UnGuarded (28 page)
Authors: Ashley Robertson
“No,” Luke said, staring at my awaiting
hand. “No orbing yet. We’ll go to him…my way.”
Cole’s arm wrapped around my waist, his
grasp on my hand unbreakable. “I’m taking her,” he warned in a
steely tone.
Luke’s brows furrowed. “Fine. But if you
don’t remember where you’re going, then you better keep up!” In a
swish of movement, he was gone.
“Hold on, Selene,” Cole informed. Then we
flashed off after Luke.
Huron’s bar was packed with preternatural
beings, so we were instructed to go to the back room and wait for
him. Cole and I sat next to each other at the empty poker table,
while Luke paced anxiously along the side of the room. If you’d
asked me the other day of I’d ever be in the same room with these
two vamps, I would’ve answered, “never.” Yet here we sat, waiting
to discover who else would be joining us in the battle to save my
charge. And just when I thought things couldn’t get any
weirder…they did.
The door opened and a petite girl waltzed in
the room, her silken red hair flowing behind her. A smile spread
across Annabel’s smooth, porcelain-looking face as she pulled out a
chair across from me and sat down, her eyes an enigma of obsidian
that I could feel at the edge of my mind, and I quickly looked away
knowing exactly what she intended to do.
Luke came to stand behind her, placing his
hand on her shoulder, fingers digging into the skin. “What the hell
are you doing here?”
“Relax,” she said in a calm, taunting voice.
“I only came by to see Miss Angel here.” She nodded toward me. “You
left so soon before, I totally missed you.”
“If I’d known you were still here, I would
have
totally
stuck around,” was my icy reply.
Annabel frowned, folding her hands in front
of her chest. “After everything I did to help you,” she
scoffed.
Cole scooted closer and scooped my hand
inside his, keeping his eyes on the dangerous vampire across from
us. “Selene is grateful for your help. And so am I.”
Luke’s grip tightened on her shoulder.
“Leave”—his tone filled with challenge.
Annabel’s eyes glistened the color of
midnight with a bluish hue, and then transitioned to pitch-black
with a pitiless glace of the darkest shade of purple. “I’ll leave
when I’m ready.” Her voice liquid steel.
There was a whoosh of air, then I was
standing next to the back wall, Cole’s body protectively in front
of me. I craned my neck to the side, peering around him. Annabel
was pinned against the side wall, Luke holding her by the neck with
a single hand. She was snarling, fangs extended and dripping.
“We’re not playing this again, Annabel,” he warned.
“You idiot!” she hissed. “Let me go!”
“You can let her down, Luke.”
Huron stood in the doorway, his gaze sliding
from one side of the room to the other. He walked in, closing the
door behind him. “I assure you she won’t touch Selene on my
premises.”
“But I can smell the desire all over her,”
Luke countered, still holding tightly to Annabel’s neck.
Annabel kicked her feet as she attempted to
free herself. Luke released her in the same moment and she tumbled
to the ground, her butt breaking the fall. “Imbecile,” she mumbled
as she slowly stood up, rubbing her neck.
Huron took a seat at the poker table.
“Selene, please.” He motioned to one of the empty chairs.
I moved around Cole and sat down across from
the Indian host. The vampires followed suit and took their seats
too—Cole on my right, Luke on my left. Annabel tossed her hair back
as she pulled out the chair next to Huron. In one swift motion she
was sitting, her hands folded together on the table. I glanced at
the vampires on either side of me, and both were casting
threatening glares toward the childlike vampire across the way.
Huron impatiently cleared his throat, his eyes focused on me. “I
know why you’re here and I’m afraid I can’t help this time.”
An argument built up on my tongue, but I
swallowed it back. “Even if I’m willing to fall for this?” I asked
once I’d regained my voice.
“Selene, no!” Cole exclaimed at the same
time Luke said, “Angel!”
I ignored the male vampires and kept my eyes
on Huron.
“Just because you’re willing to fall,” the
voodoo Indian explained, “doesn’t mean I should risk everything to
go up against those demons.”
“But they took my charge,” I countered,
tears clouding my eyes.
Huron rubbed his fingers across his chin.
“They only have her because of the ritual you performed with black
magic.”
“Why? Why would they take her?”—my voice
breaking as tears slid down my cheeks. “I had no intention of not
returning the scrolls.”
Huron considered me for a moment, then
answered, “They want you.”
A chill gripped my spine, even though I knew
the dark ones wanted me. “I know. They could’ve fought me when I
got the scrolls, and then again when I returned them. There would
be no reason to take my charge.”
“Unless that was the plan all along,” Huron
suggested. “Maybe they can use your human to their advantage
somehow?”
“The whole thing reeks of a trap!” Luke
stated.
Cole took my hand and gently squeezed.
“There’s no chance you’ll just destroy the scrolls and leave
Caitlyn where she is?”
I met Cole’s eyes. “No matter what it takes,
I’m not leaving her. Please don’t ask me to do that.”
Acceptance flashed on his face as he
nodded.
“Don’t worry, Angel,” Luke said. “We’re not
going to leave your girl.”
Annabel’s lips quirked, her eyes softening a
bluish violet before saying in a shrill voice, “I’ll help you.”
That statement got everyone’s gaze on
Annabel. “You’ll help, huh?” Luke asked. “At what price
though?”
“We’re not paying anything,” Cole’s voice
seething, his eyes pure steel. “You’re not drinking from
Selene!”
“Fine,” she pouted, thumping her hands
against the table. “Yes, I’d love to taste the angel, but if that
isn’t an option, I’ll still help.”
Luke narrowed his gaze at her. “Why?”
“Because I asked her to” was what Huron
answered, his lips pulling into a grin. “Luckily for you, she’s
gone and gotten herself in debt again.”
Now all eyes were on me. I nervously bit my
bottom lip as I considered the voodoo Indian’s offer. “Well if we
can’t have your help,” I told Huron at last, “then this is the next
best thing.” We’d just gained another ally. Three vampires could do
a lot of damage to a horde of low-level demons, and that would free
me up to take on Ezariah. A new wave of confidence washed over me.
Things really were going to work out.
“There’s one more thing I can do for you,”
Huron went on. “I can cloak you so that whatever black magic that
demon uses won’t have any effect on you.”
His explanation reminded me of the way I
could mask auras. And that would definitely come in handy. I bobbed
my head and told him thank you, then slid my gaze expectantly
around the room. “All right, let’s get moving.”
“What’s the plan?” Cole asked.
“I’ll drop us in near the mouth of the cave.
There’s plenty of thick vegetation and rocks to take cover.” My
eyes settled on Annabel as I went on. “I need you three to distract
the lower-level demons so I can get to Ezariah. He won’t be
expecting my immunity to his black magic, so whatever his plan is,
he’ll quickly find out it won’t work.”
“Angel,” Luke said with concern, “what about
when we first arrive? I can help you get into position.”
Immediately my thoughts were on my orbing
issues. Luke was the only one that could get through to me when I
was in that amnesiac state. Cole had noticed it earlier at Luke’s
place, but we hadn’t had time to discuss it yet. I’d recognized
Luke, and pretty much wanted to go to him, but Cole had refused to
give me up and kept me in a death grip on his lap. Still, Rhea
would be different. We couldn’t take any chances. Cole was not
going to like this, but I was hoping he’d keep his promise from
before. I swallowed hard and shot Cole a lasered gaze. I needed to
choose my words wisely since we couldn’t openly discuss this in
front of Annabel. The last thing I needed was for her to discover
the best time to try to snack on my neck.
Before I had a chance to speak, Cole pulled
his hand free and folded his arms in front of his chest. “I know
what you’re going to say and I absolutely hate it.” His eyes became
darker, appearing bottomless as he went on, and my chest tightened
at the fear of him voicing something I’d hoped would remain a
secret. “But I love you” was all he said as he opened his arms, and
gently stroked my cheek with his fingertips. “…and I’ll do what you
need me to do.”
Luke started to say, “Give me a bre—,” but I
swung around and cast him a challenging glare.
When I was certain his lips were sealed for
good, I returned my attention to Cole. “Thank you. I love you.” I
leaned a little in his direction and then he was there. The
sensual, gentle suction had me parting my lips so his tongue could
tease the tip of mine. My hands pressed against his cheeks, fingers
digging into the soft flesh, massaging around the hardness of his
cheekbone as I hungrily sucked on his bottom lip. Huron cleared his
throat, reminding me we had an audience. Regretfully pulling away
from Cole, I swept my lips across his one last time.
In unison, we all stood and followed Huron
to the cave below.
A LOUD BOOM ERUPTED, followed by a chorus of
high-pitched shrieking, wailing, and growling. The ground shook
with the force of a medium-level earthquake, but it was enough to
make my breath catch in my throat. I remembered the wormish beast
that shook the cave in Nempha. And then all my other memories
flooded back at once.
My back was pressed against a massive
boulder and Luke was crouched over me, shielding me from flying
debris that shot sideways at us and rained down from overhead.
Trees wrapped with lush green vines and chunky bushes were sparsely
scattered around us, a few large stones interspersed amongst the
greenery, and the mouth of the cave was no more than twenty yards
ahead. I tapped Luke’s chest and moved to the side just enough for
me to see Cole and Annabel in a raging battle with about a dozen
soldier demons. Moments earlier, I’d been cowering under Luke, not
remembering where I was or why I was there. But now I remembered
what I needed to do, and there wasn’t any more time for fear.
“Are you ready?” Luke asked in a loud
whisper.
I met his eyes, then nodded, ignoring the
growing tightness in my chest.
Luke rose, gesturing toward the battle zone.
“I’m gonna go help them. Good luck, Angel. I lo…” He let his words
trail off as he lowered his lips to my cheek, his soft touch
leaving behind a warmth that sparked an instant wave of guilt.
It’s just his blood making me feel that way
, I reminded
myself, then gave him a final nod and dashed out from behind the
boulder.
As light burst from my body, all the demons
suddenly cowered, a few of them wailing in agony. Cole, Annabel,
and Luke were immune, however, since I’d added some protection to
the mask I’d placed on their auras. Cole and Annabel sprung on the
demons closest to them, twisting their necks with a crunch, then
yanking their heads off with one swift jerk. Luke dismembered the
head off his demon, then sprung to the next one. But as the number
of our attackers dwindled, another surge of soldier demons fanned
out around us using the trees and boulders for cover, yet I
couldn’t keep standing here illuminating the area for my allies any
longer. I needed to get moving before even more demons showed up to
the fight. With a final blast of power, I pushed my light a little
further over the expansive space, then hurried inside the cave.
I shifted into my angel form as I ran along
the narrow, musky trail that led to Ezariah’s room. My bare feet
splashed in shallow puddles, then adapted to a coarse surface as I
passed a bed of rocks mixed with moist sand. There was a pungent
odor that definitely hadn’t been there before. Acrid, stale,
sulfuric. With my hand I covered my nose and mouth and kept moving.
Just as I was about to reach the doorway to the scroll keeper’s
room, an invisible blast of power hit me with the force of a
wrecking ball. My hands went up, shielding the next thrust of dark
energy. Yet in the next instant panic seized me when I realized
what might be waiting for me in that room. It wouldn’t have
anything to do with black magic, since thanks to Huron, I was
immune. That only left one thing that was powerful enough to hit me
with dark energy, and that meant the protective seals in Ezariah’s
room would have been disabled.
I swallowed my fear and plunged into the
room, keeping my arms out as a shield. My body glowed like embers
and invisible waves of energy shuddered from my shoulders to my
hands. Ezariah stood beside the rustic bookshelves on the right
side of the room. But that wasn’t what held my attention. Over by
the fireplace was a massive demon. He towered about eight or nine
feet tall with a horse-like lower body complete with hoofed feet.
His top half was more like a man, with slick red skin stretched
tightly over large, chiseled muscles. His triangular face featured
deep, high cheekbones and sunken black eyes that matched the black
claws on his hands as an alternative to fingernails. Instead of
hair, two huge spiral horns protruded from the top of his head,
their sleek, glossy blackness shining against the pulsing flames of
the fireplace. A faint cloud of sulfuric smoke floated around the
room. This master demon must have just arrived from hell, bringing
some of that wretched odor with him along with that unnerving
thrust of power.