by Mary Calmes
“See me, like, see me? Why?”
As a warder, Marcus could use a vortex, like a wormhole, to travel from wherever he was to me and be there in seconds.
“I had a feeling you needed me,” he said after a long moment.
“You did?”
“I did.”
“Shit, Marcus, what’re you psychic now?”
“Nope, just tuned in to you,” he said, and I could hear how much he liked me in his tone, the warmth that infused his voice. “So talk to me.”
But I had to think of what I wanted to say.
Being Marcus, he talked instead, because he knew it was what I needed. “Hey, you and Dylan are for sure coming home for New Year’s, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Joe’s putting the deposit down with the hotel today for the suites.”
“What are we doing, again?”
“We’re all going out for dinner, and then dancing, then up to some suites.”
“That seems like a lot of work when all any of us wanna do is go home and fuck.”
He was quiet, and I started laughing.
“God, you’re a crude-ass bastard,” he told me.
The tension felt good to dump.
“Listen, you ass, Joe had a fucked-up New Year’s Eve last year—”
“Since you were missing,” I reminded him.
His exasperated sigh, then: “Yes, since I was missing, and so this year we’re celebrating big.”
“Joe has a definite idea about things.”
“Yes, he does.”
“Well, tell him that Dylan and I will be there.”
“Good, I will. Now tell me what the hell is going on already, because that’s all the small talk I’ve got.”
And so I told him the whole sordid story. As he listened, I realized that just letting it out, telling him, calmed me. Talking to Marcus always did that.
“So what’s your plan now?” he asked cautiously.
“I don’t have one. It’s over. I just wish I could erase it for Dylan.”
“You don’t need to erase it. You just need to be there and be the man you are. Dylan’s strong and smart, he knows who he is. Sounds like he just had an emotional reaction to his family thinking you were not the white knight you are. But he’s not damaged in any way, Mal; he’s fine.”
And I knew that, but it was still nice to hear.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. I’ll see you in a week.”
“See you,” I said and hung up as I heard the sliding glass door behind me. Turning, I found Tina.
“Come in and eat, okay?”
I just stood there, looking at her.
“What?”
“Nothing, just looking at you.”
“Well, stop.” She glowered, but I saw that she liked me; it was there in her eyes, the way they softened. She had started off thinking I was a different kind of man, and when she learned that her brother loved me and that I loved him in return, everything changed for her. I was her brother’s guy now, and that meant something to her. That knowledge had wedged itself into her gaze. I liked it a lot. “Don’t be nice to me, for crissakes,” she snapped. “Look how I’ve treated you.”
“You didn’t know me,” I reminded her.
“Just get in here,” she grumbled, gesturing me in before leaving the doorway, not wanting to close it, instead letting out the warm air so I would have to do what she said.
I moved fast to follow her and reached for her arm, but when my fingers closed on her wrist, she winced and pulled away.
“Oh, I’m sor—”
“No, I… it’s fine,” she gasped, turning into me like it was natural and not brand new, more instinctive, before she suddenly caught herself. She froze, her head snapped up, and her eyes met mine.
“Tina?”
“I… oh.”
It was the whimper of the “oh” that did it. She was barely holding on, and right then, her body betrayed her, and I felt the tremor run through her. I crushed her to my chest. I was not gentle, even when I tried, and her gasp scared me for a second before she melted in my arms, molding herself to me. She needed something—shelter, safety, I wasn’t sure what—but because I was big and solid, I could offer her the strength she seemed to be lacking at the moment.
“Who hurt you, Tina?” I asked, speaking into her hair.
She recovered fast, pulling free, grabbing my hand and tugging me after her into the hall by the stairs. When she whirled around, she lifted her sleeves, revealing the dark-red bruises on her wrists and forearms.
“What the fuck?” I asked.
She had been wearing turtleneck sweaters since I arrived and when she pulled it away from her throat, I understood why. There were new bruises that were purple and older ones that were yellow, and I felt my stomach twist into a knot of absolute revulsion.
“Tina.”
Her eyes lifted to mine.
“Who?”
“My boyfriend, Mike, we live together in Cambridge, we go to law school together… he… he… Malic….”
I grabbed her again, and she started sobbing in my arms.
After a minute, Lily came around the corner.
“Hi.” I smiled awkwardly at her as Tina shuddered and bawled into my chest, her face buried in my Henley as she clutched me tight.
“What’s going on?”
I tipped my head sideways, and because the long sleeves of one of her daughter’s many sweaters were finally pushed up, she instantly saw the damaged skin.
“Ohmygod.” She sucked in her breath. “Tina, did Mike do that?”
“You know he did,” I told her, “if that’s where your mind went.”
“Jesus—” Her voice deserted her.
There was lots of sniffling, more tears, and then Dylan was suddenly above me on the stairs, finally done showering and changing. He looked really good in the low-rise jeans, white T-shirt, and beige zippered cardigan. Everything about him was soft and sweet.
“What the hell’s going on?” Except his tone. His tone was hard and cold and flat.
“Mike hurt Tina.” His mother’s voice trembled. “Oh Dylan, look at her arms.”
He was horrified—it was all over his face—and then he was furious.
“I told you!” he yelled at his sister, stomping down the staircase. “I told you it would escalate, and I told you he was a fuckin’ psychopath! I’ll fuckin’ kill him!”
“No,” I said softly as he moved in beside me—wanting, I could tell, to take his sister’s place in my arms. He needed me; he was raw and vulnerable from unburdening his soul earlier, and though normally a rock himself, he was a little unsteady at the moment. Even though he had felt better after telling me, the confession had still been emotionally taxing. “I will take care of everything, all right?”
Tina started hiccupping as she lifted her head to look up at my face. “He said he would hurt me if I—”
“By the time you get back home, sweetheart, he’ll be gone.”
Her breath was coming in nasally staccato snorts. “He will?”
“He will,” I promised.
She buried her face in my chest again, clutching at my back, pushing in tighter, and I felt Dylan’s hand on my arm.
“What’s wrong, baby?” I asked.
He shook his head as his eyes started to water.
“Do me a favor.”
“Sure,” he said, and I saw him pull himself together just because I needed him to do something for me.
“Get my phone out and call Jackson for me. Tell him I need him and Leith here now.”
He nodded and reached into the back pocket of my jeans. When he walked a little way down the hall, making sure he was out of earshot of his sister and mother, I turned my attention back to Tina.
“I don’t know why people think they can screw around with my family,” I said, taking her face in my hands and tilting her head back so I could see her swollen eyes. “But it’s a mistake. I’m not a nice man
.”
She swallowed more tears. “Am I your family now?”
“Oh yes.”
She took a quick breath. “I don’t usually cry. I usually get mad.”
“And I like that.” I smiled down at her. “I’m the same way.”
“Oh.” Lily’s teeth began to chatter with the welling up of emotion as she watched. “Malic, you—”
“I will take care of it,” I told Dylan’s mother, reaching for her, and I was not surprised that she moved forward, into my side, wrapping one arm around my waist as she stroked her daughter’s hair with her other hand.
“What was wrong with Dylan earlier?” Lily asked, tilting her head back to look up at me.
“Old news, nothing pressing, he’s fine,” I assured his mother, not being able to tell her the truth as his secrets were not mine to tell. “I’ll take care of him.”
“I know.” She nodded, smiling.
That she knew I was her son’s safety net made me very happy.
“Jacks,” Dylan said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. He liked Jackson; everyone did. He had a face that made you smile when you saw it, a warm sound to his voice that was the cadence of a drawl from growing up in Tennessee without the dialect, and a smile that managed to be wicked and warm at the exact same time.
“Malic, what are you going to do?”
“I’ll tell you in just a minute,” I replied to Tina, turning to look at Dylan.
He was walking back toward me, shrugging, holding my phone.
“What?”
“He told me to tell you that they’ll be here soon.”
I understood.
“Malic,” Lily said, letting me go, stepping back, her eyes still on my face. “You have friends in the area?”
“They’re on a layover, Mom,” Dylan told her, thinking on his feet, covering up the warder vortex as all hearths did. Some families, like Joe’s, Marcus’s hearth, knew that they had a warder in their midst and that he or she belonged to a clutch of other warders. Most did not. Maybe someday Dylan and I would share my secret with his family, but not yet. “So they’re just gonna stop by and say hello when they get in.”
“And where are they flying through to?”
“Massachusetts,” I told her, “as luck would have it.”
“Oh, how funny.”
“It is. So they can pop in and deliver the news to Mike that he’s moving out.” I smiled.
“What?” Tina gasped.
“Go wash your face,” I directed, “and let’s get something to eat.”
She took a breath and walked away.
“How did you do that?” Lily asked.
“What?”
“Get her to listen to you?”
I grinned at her. “I have a way with women.” From the way she was looking at me, she was completely charmed at that moment. I turned and grabbed Dylan’s hand, yanking him after me. “Come on, let’s eat.”
He liked being manhandled; I knew that, so he followed fast.
“Both my kids listen to you, Malic,” Lily grunted from beside me. “Amazing.”
I smiled at her as I grabbed a plate for Dylan and shoved it at him.
“I’m not really hungry.”
“Eat now or I’ll make the plate and we know how that always turns out.”
He snatched it out of my hand grumbling about my size versus his and how he could not be expected to eat the trough of food I normally piled up for him. I was careful not to snicker at his irritation.
He stomped away from me, sitting down with his friends on the couch, the plate of food on his knees, but after a deep breath, I saw him finally relax. That was the important part, for him to decompress. In minutes he was talking and laughing, and hearing the sound made me feel good. He still seemed off balance to me, and Tina was barely holding it together, but they were both okay for the moment. I made a plate and sat down at the table. Watching Dylan, watching Tina, I felt better. Protecting was hardwired into a warder, so seeing that they were both safe soothed me. When Lily returned to me twenty minutes later with her husband in tow, I stood and took hold of his shoulder and explained what was going on.
“That asshole hurt my baby?” Jeff muttered under his breath, the anger and betrayal right there simmering on the surface.
“Yes, sir,” I told him.
“He’s been in my home, Malic,” he snapped, his eyes flicking to mine, his gaze locking there. “I trusted him with her.” And he felt like a very poor judge of character at the moment.
“I know.”
“How can I let her leave here and go back there?”
“Because I’m going to make sure it’s safe before she goes home.”
“How?”
“I have some friends who are going to speak to her boyfriend for me.”
“Really?” He was surprised.
“Yes, sir.”
When the doorbell rang, Mr. Shaw left me to answer it.
Whoever the Shaw clan was expecting was not at all who they got. Jackson came through the door first, with Leith behind him, and they had obviously come from two very different places.
Leith was dressed in cargo khakis, steel-toed work boots, and a heavy cable-knit sweater under a shearling-lined denim jacket. The long blond curls that fell to the middle of his back were tied back from his face in a queue. Everyone noticed him. There was no way not to; the man was very handsome even though he looked irritated.
Jackson had on a suit, and he looked crisp and polished. The only piece missing was the tie. Thick brown hair, now cut short, still kicked out around his ears, curling down the nape of his neck. The beard and mustache made him look softer than he did without them, warmer, but the glint in his dark-brown eyes was mischievous and sexy. Leith you noticed first; Jackson was the one you wanted to get up and talk to.
When they saw me, they crossed the room to reach me, Jackson grinning wide, saying hello to everyone, Leith just walking through, clearly annoyed.
“That was scary fast,” Dylan said as he joined me, leaning into my side, watching the warders come closer.
I had to agree. He knew how hard it was for me to travel through the wormhole, how much energy it took, so, really, it was a huge deal that they were here already.
“My,” Lily said to draw my attention, smiling when she had it, even as she smoothed her daughter’s hair back from her face. “Your friends must make quite… the… ent….”
“Hey.”
I reached for Jackson, giving him a brief hug, tipping my head at Leith afterward. Jackson hugged everyone; Leith mostly just touched his hearth, Simon. The only other person he was overtly demonstrative with was Marcus. But we all touched Marcus; it was just something we did, something we couldn’t help but do.
“You guys hungry?” I asked.
“I’m not,” Leith said as his eyes skirted over me and then Dylan. Satisfied that we were fine, he took a breath.
“Me neither.” Jackson grinned. “Besides, traveling makes me kinda queasy. Always has,” he said, referring to the wormhole we all used.
“So what’s up?” Leith wanted to know.
I looked back at Mrs. Shaw. “Hey, Lil.”
Her smile was beautiful, as she did it through fresh tears. Looking at her daughter was making her quietly weep. “It’s Lil suddenly? No one calls me Lil.”
“Oh no?” I teased, then I cleared my throat. “Hey there, Lil, could you please get something to write on and give my buddies the address of Tina’s place in Cambridge?”
She turned to look at my fellow warders, first Leith with his warm aqua eyes and chiseled features, and then Jackson, who was standing there looking strong and stable and everything she needed at that moment.
“Are you both really going to go see Mike in—”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jackson told her even though he had no idea yet what was going on, instead simply following my lead. “Would you mind getting us that address, please?”
“Of course.” She smiled and got up and left
the table we were standing beside.
“Thanks for coming,” I told my fellow warders.
“You called,” Jackson said, giving me his wide-open grin. “You never call. You normally just try and handle whatever it is alone. So if you ask Dylan to call, we’re gonna get here as fast as we can.”
“You guys are getting scary with that travel,” I said low and under my breath since Mr. Shaw was there and we were in the middle of a living room with a lot of people who seemed very interested in us. “Dylan just got off the phone with you not too long ago.”
He tipped his head at Leith. “He brought me. He and Ry, the stronger they get, the easier it is for them to do. Both of them can move one more at any time from any place now.”
I looked at Leith. “Really?”
He nodded, shrugging. “It’s no big deal.”
“It’s a huge deal,” I assured him. “Jael’s gonna be impressed.”
“He already is.” Leith squinted at me, indicating Tina with a tip of his head. “So what’s this about?”
“Abusive boyfriend,” I told him as Mr. Shaw sat down beside his daughter at the table and took her hand in his. “I need him gone and too scared to come back.”
Dylan, who had let me go when I greeted Jackson, was suddenly back, leaning against me, his arm sliding around my waist. He was shivering just slightly, and I would have bet that seeing Tina’s fear was taking him back to a time when he had been in her shoes.
Leith cleared his throat, and he mouthed the question for me when I looked at him: Did I want the guy dead?
I shook my head. “Tina lives with this guy. They go to school together. I want him to run the other way when he sees her from now on.”
Leith nodded, and I noticed that his face had changed. His hearth, Simon, had a stalker of an ex-boyfriend whom Jackson had scared out of his mind. If Jackson had not stepped in and ended the volatile situation, I had no doubt that Leith would have killed his hearth’s stalker and dropped him in a hell dimension to be devoured and never found. Leith was, first and foremost, logical, and removing a problem with a final solution just made, to him, good sense. If something was bad, you killed it. The end.
“He needs to find other living accommodations. I don’t want him back for any reason.”
“Malic.” Tina found her voice.
