Eternal Guardian

by R. G. Alexander

  “Phoebe, Silas told me no gods could come here. You can’t fool me—“

  She roled her eyes. “Phoebe, huh? I’ve been worried sick about you, crying into my pilow every night, and you’ve been up here playing pin the giant on the cloud girl with some chick named Phoebe?” She pretended to pout. “I thought I was the one you loved.”

  Max’s brow lowered and his smile faded a bit at that. This wasn’t Phoebe, and it wasn’t Jesse, though it certainly sounded like her. Another trick? “Where’s Kit?”

  She’d lowered her hands to his shoulders, caressing the muscles she found there absently as she stared at his chest. “He didn’t want me to look for you. We fought.” Max had seen that in his vision at the stream. They had argued over him. He wanted to see where this was going. “He just didn’t want you to worry about me. He was trying to take care of you.”

  She shook her head, leaning into him until their bodies were pressed against each other, every inch of her touching every part of him she could reach. “No. He was trying to make me forget you.

  He knew I stil wanted you. Wanted you to join us. Wanted to…be with you. Like we were before.”

  Max couldn’t deny that before his experience with Phoebe, he would have been thriled to hear those words. Before Phoebe, that may have been enough for him. “Let me go.” Her smile turned knowing. “You want me. You stil want me. You’d take me now, wouldn’t you? Even though you just had her. This Phoebe of yours would never have to know.” The sneer at the mention of Phoebe’s name gave the game away. Definitely a trick. He must have wandered away from Phoebe’s sanctuary at last. The bastard had taken the first opportunity to get into his head. Max’s grip on Jesse’s body tightened and he took her down to the ground. Her struggles had her turned over on her hands and knees, trapped beneath him before she could cry out.

  Max snarled. “Did this out of jealousy, didn’t you, Jackass?

  You could have at least tried to be original. But was it because you wanted her for yourself?” He thrust his hips against the lush cheeks of the faux Jesse’s ass. “Or because you wanted the hard fucking I just gave her?”

  Jesse’s body seemed to light from within, the mist that covered the ground swirling up around her, concealing her from Max’s view. When he could see again, the handsome, beligerent male had taken her place.

  “You were fooled.” He was flushed, obviously unhappy that his ruse had failed so quickly.

  “Not for a second.” A sound of disgust escaped Max’s throat. “You’re an idiot. I thought you were so much older than I was. Wiser. You’ve been watching al this time and you stil have no idea what love or loyalty actualy means, do you?”

  “I am only what I was made to be.”

  “Be more.”

  Max inhaled sharply, easily scenting the aroma of arousal.

  He slipped his hand around the young man’s waist and gripped his erection in a carefuly threatening manner to prove his point. “Was this part of the original job description?” The man’s flush deepened and he jabbed his elbow into Max’s stony muscles. A futile gesture, though Max released him regardless and they both rose to their feet.

  “When you left your isolation with…Phoebe,” Jackass said,

  “I knew what you’d done. How you’d made her feel. It was a heady experience. I was upset. Confused. I didn’t want her to bring you in the first place, didn’t want her to disappear and leave me alone but now—” He ran a hand through his light curls. “Now I’m not sure what I would’ve done differently.” Max eyed him suspiciously. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to bash the man’s pretty face in again or console him. Or maybe just find Phoebe so they could show him, together, what he’d been missing. He was actualy starting to feel sorry for the mixed up cherub. Perhaps the stick up his ass came from a lack of sex.

  The stunned expression on his face made Max laugh out loud. “Heard that, did you? I suppose I can’t cal you Jackass anymore. No matter how much you deserve it. How about Joe?”

  “Actualy, I’ve always liked the name Jude.”

  “Of course you have.” Max shook his head, running his hands through his hair in frustration. “Okay, Jude. What’s with al the theatrics? If you could read my mind the way Phoebe could, you’d know I was wiling to go home. Ready to go home. I’m no threat to you. Why more ilusions?”

  Jude shrugged. “I was jealous, as you said. I wanted…I don’t know. To prove I could make you want someone else. To trick you. This time I was being childish. I apologize for that, Igigi. I do have an understanding of your code of honor.” He seemed sincere. Too sincere. And too regretful. His next words confirmed it. “I didn’t send you back for two reasons. The first is that Phoebe is right. We have to get involved. And if we do, any dangers we might face would be beyond us—but not beyond you.” Max no longer had a good feeling about his chances of getting out before the pain of facing Phoebe again. “What is the second reason?”

  The man—Jude, Max corrected himself—took a careful step back, a wary expression on his face. “It is complicated, but the window of time you entered through has closed. On earth, it is far enough in your future that everyone you know believes you dead. I know you saw it too.” He continued speaking hurriedly when Max bared his teeth in instinctive anger. “Something we can’t fix even if you help us accomplish our goal.”

  “Let me get this straight.” Max was having a hard time believing anything Jackass aka Jude was saying. “You have al of time in front of you everyday. Past and future. Yet not only do you do nothing but you watch it like a human would watch their favorite soap opera—and now you’re teling me you can’t put me back where you found me? Hel, forget that, you can’t put me back outside of my—what did you cal it— window, at al? Why exactly did the Universe create this place again? Why are you here?” The somber, feminine voice behind him caused his heart to clench. “We can send you back, Max. Jude? Jude was just trying to protect my feelings.”

  “What? No I was—” Jude froze as he stared at the woman behind him, his nod tense. “Fine. We’l send him back if we can.

  Maybe he can hold his own against the consequences that move wil bring.” He frowned. “But not until we tel him why we brought him here in the first place. Until we tel him what happened after he left.” He heard her sigh, and he couldn’t resist her pul. He turned to face her, his body hardening, his heart melting at her carefuly fixed expression. She wasn’t looking at him; her eyes were diamond hard, her lips thin. A goddess made of ice. But he knew it was a lie.

  Her vulnerability was al the more apparent in her attempt to conceal it. He knew her. She was his.

  And he’d been trying to leave her. What kind of bastard did that make him? “Phoebe?”

  She ignored him, taking Jude’s outstretched hand and walking toward the reflecting wal that had once again appeared before them. “Show him.”

  He wanted to pul her back into his arms and demand she listen to him. Forgive him. Didn’t she understand how hard this was for him? She had a purpose, as did he. What was he if he wasn’t fulfiling that purpose? What would he be if he stayed?

  Lucky to have her.

  Max came up behind the beautiful pair, trying hard not to notice how right the two looked together. A matched set of stunning immortals and one clumsy, dark, ass of a giant. He was a fool.

  Jude nodded toward the wal. “What you wil see is in your future. The events your goddess and then our third put in motion wil have outcomes they haven’t foreseen. Outcomes potentialy so horrifying that the gods wil be reconsidering Baal’s imprisonment.

  Deciding whether or not they should release him to destroy most of their creation, if only to save it from total annihilation. “

  “What? They can’t.” What could possibly have happened in such a short span of time for that to be an option? Another flood.

  So much death. So much loss. Why?

  Phoebe remained silent, but Jude must have heard his thoughts. “A short span for you, but as your friend Kit once
told his mate, humans ‘have a moment of time.’ They can do wonders in that single moment. Wonders…and acts of atrocities more horrific than we could have imagined. “

  Humans? “But I thought you watched others, like me.

  Vampires and werewolves. How did your third affect humanity?”

  “Imbalance.” Phoebe’s answer was distant. Sad. “The Antara, a Trueblood Reader and her powerful offspring. A demigod mated to the Igigi who imprisoned a god. They puled the warring factions together, which forced the Shadow to do the same. What were once minor skirmishes in desolate areas of the world became a battle that, even in a smal countryside, was too apparent to erase.

  And then too insidious to avoid.”

  Max shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

  “It is safe. The Rabasa cannot affect us here.” Jude gestured toward the wal again. “Watch.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  He stared over their shoulders, into the shimmering wal of mist and light. An image began to form, so real it felt as though he’d stepped inside. It was daylight, and Ye Olde Haven Pub was surrounded by humans with cel phone cameras and signs.

  There had always been human folowers of vampires. Those who’d offered themselves for the forbidden taste, who had made a lifestyle out being a blood donor, addicted to the ecstasy the bite could bring.

  This was different. News media staked out the smal town, questioning the myths, showing pictures of creatures in mid-change.

  Pictures of a woman with silvery blonde hair, her hands raised as she seemed to hurl a rock at a monstrous bipedal wolf. Proof.

  Were they serious? “Someone took pictures? But we’ve handled that before.”

  Jude lifted one shoulder in a half shrug beside him. “These refused to disappear, despite the contacts the Clan Trust had in human political circles. Despite al their money and ability to mesmerize. There were too many. Communications had become too advanced. They could not make the entire world forget they existed.”

  “Jesse and Zander became convinced that they could help,” Phoebe said. “They believed that if they offered their advanced knowledge, along with the truth about who they were, a new era of peace and transparency would change the world for the better. The only other option was going to ground. Or the loss of innocent lives.”

  Max reached out to caress Phoebe’s back, in both an offer and a request for comfort. She didn’t pul away.

  Could he have stopped this? But how? It would never have occurred to him to leave a battle in order to check for spies.

  He continued to watch what unfolded before him. A treaty signed. Scientists welcomed with open arms. Disappearances in the night. Strange rumors of the creation of special military units specificaly targeting non-humans and their families. Of wealthy donors draining their bank accounts for the chance at longevity. For power.

  An ominous cloud grew and descended over the planet.

  The world changed. A new era dawned. Three hundred years passed—a terrible era that rivaled every nightmare Max had ever had. The treaty was broken; Weres and Truebloods became an endangered species. Those who weren’t taken for experiments went deep underground in a different kind of battle. A losing one.

  Man was becoming more powerful than the beings the Mother had created to protect them. And Goddess, what they were choosing to do with that power turned Max’s stomach inside out.

  Where was Sylvain? Where was Regina? There absence worried him most of al.

  “What must I do? Give me a task. What is your plan to end this?” There was no question now. If he could stop this, help in any way, he would. Whatever it took. Even if it meant his own death.

  “Exactly what we are forbidden to do. We must go back to a moment in time that has already been written to find what we need. We must steal a piece of the Mother’s legacy. It is the only way.”

  He studied Jude through narrowed eyes. The Legacy? He knew it wel. It was the stone his people had protected for years, the one Jesse had used to bring her father to protect them al from his brother Baal. What did they need it for? “The only way to do what?”

  “Alexei is the key. The only line of time left, where the future can be saved from the end it so swiftly seeks, centers around him. The prodigal son of Regina and Zander Sariel is the only hope for his people. For al people. And we’re running out of time.” Max thought he was beginning to understand. Time may be static here, but it went on in the world below. The more solidly a timeline formed, the more difficult it would be to change.

  “According to Kit, Jesse’s father took the Legacy stone back to the Great Mother. Surely the gods would relinquish it for such a cause.” Phoebe shook her head. “In this timeline, the Legacy stone disappeared before it could be returned to your Great Mother. The last moment it was seen was when Baal was imprisoned. It is there we wil have to steal it, before it is taken by the original thief. In fact, its theft may have intensified the events you have seen. The world that must not come to pass.”

  Max thought about their rules, about the third who had disappeared for getting too involved. “What wil happen to you if you do this?”

  He studied Phoebe’s delicate features. He could stil see the stubble burn on her neck and cheeks. Her kiss-swolen lips. He suddenly wanted to go back to that special place. The place where al he thought about was pleasuring her. Loving her.

  Her inhalation was shaky. “What good are we if, when faced with the end of time itself, we stand by and watch it al fade away? I believe our third was right. Some futures are too important not to fight for.”

  He understood completely. He also had a new admiration for both of them. Faced with oblivion, they chose to fight for their charges. Phoebe was right. Igigi and Horae were similar. They were both true guardians, wiling to die for what they believed in.

  “I’m in.”

  Jude smiled and placed a warm hand on his shoulder. “I have given you a hard time I know, but I had a feeling you would be. If this works out, there is a chance the Legacy can return you to that moment in the tunnels. You may be able to return to your time.

  To your family. And we wil, Universe wiling, continue to watch over you.”

  Max moved closer to Phoebe, feeling there was something going on between the two Watchers. Something they weren’t sharing about the dangers involved, or the possibility of his return.

  He wondered suddenly who would watch over her? And Jude, jackass though he was. And why was it that he loathed the idea of that job belonging to anyone else but him?

  “Am I interrupting?”

  Max smiled. “Silas. Where did you wander off to this time?”

  The big man smirked. “I’m retired, I can wander where I please. And I was just enjoying the show. This place is so much more interesting since you arrived, son of Elam. And now we have a quest. No wonder the Rabasa are hanging about. So many frayed edges in the making.”

  Something dark twisted in Max’s gut. He knew he had seen only a taste of what the demons could do when someone or something was out of place. What would happen if Max found his way into a timeline that was already fixed? Into their territory?

  What price would the Watchers have to pay? And most importantly, would Max be alowed to make a difference at al?

  ***

  His sword.

  She watched him study it as he sat on the steps outside the temple, in view of the garden. It was the one his father had made for him when he completed his first rotation of training to be a guardian for the Sariels. It had the amber and ruby jewels encrusted at its base, one from each of his parents, to protect him. It was inscribed with the symbol for his name. The leather on the hilt was worn down by his own caluses. This sword had been with him through many trials.

  And she’d been with him, watching him, through each one.

  She’d taken the sword amidst the chaos of battle, after the Shadow Yvan had falen. She knew what it meant to him. What his life meant to him.

  He had always affected her. Touched her. And now he
was here, affecting everything around them just by his presence. Even Jude. Jude. She smiled to herself. Her counterpart had chosen a name. He was also, she knew, starting to understand Max. To understand why she had been so preoccupied.

  She focused on him once more. Max’s body was tense, his thoughts were in turmoil, and she knew why. One of them, either she or Jude, would go through to the past with Max while the other remained behind with Silas to keep the window open for their return.

  She knew Jude had spoken to him again, explaining what had to occur. He had also explained that the more solid the pattern of the past occurrence—the more people who witnessed it and were affected by it, and the more time that went by—the harder it was to change it or add a new element. The danger was not only to the timeline, but to the Watchers themselves.

  Max didn’t need to know how dangerous. He didn’t need to know that the universe, like a body rejecting an alien invader, had protections in place to defend itself from attack.

  The Rabasa. Crude but efficient devourers. They would consider this action an attack.

  She didn’t like the idea of putting Jude in danger. They had lived milennia in this protected bubble together, watching but never experiencing. They had not faced down evil. They had not had to put their lives at risk. And yet Phoebe knew risking herself was the only choice. She couldn’t alow Jude to be harmed for something she put in motion.

  She could hear Max thinking the exact opposite. He was determined that she stay here, where it was safe.

  “That is not your decision to make.” She stood in the doorway, her shoulders straight, ready to do battle.

  The pulse at his temple twitched. “You brought me here for a reason. You should take my advice.” He sighed. “Though if I were better informed as to how, exactly, I could defeat the Rabasa, I might have a better idea of how to protect you.”

  “Jude told you,” she evaded. “The Universe protects itself when it sees something or someone that is out of place. It is why we were put in place. Three to watch over humans. Three to watch over your people. Three to watch over lower life forms. And there are those who do more than watch. Al to keep the balance.” Max set down his sword and slapped his hands on his thighs. “I’ve been wondering about that. It seems a fairly messed up system the Universe has in place. And what about the gods? They didn’t create you. Are there three to watch them as wel?” Phoebe paled. “We don’t speak of them.”