Passion Ignited (3 page)

Gods, she was strong, gripping him as hard as
she did. She held so tight that a small tingle had started to
spread up his arm, and he’d wondered if it was due to her strength
or if it had something to do with her Instinct. He still hadn’t
picked up on what she was. That didn’t mean he didn’t have a
theory.

“Raider,” he replied. “You wouldn’t happen to
be named after Nitroglycerin, would you?”

A smile curved her lips. “Maybe it was named
after me.”

He didn’t believe that for one second, but
said nothing as she released his arm and turned to walk back to her
spot. Raider immediately took advantage, checking out the way she
fit into her pants.

“I see we’re back to staring. Fabulous,” she
said sarcastically. “This is my brother, Ash.” She gestured to the
guy next to her.

Her statement confirmed his intuition of them
being related. Not only did they share physical similarities, but
they also shared the same demeanor. There was something off about
the two; something he couldn’t pinpoint while being shut out of
their minds. “Twins?”

She immediately rolled her eyes. “Gee, how’d
you guess?”

Ah, so the sexy dominatrix was a sarcastic
little one. This could be fun.

Raider wasn’t able to fight his smile before
it spread across his face. Nitro’s eyes lit on him and she raised
an eyebrow. He pushed his smile down as he stepped forward and
gripped Ash’s forearm. “Nice to meet you, man.”

He returned the gesture. “It’s good to be
here. Demetrius speaks highly of the Guardians, and I’ve heard only
good things floating around the Lore.”

Raider released Ash’s arm. “Thanks, man. This
is Thrash,” he said, gesturing toward the largest Guardian. Thrash
stood tall with his eyes taking in every detail of the three
newbies. He didn’t offer any sort of response other than that he
didn’t look away. Next to him stood his best friend, Blaze, who had
his pitch-black hair pulled up into tiny spikes that he had just
dyed blue at the tips. “That’s Blaze, this is Ethan.” Ethan was his
youngest blood-related nephew, the son of Raine and Ferox, and
Draven’s younger brother. He offered a nod and smile. “And this
young bastard here is Gregory,” he concluded as he clapped their
geriatric white-haired butler on the back. “I apologize everyone
isn’t here to greet you. Our leader, Ferox, is healing from some
wounds, but we’ll make sure you meet with him as soon as he’s up to
it. His mate, Raine, is tending to his injuries. There are a few
other Guardians you’ll meet shortly as well.” He wouldn’t mention
that Draven was off battling against gods or that Riley was in a
coma. No one needed to know their business, especially when he
didn’t know who the hell they were.

But he’d do everything he could to find
out.

Chapter Two

As it was, the three newbies hadn’t wanted a
rest from their travels. After he and Gregory had shown them to
their rooms, the twins had dropped their bags and asked where they
needed to fight. Garrick seemed to have taken the longest time, but
then again, the guy toted more bags than even Raine traveled
with.

It was clear that the three had come to fight
alongside the Guardians, and that was exactly what they intended to
do. He got the distinct feeling they wanted to get out of there as
soon as possible. He supposed he couldn’t blame them. On one side,
they already had a home. One that also needed protecting from the
monsters that go bump in the night. On the other, it was an honor
to fight alongside the elite. The Guardians were the best of the
best. Who wouldn’t be proud to join their forces?

Before he’d come to his room, Raider had
informed his brothers that everyone was off patrol for the night.
They needed to see what the newbies were made of, which meant that
they were all in for another night of training. Since Raider had
been up all day monitoring the grounds and listening for distress
calls, he went up to his room for a catnap. He’d put Blaze in
charge until he rose again, though he hadn’t been able to sleep a
wink. It had felt like such a short time had passed since he’d
retreated to his room. Rolling out of bed, he dressed for training
and went down to the gym where the others had gathered.

“Alright, many of you know what’s expected
tonight, but I’ll still cover the basics. Don’t use your ‘special’
skills against each other here if they can cause actual harm. I’m
only interested in seeing your basic fighting maneuvers. Leave your
Instincts for actual battle.” Raider looked at everyone, but he
purposely made eye contact with the new recruits. He still hadn’t
received word from Demetrius on if these three were who they said
they were, and he’d emailed the big-guy hours ago.

“Thrash, I want you to go up against Garrick.
Blaze, you go up against Ash, and Ethan, you will fight against
Nitro.” Raider pointed at each warrior as he said their name, so
each understood who their opponent was.

“And who will you go up against?” Nitro asked,
her tone was bored as she inspected her fingernails.

“I’ll watch first,” he replied, before turning
to face everyone. “Now begin.”

The Guardians and the new warriors split up,
each taking a section on the mats so they had plenty of room to
spar. Thrash and Garrick took the furthest section, and Raider
honed in on them at first. The other two sets of warriors had also
started battling against each other, but Raider’s attention was
focused on Garrick’s speed. The bastard had shot forward and caught
the wolf by surprise, landing him on his back.

Thrash was extremely fast, but he had nothing
on this new warrior. It was clear that Garrick was from the magical
community, and that he was using his Instincts in the battle
against Thrash, but Raider couldn’t fault him. If he’d stayed alive
this long in battle because of his speed, then more power to him.
He found himself smiling as he watched the two fight. Thrash opened
up his Instinct as well, making a few connections with his fists
and legs. He seemed to enjoy the fight that Garrick was giving
him.

Raider watched Nitro and Blaze next. Their
fighting skills were similar, and Raider watched how equal they
were. Nitro was quite impressive, for a female. There were only a
few females he’d ever seen who could fight as well as she could.
Raine was one of those few. Raider’s gaze kept wandering over Nitro
as she fought Blaze. How could the sight of that female drive him
to want to gnaw his own godsdamned hand off?

Moving away from Blaze and Nitro, Raider
watched Ethan battle against Ash. Both men actually looked like
they were having fun. They were giving advice on attack maneuvers,
as well as congratulating on moves one of them had never seen
before. Raider nodded to himself and smiled at the instant
camaraderie they were showing. Ethan was a likeable guy, but it was
surprising that Ash was showing a sense of friendship. Something
Raider doubted his sister was capable of.

Raider shouted out a quick change in fighting
partners. Instructing Ethan to sit out and watch, he decided to
take on Nitro himself. The others switched opponents as well and
began their fighting techniques again. Ethan stayed to watch him
fight Nitro first.

She arched her brows at Raider as he
approached her, looking annoyed that she had to train. She wasn’t
standing in the attack pose he’d seen her in when she’d fought
against Blaze earlier. Instead, she stood straight, her hooker
boots shoulder width apart. Her head cocked to the side as she
watched him stalk toward her, and Raider couldn’t help but smile at
her innocent-looking stance. She didn’t look like a warrior now.
She didn’t look like she was ready to fight at all.

“What are you smiling at, old man?” she
purred.

Raider’s smile instantly vanished as Ethan
snorted behind him. “Nitro, I want you to attack me. What you’re
doing now is perfect. If I were an opponent, I wouldn’t expect
anything from you right now. Don’t hold back. Give me everything
you’ve got.”

The smile she gave him was as angelic as it
was evil. She batted her eyes at him and cocked her head the other
way. “Raid, Raid, Raid,” she said as she shook her head. “I don’t
think you really want that. You really don’t want to test my
skills.”

“I do,” he replied.

With that, she hurled herself at him. Raider
reacted slowly, noticing that she didn’t trace or flash toward him.
Whatever she was, it appeared she didn’t have those abilities. No
matter, because she still pinned him to the ground faster than many
other demons could have.

“What’s the matter? Am I too much for
you?”

He threw her off of him. Both of them quickly
regained their footing and faced off again. This time he flashed
toward her. Just as he reached her, she kicked out, sending her
spiked heel right into his stomach. He grunted at the contact, but
spun and wrapped his arms around her. They landed on the floor with
a thud and he had her pinned within the blink of an eye.

“How did you do that?” he asked.

Her eyes glistened with triumph, even though
she lay on her back below him. “I may not be able to run that fast,
but I can track it.”

Ethan wandered off, chuckling to himself as he
went to watch the other fights. In that instant, Nitro’s body
language completely changed and she started to laugh. The way her
body shook from her laughter sent chills through Raider’s
body.

“If this is where you wanted me, all you had
to do was ask,” she whispered.

He blinked maybe two or three times as he
stared down at the female. How odd that she would go from anger and
annoyance to…arousal? A low growl escaped his chest before he could
stop it and he quickly rolled off of her. He stood just as she
kicked off her back and landed on her feet. Within a split second
they were in a tangled mess on the floor again, grappling for
control over the other. The smile that lit up Nitro’s face as they
rolled on the floor started to vanish. Her body language changed
yet again as the other Guardians stopped their battles to watch
their fight.

Wrestling morphed into a standing battle,
which in turn turned back into a ground-n-pound. Everyone was
cheering them on, surprised at how serious the two were taking the
fight. But it ended too quickly as Raider and Nitro were pried
apart from each other.

“Didn’t think you had it in you, old man,”
Nitro said. A small smile spread across her lips as she looked
Raider up and down. It wasn’t the sweet smile she’d surprised him
with earlier. It was the smile of a predator.

“Right back at you, doll.”

Anger flashed across her face and she hissed
at him until Ash put a hand on her shoulder. Her brother pulled her
back just as she launched herself at Raider.

Raider turned to the others. “Let’s do team
maneuvers. I’m assuming the twins are used to fighting alongside
each other, and I’m assuming you’re pretty good at it, so we’ll
keep you two together. Thrash and Blaze complement each other’s
fighting skills, so you two will go up against the twins. Garrick
and Ethan, you two join with Nitro and Ash. I’ll fight alongside
Thrash and Blaze.” Raider had found this exercise helpful at
deciding who would team up for patrols. An ache formed in his chest
as he thought about the last few times they’d done this; it had
been to help Riley gain some fighting experience. The lad hadn’t
seen many battles, and was still new to the whole fighting thing.
And even though no one knew what he’d turn out to be once his
Instinct kicked in, he’d actually turned out to be a pretty good
fighter. But even that hadn’t been enough when he’d gone up against
Damion and Q.

“You have uneven teams, Raid.”

The warriors all turned to the female whose
voice echoed through the gymnasium. Raine and Ferox stood just
inside the doorway.

Raider smiled over at his king and queen
before turning to the others. “That’s Ferox and Raine, our leaders.
They’re also king and queen of the vampire race.”

Without another word, all the warriors went
over to greet them. The three newbies were very respectful, even
going as far as asking how Ferox got his injuries. Ferox appeared
to be confused about the arrival of new warriors, so Raider quickly
explained that Demetrius had sent them in to help. He then started
to rush things along so that training could continue. They’d taken
the night off from patrolling, but the Guardians had to be ready
for battle at a moment’s notice.

“If you’ll excuse us, we have one final
exercise before we call it a night. I’d like to see how well
everyone works in a team capacity.”

“Of course,” Ferox replied, looking over the
three as if memorizing them.

“Yes, Raider,” Raine added. “But I would like
to join in on the exercise.”

Raider’s eyebrows popped up as he looked at
his queen. It had been a long time since she’d asked to join in on
the trainings. Everyone knew that she snuck down here frequently to
practice maneuvers herself, but it had been ages since she’d fought
alongside them, and that was because Ferox feared for his mate’s
safety.

“That’s not a wise decision,” Ferox said as he
looked at Raine. “This is training for warriors. I should be in
there with them before you should. Besides, I thought you were
feeling ill.”