The Guardian's Keeper (The Guardian Trilogy, Book 1) (13 page)

“
If you are sure, my beautiful Keeper, let’s rinse off and go do this properly.” He pushed Claire away gently and they both rinsed off before stepping out of the shower.

Nikoli grabbed a towel and dried Claire off slowly before wrapping her up in a dry one. He toweled himself off quickly and wrapped the towel around his waist.
Claire stood watching him quietly, admiring his beautiful form. He swept her right off her feet and carried her down the hall back to the Master suite where he lay her gently down on the bed.

“
My lovely Claire,” he crooned, stroking her damp hair. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”

“Nikoli,”
she replied breathily. “The feeling is mutual, believe me.” Nikoli looked at her quizzically and she nodded slightly.

“Are you sure Claire?”

“Yes,” she replied, reaching to unravel the towel around Nikoli’s waist as she rose up to kiss him. “Absolutely sure.”

Chapter 17

The next morning Claire woke up in the Master bedroom alone. She stretched out across the bed smiling to
herself as she recalled giving herself to Nikoli. He had been so gentle, so loving. She was glad she had waited until he came along- it had been worth the wait.

She found Nikoli down in the kitchen laying out fresh pastries and fruit for breakfast. H
e face lit up when he saw her. He passed her a cup of coffee.

“Good morning, lovely.”
He nuzzled her neck, running his hands up and down her hips. “Last night was more than I ever imagined it could be.” He trailed kisses up and down her jawline. “Any regrets?”

“Yes, just one,”
Claire said quietly. Nikoli froze in place, terrified she was about to say she regretted their lovemaking. “I regret we didn’t do that sooner,” Claire smirked with a giggle.

“You!”
Nikoli admonished, pressing her up against the fridge as he kissed her hard. “Don’t scare me like that! You had me going there for a moment.” He gently turned her head and brushed away her midnight curls to examine her wounds.

“
Okay, these are looking better already. Those should heal up nicely, you might not even scar,” he told Claire. He smoothed her locks back into place. “I’d love to carry you back off to bed again and pick up where we left off, but we’ve got a schedule to stay on today. I ordered a car, it’ll be here in half an hour.”

“
Will we be with Renka by nightfall?” Claire asked. She had no desire to be anywhere but the safe walls of a house after the sun went down. One run-in with a Myrmidon was enough for her.

Nikoli shook his head. “
No, we’ll be driving all day into a remote area of Transylvania. I’ve arranged for us to stay with friends for the night, we should be able to catch up with Renka tomorrow. You have something to eat, I’m going to go get cleaned before the car arrives. And Claire?”

“
Hhhmmm?” she replied through a mouth full of Danish.

“
As much as I’d love the company, let me shower alone this time- we don’t have time for your shenanigans before the car comes,” Nikoli teased as Claire swatted at him playfully but missed.

When the car arrived on time half an hour later both Claire and Nikoli were ready to go. Claire shuddered involuntarily as she walked down the steps in recollection of almost having been bitten by the
Myrmidon the night before. Nikoli caught her unease and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

“It’s ok
ay,” he soothed. “They can’t come after us when the sun is up.” He opened her car door for her. “Your chariot, my lady.”

Claire slid into her seat. She was anxious to leave Budapest and looked fo
rward to finding Renka and her Gypsies so they could be rid of the Fang and the Myrmidons once and for all.

The miles passed by quickly. Nikoli drove and Claire dozed as they sped away from
the city. Claire felt herself relaxing with every mile they put between themselves and the Myrmidon that got away. She could almost, just almost, pretend she was just on a nice country drive with her boyfriend instead of on her way to meet a Gypsy Queen in order to keep a vicious vampire from rising again.

“We’ll be there soon,”
Nikoli told her as he read a small roadside sign announcing the villages coming up. About twenty minutes later they pulled into a small town square lined with rustic homes. Chickens ran free through the streets while children played ball in the middle of the road. Nikoli stopped the car in front of the local grocer.

“
Come on, someone should be meeting us here,” he explained. “Ah, there he is.” He pointed to a grizzled old man sitting up on a buggy, pulled by a pair of draft horses. “There’s our ride.”

Nikoli greeted the driver and helped Claire onto the buggy after throwing their bags onto the back. He climbed up next to Clair
e and slung his arm around her. The driver drove the buggy down a wide dirt trail behind the store and into the forest.

They rode in a comfortable silence, lost in their own thoughts. Claire was growing nervous about what came next- what would Renka expect of her, to destroy the Fang? Would she be able to do it? Would Renka really even know how to de
stroy the Fang?

“
This is good.” Nikoli broke into her thoughts. “We’ll be at the cottage shortly with plenty of light left to spare. Akos and Firenze are going to love you.” He gently grasped a curl and twirled it around his finger.

“
Akos and Firenze? Are they….uh, like me?” Claire was mindful not to say ‘vampires’ just in case the driver understood any English.

“
Yes, they’re like you. Though their daughter is…..like me. They know about it, in fact they sought out Renka themselves to try to reverse their daughter’s condition. I know them through John, they were friends of his and are sympathetic to our cause.”

“
Did Renka cure their daughter’s condition?” Claire asked.

Nikoli shook his head. “
Nothing, not even Renka’s magic, can reverse that kind of ‘condition’.”

“Would you, if you could?”
Claire couldn’t help but ask.

Nikoli
squirmed in his seat as he considered his answer. “I don’t know. I used to think about it a lot when I was younger. It’s impossible, so eventually I realized I was wasting my time even considering it.” He shrugged. “Now that I have you, yes, I probably.” He dropped his voice down low to keep the driver from overhearing them. “If I were human again, I could marry you, give you children, and grow old with you. I will never be able to do that.” He kissed the top of her head sadly, pulling her to lean against him as they bumped down the trail and into vast stretches of farmland.

“Oh Nikoli,”
Claire sighed as she leaned against his chest “I don’t need all that. I’m just happy to be with you.”

N
ikoli wrapped his other arm around her and hugged her tight. “I know Claire. We’ll just enjoy what we have together- it’s all we can do. Look, there’s the cottage.” He pointed.

Claire clapped her hands with delight. There, on the edge o
f the fields, sat a small cottage like something out of a fairy tale. Ivy climbed its old stone walls.

“It’s beautiful.”

“A beautiful cottage for my beautiful lady,” Nikoli answered her.

Once they arrived at the cottage Nikoli paid the driver and grabbed their things. He knocked on the thick
wooden door but no one came. He opened the door and called out but no one answered him.

“Oh, they’ve left us a note.”
He strode over to the big stone hearth and pulled down the note Akos and Firenze had tacked above it. Nikoli scanned the note quickly. “It says they’re out of town for a few days, they have a lead on a herd of dairy cattle they just can’t pass up.” Nikoli grinned up at Claire. “You know what that means?”

Claire shook her head.

“It means,” Nikoli beamed, “we have the place to ourselves. Before I take full advantage of that fact, Ms. Raymond, we’ve got things to do to settle in for the night. We’ve got a few hours left before sunset, let’s make the most of it.”

Nikoli detailed for C
laire what chores she was to do while he went off to bring in wood from the pile on the edge of the forest.

“
That way we can get a good fire going. It gets cold out here at night, even in the summer. Are you comfortable with horses? Can you bring them in for the night?” he asked her.

“Absolutely,” Claire replied. “
My grandmother used to run a ranch when she was alive, I practically grew up in the barn!”

“
Excellent, that’ll make tomorrow easier- we’ll be riding out shortly after sunrise.”

“
Riding out? We’re riding to Renka?”

Nikoli glanced around, teasing her
again. “Unless you see a driver willing to take us, yes.”

Claire gave
him a quick peck on the lips. “Okay, smart guy, we’ll see if you can keep up with me,” she said, referring to her riding ability.

“
My Keeper, I fully intend to try,” Nikoli responded with a glint in his eye, not referring to horses at all. He gave Claire a firm swat on her behind before he strode off to the woodpile, the axe over his shoulder. His throaty chuckle rang in her ears long after he had gone.

An hour later Claire had turned in the horses for the night, collected the eggs from the chickens and brought in some fresh vegetables from the garden. Nikoli had filled up the indoor woodpile and had a roaring fire going in the old stone hearth.
He had also started a small fire in the cooking stove for Claire. She prepared vegetable omelets for dinner using the fresh eggs, vegetables, and a block of cheese she found in the pantry.

They ate together outside on the front stone steps as the light faded
across the fields. Nikoli brought her back inside and began lighting candles to help them find their way through the cottage as the evening crept in. Claire closed up the curtains one by one. She didn’t want to see the inky blackness creeping over the valley- she knew what monsters lay in the shadows of the night.

Nikoli lay on his stomach on the bearskin rug in front of the hearth
, soaking up the warmth of the fire. Claire lay down beside him on her back. He pushed up onto his elbows so he could lean over her, his eyes flickering in the firelight. Claire felt a familiar fire starting inside her as she leaned up to meet his kiss.

They undressed each other slowly in between passionate kisses. By flickering firelight they made love on the bearskin rug, reveling in each other’s form. Afterwards they lay naked and spent in front of the fire,
tangled up in each other.

After a spell Nikoli aske
d “Claire? You awake?”

“Um-
hhmm.” Claire straddled the line between sleep and wakefulness.

“
Tomorrow is a big day for both of us. I just wanted you to know, no matter what happens, I really do love you with all my heart. I never knew I could feel this way about someone else.” Nikoli stroked her back as he talked. “Once I was turned I thought I could never love and would always be alone.”

“
Nikoli, I love you too. You don’t have to be alone ever again, as long as I’m around,” Claire muttered before falling asleep completely.

Nikoli smiled
as he kissed Claire’s bare shoulder and drifted off to sleep himself.

Chapter 18

Claire awoke at first light to find Nikoli gone. She panicked for a second until she realized the front door had been unbarred. She rose and dressed quickly. Poking her head out the front door she spied Nikoli leading two saddled horses up from the barn. She r
an out of help him.

“Do you ever sleep?” s
he chastised him as she grabbed a set of reins.

Nikoli
grinned and tousled her hair. “Not much when you’re around.”

They tied the horses to the post in front of the cottage and gathered up their things. Nikoli packed a sack of food from the pantry and scribbled a quick note of thanks to Akos and Firenze.
Once outside he gave Claire a boost onto her roan mare before mounting his steed. He paused to watch Claire up on her mount. She was petting its neck, speaking in quiet tones to the mare. The light mountain breeze blew back her black curls and her expression was relaxed and happy. Nikoli took it all in, striving to memorize this moment of beauty.

“
What?” Claire asked when she caught him staring at her.

“
My Keeper,” Nikoli breathed. “You are the most enchanting woman I’ve ever seen.”

Claire flushed wi
th pleasure at the compliment. “You’re not so bad yourself, my Guardian,” she chuckled. “Hey, how do you know where we’re going, anyways?”

Nikoli pulled out an old weathered hand w
ritten map from his saddlebag. “Joyce gave this to me, with instructions. It came from John’s library. Renka was notified by messenger of our impending arrival before we even left the States, she’ll be waiting for us,” Nikoli explained. “I’ll lead the way. If we make decent time we should arrive by late afternoon.” With that Nikoli kicked his horse into a canter and headed off across the field. Claire followed suit on her mare.