Awakening Fire: The Divine Tree Guardians (The Divine Tree Guardians Series Book 1)

by Larissa Emerald

  “Immortal?” She scrunched up her face in disbelief as she drew her feet beneath her bottom and angled legs and knees away from him. “What do you mean? Like a spirit?”

  “No, not a spirit. I’m flesh and blood.”

  There were exceptions to the laws of physics, weren’t there?

  “And you’ve lived a long time?” she added.

  “A very long time. We are the Guardians of—”

  Her jaw dropped. “We? There are more of you?”

  He nodded. “Yes. We make up a sect charged with protecting the Divine Trees.”

  She knew immediately which tree he protected. The aura of the oak in the park was unmistakable. “So the town square houses a Divine Tree.”

  His eyes widened. “You’re aware of it? Humans can’t usually sense its uniqueness,” he said, his gaze narrowing. “Then you’re already closer than I thought…”

  “Closer to what?”

  “To figuring out your destiny.”

  She blinked and folded her arms over her chest. What an evasive answer.

  He smiled, seeming to read her thoughts. “My brothers are scattered throughout the world.”

  “How many brothers? And what is it exactly about the tree that you protect?”

  “I have eleven brothers. The rest you’ll learn later.”

  “Because I’m an outsider?”

  He raised a brow.

  Bingo.

  “Let’s just say I’m bound by rules,” he said, then stood to tend the fire.

  “Who makes up the rules?” she asked.

  When he returned, she watched him move closer and closer until he stood over her. He took her hand and drew her to her feet. She tilted her chin up and he caressed her cheek. “You’re tired. Another time.”

  He was right. She was exhausted. Gripped by fatigue, she let the subject drop for a while as her mind absorbed what he’d told her so far. If there was one thing she understood, it was being different. She’d had “impressions,” as her parents had labeled the episodes, her entire life. They were as much a part of her as her eyeteeth. And how many times had a wolf been part of her visions?

  A niggling suspicion bloomed within her as she met his gaze. In her mind’s eye a triangle formed between her paste life as Amelia, Venn, and the person she was today. She flattened her palm on his muscular chest, where she found his heart beating just a rapidly as her own. His earthy and spicy scent teased her nostrils. She inhaled a deep breath and closed her eyes. The strange connection she felt with him wasn’t at all clear, but one thing she knew…she desired Venn Hearst like no other man.

  She pushed herself away and picked up her glass. “Just one more,” she muttered. A minute later as he handed her the glass again, she said, “You didn’t answer my question. Who makes up the rules?”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “Not me, I assure you.” He paced a few steps. What more could he tell her?

  Not much. At least not about the tree. Guardian rules didn’t allow it. As for Io? Well, he definitely needed to warn her about that demon. But with everything that had happened today, he’d save that part of the story for later.

  Venn hated dancing around the situation. Let him wield a weapon, change form, fight. Act. Anything but evade. Io was the devious breed, not him. Tomorrow, when things settle with her grandmother, then he’d talk to Emma and discuss their past. Yes, better to introduce these strange ideas over time and allow her to come to terms with them.

  “There is a Light Realm and a Dark Realm, a heaven and hell if you will. The rules are ultimately dictated by the Creator. But things get dicey when the Free Will component is mixed in.”

  Venn cringed at the thought of the consequences to wrong choices. The thing was, Emma had to choose him of her own free will. For her, their bond may not be a solid contract. She had mentioned someone else in New York, after all. He held back a shudder. The thought of her with another man caused anger to build in his gut.

  No. She was his.

  At the same time, his first duty was to protect the Divine Tree.

  It occurred to him, then, that he’d been gifted with the very thing that could make him weak. His love for Emma. How had Io figured this out before he did? The demon knew Venn could never choose Emma over the tree. And he would use that knowledge to twist the knife in Venn.

  He could confide in her very little, actually, but he had to give her enough to explain their relationship and his unique abilities. How could he convince her of Io’s danger without scaring her away?

  He’d had two hundred years to think about what he’d tell her if he saw her again. He’d known it could happen but had given up hope after a century. Now he couldn’t recall a single word of what he’d planned to say.

  Restacking the logs allowed him to stall. By the time he sat, she’d changed positions again. Her jaw worked, suppressing a yawn. He sensed her fatigue, but also something else. A yearning, perhaps. He longed to kiss her again, hold her, lie with her. He settled on lifting her legs, positioning her feet on his thighs. She wouldn’t run away if he had her by the ankles.

  To his astonishment, she allowed him to remove her shoes, and he wanted to believe it was because she felt the same connection that he did. “How do you feel about reincarnation?” he asked.

  Her eyes, open and accepting, met his. “Actually, I’ve researched the subject a great deal. My life has been somewhat…odd, in that regard.” She paused. “It is something I believe in.”

  “Good. That’s why you’re not afraid of me. It’s a karmic bond. We have deep past connections that have carried forward,” he explained.

  Her expression didn’t change with his words, though; she seemed oddly calm about it all. Which surprised him. Perhaps she’d already figured out a great deal on her own. That would explain her composure. But it made him wonder if that was the case.

  He sat quietly and let her absorb what he’d said as he took one graceful foot in his hand. Pressure points were linked to other parts of the body—he was familiar with every correlation—and he began with a slow massage of the entire foot, then zoned in on one specific spot at the very back of the heel, a place few realized the importance of or how it affected one’s memory. He pressed down with his thumb and rolled gently inward.

  Her eyes flared. “Oh my.”

  “What?” he prompted.

  “Nothing.”

  “Tell me.”

  “You’ve done this before. T-to me.”

  He smiled, and the warmth in his chest deepened. “Yes.” He moved to the other foot. “Now you see why I can’t leave you alone.”

  “We were lovers?”

  “Oh yes.”

  He felt her shiver, and an answering vibration ran through him, straight to his burgeoning erection.

  She must have sensed the tension in him. “What’s wrong?”

  “Uh, let’s just say I like your reaction,” he said.

  A reaction she immediately attempted to hide by talking quickly. “So let me get this straight.” She wiggled her toes. “You’re a Guardian who can change into a wolf and hawk,” she said as if testing the idea, as if her mind tried to put the pieces of their complex relationship together. She gasped and tried to sit forward. “That was you the other day.”

  He shrugged.

  “So wolf and hawk,” she listed. “Anything else?”

  “No.”

  The fire cracked and sizzled. He figured she could only digest so much, and sticking to the details surrounding their relationship so far seemed the best way to introduce things. When she trusted him, he’d tell her more.

  Soon, he’d be able to speak of Io and she’d understand.

  But for now, Emma had been through a helluva lot the past few days, and he’d already given her a ton to take in. How much could he ask her to accept at one time? He couldn’t add pressuring her to save the tree, or telling her about his enemy, or for that matter, risk letting her know that Io was the evil demon behind her grandmother’s “accident.”


  No, all in good time.

  Emma rested back into the chair. He adjusted her feet and brought them further onto his thighs. He wished she weren’t wearing jeans so he could slide his hands up and down her long, slender legs and caress the soft hollow behind her knees. Fingering her ankle, he came to the indentation between her Achilles tendon and outside ankle bone. He applied a bit of pressure. The spot could warm a woman from the inside out…

  * * *

  A glow simmered low in her abdomen. On a soft purr, Emma pressed the small of her back into the chair and curled her hips up off the seat.

  Oh, that felt incredible.

  She held his gaze as she inhaled. “I’ve seen us together before.” Her breath leaked out on a sigh.

  He lifted one brow. “I savor those memories. And lived for the time you’d return to me.”

  With what seemed like expert precision, he pressed the same spot on her foot again. At the same time, flames licked her insides and sweet sensations flickered into her crotch. If it felt this magnificent sitting here in front of the fireplace, she could only imagine what sex with him would be like.

  “Peeerfect. Umm, I mean, maybe you’ve had too much practice,” she said, wondering how many women he’d stroked and lavished care on in the past two hundred years, unable to control a tinge of jealousy.

  “I haven’t used the technique since you.”

  “Really?”

  Was he saying he hadn’t had sex since…? No. She couldn’t even fathom it.

  Life’s short. Grab it with both hands. Grams’s voice drifted around her, repeating the lesson.

  Her grandmother had never declared it, but Emma wondered if Grams had visions of her own. Geez, she hoped and prayed that tomorrow her grandmother would be well enough to nail Venn with another saucy wink. Life’s short. Life’s short.

  She closed her eyes and, for the first time ever, intentionally summoned a vision. She wanted to see if she could recall Venn and their past, their lovemaking, and figured with the feelings she was experiencing at this very moment, the connection may be strong enough.

  Amazingly, the first thing she saw was the wolf, not the man. Since she knew he was one and the same, she gave herself over to the image.

  He prowled along a balcony, pacing back and forth in front of a balustrade. The creature paused, then changed form, a shimmering glow of energy. When the transformation was finished, Venn stood in profile, fully clothed. Frustration pushed her mouth into a pout. Why couldn’t he materialize nude?

  As the idea flitted though her mind, she realized she’d seen his silhouette many times before. Just never his face.

  In exquisitely slow motion, he turned, strode toward her, and shed his clothes one piece at a time.

  Now that was more like it. He paused at the end of the bed, magnificently naked.

  She raked her gaze from his shadowed jaw, down his chest and ribbed stomach, to the dark thatch of hair and jutting erection. And as he lowered down into her, her vision glimpsed a three-ringed raised scar on his left hip.

  Then there was weight and pleasure and—

  She climaxed. Not a fireworks finale but yummy pulsating ripples of warmth that laced through her abdomen, spreading out and up and over her heart.

  Flipping her eyelids open, she yanked her feet away from him so unexpectedly that he had no choice but to let her go.

  She stood shakily.

  “That good, huh?”

  “What?”

  He took a long, slow whiff of air. And she thought of a wolf tracking a scent.

  By the grin on his face, she was pretty certain he knew that she’d just come without him even really touching her. There was no way she’d admit it, though. “I should go to bed.”

  “Yes, you should.” He brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. Unmistakable desire showed in his eyes, lingered in his touch.

  A delicious shiver danced down her neck, over her shoulders and breasts, and into her tummy. God help her, her body craved him. Oh no, not a good idea. Even though she had accepted reincarnation, when it came to a relationship, she drew a distinction between her past self and her present self. She didn’t want to be just a substitute for Amelia. She wanted him to love her for herself.

  She released a slow breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

  “What time do you want me to pick you up tomorrow?” he asked.

  “You don’t have to drive me,” she insisted, “I’m going to go in early in order to be there during the doctor’s rounds.”

  “I don’t mind taking you.”

  “No, I have Gram’s car. I’ll manage just fine.”

  He gave a reluctant nod. His dark lashes lowered, he turned and went out the door.

  His name was on her lips to call him back. Instead, she peered out the window. He tromped down the steps where he seamlessly transformed into wolf in mid-stride, then looked back with those golden animal eyes.

  She suppressed a gasp. It seemed so surreal. Even after his explanations, she struggled with the concept of him being an Immortal Guardian, a wolf, a hawk, and a man.

  He broke into an all-out run down the drive.

  And the animal in him, all the wild, pent up energy she sensed lurked just below the surface—Well, that really turned her on.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  After Venn was gone, she realized he’d left his vehicle in the driveway. How strange. With a yawn, Emma phoned the hospital. She spoke with the on-duty night nurse. No, her grandmother hadn’t awoken, and there was no change.

  Guilt started eating at her stomach. She flipped over the numbers in her cell directory, landing on her father’s. Her thumb lingered, vacillating. Would he want to know? It was too late to call tonight, anyway, but she could text him.

  No, no. She’d cross that proverbial bridge only if things took a turn for the worse. And she refused to think about that.

  With a heavy heart, she trotted upstairs, showered, dressed for bed, and climbed beneath the covers, utterly exhausted. She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. Only ten-thirty, rather than the two a.m. it had seemed.

  The things Venn had told her flicked in her head like windblown fire. Reincarnation. She didn’t doubt she’d lived before. But there was more in what he hadn’t said. Much more.

  She clutched the covers to her chin, savoring the soft brush of fleece against her face. Her eyes grew heavy as sleep pulled her under, and she dreamed of Venn.

  She wore a dress the color of dark-pink roses. A shade she’d never wear today because it clashed with her hair. Perhaps she should rethink that. The hue was stunning and bold.

  For the first time ever, she saw her dream man’s face. Excitement built in her breast.

  Venn.

  He clasped her hand and led her past a crowd of people at an old-fashioned fair. Dry red dust covered the tops of her ankle boots and clung to the hem of her skirt as they wove between people at game booths. Ring toss, beanbag throw, button in a jar, bobbing for apples.

  Venn stopped at a shooting venue. He plunked down a handful of coins, and a man with slicked-back dark hair and a gray-dappled goatee set up a line of milk bottles some thirty yards away.

  Venn grinned. “Which animal would you like?”

  She perused a lopsided wood shelf overflowing with carved animals. With a teasing smile, she said, “The wolf.”

  He nodded. After inspecting the pistol the man offered, he took aim and picked the entire row of bottles off the fence. They popped and dropped in quick succession.

  “You’re fast,” she said.

  “Fast doesn’t count without accuracy.”

  The carnival vendor passed him the animal he indicated, and Venn gave it to her. She stroked its neck, disappointed that the toy wolf lacked his soft fur and musky scent. She curled her fingers around the wood form. “Thank you.”

  Wrapping his big arm about her shoulders, he drew her to him and kissed her head. “Come on.”

  They left the fair then, but on the
way out, he bought an apple pie at a table of baked goods. He helped her into a buggy and drove to the tree, where they laid out a picnic in the shade of the oak.

  It was like a scene from a romance movie complete with a red-checkered tablecloth and picnic basket filled with every delicious gourmet snack she could want. They munched on cheese and bread, peaches and grapes. The lemonade was cool and refreshing. When Venn couldn’t find a utensil to slice the pie, he whipped a pocketknife from his hip pocket and cut a small wedge, carefully lifting it out the dish with his fingers.

  They ate the cinnamon-laced dessert from his hand, him giving her a bite, then taking one himself, until she licked his fingers for the last taste.

  They laughed, and she felt a joy in her heart that she’d never known in this life. Clearly, she’d loved him, and he’d returned her affection. She wondered if they’d been engaged at the time.

  The poignancy of the moment didn’t escape Emma. She knew the happiness they shared wouldn’t last. She was at the very spot she would die, if her vision a few days ago were to come true.

  The image abruptly changed to that of an arrow flying through the air in slow motion, the red-and-yellow fletching whirling in a spiral spin as light winked off the shaft.

  She awoke with a start.

  Fighting what would come next, not wanting to experience Amelia’s death again, she opened her eyes and peered into the darkness. Were her visions now intermingling with her dreams? She sighed. Venn had truly been her romantic interest in the past. The dream seemed to confirmed it.

  She stretched in an effort to clear her head.

  She tossed three times, four, and pulled the covers over her and tried to go back to sleep. After minutes of listening to her heartbeat in her ears, she got up, slipped on her robe, and padded downstairs.

  The clock glowed 5:23 in blue letters. She fixed a pot of coffee and stared out the window, taking comfort in the sound of the coffee brewing.

  The sky grew a lighter shade of indigo black as she thought about Venn. She had loved him before. Was it possible to love someone through time? Was that the reason she hadn’t felt this all-consuming feeling for someone else? The rationale as to why she’d settled for a long distance relationship?