Angel's Assassin (10 page)

She gazed at him with those large, sky blue
eyes. He did not move, did not breathe. Surely, no woman could be
that beautiful. No woman could take his breath away like she did.
It just wasn’t possible. Yet here he was, despite all his denials,
unable to take his focus away from her.

Aurora grinned as she stepped up to him,
trailed by two of her cousins. “So how does this bodyguard position
work?” she wondered, with just a hint of casual playfulness that he
found maddeningly sensual.

The fresh scent of roses enveloped him,
causing him to take a deep breath, to take the essence of her
inside of him. “Where you lead, I will follow,” he answered.

Aurora’s brow lifted. “I continue as normal?
There are no rules?”

Damien almost grinned. “You must do what I
say without hesitation. If I tell you to duck, do it immediately.
If I tell you to stop. Halt. If I tell you to run, you must do
so.”

Aurora nodded. “I will.”

“Unfailingly,” he insisted. His gaze dropped
to her lips, and for the briefest of moments he wondered what she
would do if he told her to kiss him. “It could mean the difference
between life and death.”

“Lady Aurora takes no orders,” the serious
guard stepped up to them, scowling.

Aurora faced the arrogant knight patiently.
“Damien is my bodyguard, Sir Harold. I will listen to his
advice.”

“We don’t need an outsider to protect you,
m’lady,” Sir Harold snarled contemptuously.

“Perhaps you should take that up with Lord
Gabriel,” Damien said. He placed a hand on Aurora’s back and guided
her away from the pompous knight. He could almost hear the young
knight grinding his teeth behind him.

“Your father wants you to rest for another
day,” one of the cousins called.

Damien glanced backward at the cousin. It was
the meek, brown haired girl who had spoken. The inconspicuous one.
The girl they called Jennifer.

“
And I shall,” Aurora replied. “After I
see to the most pressing issues.”

“The knights practice today in the tilting
yard, m’lady,” Sir Harold called. “It would please them to have you
watch their skills.”

Jennifer gasped. “Oh, Lady Aurora! Please say
you feel well enough to attend. You know how the knights love to
show off for you.”

Aurora looked at Damien.

His lips thinned and his jaw tightened. He
shook his head. “Too many people. I don’t think it would be
wise.”

Aurora agreed with a nod. She began to shake
her head. “I do not think –”

Helen hurried to Aurora’s side, grasping her
hand tightly. “It would be good if your people saw you have
recovered.”

Damien’s gaze shifted to Aurora’s other
cousin. She was dark of hair, large of bosom. More than once he had
seen her eyes narrowed when she looked at Aurora. They were not the
warm looks of a loving cousin. He recalled her name was Helen.

Damien looked at Aurora. “You’ve already
barely escaped with your life. Twice.”

Helen smiled charmingly at him. “But she has
you now.”

Damien pinned Helen with a dangerous gaze.
She was no friend of Aurora’s. He wondered what her motive was for
pressing Aurora to attend the knights’ practice.

Helen lifted her chin in smugness. “All your
knights will be there, m’lady. They would fight for you to the
death. What safer place could there be?”

“Please, m’lady,” Jennifer whispered. “Sir
Jeffrey might be practicing.”

Aurora glanced over her shoulder at
Jennifer.

Damien followed her stare. A light blush
spread across the cheeks of Aurora’s young cousin and the girl
bowed her head.

Aurora turned to Damien, an earnest look on
her face. “Surely, we can visit for a few moments? After we break
our fast.”

Damien’s face was blank. He tried to show
none of the unease he felt, the warnings that tingled through his
body.

“It will do no harm just to watch,” Aurora
stated, placing a hand on his arm.

He looked down at her slim fingers resting on
his arm. They curled around his forearm. Her touch sent reassurance
through his body, erasing the apprehension.

Aurora continued down the hallway.

Damien missed her touch as soon as she
withdrew it. A coldness settled over him. Suddenly tingles of alarm
shot along his shoulders and Damien turned. Sir Harold locked
stares with him as the young knight listened intently to something
Helen told him. A secretive smile inched across Harold’s lips and
the knight nodded his head.

Damien didn’t like this alliance. He didn’t
like it at all. He moved after Aurora, taking his place at her
side.

Just before they reached the Great Hall, a
servant raced up to Aurora. The small, balding man leaned in to
whisper into Aurora’s ear. She listened intently; a lovely scowl
crossed her brow and she nodded to him.

As the others entered the Great Hall for the
morning meal, Aurora cast a glance at Damien and moved off down the
hallway.

Damien joined her. “You’re not eating?”

“In a moment. Someone has arrived I must
speak to.”

Damien nodded and followed her. She seemed
anxious and a little less controlled than she normally was.

She nodded a greeting at a passing servant as
she moved down the hall. Finally, she paused at a door to glance at
Damien. “Perhaps you should wait here.”

Damien eyed her curiously. “I should remain
with you at all times.”

Again, her brow furrowed slightly and she
shook her head. “I’ll be fine. Just this once.”

Damien’s gaze swept her face, moving over her
flawless skin to her full lips. So beautiful, so trusting. How
could he resist her heartfelt request? “Leave the door open.”

She nodded and opened the door to enter the
room. It was a sparsely furnished room with a desk and a chair. A
shadowy figure stood from the chair behind the desk. Damien
instinctively stepped forward, his body tensing for action. But
when the man stepped into the light, Damien froze. He knew this
man. He’d seen him before.

Aurora rushed forward and embraced him.
“Alexander!”

Jealousy knotted Damien’s stomach, holding
him immobile for a moment.

The man she called Alexander kissed Aurora’s
cheek as she stepped back, keeping his hands in her own. Damien
quickly moved out of the doorway and into the shadows. He knew this
man, all right. He’d seen him in the last town he was in. And the
town before that where he had completed a mission Roke had sent him
on.

This Alexander was following him. But
why?

A
urora stared
into Alexander’s cold steel eyes. It had been three months since
she had seen him last and he hadn’t changed at all. His brown hair
was still pulled back in a coif. His chin was still stubbled with a
few days’ growth. It was as though he had just left yesterday.
“It’s good to see you,” she finally said, squeezing his
hands.

He nodded. “And you.” His tone was sincere
with a tinge of worry. “How are you?”

“Good,” Aurora replied, sincerely. “And
you?”

Alexander inhaled deeply and sat back against
the desk, crossing his arms over his chest. “Don’t give me the same
answer you give everyone else. I deserve more than that. I want to
know the truth. How are you?”

For a moment, Aurora hesitated. The response
she had given was so instinctual. To her people, she was always in
good spirits. She had very few friends she could tell the truth.
She looked down, composing herself, trying to let her guard down.
This was Alexander. She had known him from childhood. He was her
friend. “It’s been difficult,” she admitted. “What with the
anniversary of Mother’s death approaching.” She hated speaking of
her mother’s death. It left her afraid and vulnerable, exposing a
side of her she was not willing to share. And then a realization
struck her. She lifted her gaze to him. “You know. You know about
the attempts on my life. That’s why you are back.”

He nodded, his face void of emotion, his eyes
penetrating. “I returned as soon as I heard.”

Aurora nodded. “You didn’t have to.”

“Didn’t have to?” He pushed himself away from
the desk. “I remember how shaken you were when your mother died. I
remember how scared. I had to come back.”

Alexander had been with her after her mother
had been killed. As much as she tried to hide it, he knew her well
enough to know how frightened she was now. There was no use denying
it. Not to him.

He put a hand on her shoulder. “So when I ask
you how you are, I want the truth.”

She turned away from him, pacing to the other
side of the room. “I have a kingdom to look after, people who need
me. I have no time to be frightened now. I was a child then.” She
turned to face him. “I’m not any longer.”

Alexander’s gaze moved over her. “No, you’re
not.”

Aurora saw the same look in her old friend’s
eyes she saw in other men’s. That darkening, manly stare. The one
she felt naked beneath. She clasped her hands in front of her.

“But you still carry the scars,” Alexander
added. “I know that’s why you hired me to find your mother’s
killer. You want those scars to heal and that’s the only way you
think they will.”

“I hired you because Father stopped
looking. I couldn’t just leave it at that. Not while…
he
… is still out there somewhere.”
She shook her head. “I don’t care how long it has been. We can
never give up the search. Not until he is found. If my father won’t
do it, then I will.”

“But you are the one who is still alive. I
should be here, with you.”

“I have a bodyguard now,” Aurora told him.
“And guards. I’m quite safe.” She tried to convince him, so he
wouldn’t worry, even though she knew how vulnerable she was.

“A bodyguard? Who is it? Rupert? Harold?”

Aurora shook her head. “It’s Damien. He saved
me in the village. And the second time with the poison wine –”

“Damien? I don’t know him.”

“He is not from Acquitaine. Father hired
him.”

Alexander’s face remained impassive,
unconvinced. “You should have more than just one bodyguard.”

Aurora shrugged. “The guards are following me
around like shadows.”

“Where were these guards when you were
attacked?” he demanded.

“Captain Trane was with me, as was Sir
Rupert. But they didn’t see the assassin.” She remembered the
assassin, the flurry of movement, the flash of the blade. And then
Damien was there, like a dark angel standing above her, saving her,
protecting her. She glanced at the doorway and saw his strong,
familiar outline.

“Do you still have the dreams?”

Caught off guard by the question, Aurora
tried to repress a shudder. “Yes.” The flash of silver, the eyes.
These images had woken her up for many nights. She secretly hoped
when the assassin was caught, the dreams would stop. “We need to
find him,” she said softly.

He leaned in to whisper, “I looked. I really
did. And I came close.”

She glanced at him. Sympathy shone in his
orbs.

“He’s a slippery bas…” He looked at her and
corrected, “rogue. Just when I thought I had him, he disappeared.
I’ve been tracking his movements, writing them down to see if I can
figure out where his home is.” Alexander pulled a piece of
parchment from his vest. He laid it on the desk.

Aurora moved to his side. The parchment was a
crudely drawn map with ‘X’s scattered throughout.

Alexander pointed to two circled X’s. “This
is where he killed.”

The word sent a shiver through Aurora. She
fought to stop her body from trembling visibly in front of her
friend.

He pointed to five X’s with lines drawn
through them. “This is where I lost him. You’ve charged me with
finding him and I won’t give up until I do.” He looked at her. “I
did return because of the attempts on your life. But I was already
on my way to Acquitaine.”

Her gaze swept his face.

“I’ve followed him here, to Acquitaine.”

A tremor of terror sliced through her. “Then
it is him. He has returned. For me.”

Alexander nodded. “I think so, yes.”

Fear curled tight like a sharp talon inside
Aurora’s chest, sending a gashing burst of pain across her breast.
She clutched at her chest, willing her pounding heart to slow.
Instinctively, she looked for Damien in the doorway. He was there,
standing just out of the candlelight.

“I have to go, Alexander. I will speak to you
later.” She crossed the room quickly, the air seeming thick and
oppressive. She passed Damien and paused in the doorway. Her heart
hammered in her chest. The assassin had returned. He was in
Acquitaine.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Will you be able to stop him?” she asked and
hated that her voice sounded so weak, so frightened. The question
just tumbled out. She didn’t know if he would even understand what
she was asking.

“Yes.”

He said it with such conviction Aurora was
forced to look up at him. His face was bathed with flickering light
from the torches in the hallway. There was no hesitation in his
voice. Only certainty. A confidence she could believe in. Maybe
because she wanted to, maybe because he had saved her twice. Her
gaze scanned his face and came to rest on his lips. He would save
her. He would protect her.

He lifted a hand and rested it against her
cheek.

It was a bold move; no one had ever touched
her with such tenderness, such intimacy before. She should have
been outraged. Calmness spread from the warmth of his hand into her
cheek and throughout her body.

“No one shall harm you,” he whispered.

The words resonated through her like a gentle
pulse, banishing any doubt, any fear. It was a promise. When he
lowered his hand, she immediately missed the reassurance that his
touch gave her. She nodded and led the way into the Great Hall to
break their fast.