Dark Guardian (Dark Series - book 9) Read online

  “She is trouble, this one,” Antonio whispered loudly enough for her to hear.

  Jaxon waited until Antonio was behind the wheel of the car and they were moving swiftly toward their home. “I am not. What does that mean? Those men are my friends, my colleagues. I work with them.”

  “That is why the older gentleman took such care to tell you I was a dangerous man, one you had no business being with? I heard him quite clearly warning you away from me.” Again there was no inflection in his voice, only that soft, velvet whisper of trouble.

  “Well, what do you expect when you stand there looking all intimidating and scary like a Mafia enforcer or a hit man or something? You need to look more... I don’t know, more something.”

  “Foppish?” he supplied softly, a hint of compassion escaping into his voice.

  “What kind of word is

  foppish

  ? Antonio, have you ever heard of

  foppish

  ?”

  “Antonio cannot hear us,” Lucian pointed out.

  Jaxon was busy stabbing at various buttons. “Which one of these things makes it so he can? You use mind control so easily, Lucian. Are you controlling me, too?”

  Very gently Lucian laid a hand over hers to still her frantic fingers. “Be calm, Jaxon. You are suffering needlessly. I do not control your mind. If I did so, you would not be placing yourself in danger at every opportunity. Believe it or not, I am working at finding a balance with your nature. Carpathian males are not easy with other men around their women. That is a simple fact. There is no need to fear what is natural. My emotions are new and raw, but I would never harm you or someone you care for.”

  “Well, I am not Carpathian, so you’ll just have to get used to it,” she muttered rebelliously. “And I’m not afraid of you.” In the close confines of the car, with his hand covering hers, his thumb sliding back and forth in a caress over her wrist, it was difficult to think of anything but Lucian. “I’m a cop. Those men are my partners. We watch each other’s backs. It’s how I live, how we all survive.” In spite of her determination not to, she found herself explaining.

  “I knew there was a reason I did not want you to continue in your chosen profession,” Lucian said without expression. He leaned down to her, his palm finding her chin to force her head up. “I do not like to see you in danger. It is more than my heart can stand. Add your sorrow and the guilt you heap upon yourself, and my heart knows what it feels like to break. If another man, human or not, decides to look upon you with desire and then places his hands on you, I have a wish to lose my control for just a few minutes.”

  Jaxon found herself managing a small smile at his complete sincerity. “Did you make Tom think I looked like a wrinkled old crone or something?”

  “It was a temptation.” His hand slipped to the nape of her neck and found several tendrils of hair to caress. “I had a primitive urge to discourage him from coveting you.”

  She blinked up at him suspiciously. “I don’t want to know what you mean, so don’t bother to explain.” A slow smile warmed the black ice of his eyes. “You are beginning to know me.”

  “Thank you for saving Barry. The glimpse I caught of him, he looked to be in bad shape. I know it must have been difficult destroying the ghoul there, helping me, and working on him all at the same time.” She could feel his exhaustion. It didn’t show on his face, but it was in his mind. He was extremely tired. He had used tremendous energy tonight. Even someone as powerful as Lucian could get tired.

  She was certain she was tired, too, but it manifested itself more as sorrow. It was almost too much to comprehend the loss of so many of the people she knew and cared about. For a moment the reality of it all touched her mind, and she couldn’t breathe, her lungs refusing to work properly. “If the man at the apartments wasn’t Drake, and the one at the station house wasn’t him either, who were they, and how did they know exactly what Drake did to his victims? How would they know whom to kill? And why would they even want to kill them, Lucian?”

  “There is only one answer, angel.” Lucian’s voice was more expressionless than ever. It made Jaxon glance up at him in apprehension. “There must be a vampire involved here, a master vampire, one of the ancients. It is a creature capable of such things.”

  “It has Drake? Is he dead?” There was almost a hopeful note in her voice.

  Lucian shook his head. “More than likely Drake is still out there somewhere, probably puzzled by these murders. The vampire has read your mind, picked the details out of your head, and that is why you knew something was wrong. The details were not exactly Drake. The vampire created his ghouls and sent them out with orders to kill whoever had fond memories of you.”

  Jaxon’s fingers twisted together, and her stomach burned, a hard knot of pain. “Why? What would he accomplish?”

  Lucian’s black gaze moved over her, fathomless, moody, possessive. “Precisely what he did. Pain. Vampires thrive on other people’s pain. He must have caught you out in the open, away from the protected property, and read your memories. He could not have hidden his taint of power from me had I been close.”

  Jaxon felt as if he had punched her hard in the pit of her stomach. The feeling was so real, she actually hunched over, dropping her head into the heel of one hand. “So

  I

  did this. Just by going out of the house, I caused all this to happen. Basically that’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”

  Lucian’s arm slid around her slender shoulders. Her pain was radiating from her, enveloping him so that he felt almost as sick as she did. “Of course not, Jaxon. You cannot ever think you are responsible for the sick actions of others.”

  Jaxon ducked out from under his arm, unable to bear the contact. She was struggling just to breathe. “Lucian, have Antonio stop the car right now. I need to get out. I’ll walk the rest of the way. It isn’t that far.”

  “It is almost dawn, my love.” He said the words softly, without inflection, apparently neither for nor against her decision.

  “I can’t breathe in here, Lucian. Stop the car.” She wanted to run as fast as she could—whether from herself or from everything that had happened this night, she didn’t know. She knew only that she had to be out in the open. “I need to be alone. Please just stop the car and let me walk by myself back to the house. I have to be alone.”

  Lucian’s black gaze moved over her face once more, brooding, suspicious. His mind moved in hers. He read Jaxon’s need to alone, to be in the fresh air, to be able to breathe freely. There was such chaos in her mind, she was having trouble breathing.

  At once the car rolled to a stop, and Jaxon realized Lucian had commanded Antonio to come to a halt. Instantly she was out of the car and running, leaving the asphalt behind, taking to the open meadow leading to the hills and the south side of the estate. She ran parallel to the road until the car went around a bend and disappeared from sight. Instantly she switched directions and ran up the hill, away from the house and toward the bluffs. Twice she had to stop, leaning over as her body protested the terrible crimes committed simply because someone knew her. What was she? A monster magnet? Some hideous thing inside her drew out the demon in others. She didn’t pay the price; some innocent bystander always did.

  Jaxon had heard the conversations throughout the apartment building and in the squad room. The murmurs, the silent condemnation. Most of her friends were afraid to speak to her, none of them wanted to be seen with her, and all of them were terrified for their families, and rightly so. This latest carnage was worse than anything Drake had ever done before. This vampire was capable of mass killing in two places at one time.

  She continued running as fast as she could. As the trail became steeper, she stumbled occasionally, tears streaming down her face, clouding her vision. Jaxon had no clear thought in her head; she really didn’t know what she was going to do. Only that this killing couldn’t continue any longer. Her father. Her mother. Her beloved little Mathew. The entire Andrews family, even
poor Sabrina, just home from college on a break. Then her neighbor, Carol. Sweet Carol’s big crime was watching the sunrise every morning, and she died because she enjoyed sharing the experience with her neighbor. And now all these other innocent victims.

  She was sobbing as she clawed her way up the steep rock to the top of the bluff. Just as she pulled herself up, the earth rolled and bucked beneath her feet like a roller coaster. Overhead black clouds swirled and roiled, boiling like a cauldron. Lightning arced from cloud to cloud, slamming to earth in white-hot jagged bolts, the thunder nearly deafening her. She screamed as she ran for the cliff’s edge. If there was no Jaxon, there would be no need for Drake to kill anyone ever again.

  She tried to run with the earth rocking beneath her feet, hurtling her body toward the edge. Just as her lead foot stepped off into empty space, a thick arm caught her around her waist and lifted her completely off the ground. “Lucian.” She whispered his name, clung to him, her only sanity in the madness of the world. Her slender arms circled his neck, and she buried her face in the comfort of his shoulder.

  His body was trembling; she could feel it. She lifted her head and saw stark terror burning in the depths of his eyes. He lowered his head and took possession of her mouth even as the heavens opened above them and poured rain onto the earth.

  “I need you, Jaxon.” Each word was enunciated softly. “You cannot leave me alone in this world. I need you.” Whips of lightning sizzled and danced all around them. Thunder cracked and boomed. “You cannot leave me alone.”

  “I know, I know,” she whispered back, pressing closer, an offering in the midst of the world crashing down around them. “I don’t know what happened, what I was thinking. I’m sorry, Lucian. I’m sorry.”

  “You do not have to say that. Never say that.” His mouth was moving over hers again, hot and needy with fear and rising desire. “I have to know you are here with me.”

  “I am here. I won’t leave you. It isn’t you.” She was crying, her hands sliding under his shirt to touch the solid reality of him. He was real, and he was her only comfort, her only sanity. She had hurt him; she felt it radiating from him, deep and intense, along with the terror gripping his soul. She lifted her head to meet him kiss for kiss, giving herself to him, wanting only to comfort and be comforted.

  Lucian was consuming her, devouring her, his mouth everywhere, the rain on her bare skin, on their bare skin. He had removed their clothing so quickly, so easily, with a mere impatient thought in his mind.

  It took Jaxon a few moments to realize he was enraged, the terrible ferocity of the storm reflecting the blackness of his mood. But his enormously strong arms held her with such gentleness, it turned her heart over. “I need you with me, angel. You still do not see, no matter how often I try to tell you, to show you.” All around them the earth moved and split, great gaping cracks in the rocks. “Without you I have no reason to live. I need you. Really need you. Put your legs around my waist.” He whispered the command to her even as his teeth were scraping over her frantic pulse. “Right now, Jaxon, I need you, need to be inside you, need you surrounding me with your heat and light. I need to feel you are safe and alive and nothing can harm you.”

  He was everywhere, his hands exploring, inflaming, his body so hard and aggressive, taut with terrible need, terrible hunger, that Jaxon obeyed him almost blindly. His hunger was intense, the storm increasing rather than waning, a true barometer of his urgent desire.

  “You cannot leave me alone to live in an empty world with no light or laughter. You cannot leave me alone.”

  His voice was raw, his beautiful voice raw with his fear and relentless hunger for her alone. His hair was soaked, the thick ebony strands hanging down his back. He looked wild and untamed. He looked what he was: dangerous and unpredictable. Yet Jaxon wasn’t afraid. She clung to him, needing him with the same urgency, wanting only to feel the strength of his arms, of his possession, his body moving in hers, his mouth feeding at her breast, his soul anchoring hers in this chaos.

  Her legs slipped around his waist, and she eased her body over the hard length of him. He filled her instantly, making her gasp with the unexpected pleasure. The storm intensified, lightning slashing through the gray sky. The sun tried valiantly to rise, but the ominous, swirling black clouds were thick and dark, preventing the light from penetrating to their sensitive skin. Still, Jaxon felt the first prickling of unease at the muted light. Tears were streaming down her face, her eyes burning, her lungs gasping for air from the strangling sobs wracking her as they clung to each other in a wild tango of life-affirming love.

  His arms were like steel, holding her safe, his body moving aggressively in hers, yet he was so heartbreakingly tender, his mouth warm and loving on her skin. “Stop crying, angel. You have to stop now,” he whispered against her rain-soaked hair. “We can get through anything as long we are together. I cannot ever be without you. You are the air I breathe. You are in my soul, my heart. Look into my mind, into my memories, see my life, empty and endless without you. You could never contemplate such a thing if you knew the way I needed you. I cannot be alone again.”

  “I didn’t know what I was doing,” she denied.

  He believed her. Her mind had been so chaotic, so filled with sorrow that she was running blindly, without real thought. Not once had she been thinking about destroying what she had become. Her thoughts had been centered solely on the tragedy. He found he could take a real breath, forcing air into his lungs, allowing his heart to beat once more. “You will never do such a thing again.” His hips were moving in a rhythm to match the ferocity of the storm.

  Jaxon found her tears slowing as fire spread through her body, spread through his. Flames leaped higher and higher, reaching toward the heavens, reaching into the clouds above them so the jagged bolts of lightning danced with them, through them. She heard her cries blend with his as they exploded together, clinging to each other like two frightened children as their hearts and lungs worked frantically to keep pace with their soaring bodies.

  Jaxon lay against him, huddling as close to him as possible for comfort, unable to control the storm of tears any more than she had been able to control the firestorm of need sweeping through both of them. She felt his body tremble, shudder, and his arms clasped her more tightly than ever. She felt his tears in his mind, the agony of fear, the mounting terror as he realized what she had nearly done.

  Then it was Jaxon providing comfort to Lucian, framing his head in her hands, covering his face with kisses. “I didn’t mean to do such a foolish thing, Lucian. It wasn’t because of you or what I am. I wasn’t thinking properly. It had nothing to do with us. I just couldn’t bear bringing so much death to so many families.”

  “Jaxon, Jaxon,” he said softly, his pain tearing at her. “What am I going to do with you? And how many times must I remind you that you are not the one responsible for these deaths? You do things so impetuously, without thought. You think to throw away such a beautiful, important life, even though you would not have died had you gone over the cliff.”

  She blinked up at him. “What do you mean?”

  “Had I not caught you or merged with you to float you down or stopped you in some other way than I did, had you really gone over and your body hit bottom, you would have suffered terribly with broken bones and internal injuries, but your body would not permit your death any more than mine would. Our people often sustain mortal injuries, but the earth heals us quickly.”

  She pressed her face against his chest, unwilling to talk about it anymore. It was too difficult to assimilate the information he was giving her with her mind in such chaos. Only then did she realize that her skin was beginning to tingle in spite of the fierce storm blanketing the area and dulling the effects of the rising sun. And the burning in her eyes was increasing with each passing second. She put a hand over her eyes as he allowed her feet to touch the ground. It felt as if a thousand needles were brushing at her eyes with murderous tips. She bit down hard on her lower lip
and burrowed her face closer against his chest. “Lucian, about that speed thing you like to do? Now would be a perfect time.”

  Lucian could also feel the effects of the sun on his skin despite the dark clouds veiling the sun. Scooping Jaxon into his arms, he moved with his preternatural speed so that space swirled around them and the rain lashed at the empty air left in their wake. Lucian entered the house from the second-story balcony and kept his hold on Jaxon until he had glided through the house to the lower chamber, where the sun’s rays could not possibly reach them. Only then did he allow the storm to begin to subside.

  “What are we going to do?” Jaxon asked. “How can we stop all these deaths?” She looked around the room for a robe.

  Lucian handed her one, easily reading her mind. He picked it out of the air while Jaxon was blinking up at him with her large, trusting eyes. She slipped her arms into the thick cotton and pulled the lapels together. Her eyes remained steadily on his face.

  You could use a robe, too

  .

  He shook his head at her modesty but obligingly fashioned another robe, one far larger and longer, just to please her. He could that see she relaxed once his body was covered. He had to turn away from her to hide his smile. Jaxon was pacing back and forth across the floor, unable to be still with all the adrenaline pumping through her. “Tell me what we’re going to do, Lucian. How do we stop this monster from killing everyone I care about?”

  “We have two choices,” he said softly, his voice forever tranquil, helping to calm the overload of nervous energy coursing through her veins. “We can stay here and attempt to draw out the vampire. It will not be easy. He is old and knows who I am. He will send his ghouls and other dark creatures to fight us before he shows himself. And he will expose himself only if he believes the advantages are his and very great.”

  Jaxon shoved a hand through her wet hair, found her hand was trembling, and hastily placed it behind her back. Twisting her fingers tightly together, she did her best to look composed. “And the other choice?”