The Keeper (2 page)

Jed caught her looking between the two of them and caught the increase in her breathing.  Shit.  It was Donovan.  He had wondered for five years, and now he was pretty sure that he knew the answer to his question.  He looked at the floor and took a deep breath.  He was looking for one scent in particular, but when he breathed in he got her arousal as well as Donovan’s. 

“…made me dress like Little Bo Peep.  It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”  Donovan was fighting his laughter.  Jed hadn’t heard a word he had said
-hadn’t answered his question
, and he knew why.  Jed’s mind was wrapped around one feisty little red head.  Donovan knew the feeling.  His was wrapped around the same one.  He had never been so grateful to get out of an elevator in his life.  Jed would probably kill him. 

Donovan grabbed his shoulder and squeezed just before stepping out into the lobby of the top floor.  The only two things on this floor were Silas’ office and Lex’s apartment. 
Lex stepped out and went straight to her door while the other two men stepped off the elevator and watched. 

“It’s you,” Jed said not taking his eyes off of Lex’s ass until it was hidden by the closing door.  It wasn’t a question.  Jed knew and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that.  Donovan was his best friend after all.  Silas had them switch places when Jed started having trouble controlling his wolf around Lex.  Jed had taken over the Phoenix office and Donovan had come here. 

“It is.”  Donovan put his hands in his pockets
and kept his back to Jed
.
  It was a sign of trust
,
and
in this case it might well mean his death, but i
f Jed
was
going to kill him he was going to do it without a fight.  Donovan didn’t have many people that he called friend.  Jed was one of three.  Silas and Lex were
the other two.  He was the type of vampire that made others nervous.  He was powerful in his own right-stronger than most of his kind, but he was considered a loose cannon.  He wasn’t.  He was very much in control of himself, but he liked to have fun.  Jed knew that.

Jed nodded and turned to the left, headed for Silas’ office.  He heard the breath that Donovan had been holding escape.  He raised his hand to knock on the door in front of him, but was save
d
the trouble when it opened. 

Chapter Two

“Where is she?”  Silas asked, though he
seemed to already know the answer to the question as he looked between the two men.  “Get in here.”
  Both men followed Silas into his office.  All the windows were covered, but there was a floor lamp and a desk lamp on.  Vampires could be out in the day, but sunlight tended to weaken them.  Younger vamps had to sleep through it.  To ones as old as Donovan and Silas it was a
mild
inconvenience.

Silas’ anxiety was making Jed nervous, a
nd a nervous wolf was a very bad thing.  Jed stood as Donovan dropped into a chair hanging one leg over the arm
looking completely relaxed-Jed knew he was anything but-
while Silas paced behind his desk. 
Silas was the most stoic, controlled being Jed had ever met and he had been around for a very long time.  He
was tall and slender.  Muscular, but not bulky.  He wore expensive suits and expensive shoes and a cheap watch that his daughter had given him for Father’s Day ten years ago.  It was that watch that drew Jed’s attention.  He knew that it hadn’t worked five years ago
and it didn’t work now-he would have heard it
-
yet the man wore it every day.  Alexis was the love of his life and the only person that could have him this worked up.

“She’s in trouble?”  Jed’s words stopped Silas’ movements long enough for him to consider
first
Jed then Donovan. 
Silas grey eyes were a thunderstorm of emotions.  Emotions that he
never
let show. 
He nodded and resumed his pacing. 

Silas took a deep breath as if choosing his words carefully. 
“It is time.  You two have three days to convince her to form a bond with you both.  If it is not done by then you will do it against her will.”  His pacing never stopped.  If anything, his movements seemed more agitated. 

Donovan stood then.
  Jed hadn’t even heard him move, and that was saying something
.  “I’ll do nothing of the sort.
  I don’t know about Jed here,” Donovan waived a hand toward him, “but I will not take her against her will.”

 
   
Jed was quiet.  He decided to wait this out.  If Silas was to the point that he wanted them to essentially rape the one person that he loved the most, something was very wrong. 

Silas stopped pacing and was standing in front of Donovan in a flash.  “If you don’t she will die.” 

He had said it on a whisper, but the words screamed through Jed’s head.  He stumbled to the other chair and sat as Donovan looked like he had been punched in the gut and sank back into his.  

Silas, seeing that he had made his point leaned back against his desk with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose with one hand
and squeezing his eyes shut. 
This was not going well, but at least neither man appeared to be arguing with him
now
.  “As you both know, I am not without my gift
s.  The Rebellion has grown stronger.  It’s the reason the Keeper is here
.  In order
for
them to
over throw
the Watchers,
they know that the Keeper must be destroyed.  They will find her and they will kill her if she remains human.”  Silas paused for everything to sink in.  Then
he
turned to Jed.  “I called you last week, but when you didn’t show, I had every resource in the city looking for you.  The woman you were marrying is the leader of the group.  She must know that you’re one of the Protectors.  The only power strong enough to break the spell she had you under is that of the amulet.  It only works when on the Keeper.  I didn’t have a choice
.  I had to send Lex
.”

“They know who she is now.”  Donovan had spoken
so softly
Jed doubted if he realized that his thought was said out loud. 

Jed
felt his stomach roll.  He had put Lex in danger.  The one woman he would give his own life for and he
had put her life at risk. 
“This is my fault.  If I hadn’t
gone into that bar when I got into town…”

             
Silas interrupted Jed.  “They would have found her another way.  You are hers to protect, just as she is yours.”  He rubbed a hand over his face that Jed now realized looked weary. 

             
“There is only one way to protect her and once it is done,
she along with you two should be able to stop them
.”  He turned to Jed.  “She knows who she is but not the specifics of the relationship between her and the Protectors.”  He turned his head to Donovan.  “I have discussed some things with her, but there are other things that…”
  Silas stopped, looking for the right words to finish that sentence.

             
Jed piped up.  “You couldn’t discuss sex with your daughter, Silas.”  Silas looked at him with something close to relief in his eyes.  Jed was
certain
he didn’t want to voice the weakness.  “I’m sure you are not the only man unable to broach the subject with his daughter.”  He looked to Donovan, who nodded his silent agreement.  “We’ll handle it. 
But I agree with Donovan on this one.  We will not do this against her will.”

             
Thirty minutes later he was wishing he hadn’t made that last statement
.  Against her will was probably the only way they could save her
.  She was letting neither man into her apartment.  He knew she was in there.  He could smell her.  He could hear her even breaths on the other side of the door.  Jed jerked his head to motion Donovan back into the lobby
silently cursing stubb
orn ass, temperamental redheads.
 

             
Lex heard them step away from the door and breathed a sigh of relief.  Her dad had been worried and preoccupied the last few days and it was enough to cause her concern.  She knew he had
called Jed back and that there was something he wasn’t telling her about this whole Keeper thing.  She had a feeling it had everything to do with the two men outside her apartment.  She knew they were there to protect her, but with the way her father had blushed when he brought up the subject, she knew it had something to do with sex.  It was the only time she had ever seen him blush.  The problem was that she didn’t know exactly what was going on and she wanted both men very badly.  There was no way she would ever b
e able to choose between them.
  She did know that if she opened
the
door she was likely to throw herself at the closest one.  So she kept the door closed and planned on waiting them out. 
Knowing Donovan and Jed, it was going to be a very long wait.  Too bad she didn’t have their patience.

             
Donovan followed
Jed back toward the elevator
, but kept his eyes on the door.  If it opened he was going to be the first one inside it.  The wolf was fast, but he was lightning.  “Why won’t she let us in?”
  He could hear the confusion in his own voice.  Lex had been pissed at him before, but she always let him in.

             
“Look, I don’t know what Silas has told you about me leaving, but
Lex has every reason to be pissed at me.”  Jed ran his hand across the back of his neck and looked at his feet.  He raised his eyes back to Donovan.  The son of a bitch was smiling. 

             
“Please, do continue.”  Donovan had never seen Jed look flustered.  He was going to enjoy this.

             
“She had just turned twenty.”  He paused and thought back to that day.  “She had gone out with some of the people downstairs and
one of them
called saying
Lex
had left and they thought someone had followed her.”  He was looking Donovan in the eye now and saw the fury in his gaze.  He had felt the same way.  “I went after her.  She wasn’t hard to find.  She was headed back here.  I followed her into the garage and started yelling at her about being careful, paying attention.”  Jed smiled then.  “She didn’t say a word until I had to stop to breathe and get my temper under control.
”  He took a breath and
shook his head. 
“
‘This about that tail?’  She was smiling when she asked it.  Said she lost them more than half-way back then she stepped into the elevator.”  Jed shook his head
again
and looked back at her door.  “I should have stopped there.  I know she rides that damn bike like a kamikaze.  There isn’t a creature in the world that can keep up with her, much less catch her.  Instead, I followed her in
to the elevator.  I kept chewing her ass
and I guess she’d had enough.  She grabbed hold of my jacket and kissed me.  Hard.”
  He looked back at Donovan
who had stopped smiling.  Jed could see the lust and envy in his friends’ eyes
.  “If the elevator hadn’t of opened u
p, I would have taken her then and there.  Against a fucking wall.
  Silas was standing in the lobby waiting on us.  He saw how hard the wolf was riding me to mate her.  He told me she wasn’t ready and secured our switch the next morning. 
I walked out of the building that night, shifted and ran until daybreak. 
I haven’t seen or talked to her since.”  He heard the low whistle that passed Donovan’s lips.

             
“This should be fun.”  Donovan was smiling
again
.  He couldn’t help it.  He had always loved a challenge, and even before now he knew Alexis
Martin
was going to be one. 
“Let me talk to her.”  He could see Jed’s hands curl up into fists
and he knew why.
“Look, I can’t take her first.  It has to be you.”  At the stunned look on Jed’s face,
he figured
Silas hadn’t informed him of Doc’s research.  “My kind can’t procreate.  If my DNA binds with hers first she will be unable to conceive.  Silas’ greatest joy has been her.  He won’t sacrifice her happiness and neither will I
, and between you and me, I think the man really wants a grandchild
.  If you mate with her first, Doc says your genes will protect her from the mutation in mine.  She will still have all of my strengths and yours and none of our weaknesses.  Doc doesn’t know exactly what she will become, but legend says she will be unstoppable.  According to him, it’s a damn good thing she’s on our side.”

             
Jed smiled at that
and sat in one of the chairs in the lobby
.  The woman was already unstoppable.  Once she set her mind to something there wasn’t a force in the world that could stop her
. 
 
“I’ll stay right here.  But, I’ll tell you this, if she’s decided we’re not coming in, there’s no way we will be able to
, aside from kicking that door down
.”