Unknown Protector

by Maggie Mundy

  The look she gave Kaylie should have caused her friends jaw to clamp shut forever. It didn’t work and she wasn’t surprised. She also wasn’t sure she could lift her head from the pillow to retaliate.

  “Frieda cleaned him up. The guys downstairs say it’s the longest they’ve seen him go without a Scotch.”

  “How long?”

  “Two days. At one point when you were both out of it you kept calling each other’s names. It was lovely.” Kaylie pulled a face as her eyes peered up and she placed her hands over her heart.

  “There’s nothing lovely about this. I saved the life of someone who isn’t even human, someone who in all probability is ultimately going to kill me in a few weeks’ time. To top it all the ones he’s fighting for are trying to kill him too. Plus he’s done something to connect us in some way, so I feel like I have to save him or it’s my own doom. It’s somewhat irritating to say the least.”

  “You were incredible, Nicole. They didn’t know what to do. Then they saw how scared you were, but you still tried. You were there when they needed it. Plus, I think Ridge is going to have to fight off Carrick as who is more protective of you.” Kaylie grinned.

  “I’ve never wanted people, let alone Midworlders protecting me.” Nicole couldn’t keep the smile away from her face. He annoyed her but she was glad he was alive, and pleased he was checking on her. She didn’t argue when Kaylie helped her out of bed and dressed her. It reminded her of when she had the flu once. There was one thing overriding everything else, even her weakness. She was starving hungry.

  She staggered into the main room supported by Kaylie, and was descended upon by Carrick and Jake, who helped her to the couch. Her feet didn’t touch the ground for at least ten feet.

  “Put me down. I can walk, even if I’m a bit wobbly.” Carrick fluffed a cushion and placed it behind her head while Jake lifted her feet up.

  “Give her some breathing space boys. If you want to do something useful go and tell Frieda she’s up, and she’s famished.” Kaylie shooed them away as Nicole laid her head back on the cushion.

  Frieda came in and kissed the top of her head. Then Peter walked in and hugged her. This was good. People were all still alive. She would enjoy the moment.

  Soon the smell of bacon and eggs drifted across the room. She couldn’t remember when she’d last eaten a fry up. Carrick placed the tray on her lap. She decided she wasn’t going to feel guilty about eating such unhealthy food. She was going to devour it. As she finished it off she heard the door behind her open. Carrick took her tray away as Ridge strode in the room.

  How would she react? Now she knew. Her heart beat wildly at the thoughts going through her head. Ones where he held her in his arms and kissed her, or ones she didn’t want to face where he was dead. He stood in front of her in his sexy leather jeans and tight T-shirt, with arms folded and gave her a glare frosty enough to freeze a furnace.

  “Don’t you ever do somethin’ like that again.”

  It wasn’t what she expected to hear. Thank you might have been a good place to start. Why did he always get her rattled?

  “If you mean saving your life, then don’t worry, I have no intention of doing it again. In fact I’m regretting I did already. Maybe your rudeness has something to do with it. Is your Southern masculinity threatened because a woman saved you?” He stood above her and scowled. She wasn’t going to be intimidated and folded her arms across her chest.

  “You know damn well what I mean, Nicole. You could’ve died. My job’s to protect you, not get you killed.”

  “Only until the end of the month, and I wouldn’t have had to do anything if you hadn’t gotten yourself stabbed.”

  Ridge sat down next to her and put a hand against her cheek. His face was close as he whispered. “You have to trust me. I’ll not lose you. I’d rather die myself.”

  Nicole pressed her cheek against his hand as his lips got closer. It wasn’t anger she could see in his eyes but genuine fear, but she didn’t want anyone dying for her, human or otherwise.

  “I’ll make this right and find another guardian, and I won’t let Sayell near you. I’ll find some way to make this all go away.”

  Every time she let down her guard and thought he cared it came back to the same thing. He had to do what was expected him as a Midworlder before anything else. For a second she hoped he wouldn’t find a way to end their connection. How silly was that. He stood up and moved away. It was probably better his way. After all she didn’t want the bad guys to win either.

  “Okay. I’ll promise not to do anything that will put me in dangers way, but you have to help me use these powers. I also want to know about what happened in Pergor.” Ridge stopped at the counter and poured himself a coffee. Frieda scowled at him. He turned back.

  “It won’t change things and you’re better off not knowin’.”

  “That’s my decision not yours. I’m caught up in all of this and I want to know what we’re, or I’m up against.”

  Ridge sat on the couch next to her. From the way Jake, Carrick, Peter, and Kaylie stopped and turned around to listen, she figured he hadn’t said anything to them either.

  “I started off nice, just askin’ when you were gonna get a guardian. No one’s willin’ to take you on. I asked about the Demonics tryin’ to get you, and was told it was bein’ dealt with. Then I mentioned Liliath, and all hell broke loose and he started attackin’ me. I did work one thing out from our little conversation. They’d be happy if both of us were dead. I’ve always been a thorn in their side, I still don’t get why you, though.”

  Nicole believed none of this made sense so why would their attitude to her be any different. She wanted to know something else.

  “How did the crystals exist here, and Mira’s feathers? I thought Midworlders and your few weird creatures were the only things from your world that could exist on Earth.”

  “The crystals didn’t. They dissolved once they were removed from me. I existed in both places so they were real while in me. As for Mira’s feathers, I was attacked before I could ask.”

  “So now the bad guys and the good guys want us dead. Are other Angelic Midworlders going to start attacking us down here too?” She needed to know what they were up against and crossed her fingers just in case.

  “The rules seem to be changing on a day to day basis at the moment, but I don’t believe it’s got that bad.”

  Ridge was sitting next to her when he bent over double and placed his hands over his ears. Nicole glanced up to see Jake and Carrick on their knees with their hands in the same position. They were reacting like police sirens were going off right next to them. Nicole heard nothing and from the way Peter, Kaylie and Frieda were standing there with puzzled expressions they were deaf to what was happening as well.

  Before Nicole could say anything Sara stumbled into the room holding her hand to her forehead. She didn’t seem happy. Her words were no more reassuring than her expression.

  “We’ve got trouble. Sayell and his crew are trying to take out at least ten crossovers and bring them back with Demonics attached.” The words came out between gasps as she clutched the counter to keep herself upright.

  Ridge stood up and grabbed onto Peter. “Carrick, Jake, I want you to go with Sara, do what you have to. You can’t kill the son of bitches but make em pay,” Ridge said as he screwed his face up in pain.

  Nicole watched the other Midworlders leave the room and knew whatever Ridge had to say to her wouldn’t be good. How could it be, everyone wanted them dead? He stood in front of her.

  “Before you say anything, I think I’ve already worked it out. It goes along the lines of, don’t leave this room. I’m the man, and I can deal with this.”

  “I don’t have time for this discussion but you’re right, so stay here.”

  How he had gotten around
her with kisses before he went to Pergor. Then again, she had been the one to jump on him. At the moment she wanted to hurl something at him as he went from the room. She wasn’t even sure what they were fighting for. Ben was gone, and Ridge didn’t love her. She didn’t want him to, even if she felt horny every time she gazed at him. She turned to Peter and Kaylie who were in the kitchen watching on.

  “It’s not you, Nicole. He’s an ass with everyone. It’s his way or the highway. I think you confuse him.” Kaylie came over and sat on the couch.

  “I probably don’t want to know this, and it will complicate things even more, but can you tell us anything more about them?” Nicole asked.

  Peter came and sat with them. It seemed so strange that the others had gone off to fight and they were sitting there doing nothing.

  “I’ve been with Sara for four years, and I’ve learned to stay in the background. They may have powers but they’re not allowed to kill humans. I believe their powers go way beyond what they can use on each other, but they’re tight lipped. You get the basics from them and then it’s like getting moisture out of dry sand. It just slips through your fingers.”

  Nicole didn’t have a chance of understanding what was going on if Kaylie didn’t after all this time.

  Kaylie continued. “I know when people are dying their guardians are drawn back. The guardians get placed with a new human if they need to develop more. Or sometimes the Angelic wants to go back to Homeworld and needs a replacement. Midworlders aren’t meant to instigate death though.”

  Nicole noticed the normally dreadlocked and cool laid back persona of Kaylie, was replaced by someone who kept turning her pentagram ring around and around on her finger so much the skin would be red and blistered soon. Nicole placed her hand on Kaylie’s and smiled. Peter tapped on the coffee table in front of them to get their attention. It was a hard call with all the crap going on.

  “You know I used to think weed shitted with my mind, but this is a complete new trip.” Peter laughed as he shook his head.

  “You should not mess with that stuff. It will rot your mind,” Frieda called from the kitchen, as she wagged her finger at him.

  Kaylie smiled at him, but Nicole was worried. He was such a nerd. He lived in his own little world and she could see worry in his eyes as he stared at her. He had lost Ben, and he thought he would lose her, and he most likely would. She had thought about suicide in the past, and she had thought she might get run down by a tramcar. She just hadn’t considered angels, demons, or aliens wanting to see her dead. She wanted to say something to him but Kaylie interrupted.

  “I smoked weed once. It made me vomit. It did make me see Sara’s wings as part of her aura though, or maybe I imagined it.”

  “I was never one to sit around. Ben was the only one who could ground me, and the police force back home in Australia. These past few days have been crazy for all of us and made me forget my training. I haven’t carried a weapon since Ridge came on the scene.

  “Can you ask Ridge if he has a gun I could use? I don’t have superpowers like you.” Peter pleaded.

  “Some rules still mean something to me and the fact I earned my right to carry a weapon here or anywhere else is one of them. So no, you don’t get one, even if he has a whole arsenal down there.” Peter got up in a huff and stormed over to the kitchen banging cupboard doors as he got himself a juice.

  She had loved Ben, but his job had been sitting in cars and watching, or driving halfway across the country to get in on someone else’s patch to get the guy or girl. Being an ex-cop made you want to do the best you could when you were on duty. Living and working with Ben, had made her realize it is a different world when you’re not the law enforcement officer. It all became irrelevant as beings not of this planet were trying to kill her.

  She had never killed anyone, either here or in Australia. Ben had never carried a gun. He said you shouldn’t have a gun unless you are prepared to use it, and he wasn’t. They did divorce cases and missing persons mostly. Or finding a lost relative so you could claim the fortune, only there was never much left. She couldn’t help but think Ben might still be alive if he had carried a gun, but then he wouldn’t have been the man she had fallen in love with. A scream from Kaylie in the kitchen broke into her thoughts.

  Peter collapsed to the floor, his whole body was shaking. His lips were turning blue, and his arms were bent up against his body and his hands were rigid like claws. Kaylie frantically tried to pull him onto his side but he was fighting her, even unknowingly. Frieda tried to help but to no avail. Nicole knelt down beside him as Ridge ran in the room.

  “What happened?” Nicole asked Kaylie.

  “He was talking to me, then he collapsed. There wasn’t any warning. Is he epileptic? Should I call for an ambulance?”

  “No, there’s no history of epilepsy in his family. We did all the medical checks when I married Ben.”

  “Don’t call anyone. We don’t need medico’s crawlin’ all over this place,” Ridge said as he knelt down next to Peter.

  “This isn’t your decision, Ridge. If I were you I’d shut the hell up before I get angry. Maybe I could do more harm than those crystals.”

  “That I don’t doubt but I sense this is our work, and by that, I mean Midworlder. I feel the taint of my kind here.”

  “So they’re not just keen to attack me, they’re going to kill my family.” Nicole’s arms came up in goose bumps as she sensed someone else enter the room.

  “That’s quite right, although I think Ridge had seen it coming, as you would say.” Sayell no longer wore a cloak with a hood but was back in his regular uniform of a designer suit. His skin had not healed completely and was stretched and an angry red in color.

  Nicole hoped it never healed and women would be repulsed by him. It was highly unlikely though considering how much he had healed already.

  He strode forward and stood in front of Ridge, but kept leering sideways at her. He made her skin crawl.

  “Come on, Ridge. We all know this is simple. You should never have paired with her. I hear even your own kind is displeased. So being the generous person I am, I’m presenting you with a solution. Tonight we’ve drawn your attention by letting you know we have an offer you can’t refuse. We relinquish holds on those people dying and the Demonics who could be attached to them. We could even let this pathetic creature live if it’s worth our while,” he said as he gestured to Peter. “What do you say? All we want is for Nicole to mate with me instead of you.”

  Nicole wasn’t going to wait for the discussion to start or end with these two.

  “I’d rather be buried alive and rot to death with Ridge’s corpse, than even kiss you. Do we understand each other?”

  He ignored her.

  “This isn’t acceptable. My offer will soon be gone. Tick tock.” Sayell waved his finger back and forth.

  “Let him go,” Ridge said.

  “Why would I do that? You’re getting soft and forgetting your place. It’s the difference between us. I don’t question, why? Not because I believe it all. We’re similar in that respect. I want what’s best for me and at this moment the powers above say I should have her. I don’t mind really, I’ve always had a thing for brunettes.”

  Where the hell were her superpowers, because she wanted Sayell to disappear into ash at this moment? Peter vomited. His body retching up everything he had eaten the past day. Nicole held him while Frieda cleaned it away. She tried to tell herself everything would be fine in the morning, but Sayell’s laugh behind her convinced her otherwise. She looked to Ridge who was in a fighting stance opposite Sayell.

  Can you do this?

  Yes, but your healin’ powers are gonna be workin’ hard again. He’s callin’ in backup.

  She had spoken to him in his mind, and he had replied like it was perfectly normal. She really neede
d to know how she was doing all this crap instead of it happening out of nowhere.

  Kaylie helped her pull Peter’s convulsing body aside as the two Midworlders fought.

  As it had been in her apartment the two of them dueled with the power they exerted through their hands. She had watched this battle once before and knew they were too equally balanced. Thanks to her, Ridge didn’t have his irritating snake creatures. It wasn’t the same this time though, and heat and cold stopped as quickly as it had commenced.

  She had watched a lot of Kung Fu with Peter and Ben, but this was different. They were moving so fast she didn’t know where one body ended and another started. She had trained in karate for years and she’d never seen these moves. Each one of them pummeled and kicked relentlessly at each other despite how many blows they blocked.