Bound Guardian Angel (38 page)

Opening his eyes, he grimaced and rolled to
his back. Then froze as he looked up through leafless branches at a
starlit sky instead of the roof of the hut he’d called home for the
last twenty years. Ever since Memnon had banished him to the moon
of their home world for breaking the lycans’ most coveted law.

But this wasn’t their home world’s moon.

This wasn’t even their home world’s star
system.

This was Earth. He could tell by the map the
stars created in the night sky. The only planet in the universe
where you could find stars aligned this way was Earth.

Slowly pushing to his feet, he studied the
constellations, scanning east to west. From the stars’ positions,
he was in the northern hemisphere—Chicago would be his guess,
confirmed by the architecture he could make out in the distance—and
it was spring. Most likely early to mid-May.

He glanced around, finding nothing but cold,
grey tombstones and the pyramid mausoleum beside him. The
portal.

Where were the others? Why weren’t they here
to greet him? More importantly, why had they brought him back? He’d
been exiled. You didn’t come back from exile.

Sniffing the air, he tried to identify who’d
been there to open the gate, but he couldn’t find a single familiar
scent. What he did pick up was the essence of a vampire. A vampire
who’d had
his
key, which he’d lost centuries ago. No wonder
he’d fallen through this gate and not one of the others. He’d been
drawn to his key.

But that was the least of his concerns right
now. If Memnon didn’t know he’d been pulled back to Earth, he would
soon, which meant Hunter didn’t have much time.

Not wasting another second, he took off at a
full run, slicing through the shadows with an urgency fed by hope
and desire. He needed to find Annalise. His beloved. His life. The
very reason he’d been banished in the first place.

Chapter 19

Micah sat at his desk at AKM, reviewing the Skeletor
footage again, searching for anything he might have missed.

Sev had spent two hours combing the pedway
today, only to turn up a lot of nothing. Stryker and his team had
continued the hunt when the night shift went on duty, and Io was
still trying to backtrace the hack into AKM’s system. But with each
minute that ticked by without news they’d found something, it
became glaringly apparent they were back at square one, with
nothing to go on. Which meant they were probably going to have to
wait until Skeletor made his next move. Then they could get another
shot.

But that didn’t mean Micah was tucking his
tail. He would continue to scour the evidence in hopes something
would turn up.

A knock at the door pulled his attention
from the video footage looping on his screen.

“Malek. What are you doing here?” He rounded
the desk and pulled Malek into a heart-felt bear hug. Gina was with
him and stood to the side, all smiles and gratitude. “I thought you
were living the good life during your calling, buddy.”

Malek clapped him on the back once then
tightly embraced him. “I have been, believe me.”

They separated, and Malek closed his hand
over Gina’s, pulling her against his side.

“You look good.” Micah nodded, glancing from
one to the other. “Both of you.”

“Thanks to you,” Malek said.

“And Brak,” Gina added.

Malek nodded. “Yes, and Brak. Without him,
neither of us would be here right now.”

Gina had almost died less than two weeks
ago. In fact, she
had
died. Her heart had stopped beating
and everything. And Malek had lost his shit. But Brak had used his
magic mojo and somehow revived Gina, bringing her back from the
dead. Which saved Malek, who’d been seconds away from ending his
own life.

Once more, they’d cheated death, beating the
odds the way they always seemed to do. One day their luck was bound
to run out, but Micah was happy to ride the wave as long as it
lasted.

“So, what are you two doing here?” He leaned
his hip against the side of his desk and crossed his arms. “You
ready to come back to work?”

Malek and Gina exchanged secretive glances
and Gina’s cheeks colored as her smile widened.

“No, not quite yet.” Malek cleared his
throat. “Uh, we just came from seeing the doctor.”

“Oh?” the bottom fell out of Micah’s
stomach. He knew what was coming. Taking a quick peek inside
Malek’s thoughts confirmed it a half-second before Malek
said . . .

“Gina’s pregnant.”

He forced himself to smile.
“Congratulations. I’m happy for you, my brother. I can’t think of
anyone who deserves a child more than you do.”

The words felt like hollow-tipped bullets to
his own heart, but he meant them. Malek had been through the worst
kind of hell known to the universe. He truly deserved to find
happiness. But being happy for someone else didn’t mean he wasn’t
feeling a bit like a flat tire for himself.

Compassion filled Malek’s eyes. He knew how
long Micah had wanted a child and that hearing his own good news
had to hurt. “Micah, I’m sorry. I—”

Micah held up his hand, cutting Malek off.
He didn’t need Malek’s sympathy right now. This was his friend’s
moment, not his.

“Save that shit, Malek. I’m fine. I’ll be
okay. You just focus on making your female happy and seeing your
child arrive safely into the world. Revel in this, Malek. And
you . . .” He turned toward Gina and ruffled her
short hair. “You let my brother from another mother dote on you all
he wants.” He faked an evil eye when Gina appeared ready to
protest. “He’s waited a long time for this, and I can already see
how eager he is to take care of you, so you just sit back and enjoy
being treated like the queen you are in his heart, you hear?” He
lowered his chin and looked at her from the tops of his eyes for
emphasis.

Gina sighed. “Males. You’re all such hormone
divas.”

“Damn straight.” Micah said, chucking Malek
on the shoulder before turning and heading back behind the
desk.

Malek stepped forward. “I heard someone
broke into your apartment and you’re having trouble tracking the
guy down. Do you need me to stick around and lend a hand? I
could—”

“Nope.” Micah shook his head. “Get out of
here. Take your female home and celebrate. We’ll talk later.”

“Well, if you need me, you know where I
am.”

Once he was alone again, Micah clasped his
hands in front of him, elbows resting on the desk, and tilted his
forehead against his thumbs.

Everyone was taking mates and getting
pregnant.

Everyone except him and Sam. They’d mated,
he’d experienced his first calling with her, but her body hadn’t
accepted his offering. Despite making love to her at least fifty
times in less than two weeks, she hadn’t gotten pregnant.

He rubbed his palms over his face and eyed
the open door for less than a second before he got up and closed
it. He didn’t want to see anyone right now, and he didn’t want
anyone seeing him. Not like this. Not when he felt like a shark
trapped in a net, on the verge of drowning.

Returning to his chair, he bowed his head
into his hands as he spun around and faced the back of the
office.

Josie was pregnant. Miriam was pregnant.
Now, Gina was pregnant. If Sev and Ari had mated females instead of
each other, they would likely be pregnant, too.

And yet, Sam remained barren.

Micah was happy for his friends. He knew how
important having a young was for a male vampire.

God, did he ever know!

He lived it every day. Every time he made
love to Sam, he hoped against hope he would be the exception to the
rule. That he would be like Tristan or that sperm factory, Lakota,
and somehow impregnate Sam without being in his calling.

But every day, every week, and every month
passed without seeing Sam’s belly swell.

It got so he no longer even checked for a
baby’s life signature inside her, a habit he had fought to get out
of for weeks after coming out of his calling. One that had begun to
cause him physical pain each time he placed his hand over her
stomach as she slept, only to feel nothing but her presence. No
stirring of a second life inside her. No cellular mitosis as new,
microscopic life stirred into existence.

His fingers pushed into his hair and curled
against his scalp as he slowly shook his head. He wanted to believe
that Sam’s body had just been too weak to get pregnant so soon
after he’d changed her into his davala. But what if the truth was
something else? What if, for all his efforts, he couldn’t produce
children? What if he was infertile?

It was possible. Centuries ago, when he’d
been mated to Kat, they hadn’t been able to have children, either.
They’d assumed she was barren, but what if it had been him? Other
male vampires had proven infertile. A rarity to be sure, but not an
impossibility.

Micah sank his face into his hands again.
What if he could never give Sam a child, no matter how hard he
tried, how many callings he endured, or how badly he wanted kids?
What if he was shooting blanks. Maybe a future with children of his
own simply wasn’t in his cards, and if it wasn’t, would Sam be
disappointed? Would she resent him?

“Please don’t do that to me,” he whispered
into his hands, to God or whatever universal entity ruled over life
on Earth. “Please don’t be that cruel.”

And there, in the silence of his office,
with his face in his hands, Mighty Micah broke.

Not much got to a warrior like him. But when
it came to his mate and having children, he could shed tears.

And shed them he did.

Chapter 20

Nursing a busted lip and multiple contusions she
couldn’t feel but knew covered her body, Cordray headed back to the
ranch, racing along the highway. It was after one o’clock in the
morning, and at least for a few hours, she had been able to push
Trace from her thoughts. But she couldn’t avoid him forever. After
all, she was his boss.

Almost two hundred vampires and drecks had
been at Grudge Match tonight. For her first fight, she had been
paired with a dreck named Sonia. Red hair, green eyes, and one
tough bitch. Cordray hadn’t learned much about Sonia, but one thing
was clear. Sonia was a master at Krav Maga. And Cordray’s
still-bloody lip proved it.

Speaking of which, her lip wasn’t healing as
fast as it should. Probably because the excitement of the last
couple of days had depleted her energy and she was due for a
feeding.

Later. Right now, she just wanted to get
inside, shower, eat, go to bed, and avoid Trace as if he were a
rabid piranha. Not necessarily in that order.

She slowed and turned onto Asylum’s long,
gravel driveway. Ghostly ribbons of fog hovered a few feet over the
ground in front of her, breaking and churning like smoke as she
sliced through them.

She parked the Ducati in the garage, shut
off the engine, pulled off her helmet, and let her gaze fall to the
dark oil stain that had soaked into the concrete years ago.

She was alone. With an oil stain. How
symbolic was that? Because didn’t she feel like a stain herself
most of the time? A smear of living tissue that was only half
alive, meandering through existence, her heart dead?

Well, not exactly dead. Because if it were
really dead, she wouldn’t have reacted to Trace the way she had
earlier today, and she wouldn’t be both dreading and looking
forward to going inside, where she might run into him before she
could escape to her bedroom and lock the door.

As if locking her door would keep a male
like Trace out if he wanted to get to her.

The point was, the idea of never seeing
Trace again was enough to spear dread into that four-chambered
muscle that steadily thump-thumped inside her ribcage. So, yeah.
Heart not dead. Got it.

With a frustrated sigh, she made her way out
of the garage to the back door. She was in the habit of scanning
the yard before going inside rather than entering the house through
the garage. Call it an occupational hazard.

As she started up the steps to the back
door, she glanced in the direction of the dorm and sensed the
children sleeping inside. All except Leon and Riley.

Stopping, she scanned the yard, scowling as
dread sank into the pit of her stomach. Those two had been steadily
progressing toward taking their relationship to the next level for
weeks. Had they finally gone there? Had they finally consummated
their fledgling love to set certain tragedy into motion
when—someday—Leon mated another or Riley’s true mate found her and
stole her away?

Stretching out her senses, she swept the
property until . . .

There. In the barn. The scent of sex drifted
into her nose a moment later. Then her sharpened hearing picked up
a quiet moan.

What the hell? It was after one in the
morning!

Those two would never learn. Did Riley want
to end up like her when Leon mated someone else? She wouldn’t be
able to stop it. Leon might say he loved her now, and he might
promise her the moon, the stars, and the entire universe, but when
his biology stirred for another, he would leave her behind without
a glance. She would be nothing. Nobody but a heartbroken female,
left alone to suffer the emotional turmoil of being cast aside
while Leon bonded to his mate and created a family.

Cordray rushed to the barn, desperate to
stop what was happening.
Needing
to stop it. She couldn’t
let Riley end up like her.

She threw open the doors, making them rattle
as they swung and cracked against the wall.

And there they were, on a stack of hay. Leon
on top of Riley, his hands fisted around hers as he rocked into
her, holding down her arms beside her head, her legs around his
hips, her shirt pushed high to reveal her breasts.