Tempting Ecstasy (The Guardians of the Realms Book 4) (12 page)

“I’m wearing down. Fighting my beast is sapping all my energy at this point.”

“Rest,” Mia said softly and held Dacia’s hand against her cheek.

A huge TV was playing a stupid comedy she knew Zoe liked. Isa pulled off Dacia’s shoes and turned her to lay down with her feet in her eldest sister’s lap. Zoe and Mia settled closer together on the floor, with their heads back, touching Dacia’s arm and hand. Dacia looked off. There was a bar to one side and enough chairs and tables for over a dozen large males.

Her mind was going through everything they knew, and her sisters were trying to calm her with touch as they all attempted to understand what was truly happening. How it would all end. Their brothers raged and demanded they find out where they were being held.

I wouldn’t say even if I knew! I won’t have our entire family taken until I know what we’re getting into,
Isa snapped at Hagen.

I’ll take care of everything when I get there,
her eldest brother snarled.

You don’t have a damned clue what the hell you’re talking about. They are easily as powerful as Gods,
Isa bit out.

Her siblings fought through the link, and she heard Isa sharing the information Bastian had given them about the Realms and the Guardians and what they supposedly did to protect it all. It was a mess of fighting and snapping, and Dacia just couldn’t concentrate on any of it. She didn’t have the strength. Her beast was still upset, and all she could focus on was calming it.

She glanced at Bastian, who had stayed near the door. Jax had left the minute he had them back in the room. She wondered if the other male had gone back to check on Conn. Bastian nodded to her, his dark eyes shining with something… sympathy, maybe. His tanned features and goatee seemed to hide any real expression. He just stood at the doorway with his big arms crossed over his chest and his long black hair pulled tight in a band at the back of his head, seeming relaxed in his guard duty.

Chapter 10

Guardian Compound, Earth Realm

“Where’s Dacia?” Conn asked Jax the second Sirena and Drake left. She’d healed the most severe damage, but that didn’t mean it didn’t still hurt like a bitch. He’d just started getting true lucidity back and needed to get his head straight. The blast had knocked him out cold; his body still felt the impact.

“With her sisters.”

“She didn’t get hurt?” She hadn’t been close. The last thing he remembered was hearing a snick, too low for a mortal’s hearing, but enough that he should have moved a hell of a lot faster. He’d been too damned distracted, focusing more on Dacia than he should have been. His senses had been preoccupied, making sure she stayed back and at the same time wondering if she’d run. Fucking hoping she would.

The bastards had put the device in almost the exact spot Sander had been blasted before. His wolf had smelled the explosives, but he’d dismissed it because of the damned location. Cynthia’s people were too smart for his liking. He wasn’t sure why they’d come back to the site, but he didn’t like it. He wouldn’t have thought they’d add more heavy explosives. Other traps, yes, but that was a hell of a blast. Her people knew just how to screw with them. Last time they’d used perfume and piercing alarms, turning the Guardians enhanced senses against them.

“Your mate was fine, but she was almost to you by the time we got there. She sounded the alarm. Told her sister to tell us to come.” He didn’t like the idea that she’d gotten so damned close. She could have been hurt, but as much as he hated that she’d been in danger, his stomach clenched that his little female had tried to rescue him.

Conn rolled his neck and thought back, processing the rest of what his brother had said. He hadn’t gotten a call out to his brothers? No. He didn’t remember having time to teleport, or had he tried? He couldn’t remember. Dacia had called for help and moved to come for him. He grinned. She could have run. He knew she was unsure of everything he’d told her, but she’d stayed.

Time with her sisters to go over everything he’d told her would probably be a good thing, but, damn, he wanted to go to her. See for himself that she was okay. He really shouldn’t, not yet. Not until he’d checked the cameras, because having her scent in his lungs would make work a pain in the ass. She fucking consumed him.

Jax’s next words stilled him from getting out of the bed. “If she hadn’t been so snarly about Sirena touching you, I would have let her stay here instead of planting her with the crazy-assed she-wolves.” There was amusement in his brother’s eyes, but Conn’s reaction was much different. Fuck, his cock came alive again at the idea of her jealous and snarling. Shit, he wanted to hear that vibration in her throat as she clawed his back and fought to get him inside her.

“She came here?” he growled.

“She demanded to see you were fucking breathing, even after I told her you were. Her animal was right at the surface. She snarled and snapped until I brought her down, but damn, she liked Sirena near you almost less than the sight of you bloodied.” Jax laughed.

That hit him in the gut. His mate was jealous and worried. His lips curved with just how much he fucking liked it. What he didn’t like was the idea of her seeing him hurt, that she’d been scared, but at least her animal would have calmed knowing he was alive.

Ignoring his semi-hard cock, he slid out of the bed and stretched his arms, feeling the pull of the new skin on his back. Jax wouldn’t give a shit about his nudity, and it wasn’t like he’d ever been shy. He checked his arms. Thank fuck he’d had Sirena do the ink with her power, eons ago; it was coming back as the new skin formed. That ink was important to him. It meant something, a reminder. Sirena used the same process when marking the males in a mating ceremony. His chest muscles twitched with the idea of being marked for Dacia. His arms may be covered, along with a good portion of his back, but his chest was sacred territory. A place for his mate’s mark alone, one he spent thousands of years convinced he’d never have, but he’d left it blank. Hoped.

“Should I let her know you’re awake?” Jax said with a sly grin.

The thought of her coming down to see him naked had its upside. He grinned. She’d definitely wanted to see, and he couldn’t fucking wait to coax her into playing with him. Not yet. Neither fully trusted the other yet, and now that her scent was replaced with ash and dirt he could think more clearly. He needed a second to clean up and get his head straight before continuing their dance. It would have to be enough that she was there and safe. At least for the moment.

“No, man. I need to go to the war room and check my surveillance data from Cynthia’s. Then I’ll find her.” He didn’t want her running scared if he pushed her too fast; he wanted her to enjoy the burn of anticipation and pleasure he’d give her. Her scent had nearly killed him in the woods. He needed to dial it back. Seducing his virginal mate was going to be slow torture, but he knew it’d lead to the best fucking pleasure he’d ever experienced. When he took her innocence, it would take him to another level, and he wanted her with him and wild.

“All right, Drake’s got me and Bastian on shifts babysitting your new fucking sisters. I get to go see if I can track them back to wherever they came from before I’m on watch. Fuck you very much. That little one’s got nightmare written all over her.” Jax’s voice sounded pained as he made for the door. He chuckled at his brother’s dramatics. Not having Dacia’s scent all over him was helping to keep his semi from getting rock hard.

He wondered if she still wore his shirt. She’d clasped onto it so tightly it made his dick pulse. That she hadn’t given it back had pleased both him and his wolf.

He shook off those thoughts and pushed his fingers through his hair, feeling bits of wood and dirt from the explosion.

He used his power to kick on the water in the first shower in the corner of the infirmary and walked in while it was still half cold. He needed to cool the fuck down. It didn’t work well, but when it got to lukewarm, the water started feeling good on his skin and muscles. He’d taken a beating. His head bowed in the stream, and he thought about Dacia even though it was the last fucking thing he needed to do, but she’d already taken over his mind.

Damn it. He’d waited thousands of years for her, and the image of her coming undone against her bedroom wall would forever be imprinted in his head.

New pictures surfaced as he washed his hair and body. Her sleek curves all soaped up as he caressed her body, lifted her up and impaled her. Her soapy tits sliding against his chest as he controlled her up and down his cock. Her tight little pussy sucking him in and milking him dry. He groaned. Jacking off in the infirmary wouldn’t make Sirena happy, and she was stressed as shit as it was, so he tamped down the urge. He put the water on cold, not that it had much effect on his hard-on. He turned and rinsed the shampoo and soap off before getting out. He dried only enough to slip on the flimsy blue drawstring pants Sirena kept on a shelf before making his way out into the corridor.

He walked down to the war room and one of his laptops. He’d work quickly so he could get to her. If he saw her first, he wouldn’t want to leave her damned side. He wanted to learn her secrets, everything about her.

They needed to move the females. Drake had them keep the sisters at the Earth Compound in case they were needed to find other siblings or Immortals. Just as she’d been talking to her sisters, he’d been talking to his brothers. His leader didn’t want anyone knowing that they had a way around Tetartos confinement spell. It was dangerous information, and he didn’t trust his little mate to keep their secrets quite yet. She was still hiding too much and too leery of him. He grinned in anticipation of her finally curling into his body, trusting him with everything.

Chapter 11

Elizabeth’s Compound, Tetartos Realm

Elizabeth lounged into the silk pillows tucked onto her new throne. The carved back sat ten feet high from the dais, all situated at the back of the cavern she’d taken as her seat of power. Three hellhounds were subdued at her feet, her gift from the Tria. They’d fed heavily and were crouched and awaiting her command.

She was playing a delicate game. The warriors who’d stayed under her command thought she intended to continue with Cyril’s research on matings. They all hoped to use the workaround to choose and claim mates and gain the added power that came from the joining. She smirked at their ignorance. She could care less about what they wanted, but it was the reason many didn’t attempt to escape her reign and live their existence in the wilds away from the other Immortals living in the Realm, ones who would torture them in a second for their part in Apollo’s and Cyril’s camps.

She relaxed in her perch and slid her hands down the black silk gown slit to the hip on both sides and plunging in a low vee that showed off her perfect tits. She twirled a long red curl in her fingers, starting her meeting.

Cynthia,
Elizabeth said into the Earth Mageia’s mind.

Yes.
Cynthia’s mental voice was cautious; she was getting smarter. Elizabeth was gifted in the art of mental torture. At least against pathetic weak-minded humans and Mageia. It didn’t matter that the female was in Earth Realm. Elizabeth’s ability was strong, and Cynthia wasn’t ignorant of that fact.

Did you retrieve the artifact?
Elizabeth had been annoyed and anxious when she’d learned that the Mageia had abandoned the Rod when the Guardians had come for her last. It took every ounce of will not to destroy the stupid bitch’s mind for her mistake.

Yes, there were no complications.
Cynthia was fortunate that was the case. If the Guardians had taken her prize, everything would have ended, including Cynthia. Only Elizabeth had known where the item was hidden all these thousands of years. It was a secret she’d kept even while under Cyril’s control. It wasn’t until the bastard’s death and Kane’s short reign that she’d even considered how it might be of use.

Good. Secure it this time.
She sent a little pain through the mental link to the Mageia. No one knew her secrets. Even Cyril hadn’t understood just how much she knew. Another arrogant male who assumed she was weak. She shook her head, grinning.

Cynthia’s mental groan of agony sent a thrill of excitement up Elizabeth’s spine. She moaned and took in the bit of darkness that leached through the link. A taste. She had always sampled the darkness.

Things were falling into place quickly. There was still much to prepare, and she wanted the Guardians to get comfortable with the lack of hell beast and demon-possessed attacks. Once they were relaxed and comfortable, she’d hit them with their worst nightmare.

Chapter 12

Guardian Compound, Earth Realm

Conn sat at his laptop, sifting through images from the cameras at Cynthia’s, getting a decent idea of what the hell went down before he got there.

He’d been in the war room for about a half hour, going through every angle on the screen. He hadn’t bothered to detour to his room to get a shirt, he was too anxious to find out what was going on so he could get back to his mate.

Drake stalked into the room right as Conn was enhancing a picture of the item Cynthia’s men had freed from the rubble. Even at a quick glance, Conn saw the tension in the other male. He sat up and eyed his leader, the bastard really needed to get some rest. Drake and Sirena had obviously gotten into it; things had been tense between them when Conn had woken in the infirmary. He knew Brianne was in everyone’s thoughts, but Conn wondered if that was what had Drake and Sirena at each other’s throats.

“Everything okay with Brianne and Vane?” Conn asked. Drake’s long hair was pulled back in a tie; his face had gone beyond stubble and into beard territory. The dragon looked angry, but no smoke billowed from his mouth, so it could be worse. Conn knew most of the stress they were all feeling was from the wait. Patience wasn’t a strong suit for any of them, especially when the end result could be the death of one of their own. He refused to let that happen, but for now all they could do was fucking keep busy while the mutation ran its course.