Born of Silence (Immortal Guardians) (15 page)

With each of her sisters trying on their nighties, Raine wandered through the racks again. She already owned a lot of what the store had to offer, but whenever something new caught her eye, she’d throw it over her arm.

A familiar pang caught in her chest, and she quick
ly look
ed
out the store’s window, somehow drawn to it.
Whether it was friend or foe, she didn’t know. But she definitely had the feeling that she was being watched. After a few times of this—and not catching sight of anyone playing Peeping-Tom with her—she decided that she was just paranoid and focused on rummaging through the racks instead.

Shortly thereafter all five of them were in stalls, trying on lingerie. Her sisters had no qualms about modesty, and honestly, Raine never had either, so they’d all meet outside the changing rooms and give each other feedback.
They deferred to Raine as she had by far the most interaction with males, so she was kept rather busy during the fashion show.

All in all, they purchased nearly every piece they’d tried on. Even Raine purchased five new things, which was ridiculous since she wasn’t even sure she wanted to see her mate ever again. What Ferox had done the other night was unforgivable. He’d bitten her—
drank
from her—in anger and against her will. And the worst part of all, she realized that she’d grown weaker over the years. Where she would have been able to defend herself before, now she hadn’t even been able to push her vampire off of her, hadn’t been able to force her own will into the situation.

And that angered her. Valkyries were
not
weak.

“So, where are we going to eat? That Chinese place was good,”
Savannah
said. Her stomach grumbled loudly as she rubbed her hand over it.

Raine laughed at her sister’s never-ending hunger. “Oh, there are a lot more Chinese food places. Why don’t we try another one?” They continued down the sidewalk and Raine slowed as they neared an alley. Knowing exactly where it came out on the other side, she said, “Actually, why don’t we sneak through the alley? It’ll shave off some time.”

Her sisters shrugged and followed her down the dark side street, away from the bustle of
Broad Street
and away from the obvious gawking of every man within eyesight.
Her sisters tried not to be distracted by the attention, but it was hard not to when their minds were clearly on sex.

“Can we do something
besides
Chinese?” Odette asked irrita
b
ly. “I’m not sure how long we’ll be in this realm and I’d really like to try something else.”

Raine nodded, unable to keep herself from laughing at Odette’s pouting. “You can try whatever you want. We can even go to a buffet if you’d like.”

“Ooh,” Raven chimed in. “That sounds amazing. What is a
buffet
?”

“They have a ton of food and you can dish up as many—” Raine turned forward, sensing
a disturbance as her sisters froze in place. She caught
sight of multiple forms in the darkness.

The demons had seen or heard them a few seconds before, and were already standing battle-ready.
I
t was likely that they’d think the Valkyries were simply human.

If that was the case, then they were sorely, sorely mistaken.

The first one: a fast, greenish demon with yellowing teeth and eyes
,
rushed forward, engaging Odette. The others quickly followed, and the Valkyries were forced into battle. Thank the Goddess they all wore their weapons that they’d been able to hide under their clothing.

Raine whipped out her dagger and plunged it into the first demon that attacked her. Seeing three others move in, she plucked her throwing stars that were strapped to her thighs and flicked them, catching each of the demons in the chest. They stopped momentarily, surprised at the star-like blades that protruded from their bodies.

Their distraction was enough. Raine rushed forward, slicing her dagger through each of their necks, knowing that she’d likely have to come back later to finish them off. Lightning struck in the alley, and she risked a glance at her sisters to see that they were each handling their own battles. Raven had a gash in her arm, which was bleeding profusely. She made a mental note that they’d need to stop off for some First-Aid after they kicked demon ass.

S
he should have warned the girls about what these demons were. Valkyrie
s
went through serious training growing up, but there was no way to cover every single demon in existence. And since Valkyries weren’t supposed to leave
Valhalla
, that meant that they likely had no idea what they were going up against. Arms wound around Raine and she whirled around, kicking out against her attacker. The demon fell on his back, but scrambled to his feet and surged forward again.

A dark shadow crossed through the alleyway as a ferocious growl echoed off the walls. Raine only got a glimpse of the form before she was forced to engage the demon again. All around, there were screeches and screams, both from the demons that her sisters were battling, as well as others who had, so far, been waiting their turn. Lightning continued to strike as each Valkyrie w
as
engrossed in her
own
fight. Even Raine let loose a little, no longer holding back the bolts of lightning that struck from her emotions. The sky and the alley lit brightly as bolts arced all around.

Goddess, this felt incredible.

Raine felled the demon and took a step backward as two others rushed toward her. Bracing herself, she stood in her fighting stance, ready to take both demons on. She’d already been scratched and sliced in a few places, but she’d likely get a whole lot more between these two. Her sisters were still fighting demons, but thankfully their enemy’s numbers were dwindling.

She tightened her grip on her dagger, readying to charge them. Suddenly the dark shadow hauled in like a bat out of hell and tackled one of them to the ground. Raine wasted no time as she heard the sounds of punching and bones crunching. She rushed into action again, taking advantage of the other demon’s distraction, and plunged her blade into the side of its neck. It roared in pain and shoved her away. Raine fell, but thankfully still had ahold of her
dagger
. She rolled to her feet and charged him again, this time aiming for his chest. She hit her mark and the demon dropped to his knees before falling flat on his face. She rolled him over and gripped her hilt, yanking it quickly from the disgusting creature’s chest. She was breathing heavily from the battle, but she just had to kn
ow how her sisters fared
. Their demons were all dead. The alleyway
was
quiet once m
ore, even from the thunder. The Valkyries
were focused on someone else though. Their expressions of anger and confusion had Raine turning to see what they were staring at. Focusing on the dark, she let her eyes
study
his
hunched
body, her heart starting to pound even more than it had from the battle.

He slowly s
tood to his feet, his back
to her. Slowly, he turned and faced them, his gaze settling on her.

Those brown eyes bore into her own with a heat she hadn’t felt in what
seemed
like
an
eternity. His face held the hard jawline and smooth perfection she’d adored for centuries, and she wanted nothing more than to touch his face. Her eyes darted over him, taking in anything and everything as he stood there, panting from
the
battle
. His clothes, she realized, were the very same as what he wore the night he’d battled Damion. Now that she realized that, she remembered seeing that he’d left the mansion in those clothes, but for some reason she couldn’t remember him coming back in them.

And then suddenly
everything made sense.

The thrumming
sensation
she’d had so many times over the last few days had been because of
him
. He’d been watching her from a distance, though she’d still felt his nearness. And that meant one thing:
t
he man she’d thought was her mate the last few weeks wasn’t her mate at all.

It was Damion.

At that realization, she felt the overwhelming need to vomit on the alley floor. The things they’d done, the things
he’d
done to her, all because she thought he was her male. She shouldn’t have ignored her instincts. They’d told her
from the start
that something was wrong, but she’d been too stubborn to trust what her heart had known all along.

The man before her now, with his unmarred, perfect skin and
brown eyes blazing with green radiance,
with his strong, proud jawline and smooth lips, was her mate. Her Fated. Her lover.

Her vampire.

Raine’s breath caught in her throat, tears prickling in her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but couldn’t seem to form any words. He was staring at her, his lips slightly parted as he breathed quickly in and out. His eyes glowed, and her heart leapt at the sight. His eyes had often glowed when he was around her, especially during the times when no one was looking and he allowed himself to stare at her, unguarded. He’d always told her that his eyes glowed because he craved being inside her all the time.

Yes, this was her male, her vampire lover, the one she was meant to spend eternity with. She knew it deep inside her soul, her Instinct purring at th
e thought of being with him again
. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she whisked a tear away as it ran down her cheek.

She opened her mouth again, hoping that she could find her voice this t
ime. “Ferox,” came out as a whis
per.

He staggered slightly, as if caught off guard. He stepped toward her, his eyes blazing with a mixture of want and need as well as pain. She expected him to rush toward her, gathering her in his arms as she so desperately needed. She wanted to run to him, but something in his gaze betrayed confusion along with his
desire
. What she hadn’t expected was the next thing that came out of his mouth.

“You know me?”

Finally, a little luck,
Garrick thought. Dani had just finished explaining how she’d seen what looked like sunlight bouncing off the cave walls down one of the side hallways. She’d made a mental note of which one, hoping that she could spot it if they ever made it that far.

“That’s good,” Garrick said. “Really good. Do you think you’re strong enough to break free next time they take you?”

“I’m not sure. I might be, but we should be focusing on you. You’re up again before I am.”

She was right. The guards could be
t
here at any time, ready to take him for more experiments. But, it didn’t matter if he was up next
because
he
didn’t know where an exit was. She did. “I think you have a better shot at escape,” he said. “Pyro obviously has a weakness for you, so he doesn’t keep as strong of hold on you as they do on me.”

Dani nodded. “Okay, yeah. I think I can work with that. But what about you?”

“What about me?”

Taken
a
back slightly, she said, “Well, how do we get you out?”

Honestly, Garrick had envisioned various escapes and it wasn’t really likely that he’d make it out, not if she made a run for it. Whether she escaped or not, Ekhart would make his guards hunker down and keep an extra cautious eye on the Institute’s lab rats. Not that he was going to tell her that. “Well,” he said, starting his sentence the same way she had. “I’ll give you a phone number and you can call it when you get out.”

“A phon
e number?” Her
face squished up in confusion. Slowly, her features straightened out and her eyes widened. “You expect me to get out of here without
you
?”

He nodded.

“And you actually think I’ll make it out of here and that when I do I should give someone a
call?
”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. Since Dani was so new to the Lore world, he was certain that she’d never heard of the Guardians before. “They’re my friends. They’ll do whatever it takes to get this place shut down.”

“You really think they’ll be able to break in? Or that they’ll even want to?” She hadn’t phrased it like a question. More like “you’re-an-idiot.” “I thought you said that this place was warded?”

Maybe he was an idiot.

No. No matter. At least one of them had to get out of here. One escape meant a possible escape for the other, and countless others on top of that. He told her the phone number despite her dubious expression. And only after making her repeat it over and over until he was satisfied that she had it memorized did they finally move on. “So as soon as you see the hallway, what are you going to do?”