Born of Silence (Immortal Guardians) (36 page)

Pure. Bliss.

He lay there, unable to move and not wanting to in the slightest. He was in some sort of nighttime heaven. The sky the darkest of blacks, only broken up by the white lights of the stars above. There were lush, green fields with animals grazing in the grasses, a forest surrounding the open valley, the trees rising high above. It was peaceful here, he thought.

Her cries brought him out of
his dream
, and his eyes snapped open in alarm.

His cock
was
still comfortably inside her warmth
, and he rose up so could
see
her. The sounds weren’t that of a sated female. They weren’t the sounds that made a man want to beat his chest in triumph. No, the sounds that came from her now caused a whole new feeling to well in his chest, and he felt ashamed for what he’d just done.

Raine was crying.

****

Demons rushed into the room, weapons trained on both Garrick and Dani, and even a few on her parents.

“I only see this going one way,” Pyro said, mimicking Garrick’s earlier statement. With the protection of the other demons in the room, the bastard had deigned to walk closer now. “Dani
elle
will give herself to me in order to save her parents. If she doesn’t, they will die.”

Like hell
, Garrick thought.
“Rot in hell you son—”

“Okay,” Dani said, interrupting him.

He turned toward her with his mouth dropped wide.

She
peered
at him, her eyes filled with sadness. “I’m sorry. They’re my parents. I can’t let them die.”

He took a step closer to her, making the demons around them shift in irritation. Fuck them. This was important. “Dani, I thought we—”

“You thought right,” she interrupted, a hand reaching up to cup his face. “
But it would have come between us eventually. I am what I am, and you are what you are. We couldn’t have made it work.
”

Garrick’s heart
sank at her words.

“I love my paren
ts
,” she continued, inching closer to him. “I failed Karena. I can’t fail them too.”

“Dani, no.”
He shook his head. Ever since their escape from the Institute, he’d never once thought about the two of them parting. At first, it had just been a friendship. But what had kindled then had become so much more, and he’d started to think of Dani as a constant in his life. He wanted her—
needed
her—to be a constant in his life. She was
his
Dani.

Garrick closed the little distance between them. With his daggers still fisted in his palms, he wrapped his arms around her and dropped his face closer to hers. “
You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to go back
.”

Her eyes were on his for a brief second before she looked down and closed her eyes. “Yes I do, if I—”

His lips crushed into hers.

Dani moaned against him, her hands fisting his hair as their tongues lapped at each other. All too soon, their connection was broken. Pyro had gripped her shoulders and ripped her away from him
,
yelling and growling at her for kissing a Fairy.

As for Garrick, he was a little weak-kneed from their kiss, but did his best to keep his feet steady.

“What in the fuck is wrong with you?” Pyro
bellowed
. “Di
d I not just tell you that you had to
give
yourself to
me
?”

“Yes,”
she
said, taking the shaking he was giving her.

“Then why did you do it? Are you trying to make me kill them?”

“No. I just…
.
I had to.”
Her voice
h
ad grown quiet, saddened as she
focused on
the ground before her.

Pyro calmed slightly
and
gave her a small half-smile as his hand came up between them. “Do you know what this is?” he asked, showing her a ring on his finger.

“No.”

“This will take us home. Are you ready?”

Her eyes widened and she
glanced
over at Garrick and then down at her parents. Pyro twisted something on the ring and a portal appeared right beside him
.

“Wait,” she said. “You must promise that no one here will come to harm. Not Garrick, and not my parents.
”

A tick worked in Pyro’s eye, and he flicked his gaze toward the other demons in the room.
“Y
ou may all go.
I
’m
sure the Guardian understands what will happen if he tries anything stupid.”

T
he demons approached the portal and, one by one, went through. All the while, that Ignitis bastard looked at him with a sadistic smile as he wrapped an arm around Dani. She was watching him too, her eyes resigned. Only after each of the demons made it through the portal did Pyro turn her toward it. With a last glance at him, Pyro and Dani stepped through, the portal disappearing as they walked out of sight.

Garrick faced Dani’s parents, who were staring wide-eyed at where the portal had been. “Is there anyone else here?”

They shook their heads but he still felt inclined to check their surroundings. He did a quick scan of each of the rooms before returning to them. Bending down, he cut each of their binds, letting them pull the duct tape off their faces themselves.

“What just happened
?” Dani’s mom cried, holding on
to her husband.
Garrick took a quick second to appreciate where Dani had gotten her looks from. Her red hair had come from her mother, but both mother and father had blue eyes, so she could have gotten it from either. Her nose and lips were purely from her mother’s side
, h
er forehead and ears from her dad.

Garrick shook free of his thoughts, afraid that he’d continue on the comparison train. “Listen, you
need to get the hell out of here. Don’t wait to pack up, just grab a few things and get as far away as you can. They know where you’re at now and they’ll find you if you leave a trail.”

“Who are these people?”
Mr. Weston
asked.

“Let’s just say you don’t want to know
.
Get out. Tonight. Get as far as you can before you stop to rest. And only travel during the day after that. That will give you your best chance at getting hidden. Whenever you get somewhere safe, call this number.” He
grabbed a pen and pad of paper that sat on the little table near the phone. He
scrawled a number on
it
and handed it to Dani’s father. “It’s my personal number. Just leave the address of where you’re at and nothing else. Not your names. Nothing.”

Garrick willed his daggers to disappear and their mouths slackened at the sight. He walked toward the door
and turned the knob.

“Where are you going?”

H
e
opened the door and
turned
toward Mr. Weston
. “I’m going to get her back.” He shut the door behind him, not wanting Dani’s folks to see what other tricks he had up his sleeve.
Dani returning to the Institute had never been an option. Her returning with Pyro just made shit all the worse.

Garrick willed himself to appear just outside the Guardians’ gates, punching in the number to get them to open. Had the mansion not been warded against magic, he’d have been able to trace right inside; but as it was, both the mansion and grounds were warded separately to protect entrance to either by that mea
ns. Once he’d crossed the gate’s
threshold, he traced to the driveway, taking the porch stairs two at a time before rushing through the front door. The lights inside were on, bright and cheerful as Gregory and a young man came from the hall.

“Master Garrick?” Gregory beamed. “Oh my, everyone will be so pleased you have returned.”

“Where is everyone?” he asked hastily. “
Are they
here
,
or
are
they all out?”

“Some are out on their rounds,” the old servant responded. “With the weather being so bad, they’ve been taking extra precautions. I shall gather the others.”

“Thank you, Gregory,” Garrick said, giving the old man a tight nod. He went straight to the library and grabbed a bottle of
S
cotch. Pouring some of the amber liquid into a glass, he quickly shot it back, pouring it down his throat.

Within minutes Blaze and Ethan entered the room,
doing
a double
take at
his
presence.
“Well
,
I’ll be holy fucked
.
” Blaze laughed.

“You’re back
,
man?” Ethan said
, looking every bit as stunned as Blaze
. “Where the hell have you been?”

Garrick tossed back another gulp of
S
cotch before setting the empty glass on the bar. “Some asshole named Ekhart held me in a cave.”

Both warriors responded in kind,
their eyes t
a
k
ing
on that battle quality he’d seen in few warriors. T
he need to battle the enemy
was
clear on their faces. Blaze stepped forward though, his easy-going demeanor taking over. “Well, glad you’re back.” He approach
ed
the bar and poured himself a glass of liquid amber. “You’ve missed a lot of shit and stressed all of us out.”

Garrick knew there was a hint of teasing in the Valvo’s statement, but there was a shit-ton of truth too. “Yeah, well I need to go back.”

“What?”
they said in unison.

“I need to go back. There are a few things I need to take care of.” His gaze flicked back and forth between Ethan and Blaze. They both looked at him as though he was a nutjob. Maybe he was, maybe
he wasn’t
. “And I need your help.”

Hunting down the others had been relatively painless, other than the fact that there was a blizzard currently dumping loads of snow all over
New Jersey
. While they’d searched for their brothers, Ethan and Blaze had filled Garrick in on what had happened with Nitro, and how Thrash had been kicked out only to have Ferox offer him a chance to earn his way back in. He was more than a little irritated that the wolf had been sent off on a mission. He could have used the bastard’s muscle.

All this in less than two weeks, Garrick thought dazedly.

The first warriors they ran across were Raider and Nitro, who were making their rounds near
Commerce Street
.

“Slow night?” Garrick asked
, seeing their black shapes form through the heavy curtain of
snowfall. At the sound of his voice, Nitro froze in place, staring until Garrick closed the difference between them.

“Where
the fuck have
you been?” she growled. “If I find out that you’ve been off—”

“Ekhart,”
he
replied, effectively shutting Nitro up. In speaking with Blaze and Ethan, he found out that the Guardians knew of the demon, and that Nitro and Ash had a particularly arduous past with him.

As Nitroesque as she could be, she narrowed her eyes as she gripped a dagger tightly in one of her hands.
“Wh
ere did he have you?”

“In a cave somewhere. Listen, I don’t have much time. I’ve got to get back there. They’ve got a friend of mine and I’m not willing to let them have her.”

Nitro and Raider shared a quick look. “We’re in,” she said.

“Great. Now we just need the others.”

“Draven and Ash are making their rounds near Rutger’s University,” Raider said. “Our phones have been down and the replacements haven’t gotten here yet, so we’ve
been
making plans before rounds.”

They set out toward the universit
y and found the other two
. Garrick quickly filled everyone in on the situation at hand, and each of the warriors volunteered to go with him.
As he’d explained,
it wasn’t just Dani in trouble; it was all of the other humans and demons that Ekhart held captive, doing gods-knew-what to them.

“Do we need to fill Ferox in on this?” Garrick asked.

Draven shook his head. “No. He hasn’t been around lately. And in any case, our phones are jacked up.”

“Do you know where we’re going?” Raider asked as he wrapped an arm around Nitro’s shoulder.

Garrick popped an eyebrow at the two but didn’t say anything. Whatever issues they’d had before he’d been kidnapped were clearly resolved. “I don’t,” he replied honestly. “But if I’m right about the connection between Dani and
me
, then I think I’ll be able to find her.”