Something I plan on taking.” For my own pleasure.
Renzo shivered and glanced back at the baby.
“Does she have the mark?” Rage asked. Renzo’s shoulders slumped, giving Rage the answer he sought. Yes, she had it. She’s a bloodmate just like her mother. He stood up 114
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quickly, moving to the door of the office. “As much as you hate to admit it, fate has you by the balls. You know you can’t do anything for her. Give her back or she’ll just end up dying like Serina did.”
“I won’t lose my Serina again,” Renzo said softly. Rage glanced over his shoulder. For the first time he saw how fragile the man looked. Renzo touched the baby.
“I won’t give her up to the monster that killed her mother.”
“Then she’ll die just like her mother did.” Rage walked out of the office.
Outside, Denver unloaded the contents of a box. Their eyes met, but no greeting passed between them. Yes. Denver would stay with her father if for no other reason than to look after the baby.
Oh, my brother! What kind of a life would we have had together without him?
Rage snapped his fingers and the half breeds who accompanied him followed out the door.
“Let’s get started on our own plan,” he said to them. “I want it done by the end of the week.” His car door was opened from inside, and he slid onto the back seat where two of the humans who had joined Renzo waited for him. “Tell me everything.”
* * * *
When she returned to the clinic, Claudia knew it was obvious they all knew she was a bonded bloodmate. Ivy grinned at her, Lucan smiled from his bed, and Carissa gave her a nod. Claudia was surprised to see Carissa sitting with the boy, until she learned from Ivy that Carissa was his patronus, his personal protector.
Lucan had changed so much. Overnight he’d grown as tall as his father Lucian.
She knew he had never worked out, but because of his transformation, his body had developed to the size and strength of all of them.
Thick arms, muscles everywhere, strong legs, and dark hair touching the back of his neck, almost to his shoulders. Another difference was his facial features. They had Guardians 2: Forgotten Soul
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changed so much, he didn’t resemble his parents any longer. His lips were fuller, the shape of his nose had changed, and his cheekbones were not as narrow. His eyes really stood out, not dark like his father’s or the gray of his mother’s. Lucan’s had altered to a bright blue that seemed to look right into her soul when his gaze fell upon her. It felt creepy and yet soothing at the same time.
After a quick check in with the doctor, Claudia went to help get Lucan up on his new feet, a struggle handling his size. Between them, Claudia and Carissa, the boy, or rather the young man, stood up. He began walking after about an hour, but he still didn’t talk much and was shaky. He had some catching up to do with his new body. The mind was willing, but his body suffered the aftereffects of the premature and excelled transition.
After two hours, Ivy told her to take off. There wasn’t much to do, and her blood count was rising. She could feel it. She wasted no time going to find Dimitri.
Claudia snuck into the gym, she thought, walking to one of the darkest corners she could find. In the middle of the room, Dimitri worked with Julian. They were both sweaty. Dimitri showed Julian a few moves slowly. He stopped every so often, corrected Julian’s stance, or had him repeat a punch. From what she saw, Julian was learning how to take a weapon out of Dimitri’s hand.
Dimitri fascinated her in the way he moved. As large a man as he was, he could move with the grace and speed of someone so much smaller. He explained to Julian how to use circumstances to his advantage. Everyone had a weak spot, one just needed to find it and make use of it. He needed to watch his opponent’s eyes to learn what that weakness was.
She soon learned Dimitri was aware of her presence. He looked her way, and his eyes seemed to light up. He gave her a quick nod, finished what he was telling Julian, and ended the session with a slap on the back. Julian also looked over her way and smirked knowingly. She felt her face heat up, cursing her tendency to blush at every little thing.
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Julian nodded at Dimitri and walked away to a bag. He bent over, picked the bag up along with a towel he slung over his shoulder. She went forward toward Dimitri.
“You look good, Claudia,” Julian said.
“Thanks. It looked like he was putting you through some intense stuff.”
“Oh, yeah.” Julian sighed, rolling his head around. “And from what he just told me before you came in, this shit is the basics. The kids learn this all before they transition.”
“Do you think you’re going to be able to handle it?”
“I don’t have a choice. Need to get my baby back.” He glanced over his shoulder.
Claudia also looked. Dimitri watched them, wiping his face and chest off with a towel.
Julian gave her a wink. “I’ll let you two have some alone time. I need to find a hot tub and soak. Damn, I’m sore.” he teased as he left.
“Everything all right?” Dimitri asked.
Claudia nodded. “We got Lucan up and walking, but he’s still not talking. Doc thinks a couple more days, and he’ll be up and about. Did you notice that his eyes have turned blue?” She shivered. “When he looks at you it feels like he’s reading your mind and knows everything that’s going on in there.”
“It’s good he’s up and moving around. I’m not at all surprised about the changes in him. He was born with all the knowledge of our race. Transformation alone changes people. With Carissa—a Guardian who’s already done the Crossover—it was even stronger.” He grabbed her wrist, drew her close, and kissed her. “You need to be fed upon,” he said in a statement, not a question.
She nodded and then exhaled. “Yes.”
Dimitri glanced up and around. “Come on.”
He kept hold of her hand, pulling her into a back room she had seen before but had never gone inside, the gym’s large shower room. The area was open with a half-wall Guardians 2: Forgotten Soul
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in front and the entrance to the left. Eight showerheads lined the wall with one big column fixture in the middle, pouring a waterfall from the top.
Dimitri turned all the faucets on. Steam quickly filled the room. When he came back out, he was naked. The sight of his strong, aroused body had hers quickly coming alive.
“Take your clothes off,” he said.
Claudia’s hands shook as she undressed. She put everything on a bench and reached for the hand he offered. Dimitri walked backwards into the spraying water.
The shower felt heavenly. Heat beat over her head, on her back, over her breasts, and nipples, which quickly became overly sensitive. Claudia closed her eyes, tossed her head back, and enjoyed.
She gasped when his hand cupped between her legs, squeezed her mounds, and his lips kissed at her throat. She moved her hands up his arms to his neck, and he picked her up, cradling her ass in his hands.
She didn’t hesitate in wrapping her legs around his waist. He took advantage of the angle and lowered her onto his cock, filling her slow and easy. She took each solid, thick inch, one slow push at a time, into her body, losing her sanity. He stole her breath away. He rocked inside her and kissed the column of her throat until she thought she was going to die with his teasing.
“Please,” she begged pitifully.
He growled against her and struck. His fangs went deep into her throat as he pounded his cock in and out. She climaxed the second he bit her, holding on tight as he moved.
Oh, it felt good. Better than the first, second, or even that fast third time. With his hands on her ass, his cock surging into her pussy, and his mouth sucking, drinking her blood, Claudia felt the second wave of orgasm quickly approaching.
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She held on, dug her nails into his back,
and pressed her heels into his ass. Dimitri moaned against her throat, pulling even harder.
“Yes,” she moaned, grinding herself as much as she could against him with each thrust. “Don’t stop.”
He licked, closing the bite. “Never,” he promised in a grunt.
The pinnacle hit; she screamed. Pleasure washed over her like the water splashing on her head and back. She came, and she came hard yet was still aware. Dimitri swelled inside her. His fangs sank into his own lip, and he kissed her. His hips slammed into her, and his body stiffened, his balls convulsed to pump his seed. His hot cum gushed into her as she tasted his blood. Claudia closed her eyes and sucked on his lip, taking his blood into her mouth in greedy gulps.
He shivered, and she tightened her hold on him. With great reluctance, the kiss ended, but not the embrace. Dimitri held her closer, resting his face in the crook of her neck.
“Will it always be like this?” she asked, breathing hard and heavy.
“God, I hope so,” he answered, breathing the same way.
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Chapter Eight
Rage sat at his desk, his hand up to his chin, his fingers drumming across his lips. He stared at the picture on the computer screen of his laptop. Standing on the other side of the desk, the two humans told him all they knew of Renzo’s plans.
None of it was pretty.
One part was that Renzo wanted Julian Marino dead and made plans to trap and kill him. That wasn’t really a big surprise. Payback is what Renzo called it, for the death of Serina. He refused to accept the simple fact that he had caused her death. He had forced the girl into labor and then left her to bleed to death. Renzo didn’t know, and would never find out from him, that Serina had another daughter. Twins. Rage planned on making sure the second baby was kept a secret. He owed his sister that much for the part he’d played in taking her back to Renzo. The guilt over how Renzo treated her and how he let her die weighed heavily upon Rage’s shoulders. At the time, he thought what he was doing was right. He believed she should be back with her family, not living as a slave to a vampire. Once he learned more about the bloodmates, and what they needed and received from a bonding—well, the story told by Renzo was all a big lie. Bullshit in fact. They needed a vampire to live. To keep them apart meant their death, plain and simple. Each time Rage saw Renzo, he saw more of the madness taking over. If he’d doubted it, Renzo provided proof when Renzo called the baby Serina.
Denver knew something. He knew how to contact them, Rage was sure. “Have Denver contact me. I need to talk to him as soon as possible.”
The men nodded and left. Rage stood up, closed his laptop, and slipped it into his bag before heading for the special room. At the open door, he stared at the creation he’d 120
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made. The special chains no longer held the same appeal for him as when he’d started the project. He no longer wanted to chain his pet. To do that would mean to break the sprit within her, and he hated the thought of doing that. Yes, he wanted her, but not like that.
He refused to become what his father was, a monster. Even with the things he’d already done, he didn’t think it was too late to change.
Without saying a word he turned, going back to his desk. He packed everything important into the one bag. Slinging it over his shoulder, he glanced around at the place he’d claimed for his own. Nowhere was ever a home to him. Places like this were just a spot to rest his head for a short time. The time there had come to an end.
Taking the stairs two at a time, he went up and stopped when one of the human men came up to him.
“Denver will call you for a meeting.”
“Good. Burn the house.” Rage walked past him, out into the night.
He got into his car and had cleared the driveway when the house blew up; thanks to all the explosives he had all throughout the house. The explosion would’ve killed the human, along with the breeds who were inside. Rage didn’t care. He knew what he needed to do, knew who to trust, and any man coming from Renzo wasn’t one to trust or a loss to humanity.
Getting rid of the house didn’t bother him in the least. He had another place to go; one Renzo had no clue still existed. As a child, it was a place Rage had called home.
His cell vibrated against his chest. Rage reached into the top inside pocket of his coat, flipped the cell open, and put it up to his ear. “Yeah.”
“Heard you want to meet.” Denver’s voice held uncertainly. “Why?”
“I think it’s time for skeletons to start coming out of the closet—brother.” The other end became deathly quiet. “Meet me in one hour at the cemetery where Serina died. We need to talk. Now.”
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“I’ll think up an excuse to leave and get one of the breeds to take me to town. I’ll be there.”
* * * *
“Your job will be to convince the Guardians that I’m on their side now and that I’ll help in any way I can to bring Renzo down,” Rage told Denver.
He could still see the shock on Denver’s face from discovering they were indeed brothers and the anger when he filled him in on the details. He could also see the distrust.
Denver was shocked as to Rage’s parentage, but in an odd way, he didn’t really look surprised. Denver, like Rage and Serina, had known for a long time that Renzo had been in love with Rage’s mother. He and Denver traded facts, matched dates, and Denver was convinced—of that. He still needed convincing of Rage’s change of sides in Renzo’s insane war.
“They might believe it more if I could tell them why you’re willing to do it,” Denver told him.
“This is something I need to do. He lied to me, Denver, just like he lied to you about Serina and what it meant to be a bloodmate, and he used the way the man I believed was my father treated me to convince me all vampires needed to be killed. What he did to Serina and stealing that baby is twisted. If I hadn’t left before…” He let the sentence trail off and drew a deep breath. “I saw then how crazy he is, and I did nothing. Now I’m doing something. Returning that baby is a first step in the right direction.”
Denver pointed out, “One good deed can’t erase a fucking barrel full of shit.”
“I know, I know, but give me time, and I’ll fix it. I’ll get the baby to you, but you go with them, taking the blame for her being gone. I’ll stay and help them anyway I can from the inside to bring him down.”
“You should just go with us and help the Guardians fight him.”
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Rage shook his head. “He plans on killing Julian, and he’ll want that baby back. I’ve got to stay to make sure he doesn’t get the chance to follow through with his plans.”
He just didn’t have a clue how. The others wouldn’t know he wasn’t done with Renzo yet was the real reason he wouldn’t leave. He needed to keep up the ruse that he was on Renzo’s side until he was ready to bring him down his own way. He did, however, convince Denver to agree to take the baby. Now he just needed to get his plan in action.
* * * *
“I can’t believe how hungry I am.” Claudia sat at the small table in the kitchen of the main house. She’d planned on coming up and just having a sandwich, but Corbin insisted on fixing her something, and she sat stuffing her face.
Corbin stood at the stove, preparing another egg omelet, toast, and more sausages for her. He smiled at her as he put her second plate in front of her, picked up her empty glass, and filled it up again with juice.
“Oh, I can,” Corbin said, going back to the stove and bringing out a large pan from the oven with three huge roasts cooking in it. “Bonded bloodmates, I’ve learned, tend to eat like crazy for the first few days, until their bodies get regulated. Also, you’ll eat like crazy if you get pregnant. Tempest used to eat me out of house and home, when she was carrying Lucan.”
Claudia stuffed her mouth as she watched and listened to the h
uman.
He was strange, but had a kindness about him, which made one want to sit in the kitchen and watch him work all day and night. He wasn’t as tall as the vamps. Corbin maybe stood about six feet, but she thought more like five-eight. He had short brown hair and dressed always in slacks, crisp white shirts, and loafers on his feet. He nearly always had an apron over his clothes. He had such kind eyes, anyone instantly felt at ease in his company.
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“So does everyone know that I’m bonded?” she asked, wiping her mouth and picking up her glass.
“Well, when you started to purge, and Shadow saw him kissing you…” he turned his head towards her and smiled, “…pretty much.”
Her face heated up.
“But I’ve learned from Ambrose it’s a real good thing for Dimitri. He’s been alone for a very long time. A strong fighter needs someone special just for him.”
“From what I’ve seen, they all need one.” Corbin nodded while he rubbed something on the meat and put it back in the oven. “They’re all lonely.”
He grabbed a towel from the rack, wiped his hands, and walked over to the table.
Sitting down across from her, he said, “They all are. I think this whole house is lonely.
The girls are doing what they can to brighten it up, but they are just as worried as the rest.”
“They want to be bonded.”
He nodded. “I’ve never heard of a Guardian bonding before, but I could understand why they would want to be. Everyone wants someone special to love.”
“Are you looking for someone?”
“You know I’ve sort of given up on me.” He smiled quickly and stood back up, taking her plate over to the sink. “Right now I’m more concerned with Lucian, Tempest, and Julian. Fate hasn’t exactly dished them out a fair life.”
“And this war isn’t easy either.”
“We all do what we can for the ones we love. Now is there anything else I can get you?”
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