Blaéz went motionless as an ice-cold trickle of malevolence slithered over his psyche. A sensation he was far too familiar with in his line of work. Demoniis. If they sensed him here, it would be disastrous.
In a heartbeat, he appeared at her side and pulled her up. “We’re leaving.”
“Darn it, Blaéz!” She tried to tug free. His arms tightening around her waist, he sent a quick telepathic message to Aethan to check out what he’d sensed, then he dematerialized them. Her panicked yell echoing in his ears.
Moments later, they took form in his quarters back at the castle.
She stumbled away from him, a hand pressed on her stomach. “What the hell did you do to me?”
“By the heavens, Darci, you’d try the patience of a saint.” Blaéz fought not to shake some sense into her. “I brought you to the castle, my way.”
Only then did she glance around. Color leeched from her face as the truth dawned on her. She reared back, flung out a hand when he took a step closer. Her fear peeled a layer off his irritation. “Who are you?”
I’m nothing but a husk of a man who desperately needs you in his life.
He said instead, “As I said, I am a Guardian. And have been for the past three and a half thousand years.”
She swayed. He swept her up into his arms and strode to the bed.
“Are you crazy?” she snapped, clutching him around his neck. “No one lives that long. It’s a myth.”
“Do I feel like one?” He set her on the bed. Her wary gaze remained fixed on him then her eyes widened. And there he saw what he’d waited for. Her fear gave way and, like he’d predicted, she made the connection. Disbelief charged across her expressive face. “You’re—you’re immortal?”
“That I am.” Blaéz sat on the mattress beside her. She pushed back and leaned against the cherrywood headboard as if she needed support…or distance from him. The latter he didn’t care for. He played with a lock of hair lying on her chest, needing the contact. “I imagine you have more questions?”
“About a ton.” She pulled in a deep, shuddering breath. “God, Blaéz, I work in a library, I’ve read enough paranormal books, but that’s just fiction—” she broke off and scrubbed her palms over her face. “What am I saying? Of course, it isn’t—you’re here, aren’t you?”
She dropped her hands. Her gaze skimmed over his face again. He had no idea what she searched for.
“Wow, you sure know how to woo a girl,” she murmured. “Flight through space in minutes…being invisible, heck, I’m all a flutter in excitement.”
Despite her dry tone, he could sense her unease, so he let her be. She had to accept who—whathe was. “Butmyway helps in quick getaways.”
A tiny smile curved her lips. “I’m sure.” And there she went searching his face again. “Three and a half thousand years?” she repeated. “What exactly are you—you said a Guardian?”
“I’m from the Celtic pantheon.”
“Pantheon?” Her gorgeous sunflower colored eyes rounded. “You…you’re a god?”
Yeah, right. They’d stripped off his godly status and left him without his powers, left him with nothing before incarcerating him in that hellhole. His expression flattened. “I’m merely a warrior who keeps this world safe from evil.”
“Then why did you leave your pantheon?”
As if he could ever tell her the truth about his crappy life. Staring at the honey brown curl coiled around his finger, he gave her the facts. “I grew up as a servant. After I became a warrior, I was chosen as one of the protectors to an important young goddess: Inara. She’d just come into her cosmic power. At my arrival, a commotion broke out, and the very one we were sworn to protect with our lives was abducted by the worst kind of evil out there. And that cannot be condoned, not by a protector…”
“What happened?” she asked, pulling him out of the dark time when he’d gone to the Sumerian pantheon. The other protectors, Dagan, Seth, and Nikkos had greeted him with an all-out fight because they had no idea he’d been the last addition to their little band. He couldn’t blame them when there’d already been one attempt on the goddess’s life.
Unable to sit still, Blaéz rose to his feet and made his way to the window before he continued, “We were incarcerated in Tartarus as punishment for her abduction. Five centuries later, we were freed and ended up here, and became Guardians of this realm.”
“What about this goddess, was she found?”
“After Michael rescued us, he freed her, too. Or so I’ve heard. But she never returned to the pantheons. No one knows where she is, the search for her still continues.”
* * *
Darci tried to wrap her head around what Blaéz was telling her. Of all the things she’d imagined, this wasn’t it.
She’d always sensed that deadly edge to him. It was why she’d thought him in special ops. Hell, Blaéz wasn’t even human. He was an immortal for crying out aloud.Besides, she doubted any mortal possessed eyes like his.
