way his luck had been the past few days, he wasn’t. One of the damn breeds was coming back, probably to finish off the kill.
Rage rolled his eyes, pulled out his gun, and shot the damn thing right between its eyes. It couldn’t go back to tell Renzo what he’d seen. Rage didn’t need extra aggravation, not since things had gone sour, and Renzo had taken bright eyes. That was definitely not part of the plan. Rage was going to have to put on a new fucking show for Renzo once he got back, long enough to get her away from that fuck.
“I don’t think you can hear me, but I’m going to say it anyway,” he told the Guardian. “She won’t die. That much I promise you. I’ll get her out, but I don’t know when or how. Fuck!” Double-checking to make sure the bleeding had slowed, Rage brought out his phone and called Denver.
“Yeah, it’s me. Have that guy you’re with come back. His friend is down and will die if he doesn’t get help. The breeds are gone and have the girl. And check for a bug.” He hung up before Denver could say anything. Then he stood and walked away.
“God Damnit,” he grumbled again. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.” He looked back once more, making sure no more breeds were out there. Only when he saw a blond man in black leather running towards the fallen Guardian did he let out a sigh of relief. The man would live. Rage just had to make sure the girl did as well.
* * * *
Claudia paced the clinic, hugging herself, and rubbing her arms. Every few steps she glanced at the door, waiting for Dimitri to walk in. Her gut screamed that something was wrong. She was certain the mission had failed in some way, and he wasn’t going to be walking through that door. She couldn’t stop this nagging, stinging in the center of her chest and rubbed frantically at it.
“Something’s wrong,” she said to the doctor when she walked past her. “I can feel it.”
Lucan stumbled into the clinic. “Something … is … wrong.” He still had trouble talking and walking, but was slowly coming around, those blue eyes showing he knew way too much.
Claudia opened her mouth to question him, but jumped when Shadow came bursting into the clinic. Her heart sank at the sight of her vampire limp in Shadow’s arms, blood soaked rag on his chest, and his face pale as the sheet.
Hand over her mouth to still the screams, which almost erupted from her lips, shock kept her planted off to the side of the room, her eyes glued to Dimitri.
Shadow placed him down on the bed and instantly Doc Ivy went to work examining the large hole in his chest.
“What happened?” Ivy demanded as she went to work.
“Breeds,” Shadow answered. “I was getting Denver out like we planned, and we were at the van when he got a call. Rage told him to come back and get Dimitri.”
“Where’s Carissa?” Ivy asked, holding fresh gauze against the wound and reaching for the surgical pack.
“Dunna know.”
“What happened?” Ambrose came in with Julian right behind him.
Claudia couldn’t move. She saw everyone, not understanding anything. Dimitri was shot; Carissa missing. That was all her mind could process.
“Claudia!” Ivy’s sharp voice seemed to snap her out of the shock. “I need you to help me here.”
Claudia forced herself to move over to Dimitri’s still body. She brought over one of the chairs, sat down on the other side of him, across from the doctor, her hand on Dimitri’s arm.
“You can do this,” Ivy said, squeezing her hand quickly.
Claudia nodded her head, took a deep breath to steady her, and worked the gloves on. She went to work, focused not on the fact it was Dimitri she was helping to fix up from the inside out, but a patient on the bed who needed attention.
Claudia glanced over her shoulder very quickly. Another man, a human man came into the clinic with a bundle in his arms. “Julian,” he cried out, rushing to Julian who rushed to him. He handed over the bundle in his arms.
Julian’s daughter!
Claudia had to block them out and the rush of emotions at seeing Julian take his child. Her sole purpose was Dimitri. Period! He needed to get better.
“Okay, I’m going to start working on these bleeders, you get all the metal. The damned slug fragmented,” Ivy told her.
Claudia handed clamps and more gauze to her as she needed them. At the same time, she worked slowly and carefully at picking out all the small pieces of metal she could find. She didn’t hear the talking going on around her. Didn’t look to see who else might be in the room. All she did was think and concentrate on the job, which had been given to her.
Ivy remarked, “That shotgun slug did a number on him.”
“May I stitch him up,” Claudia asked.
“Couldn’t think of a better person for the job.” Claudia looked up, and Ivy smiled. “He’s going to make it, Claudia. Just keep telling yourself that.”
Ivy left her, and Claudia went to work on sewing up the large wound in the middle of Dimitri’s chest. She was halfway done when Lucan sat down in the chair, which Ivy had vacated.
“It isn’t his…time yet.”
She didn’t look up at him. If she did, then she knew she was going to lose it and break down crying.
Lucan reached out and closed his hand over hers, stopping her from doing the last bit. The action urged her to look up at him. As she feared, the tears fell.
“We all have a role to play,” he said softly. His new voice was deep like a man’s, as was his body and face. But those blue eyes of his held so much knowledge it had her shivering. “His has just…begun.”
She sniffed back her tears, finished up the stitches, then cleaned, and put a fresh bandage over the wounds. She kissed him softly, lingering over his lips longer than she should have.
When she stood up, preparing to cut away his ruined clothes, she saw Julian standing alone, watching her. A small bruise colored one side of his face. She’d heard Carissa hit him, knocking him out to stop him from following her. He smiled at her. One arm still held his daughter as the other opening up for her. Claudia didn’t hesitate. Undressing Dimitri could wait. She went right to Julian, taking the comfort he was offering.
He sighed against the top of her head. “I’m so sorry, Claudia.”
She held on tight, making sure not to crush the small bundle he still held in his arm. “I can’t
lose him. I can’t.”
“You won’t. Dimitri is a strong man. He’ll make it through this.”
She sniffed and nodded before turning her face and looking down at the baby. “So this is Ziva. Hello, little one.” The small baby girl squirmed just a bit before snuggling up against Julian’s chest. “I think she knows you.”
The baby gave a big yawn, but when Tempest walked in with Paris, her sister, Ziva opened her eyes and looked up at Julian. Claudia stepped out of his arm so he could take the other, and for the first time, Julian held both of his daughters in his arms.
“You look very natural holding them,” Tempest remarked with a smile.
Julian’s voice was unsteady when he answered. “And it feels very good.”
Claudia didn’t stop smiling at the scene. Taking a few steps back, she left him and went back over to Dimitri. Lucan still sat with him, staring at Dimitri.
“He will sleep…for awhile,” Lucan stated. “But your…news will bring…him back.”
“News?” she frowned. “What news.”
Lucan smiled at her. “You’ll see.”
* * * *
Dragged into a warehouse and drugged made fighting almost impossible. Bright light flashed, blinding her over sensitive eyes. Carissa’s feeble efforts didn’t stop them from putting her wrists in iron cuffs or pulling her heavy body up, dangling her with her toes a few inches off the ground. Helpless, but her head cleared quickly with her vamp metabolism throwing off the drugs.
“You have a very nasty habit of showing up where you’re not wanted,” a deep hateful voice rang out, echoing off the walls. “And taking things not belonging to you.”
“She didn’t belong to you!” Carissa yelled. “She belonged with her father!” When she tried to work her wrists free, her whole body swung.
