by Vyne, Amanda
Growls vibrated through the thick air, emanating from the stiff figures of the guards. Their eyes had gone totally black. Serrated teeth peeked out just beneath their lips, and long claws slid from their fingers with a sickening hiss. Guardians. She’d suspected it. They’d always been so strong—too strong for humans—and she’d never been able to get a read on their emotions or thoughts.
They turned their heads slowly, shoulders shifting, and their glittering black eyes fixed on her. The man holding her trembled. He was holding them back. An Elemental? She stiffened in his arms.
“I’m going to let you go, achoti. I need you to stay put. Can you do that?”
Katya stared up at him. She couldn’t trust anyone. Even someone with the most soothing voice she’d ever heard who could walk through walls.
“Ah, you do not trust me. Fair enough. Then read me, achoti. Quickly.”
With a start, Katya felt his mind open before her. She tentatively reached out. There was darkness rippling at the edges. Sorrow. So much it nearly pulled her beneath the weight of it. Her chest clenched. There was hovering darkness in him that mirrored his looks. She pulled back. She didn’t want to venture further. His pain rivaled hers, but she saw no purpose in him besides to protect her.
She wasn’t going to escape this alive. Despite her determination that she would die before she was captured again, she truly wanted to live. It was funny how she had to face the ugly countenance of death to understand the depth of her will to live.
Katya swallowed hard against the burning in her throat and nodded. “Thank you.”
He gently lowered her to the floor, his stare never straying from the Guardians struggling to be free from whatever he was doing to hold them. He slid a large messenger bag from his shoulder and lowered it to her lap.
“It is a gift to my friend. I do not want to leave it behind.”
Clutching the heavy bag with her good arm, she scrambled awkwardly across the floor until her back met the wall. Her entire body throbbed, each beat of her heart draining her. Blackness hovered at the edges of her mind, and she fought it viciously. She needed to stay conscious. She’d lost so much blood; hunger shredded at her until she felt just as raw on the inside as she did on the outside. Dropping her head back, she rolled her eyes up and tried to focus on the coming fight. The energy of it built in the hall, bombarding her as her shields weakened along with her body.
He pushed his hand forward, and the guards were propelled back. They rolled agilely and jumped to their feet, inhuman growls rolling ominously from their chests. They’d grown noticeably larger. God, Guardians were terrifying beings. Not exactly her favorite species.
How was this single man going to protect her against all of them? She glanced up at his back and noticed it was now pushing the bounds of his black shirt. Muscles roped his dusky arms, veins writhed beneath his skin, and long claws slid from his fingers. A crossbreed.
A roar rumbled through the complex, crashing over her body, and she gasped as it rippled beneath her flesh, intensifying the agonizing throbbing. Something inside her wanted to answer it, to call back, but she was too weak to do more than feel the heavy beat of her heart beneath her breast.
The man turned his head, and those inky black eyes lowered to hers. A smile split his full lips, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth.
“Sounds like your boyfriend is coming.”
Chapter Seven
“That bastard is resourceful. I’ll give him that. He’s pulled the server blades. The fucker’s security system is down.” Tag’s voice echoed through Raife’s mind. “He’s en route to assist your mate. It’s a damn cluster fuck out there. You might want to shake it off and get moving.” Tag’s words were flippant, but the tone that resonated through their mental pathway was anything but.
The frigid air had stopped blowing through the vents a while ago, and the temperature in the room was increasing. The lethargy wasn’t pressing down so hard on him. Blood was pumping faster through his veins, fueled by the fury of his dragon. Their mate was in trouble. He could feel it even if he couldn’t reach out to her to confirm it. She’d shut him out.
“Tell me what the fuck is going on? Is she hurt?”
“Not sure, bro. With their security system down, I managed to hack into their com frequency. I hear what they do. There was an altercation, and she disappeared. She’s been spotted in a west wing of the compound. I just sent that intel to Gideon.”
He mentally reached for her, slowing his breathing, trying to control the near-desperate need to feel her in even the smallest way. Was that the bonding? “Katya.”
An abyss of silence met his call. Ice formed in his gut. Fiery urgency bled through his veins, and he tried to slide his feet off the bed. His limbs weighed a ton.
“Get your ass up.” Anger and concern washed over him from the other Drachon.
Raife’s heart thudded hard against his ribs and his mating mark. He swung his body over the edge of the bed and landed in a heap of bedding on the floor. Lowering his face into the stiff cotton, he inhaled. Her scent filled him, infusing him with her essence. “Tell me.”
“Your little mate took down two of the bastards. Set their asses on fire.” There was respect in his voice as he continued to relate the trouble Katya was in.
“No.” Fire seared through him; his dragon expanded until his humanity was little more than a fragile vestige in his mind. The dragon sought his mate. Absorbed her pain, her terror. Her barriers against him were crumbling, and he surged hard against them to connect with her. She was weak. Bleeding.
He climbed to his knees, his entire body prickling as it came awake after years of hibernation. Strength poured into him. It burned like acid moving through his veins, roiling through him, filling his throat and flooding his skull until he felt like he was going to ignite.
His hands fisted in the bedding as he became so acutely aware of her every emotion – they ripped into him with the force of bullets, rocking his body.
Hunted. Bleeding. Betrayed.
Dying.
His life was in her. His future. Their future, fragile and new, nestled deep in her body. Depended on them…on him. She depended on him, whether she accepted it or not, and he was not letting her down again. Throwing back his head, he roared his fury.
Raife growled low in his throat as he turned and streaked to the gleaming metal doors. Blood pumped hard through his body. His mind reached out and wrapped around hers, pulling her into him despite her weak resistance, absorbing her fear. It stoked the fire of his fury.
“I’m coming to you, baby.”
His mate had been abused by these Frankenstein fucks for the last time. Now he was going to show them what happened to assholes who screwed with a Drachon mate.
Raife slammed into the doors with a shoulder, buckling the steel like it was no more than tin. Wrapping two hands around the crumpled edges, he ripped them back. He startled the two guards who kept watch outside his room, enough that he could grab one by his neck to throw him into the adjacent wall. The man hit it with hands and feet, flipping into a crouch next to his partner before slowly gaining his feet with a smile.
Guardians.
Power coursed through his veins, flowing into muscle fibers long left dormant. He slammed his shoulder into the bootlicker on the left with a burst of speed, feeling the satisfying crunch and wheeze of broken ribs and punctured lungs before backing away. The injured Guardian gasped frantically for air as he slid to the floor, and Raife turned to face the other one. He needed to get rid of them quick and get moving. The assholes could heal too damn fast.
Fury and reckless aggression undulated from the other Guardian, and Raife wouldn’t have needed to be telepathic to guess the dumb-ass’s next move. Damn rogue Guardians had no control when they existed outside a clan. No rational thought – just mindless slaughter. When the other man charged him, Raife shifted on the balls of his feet and went into a crouch, using the other man’s momentum to send him flying over his head. The Gu
ardian rolled and came agilely back to his feet, lunging at him again.
“Stay the fuck down,” Raife muttered through a growl as he redirected the razor claws coming at his throat with a twist of his own body, snapping the Guardian’s arm at the elbow. Reaching back, he locked the man’s head under his arm, crushing his neck before he flipped him over his shoulder to land next to his unconscious buddy.
Chest heaving with the onslaught of power that was sparking through his system like a current of electricity, Raife glanced down at the unmoving bodies. His partner, Kel Sheridan, was half Guardian and the dirtiest damn fighter he’d ever come up against. She’d sliced him up many a time before he learned to stay one step ahead of her. These assholes didn’t even come close to her gutter skills.
Glancing left to right, he growled in frustration. He could feel Katya, knew she was fading, but he didn’t know what damn direction to go in. Cursing, he shoved a hand through his hair. He’d been here for only a little more than a day and hadn’t gotten so much as a glance outside the room they’d thrown him in. How the hell was he going to find her? He needed to get to her. His awareness of her resonated deep inside him, and he paused, lowering his hands to his sides.
A mating between Drachon was spiritual as well as physical. According to his teachings as a boy, they should be connected in a way that transcended the meshing of their mere bodies. He should be able to trail her that way. Spiritually.
Closing his eyes, he scented the air, focused on her waning energy. His bare feet fell rapidly on the gleaming concrete as he followed that essence; angling left around two corners before he jerked to a stop. The scent of her was strong here. He knelt next to a splattering of blood near an overturned gurney. It wasn’t hers, but the gurney carried that heady ripeness he associated with her. Throbbed with the rhythm of her. It was a strange sensation. Disorienting. The echo of her determination and pain rippled through him, almost a vibration in the air around him.
With a shaky hand, he touched the vinyl of the gurney padding, absorbed her lingering emotions. The betrayal was overwhelming, the ache of it a strong reverberation that brushed harshly over his skin like little nettles. She needed him, whether she wanted to acknowledge it or not. This time he intended to be there for her.
After standing, he continued on, letting his vision recede to heat signatures as he scanned the hall. Tag had said the west wing. Heart pounding, he continued heading west down the hall. Instinct was guiding him now; it was linked to the tenuous thread of her life force. As he turned a corner, the unique aura of her hit him again. Stronger this time.
Blinking away his heat vision, he slowed, his gaze sliding over the walls, the floor. At first it was just bright red speckles, but as he moved down the hall, he stopped at the large smear of it against one wall. Dropping to a knee, he touched the puddle on the floor. It was just starting to coagulate. Pain, real physical pain, burst over his senses. She’d been hit. He drew in a deep breath and trembled with rage. Coming to his feet, he glanced around. There was more of it just ahead. Small bloody footprints leading away.
He followed those prints, moving faster, pulled by the frenetic energy of a fight. His awareness of her expanded and grew stronger until he heard the grunt and thud of battle. He rounded a corner and froze. Bodies littered the floor. Gideon was fighting in the midst of a group of feral Guardians. The bastard was pure poetry when he fought.
A sharp cry sliced through the sounds of the fight. Gideon spun around on his heel, and Raife followed his gaze. Katya was struggling against one of the guards. Blood covered her small frame, pooling around her feet. How could she lose that much and still live? He watched as she released her hold on a bag she was clutching, and she pressed one hand to the soon-to-be dead fucker’s chest. Light flashed sharp and white between them, and the guard was propelled back. Before Raife could register what he was seeing, the guard lunged forward, swung his arm out, claws extended, and connected with the side of her head.
Time stopped. All rational thought was sucked from him, leaving him suspended in a strange emotional void, distanced from the fight. Color drained from his world except for the bright splash of red on his mate’s body. A pain-filled cry echoed as though far off, the waves of it crashing over him shattering the mental thrall that held him.
A fury unlike anything he’d ever experienced before surged into the void, filling him until he thought he would explode with it. It had substance, heat, and it poured out through his nose and mouth, clouding his eyes with a red haze. His heart beat like a war drum, pounding out a cadence of death in his head, through his every fiber. The call of vengeance rang through him. They would all die for touching what belonged to him.
A roar bubbled up in his throat, and he released it, letting the warning resound. The assholes surrounding her jolted, wincing as it struck their heads with the force of a physical blow.
“He’s gone into rage. Get the girl out of here.”
Raife didn’t know which of the six spoke the words, and he didn’t give a fuck; his eyes were only for the sorry bastard who held Katya in his grip. That man was going to hell. In pieces. Anyone who tried to stop him would accompany the dog. Raife, unable to see beyond the blinding fury and blood creating a halo around Katya and her abuser, rushed into the thick of the Guardians who attempted to fight him. Their unearthly screams were drowned out by the clamor of the fury crashing through him as he descended on them with preternatural speed, wrapping his hand around one’s arm with enough strength to crush the bone beneath his fingers. It softened in his grip as he wrenched hard, flesh separating with a wet crunch as he tossed the body. From a distance, he heard cursing as they growled instructions at each other, fanning out to surround him.
“Raife!”
Her scream infused his rage with electricity. Eyes never leaving his mate, Raife dropped to the ground and rolled before jumping to his feet, kicking a stunned Guardian into another with enough force to shatter bone.
Raife never slowed. Sliding beneath the slashing claws of one Guardian, he palmed another’s face and rammed his head into the wall until his skull felt like a bag of chips beneath his wide hand, blood pooling from between his fingers. Spinning on his heel beneath the other dog’s swinging arm, he came around behind him and slammed both fists into either side of his ribs. The bones crackled as his knuckles met somewhere in the vicinity of the Guardian’s stuttering heart. He didn’t stop to watch the bastard slide to the ground.
Another Guardian rushed forward with phenomenal speed.
Too bad Raife was faster.
His heel met the center of the bastard’s chest; the gratifying crush of bone and tissue reverberated up his leg. Blood shot from the Guardian’s mouth as his ribs shattered, shredding his lungs. Claws raked his bare torso as he reached out with both hands to grab the final Guardian, breaking his neck.
A final burst of speed and he faced the Guardian holding his mate like a shield. The bastard had one forearm around her neck and the tips of his claws pressed into the soft swell of her belly. Four fresh beads of blood welled up against the pale flesh.
He focused on the Guardian who held his entire world in his grasp. He didn’t look at her; her fear blasting over his mind told him enough. The blood of the Guardians he’d just torn apart coated him – he could feel the dampness on his face and chest. Was she disgusted by his brutality? Repelled by what he was capable of? For one brief moment, his concern for her was a cooling breeze over the fever of his rage, but he quickly steeled himself against it. It didn’t matter. Not now.
She belonged to him. She would learn to accept him. All of him. She would know what would happen to any who dared threaten her, threatened what was his. An uncontrolled growl built in him as he advanced another step.
“Mine.” It burst from him, creating a shock wave of energy that had Katya gasping and the Guardian swaying with a grunt.
“Take another step, fire breather, and it ends now.” The claws pressed deeper into his mate’s flesh. Her sharp int
ake of air inflamed the need to rush the man harming her, his desire to kill. That ominous rumble intensified in him until he nearly choked on it, cresting over his mind in a dark wave as he lunged at the last threat to his mate.
KATYA COULD FEEL the sharp burn of the claws piercing her flesh one moment, and then a flash of movement and sudden relief. It happened so fast, and yet she would later remember it all in such slow, graphic detail. The sight of Raife’s burning amber eyes would haunt her nightmares. He looked wild, a mane of tangled light brown hair, stringy with the blood of the Guardians that lay writhing in his wake. Crimson stained the angles of his face, making his intense gaze glow in contrast beneath the heavy line of his brow.
The echo of the Guardian’s screams and the wet sounds of flesh being torn filled her mind. And the blood. Her bare feet slid in it as she fell to her hands and knees. It coated her, soaking into her skin. Bile rushed up her throat, filling her mouth.
Then Raife was there, pulling her into his arms, cradling her, his golden eyes blazing.
His massive body practically hummed with power and fury. It soaked him as surely as the blood of the Guardians he’d practically ripped to shreds. When she tried to touch his mind, it was too hot and too bright. It repelled her, scorched her. There was no rational thought. No reason.
It terrified her. Held her immobile.
Distantly she recognized the soft thud of boots advancing on them.
Katya didn’t acknowledge them, her focus caught on Raife. She was afraid to release his gaze, afraid she would lose him to that seething well of fire that smoldered just behind his eyes. Raife growled at the approaching man. The man who had saved her.
“Merrick?” The query was nonthreatening; still, Raife’s hold tightened on her, forcing a gasp from her.
“Don’t come near us.” She hung weakly in his grasp. Blood coated Raife, but it was the tantalizing scent of him that drew her in.
