Another smile as he continued with his caresses, but his arm remained over his eyes. “Tomcat?”
“Yeah, well, I saw you in Anarchy that night a year ago…” She broke off. As she got to know him, she realized that she didn’t care about that anymore, as long as it was in his past. “And just so you know, I don’t share.”
Finally, he dropped his arm behind his head. “It was long before you, Kira. It was the only way I could block this emptiness inside me and numb the nightmares for a few minutes. Then I saw you. I wanted your smile and laughter, even if it wasn’t directed at me, more than any meaningless encounter. There’s been no one but you since.”
It eased her heart to hear that. The dozing pup whined a little but didn’t wake.
“I thought you didn’t like me. Especially considering you used every opportunity you got to take a shot at me. Anger me.”
“Not like you?” Wry laughter. “Yeah, I probably did and said things to irritate you, but I soon realized I liked sparring with you. I especially enjoyed how you reacted.”
“Oh, no,” she groaned, recalling her biting and often cold comebacks. “I was so mean to you.”
“Very,” he readily agreed with a smile, coiling a swathe of her hair around his finger. “You occupied my mind from the moment we met. At first, I thought I was okay with just those brief contacts with you, but I soon realized it wasn’t enough. I need more. I need you…”
Her heart tripped. She wanted so much to believe everything would be okay, but the destined mate curse stood like a cliff between them. Before she could speak, Týr had moved on to what she’d asked him earlier. “I did get this cabin from Dagan, but not because I won it in a game. It washefnd. A reimbursement from him.”
“For what?”
“For mortally wounding me eons ago.”
Shock like a punch in her stomach stole her breath. If mortally wounded, wouldn’t he be dead? But he was a Guardian and immortal. They didn’t die easily from what she understood.
Kira pushed up rather awkwardly, her back wounds pulling a little. “I don’t understand.”
“I failed in my duty as protector and let my best friend’s little sister die—or so we believed at the time—after I’d promised him I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.” His hand settled on her hips. “Inara had just turned eighteen winters,” he said, his gaze fixed on the rafters above. “Still a child. Playful. I should have known better.”
He explained about the attacks on the young Goddess of Life’s temple. About the tight security for her, and his promise to Dagan on that ill-fated day, as well as denying Inara’s request to go to the river.
“She offered me wine…” He rubbed his face. “I hadn’t thought anything about it since she usually did whenever I stopped by to see her. I didn’t taste anything in the drink. With my heightened senses, I would have picked it up. Yet, I didn’t. And I lost consciousness…” His throat worked as if unable to continue.
Kira waited, gently stroking his chest.
“When I woke, it was to carnage I’ll never forget. The slain bodies of Inara’s handmaidens, the soldiers who tried to protect her and failed…because I was so easily duped by a child.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, eyes shut, but Kira heard the desolation in his voice. “Dagan was devastated. Broken. I failed him.”
“That was when he…he killed you?”
A nod. “I would have died had we not been pulled to the Gates of the Gods at that exact moment for judgment. As protectors to the Goddess of Life, our swords are one of the few things that can end an immortal’s life. But I was healed.”
“What happened?”
“I suppose someone powerful enough restored me so I could face judgment.” A shrug. “The Sumerian temple where the goddess resided had been destroyed in the attack, and Inara was captured. We were found guilty of blatant negligence and incarcerated for life in Tartarus for the deaths of so many innocents, as well as for Inara’s abduction by the vilest evil in existence. Lucifer.”
“Where’s Inara now?”
“I don’t know. Michael freed her, and us, too. But she was never seen again. Dagan told me she came to him recently in a spectral form and said that she is where she chose to be—whatever that means.”
Kira pressed a hand to her churning stomach. When she first learned about the existence of the Guardians, Gran had sternly warned her to never pry about them. Then she’d explained that they’d all been banished from their pantheons after a malevolent fallen angel had abducted an important goddess under their care. Kira hadn’t realized they’d been imprisoned, too.
She stroked Týr’s arm, trying to soothe him, unable to bear his pain and helpless fury, wanting so badly to help him.
Sometimes, even a Guardian needed saving.
To get his mind off his past, she laid open her own pain. “I…I have a father.”
* * *
It took a moment for Kira’s words to sink into his roiling head. Týr’s gaze snapped to hers. “What?”
