Dark Guardian (Dark Series - book 9) Read online

  “We are not bound by any limitations,” he whispered softly, seeking the creamy hollow of her throat. “I have much to teach you.”

  Hours later, Jaxon settled into a chair in Lucian’s den. Her body was deliciously sore, still sensitive from his endless possession. He had been in turns gentle and tender and wild and untamed. Always looking at her with hungry eyes. Only when he realized she was exhausted did he carry her upstairs to the shower, where he washed her with far too caressing hands. Right now she wasn’t certain she would ever be able to look at him again. Trying to be nonchalant, she shook out the newspaper and glanced rather idly at the different headlines. Her eyes widened in surprise. “Samuel Barnes died yesterday.”

  Lucian paused in the act of working on the computer. He had been doing his best to give her some space, accurately reading her mind. His Jaxon was shy with him even after the erotic hours they had spent together. One eyebrow shot up as he looked at her over his shoulder. “The banker?” His voice was strictly neutral.

  “Yes, the banker, Mr. International Grab-all-the-Headlines Banker. He just died in his house. An employee found him and tried CPR but wasn’t successful. I suspected he was a major player in the drug trafficking going on in our city, but I could never get anything solid on him.”

  “And he died how?”

  Jaxon’s enormous eyes regarded him steadily over the top of the newspaper. “They don’t suspect foul play. There’s no evidence of that.” All at once her voice was suspicious. “You didn’t know Barnes, did you?”

  “Jaxon.” He said her name softly, intimately, his voice wrapping her up in satin sheets, effectively stopping her heart. “You are not accusing me of anything, are you?”

  She found herself blushing for no reason at all except the way he was looking at her. Lucian was synonymous with control. He might be deadly, but he was quiet about it. He never seemed to allow anything to affect him. Until he looked at her. She could see his terrible hunger smoldering just beneath the surface every time his dark gaze rested on her. He was so sexy, merely looking at him stole her breath. Right now wasn’t the time to dwell too deeply on everything that had transpired between them. She felt she was doing fairly well, holding on to her sanity by her fingertips. She was effectively putting off facing the truth about what Lucian had done with his “conversion” and what she had done since then with him. Carpathian women must be sex maniacs, because the real Jaxon was definitely not. She shook her head, determined to stay on track. Would Lucian have known Barnes’s connection with her? What was she thinking, anyway? How could Lucian possibly know about Barnes? She couldn’t accuse him of anything. “No, of course not.”

  She watched him turn back to the computer screen. He seemed very intrigued by his work, although she had no clue what he was doing. Once she saw that he received e-mail from Gabriel, his twin. Two of them like this in the world!

  That

  was a scary thought.

  She went back to her reading. On the second page was a small article about a car going off a cliff. The occupant did not survive. She stiffened when she read the name. This was too much of a coincidence. “Lucian.”

  Instantly she had his full attention. She loved that about him, as if everything she said and did was of the utmost importance to him.

  It is.

  His voice whispered intimately in her mind, a caress of sound that brushed at her insides until she had to wrap her arms protectively around her stomach, where butterfly wings seemed to be fluttering endlessly.

  Jaxon gave him her most intimidating glare. “You stay out of my head, weird one. I’m the only one who gets to read my thoughts.” She frowned suddenly. “Can all you people read each other’s thoughts?”

  He shrugged, a casual rippling of his muscles that seemed to make her stomach somersault even more. “Yes and no. It isn’t quite the same as with lifemates. There is a standard path of communication for our people, and more private ones are established if blood is exchanged. I can read Gabriel’s mind and always could, but who would want to do so now? All he thinks about is Francesca. Well, Francesca and the girls. Skyler is their ward, a young teenager once badly abused. She is human, a psychic. And they have a little daughter now, not yet a year old. Gabriel guards her with good reason, but still, he has turned into a fussy old man.”

  Jaxon burst out laughing. “I can’t imagine anyone looking like you acting like a fussy old man.”

  “I do not know how Francesca puts up with him.” Lucian reveled in the fact that he actually experienced affection for his twin. It was not the memory of affection or wanting to feel affection, but actual deep emotion. Jaxon had done this to him. His Jaxon. His miracle. His gaze rested on her possessively. She was fast turning his world upside down.

  Everything was different. Every time he looked at her, his heart melted around the edges, and he went soft and warm inside. He could watch her for all eternity and never tire of the sight. She had a dimple that appeared unexpectedly out of nowhere, then melted into her smile. Her eyes held laughter when she teased him. She

  teased

  him. It was a miracle that anyone would dare to do so. She thought nothing of it, giving him as bad a time as possible at every opportunity. He loved the way she moved. She was small but perfectly proportioned. She was quiet and flowing, all grace and femininity, yet she thought she projected an image of toughness. Everything about her made him smile—everything, from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. Especially her sassy little mouth. He loved her mouth. Each time he looked at her, his body made instant, urgent demands. He reveled in that, in the hot, hard hunger one glance at her could produce.

  A wadded-up newspaper came flying at him, and he picked it rather absently out of the air.

  “Are you listening to me? I was just thinking how great it is that you hang on my every word, and now you sit there like a lump, staring off into space. Where are you?” Jaxon asked.

  “You were not saying anything.”

  “I was, too.” She was not above telling a small lie just to prove he wasn’t listening. She looked at him indignantly.

  He had been some distance from her, sitting at the computer, but now he was towering over her like some avenging angel. “You did not say a single word,” he reiterated. He looked amused and tolerant. He looked like a lazy jungle cat stretching. He had that look that she knew was more dangerous to her than any other. He seemed to get around her defenses so easily. He turned her insides to molten lava and sent erotic images dancing in her head.

  She sank back against the cushions and waved a hand at him to ward him off. “That speed thing you do has got to go.”

  He arched an eyebrow at her. She wanted to touch his beautiful face with her fingertip, trace each eyebrow and the shadow along his jaw. Very carefully Jaxon put her hands under her and sat on them, her eyes completely innocent. He had better not be reading her mind at that precise moment. She glared at him just in case he

  was

  reading her mind, to show him she meant business.

  “You have such a way with words, honey.”

  She liked to watch his eyes. They could go from ice-cold obsidian to glittering jewels in a matter of seconds. “I do, don’t I?” She looked pleased.

  “I am not certain I meant it as a compliment,” he pointed out with a grin.

  “There was an accident reported in the paper.” She changed the subject with a little sigh. “So you said.”

  “

  Another

  accident. A man drove his car over a cliff. The state police think he just drove straight off the road. There were no skids marks at all.”

  “And the significance of this is?” he prompted.

  “The man worked for Barnes. It’s just too much of a coincidence that they both died so suddenly. Maybe the drug cartel was annoyed with him over something. I’ll have to do some digging around. If I could just know for sure you’d be safe from Drake while I went out to work...” She trailed off, looking up at the ce
iling as if she would find her answers there.

  A slow grin softened his mouth and added warmth to his eyes. “So, you are the one keeping me safe. I thank you, lifemate, that my safety is always such a top priority with you. It shows how important I am to you.” He had successfully ended any chance of insubordination on her part over the issue of safety. If she worried about him now, he would simply bask in the knowledge.

  “You would think that. You have a most annoying arrogance about you.” She sniffed indignantly. She had to pull her hands out from under her bottom to snatch up the newspaper. “I simply don’t want the publicity of some big shot like you getting murdered on my watch. I have my reputation to think about, you know.”

  “Speaking of reputations, who is Don Jacobson?”

  She looked shocked. “How did you know about Don?”

  “You were talking to him last evening on the phone, and this rising you were thinking of him.”

  “There really aren’t any secrets from you, are there?” She didn’t want to think about how often she had fantasized over Lucian. How right at this very moment she was thinking thoughts that brought a hint of color to her face.

  Lucian wasn’t about to be distracted. “Who is he?”

  “I grew up with him in Florida. Before Drake goes on one of his killing sprees, he always returns to where it all started. It’s some kind of ritualistic thing. He goes over the entire training course several times, camps out, almost as if he’s playing hide and seek with the new recruits. No one has ever actually spotted him, and he’s never killed anyone there, but he leaves signs to taunt them all with how superior he is.”

  “Florida is clear across the country.”

  “It doesn’t matter. He always starts there. I was hoping maybe he was still there when I called Don. It was a long shot, but I had to try it. We might have caught him at an airport or stopped him in a car on his way here. No such luck. Drake has scouted your royal palace, just as you expected him to. Now I have to stick around and protect you from your own arrogance.”

  “I am very happy I am an arrogant man. It pleases me you have a reason to ‘stick around and protect me.’ “ Lucian reached out and cupped her face in the palm of his hand with exquisite gentleness. “You did not answer to my full satisfaction who this man Don Jacobson is to you.” His voice was very soft and intimate.

  “I don’t need to explain him.” He was wreaking havoc with her insides, melting her like butter. Just looking at him made her feel weak and shaky. “It’s getting hot in here,” she complained. “You didn’t turn on the heater, did you?”

  “Carpathians can regulate their own body temperatures.”

  She nodded. “Of course they can. Why didn’t I think of that?”

  Lucian leaned into her so that the heat of his skin touched her through the thin material of her blouse. He swept back strands of her platinum hair. “You do feel a bit on the warm side.” He was frowning as he checked her forehead. Touching her skin was addicting. The more he did it, the more he needed to do it. “Think about feeling cool, angel, and it will automatically be so.”

  She pushed at the wall of his chest. Who could think about cool when he was standing so close to her? “Get away from me, Lucian, and stop looking at me that way.”

  “How am I looking at you?”

  “You know,” she accused and deliberately caught up the rest of the newspaper. “Go away. If you touch me again, I’m going to break into a million pieces.”

  “I merely wish to kiss you,” he murmured innocently, his voice velvet soft and deliberately seductive. He lowered his head to touch the pulse beating so frantically in her neck with the heat of his mouth. He felt it jump beneath his exploring tongue. His fingertips caressed her skin, pushing aside the thin ribbed cotton of her shirt to slide along her delicate collarbone. She felt like satin to him, unbelievably soft. At once need rose, sharp and urgent. He leaned his weight into her, forcing her smaller frame back into the couch. He cupped the fullness of one breast in the palm of his hand while his mouth took possession of hers.

  He breathed her in, took her scent into his body. She was small beneath his wandering hands, so perfectly formed, a miracle of soft skin and silky hair. Even as his body made its demands and he felt her acceptance, her need and willingness to assuage his hunger, he sensed her exhaustion. She was still sore. He should have taken more care with her, as small and fragile and inexperienced as she was. He had been far too demanding of her. He knew better; he had been just that little bit out of control.

  “I am sorry, honey. I should have been more careful of you.” He kissed her temple, then stroked a hand through her silky hair. “I can heal you,” he offered.

  “You didn’t hurt me, Lucian,” she protested immediately, blushing at the thought of what he had done, the pleasure she had experienced. “I like the way my body feels.”

  As if I belonged to him . You do belong to me.

  She loved that, the intimacy of his velvet voice whispering in her mind to her alone. Their secret world of heat and darkness. She would never be alone again. Never have to face the monsters in the world alone again. Jaxon knew she was looking up at him with stars in her eyes, and it irritated her. She looked away from him, pretending to find the newspaper more interesting.

  Lucian laughed softly, a man’s amusement at finding his woman shy after hours of making love. Jaxon’s long lashes lifted for a moment to chastise him before she returned to her reading. Almost at once she spotted the next article, her body going ramrod stiff. “Listen to this, Lucian. James Atwater apparently shot himself in his own home. He left a note saying he couldn’t live with himself anymore after taking so many lives at the direction of Samuel T. Barnes. He actually named Barnes. No way would Atwater suddenly have an attack of conscience. He isn’t like that. This has to be a purge in the ranks. These guys must have made a mistake, and someone higher up the food chain ordered the hit. Whoever took them out did a good job to get the coroner to rule the deaths from natural causes, accident, and suicide. The reason I got on to Barnes in the first place was his association with Atwater. Atwater was a straight-up killer.”

  Lucian’s hand tangled in her hair, running the strands between the pads of his thumb and index finger repeatedly. A series of small beeps sounded for a moment, then ceased. Jaxon found her pager on the coffee table. “It’s the department, Lucian. I have to call in.”

  “We have not had that discussion yet,” he said lazily, following her to the phone.

  He walked so quietly, he gave her an eerie feeling. “What discussion?” She was punching in the numbers quickly from long habit.

  “The one where you tell me you are going to quit the force and stay home with me.”

  “Oh, that one.” She laughed “Don’t count on it.”

  Lucian could hear the answer on the other end, the flurry of activity, then the captain’s booming voice. At once he knew something was wrong. He moved close to Jaxon, his large frame protective against hers, his arms circling her waist. “What is it, Daryl? Just come out with it,” she said softly.

  Lucian could hear the words as if the man were in the room with them. Stark. Ugly. “I’m sending you an escort to take you and Daratrazanoff to meet us at your old apartment building. Drake struck again, Jaxx, and it’s bad.”

  Lucian was in her mind, and he felt her go very still. Even the air around them stilled. Jaxon hunched into herself, trying to move away from him. Firmly Lucian locked his arms around her protectively, his grip unbreakable. He refused to allow her to escape him either physically or mentally.

  I am with you, angel. We can face anything together .

  “Tell me,” Jaxon said softly into the phone, her fingers wrapping around the cord until her knuckles turned white, betraying her nervousness.

  “Mrs. Kramer, Jaxx. Drake murdered her. And the couple in the apartment next to yours—Tom and Shelby Snyder. He killed them.” The captain cleared his throat. “He also took out the old man in the apartment two doors d
own from you.” They could hear his fingers snapping. “Come on, John, what’s the old guy’s name?”

  “His name was Sid Anderson. He was seventy, and he wrote the most beautiful poetry I’ve ever read,” Jaxon supplied softly “Carla and Jacob Roberts? What about them?” Her voice was a whisper. She could hear screaming inside her head, over and over, yet her voice sounded as calm as ever.

  “We’re looking for them now,” Daryl Smith told her in a tight voice. “So far we haven’t found them.”

  “They’re alive then,” Jaxon said. “Drake would never change his methods. He’s very angry, and he’s punishing me. The message is, get rid of Lucian or he’ll take out everyone who ever mattered to me. Try Carla’s mother. They go there often. Put them in a hotel or something. Drake will go after them for sure. He likes things finished. Thorough. I’ll meet you at the apartment building.”

  “Wait for your escort.”

  I have my own personal security team. Tell him not to waste the manpower,

  Lucian said in her mind.

  “Lucian has good people, Daryl. Don’t bother to send anyone over. We’ll make it without trouble. Fifteen minutes.”

  “It isn’t pretty, Jaxx.”

  “It never is.” She slowly replaced the phone in the cradle and turned to lay her head against Lucian’s chest. Closing her eyes, she stood quietly in his arms.

  “Do not even entertain the notion that you should leave me, Jaxon. I feel your sorrow and fear in your mind. You believe if you leave me, he will stop. But it is not an option. It will never be an option. Drake is responsible for these crimes, not you.”

  “He won’t stop, Lucian. As long as he knows I’m with you, he will keep on killing. Everyone I know is in danger because we’re together.”

  He caught her chin firmly in his hand. “They are in danger because a sociopath is on the loose. It has nothing to do with you. He has fixated on you, but you are blameless. You cannot let this monster dictate your entire life. He’s baiting a trap, not punishing you. I will find him. I promise you, I will find him.”