Guardian's Faith

by Jacqueline Rhoades

  "More!" her deep and sensual voice whispered in his mind. "Please, don't hold back. I need this. I want this. Take me back to the place you took me before, Lucien. Please! More!"

  So much for his hesitant and fearful little hummingbird. This time, Lucien had the good sense to keep his laughter to himself. He simply obeyed his bossy little mistress' command. Supporting the firm round globes of her ass in the palms of his hands, he thrust himself into her, forcing her body onto his. Harder and faster he plunged, forgetting to be careful of her size, not thinking at all, only following his primal need to possess this beautiful creature and make her truly his.

  He could feel her body begin to tense just as his began to reach that point of no return.

  "Lucien, oh Lucien," he heard her cry in his mind, but it wasn't enough. He knew what he needed and wanted to make this act complete.

  "Say my name," he ordered breathlessly, "Say it aloud as you said it before." He slipped his hand between them and touched her clit, adding that last bit of stimulus needed to push her past the edge. He heard her moan and whimper aloud as she reached her peak. "Say my name," he ordered again.

  "Lucien!" Faith cried aloud as she exploded around him.

  As before, the sound was no more than a hoarse whisper, but hearing it was enough. He threw his head back and pounded into her with his own explosion of sound somewhere between a shout and a groan of unbelievable triumph and ecstasy.

  As the pieces of his shattered mind began to reform into coherent thought, Lucien rolled to the side taking her with him until he was on his back and she was on top. Her head rested against his shoulder and he could feel her heart pounding against his skin.

  Faith didn't speak, but clung to him as if her life depended on him. He stroked her back and her tousled and slightly damp curls.

  "Are you all right?" he asked quietly and was relieved when she nodded. He felt her lips form a smile where they rested against his neck.

  "You are mine," she whispered in her hoarse new voice.

  Lucien's words of love now became Faith's. On the surface those words echoed of ownership and possession, but under that superior sounding layer rested another, deeper one that contained a much more significant meaning. That layer beneath held a sense of wonder and amazement at the connection she shared with Lucien. She was his. He was hers. Together they were an answered prayer.

  Neither of the two occupants of the bed noticed that the third had moved to the chair. Lucien and Faith were too busy sharing their new found happiness to take heed of the tawny tiger or the loud and steady purr providing background music for their lovemaking. Dito curled herself into a tight ball with her tail resting under her nose, its tip flicking up and down in contentment as she watched the two in the bed.

  Chapter 26

  Faith would have gladly remained in bed with Lucien for the whole of the night and following day. In the hours following their initial lovemaking, the bed had become her whole world. It was a warm and safe and loving place where she could pretend the outside world no longer existed, where only Lucien mattered.

  In between their lovemaking, she'd told him about her time with Tyn from the moment she met him to the moment her sister dragged her through the window and carried her to freedom. With his arms and legs wrapped protectively around her, he held her back to his chest while she recited the worst of it. He understood her need to face away from him while her hands formed the words describing things she'd never told anyone before.

  He never spoke a word of judgment against her nor asked her pointless questions, but let her tale unravel as she needed to tell it. And when the telling became too painful, he would turn her in his arms and kiss away her tears and make sweet and gentle love to her, all the while assuring her that she was with him now and he would never let her suffer such pain again.

  She told him everything because she felt Lucien had a right to know, but she also spoke on behalf of the young women who shared those two tortuous years with her. Their story needed telling, too.

  "He used to call them by numbers like cattle in a pen," she told Lucien after she'd recited the list of their names and then she told him the thing that haunted her most, the thing that had nothing to do with how she was treated or what she'd been forced to do.

  "I could have saved them, Lucien. I should have saved them. If I had used my gift, they'd still be alive. If I'd used my gift, maybe I could have made them strong enough to escape. The others say it wasn't my fault, I didn't know, but that isn't true. I did know. I felt the fire in my fingertips."

  "Why didn't you use it?" Lucien asked.

  "Because I never tried to figure out what it was for. I hid it. I was a coward. I was afraid. My mother died because of it. Hope was beaten because of it. I thought it was evil and if Tyn found out about it, he'd make me use it because he was evil, too, and I would have done it, Lucien. I would have done whatever he told me to do."

  "You said the man in the Cantina carried the same poison. Did you cure him?" Lucien's question was blunt with no hint of sympathy. He stared at her until she shook her head. "That's right. You did not. What you almost did was kill yourself." He held up his finger to stop her protest. "You didn't see. You didn't have to sit by the bed and watch a ghost slowly come back to life. If you had cured them, you would have killed yourself."

  "But they would have lived," Faith argued stubbornly.

  "And Goyo would have died and I would have spent the next four hundred years going through the motions."

  She was sitting cross legged across from him and he dove for her. He brought her down on her back in the bed and began digging through the tangle of sheets she'd wrapped around her body like a sarong.

  "You would have deprived me of the joy of discovering this delectable little cherry." Uncovering her breast he kissed the nipple, but Faith pushed him away. She was in no mood to be humored.

  "It's not funny, Lucien," she told him as she shoved at him and tried to sit up.

  Lucien pinned her shoulders to the bed. The humor was gone from his eyes. "You're right. There is nothing amusing about this talk of sacrificing your life as if you have no value. You were traumatized yourself and the fact that you survived is a testament to your strength. You couldn't save them any more than I could have saved my parents or Marisol. You said so yourself. You cannot hold yourself to a higher standard than you hold me."

  "I could have helped them," she insisted.

  "You did help them. You bathed them and fed them and made their lives better for loving them. You kept them alive for as long as you could. If you can't see that then think of the other girls who would have been taken as replacements. You never knew their names or saw their faces, but their lives count for something, too." He took her face in his hands and kissed her. "Sacrificing your life would not have saved those girls, Faith. Now kiss me back and tell me how happy you are to have the handsomest Guardian in the world in your bed."

  "Didn't your mother ever teach you anything about modesty?" she asked taking in the magnificent naked body and the erection he made no effort to hide.

  "She did," he told her, stripping her sheets away. "She told me modesty had no place in the bedroom."

  "Your mother never told you that!" she laughed as he tackled her.

  Between her confession and their lovemaking, she was exhausted and he held her while she slept. Only once did she awaken to find him gone. He was in the bathroom drawing hot water for a bath.

  This new intimacy was going to take some getting used to.

  The others were waiting for them at dinner. When Lucien held the door for her, Faith hesitated, suddenly shy. He only chuckled and with a hand at her back, gently pushed her into the room. He held her chair and when she was settled, he kissed her cheek before taking his own seat at the head of the table.

  Adam snickered into his napkin. Lalo looked concerned and Álvaro sniffed and frowned.

  "You smell like a flower garden," the Vigilante complained.

  Lucien sniffed his sho
ulder and laughed which was enough to make the two trainees sit up and look from their Liege Lord to Faith unsure of how to react to their laughing leader.

  "It's something called body wash. Do you use it?" Lucien asked Lalo.

  "Uh, well, yeah, but it doesn't smell like flowers. No guy wants to smell like a girl, uh, my Lord."

  Adam rolled his eyes. "Good one, Lalo. You just told the boss he smells like a girl."

  "Well, what am I supposed to do?" he asked.

  "Odd that," Lucien didn't sound offended, "My mother said Napoleon Bonaparte smelled like violets. Of course, that was before frequent bathing came into vogue." He looked at Faith and winked. "You see, I have embraced some modern practices."

  "Maybe next century he'll get a TV," Adam muttered.

  "What was that?" Lucien asked politely.

  Faith decided to rescue Adam and bring up the subject that had frustrated the trainees since the day they arrived.

  "They need a television, Lucien. Television and computers and…"

  "A telephone," Agdta added as she came through the door. She was carrying a large tray and followed by Vasco carrying another. "It would make ordering supplies so much easier. The village would like telephones, too."

  "The village has a telephone," Lucien said absentmindedly. He was staring at the trays the two had placed in the center of the table.

  "Sausage and pepperoni," Vasco said helpfully as he pointed to each in turn. He took his seat and tucked his napkin under his chin.

  "It's pizza," Adam added as if Lucien wouldn't recognize the round discs of dough and sauce.

  "I know what it is, but what is it doing here?" The Liege Lord asked the worried looking cook. "I was expecting roast chicken."

  "So was everyone else," Faith told him. "Just like we know what to expect tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. We're bored eating it and Agdta is bored cooking it." Her hands stopped moving, but she continued to speak mind to mind. "They need these things, Lucien. They may not be important to you, but they are to the boys. They need to feel like this is their home."

  "And what about you? Will these things make you feel like this is your home?" Lucien asked.

  "No," she answered truthfully and hurried on when she saw him frown. "I only need you to make me feel like I'm home."

  "Pizza it is," Lucien said aloud to the others, "If Faith is to be the mistress of my home, then the menus should meet with her approval, not mine." He shook his finger at Faith. "But don't ask me to eat it with my hands."

  "I wouldn't dream of it, my Lord," Faith said, feeling like he'd put a crown on her head and anointed her queen. "Now eat, all of you, before it goes cold."

  "There's another in the oven," Agdta said brightly and scurried from the room.

  Faith pushed back her chair and followed, but only as far as the butler's pantry where she gathered another place setting which she arranged across from Adam.

  "Agdta is family, too," she declared as she took her seat.

  Lucien frowned and shook his head. "Let this be a lesson to you," he warned the trainees. "Let a woman into your life and life as you knew it is over."

  "Looks to me like it only gets better," Lalo said as he helped himself to a slice topped with sausage. It was chorizo, not Italian, but hey, he would take what he could get. He winked at Faith as he took his first bite.

  "Now, about that TV," Adam added around a mouthful of his favorite food, "Have you heard of satellites, my Lord?"

  "I am not completely ignorant of the modern world," Lucien declared. He picked up his knife and fork and frowned at the triangular slice on his plate wondering where to begin.

  Vasco picked his up, snapped the rounded crust at the edge in the middle and folded his slice in half. "It works better if you eat it like this." He expertly took a bite from the point.

  "How do you know so much about eating Pizza?" Lucien asked as if the practice was a betrayal.

  "The Cantina has been serving it for years," the old man informed him, "Which you would know if you bothered to stop in once in a while."

  "Agdta's is better, though," Lalo added diplomatically when she returned with another tray. He held out the chair for her at the place Faith had set.

  "Close your mouth, you silly woman, and sit. You've been invited to dine at el Patron's table," Vasco laughed, "Don't let him think you don't know how to behave."

  "What else have I missed in the village," Lucien asked pretending that having his cook at the table was an everyday occurrence.

  It wasn't. A cook's place was in the kitchen along with the other servants, if they'd had any, but the little hummingbird was beaming at him as if he'd given her a gift. How could he tell her no?

  There was a long list of things he'd missed and the others at the table happily filled him in. There were a few concerns Faith wanted to bring to his attention, too, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Not now. This was the first dinner since their arrival where the conversation was easy and the laughter frequent. She wouldn't spoil it.

  Her secluded hours with Lucien had changed her. His lovemaking made her feel cherished and beautiful. Her confession of the nightmare that had been her life with Tyn and Lucien's acceptance of it and her had lifted a weight from her soul that was almost physical in nature. Because of Lucien, she felt lighter and easier than she had in years. For the first time in such a long time, she believed in a future that held something worth looking forward to.

  Watching him laugh at something Lalo said, Faith realized their time together had changed Lucien, too. It was as if he'd been asleep and was now awake. She'd done that for him and that made her feel good, too.

  "What are you smiling at?"

  Lucien's question was asked in her mind and she answered the same way.

  "I'm happy. I'd forgotten what that felt like."

  "If pizza makes you happy, we will eat it every night."

  She could hear him laughing. "It would serve you right if I said yes. You know it's not the pizza."

  "It isn't? Then tell me what makes you so happy, hummingbird." He sounded smug.

  "You do, you conceited Guardian. You make me happy."

  Lucien nodded. "Because you are mine."

  "No," Faith laughed, "because you're mine."

  Chapter 27

  "Agdta, stop it." Faith picked up her bundle of dust covers and dropped them into Agdta's laundry basket. "The Paenitentia don't have weddings. They don't marry. They mate."

  She'd tried to explain it several times. Paenitentia matings were private affairs between the two being mated. Grace and Canaan were mated in a church but her sister and Joy were not. Faith wasn't exactly sure how the tiny roses over their hearts came to be because they never talked about it, but she knew it had nothing to do with the elaborate event Agdta was planning.

  The housekeeper had been beside herself since the pizza supper. She'd been smiling and singing for three days and every time Faith turned around, it seemed the little cook was making more plans for a wedding that wasn't going to happen. Now she waved her hand and laughed as if Faith had said something funny.

  "Marry, mate, what difference? Who cares what you call it? You will go to the church and say vows before God." She curled her duster high over her head and danced in a circle. "And then we will have a party like no one has ever seen. Our vampire has his Bride and his soul has been saved."

  "His soul didn't need saving," Faith told her for the hundredth time, "And he is not a vampire." She eyed the chandelier above her head. It, too, was covered with white sheeting. "We need a ladder."

  "Papi is bringing one from the shed." Agdta would not be deterred from her favorite subject. "I know he isn't a real vampire." Her fingers went to her forehead and down, then from shoulder to shoulder in the sign of the cross. "And God willing he never will be, but it sounds more romantic that way. Like a storybook and… his soul has been saved," she insisted. "Look at him. He is a changed man. Álvaro said he visited every shop in the village and bought somethi
ng from each one."

  "I wonder what he bought at Briza's and what Álvaro did while he was waiting." Faith told Agdta about what she witnessed between Álvaro and Briza hoping to change the subject.

  "Bah." Agdta waved her duster imperiously. "Briza is a foolish woman and my brother is an even more foolish man. They have loved each other since they were children. Did you know they were supposed to marry? When Papi retired, Álvaro wanted to wait until he was settled in as Vigilante. Briza said she'd waited long enough. Then Papi made some smart remark about Álvaro being under her spell and the fool believed it and demanded she remove the curse. Briza was hurt and for spite she said no and the argument grew bigger from there. I think when she said she was to be married to that foul pig she expected Álvaro to stop her. He was too stupid and stubborn to do it. Now they're both used to being spiteful and they've both forgotten why." She pointed her duster at Faith.

  "My friend Lena is the best seamstress in the village. She will make you a beautiful wedding dress." She waved the duster like a magic wand. "And I know what the Patron bought at Briza's, but I am sworn not to tell." She turned away and back again. "All right, I will tell you this. He will probably ask you to wear it on your wedding night."

  Faith knew it was a wasted effort, but she said it anyway. "There will be no wedding. Lucien hasn't even asked."

  Agdta looked at her like she was some poor pitiful creature who didn't know the facts of life.

  "He has taken you to his bed," she said matter-of-factly. "He has had your things moved to his room. He has declared you to be mistress of his House. The patron wouldn't do these things if he didn't plan to make you his wife."

  Agdta thought marriage was what every woman wanted. She'd never understand that Faith was happy just where she was now. She didn't need a band on her finger or a rose over her heart. She was in a place she never thought she'd be with a man she never thought she'd meet. She had his love. It was all she'd ever need.