Guardian Healer: A Taylor Coven Novel: Book 3

by Brittany Rose

  “All better.”

  All better? What was I five? Dear goddess, the man made my mind mush.

  He smiled, “Thanks Kim.”

  His eyes were so intense, and filled with a warm lust, as well as amazement.

  I tore my eyes away, and entered the mayor’s office.

  The mayor said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Obviously, the mayor had no memories after the possession. Monica told him his people drove off an attack, but none of them got a look at the perpetrators. She also ordered him to forget us, and we got out of there quickly. I was sure the investigators would be baffled, since they’d recover only bullets fired from police officer’s weapons, and none of them would remember what happened. The security cameras wouldn’t help either.

  We only paused at the car long enough for Amber to undo the glamour on the security cameras, and we drove away. When Derek grabbed my hand, I smiled. It was weird, I knew we had to talk and come to an understanding, but I already felt like I was his, and he very much felt like he was mine. I needed to clear up what he’d been thinking, and why he’d run that night, but I was feeling much more optimistic about the answers I’d be getting.

  Monica said, “The distraction is over, I just need to tell the detective to get lost when we get home. Hopefully by then Sherry will have some targets for us.”

  Kevin grunted, “Your control over air is stronger than I thought, it saved us there at one point.”

  Monica shrugged, “I hold mine back for the same reason you hold back your strength when you choke out a possessed human. Human bodies are fragile, less so when possessed but not by much. I could have walked in there and slaughtered them all with air blades and hardened darts of air, but that isn’t what we do.”

  Derek asked me, “You mentioned a second idea that didn’t work either?”

  I sighed, “It occurred to me I could create a tiny shield within an entity, and then blow it up by enlarging the shield. It didn’t work. For some reason the shield doesn’t solidify to the point it can do that from inside one of the dark entities, and only turns impermeable when I surround it completely. It’s as if since part of the demon is inside the shield but the rest is on the outside, my magic can’t fully form.”

  Derek said, “Maybe because your magic isn’t designed to create pain. That’s why a banishment can tear them out, right? Because it causes them pain and they can’t concentrate or hold onto the flesh.”

  I felt good about my failure when he put it that way. I’d have to be satisfied with a moving shield that could collect entities when it was called for.

  I nodded, “Maybe if Diana figures out a short and targeted banishment spell I can do more, but you’re right. My magic is healing and protective in nature.”

  We were halfway home, when I realized how much I was leaning into Derek, but I didn’t stop. Monica smirked at the space between us when I looked her way, which made me blush. It wasn’t a far drive, and we were in the driveway less than ten minutes later.

  Amber, Kevin, Derek, and I moved toward the kitchen while Monica hunted down the detective. It was a relief to be back in our home, and the cover up should stick this time. We all grabbed a drink and sat around the table.

  Amber pulled out her phone, and called Sherry.

  Sherry said, “Be home in a couple, bad time,” and hung up the phone.

  We all exchanged looks, and wondered what kind of trouble she’d managed to find. I still had a bad feeling about the demons, the whole house, mayor, and investigation into Tom and our parents was just a distraction. Hopefully, splitting up had mitigated the damage. It was almost four in the afternoon, and I was tired.

  So much had happened it felt like days since our parents’ funeral, it was hard to believe it’d only been three hours since we’d interred the ashes.

  I blinked and looked up, when Sherry along with everyone else, appeared in the kitchen.

  Sherry said, “Good, you’re all back home. We have a problem.”

  Amber asked, “What’s going on?”

  Sherry said, “I can’t be sure, but I think the head demon gave up on the idea of killing us, or claiming the gateway. Right now, it looks like it’s trying to cause as much damage as possible, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it leaves town at the end, to avoid facing us at all.”

  She waited a moment before continuing, for what she said to sink in.

  “We just took out ten more demons, five at the power station, and five at the water processing plant. That’s what I based the guess on, if they had taken out electric and water, there would have been panic, raised readiness for war, riots, and who knows what else.”

  Amber interrupted, “We took out twenty-two more, the distraction to keep us from stopping the rest of the demons. That’s over eighty demons accounted for.”

  My mind was stuck on what Sherry said, if we’d all focused on the distraction, the power could have been out for a good chunk of the East coast. Thank the goddess we’d all had the intuition to split up, or things would have gone very badly. They still might.

  Sherry nodded, “I think all of them were sent against us that night we got our powers, because there’s only ten more that we could scry which puts us in the nineties. We don’t know where they’re going yet, but I imagine wherever they end up it will be someplace they can cause a lot of havoc, panic, and suffering to humanity.”

  Amber sighed, “So, you need to check and see where they are, and we can split up again to take care of them.”

  Sherry said, “Exactly, except we should all scry together. We haven’t done that yet for some reason, and if there are other demons hiding we should break through. I still haven’t found the main boss, unless he already left the state. There’s one more powerful entity with each group of five, but nothing we met is powerful enough to control a hundred demons, or create the storm that struck the night of their escape. The map we’re using is just the Carolinas, if we don’t find the demon, it’s already gone.”

  If the demon had fled, it wouldn’t be easy to track down. There were probably a great number of evil entities or beings across the United States, and we didn’t have its magic or scent so to speak, so we couldn’t know which one it was. That was even assuming the thing hadn’t jumped in a human bound for Europe, or a tropical island, or anywhere else on the planet.

  The idea of the entity that was responsible for all the demon activity the last few days escaping turned my stomach, but realistically if it fled for its life there was nothing we could do about it. It would become one of the ones we had to let get away. At least, we had taken down and would finish taking down the other hundred or so entities that escaped with it.

  Amber said, “Alright, let’s see what we’re up against, and where they are.”

  The twelve of us got up and walked to the conference room, while Sherry popped out of the room. No doubt she went to get the map and crystal from the pack house. By the time we all reached the room, she was already flattening the map on the conference table.

  Amber said, “Inardesco,” and the candles set up on the table lit, while she switched the light off.

  We stood in a circle around the table, the seven of us while the shifters watched from against the wall. We all held hands, except for Amber who held the crystal above the map, in her case Sherry had a hand on her left shoulder, while Danielle on the other side had a hand on her right shoulder to complete the circle.

  Then we all said the spell together, empowering the crystal and what it should find. It didn’t take long, and to my disappointment there were only two locations. The head demon was gone, and unless he came back for a last ditch effort, we’d never catch him.

  Amber cast again, this time alone, and came up with the same two groups. No demons were in hiding, we’d verified that, so there was no point in doing it again together.

  Amber said, “Both groups are still moving.”

  We all waited as Danielle noted the map coordinates, and ran web searches.
When she looked up, she shrugged helplessly.

  Danielle said, “I can’t even guess where they might be headed.”

  Amber frowned thoughtfully for a moment.

  “We’ll have to keep an eye on it, and as soon as they stop we’ll pounce. Most likely they’ll be hours away at that point, and we’ll have to move fast. Diana, can you pull off a teleport spell? Sherry could move both groups, but she’d need to rest for a while and I don’t want to give them time to do any damage, wherever they’re headed. As it is, the second group will have to wait for Sherry to go pick them up, I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave a teleport circle out there somewhere.”

  The teleport spell was extremely complex.

  Diana nodded, “Especially if two or three share power with me.”

  Amber smiled and said, “Get a circle ready then, I’ll keep an eye out here and scry every minute or so, the rest of you try and relax for a while. You too Diana, once the spell is prepared try to relax. We’ve been fighting and tense all day. These are the last two groups, and we don’t want to be strung out and sloppy when we face them. Not when this could be it, and our lives will get back to a somewhat normal schedule, minus the gateway surges that is.”

  I asked, “What about you?”

  Amber grinned, “If they don’t stop within an hour, I’ll swap out scrying duties with one of you.”

  That sounded fair enough. My sisters started to leave the room, and I turned toward Derek.

  I couldn’t help but giggle at the intense look of excitement and hope in his eyes. I felt much the same, mixed in with the strange disappointment I felt about putting off the hunt to finish this. Amber was right to be concerned, we were all a little too strung out and too excited now that we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Eagerness like that would make us sloppy, and I didn’t want to see any of my sisters die because they lost their caution. We were more powerful than the enemy, but we were still fallible. There were generations of Taylor witches who’d died too early in life, most likely because they’d grown sloppily confident, and maybe even arrogant as they got older.

  There’d been some exceptions, some generations that turned it over to their children and lived out the rest of their lives, but not in the last two generations.

  I smiled at him. My body felt a strong need for his touch, for his hands on me, even as my stomach flip flopped nervously. I wanted to talk to him, at the same time it worried me. What if I didn’t like what I heard?

  “Come on, let’s go talk.”

  I took his hand which felt like reaching into a fire because of my anxiety, yet his warm, large, and calloused hand holding mine caused my whole body tingled with desire. My body wasn’t interested in talking at all, this was going to be harder than I thought. I didn’t even know where to start, I wasn’t proud of my jealousy, and I was embarrassed at the thought of accusing him of checking out my sisters. Especially since it hadn’t happened since that first night, not that I’d seen. I also didn’t think he was that subtle or sneaky, he was bold and straight forward, if he’d done it I’d have caught it.

  It wasn’t until we were halfway up the stairs that I realized I was taking him to my room. I blushed, why hadn’t I taken him outside? Goddess, I knew exactly why. I’d never been aggressive with a man before, but I couldn’t deny I wanted to jump him badly. We went in my room, and I led him over to the bed. I felt out of breath, like we’d run for miles, instead of simply walking up the stairs, and my nipples were tightened and very uncomfortable against the material of the sport’s bra. That was new too, I usually required a lot of stimulation before they became so sensitive.

  “Sit on the bed?”

  He grunted, and sat down, while I walked over to my vanity desk and took a seat. In truth, I didn’t wear makeup much at all, or spent much time primping. My face and naturally luxurious dark brown hair was the one thing I didn’t have doubts about. It had been a present from my mother when I’d turned sixteen though, so I treasured it.

  I couldn’t help the smile when I looked over to him, the bed spread was a pinkish red, and white. Hardly gender neutral, and it made him stand out even more. He was handsome, wide shouldered, tall, and every inch a man. I bit my lip, now that the moment was here, I had no idea where to even start. Starting our mating with accusations just didn’t seem right. Then again, if this was simply about getting to know him, it could have waited until later.

  Derek grunted, “I can scent your confusion. The goddess made us mates, I don’t imagine she made a mistake. I’m sorry about that first night, I shouldn’t have jumped at the chance to go. I’m pretty sure I’d have been picked anyway, Jennifer doesn’t work well with her mate, while Tony and Kevin outrank me in the pack. They weren’t going to leave, and one of us had to. I was taken off guard by the fact you were my mate, but it didn’t take long for me to get used to the idea. I thought of nothing and no one else but you the entire time I was gone. Ask Tom, I was a grumpy asshole the whole time.”

  I raised an eyebrow, he’d totally avoided the two biggest elephants in my mind. Him being a male slut, and him checking out my sister. Was it because he wanted to gloss over it, or did he really not see a problem with it? I wasn’t sure I wanted to push it either, if we mated those kinds of things would be in the past, did I really owe my happiness and mate to female solidarity because of his past? Any other man, I’d have told off, but he obviously wasn’t going to be stringing me along.

  “What kind of things?”

  He smirked, “Fishing for compliments?”

  I blushed, and felt a surge of anger.

  “Maybe a little reassurance, from the man who spread himself far and wide in the past.”

  Shit, so much for forgetting about it, at least I didn’t call him a slut. Still, I wouldn’t lie to myself, this wasn’t on behalf of the women he’d used, this was all about selfishly assuring myself I was different, and he was really mine. Yes, we were destined mates, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t destroy it, we still had free will. I imagined that included wandering eyes, and unfaithfulness. How could I trust he’d be faithful given his past?

  Derek growled. Disturbingly, a surge of desire went through my whole body. What was that about? I think a part of me already knew, he wanted to possess me, and I wanted to be possessed and cherished. I wanted him to be mine, and only mine.

  Derek said, “That’s bullshit. I never lied to a woman in my life, or tricked her into bed. Yes, I played the field, but without deception or games. I never made promises, not until you. I certainly wouldn’t lie to my mate. You’re all I think about, and all I want. It really is that simple.”

  Derek smirked again, “If you want to hear about my thoughts over the last few days, why don’t you come over here.”

  Arrogant jerk, except I found my body standing up, and my eyes were locked on his as I moved toward the bed. I did want to hear it, more than that, I wanted to take away the separation between us, the one I’d been putting there all day. Even more, I believed every word he said. I wasn’t so sure he should get a pass, even if he didn’t lie, he went after the ladies that always fell for the ones they wanted to change.

  I slipped between his knees, and stood against the bed. Our faces were just inches apart. It was a bit embarrassing, he was a full foot taller than I was, and sitting down, but our eyes were almost on the same level.

  “Tell me,” I said, as I put my hands on his shoulders. His body was so warm, firm, and I wanted to explore it.

  He said, “You were in that tight dark blue tube dress, and soaking wet. It clung tightly to your body, and on the way to the basement I thoroughly enjoyed the view. So, don’t be too upset, but along with your beautiful face, most of my thoughts have been about your sexy perfect little bubbled ass, and the way that dress clung to your tight sexy body. I want to put my hands on it.”

  I felt confused for a moment, until it hit me all at once. He wasn’t looking at Sherry’s ass at all, I’d been walking right next to her. Sherry had a
ssumed and called him out on it, and I never doubted her statement because ninety nine out of a hundred men would prefer looking at my sister. A thrill raced through my body and my breath caught, as my chest filled with warmth as well as increased heated desire. Who would have thought, that the first time my mate engendered a surge of warm sweet emotion, instead of simply the raw lust of our mate connection, was when he objectified my body.

  That was perverse, but also true. Did that make me shallow? That I wanted my mate to desire my body? Most men thought my face was beautiful, but put me in the cute category because of my petite body.

  I don’t remember making the decision, but my arms wrapped around his neck as I leaned forward, and claimed his lips. The feelings and sensations he engendered in my body felt surreal, all I wanted to do was feel his hands on me. My body trembled, when his warm strong hands moved to my waist. His touch was firm, and his fingers dug slightly into my flesh, but not harshly.

  I sighed into his mouth, as our kiss grew more passionate. I gasped into his mouth, when his hands moved over my hips and around to grasp and squeeze my ass firmly. Tingles shot across my body, and I moaned softly in surrender as my center grew moist. I was lost in him, and his arms. It felt right.

  I was so far gone, I could hardly think.

  He growled low into my mouth, and nipped my lip as he caressed and explored my body, my hair, and finally he cupped my face.

  The kiss broke, and he grunted, “Clothes.”

  I would have laughed at his reduced ability to form a sentence, but all I could think in that moment was clothes bad. The heat and need in his eyes made me breathless, and I pulled off my blouse.

  I gasped at the cool air hitting my nipples, when he pushed up my sports bra, and then there was a wet warmth as his mouth latched on one of my breasts, while his other hand took the other. I drowned in lust, and my hands ran down his chest, stomach, and reached for his jeans.

  “Goddess! Derek, that feels so good,” I whispered in a sultrily breathless voice I didn’t even recognize as my own. The strange voice sounded like she was on fire with need. A stranger I didn’t recognize.