Destined for Time (12 page)

For those reasons most shifters choose to have casual sex
with many partners rather than risk becoming attached to anyone other than
their mates. Supernaturals cannot carry human diseases so we don’t need to
worry about limiting the number of sexual partners we have like humans do.

Time demons can have children with anyone able to carry a
child but our powers will only pass to a child born with our
anai
. Since
I’m a Guardian my life is dedicated to Dragon. My loyalty to him will always
trump any commitment I make to a woman unless she is my
anai
. Even then,
I will always be devoted to protecting him and his mate.

I’d always thought it was best for me to satisfy my physical
needs with shifters because I can’t get them pregnant, since I’m not a mate,
and they don’t usually want emotional attachments, which would interfere with
my ability to keep Dragon safe.

When Vivian and I started spending time together we thought
it would just be casual, but the more we saw of each other we realized it was
becoming emotional. Instead of parting ways like most shifters would have, we
allowed our feelings to grow and moved in together. We eventually ended the
relationship but remained good friends who occasionally have sex together.”

I’d kept my head down while he talked hiding the tears as
they ran down my face, but now I looked up and met his concerned gaze. “Did you
love her? Have the two of you had sex recently? Since the bombing?” My voice
was shakier than I liked, revealing too much of what I was feeling inside.

For years he’d been trying to get me to date him and each
time he’d asked I buried how I felt about him and told him no. Since the night
of the bombing when he kissed me for the first time and the passion we shared
later that night, the floodgates had been open. I couldn’t stop seeing him as
mine no matter how dangerous those thoughts might be to my career or to my
heart.

“I cared deeply for Vivian, I still do but it’s different
now. I always knew what we had was temporary. Even when we were together she
longed to find her mate, and I couldn’t blame her because I still dreamed of
finding someone I could make my
anai
. I think that’s why I held back,
why I didn’t let myself fall in love with her.”

He looked away before answering the rest. When his eyes came
back to mine silver sparks danced around the edges. “I hadn’t had sex with
Vivian, or anyone else for that matter, since the day I met you more than six
years ago, not until the night of the bombing with you. And I haven’t been with
anyone since then.”

My lips parted and I sat there stunned. Rook was gorgeous,
almost irresistible with his strong muscular body, his long ebony hair, and the
air of confidence and danger he exuded like he knew he could handle anything
life threw at him. I’d seen the way other women looked at him and there were a
lot of women to choose from here at Myths and Legends. He could have had a
hundred women in the last six years, more if he’d wanted.

He slid across the couch closer to me and cupped the sides
of my face with his hands. His eyes were endless pools of silver stars as he
leaned down and brushed his lips over mine. It was a soft caress followed by a
slow sweep of his tongue. Then another gentle touch and the sensual slide of
his tongue against mine. He tasted like Heaven, or what I imagined Heaven should
taste like. As our tongues twined and our lips moved together my arms came up
around his neck and his hands held the sides of my face like I was a precious
treasure. Desire burned through me, dampened the soft flesh between my legs,
but that wasn’t what this kiss was about. This kiss was about two hearts
longing to be together as one.

When our lips finally parted he rested his forehead against
mine with his eyes still closed and whispered, “Every time I’ve seen you, or
even thought of you over the years, I’ve prayed to the Goddess for a way to
make you my
anai
. But even when I thought that wasn’t a possibility I
knew there would never be another woman who could make me feel the way you do.”

“Rook, I...”

He pulled back and put his finger over my lips. “Don’t say
anything Angela. I know you’re not ready and I’m willing to wait as long as you
need me to.” He kissed my forehead and sat back with pure silver eyes.

There were so many things I wanted to say, but he was right,
I couldn’t give him what he wanted to hear, not yet, maybe not ever. It felt
like giving in to him would mean saying goodbye to everything I’d ever thought
was important in my life.

“You’re right, I don’t think I’m ready for this, but I do
need to ask; what does
anai
mean? And why was it so important to Kaleb
that I was yours?”

He scrubbed his hands over his face before he answered. “
Anai
for my people is the same as mate for shapeshifters. It’s interchangeable
meaning if you were my
anai
I would be yours too. There isn’t a separate
word for male and female like husband and wife. But unlike shapeshifters we can
choose our
anai
; we’re not bound to one perfect mate chosen by fate.

The problem is; that we can only choose someone to be our
anai
if that person can travel through time with us. That narrows the choices down
to a few thousand time demons and the rare beings like you that we occasionally
come across. I told Kaleb and Danarius you are my
anai
because if you
were, you and your family would be protected as part of my family.”

“So basically you told them I was your wife.” Just saying
that out loud sent a thrill through my body and I shivered.

His perceptive eyes noticed but without commenting he said, “Essentially,
but the connection between
anai
is deeper than humans could ever
imagine. The bonding takes place in the ether between times where souls are
left bare, unprotected by their bodies and once two souls are bound as
anai
they can never be separated again.”

“How did Danarius know that we don’t share that bond when
Kaleb just took our word for it?”

“Kaleb is young, and half human. He wouldn’t know how to
tell if I was lying about the bond, that’s why he asked you for confirmation.
Danarius knew because he’d be able to sense the bond if it was there. He’s very
old and very powerful.”

“Is that why you were so worried when you found out he had
Rachel?” I brought my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around my legs.

“Yes. He’s Travali’s new second in command, but in most ways
he’s far more dangerous than Travali will ever be. Danarius is all about
business. He doesn’t let his emotions get the better of him like Travali does.
Take the fight on the beach between Dragon and Travali for example. Travali was
fueled by his anger and need for revenge. Dragon had recently fought his old
second, Malachi, in The Pit and burned him alive after ripping his limbs from
his body.”

I gasped at the graphic description and the thought that the
charming, debonair Donovan Drake could be so brutal.

Rook snorted. “If you had seen what he did to Serafina before
I reset time to undo the damage you wouldn’t be so shocked about his gruesome
demise. Believe me, he didn’t suffer nearly enough. But Malachi had been
Travali’s lover for hundreds of years and that’s why he took Serafina that
night. Had Dragon been in his right mind when they fought he could have easily
taken Travali. But Dragon wasn’t any better off than the vampire with Serafina
screaming in the background and her pain flowing through their bond.

I’ve seen both of them fight when they’re focused and they’re
both deadly. But that night their emotions just ran too high. If Danarius had
been there in Travali’s place, Dragon would have lost, because Danarius wouldn’t
have let his emotions get the better of him.”

I shook my head. “You keep making casual references to time
like a few decades are nothing more than a week or hundreds of years could pass
without you even noticing. Just how old are you Rook?”

His lips curved into a small smile. “I was born on our
sacred day, the thirteenth day of the thirteenth year during the thirteenth
century.”

I swallowed hard while my eyes roamed over his handsome face
that appeared to be in its mid-thirties. “So you’re saying you were born on
January 13, 1213?” I asked to clarify.

His smile widened when he nodded and my eyes got even bigger
somehow. “Yes, that was the date of my birth.”

“Wow.” That didn’t even begin to cover it. “Are all of you
around here that old?”

He laughed and still smiling said, “I’m sorry but you should
see your face.” My face grew hot and he shook his head. “No we’re not all that
old, but I’m not even the oldest. There are many people here in the resort that
are much older than I am. Take Claire for example, as Dragons mother she’s
centuries older than me and him.”

“Did you just say Claire is Dragon’s mother?”

He smiled wide at my astonishment, “Yes.”

When I thought about it, it actually made a lot of sense.
Most of the resort staff members appeared to be in their early thirties with a
few exceptions. But in talking with them on different occasions I’d always
gotten the sense that they’d been around much longer. It was just something in
the way they spoke. An outdated word or slang term here and there, or in
Solomon’s case, a teenager speaking with the maturity of the fifty year old man
he impersonates during his shows. And then there was Claire. Somehow she always
seemed like a lioness protecting her cubs.

I was getting the answers to questions buried so far in the
back of my mind that I barely remembered ever thinking them. All these years
this place had made me think I was going crazy and it turned out my instincts
were right all along.

Just then there was a knock at the door and Rook went to
answer. He returned with an armful of bags and boxes.

“Solomon had these sent up from the gift shop downstairs. We
can put some clothes in the other room for when Rachel wakes up and you can
take the others to clean up now if you’d like.”

I hadn’t thought about it until that moment with everything
else going through my mind, but I was dead tired. “That’s probably a good idea.
Where will you stay tonight Rook?”

“I’ll just camp out here on the sofa and make sure nothing
comes to get you,” he teased but I could tell he was still worried.

“Don’t you think Solomon’s wards are strong enough to keep
us safe?”

“It’s not always about strength when it comes to magic.
Sometimes it’s about finding the right loophole. I’ll sleep better here knowing
you’re safe in the next room. Besides, after having you and Rachel so close to
Danarius I don’t think I could leave the two of you alone if I wanted to.”

His eyes were haunted and I guessed that like me, he was
imagining all the horrible things that could happen if we fell into the hands
of someone like Danarius.

Not knowing what else to say I told Rook goodnight and
placed some of the clothes in Rachel’s room before going to mine to get ready
for bed. I washed my face and brushed my teeth using the complimentary personal
hygiene supplies I found in the bathroom, then slipped into a pair of comfortable
yoga pants and a soft cotton T-shirt.

When I climbed into bed the sheets were cold and I couldn’t
get comfortable despite the sinfully soft bedding and relaxing mattress. I
tossed and turned for over an hour. My body was beyond worn out from the stress
of the evening, but my mind wouldn’t stop working. And on top of that I was
acutely aware of the man in the other room and the pleasure he was capable of
giving me. That night on the terrace had been hard and fast, but it had been
the best sex of my life. I’d only had a few sexual partners and none of them
had lit my body on fire like Rook had.

I flipped over and punched at my pillow. Thoughts like that
certainly wouldn’t help me get to sleep.

I must have fallen asleep at some point because I woke up screaming
Rachel’s name. The room was dark except for the moonlight seeping in around the
curtains. Rook rushed into the room scanning for danger and stopped beside the
bed.

“What’s wrong Angela?” Concern filled his voice.

My heart was racing and I was having trouble breathing. “It
was only a dream,” I told him as I tried to convince myself the nightmare hadn’t
been real. My eyes moved wildly around the room grounding me in reality. “It
was just a dream,” I assured myself again.

He sat on the bed beside me and pulled me into his arms. “What
did you see in your dream?”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to think about it Rook. I can’t
think about it. You can’t ever let that monster get close to her again.”

“I’ll do my best to keep her safe Angela, I promise.”

The promise was given like he was swearing a solemn oath and
I was glad he didn’t promise more than he could control, even if I’d rather
hear that Danarius would never touch Rachel again.

His hand stroked over my hair while my heart slowed and the
adrenaline rush caused by the dream faded. When I calmed down enough, I noticed
he was wearing a pair of sweatpants and nothing else. My cheek was pressed
against smooth, darkly tanned skin covering hard sculpted muscles.

“How does your skin get so dark when you always wear those
long sleeved shirts?” I asked, tracing the intricate design tattooed on his
chest with my finger. It was exactly like the one I’d seen on his chest during
my massage.

He tensed and said, “I swim in the Gulf almost every day
when I wake up around twelve or one.”

“Oh?” Now that was something I’d like to see. All those
muscles moving gracefully, pulling him through the surf as it rolls on shore.

He cleared his throat. “I think you’ll be alright now,” he
said and started to rise.

I don’t know what came over me but I couldn’t face staying
in that bed alone, waiting for the nightmare to return.