Moonlit Guardian

by Crystal-Rain Love

  Draven felt the presence of his makeshift pack as he neared home. They weren’t related by blood as the wolf packs, but the group Addix had freed from Imortia had formed their own bond, and were able to communicate telepathically as the werewolves did.

  He sent Samel a message, warning him they had company and to have the balcony doors open.

  In his arms, Kimiko wept silently. He felt her tears against his skin and it went straight to his heart. He wanted to comfort her, but he couldn’t speak in gargoyle form. If he tried it would come out as a growl or snarl, and that was the last sound he wanted her to hear while he carried her through the night with no clue what was happening to her. She’d been scared enough already.

  He’d thought of stopping somewhere else with her but she would freak out wherever he took her. It was better for them both that they be in a safe secure location when he revealed himself to her. There was a chance she wouldn’t be able to see past what he was and he couldn’t chance her running off, putting herself in danger, or his people. He also had to think about their safety now that they were in this strange realm where they had to remain hidden.

  The building came into view and still cloaked in darkness, he dived toward the balcony and came to a gentle landing just inside the doors.

  “Good thing we’re on the top floor,” Samel quipped as he watched him release a shaky Kimiko.

  Seeing the normal looking human man standing in the room, she ran toward him. “Help! This thing took me.” She grabbed Samel’s arms but quickly jerked back as if she’d grabbed a hot pot. “Wait. Is it yours?”

  She looked frantically between the two of them as she backed away from Samel.

  “Relax,” the lion shifter said, holding his hands out to her. “You’re safe, Kimiko.”

  “How do you know who I am?”

  “You’re Kimiko Lee.” Samel laughed. “Who doesn’t know who you are?”

  “I’m calling the police.” Kimiko ran for the door but Samel quickly grabbed her, turning her toward Draven.

  He watched with growing dread as Kimiko opened her mouth to scream and Samel put his large hand over it.

  “Draven, don’t just stand there.” He winced as Kimiko’s teeth cut into his hand. “She needs to know who you are.”

  Kimiko stopped fighting, her mouth dropped open as Samel removed his hand and muttered a curse.

  “What?” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears as she looked at him in confusion and fear.

  Draven shifted into his human form and held his arms out. “It’s me, Kimiko. You’re safe.”

  Her eyes rolled back and she fell into Samel’s outstretched arms.

  “I take it she wasn’t aware you were a gargoyle,” Samel said as he passed Kimiko’s unconscious body over to him.

  “It’s not funny, Samel.” He looked down into her face, shame filling him as he saw the tracks of her tears. “How am I going to explain this to her?”

  “How are you going to explain it to Addix and Zaira when they grill your ass over this?” The lion shifter shook his head. “Put her in your bed. She’ll probably be out a little while. You can explain all this to me, get some practice in coming up with a reason why Addix shouldn’t kill you.”

  “Right.”

  Draven carried Kimiko to his room, silently chastising himself along the way. He’d been so focused on getting her out of danger’s way, he hadn’t even thought about the repercussions of allowing her the knowledge of his kind. There just hadn’t been time to think.

  He lay her gently on the bed and brushed her hair back from her face. She looked peaceful, but more importantly, she looked safe and alive.

  “I can certainly understand wanting to just stand there and stare at her all night,” Samel said from the doorway, “but we got work to do. She might go crazy when she wakes up so fill me in quickly.”

  Draven stepped away from the bed and left the room, Samel on his heels. “It was an ambush. I watched the concert in gargoyle form, from the trees so I could remain hidden. I counted twelve men, in six pairs, approaching the stage from multiple directions. Their movements were perfectly in synch.”

  “Human? Weres?”

  “Human. They took shots. They were there to kill, not capture.”

  “Professional hit team.” Samel nodded. “This makes things interesting. What leads do you have?”

  “Someone has been sending her letters. They’re not so much threatening as they are just weird. A lot of talk about her being the missing piece to the puzzle of true happiness. Those were the ones I saw. She said they got worse. Then someone broke into her house while she was there and left red rose petals all over her living room.”

  “But they didn’t touch her?” Samel frowned.

  “No. They just left a message that if she didn’t come to them, the next time it wouldn’t be rose petals.”

  “That’s vaguely threatening.”

  Draven nodded in agreement. “She was shot at the very first day I worked for her. It was outside a restaurant. A human in a car parked across the street. They were just waiting for her, but they weren’t counting on her having me for a bodyguard. That very night I sensed a werewolf outside her hotel.”

  “One of Zaira’s pack?”

  “A rogue. I officially met him the next day. Turns out he’s the bodyguard for an actor, Rex Ziering.”

  “I know him,” Samel said, straddling a dining room chair. “Pretty boy actor. Does a lot of cheesy romantic comedies and a few action flicks.”

  Draven raised an eyebrow.

  “What?” Samel shrugged. “I have a lot of time on my hands here and we were told to watch as many movies as we could to acclimate to this realm. That Netflix is addictive.”

  “Back to the stuff that matters,” Draven said, sitting in the chair opposite his roommate. “Turns out the actor and Kimiko had a brief relationship which she ended. He wasn’t, and still isn’t, happy about it. He wormed a dinner date out of her but said something that spooked her pretty bad. Something that was in those letters.”

  “He said what was in the letters and his wolf was outside her hotel room. Sounds like he’s our bad guy.”

  “You’d think so.” Draven drummed his fingers on the table. “Something’s not adding up though. Those letters started coming when she and Rex started dating. They specifically mentioned her dating jokers. Why would he send those?”

  Samel seemed to think this over. “Odd, but crazy people are called crazy for a reason.”

  “True.” Draven considered this. “There’s another culprit. She did a TV show this morning.”

  “I know. I watched it.”

  “Really?”

  “Hey, you get to guard her. I should at least get to glimpse her a little bit. She’s freaking hot.”

  Draven laughed a little, shaking his head. Leave it to Samel to make him laugh during such a tense situation. “Yeah, well, did you hear what happened afterward?”

  “Something about a threat.”

  “Someone managed to get animal blood backstage and toss it all over her dressing room. They left a message. Find me before I find you.”

  “I assume this person didn’t make it easy and sign his name?”

  “No, and it might not be a male. There was a woman on the show, a singer.”

  “Britney Spears.”

  “No, Britney Starr.”

  “Oh right.” Samel laughed. “She wishes she was Britney Spears. Now there’s a hot pop star.”

  “You are entirely too into this realm’s culture.”

  “Hey, you’re protecting what this realm considers royalty. It wouldn’t kill you to get more into it too. Why do you suspect the Britney Spears wannabe?”

  “Actually, I think she’s a Kimiko Lee wannabe. She’s very envious. I could see it in her. Plus she was there when the animal blood incident happened. She’d just finished her segment and the blood was tossed in there during the time Kimiko was doing her own segment.”

  “You didn’t see anything?�
��

  “I was watching Kimiko and the audience, in human form. I couldn’t keep an eye on the backstage area at that time.”

  “So you think the woman is behind everything?”

  “Possibly. She was there at the show, and she was at the concert tonight. Strangely, she and Rex Ziering had an altercation before Kimiko went on.”

  “What kind of altercation?”

  “I was eavesdropping so I can only go off what was said. Ziering threatened to ruin her if she didn’t stop spreading rumors that they were together and she told him she knew his secrets too. He started to choke her but his bodyguard pulled him off the woman.”

  “The werewolf?”

  “Yes. The same werewolf who later warned me to watch her closely. He said he felt danger brewing.”

  “That’s strange.”

  Draven nodded in agreement. “But was he warning me out of genuine concern for her or just trying to throw me off his scent?”

  “Good question. So it’s either the pop star or the actor and his werewolf bodyguard.”

  “I think so. But what I can’t get is, I know Britney Starr was at the talk show and the concert, and those were both promoted events. The shooting at the restaurant would have been harder for the attacker to plan for.”

  “Who knew about her whereabouts then?”

  “Her manager and the interviewer she was with. Her manager always knows her whereabouts.” Draven’s fingers stilled on the table top. “She even knew where Kimiko was when we flew out to Michigan spur of the moment. That wasn’t planned, and it wasn’t a logical move that one could easily guess. That’s troubled me since it happened.”

  “She knew her exact location?”

  “She knew she was in Michigan. She knew quick too.”

  Samel raised his index finger and stood from the table. He quickly crossed through the living area to his bedroom which he’d dubbed the “Tech Cave” and returned with a small, rectangular device.

  “What is that?”

  “A scanner. We’re going to see if your girl is bugged.”

  Draven followed Samel into his bedroom where he’d left Kimiko. She still lay on her back, sleeping off her shock.

  “How does it work?”

  “If she’s got any tracking devices on her this little gadget will let us know. Not that there’s many places to hide anything in that outfit.” He made sounds of approval.

  “Don’t make me hurt you, Samel.”

  The lion shifter laughed. “Look who’s living the real life Bodyguard.”

  “What?”

  “Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston,” Samel explained. “Really, Draven, you need to catch up on your Netflix.”

  Draven had no response for that so he simply watched as Samel clicked a button on the gadget and started slowly tracing Kimiko’s body with it.

  “Don’t get too friendly,” he warned.

  “Relax.” Samel chuckled as he moved the box over the bottom half of Kimiko’s body. “I’m not even going to touch … Uh oh.”

  Before Draven could ask what was wrong Kimiko’s legs shot out. Her booted feet connected with Samel’s gut, knocking him backward. Not suspecting the move, the large man fell on his backside as Kimiko came off the bed and attacked.

  Reflexes quick, Draven grabbed her biceps as she lunged at him and turned her around. He held her close to his body, pinning her arms to her sides. “Relax, Kimiko. You know I won’t hurt you.”

  “I don’t even know what the hell you are.”

  “I’m your bodyguard. That hasn’t changed. I can explain everything.”

  “Before that, we have a more pressing problem to deal with,” Samel said, picking himself up off the floor and holding the box up so they could see. “See this little green light? It means you have a tracking device on you.”

  10

  “I have a what?” Kimiko stopped fighting. The tiny little green light on the box in the man’s hand evoked far more fear in her than a little light should.

  “A tracking device.” The man pointed the box toward her legs. “In your boots. You wear those often?”

  “No.” Kimiko almost laughed at the absurdity of her wearing thigh high boots daily. “But if there’s a tracking device on me it probably isn’t in my boots. It’s what’s in my boots. Let me go, Draven.”

  Obediently, he let go of her arms, allowing her to sit back down on the bed. She used the moment it took for her to unzip the top of her right boot to scan the room. It was a bedroom, not a basement or creepy cell so that was a plus. It only contained a bed and a dresser. No homey touches whatsoever, so she didn’t know if this was Draven’s home or just some random place he’d brought her to.

  “Where am I?” she asked as she retrieved her cell phone from the pocket inside her boot.

  “Vermont,” Draven answered. “This is my room. I share this apartment with Samel. He won’t hurt you either.”

  “Is he like you?” she asked as she handed the phone to the large man. He was wider in the shoulders than Draven, which was saying something. Tall, muscular, and his hair was the color of the sun. It flowed around his shoulders like a mane. His cat-like eyes held amusement but also the same promise of pain to anyone who crossed him, much like Draven’s.

  “I’m more brain than brawn,” Samel said as he opened her cell phone. “Not that I can’t kick an ass that needs a good kicking. Then there’s my temper to consider. Bingo.”

  Kimiko looked at the chip he held in his fingers as if it were a venomous snake. “Who put that in my phone?”

  “I intend to find out, and stop them from tracing your whereabouts. To the Tech Cave I go.”

  Kimiko watched him walk away, leaving her alone with Draven.

  “The Tech Cave?”

  “His bedroom. It’s full of computers and electronic stuff but he has a bed squeezed in there too,” Draven explained. “Kimiko, I don’t know what all is running through your mind right now but I can guess.”

  “Oh, you have no idea,” she cut him off, then laughed. “Maybe you do. If anyone could understand this insanity it would be you. You’re a … What are you?”

  “I’m a person, with a job.”

  “Cut the crap, Draven. You had horns. Horns! You freaking carried me through the air with your wings, all the way to Vermont in less than a night.”

  “It’s just one state over from New York.”

  “Really? That’s your response to all I’ve just said?”

  “What do you want?” He sighed. “I did what I had to do to keep you safe, just as I promised to do. Those men were sent to kill you.”

  “What men?” She remembered seeing the drum set get taken out by bullets but hadn’t seen anyone. “What happened tonight?”

  He sat on the corner of the dresser, across from her. “I was watching you from a tree near the back of the crowd. In my gargoyle form I can see in all directions at once. I can see for miles. And I’m very fast as you now know, so I knew if anything happened I would be able to reach you in time. I saw men approaching. Twelve of them, from all directions. They were paired off in twos and carrying guns. Someone hired a hit team to take you out.”

  Kimiko blinked, processing what she’d just heard. “I’m sorry. Everything after gargoyle was kind of a blur.”

  He smiled self-deprecatingly. “Yeah, I guess so. The important part of all that was that your life was in danger so I took you out of harm’s way.”

  “You grabbed me off the stage in front of all those people.”

  “I probably looked like a very large bat to them. I’m pretty quick.”

  “Are there more like you?”

  “Yes and no.”

  “What does that mean?”

  He stared back at her for a moment, his jaw ticking.

  “You’re afraid to tell me. It’s a secret.”

  He nodded. “My kind survives here by staying hidden.”

  “Here?”

  “This realm.”

  “And I thought this couldn�
��t get any weirder.” Kimiko studied the man before her. Tall, dark and handsome didn’t even begin to cut it. He was gorgeous. He wasn’t pretty like Rex. He was far too masculine to be described that way. All those rough edges combined to create one fine specimen of man and now she understood why his eyes held a hidden threat, why his very body seemed to be a weapon. It was. “The Moonlight Agency. That’s where Kim said she got you from. Moonlight. Makes sense. You’re some sort of shape-shifting wereanimal.”

  He grimaced at her choice of words.

  “I’m sorry if that’s the wrong word. I’ve never met anyone like you before. A gargoyle? I thought those were just stone decorations on castles and churches. Were you … born that way?”

  His nostrils flared a little and she knew she’d misspoke.

  “Everyone at that concert saw you disappear from the stage. Shots were fired. People are going to want answers. Detective Brown will do everything in his power to track you down.”

  “Draven.”

  “Samel will figure out who has been tracking you and we’ll figure out some way to get that information to the detective. I’ll deliver you safely back to your home. We just need to figure out a way to explain your abduction and return. It’s bad enough I revealed myself but I have to protect the rest of my people.”

  “Draven, you’re talking about this as if you’re planning on quitting. You’re still my bodyguard.”

  “You still want me as your bodyguard?” He looked up at her, his usually fierce eyes wounded. “I saw the fear in your eyes when you saw what I am.”

  “I didn’t know it was you,” she reminded him. “Now I know why it felt like you were laughing when I threatened that my bodyguard would mount your head on my wall.”

  He smiled, but it was haunted. “I’m not allowed to expose my people. I took a huge risk doing what I did. If anyone caught a picture of me, if anyone identifies me …”

  “We’ll spin it as a promotional thing. I’ll say I wanted to do something memorable to promote the new vampire movie I’m going to start filming shortly.”

  He blinked, considering. “That could work, but Kim will know it’s not true.”