Protector (22 page)

Let’s just pray they kill her after the rounds of rape she will most likely endure, as to not have to live through birthing a bastard Mixed Breed,
Michael thinks to himself.

“Man, I really just want to be alone right now.”

“Alright Ales, but when you’re ready, get your ass up and let’s go teach some Rogues a lesson about what happens when they mess with us.”

As soon as Michael closes the door
, Alessandro breaks down. 

“Please
,
Ameretat, I beg you.  I need you now more than ever before,” he begs through sobs. “Please, goddess, don’t let this be my fate.”

Tears flow deep and hard from the very pit of his stomach in a never ending stream of pain.  Pain so torturous he can feel it convulsi
ng in nerve in his body.

He curls up
into the fetal position like a child and lets the emotions devour him until he passes out once again.

***

Anna-Marie has been going in and out of consciousness since the accident.  Each time she awakes she doesn’t know what time or day it is.  Her body hurts all over from the accident and she feels as if she is paralyzed.  Opening her eyes has been next to impossible. 

“When’s she going to wake up?” 
Anna-Marie hears someone ask.

“I don’t know, hopefully soon
,” says another voice.

“I wonder if he’ll be mad if I take a little nibble.  The smell of her blood is making me hungry again
,” says the first voice.

Anna
-Marie blinks her eyes open, just slightly, through the throbbing pain, to find herself laying on what seems to be a bed in a dark room.  It’s the first time she has been able to open her eyes. She’s not in a room she recognizes as far as she can tell and the smell of this place is horrible.  The god-awful stench burns her nose.

She tries to lift her hand to rub the throbbing from her temples, but finds she is unable to move
her arms.  Bravely, she bites back the torturous pain and lifts up her head to see that both of her hands are tied down.

What the heck?

She hears talking again and she slowly turns her head towards the sounds and sees some light coming in through the cracks in the door.  She decides to take her chances and yells, “Help!  Someone!”

“Shh…listen, she’s finally awake now
,” says the second voice again, “I’ll go tell him.”  There’s a pause. “On second thought, you can’t be trusted so why don’t you go tell him.”

She hears the first man grunt and hard footsteps follow.

Anna-Marie closes her mouth as quickly as she can to stop anymore sound from coming out.  It’s apparent they aren’t the good guys.

He?  Who is he talking about?
she asks herself.

She lays there silently
, waiting to hear more talking to give her some kind of clue where she is and who these mystery men are.  The last thing she can remember is being with Alessandro in his Porsche.  He held her tear-streaked stare and told her to trust him and she did.  The rest is a blank.

Alessandro?   Where are you and where am I?  Why can’t I remember?

She looks around the dark room again, hoping her eyes will adjust soon.  As she lifts her throbbing head once again, a flash like lightening jolts through her brain.

A picture becomes clear of a dark street with a creature standing in the middle of the road and another behind them.  She hears Alessandro tell her to “hold on tight” before she closes her eyes.  The only thing she remembers after that is complete darkness.

She closes her eyes again hoping for more memories to come to her. 

Instantly, she opens her eyes again to a nightmare come true
, as her brain finally begins to work.

“Rogue!”
she says in a barely audible whisper.  She starts tugging and pulling on her restraints not even feeling or caring about the pain any longer. 

She knows if the Rogues have her, she has to find a way to get off this bed if she has any hopes of surviving. 

“Oh, my God!  How is this possible?” she yells in frustration and fear.

She freezes and her breath
catches in her throat, “No!  That’s not possible.  It can’t be!” she says to herself.

Fresh tears start to form in her eyes.  She believed Alessandro when he said he would stand in front of her to protect her
if he had to.  If he’s not here now the conclusion can only mean one thing.  Alessandro is dead.

“No, it can’t be!”  She screams and cries deep torturous tears. 

She doesn’t care anymore about being heard.  Everything in her life has been taken from her once again by these monsters.  What else could they do to her?

“Let them come and do whatever it is they want.  You hear me!  I don’t care anymore!”

She barely lived through losing Dylan and now she has lost Alessandro, too.  What’s the point of going on when life is so painful?

“Screw you, you bastards!”
she screams at all who might be able to hear her.

Defeated, she curls up as much as she can with her arms stretched out wide and cries out her heartache. 

She cries for the loss of Dylan to these callous beasts.  A man so unbelievably amazing and unlike any other, a man who had been her best friend her whole life, a man that had every right in the universe to live a long and happy life.

Then she cries for Alessandro
, her otherworldly, guarded, mysterious protector, the man who brought her out of the darkness to all new possibilities, a man who lived his life so unselfishly to protect others and gave his life to protect her, a man who found a way to battle his own demons to fall in love with her.  She thinks of him now and the torment she feels at the thought of never seeing him again. 

“I’m so sorry.  I love you
, too,” she cries to herself, wishing she had told him how she felt.

Shocking herself with those words, she begins to cry even harder.  The same raw panicked desperation is beginning to set in, just like after Dylan died.  Her heart feels as if someone is reaching into her chest and is grabbing it on both sides and pulling it apart. 

Then she cries for herself and the life she has lost.  A year ago she had everything in the world she could ever want.  She lived in the town she has loved her whole life, she had her dream job and she was with a man who she adored above all else and who felt the same about her.  There was nothing else she’d dare ask for.  Now all of it is gone. 

Her life has been so painful and dark for the past year.  She never once thought it could be possible that she would ever be normal again.  Even though her eyes have been opened up to a whole new world, one in which consists of angels and evil creatures, she has felt more normal in the past few weeks than she has in a long time. 

All of that has been taken away from her once again.  She cries for herself because she knows she can’t and won’t live through this again.

15

Marquis stares down at his sleeping son curled up on the tiny hospital bed as if he were a child.  Even asleep he looks so tortured.  Marquis has never seen him so distraught in all his life, except for when it came to the loss of his mother, although this seems different.

He knows Alessandro has always blamed himself for his mother’s death.  But as easy as it would be to do so also, Marquis never has.  They both lost a lot that day.  His son is all he has left of his beautiful Gemma, and now it has happened again.  Such misfortune should never be experienced once, let alone twice. 

It’s hard for him to watch his beloved son going through the same torment he himself went through so many years ago.  He knows the anguish and pain he is feeling and knows it will haunt him for the rest of his life.  Feeling helpless is not an emotion a warrior experiences often in their lives, but if they ever do, it can be intense and sometimes even life changing.

Marquis sits on the side of the bed and moves the black hair from his son’s angelic face.  Alessandro looks so much like his mother it’s uncanny.  How could Marquis not treasure him?

Alessandro’s eyes flutter open slightly, “Father?”

“Yes, Alessandro, I’m here.”

“I’m sorry that I let you down.”

Marquis frowns, “Son, you have never let me down.”

“But it was my fault with mom and now again with
Anna-Marie.  They are both dead because they were damned for loving me.”  There are no more tears left for Alessandro to cry, despite his utter sadness.

“I don’t know where you ever got that your mom’s death was your fault.”

“She was out there to get me,” Alessandro says in a small voice.

“Son, I knew your mother very well.  Yes, she was there to get you, but it’s because she loved you so much.  She was very strong
-willed when it came to you.  No one could have stopped her, not that day or any other.  Anna-Marie isn’t your fault either, fate stepped in and completely took over.  The two of you were just bystanders.  You could have kept fighting it, but as you have seen, the universe just kept pushing the two of you together.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Come on, why don’t you get out of this bed?  You don’t need to be in the medical ward any longer.  You have been in here for three days now.  Your wounds have long since healed.”

Marquis stands up and holds out clean
clothes to his son.

Reluctantly, Alessandro takes the cloth
es.

“Come on
, son, we have some Rogue to hunt.”  Marquis smiles.  “Trust me, it is grand therapy. I’ll be waiting for you upstairs.”

Marquis walks out of the room
, leaving Alessandro staring after him.  He knows his father is right.  He fought as hard as he could against the pull to Anna-Marie but it never worked.   He knew even then there was something mystical at play.

Anna
-Marie is the only woman he has ever loved or will ever love again.  He’s knows that with every fiber in his body. 

“Okay
, Alessandro, you got to get your stuff together, man,” he says to himself.  As if the words gave him the strength he needed, he throws the blanket aside and sits up.  “There is hell to pay in the Rogue world just as soon as you get your ass out of this bed,” Alessandro scolds himself.

He also knows he has a job to do.  His job has been his life since he was old enough to join the Protectors and this will make it even sweeter.

He had learned a lot from Anna-Marie in the past month, even though he didn’t know it at the time.  He saw what real strength really is.  He learned that even though it feels like your world is falling apart, you have to push the pain down and live your life as much as you can, because as much as you want to stand still and feel sorry for yourself, the world will keep turning with or without you. 

She was deeply wounded by the loss of Dylan, but she was still able to put her pain aside to help him through his, even if his was a deception. 

He has cried and felt sorry for himself long enough.  There is vengeance to be had.  He will kill every Rogue and Mixed Breed he finds until his pain is gone. 

He gets out of bed and puts the cloth
es on that his father brought him.  Not even caring about looking himself over, he heads for the elevators to go to the main sitting room where he knows the whole house is waiting for him to start their war.

Alessandro takes a deep breath before getting off the elev
ator.  He’s sure everyone in the house knows what had happened, which also means they know that he has lain in the med ward for three days tormented by it.  How pathetic they must think he is.

“Okay
, Ales, put on your game face.  It’s show time,” he tells himself and pushes the button to open the door.

As he steps out of the elevator
, he takes a deep breath and turns toward the main sitting area where everyone has gathered. 

Damn, the wives are even here.  I wonder how long they have been gathered here waiting
,
he thinks to himself.

The first person who looks up in his direction is Michael, his loyal friend to the end.  Michael smiles a devious smile.  He knows its game time, which is what he lives for as well.