Stone Guardian (27 page)

The Oracle smiled, full of mischief and torment. “Tell her to get her sword ready. They’re coming through the door.”

Fallon bared her teeth in a snarl even as she reached back and grabbed her sword. In a fluid movement she turned and ran, coming within a few feet of the doorway as the walls exploded.

This time the revelers were disturbed. Screams rent the air as a mass of bodies started running away from the chaos. Aislynn grabbed Larissa’s arm, and displaying more strength than such an ethereal woman should ever possess, picked her up and toward a wall in the back.

“
Protect the Oracle
,” came shouts from all around. The men and women, so languid moments ago, now held the same warrior postures of Fallon and Aislynn.

In the confusion Aislynn’s hand was ripped away and Larissa was thrown hard against a wall. Pain radiated through her back where she was hit, but it was manageable. She put down her hands against the wall to push away only to feel a doorknob, thank gods. One turn confirmed it wasn’t locked. It opened into an alleyway. One side was blocked off, so there was only one way to go.

At the end of the alley she glanced in both directions. Several blocks down on the right was lots of traffic and wandering beings. After one last look behind her to make sure no one had followed, she took off.

After several blocks of running the sidewalks became populated. If it weren’t for the mix of races she had never seen outside of books, it would have been any night on the town, with revelers searching for the next bar or club. She still stood out a little with her casual clothing and too quick breathing, but if ever there was a moment to celebrate being on the shorter side height-wise it was now.

Head down, she walked fast and straight. Find a phone and call Michael. He’d be able to get to her. Piece of cake, though it would be a little easier if her ears weren’t still buzzing from the earlier club noise.

A hand wrapped around her mouth and pulled her into an alleyway.

Her nails dug into the arm as she kicked backwards. Another hand closed around her middle and a low buzz of sound started near her ear, gradually turning into words. “Calm, little human. You are safe.”

That voice, that deep baritone which meant safety. She withdrew her nails and stilled her legs. The arms loosened enough that she could move, and she turned to face Terak.

“Thank gods.” She threw herself against him with such force his body rocked back some inches. She wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging onto him with all the strength in her body.

There was no hesitation as he returned the gesture. He brought her tight against him, his arms steel bands as they closed around her. His mouth rained small kisses against her temple. “You are safe. I have you. You are safe and they will never touch you again.”

His wings flapped, taking them up into the air.

“I was so scared.” Gods, his smell was so clean, warm and heady and such an amazing contrast from inside the club.
This
was what she wanted to be surrounded with. How could any drug be more potent than Terak close and warm and all hers?

His breath puffed across her ear and his lips never quite left her skin. “I would never stop searching for you,
never
. If I had to make war with the Guild for your safety, they would all be laid before me. I will never be separated from you.”

They traveled in silence then, though Terak kept her close. As they approached her apartment Terak’s mood began to change. The relief he had displayed was being replaced by silence and stillness. Once they entered the apartment the transformation was complete as anger charged through every inch of his body. He was so tight she was half surprised he wasn’t vibrating.

He let her down, folding his wings around himself with a sharp snap. He circled her, taking her in. “You left without me and my protection.”

The words and tone were flat, but they held such repressed anger he may as well been screaming for the knot they caused in her stomach.

“Terak.” She took a cautious step toward him, holding out her hand like she would to a growling junkyard dog. He stopped circling, and that was a good enough sign to reach out and touch him, to rub his arm up and down, plea and apology mixed together in the gesture. “I tried contacting you several times over two hours. I swear I did. I jumped on the balcony and I used that little silver ball you gave me, but neither worked. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“I never received any message. The ball is foolproof, it should have reached me.” He shook his head. “It does not matter. You should not have gone! It was foolishness to leave this place.” The flatness was now gone, and the walls vibrated with his anger.

“I had to!” Yes, he could be mad, but she wasn’t going to be talked to like she was eight. “They lied and said the meeting was going to be an exchange of information. I never expected to be kidnapped, and I had my brother with me, so I wasn’t alone. I had to take a chance to find out if they knew anything to help.”

He made a sound of dismissal, wiping away her words with the swipe of his arm. “I told you not to trust the Guild, and I told you to never leave without me. You disobeyed my instructions. It is pure luck that I was able to find you as quickly as I did.”

“Excuse me?” Now he was pushing it. “If you were so worried, then you shouldn’t have disappeared on me. I wasn’t the one who ran away after kissing someone senseless!”

“I…” He straightened then, wrapping himself in his usual dignity and lowering his voice. “I did not run away.”

“Sure seemed like that to me. For weeks every time I turned around I tripped over you, and then suddenly we share a kiss and you are nowhere to be found? What would you call that if not running away?”

“It was not running away. I needed to think upon the events of the last few days.”

“Yeah, including how you kissed me.”

“It was… it was…” He looked defeated. “Do you regret it?”

Talk about turning it around. Now she was on the defensive, looking into eyes filled with pain and hope. She pushed her hair back, ducking her head. “I wouldn’t say I regretted it,” and she really shouldn’t mumble like that, because she didn’t want him to ask her to repeat what she said.

“Then what would you say?” he asked, his eyes sharpening.

“I’m… not unhappy it happened.”

“Does that mean you are happy it occurred?”

Wasn’t this leading the witness? Oh right, they weren’t in court. “I would have preferred other circumstances.”

“Such as?”

“Such as you not being engaged.” Ha! There, couldn’t argue with that one.

“Valry and I are no longer Intended.”

Back the truck up. “What? When… How? Really?” Eloquence, thy name is Larissa Miller.

He studied her for several moments, and then he smiled.

He smiled.

A full blown grin such as she had never seen on him. Happiness
radiated
from him in a way she’d never experienced before, and how was she supposed to respond when the sight was frying the synapses in her brain?

He advanced, walking toward her with a predatory grace he’d never displayed before. “You seem pleased by that news.”

Who was this gargoyle? He had always been reserved, almost courtly in his bearing before, not this magnetic, determined animal stalking his prey. And by the direct stare as he held her gaze, there was no doubt that his prey was her.

Since he was advancing, what else could she do but back up? “I need more details before I decide how I feel.”

“What type of details, little human?”

“The usual – what happened, any chance of reconciliation, are you returning the engagement gifts?” Her back hit the wall and he was leaning over her, not allowing her any more movement.

He studied her, his eyes direct and intense, almost scary in how focused they were on her. “What do you feel, Larissa?” and gods knew, she would admit to about anything if it meant that he kept saying her name in that exact voice.

She didn’t know why he was no longer engaged, whether it was because of her words or some other reason. But it was time to move forward. If these last few weeks – hell, last few hours – taught her anything, it was life was uncertain, and you needed to grab hold of the chances you were given, all the outside forces be damned.

His alien, beautiful face was right by hers, every line and plane as familiar to her as her own. A face she dreamed of belonging to a male she longed for. She reached up, stroking her finger over the grey skin. “I feel that I don’t regret a moment of what’s happened to me, because I found you in the middle of it all.”

His head reared back inches, shock and hope and gratitude mixed together in his expression. His hand cupped her face, tilting her head back as his mouth reached for hers. His lips were warm with the right pressure, demanding she open to him without bullying her on it.

This was connection, soul-deep and scary in how right it was. His wings came around her, wrapping her tightly in an embrace more all-consuming than any that only consisted of arms. Those wings brought them together, sinking skin into skin and even that wasn’t nearly close enough.

“Your lips are so soft,” he said, pulling back the tiniest bit, as if parting hurt him. “All of you is so soft.”

He didn’t take her mouth again, but pressed his lips against the underside of her chin. With exquisite slowness he made his way down the side of her throat, only moving further down after every inch had been explored.

She groaned. “Terak, what are you doing to me?”

He loved her breathy voice. He loved everything about her, but he especially loved she was now in his arms. “Do not humans enjoy this?” He licked her pulse point, the texture of the skin under his tongue a wonderful sensation. “Or this? Shall I tell you what gargoyles enjoy, little human? What a male will do when he has a female in his arms that he has dreamed about since the first moment he saw her?”

Her breathless
“Show me”
almost dropped him to his knees. Instead, he stepped back and pulled her shirt from her pants, ripping the front and causing buttons to scatter everywhere. “I hurt every time I left you. You had me wanting, and it felt that I would never be at ease again.”

Her smile had an edge. She liked the torment she had put him through. “I guess I need to make that up to you.”

His clawed fingers traced the edge of lace on her bra. It was blue, the same blue of her eyes, and it offered her up to his mouth those plump, mouthwatering mounds. “Wearing this,
Meyja
, is apology enough.”

He leaned down, his tongue tracing the edge of the lace. Her head fell backwards, offering him complete access to what he desired. “I love your tongue. I love how warm you are.” She shook her head, as though trying to clear it. “What does
Meyja
mean?”

Coward he might be, but he wasn’t ready to tell her yet. He could not chance her feelings not being the same as his, or worse, that they were, but she could not go against her family to accept him. “I will tell you when after we defeat our enemy. This way you will have something pleasant to obsess over in the coming days.”

Her frown told him what she thought of that, but there were ways to distract her. He stroked his claws over her stomach to her waistband and pulled the pants down her long legs.

She stood before him, bare except her undergarments. He needed to bury his face between her legs, let her taste dance on his tongue. She was warm and sweet and he needed her more than the air he breathed.

He picked her up, coming to his feet and carrying her to her bedroom. “Terak?” she asked, but stopped when he put her down on the bed.

“Shh,
Meyja
. Let me do this. I need you.”

He nuzzled her through her blue panties, her little coils of hair crushing beneath his nose as breathed deep her intoxicating fragrance.

His tongue came out and pushed against her through her panties. She groaned, wrapping her hands in his hair and holding on as if it was her only source of stability. “Oh gods yes, I do love that tongue.”

He pulled the underwear to the side, and swiped his tongue over her bare sex.

Her cries dimly registered in his ears. She was pink and perfect, sweet with an undercurrent of tang.

Very much how she was in all other ways.

He wanted to take his time, bring her satisfaction over and over. His tongue moved on her and brought a long, keening cry to her lips. “Terak! Please.”

“Please what?”

“I want to come. I want to come when it isn’t my own hand bringing me satisfaction.”

The thought of her touching herself flashed through his mind and he growled. She would do that for him one day soon.

But not now. Now she would come because of his tongue.

The little nub at the top of her sex was glistening, beckoning him. He surrounded it with his mouth, giving gentle pulls that had her gasping.

“Yes, Terak. Like that.”

He pulled a little harder.

“I was wrong before. Just like that.”

He smiled, and then went to work. She had the most decadent taste he had ever experienced, water after having survived crossing the desert.

The muscles in her thighs jumped under his hand, giving proof to her excitement. Her groans grew in volume, begging him to finish it, to bring her satisfaction.

Finally she keened, her back arching as the tremors against his tongue spoke of her climax.

Her body was pulsing in aftershock, the ripples driving him insane, because he wanted his cock inside her to experience it that way. He wanted to be deep inside her. He wanted to come in her as she clenched around him, marking her with his seed. Marking her as his woman in body as she had been in mind since the first moment he had seen her.

Her fingers uncurled from his hair, and she laughed. “I hope I didn’t pull out any hair.”

“A small loss considering what I have been given this night.”

She smiled again, her face radiant. “That was fun. Maybe we can do other things now?”