Guardian's Redemption

by Marie Harte

  “So why not tell him instead of telling me?” Lexa thought it most odd that Arim’s sister would contact her instead of the brother she’d clearly loved.

  “I can’t. My explanation would only confuse you.” Ravyn dimmed, her form seeming to vanish before reappearing with fainter colour. “He needs you now, Lexa. More than you can know. You’ll have to trust him if you hope for any chance to defeat your brother.”

  Lexa inwardly winced, hating the tie that bound her to ‘Sin Garu. “I don’t know that I can,” she answered honestly. She and Arim shared a temporary utopia, one that had no outside influence. In this small home, she could dream that her sorcerer loved her, that they might have a chance at happily-ever-after. But life wasn’t perfect, and neither she nor Arim belonged here. “The Netharat had something to do with your death, I’m sure, and that army belongs to a Dark Lord. How do you think Arim’s going to respond to the loss of his beloved sister? By willingly taking another Dark Lord home with him? Won’t the Light Bringers love that.”

  “He will take you with him. He loves you, Lexa. You have to trust him. You have to tell him…” Ravyn faded, but not before Lexa watched her pale face darken with frustration. Unfortunately, Lexa couldn’t understand what more Ravyn wanted of her.

  Compassion she could offer. The newly kindled memories of Lexa’s deceased family reminded her of loss, of the feelings of emptiness and grief. She knew how much Arim loved his sister, his only living relative for the last several hundred years. Even before she’d met him at University, he and Ravyn had been all that remained of the Valens family.

  A loud roar interrupted her reverie. She took a deep breath, not wanting to face the grief she would be sure to find. Her dread stemmed from more than revisiting her own pain. Lexa had no desire to see Arim experiencing the same. His hurt would be that much worse because she cared and couldn’t help herself.

  Lexa scowled, wanting and yet not wanting this tie. For years she’d banished Arim from her world, dealing with him in the only way she could and still survive—in opposition. But in just a few short days she’d opened up to him again. The damned Light Bringer said he loved her.

  She felt confused and heartsick at thoughts of his suffering to follow. Another point of contention in her relationship with this particular Light Bringer. Lexa was a Dark Lord, a creature that clung to the Dark spectrum of magic. Pain and suffering were a Dark staple, as was anything with a strong, emotional yielding. Yet she had no urge to experience Arim’s misery, regardless of the vital necessity to boost her reserves. Once again, even unwittingly, Arim interfered with her well-preserved, if not happy, life.

  Lexa left the bathroom and ventured into the living room, both frightened and worried out of her mind to see Arim clutching his heart as he writhed on the floor. She raced to him and knelt by his side.

  “Arim? Talk to me. What’s wrong?” She couldn’t see blood or any sign of an intruder present. Which meant his pain had to have come from an outside source. Lexa flexed her hand to call upon healing fire, but found her power still lacking. Sava’s shield still holds. Relieved Arim wasn’t under magical attack, she sat on her knees and stroked his soft hair. She wanted to cure what she thought caused his pain but knew there was nothing she could do but wait it out with him.

  “Ravyn,” he breathed, his eyes bleak. “She’s gone.”

  Lexa nodded, stroking his face. His emotional wounds called to her. Though she didn’t want to take from him in such a weakened state, she opened herself, knowing that in doing so she might help bear his burden.

  “We have to get back.” Arim’s eyes filled and Lexa stared in alarm, having never seen Arim cry before. Her own tears formed, compassion for the man filling with so much pain. His Darkness swelled like a black cloud, and she continued to siphon the energy, at least freeing him from some of his hurt. “By the Light, I love her so much. I don’t understand what’s happening.”

  “Let it go, Arim. Give it to me.”

  His black eyes looked so beautiful, so haunting in torment. “She was all I had for so long…when you were gone.”

  Lexa wanted to comfort him, to tell him she’d be here for him now. But she couldn’t offer what she didn’t know to be true. In this place, where only she and Arim existed, they had peace. Out there, beyond Sava’s magic, Dark fought with Light, and she and Arim were on opposite sides of the spectrum. No matter that they both had the same goal. Lexa simply didn’t see Tanselm’s residents ever accepting a Dark Lord in their midst. Especially now, having fought off ‘Sin Garu for so long.

  Arim sat up and leaned back against the couch, still rubbing his chest. He pulled her on his lap and clung tight, his tears falling on her shoulder. The touch of his grief ate at the feeble shields she tried to erect holding her emotions apart.

  Lexa hugged him to her, willing him to ease off the rage and horror continuing to bleed through his soul. “It will get better,” she said softly, thinking of Muri and Esel. Of Sercha grinning up at her with a soft smile.

  He clutched her tighter, and they sat together for a long, long time, calming to the sound of merging heartbeats. For now, at least, Lexa and Arim were one. The comfort Lexa felt at the thought made her fear the future more than the demons holding onto her soul.

  Arim didn’t know what to think, to feel. This grief he’d experienced before in his lifetime but had never wanted to sense again. Though the memories were vague, thanks to Ravyn’s protective magic, he knew he’d felt such pain long ago when his family had self-destructed, and again when he’d lost Lexa. He’d never expected to lose Ravyn now, not when she had so much life left within her. His rock, the foundation of who and what he was, his sister had protected him from a harsh existence during his adolescence and foray into manhood. After, she’d done her best to create a new niche for them both, including him when she married into the Storm Lords, when by rights she should have left him behind to start afresh. To his credit, Faustus Storm readily accepted Ravyn and her younger brother, folding them into his household and including Arim in their everyday lives.

  Then Faustus had died. And now Ravyn followed him. Arim couldn’t make sense of it. The only thing real was the flesh and blood woman offering him solace as he clung to her slight frame. He breathed in the scent of her hair, wanting to feel home, needing to experience a sense of belonging instead of that adrift loneliness resurrecting once again.

  Lexa kissed his chest softly, offering a measure of comfort, yet the cool touch of her flesh aroused him, and his body lit from within. Wanting nothing more than to lose himself in Lexa, to forget about everything bad and focus on what was good and right in his life, Arim curled her slim frame around his.

  “Arim?” she asked softly, staring up at him with that arctic blue gaze that had so much more warmth than he’d once thought. Affection and something deeper swam in her gaze.

  “Love me, Blue.” Arim kissed her. “Just love me.” He didn’t give her a chance to refuse him but took what he needed. Their mouths met with a soft closure that sparked his entire body. Her Darkness flowed into him, soothing the savage desire needing relief. His passion rose as their tongues met, and she allowed him to overtake her, submitting herself freely.

  Arim groaned and bent to her neck, sucking hard, wanting nothing more than to consume her. He lifted Blue so that she rested on her knees on either side of his hips and fastened his lips to her breast. Suckling, drawing the taut nub into his mouth, Arim feasted on her cool flesh and the arousing moans she gave as she trembled.

  He teased from one breast to the other, pulling at her nipples, fascinated with her womanly contrasts. Lexa was cool to the touch, yet she stoked his desire higher and hotter. Arim felt as if he’d burn up, his cock thick and throbbing against her belly, which pressed him as she shook.

  His hands drifted down her body, cupping her ass as he ground her against his erection, needing respite but not wanting to rush this glorious sharing. He could feel all of Lexa, aware she held nothing back in her attempt to comfort as
best she could. He loved her all the more for it. Blue might not know it, but she trusted him on a deep level like she trusted no other.

  “Feel me,” she rasped. Her Darkness bled through him, forcing the Light to cling to her and not to his pain. Her dominance called to the Darkness coiled inside him, and without at first realising it, he began bending her to his will.

  Arim clenched her ass with one hand, using his other to feel the slick heat between her legs. “By the Light, you’re so hot.” As he drew her nipple into his mouth again, his fingers sank through the tight walls of her channel into the wet fire of her sex.

  She groaned and pulled away from his mouth, grinding down on his cock pulsing so hard it was a wonder he hadn’t yet come. Blue glued her mouth to his and breathed with him, her cold breath stirring his ardour anew. Her powerful, contradictory nature to both heal and harm had always fascinated him, just as he was enthralled by the cool feel of her skin and the incredibly hot furnace of her core.

  Unwilling to wait any longer, Arim withdrew his hand to pull her up and over his cock. Impaling her over him, he forced her to move up and down, losing sight of the fact that she was as willing, if not more so, to take charge as she rode him hard.

  “So good, Blue. Take me deeper,” he rasped thickly, lost to the bliss overtaking reason.

  Up and down, her slick flesh clasped him tighter, the ache in his balls spreading through his shaft, the need to come demanding surcease. Desire flared, pushing at Arim to control, to lash out until he received his due—Lexa’s climax, Lexa’s love.

  He clasped her waist with bruising fingers, unable to help himself as he ground against her clit with every slap and press of their bodies. She moaned his name and thrust her tongue in his mouth, teasing, urging him to do more.

  In me, all of you inside me, he heard whispered in his mind. Mental images of him shooting inside her overwhelmed him until he could think of nothing but gifting her with his seed. Their bodies were so close, their energy directly aligned. Arim could no longer tell where his Light ended and her Darkness began. And then he felt a distinct thrum from within, a steady haze of Darkness pushing at his very essence. The seduction of true freedom beckoned, and Arim groaned as he took command of Lexa’s body.

  Fucking her mercilessly, he added a finger to her ass, filling her with all of him. Mouth, ass, pussy, she belonged to him. He devoured every inch of her until she cried out his name and spasmed around him.

  Her ass clenched his finger tight as he thrust in time with his cock, and her walls clamped down on him as she milked his seed in a torrent of ecstasy that shook him to the quick.

  Even as he emptied inside her, Arim felt something more want to leave him. In a moment of perfect clarity, he saw a void in Lexa’s soul, that piece of her Darkness that should have been there but wasn’t. As they held each other tightly, both lost in the rapture of sexual enthrallment, Arim granted her everything he had.

  Determined to give her back the caring she’d just given him, Arim subtly lent her his strength, allowing the Darkness within him to cradle the power of his Light as he filled that void in Lexa that shouldn’t have been there.

  Grunting with the effort, he felt another orgasm crash over him and stiffened, the push of his Dark-enshrouded Light both a pleasure and a pain as weakness invaded his spirit. Though glad to be parted from that Darkness that secretly resided within him, Arim knew a moment’s panic, a distinct warning that he’d made a mistake that would eventually destroy him.

  But if it helps Lexa, it’s not such a sacrifice to make, he told himself, and grunted with pleasure when he finished spending inside her.

  When he could focus again, he felt Lexa’s breath over his chest, felt her stroking his arms and belly as her heart gradually began to slow. A quick look inside her showed Arim the bright blue magic he’d expected to see earlier. He smiled, kissing the top of her head.

  He still ached at thoughts of Ravyn, but as he throbbed inside Blue, he knew his heartache would indeed lessen in time. The small Dark Lord on top of him would be his salvation. Ravyn, at least, now had Faustus, the man she loved, at her side. She suffered their separation no longer, though her people, her children, and certainly her brother, would miss her dreadfully. But if his sister had loved Faustus with the same intensity that Arim felt for Lexa, Arim could only imagine how hurtful the past few months in Tanselm had been without him.

  Snuggling into his arms, Blue surprised Arim with a burst of energy that felt an awful lot like love. Arim glowed with contentment, temporarily sidetracked from the pain of his sister’s departure. When he looked down at Blue’s face, he saw the emotion reflected in her warm gaze that gradually turned cooler as she watched him.

  Arim felt no threat from her defences, as he’d come to expect them. Truth be told, he wouldn’t have accepted any less than Blue’s all, to include her suspicion and fear, her warmth at odds with her well-earned caution. She squirmed, and he sighed as she pulled away from him, leaving his flagging flesh cold without her.

  “You’re always making a mess of me,” she grumbled, even as she cuddled on his lap again.

  He smiled into her hair, content to have her in his arms forever. Unfortunately, as the seconds ticked by into minutes, the silence between them gave way to a truth that could not be ignored.

  “I’m sorry about Ravyn.” Lexa cleared her throat and pulled away from his hold to look at him. Sincerity shone in her gaze. “I actually liked her.”

  “Your magic healed her when nothing else could.”

  Lexa tensed. “How did you know about that?”

  He joked, “I know everything. So I should thank you for giving my sister that much more time to live. If not, ‘Sin Garu would have killed her that much sooner.” He swallowed, still trying to reconcile the truth of his sister’s passing with his seething hatred towards ‘Sin Garu. “At least she’s with Faustus now.”

  Lexa glanced away.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I feel your anger, Arim. After all this, I think you should at least be honest with me. I‘m not asking you for anything.” Lexa wouldn’t meet his gaze.

  “I am honest.” Confused, he grasped her chin, forcing her to look at him. “What are you talking about?”

  “You blame me for what happened to Ravyn, don’t you?”

  “Why would I?”

  Lexa tried to leave his hold but he manhandled her into place, secretly pleased at the icy glare she shot him. He much preferred her anger to her hurt.

  “Much as I hate to admit it, ’Sin Garu is my brother. He wants me, and he’ll do whatever he can to get what he wants. No matter who gets hurt.”

  Arim stared into her glacier blue eyes, bemused that the frost of her gaze could be both incredibly seductive yet calming. “Lexa, you yourself said ‘Sin Garu wants to punish me. The best way to do that would be to harm those I care about.” Ravyn, his heart whispered, too late.

  “I’m a Dark Lord.”

  “And I’m a Light Bringer, kin to the Storm Lords. My kind have fought with yours forever. It’s a past we cannot change, but a future we can shape as we see fit.”

  “And what future is that?” Lexa asked quietly, her expression now shadowed. “This new peace between us won’t last. Not when ‘everyone you hold dear’ considers me the enemy.”

  Arim said nothing, thinking about the future, imagining a world without Lexa. He’d allowed mistrust to blind him once. He wouldn’t let it happen again. “Lexa, we both know you and ‘Sin Garu are bonded by nothing more than Ini’s blood. You’ve done more to help Tanselm and the Storm Lords than anyone could have expected, especially after how you were treated so long ago.” He rubbed her shoulders, forcing her to maintain eye contact. “I’ll never be able to tell you how sorry I am that I didn’t believe in you--in us. But as I’ve said before and I’ll say again, we can’t change the past. This is our future, Lexa. We’re both fighting for a world without oppression, free from evil persecution. Dark or Light, we want the same thing.” />
  “Do we?”

  The Lexa he’d once known had wanted love, a family, children of her own and a purpose in life to help others. He couldn’t believe she’d changed that much about the core of her basic personality. “I want my people safe. I want to love and be loved. Don’t you?”

  She stared at him for a long moment, but eventually nodded.

  “I want children. I want to hold my son or daughter in my arms. I want to stand with you year after year and watch our children grow strong with love for Tanselm and its people.”

  Her eyes watered, and he smiled tenderly as she blinked furiously to clear them.

  “I…” She coughed, clearly uncomfortable. “I want to be happy.”

  “And children wouldn’t make you happy? A man who would worship the ground you walk upon wouldn’t thrill you to no end?”

  His little Dark Lord looked nervous, and he couldn’t be more pleased. No, his Lexa hadn’t changed. But breaking through those shields guarding her heart would take patience and time. Arim planned to give her all the time in the world, whatever he had left. He pushed aside the lingering sadness that hovered just beyond thoughts of Lexa, concentrating fully on the woman he planned to take as wife.

  “You always make things so damned complicated,” she suddenly snarled. “Arim, can’t we just focus on the now?” Her breasts brushed his chest and made him want her all over again.

  “Of course, Blue. Anything for you,” he murmured and cupped her breasts, moulding their form to his large palms. By the Light, he loved her body.

  Lexa flushed and glanced at his mouth, her ice blue stare like a physical caress. She leaned down to kiss him just as a massive influx of energy filled the room.

  Without thought, Arim shoved her down and crouched in front of her to face the oncoming threat.