Her Guardian's Heart Read online

  “Are you okay?” Nick asked me.

  I couldn’t answer him because I cried out from the orgasm that swept over me. Another crack from the barbs hit me across the ass. The sudden explosion forced my hips forward. At the next one, I came hard and lost my breath. I wasn’t sure if I could take any more. I gripped the rope and waited for the next blow.

  “Have you had enough yet?” Landon asked.

  I tried to answer him, but at that moment, I sensed something. I tried to focus on it, but another blow came. I cried out. My power flared to life.

  “Let me down. Let me down!” I screamed.

  “What’s the matter? Can’t take it?” Nick chuckled and ran his tongue along my stomach.

  I shook my head, trying to get loose. My power crackled. The wards around the house were falling. Someone knew how to counteract my power. I needed to get to my room to reinforce the protection spells. My mates didn’t understand what was happening.

  “No. They’ve come for me. Please! Get me down.”

  My mates scrambled to release me. Nick caught me and undid my wrists. I didn’t have time to waste. Landon snarled behind me. I pulled the blindfold off and then rushed toward my room, where my altar and other things were. The men were right behind me. I stopped them at the door.

  “Landon, take the back. Nick, there’s another coming up the front. They are stronger than I’ve felt in a long time.” The others looked at me and I saw the love in their eyes. I prayed to the goddess they would be okay before I raced toward my altar and threw myself into every spell I knew.

  The energy of the earth rose along my spine. I could feel the intruders breaking through the wards I had erected around the house. They were trying to hack into the vibe of my magic to take it out from the inside. But they didn’t know that I mixed my energy with a vampire and a werewolf. It might slow them down. I placed my hands on my largest crystal and focused my power through it. Within my mind, I saw the ones coming for us. It nearly stopped my heart when I saw the leader. Eric.

  He looked up, sensing my power. Little sis, what a surprise.

  What are you doing here?

  Just doing a little exterminating. Heard about this nest. Never figured I’d find you here. The smug tone was apparent in his voice.

  Bullshit. You didn’t come here looking for a nest. You came here looking for me. I’m warning you. Don’t make me hurt you.

  You left the coven. You know how important you were to us. You deserted us.

  I didn’t desert you. I was banished.

  It doesn’t matter. You’ve had all this time to live your dream life. Now we’re here to bring you back so you take your rightful place. Your little pets won’t stop us. This order comes from the highest.

  Eric’s power began to rise, but I counteracted it with a blast of my own. He stumbled to the ground. A line of blood dribbled from his nose. I felt along the perimeter of the house and found the wards that hadn’t been broken. I threw all my power into them and prayed they would hold. The crystal was lending me its strength. A gale of wind blasted against my power and nearly blew me down, but it didn’t knock down my wards. It only strengthened them. I’d learned to pull on the strengths of others and weave them into my magic. I discovered then that there were four intruders. Landon had already taken down one. His satisfaction washed over me. Nick was snacking on another one. With only two left, I could easily handle them. I focused my energy on the other member of the hunting party. I didn’t recognize the woman, but she was an intermediate witch.

  Earth rise and protect our home. Defend those that I cherish. Great goddess, hear my cries. I listened to your will. Help me now and aid those I love. The earth rose up around the woman so suddenly that my target didn’t have time to raise a counter-spell. I felt the earth snuff out her life like a candle going dark. In the distance there was a glimmer of the goddess that I had prayed to. A moment of sadness passed over my soul. I didn’t condone taking life with my power. And yet I already lived with that stain on my soul for so many years. Now my brother was the only one left. Landon and Nick were already circling him. My mate howled. It echoed through the earth and rattled my bones.

  I refocused on the crystal. I might not have seen my brother for seven years, but I knew his weaknesses. I was the stronger of the two of us. I hated to hurt him, but he had sided with our family.

  I’ll give you one last warning. Leave now. I won’t hurt you.

  Sorry, Melina, your little pack doesn’t know about your dirty secret. I’ve grown since you were gone. I’m warning you! Come back with me and I’ll let your mansluts live. Maybe I’ll even leave their minds intact.

  Eric crossed the threshold into the house with little resistance. He blew down my wards as if they were paper. A surge of power flared through the wards and came back through the crystal, burning my hands. My concentration broke. He was stronger than what I remembered and had learned a few more tricks. I wasn’t sure exactly what would happen, but when I tried to ram my power of earth against him, he pushed me away easily with air and earth magic. But I also felt other stirrings of power inside of him. Maybe what the coven didn’t understand in me was something they were trying to harness now. Maybe that was the reason they wanted me back.

  I pushed that aside and yanked on the frayed ends of my magic. It was recoiling. I couldn’t be dragged down by it. I had to find my mates and save them. I had to stop my brother. I grabbed a robe and raced into the courtyard. There was another collection of crystals that I could use there for a power source. As I walked into the hallway, Eric faced me. Landon was to my left and Nick to my right when we met in the center of the house. The full moon illuminated the skylight above us.

  Goddess, give me the strength to do what must be done. Understand I do this only to protect the ones I love.

  The presence in the background presided over this action. The room was circular and I had called her presence into the room. It wasn’t up to her to take sides. She was impartial and only judged the souls that passed through her grasp.

  Eric grinned. He pointed a gun at me. Landon growled. His silver fur glowed in the moonlight. He was the size of a small horse. His yellow eyes gleamed in the darkness. Nick hissed as he crept closer to me.

  “I just want Melina. Give her to me, and I’ll let you both live. We have no qualms with you.”

  “She won’t be going anywhere. Anyone who attacks our mate, attacks us.”

  Eric’s eyebrows rose. “Mate?” The astonishment was clear in his eyes. “I never saw that one coming. I’ll guess you’ll have to be the one to explain why you were fucking these monsters and defiled yourself. It’s time to take your rightful place in the coven, Sis.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you. Charles made it quite clear that I was never to return. Why should he want me now after all these years?”

  My brother’s gaze hardened. “You are in no position to ask questions. One pull of this trigger and one of these mongrels gets it. Don’t think I’m kidding.”

  I reached out my senses and connected with the crystals in the courtyard. Their energy filled my being. I tried to let it come in slow, hoping that Eric wouldn’t sense it. “I think I have a right to know, considering you’ve come here to kidnap me. I can only assume it’s because the one who the coven chose was not worthy of the goddess. What happened? Did she fry her brain? Elisa, wasn’t that her name? That nitwit who barely knew anything about magic, but was Charles’s puppet, even when we were kids. I remember her fucking anything that spread her legs.”

  His jaw locked. The veins in his temples pounded. Eric’s aura swelled from his anger. The red tinge of it became visible in the moonlight. “Shut up about Elisa. She’s not a slut.”

  I grinned, feeling the cool power of the moon and the earth flowing into me. “You have feelings for her. What happened? Is she a vegetable now? The goddess will do that to those who aren’t worthy of her power.”

  “And you think you’re so high and mighty! If so, why did Dad lock you
away the way he did?”

  “Because your father couldn’t fathom that the power that ran through my veins wasn’t his. That the next one to rule over the coven wasn’t going to be from his line. That, and he was afraid of what was inside of me.”

  “You bitch. Mom never cheated.”

  I stepped closer to my brother, feeling him out to find the kink in his armor. His grip on the gun wavered. It bounced up and down in his hand. “Why don’t you ask her that the next time you see her? She’ll tell you the real reason I never called him dad and why he beat me for it. I’m not going home with you. The coven can die out. Turn back before you get hurt, big brother. Remember when we were kids and we had all kinds of fun? You don’t have to live by the rules of the coven. They’ve been brainwashing you all these years. Come on.” I opened my arms, hoping to hug him and send him on his way. I sensed his resolve. Saw it in his eyes that he didn’t want to hurt me. We had been so close growing up. Deep down the brother I knew who had wanted to escape the confines of the witches who raised us was still there.

  He lowered his gun. For the briefest second, I saw the little boy who I played with all those years ago. The one that I would hover candles with. The one who would check under the bed for me because I didn’t want the monsters to eat me. The one who had tried to break me out of the closet they locked me in. All of the things that I missed about having my family around threatened to take me down. I swore I would never open myself up to feeling again, but then I met Nick and Landon. There was too much darkness in my past that was still buried. I was afraid of what would happen if I opened it all the way. I smiled and stepped a little closer, but then he raised his gun and pointed it at me again.

  “I’m sorry. I wish it could be that way before, but it can’t. I’ll give you a free pass this once. Be warned; we will come back for you. It might not be tomorrow, but you will be high priestess of the coven.”

  I gathered my power, about to strike, when he turned the gun on Nick. He pulled the trigger. The bullet landed in the middle of Nick’s chest. I stood frozen, not sure of what to do. Nick touched the spot and then went ashen. The link between us shattered. Landon howled and ran toward him, shifting back to a man as he did.

  When Nick landed on the floor, I snapped back to reality. I gathered all of my power and threw it at my brother. It struck him directly in the heart. The smell of burning flesh filled the room. Eric collapsed to the ground. I ripped his amulet from his neck. It held a piece of the coven’s power, linking him back to it. I hurled it onto the ground. With the rest of my power, I forced it along the connection to the one who made it. I felt her scream in pain. The earth swallowed her whole. The darkness hidden away inside of me for so many years broke through the locks that I had kept it under. It liked the death and wanted more of it. Then Landon’s forlorn howl broke through my haze.

  I glanced over and saw my werewolf mate holding Nick in his arms. His lifeless form was losing its substance. I stumbled over to them, feeling the emptiness that now resided in my heart. I fell to my knees. I ran my finger over Nick’s cheek, feeling his cold and clammy flesh. There was nothing left of him. The spark inside of him had winked out.

  “No. No. Goddess, why is this happening to me? Why did you take him from me?”

  Landon glanced up. “Who was that?”

  “He was my brother.”

  “Why did he come here? Why did he attack us? What did he want with you?”

  Tears of loss, frustration, and anger over what had occurred flowed down my cheeks. I didn’t have the time to wallow in self-pity. When I looked into my mate’s eyes, I saw the same loss reflected there that echoed in my heart. “I thought I put it all behind me. They locked me up when I was little because of the things I could do. They thought that I was a liability, but the goddess had chosen me to lead the coven. They were afraid when the darkness inside of me got out. I nearly killed my mother. They punished me and tied me up. When the darkness got out again, I had killed several of the coven members. Charles banished me when I was old enough. So I ran. Only a few can handle the mantle of the goddess. It seems the one who they had picked didn’t cut the mustard. I guess my family decided that they needed me, even with this darkness inside of me.”

  Landon slammed his fist against the floor until it shook. “I don’t care about any of that. Why didn’t you anticipate this? Nick is dead because of you! We let you into our lives. We loved you. How could you do this? How could you get him killed this way?”

  How could he be saying this? I reached for Landon to take him into my arms. But he shied away. The distance between us stretched wider. “Please don’t pull away from me. We need each other now. I didn’t know this would happen. Landon!”

  Landon gently laid Nick down by the crystal garden in the center of the house under the skylight that let in the moonlight. Nick’s body disintegrated to ashes. The bullet that killed him must have been wooden. I ran my finger over the outline of his body and knew that I’d never be able to see him again. That was the loss that killed me the most. I summoned the earth and asked it to cradle Nick in its womb and hoped that the goddess was holding him.

  Please take care of him.

  There was no answer. But I sensed her ominous presence close by. I had already done enough and taken two lives. Now mine was destroyed. I tried to take Landon into my arms, but he shook his head.

  “You should’ve told us so we knew what we were up against. It doesn’t matter if you were our mate. Nick would’ve been better at this than me.”

  “What’s going on?”

  He met my eyes. “We’re bonded now. Mated. Nothing can break that. I can’t believe that this is happening. Fuck!”

  The tie between us started to fray. Landon erected a wall between us. I tried to grab on to it, but I wasn’t strong enough. I was completely drained. I needed him and he needed me now. “Don’t do this. Please. You’re my mate. We need to do this together. To grieve together.”

  “No! This is your fault. I can’t make you leave. This is your home. But don’t expect us to speak. We will be as ghosts passing in the night living our lives. If you are in dire need, I’ll do what I can. Don’t expect anything else.” He got up. “I’ll take care of the bodies. Make sure you do something about your family so they don’t return for a repeat performance. If they do, I’ll make sure to give you to them.” He strolled past me and went outside.

  I crumpled to the floor and let the pain wash over me. His words sunk in. What he meant was true. The only way I could take care of my family was to let the darkness out and embrace it. I had to use its power to mask my presence. The locks on it were slipping. I gripped the amulet. I touched the crystal in the center of the garden. The darkness was engulfing me in its wings. I was sinking fast as the power of it swept over me, but before conscious thought slipped away, I had one goal in mind.

  Chapter Two

  I stared at the flowers around me. Arrays of color that would have been a beautiful rainbow. Most of the days I enjoyed being surrounded by the wondrous smells and the perfumes of the blooms. The life of the flowers vibrated around me. The earth called to me. I glanced at the plant closest to me and touched the stem of it. With a little bit of power, the flower perked up. I smiled, but it only did me a little good to see it come back to life. The reputation of my flower shop was one of the best in the city. All because the flowers lasted the longest. The blooms were larger than my competitors. All because of my power. Today the shelves were bare and the refrigerators where I kept the bouquets were running low. I had ordered more flowers, but they hadn’t come in yet from the greenhouse. The others back at the house were growing right along.

  I shivered to think about home. All that was there was a life I wasn’t sure I fit into anymore. My love for Landon hadn’t wavered, even though his had cooled for me.

  “Melina, hey. You sure you don’t need me to hang out?”

  I glanced up and gave my friend a small smile. Melissa had been working for me now for three years. W
e had become fast friends. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t think I would have survived the last two years.

  “Yeah. Go ahead. It’s been slow all day, and it’s almost closing time. You’ll still be in tomorrow?”

  She brushed her brown hair over her shoulder. Her light blue eyes scrunched up whenever she smiled. Melissa had come in to the flower shop one day and asked me if I needed some help. I hadn’t thought about it until she asked. She was a ray of sunshine in the gray days that had hung over me. “Of course. The professor extended the deadline for my paper, so I’m good.”