Dark Protector

by Ana Calin

  My eyes darted around as Tony squeezed me to his chest, his shirt damp on the modest swell of my breasts, his smell mixed with cologne irritating my nostrils. To top the whole thing my feet virtually bled in the shoes that felt like iron.

  Then, just as I began to lose hope, I saw him again. And again my heart reacted with a jump. He glided among the dancers on the first floor gallery, but within a few moments he disappeared behind a curtain into a booth.

  I worked my way up there, limping in the damned shoes and leaning either to the balustrade where the crowd permitted, or to the columns that guarded the entrances to the booths. I kept my eyes on the kissing couple that marked the alcove – he a tall, skinny guy, and she a fiery redhead. The club was circular, so keeping track of the right booth posed a challenge.

  I’d never seen the booths from so close before, never lent them any attention, actually. Even though they seemed vulnerable from the outside, since anyone could brush the curtains aside and walk in, I could see a back in a suit through the crack between the drapes shielding the booth Damian had entered. A guard or something.

  Another yell in my ear accompanied by spittle startled me as I tried to peek by the guy. “They must have a lot of money, the people who rent these things.”

  Tony again. He must’ve followed me. And judging by that familiar sparkle in his eyes, he thought we had our own privacy up here, hidden behind one of the wide arch columns that separated the booth entrance from the gallery. A pry-proof spot. Tony stood too close, his sweaty, fluffy hand curling around my arm. I jerked out of his clasp, my back hitting the column as I retreated.

  “What are you doing?” I warned, but it must’ve come across to him only as mouthing. The music thumped deafeningly. He trapped me against the column, his small eyes sparkling with expectation. He bent to my ear.

  “Does it turn you on? Having your way with another behind his back?”

  “You’re drunk.” I pushed him, my hands sinking in his cushion-like body, but he was surprisingly resilient despite the swaying.

  “Then why did you get me here tonight?”

  “I just want to be friends, Tony.”

  “Come on, Alice. After everything we shared, we can only be enemies or lovers. You know that. I know that. You want more.” His mouth almost touched mine. He stunk grossly of alcohol. I tilted my head aside to get out of the way of his, and brought my own lips to his ear, gripping his upper arms to signal that he should stop.

  “Why on Earth would I want you,” I said, already anticipating the pleasure his expression would give me. “When I have him.”

  And then I faced Tony again, unable to control a grin and the satisfaction I’d unconsciously desired for so long. He stared at me, forehead creased as if struggling to understand my words.

  A little drunk, I relished the look on his face, that delightful mix of an offended ego and genuinely hurt feelings. I knew that part of me would take the chance to feel guilty just some hours from now, when my spinning head would settle again, or when my throbbing eyes would open to daylight.

  But then there was a small falter in his eyes. I noticed it, since my gaze was fixed on his. He glanced to the side a few times and then settled on whatever he saw, as if the sight was not only unexpected, but held particular relevance. I turned to it.

  Damian had reemerged from the booth, bright green eyes darting from Tony to me. I barely got to blink until Tony grabbed the sides of my face, and his lips covered mine. His tongue broke into my mouth like a drunken mollusk. I thought I’d throw up instantly, but something yanked Tony away with such force that my teeth raked his tongue.

  The first thing I did was spit out the jelly-like remains of liquor and saliva, coughing and wanting to puke. The second I looked up again I panicked. Damian had grabbed Tony by his throat and pinned him to the wall.

  My eyes dropped to the fist that clenched by his side. The muscles in his arm flexed up to the sleeve of his t-shirt, his knuckles protruding like stone bolts ready to smash a skull. I had a flash of him lifting the oak counter at Café d’Art with just two fingers, and one of the train wobbling on the frosty tracks in the mountains, set in motion by other creatures of his kind. And with those flashes reality stripped naked – a single blow from Damian Novac could kill Tony.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I clung to Damian’s arm with both of mine, but he still moved with ease, as if my weight counted for as much as a feather.

  “I can explain,” I yelled as I jumped up to reach his ear and make myself heard over the music. “This is my fault!”

  But Damian’s eyes were ice cold, and his fist already underway toward Tony’s face.

  “My fault!” I screamed from the top of my lungs.

  I watched in horror as his fist changed trajectory by just a few inches, and slammed like a hammer into the wall by Tony’s scrunched-eyed head. The blow was so hard that crumbles of plaster dribbled to the floor.

  I still stared with an open mouth at the white cracks in the wall as Damian’s hand tightened like a wrench above my elbow and pulled me after him along the gallery, making way through the crowd.

  I turned around, hoping to catch a glimpse of poor Tony to make sure he was all right. And as soon as I spotted his face that resembled that of a pig who’d just escaped slaughter, I also glimpsed something else between parted curtains. A big, bald man in a suit, with an intimidating frown. His body made the shape of an X-cross as he held the curtains apart with his hands, inspecting the immediate vicinity of the booth, surely having heard the impact of Damian’s punch in the wall. Yet the most striking thing about this snapshot was another.

  Visible under the guard’s armpit was a man sitting on a leather sofa the color of brandy. A man dressed in what looked like an expensive suit, or maybe it was just the elegance about him that gave the impression of filthy-rich. He looked refined, had white hair, other particularities unclear, but one thing was certain – he was as stunningly handsome as Damian Novac and Nathaniel Sinclair. A man of their league. A man of their “species”, gazing straight in my direction, a glass of liquor that looked like scotch in his hand.

  A bump against someone made me turn my eyes ahead and seek balance by leaning into Damian’s grip. He squeezed me harder, and I let out a cry as he dragged me down the stairs. We swept across the dance floor and out into the frosty air. Before I knew it we’d passed the bouncers and emerged out into the street, barely avoiding a hooting and headlight-flashing Mercedes.

  Damian took up speed as he dragged me up the street to the first corner. He turned a sharp right and then left into a narrow, dark alleyway with only the moonlight glittering on the ice-polished surface of cobblestones that I slipped on. He caught me, and as good as carried me to his BMW. He yanked the door open and hauled me in, slamming it back shut.

  Shivering in the cold leather seat, I stared at him through the windshield as he crossed over to the driver’s side with an angry mien. A handsome beast in the cold, not even getting goosebumps. Despite his wearing only a black t-shirt, his skin stretched like smooth silk over those dangerous-looking muscles.

  The engine purred to life, and Damian let it warm up for a few moments. His jaw rippled, and his eyes were hard as bullets under knitted eyebrows, his profile stony. My heart drummed inside my chest, and a lump formed in my throat. I just stared at him anxiously.

  “If I may ask, Alice,” he said through his teeth as he stepped on the gas. “Are you irresponsible or just plain stupid?”

  “Damian, I can explain,” I babbled, shivering. He turned on the heating.

  “Please do.”

  “I- I asked Tony here tonight. I gave him hope. It wasn’t his fault.”

  “A slut then,” he spat.

  “Excuse me?”

  He took a brusque turn, and the BMW’s ass skidded to the side. “Fasten your seatbelt.”

  I ignored him. “A slut?”

  He reached over, pulled my belt and clicked it in without taking his eyes off the road. “Why did
you do it, Alice? Didn’t you take me seriously?”

  “I did. But I – ” I searched for something to say, but all I could find on the spot was, “I needed him.”

  He bared his bone-white teeth in an angry grin. His canines seemed a bit longer than the others. Sharp, like an animal’s. “You needed what, exactly? Company? Compliments?” He threw me a vicious glance. “Some cock?”

  “I won’t put up with this, stop the car!”

  “You’ll put up with me.”

  My heart banged against my chest in a sickening mix of indignation, shock and dread. I was suddenly hot, and my face burned. Defiance surged in me, so abruptly that I had difficulty recognizing the words leaving my mouth as my own.

  “And if that were so, Novac? If I wanted to spend the night with Tony, how is that any business of yours? I told you, I’m not going to live like a hermit.”

  “You will, if you want to live at all. You’re too vulnerable to put yourself out there. You’ll follow my rules,” he said, cold and cutting.

  “So I’m forced to put my life is in your hands, is that what you’re saying?”

  “In more ways than one. Only I can protect you.”

  “If I live by the despotic rules that you set alone. I never agreed to them.”

  “I never asked you to. I have experience with BioDhrome, I know how they operate, how they plot, how they kill. I decide, you comply.”

  “Comply? With your orders?” I blurted. “With the decisions of a killer?”

  He didn’t reply, but his jaw tightened, and the car took dangerous speed. I decided not to confront him about his plans for tonight yet.

  “Please, understand, Damian,” I said, softer this time to calm him down. “If I chose Tony of all people, it was because I know him well, we spent years as a couple.” I hoped this would be the very proof I wasn’t a slut. But Damian took it another wrong way.

  “And you still love him.”

  As much as I wanted to, under the circumstances it wasn’t smart to contradict him. Tony had reacted on impulse and kissed me right in front of him. But if I told Damian that in truth I hadn’t invited that kiss, Tony might end up choking on his own blood in some dark backstreet.

  “Tell me,” Damian continued when no reply came. “Back in the mountains, if we’d slept together, would you have thought of him?”

  What?

  “I –” Again, the truth wasn’t an option. “I didn’t intend to sleep with you in the mountains.”

  Damian gave a mocking snort, making it clear he didn’t buy it. “I misinterpreted your body language then. How embarrassing.”

  I needed to change the subject, fast. My cheeks burned with shame. “Who was that man in the booth? The one you met tonight.”

  “So I got it right, you followed me to the gallery?”

  “Yes, I did,” I dared, using the opportunity to forge a plausible story for Tony’s reckless action. “I didn’t intend to drag Tony right into your hands, though. But he doesn’t know anything about your rules, or that you were in that booth in the first place, so he surprised me.”

  “I see. And didn’t he ask for explanations about our own kiss the other night?”

  “It was you who wanted to make a point, Damian, not me. I never wanted to give Tony the wrong impression. And it wasn’t easy to repair, what he saw that night.” The lie seared my tongue. I could only bear it by repeating to myself that Damian Novac was a monster in an outrageously handsome body, and that I wasn’t supposed to be in love with him.

  He pulled up with an abrupt brake in front of my parents’ gate. He turned to me, hand on my headrest, eyes striking crystal.

  “The man in the booth is BioDhrome’s leader, the Regent.”

  “What?”

  “The meeting tonight was a first ever since I left BioDhrome, and it was something I obtained with a lot of effort. Something I’ve been preparing for years, and an opportunity I would’ve used to crush the snake’s head. But the Regent threatened that if anything happened to him, one of his agents would kill you in a matter of seconds. He knew you’d be there, and he knew I’d care. I desisted from a long-planned operation for your protection, Alice.”

  My mouth opened. “Damian, wha-” I shook my head to gather my thoughts. “I thought you planned a massacre for tonight, that’s why I came. Innocent people would’ve died.”

  “Massacre? Where did that come from?”

  “Hector Varlam, he said –”

  “Hector? And you believed him?” he spat angrily, making my skin crease. “Hector works for BioDhrome, and he used you to stop this operation that I’d planned for years. The entire Order was prepared for it, the Ministry of Defense backed us up, and there was nothing anyone could’ve done to stop it. This was a large-scale operation indeed, but it didn’t involve mayhem, it didn’t involve one lost human life. Alice, I. Don’t. Do. Lying. As I told you before, I only kill my own kind, I would never hurt humans. I pick on creatures my own size. With Anton Anghel, that was an exception, that was . . .”

  Jealousy? My heart stopped. But Damian didn’t elaborate. His tone grew deeper as he moved away from the subject.

  “One thing is certain: BioDhrome will increase not only their defense lines after tonight, but also their list of wanted names, and you’ll be top of that list. Now they know for a fact they can manipulate me by using you, and they’ll take you more seriously than ever. Whether as a target or a tool, I can’t tell for sure just yet. But I can tell you for sure that I continue to be the only thing standing between you and BioDhrome. You know what that means? That your life belongs to me.”

  He lifted my chin with a rough hand, his eyes piercing mine, words hissing through his teeth.

  “There’s more I found out these past days. BioDhrome doesn’t have any use for Anton Anghel anymore, which means they’ll do absolutely nothing to protect him. I can do whatever I want with him. Whatever I want, Alice, no one will try to stop me. What? Surprising?”

  Surprising yes, but irrelevant at this particular moment. I was completely taken with Damian, with his devilish eyes. Ashamed, I tried to hide it as well as possible, and pretended interested in the subject of Tony.

  “It is.”

  “Would you still sleep with him now that you know I’d make an exception from my principles, and kill him?” He leaned closer, his big arm around my headrest.

  “Please don’t hurt him,” I reacted out of my gut. I felt overwhelming pity for Tony. Whenever I thought of him and BioDhrome the words “Forgive him Lord, for he does not know what he’s doing” filled my head.

  “No? And what are you willing to offer so that I leave him alone?” Damian’s voice, smoky and dangerous, got under my skin.

  “It sounds to me like you already know what you want. Name your price.”

  “My price. All right.” He raised his chin, eyes burning green. “I’ll have you spread your legs for me.”

  The words blasted, boomed, banged and cracked in my ears. I stared at him, dumbfounded. “Damian, I, err,” I searched for an argument to keep him away at least for another few moments, until I could think straight.

  But his lips took siege of mine, and this time he didn’t hold back. His chest made a trapping wall, and his tongue invaded my mouth. He tasted metallic, he tasted of wild lust, his concrete body breaking the barrier of my palms. That moment I knew he’d make me want him until it hurt if I resisted him. And, outrageous as it may sound, it made me so moist down there that, as his fingers popped the buttons of my pants open and sought their way into my underwear, I panicked.

  It was the fear of humiliation at his finding me heavily creamed that made me put a stopping hand on his wrist. My hips wriggled deeper into the seat, seeking at least a bit of distance from him. In vain, his fingers slid over my swollen, wet flesh and inside of me, his deep kiss muffling my moan. I turned my cheek to free my mouth, his lips and tongue leaving a warm trail on my face as they went down to my neck. Trapped and horny between his big body and the seat
I breathed hard, his wooden scent filling my nostrils.

  “Damian, please,” I managed with effort.

  “Aw, Alice, let’s do this,” he said, hoarse with desire, his fingers sliding deep inside of me. I arched and moaned, so very satisfied.

  “Oh, you’re so wet . . .”

  I couldn’t believe I actually heard Damian Novac make sounds of pleasure while he touched me there. He kissed the curve of my neck, his fingers moving inside of me. I squeezed my legs together, struggling to keep from coming in his hand. Desperate to save some face, I kept my hold on his wrist, applying with no success all the pressure I could to make him stop, feeling the cords of his wrist move as I built up.

  That my body responded this fast was new and frightening. He could give me an orgasm against my will. With a strike of divine intervention, an idea hit me.

  “Respect and loyalty, Damian.” I panted. “That’s what you swore to my father, didn’t you?”

  Damian’s kisses ceased. His hand stopped moving, but he didn’t pull away, his face still hidden against the curve of my throat, his long hair tingling my bare collarbone.

  “You don’t want me?” he said in a low voice that grew angry. “Are you thinking of Anghel?”

  “No, Damian, I’m not,” I cried, exasperated. How could I, when I have you?

  “Then why reject me?” He looked deep into my eyes now, his face only inches from mine. His hand was still between my legs, the other one up behind my headrest. He had me trapped.

  “Agree to do this, Alice, and I swear I’ll put the world at your feet.” Then, with a touch of guilt in his voice, “Tiberius doesn’t ever have to know.”

  My scalp prickled while his eyes searched mine with what looked like a violent need that I couldn’t believe. Damian Novac, the most desired man on campus, the stud who drew all eyes to him like a magnet everywhere he went, really wanted me. But he was a killer. I’d hate myself forever if I gave in like an animal driven by basic instincts. And I was afraid that with every moment that passed with his fingers inside of me he’d break my will, making me moist like a snail halfway down my inner thighs too soon, too fast.