The Guardian (26 page)

“It’s the most sacred and beautiful of al flowers in Egypt. They bloom in mud and shine in the darkness

like a gift from the gods to remind you that no matter how bad something is, it wil get better. That no matter

how dark the night, the light wil come for you. If you partake of them, they have the power to calm and

soothe you, and to heal your wounds.” When he spoke his next words, they were laced with emotion and

sincerity. “You are, and wil always be, my
sšn
.”

Lydia pressed her lips together as tears gathered in her eyes. Those words set her heart pounding as

she realized that
sšn
was so much more than a random endearment that he’d tossed at her.

He’d given it thought and chosen it with purpose.

Seth writhed on the bed as if he was trying to reach her. “I didn’t mean to sadden you, Lydia. I’m sorry if I

did. If you’l untie me, I’l please you now.”

She sniffed back her tears and offered him a shaking smile. “You haven’t made me sad. Not at al .” She

moved his necklace aside so that she lick his nipple again. “This isn’t about you pleasing me. It’s about me

giving
you
pleasure. And baby, I’m about to rock your world.”

* * *

completely around her so that her hips pressed against his groin and her breasts rested on his arms.

Al he could smel or feel was her, and it was al he wanted.

He stil couldn’t believe al the incredible things she’d done to him this day.

It was …

Words failed him.

Now he was completely sated and calm in a way he’d have never thought possible. Everything was right

in the world and he didn’t possess hardly a single god power.

Who would have ever thought that could happen?

He, the most feral of Guardians, the only one who had withstood the worst torture Noir could dish out, was

tamed by the tiniest woman he’d ever seen.

And she hadn’t done it with beatings or insults.

She’d broken him with a single kiss.

It didn’t make a bit of sense. He’d been sold to Noir against his wil and had fought that possession every

day since. But he’d wil ingly given himself to her. Without question or regret.

Seth rubbed his cheek against her hair and smiled. This day had been the only happiness he’d ever

known. And unlike her, he was afraid to close his eyes and sleep.

He was terrified that if he did, he’d awaken to find it al a dream. Or worse, have it al snatched away from

him again.

Never had the gods al owed him to be happy. Why should that change now?

Suddenly, Lydia jumped up in the bed as if something had shocked her. Her breathing ragged, she

reached for him and started searching his bare body.

Her actions worried him. “What are you doing?”

She clenched the necklace Ma’at had given him in her palm, and final y calmed down a degree. “Why

didn’t this work?”

“I don’t understand.”

She tightened her grip on it. “Remember what your aunt said when she gave it to you? That it would

protect you—and yet it didn’t. The Dream-Hunters attacked you and hurt you while you wore it.”

He pul ed on the chain until she released it and it fel back on his bare chest. “But only in my dream was I

hurt. The one Dream-Hunter told me before she started to stab me that I should have been harmed outside

the dream, too, but I wasn’t. So maybe it did work.”

Lydia calmed down a degree as she considered that. Perhaps he was right.

And yet, she couldn’t shake the bad premonition she’d just had while she was sound asleep. It was of

Seth being dragged back into Azmodea by Noir and put in a room like the one she’d found Solin in.

Over and over, she saw his abuse so clearly …

In every detail.

The last time this had happened to her, her mother had died just days later.

And in the exact manner she had foreseen.

Lydia laughed as she watched Seth trying to figure out how to work her iPod. Only he could look that sexy

with a frown so stern while wearing a set of black in-ear headphones that trailed down both sides of his

head.

“This was made by a demon, too, wasn’t it?” His voice thundered in the room.

Lydia pul ed out one of the earphones. “You’re talking real y loud. You should always take one of these out

when you speak so that you don’t accidental y shout at people.”

“Oh. Sorry.” He sighed in frustration. “I don’t get how this plays music.”

“Wel , it doesn’t just play music. You can use it for al kinds of things. I have pictures in here, games, even

movies.”

“What kind of pictures?”

Lydia shrugged. “I have some of my house in England.” She scrol ed through her album until she found

one of her living room, then she held it out to him so that he could see.

Seth studied the sedate room that was decorated in greens and yel ows. It was very understated and yet

also feminine. “It’s nice.”

“I like it.” She scrol ed to another photograph and held it out to him. “That’s my backyard.”

It reminded him of a jungle. Stil it was serene and inviting. In al honesty, he felt a little guilty over keeping

her here with him when she could be home right now had he not kidnapped her.

She would have been safe. But for him.

“You must miss it.”

Without responding, she leaned forward to show him again how he could toggle around the photos. “Just

press this and it’l scrol right through.”

He did as she said, and discovered more photographs of her home and of her neighbor’s yard. But when

he got to one of Solin and her with their arms wrapped around each other, al the happiness inside him died.

How could he have forgotten about Solin?

Because you wanted to.

Yeah, but that didn’t make it right.

Lydia placed her hand on his. “Seth? What’s wrong?”

I’m a jerk and a sucker. That’s what’s wrong.

Most of al , he was a fool.

Seth couldn’t speak at first as guilt overwhelmed him. When he found his voice again, he glared at her.

“How could you…”

She continued to play the wounded innocent in this. “How could I do what?”

Seth showed her the photo of her with Solin. The love and happiness on their faces … He deserved to

have the crap beat out of him over it. He should never have touched her. “How could you cheat on Solin after

everything he’s done for you?”

She gaped. “Excuse me?”

His temper mounted at her feigned indignation. She had no right to be angry at him for defending the man

she’d screwed over. “You heard me.”

Lydia was so stunned by his assumption about her relationship with Solin that she was at a complete loss

for words.

His gaze narrowed even more. “Are you trying to think up a lie to excuse it?”

Now that, that set her temper off, fast. It took everything she had not to slap him. When she spoke, it was

through clenched teeth. “I don’t have to think up anything.” She raked him up and down with her gaze. “I …

you—I—I…” She kept sputtering and stuttering in outrage.

“He loves you so.”

“And I love him!” she snapped.

“Then how could you have had sex with me, knowing that?”

She gestured at Seth’s lower extremities. “Because I can’t have sex with
him
.” She almost choked on the

word.

The very thought of sex and Solin nauseated her.

“Why not? Is he impotent?”

She shivered in revulsion. “No … I don’t know. Why would I know? Ew! Gods! Stop that! Ew! Ew! Ew! I

don’t want to think about that area of his body. As far as I’m concerned, he doesn’t have one of those, and

nothing other than his feet exists below his waist.” She made a gagging noise as she slung her hands in the

air, repulsed beyond endurance and disgusted by the very thought of Solin having sex with anyone. “Yes, I

know I’m being childish, but I don’t care. That’s how I feel about it. Yuck! Who wants to have sex with their

father? Gross, gross, gross … Gross!”

Seth sat back on the bed, unbelievably stunned. And not over her outrage and overreaction. Was any of

that true?

“What?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she snapped, jerking her head at him, “you heard me. Incest doesn’t run in my family, buddy. Just

so you know.”

Okay, now he had the distinct impression that she was insulting him. “What are insinuating?”

“You’re the one with the family tree that doesn’t branch.” She il ustrated said tree with her fingers. “How

many Egyptian gods slept with their brothers’ and sisters’ wife’s mother’s uncle’s dogs? Hmm? I ask you?”

He wasn’t quite sure if he should be offended or amused by her attack on his family. Honestly, he had no

real feelings for any of them other than hatred and disdain but … “Have you visited
your
pantheon lately?”

“We’re not talking about my pantheon, here. Are we? No. We’re insulting
yours
.”

Seth was definitely amused now. “Wel , just so long as we have that straight…” Which brought him back

to what had started al of this. He sobered instantly. “Is he real y your father?”

“Yes … and you are absolutely the only single living person besides us who knows this. So if you tel

anyone, I wil know it and I wil choke you until you … do something that makes me happy.”

Why did he find her vague and odd threats so amusing? Other than the fact that they were at least

creative, he had no idea.

But he had to come back to one thing in her tirade. “Why did you tel me, then, if no one knows?”

“You were accusing me of being a whore. Thanks, by the way. I’m so glad to know you’ve been paying

attention and taking notes in the Trust classes I’ve tried to teach you.”

Now that reignited his anger. He didn’t like for anyone to put words into his mouth. He always spoke

plainly so there was no reason to misinterpret his meanings. “I didn’t cal you a whore.”

“You implied it.”

“I did no such thing.”

“No?” She cocked her neck at him again, letting him know just how angry she stil was. “Then I want you to

run al of your words backward in your head and listen to them. Then put on my ears and listen to them

again, and then tel me what you hear. If that doesn’t spel whore in any language, I don’t know what does.”

She
might
have a point with that. But he didn’t want to admit it right now. “Can we go back to when we

weren’t fighting?”

“Little late for that now, buddy. You should have thought about that before you opened your mouth.” She

started signing angry gestures at him.

He tried to fol ow and understand, but it made no sense to him whatsoever. “I’ve got to learn your

language one day.” Although, he definitely understood the last gesture she made at him. “You sure you’re

not too sore for that after everything we’ve done? I know I don’t mind and I’m certainly wil ing to

accommodate you.”

She made a sound of ultimate disgust as she got off the bed and headed to the bathroom, then slammed

the door.

Seth couldn’t resist cal ing out after her. “Does that mean I should stil be naked when you return?”

She stuck her head back through the door. “You know, I think I liked you better when you were

menacing … and quiet.” She slammed the door shut again.

Those words took him back to how he’d lived in Azmodea and he felt al the amusement drain instantly

out of his body. In some ways it seemed like a lifetime ago.

And in others, it was stil right there, a painful wound that he was afraid would stir again and start

throbbing.

But there was one undeniable truth. “I didn’t like me then,” he said under his breath. He much preferred

talking, even fighting, with her than living that miserable life.

Subdued by his somber thoughts, he lay back on the bed that was covered with her sweet scent. He

should shower too, but he didn’t want to wash her off him.

Not yet.

He wanted to sit here and just breathe her scent in for as long as he could. He picked up his shirt from the

floor where she’d dropped it last night after they’d returned from a run to the kitchen to find something to eat.

It, too, smel ed like her. He lifted it to his nose to breathe her in at the precise moment she returned.

She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Wel , at least you’re not sniffing your body parts, I guess.”

Now there was an odd place to go. “What?”

“Nothing. But if you ever do that with my underwear, I wil be so grossed out, that I wil never, ever touch

you again. Just so you know.”

He would definitely commit that to memory. Not that he’d had any plans to sniff her underwear, far from it.

But he didn’t want to do anything to annoy her. “Any other rules I should know about?”

“Keep the toilet seat down at night, and don’t eat the last potato chip. Ever.”

“I wil remember the seat, but have no idea what the other is.” Maahes had forgotten to give him that

knowledge.

“Good. Keep it that way and we’l get along famously.”

She flounced back to bed.

“Are you stil mad at me?”

“I am. Wil probably be so for some time. Did you real y think I was so slutty that I’d put one man at risk to

save me and then turn around and sleep with the one who’d promised to hurt him?”

Seth felt a little trapped by the question. The one thing he’d learned with her was that if he said the wrong