A Dark Guardian (7 page)

But they were safe. For now.

She sighed and scanned the room for her brother or Hugh and his men. They were all conspicuously absent. She hurried from the hall and went first to Hugh’s chamber where she found it empty. There was only one other place they could be.

With her hand in a fist she knocked on her brother’s door. “Bernard?”

It opened so quickly she almost fell forward. “Hugh,” she said when she saw who was before her. “I knew I would find you here.”

“Now isn’t the time,” he said and tried to shut the door.

A moan from inside the chamber reached her before Hugh was able to shut the door. She quickly squeezed through the door and past Hugh’s big body. Her gaze found Bernard on the bed moaning and thrashing around.

She raced to him. “Bernard?” she said as she put her hand to his head. She jerked her hand away. “He’s burning up.”

“I know,” Hugh said as he came to stand on the opposite side of the bed.

Anger flared within her. “No one told me he was injured.”

“He isn’t,” Gabriel said as he brought water to Bernard’s lips.

She watched as her brother drank greedily and fell back as though exhausted. Her eyes rose to Hugh. “What is going on?”

He walked around the bed and held out his hand to her. “Come, and I will explain.”

She took his hand and allowed him to lead her to the two chairs before the hearth.

He sat her in one and took the other. For long moments, he stared into the ashes of the hearth.

“Just tell me,” she begged him.

He closed his eyes for an instant, but when he opened them they flashed eerily in the light of the chamber. “Your brother is fighting off an addiction he has toward the ale he has been drinking. The drugged ale.”

The breath went right out of her as if she had been punched in the stomach.

“Drugged? By who?”

“Did you not think it odd when he said he didn’t realize the color of your eyes?” She shook her head, not wanting to hear the words.

“Last eve, I dunked him in the water trough to shake off the effects. Apparently, he went to bed without any ale and only had a little this day. It was enough to show him what was going on around him.”

“Who would drug him?”

“Whoever called forth the creature.”

Her eyes snapped to his face. There wasn’t gentleness in his handsome face now but truth. “I shouldn’t believe you. I don’t know you, yet I find myself taking your words as certainty.”

“Bernard asked that no one be allowed in his chamber until he could get through the worst of this.”

“For the first time in my life my brother saw me, spoke to me. Don’t make me leave,” she pleaded with him.

Hugh should refuse her, but he found he didn’t have the heart. Besides, he was fast losing what energy he had with his loss of blood.

Despite all of that, he didn’t think he could stand the look in her eyes if he told her no. She gazed upon him as if he was a savior, and God help him, he needed that from her. He opened his mouth to answer but remembered that Bernard had made him promise no one would be allowed in.

Surely, though, Mina wouldn’t have drugged the ale. Or would she?

Hugh’s instincts, which he relied on so heavily, were failing him now. For a moment, he forgot everything but the swell of Mina’s breasts through the tunic that molded to her perfectly.

“Please,” she begged and touched his arm.

His body silently roared its need to have her touch more of him. It was always so after a battle.

Answer her and get away. Quickly. Before you do something stupid like kiss her
[_full, ripe lips or cup her breasts. _]

__

By the saints, he couldn’t remember a time when a woman had held him captivated so. An answer. He had to give her an answer.

But what was the question?

Mina wasn’t used to dealing with men of any sort, that was Theresa’s expertise, but she wasn’t going to give up easily. When Hugh didn’t respond, she pushed away from her chair and fell to her knees before him.

“You saw for yourself how he treated me last night and the difference today. I will not leave him when he needs family.”

His eyes shifted slightly as if weighing her words.

“’Tis not as if I’m asking to be alone with him. Just allow me to stay near him in case he needs me.”

“It’s not going to be a pretty sight,” he warned, his eyes flickering to her mouth briefly. “Bernard might say things he doesn’t mean and some that he does.” She swallowed hard and met his steady gaze. “I’ve listened to many things my brother and sister have said to me. What comes out of his mouth this night will not affect me.”

“I hope I won’t regret this,” he said slowly. “You can stay.” She smiled and grabbed his hands. Without thinking, she brought them to her lips and kissed them. “Thank you. Thank you.”

After a moment of silence, she looked at the hands within her grasp. They were balled into tightly clenched fists. The triumph she had felt at being able to stay vanished in a wink. How could she have forgotten so easily how repulsive she was?

“I’m sorry,” she said and began to turn away when he grabbed her shoulders.

He wouldn’t allow her to look at him, but he brought her ear close to his lips.

“Roderick did not lie this morn. Do not listen to the foul words your sister spouts. You are neither homely nor ugly.”

“I—” she began, but he put a calloused finger over her lips. For a moment, she forgot everything but the heat of his body and his finger touching her mouth.

“You have been told for so long that they think you are homely that you believe it. I have nothing to gain from telling you otherwise.” She closed her eyes against his words. He couldn’t know what they did to her.

She almost cried out when he took his finger from her lips, but he only moved it to her chin so he could turn her face to his.

“Open your eyes, Mina,” he ordered, his voice husky.

She opened them to find his face mere inches from hers. She saw the golden flecks in his brown eyes and watched them darken. Her body responded with a shudder of…she couldn’t put a name to it, but whatever it was, it affected her deeply.

“Know the truth that I speak. Your beauty outshines that of Theresa. She has told you those lies for her benefit. Listen to them no more.” Her gaze left his eyes and drifted to his firm mouth. His words were spoken softly but with conviction, as if he believed every syllable.

As suddenly as his hands had touched her, they left. She gasped at the loss and raised her head. He had leaned back in his chair. She spotted the muscle in his jaw ticking and what she could have sworn was a flash of pain.

“Go to your brother,” he said.

She didn’t know what she had done, but she wanted to take it back. She yearned to hear his words again, to feel his touch, his heat.

“Now.”

She jerked and would have fallen when her feet became twisted had he not caught her. Her eyes closed when his hands touched her again.

He groaned and set her away from him. “Go, Mina. You know not what you tangle with.”

She gripped the arms of the chair to keep from falling against him. What was wrong with her that his simple touch could affect her so? Had she been so hungry for kind words that they addled her wits when she heard them?

Not that she minded hearing them from someone as gorgeous as he, but she had never been one to fool herself. She squared her shoulders as she stood, took a deep breath, and went to Bernard.

Hugh gripped the chair arms until he heard the wood crack. By God, he had almost taken her right then. Her inviting pink lips had been but a breath away and the tantalizing shadow of her cleavage had beckoned him.

She had wanted him. Her body had opened for him with just words and a touch on her lips. He shifted to relieve the throbbing between his legs, but it only grew. There was only one thing that would ease the ache.

Mina.

__

He hadn’t lied to her. She was more beautiful than even Rufina, the Fae Queen, who was the most striking creature he had ever laid eyes upon.

At first, he had thought Mina used a ploy, but she honestly thought herself ugly.

And he could understand why. After hearing, day after day, how repulsive someone thinks you are, one could start to believe it.

Theresa wasn’t homely either. But it was the hatred festering within her that made her beauty fade. Aye, Mina outshone Theresa in every way.

He shut his eyes and pictured Mina with her eyes closed and lips parted on a sigh.

All he would have to do was lean down and taste her, but he had made a point to stay away from the people he helped.

It made for a lonely life, but it was even worse when he had to leave them to hunt the next monster. Besides, in all the years he had led The Shields he had never returned to the same place twice, and likely never would.

He would just stay as far away from her as possible. For sanity’s sake, he had to.

With that resolved, he rose to his feet and turned to face his men and Mina.

She stood at the foot of Bernard’s bed, watching her brother closely. Her hands were clasped in front of her and every time he moaned she flinched.

Aye, he already regretted allowing her to stay. He tried to lean against the wall, but his back was apparently worse than he had thought. He couldn’t see to it because he couldn’t leave the chamber, and he wanted Gabriel to concentrate on Bernard right now.

It was in the hour of midnight, but Hugh couldn’t sleep, not with Mina in the chamber with him and his back throbbing with pain. Gabriel hadn’t left Bernard’s side, and even now as he dozed, he sat by the baron’s bed.

Mina had taken the chair on the other side of the bed and had fallen asleep with her arms cradling her head on the bed. Cole and Darrick sat on either side of the door to make sure no one entered.

The night hadn’t gone as badly as Hugh had thought it might, but then again it wasn’t over. As soon as that thought flitted through his mind, Bernard sat up in bed bellowing and punching anything he could hit.

Hugh moved as fast as he could from his place beside the hearth, but he didn’t reach Mina in time to block the blow that Bernard aimed at her.

She fell back onto the floor with a loud thud. Hugh glanced to make sure his men contained Bernard as he reached Mina. He gently picked her up into his arms and carried her away from the bed. He sat her in the chair she had occupied several hours before when they had talked. Her hand covered the right side of her face.

“Let me see,” he said and eased her hand away. He breathed a sigh of relief to see it wasn’t as bad as he had feared. “’Tis a busted lip. You might bruise a little on your cheek, but I’ll have Gabriel fix something for you.” He called to Gabriel who threw him a wet cloth. “I’ll be gentle,” he said as he reached up to wipe the blood away.

“’Tis strange to find someone with such strength as yourself to be so gentle.” He shrugged. “I do what I must.”

“How is she?” Gabriel asked as he walked up.

“A cut lip and maybe some bruising on her face,” Hugh told him and moved so Gabriel could look at her injury.

Hugh found himself wanting to yank Gabriel’s hands away from Mina. That emotion hadn’t been experienced since he had lost his family, and frankly he would prefer that it go away as quickly as it had come.

But it didn’t. And the longer Gabriel touched her, the worse it became. When he next looked, he found Gabriel watching him oddly.

“Hugh?”

“What is it?” he asked, afraid that Mina was hurt worse than he had thought.

Gabriel stood and moved away from Mina. “She is fine.” He narrowed his eyes at his friend as Gabriel turned and walked back to Bernard.

“Stay here,” he told Mina as he followed Gabriel. He stopped Gabriel before he reached the bed. “What is it?”

Gabriel stared at him fixedly with his silver eyes. “You.”

“Me? What are you talking about?”

“You growled when I touched her.”

Hugh blinked and took a step back. “I wouldn’t.”

“You did,” Gabriel said. “Not that I blame you. She’s simply stunning, but I wasn’t laying claim to her.”

“I know,” he said and looked away. “I apologize, my friend.”

Gabriel shook his head. “No need. Take what comfort you can, for it never lasts.

Now tell me, why you didn’t inform me of your back?”

“You were busy.”

“I’m never that busy. It can become infected. Let me see to it now.” Hugh sat in a chair as Gabriel helped him remove his tunic. Hugh settled his elbows on his knees as Gabriel set out wiping the blood away. Hugh looked up and found Mina watching him.

He wanted…he didn’t know what he wanted anymore. In truth, there was nothing for him to do but continue. He couldn’t return to his time. Everyone thought him dead.

His hands fisted as Gabriel rubbed a foul stinking mixture onto his back.

“No

stitches?”

Gabriel grunted. “The funny thing is the creature could have killed you, but it didn’t. The talons opened the skin but not far enough to stitch.” That puzzled Hugh. “’Tis almost as if we are sport to it.”

“Could be,” Gabriel answered. “Let the mixture dry for a moment before you put on another tunic.”

Hugh moved to the wall so he could watch Bernard but stay out of Gabriel’s way.

Despite the urge to check on Mina, he was determined to stay right where he was.

His body might be away from her, but his gaze constantly found its way back to her. It was galling that he didn’t have enough control over himself to keep his mind focused.

They all jumped at the sound of the creature’s scream as it circled the castle. He reached down and gripped the hilt of his sword. One could never be too safe.

“I am beginning to think we should leave this place,” Mina said as she rose from her chair.

“That thing won’t stop with just your village,” Cole said. “He has his own mission.”

“Cole,” Hugh said to stop him, but it was too late.

Mina took a step toward the door where Cole stood. “What mission?”

“They are out to kill every person they encounter,” Cole answered her.

Hugh found Mina’s gaze turned to him. “Is it true?” she asked.