Guardian's Redemption

by Marie Harte

  Yessss, the demons hissed as ‘Sin Garu finally exploded, his ecstasy their own. With his climax, his need for blood erupted. Using Dark energy, he yanked the brunette the remaining distance to him and sank his fangs into her throat. Sirral groaned as it watched, and the feeling of eyes upon him made ‘Sin Garu that much thirstier.

  Within minutes he’d drained one woman of blood while he continued to surge into the mouth of the one by his feet, his shaft pulsing as his ecstasy continued. The demons could never seem to get their fill, and since inviting them into his body and soul, ‘Sin Garu had experienced ever increasing desires, as well as seemingly never-ending orgasms. He spent and spent until his body held nothing more.

  The blonde gagged as he forced her to swallow every drop, the demons’ poison invading her system instantaneously. Despite her taint, ‘Sin Garu still hungered. He tossed the exsanguine brunette at Sirral and drew the blonde to her feet.

  “I hate you,” she garbled through angry tears, her passionate declaration most pleasing.

  Liking her defiance, ‘Sin Garu rewarded her by releasing the holds on her body and mind. “Ah, little melea, don’t you know that’s what I like about you?”

  She struggled like a wounded deer needing escape, and her terror lent his easy victory a sweetness that sated much of his desire. Content with Sirral’s choice of victim, ‘Sin Garu nodded to the brunette and watched as his wraith began eating the woman, clothes and all. The blonde before him began shrieking in fear. Without any more delay, ‘Sin Garu bit hungrily at her breast, forgoing her neck, and feasted on the salty flesh, coppery blood and piercing screams of his captive.

  While he fed, he idly wondered how his sister fared. Had she recovered yet from her brush with the demons? If so, how long would it take him to unite both Arim and Lexa? To see them beaten and prostrate before him as they awaited his judgment, and ultimately, their deaths?

  Chapter Five

  Lexa woke with a groggy sense of her surroundings. The last thing she remembered, Jonas had been visiting. After her shock and disappointment that Sava had clearly shared her whereabouts after she’d explicitly told him not to, she’d welcomed Jonas with a grudging “make yourself comfortable”.

  He had, and he’d informed her of life in Tanselm. After that… She rubbed her temples, surprised when she felt the rustle of soft cotton over bare flesh. She lay naked on her bed.

  “What the hell?”

  After sitting up, she put her hands to her head to steady her swimming vision. How had she gotten in here? She’d spoken with Jonas, shared his concerns about the encroaching Church of Illumination, tried to gauge ‘Sin Garu’s next move and tossed ideas about his possible whereabouts. Jonas had made her a cup of tea, Earl Grey, her favourite, and they’d relaxed and popped in a movie. A touch of normalcy to give the illusion Lexa was no more than a tired working woman taking a holiday. And then…this?

  A male groan made her start and she stared around her. She saw nothing. He groaned again. The sound came from the floor to her left, and she leaned over the side of her bed.

  The sight of the naked male left her breathless and had her heart racing like mad. Arim Valens, her ex-lover, ex-friend and the man she couldn’t stop wanting even after several centuries, lay on her floor bound in Dark-hide rope. Lexa blinked several times and leaned farther over the bed, trying to validate the incredible sight before her.

  “Arim?” she whispered, not expecting him to respond. Jonas must have drugged her. A knockout with hallucinogenic side-effects. Perhaps a Djinn poison? But she was immune to most toxins. Perhaps the demon’s hold on her soul had made her more than magically weak, but physically ill as well?

  “Sava, you bastard,” Arim slurred, struggling in the binding around him. He looked uncomfortable, though scrumptiously naked. Sprawled as he was on the floor, and at an awkward angle from the chair, she figured he’d been tied up in it and had fallen out of the leather recliner onto the floor. The position he now laid in allowed Lexa a view she hadn’t seen in way too long.

  A creature of Light, Arim had golden skin—a tanned complexion that highlighted the muscular contours of his form. Though a sorcerer, Arim looked more like a warrior. He had powerful shoulders, a broad chest and ropy arms thick with strength. His legs were both long and well-developed, and the flesh between his thighs was thick, long and growing as she stared at it.

  Shocked, she glanced back at his face and saw the Killer of Shadow staring up at her with a look of hunger she hadn’t seen in what felt like forever. His response to her made her wonder, again, if she was experiencing odd effects from the drug Jonas must have fed her. Because Arim only ever looked at her with hostility or rage, never with lust clearly riding his dark brown eyes turning black with desire.

  “Blue?” Arim licked his lips, his gaze leaving her face to linger on her chest.

  Blue, what he used to call her when they’d been in love. And later, what he called her to remind her of how much they’d lost. It had been some time since she’d heard her nickname uttered in such a raspy, sexual tone. To her mortification, her nipples hardened under his stare. Her womb clenched with need, and had she not known better, she’d think Arim had cast a spell. Unfortunately, her body always clenched in his presence, and today was no exception.

  “Where are your clothes?” he asked, seemingly taken with what he could see of her as she leaned over the bed.

  Not embarrassed about her looks, Lexa nonetheless backed up onto the bed and lay belly-down, giving Arim no more than a view of her face. Bad enough her magic was all but gone. She needed at least the surface protection of the bed to gain a psychological edge against her powerful opponent. “What are you doing here?”

  “Here?” Arim tried to sit up but could only lift his head before he gasped and leaned back. “The damned Dark-hide is stealing my energy.” The minute he admitted his weakened state, he froze. “Are you behind this?”

  The lust flaring between them faded as his suspicion took hold.

  “I might ask you the same.” She scowled at him, wondering why he couldn’t have stayed silent longer. At least give her a minute or two to enjoy the sight, if not the sound of him. But no. He had to ruin it by opening his big mouth. “Why are you here? How did you find me?”

  “I didn’t.” Arim swore. “Sava duped me. Set me up and brought me to you. Said Jonas—” He stopped suddenly, his jaw clenched so tight Lexa wondered if he was in pain.

  “Jonas what?”

  Arim’s eyes burned a bright red, making him look very much like his firestarter nephew. She was reminded again of his ties to the Storm Lords, his royal nephews so close to restoring Tanselm to what it once was…thanks in no small part to her.

  The smug look she sent him had him snarling, and he roared as he tried to break free of the magical ropes. Such a temper. A pity it made him that much more attractive. For all that Arim was one of the most powerful Light Bringers she’d ever met, his anger had always been incredibly Dark, and one of his more attractive features. Too bad it had taken a terrible tragedy to show her his true colours.

  “I repeat. Jonas what?” she asked again, her libido under control.

  “Did Jonas fuck you in here? On that bed? Is that why you’re naked and I’m tied up? To watch while that traitor takes what’s mine?”

  Lexa’s mouth dropped open in shock. She didn’t know what surprised her more. The insane tripe Arim was spouting, or the notion that he considered her his. “Are you out of your mind?”

  He glared up at her. As he stared, she knew what it was about him that was different. Not his nudity or even his presence in her home, but the absence of his aura. She focused on the magic inherent in his being. To her astonishment, she saw…nothing.

  “Arim, what’s happened to you?”

  “What? Besides the fact that I’m naked and bound in front of you? Blame that bastard of Shadow, Sava. He and Jonas conspired to toss me to the enemy. But hear me, witch. I’m not helpless. Not at all.” Power flared in his gaz
e, and Lexa was taken aback, not sure what to make of this odd situation.

  She rose up on her elbows, careful to keep herself shielded from Arim with her hair. Flexing her hand, she tried to call forth blue flame, familiar Dark Lord energy. Nothing. Focusing, she called upon her weakened power to clothe herself. Again, nothing. What the hell had Jonas done?

  “Lexa?”

  Arim’s gaze narrowed on her in what might once have passed for concern.

  “Explain this,” he ordered in a deep voice.

  “You already did,” she answered icily, scared and determined not to show it. Her magic was all she had. Without it, she would surely fall to the demons, and she couldn’t imagine an eternity anywhere near the Pit. “Obviously I had Sava and Jonas bring you here. Now shut up while I try to think about what to do with you. Should I kill you first, or torture you slowly?” The untrusting bastard. Peering closely at him, she saw a flicker of his energy constrained, yet still there. He hadn’t lost a part of himself. He hadn’t sacrificed one iota of his stern, stupidly moral principles to do the right thing.

  Angry and hurt when she shouldn’t have been—really, what did she expect from a Light Bringer—she scooted backward off the bed.

  “Lexa, come here.” He sounded weary, no longer furious. She, however, still was.

  “Screw you. I have better things to do.” The first order of business was to throw on some clothes. With no other alternative, she showed Arim her naked backside and walked to her closet. Throwing the doors open, she found empty hangers. Her drawers were also empty. Minutes later as she stormed through the house, she found that all the towels, sheets, drapes and loose fabric had been removed as well. She could only thank the Dark that large trees blocked her windowed living room from her neighbours.

  “What are you doing?” She heard Arim yell from the bedroom as she stalked around her living room. Thoroughly confused, Lexa tried to think. What did she know?

  Jonas had drugged her. Sava had drugged Arim. She had no power, and Arim was bound by Dark-hide in her bedroom. Yet even limited by the magic rope, he should have had the power to call a few spells. Instead, he bellowed at her. So, Arim must also be unable to summon his magic.

  Lexa turned the focus of her mind inward, a trick she’d learned as a young child to circumvent magic she didn’t like. To her consternation, she found what she was looking for. An Aellein spell meant to cloak those within its confines.

  Apparently, Sava and Jonas conspired to put Lexa and Arim together, sans clothing, for the unforeseeable future.

  “Shit.” Lexa gnawed on her lip and sat bare-assed naked on her couch. It was then she noted the scrap of paper on the coffee table. In precise handwriting with a masculine slant, she read, “The Mountain has come to Mohammed, as they say. Enjoy yourself, and work out your differences. I’ll be back to collect you both soon. You’re safe here from outside influences. But I can’t guarantee how safe you’ll be from each other. You’re both magic-free, at least. So try to fix what’s been broken. Because one way or the other, I’m dragging you both back to Tanselm. Sava.”

  The minute she dropped the note from her hands, it dissolved into nothing.

  Damn you, Sava. And Jonas, you interfering Darkling. When I get my hands on you…

  A noise alerted her that Arim stood in the doorway of her bedroom. Standing, he was that much more imposing, his head brushing the top of the frame. As before, his eyes fixed to her body and travelled slowly over her from head to toe.

  “I gather you’re as clueless about all this as I am.”

  Not anymore, thanks to Sava’s note. “Sava’s a dead man.”

  “On that, we agree.” Arim strode forward, having somehow managed to break free from the rope holding his ankles together. His arms, however, were still tied snugly behind his back. He continued towards her, his impressive body taut with muscle as he closed the distance between them.

  Like clockwork, Lexa’s body began throbbing with want. Arim’s reaction, a thickening erection, told her he was as affected. His black eyes glittered with need. He stopped a hair’s breadth from Lexa, his shaft so close she could reach out and touch it.

  Her mouth dry, Lexa licked her lips and leaned back, not caring how weak she might appear. If he leaned one inch closer, she was going to grab him. And she didn’t want to touch him lest she lose all sense of why she should avoid him in the first place.

  “One thing that’s never changed, Blue. How you make my body ache.” His voice was thick with raw desire.

  Lexa’s pulse reacted on cue, racing towards a disaster waiting to happen. “So what?” She cleared her throat and glanced away. Anywhere but at the solid flesh whispering dangerously near. “Lust is an easy affliction to salve. It’s the hate and mistrust that keep us apart. I see no reason to change that now.”

  His silence disturbed her, but she refused to look at him again, until he stepped so close their legs touched, his body heat bleeding into her.

  “Don’t you?” His quiet question snapped her gaze to his with lightning speed, despite her intention to will him away. “Why did you step in front of the blast meant for me, Blue? Because I’ve had a lot of time to wonder about that. I still don’t understand.”

  “And you never will.” Because I don’t understand it myself.

  “You had the chance to kill ‘Sin Garu. To end his plague upon our worlds. And a bonus, to end my life as well. Instead, you saved me to let your bro—to let the enemy go free.”

  She stared at him, wary since he hadn’t referred to ‘Sin Garu as her brother. Arim was usually predictable, to the extent that she knew he would say and do whatever he could to irritate her. So why was he being so Light-smacking easy?

  “You took a hit meant for me, Blue. A blast of green demon fire.”

  Oh hell. Arim’s gaze was softening.

  “So what?”

  “So why did you do it? Why did you save a man you’ve been fighting with for three long centuries?”

  “I did it to help Tanselm. That’s all I’ve ever cared about.” After you turned me away.

  “So your racing heart, your wet heat, none of that is for me?” He licked his lips, his gaze drawn to her flushed breasts.

  “None of it,” she snapped as she crossed her arms over her chest, betrayed by her body. “I was drugged, if you must know. Jonas set me up.”

  Arim smiled, a dangerous grin of seduction that made her twice as wary. “What is the Djinn to you?”

  “Why do you care?” She shifted to move around him and stand, not comfortable with his looming presence, or how close his erection was to her face, her mouth… But he blocked her with his body.

  “Untie me, Blue.”

  “Do I look stupid?”

  “You look aroused. Sexy, beautiful, and very, very needy.”

  “Fuck you.” Needy? Lexa Van Nostren needed no one and nothing, despite her body’s flesh and blood demands.

  “Lexa.” He shook his head. His biceps flexed as he struggled with the rope behind his back, Dark-hide he’d find impossible to break free from. “Just answer the question. Or are you afraid of me? Scared I’ll do something to your precious Djinn?”

  She ignored the hard look in his eyes, the one that always turned her bones to jelly. “I’m as afraid of you as I am your nephews.” She snorted and crossed her arms back over her chest, wishing again she was standing. But she met his gaze, unafraid. “Storm Lords fresh out of the nursery. They’re barely into their powers and you think they can defeat a Dark Lord as powerful as ‘Sin Garu?”

  To her surprise, Arim chuckled. “Hell, no. I’m going to take that bastard out myself. My nephews are tasked with guarding Tanselm, and they will. You know this, or you wouldn’t have helped them protect their affai. For a woman so opposed to Light Bringers, you seem to have gone out of your way to help them.”

  “Them? Don’t you mean, ‘us’?” she reminded him, wanting him to acknowledge he was in her debt.

  “Of course. ‘Us’. Your sacrifice was
remarkable, Blue. Taking a demon’s blast when I could smell the fear rolling off you. All to save me.” Arim suddenly sank to his knees on either side of her on the couch, his weight impossible to budge even as she struggled to be free.

  “Get off of me, dammit.” Oh shit. She could feel herself leaning into his heat, hungering for the sensations only Arim could arouse. None of the pathetically small number of her lovers had even come close to touching the joy within her body.

  His cock—hard and hot, and moist at the tip—nudged at her belly. He smiled wide and placed a hand on either side of her head on the couch. Burns marred his wrists, where the Dark-hide had chafed. Yet Arim had broken through them, once again accomplishing the impossible.

  “What’s wrong, Lexa? Don’t you like how my body feels against yours? Don’t you remember what it was like with me inside you?” He lowered his head to whisper into her ear, his breath making her quiver with raw need. “How wet you grew, how deeply I sank inside you, coming with such force we saw stars together?”

  Their breaths mingled, the sound of harsh panting increasing as their bodies rubbed together with carnal heat.

  “Get off me,” she repeated weakly, not meaning a word of it and wishing she did.

  “Tell me why you saved me.” He nipped the spot below her ear, pressing into her belly with an erection she wanted desperately between her thighs. “You would have given your life for me. Why?”

  He leaned up to stare into her eyes. His own narrowed, concern replacing the passion flaring in the black depths, as if he could see that part of her soul now missing. “Blue…?”

  Not wanting pity any more than she wanted to explain to him, or herself, why she couldn’t stand the thought of Arim’s death, Lexa did the only thing she could to distract him. She grabbed him by the hair and yanked his mouth to hers. Within seconds all questions ceased, and then nothing existed between them but true, honest passion.