Born of Silence (Immortal Guardians) (14 page)

“No,” she replied, shaking her head. “Thank you.”

He nodded
, his eyes
meandering
over her as though he needed to make sure there were no more wounds that needed healing.
She felt his gaze like a physical touch and reached back to touch the back of her neck. No, nothing there. No device controlling her movements. Just her. And just Garrick. She
looked at him just as thoroughly
as he inspected her
, realizing
just how tired and worn down he appeared
. There were shadows around his eyes that she’d never seen before and she wondered what
Ekhart’s men were doing to him.

As if sensing her thoughts and wanting to avoid her imminent questioning, he gave her a half-smile. “So, any luck with an escape route?”

She smiled, brightening from his back-to-business attitude. That was her friend. Worry first, business second.
He’d do anything he could to keep her mind from recalling what she’d just seen and done.
And she couldn’t have loved him more for it. “Actually, I think I saw something today.”

“Did you see her in action?” Ekhart beamed.

Pyro leaned back in his seat, looking at his master over the desk. “I did.” He smiled, remembering how proud he’d been when Danielle had broken free of her binds while simultaneously fighting the onslaught of demons at her neck. She was beau
tiful anyway—always had been—but
when she turned into her new form, she was phenomenal. He’d sported a hard-on watching her. He still had one, but that was due to his own imagination. Ever since he’d
seen her fight, dominating
anyone who approached her, he couldn’t get the vision of making her submit to him out of his head. Yes, he wanted to take her in her human form, but he also wanted to take her as a Harpy. If they weren’t so poisonous, he’d want to feel her rake her claws down his back.

He smiled. No, maybe even so.

Sitting up straight, Pyro adjusted his clothes to hide the bulge in his pants. “That was something,” he continued, hoping to hell that Ekhart hadn’t caught his distraction. “Seeing her do that.”

“It really was,” Ekhart replied, a smile still plastered on his face. “Finally. I can’t believe we’ve finally had a successful turn.”

Pyro nodded.
The boss-man
had been
tirelessly working
for decades, trying to create a Harpy hybrid. The Institute had lost so many humans and demons during the venture that they’d nearly given up. Each death was recorded
,
as was every detail of their treatment plan. Both Ekhart and his various scientists had reviewed the dosing plans as well as the condition of each of the patients during their treatments, making slight tweaks to each new prospect as they perfected their methods.

Or,
at least that was his understanding of how Ekhart did things. He himself had only been
t
here since the mid-eighties. He’d seen that protocol over and over with the different experiments, and the Harpy project hadn’t been any different. Pyro had seen countless demons turned, but he’d always had something of a soft spot for Danielle. He’d been fairly new to Ekhart’s private ranks within the Institute and had been the one to
escort her and her sister to their cell.
He
had been turned Ignitis
decades ago
when he was sixteen
, so when he first saw Danielle being hauled into the Institute, he’d
immediately fallen for
the red-haired, blue-eyed girl. H
er sister had been beautiful
too
, sharing the same coloring as Danielle, but she hadn’t had that cute little nose that
his girl
had, or her dimples. He hadn’t wanted Karena the same way that he wanted—
wants
—Danielle.

To this day he couldn’t regret begging Ekhart to test on Karena first, sparing Danielle the more painful attributes of their initial experiments. If he hadn’t begged and pleaded with his master, he would have lost his girl. And that would have been completely unacceptable. He’d felt bad that Karena died. Not
because
she died, but because Danielle had been in pain. Though he’d wanted to hold her and comfort her, he knew even then that he’d be thrown back into the rigorous training that the Institute forced on its demons. Anyone showing signs of humanity was tossed back into the program, no questions asked. So, he’d hidden the urge to comfort her and had then decided that he would be her guard as often as he could. And honestly, his desire for her had only grown over the years. He’d watched her grow older, turning into a full
-
blown woman instead of a skinny teenager. She was still skinny now, but her curves were more t
han plenty to draw the eye. And
draw the eye she did—not only his, but
also those of
other guards as well. She stopped aging about a year ago though, from what he could tell. It was as though she was frozen in time, the same way he’d stopped aging at sixteen, and he attributed that to her medication.

“Well,” Ekhart continued. “I’m glad I listened to you a few years ago. Your suggestion to take it slow sure as hell worked in this case. Keep up the good work and you may be looking at a promotion.”

Pyro nodded in thanks. “It was just an idea. Nothing to it, really.” He leaned back in his chair again, finally getting rid of the swell in his jeans. “So, the reason I wanted to see you—”

“Oh yes, what can I help you with?”

Exhaling slowly, he leveled his eyes on his master. “Since you mentioned I did well in helping with her transition, I wanted to ask a favor.”

Ekhart’s ey
ebrows rose unbelievably high and
he squinted his eyes. “Seems as though I’ve already granted a favor for you where the Destroyer was concerned.”

“Yes.” He nodded, grateful that Ekhart let him see Danielle as often as he did. “And now I ask another.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“I’d like you to remove the ban from her.”

Now Ekhart snorted. “Remove the ban? You know what would happen if I did that.”

“I know.” It didn’t matter. He needed this. He needed the ban lifted so he could have her.

Ekhart gave him a knowing look. Though Pyro had tried to hide his desire for her, he knew his master had known for years.
Had likely known it from day one.
“If I lift it then anyone can have a chance at her.”

Dammit!

“Unless…” he continued, rubbing his chin in thought.

Pyro’s eyes widened and he leaned toward the desk. “What? Unless what?”

“Unless you can get her to say that she wants you that way in return.
With
a witness around to hear it. If that’s the case, then I would grant you rights.”

Holy Jesus. Pyro had never heard of a deal like this one. He could convince her to desire him. He knew he could. He was her only friend in the place. Well, besides that fucking Fairy. Speaking of… “Oh, and can we move the Guardian to another cell?”

“What for?
Is he causing trouble where he’s at?”

“He is for
me
.”

“Ah.” Ekhart nodded. “Well, we’ll discuss that later. I’d need to review our cell logs and see what is available
that has the appropriate wards
.”

Pyro nodded, his mind still whirring over the thought of having rights to Danielle. A knock sounded at the door, and after quick instruction from Ekhart, Boris poked his head inside.

“I’ve got something you’ll want to see,” he said.

Ekhart nodded and the big-ass guard approached his desk, handing him a tablet.

“This is video footage from that camera you had me put in the Guardian’s cell,” Boris explained, hitting play on the screen.

“No sound?” Ekhart asked, a pouty lip poking out.

Boris shook his head. “No.”

He hmph’d at the guard but immediately trained his eyes on the tablet. Pyro watched Ekhart as his eyebrows slowly arched upward, fascination growing from whatever he was seeing. “Is that what I think it is?”

Boris nodded at him. “She healed.”

Ekhart smiled and replayed the video, raptly watching it as whatever was so intriguing played yet again. “When did this happen?”

“Yesterday,” Boris said. “I watched the video when I was on my break and saw it.”

Ekhart smiled. “Anything happen today?”

“Not that I’ve seen. I can review the tapes if you want.”

He nodded. The look of giddiness remained planted on his face as he handed Pyro the tablet. “Well, I’m not sure we’ll be moving the Guardian now.”

Pyro’s jaw clenched as he hit play and watched as Danielle and that fucking Guardian did something
against the glass wall that separated them
. He couldn’t tell exactly what happened, but the two of them lit up like Christmas trees and Danielle’s injuries vanished. He couldn’t take his eyes off her as she arched against the window. Whether it was from pain or pleasure, he didn’t know.

But he had a fucking guess.

“Well,” Ekhart said. “I think we just found the missing ingredient to turning Harpies.”

****

Raine grinned at her Valkyrie sisters as they hurriedly scoured the racks and shelves, taking anything and everything they might possibly want to try on. There was an air of excitement among them, and for the first time, Raine realized, there was
possibility
for her sisters.

Calleen had been with a male before. Coincidentally that male was Raider. They’d spent weeks tumbling the hills on the outskirts of the Tournament’s walls in Brelaan. But, that had taken place so many centuries ago that Raine decided that Calleen had once more been restored “virginal.”

The other three: Raven,
Savannah
, and Odette, on the other hand, had never been with a male at all. If their stories were true.
She found it somewhat hard to believe that her sisters hadn’t found eligible bachelors in a realm solely consisting of their Goddess, Freyja, and her army of Berserkers. Though from what she had gathered, Freyja had taken some painstaking measures to keep them separate from her warriors.

She had seen that look of longing in each of her sisters’ eyes. They hid it well, but Raine recognized it for what it was. She remembered feeling that way herself. Seeing men for the first time was exciting and dangerous, especially when they’d only seen their father, Odin, and ca
ught
minor glimpses of their half-brother, Thor.

“Me
n like these?” Savanna
walked up behind Raine and held up a black and pink teddy.

Raine turned, grinning.
“Oh yeah.
Not that what you’re all wearing now won’t catch a lot of attention,” she said, eyeing their Valkyrie-wear. She opted to wear hers tonight as well, in honor of being with her sisters. And Goddess, didn’t she miss their clothing. She hardly ever wore hers anymore, especially now that Ferox was being a major doucher and wouldn’t let her fight even a
little bit
. Sighing, she returned her attention to
Savannah
. “But if you want to have a whole lot of sex then we’re definitely in the right place for what men want to see.”

“Girl’s best friend?” Raven teased, repeating Raine’s earlier comment about what this store specialized in.

“Or a man’s, if you think about it.”

This seemed to encourage
Savannah
. She returned to the rack and grabbed another one in a slightly different color.

Raine assisted the others, trying to figure out what types of lingerie would
look
best with their figures. Catching Odette by the arm, she looked over her small figure. The Valkyrie had fair skin, a short, thin body, and dark brown hair much like her own. “Come here.” She lead Odette around racks until she reached something that she’d seen hanging on the wall. “This will go with your eyes
. She held it against Odette and compared
the blue with the bright blue of her eyes. Odette thanked her and scampered off happily,
on the hunt
for other stuff.

Raine grabbed another teddy, and two
more
from other racks. Approaching
Savannah
, she held one up against her and looked her over.
Savannah
was tall. At about 6’2”, she was the tallest of the group. Her light blonde hair waved down to the middle of her back. She had brown eyes and tan skin, and Raine knew without a doubt
that she’d look killer in this n
egligée. Satisfied, she found Raven next and handed her one that would go with her green eyes and black hair, and then found Calleen and handed her one as well. Calleen had light brown hair that was straight as a poker and fell just below her shoulder blades. “Yep, this one will be perfect,” she said, holding the ligh
t pink number up against her.