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He chuckled and gave her a big squeeze. “All right, coffee, woman. Once those two are up and moving, we need to come up with a plan of action to find the monsters and kill them without any of us getting dead in the process.”

  “Yes, not getting dead is a very good thing.” She shook her head. She really hoped that Sophia wouldn’t keep pushing James to see what she was to him. It would seriously not be good at all. She wanted to have her sister safe and whole.

  “You’re worrying again. I can see it in your eyes. What will happen will happen, Vivian. We cannot interfere in their lives or their future. We see it. We know what and who they are to each other, but we can’t do anything. It will sort itself out in time.” Jason tipped her face up to him and kissed her before leaving her to start up the coffee maker.

  He pulled open the fridge door and ducked out of view. “They have cinnamon rolls,” he said. “Hot damn, we’re having cinnamon rolls unless someone is allergic to something in them. Speak now or forever hold your peace.”

  “Nope, I love them.” Viv opened a couple of cabinets before she struck gold and found the coffee. It was a very expensive, specially brewed bean blend. She looked to him and grinned. “Wait until you try this coffee. It’s amazing. I’ll even let you have the first cup because I love you like that.”

  “Really?” he asked with a smirk. “Aw, that’s just so sweet.” He moved to the oven and turned it on. Digging out a pan, he popped open the can of cinnamon rolls and laid them out. “I love the fact that even people who clearly have a ton of money still buy the cinnamon rolls in a can. That makes me like them even more.”

  “They’re an amazing couple. You really would love them if you had a chance to meet them. We’ll be gone before that, though. We have to get back to this mountain that you’re talking about so that we can be safe.” She didn’t know how she and Fia had been found, but it just plain sucked.

  “The Mountain is where our base of operations is,” he explained, leaning back against a counter. “Years ago, when America was first colonized by the Europeans, we came over because with them, they brought the monsters. Mercury bought a lot of land surrounding part of a mountain range in the Rockies, and we found a cave system in there that we expanded upon over time.

  “It’s all modernized and looks like a swanky hotel, for the most part. There are spots on different levels where you can go outside onto nature-created shelves, which we’ve put railings on to make balconies. Up top, there’s a large flat area where we do cookouts, sit and enjoy the sun, or occasionally where we get a game of rugby going and try to kill each other in a friendly and competitive manner.”

  “Well, that’s very cool.” Vivian grinned. “So, do you think that maybe we can fly in and then take a helicopter? That way, we get there faster than if we had to do any driving.” She was just thinking of what they could do in order to ensure that the trip took as little time as possible, mostly so that Sophia and James didn’t have to stay close to each other for too long.

  “We’ll be flying into a private airport, one we use a lot, and then taking one of the helicopters that Riley arranged for our use to the base. It’s a quick little hop, but well worth it to save on the aggravation of the monsters trying to kill us on the drive. It’s happened twice now, which is why we’ve changed our policy when bringing the VV’s to base.”

  “Right. Gotcha. Yes, I don’t want to be a sitting duck for anyone. I would much rather get behind some very thick walls and mountains before we have to worry about anything other than each other.”

  “Well, we’ve eliminated their normal mode of trying to get to the VV’s, so we’ll see what they come up with next. Which very well may be this. They were targeting that group of Sophia’s for a reason. They must have suspected a VV would gravitate toward others of like mind. Nothing they’d like more than to get their hands on one of you that’s actually still a virgin. God only knows what they could do with that.”

  Shaking his head, he scrubbed his hands over his face. “The fact they came out here to get to her, though, has me worried. Someone must have tipped them to the fact she’s different than the others in the group. There haven’t been any more murders since they came after her here, which means they’re waiting for another shot at her. At least, I think they are. They might be coming for you, too, if the monsters were the ones who bugged my hotel room. James and I should be able to handle a small group. Anything bigger and we’re going to have to turn tail and get out of Dodge fast.”

  “I thought we were going to turn tail and get out of here as fast as possible anyway? Okay, so you’ll have to teach me how to kill the monsters, too.”

  He put the tray of cinnamon buns into the oven before he moved toward her. “I can teach you, but I don’t want you ever, ever going up against one of them. They’ll hurt you. They’ll break you, and then they’ll do things to you that you don’t even want to consider. We only ever face them in groups for a reason. They’re incredibly hard to kill, even for seasoned and trained guardians.”

  “Oh, believe me, I wouldn’t want to go up against one of them on my own. I can promise you that one. I would, however, really like to help you if the need arose. I would like for you to have some backup, even if it’s me.”

  “The only thing you have to know about them is they’re fast, they’re deadly, and pretty much the only way to kill them is to cut off their heads. Anything else only slows them down.”

  “Well, that just sucks,” Viv said with a frown. “You guys have two things to protect. Not just your heads but also your medallions.”

  He caught her hand as she went to move and leaned in to kiss her. “We’re not going to end up dead, Vivian. So try not to worry so much.” He smiled. Letting her go, he went to the fridge and pulled out a carton of eggs and some bacon. He went to the oven, then heated up a couple of pans.

  “Why don’t you pour some coffee and see if those two will wake up for caffeine? I’ll get the eggs and bacon going. The buns will be another fifteen minutes or so, plenty of time for them to get up, moving, and to the table. And it’ll give you a chance to corner your sister like I know you’ve wanted to do since we got here.” Jason shot her a knowing look, and she knew she’d been busted.

  “Oh, you’re a bad, bad man.” After winking at him, she walked out of the kitchen with coffee in hand. One for her and one for Sophia. James can just drag his happy ass to the kitchen and help Jason finish breakfast to find his.

  “Love you, too, darling,” Jason called after her with a chuckle.

  Chapter Eight

  The flight out of Seattle was surprisingly subdued. While several female airport workers had passed James their numbers, he’d just smiled and continued on his way. He’d been unusually quiet for the time they’d already been up in the air. Odd, but then so, too, was Jason. He seemed to be brooding, though. Which, given how they’d departed from Seattle, she didn’t blame him.

  They’d never actually gotten around to having breakfast. She hadn’t even gotten around to talking to her sister, when the monsters after Sophia had shown up. Their timing had seriously sucked.

  James had gone into the kitchen with a glare in her direction and a mumbled bunch of nonsense under his breath. She’d barely passed Sophia a cup of coffee before all hell had broken loose. The front door had smashed open, and she was face to face with pure evil. And it had been focused entirely on Sophia. The only color on the six-foot man was his pure red eyes. There was no white to them at all, only crimson, and the rest of the beast was black as tar. His skin seemed to drip as if made of melting, inky wax.

  Fortunately, there had only been two of them. Still, not something she wanted ever to repeat. Jason had come racing into the room, James hot on his heels, and they’d quickly moved into action, putting themselves between the monsters and the girls.

  Things had gotten a bit bloody for the guardians. Jason was nursing a split lip and a cut to his arm. James had one hell of a shiner and had taken a blade to his shoulder that had cut straight through to
the bone. It had missed everything vital, thank whoever was watching out for them, but it had been a gusher.

  The monsters had fought hard, taking very few licks of their own, until Jason had managed to get his blade up and take off a head. He and James had then cornered the other one between them and disposed of him quickly. After a few minutes, the monsters had disintegrated into nothing more than an oily stain.

  After getting a new front door put on the house, they’d locked up and gotten out of there. Jason had left money and a note behind for the replacement of the carpet. They’d packed up what they could and gone straight to the airport. All in all, it had been a very hectic morning. So, it was understandable that everyone was quiet now. The adrenaline rush was finally subsiding and everyone was dealing with all that had happened and all they’d seen.

  After arriving at the Mountain, Vivian was exhausted. It looked as if everyone was. She looked to her sister, who was covered in blood, James’s blood, and saw the blank, red-rimmed eyes staring back at her. Vivian was worried about her, but she gave a nod and marched on, separating from James, Jason, and Vivian when Mercury came and introduced himself, offering to take Sophia where she needed to go.

  She had watched them move off, the way that Mercury reached out to put his hand on her sister’s back and the way Fia had sidestepped him. She shook her head and heard James telling Jason that he was going to medical. “It’s about time he realized that maybe he should get his shoulder looked at, right?” The women had worried about James, but the men had acted as if it was nothing. “And you, mister, you have got to train me to help you. At least, we need to work on seeing if you can draw on my shielding abilities.”

  “He’s fine,” Jason said. “We can’t die from blood loss. You know that, sweetheart. The medallion keeps us from bleeding out and keeps our hearts pumping no matter what is done to us. As long as the medallion remains intact and our heads stay on, nothing can take us down.”

  He wrapped his arm around her, the one without the blood-coated sleeve, and squeezed her close. “I will train you, and we will work on seeing if I can pull on your ability. For now, though, let’s get inside and cleaned up. I need a very long, very hot shower.”

  “Me, too.” That fast, she was no longer tired, no longer ready to curl up and cry. “Will you shower with me?” she asked as they walked into his rooms. She stopped dead. “Jason,” she whispered as she took in the view. The living space was comfortable, with large furniture and a massive television. “This space totally feels like you.”

  He chuckled softly and gave a shrug as he moved deeper inside. “It should. I’ve been living in the same rooms for a couple centuries now at least. It didn’t always look like this, I will admit that, but then I updated it two years ago to get something more me for the furniture.” He tossed his destroyed jacket toward a box near the door and fingered his shirt with a disgusted look on his face.

  Sighing, he pulled it over his head and tossed it into the same box. “Come on, let’s go have that shower. You can explore later. Right now, I need to get clean.” She walked to him and slipped her hand into his. “I’m sorry I couldn’t shield you better. I was protecting Sophia while she was trying to keep Mother Nature from invading the house.” She didn’t know if he had noticed how the yard seemed to be overgrown, how the trees had seemed impossibly closer. “Besides, anything to get you naked and in a shower is good in my book.” She needed to be close to him, skin to skin, and just let the rest of the world fall away.

  Laughing, he wiggled his eyebrows at her as he undid his belt and pulled it free from the loops of his jeans. “All you need to do is say so, sweetheart. I have absolutely no shame, which you should know by now, so I’m willing to strip down anywhere and any time you want. I come from an era when we would train naked, with sharpened blades, just for the hell of it. Nudity isn’t anything shameful, or it wasn’t, until the prudes took over the world.”

  He toed off his boots and picked them up before heading down a hallway.

  “So, you wouldn’t mind if I walked around naked right along with you?” Vivian asked with a grin, stripping off her clothes as she went with him. She left a trail behind her and didn’t even care. Once they were in the bathroom, she looked up at him and licked her lips. “I need you, Jason. I think that I will always need you,” she confessed.

  “As long as we’re alone, behind closed doors, do whatever you want, Vivian. I’d prefer if you were naked all the time, if you want the truth of it. I love your body, and I love how you respond to my touches. You’re a very sensual, responsive woman.” He backed her into the shower stall, his larger body crowding hers. Reaching out, he turned the water on, none of it reaching them while he adjusted the dials.

  “If I can’t run around naked, neither can you. Outside of our home, that is,” she teased. “But I really like the idea of remaining nude all the time. Keeping robes near the door for in case we get company or whatever.” She moved so that her breasts were pressed against his chest. “God, I love you.”

  He grabbed her around the middle. Lifting her, he caught one of her legs and moved it to his waist, then slid his cock into her waiting pussy. “Gods, you’re so wet, so hot,” he growled out.

  “Always for you.” Vivian didn’t need any kind of workup to get herself ready for him. All he had to do was look at her, and her pussy was creaming.

  With her arms around his neck and her back to the shower wall, she helped him find the pace that would suit them both. “Harder,” she begged. “I’m not going to last here, Jason, please.” She hesitated. Then, because she needed it every bit as much as he did, “Please, Sir. Take my pussy harder. Make me scream?”

  He nipped at her chin, then licked over the spot. “Hold on to me tight,” he told her. When she’d gotten a good grip, he thrust into her hard like she wanted. The wall at her back had no give, so he was doing all the work as he slammed his cock into her over and over. “As soon as you feel it, just come for me. Don’t hold back, not tonight.”

  “Thank God.” She clung to his body. This was what she loved—the way he utterly possessed her body, mind, and soul the way that only he could. “Jason, I’m so close.” She hadn’t needed much in order to climax, not when they had been kept from loving all day.

  “Then come for me, sweetheart. Scream for me.” He put his mouth on her shoulder and scraped his teeth to her skin before biting down and holding her. Grabbing her hands, he pushed her arms up over her head and thrust into her body faster, jolting her each time.

  When Vivian came, she screamed his name, and her legs tightened around him. Her whole body climaxed when he bit her and forced her hands up and over her head against the wall. She sobbed in her release and demanded the same from him.

  He pumped a few more times before he stilled, his body quaking as he growled out his orgasm. His hands gentled on hers, sliding slowly down her arms until he could wrap his around her body. “Gods,” he breathed out as he lifted his head, holding on to her tightly as his seed splashed into her.

  Viv’s legs held him securely. She shivered while he filled her body to the brim and beyond. He was perfect in her eyes. “No kidding,” she whispered with a grin. “Time to get clean?”

  He nodded, then brushed his lips to her cheek. “Then we should get some sleep. It’s been a very long, hectic day. We both need the rest, you more than me, since you’re not used to all this yet. Not that I hope you ever get used to it. I happen to like you just as you are. Innocent of all this war and the hellish things we have to do to keep the world safe.”

  “I kind of like it that way, too,” Vivian admitted. “Okay, you’ll have to put me on my own feet.” Even as she said that, she tightened her legs around him. She didn’t want him to leave her body. She didn’t want to have to be alone again.

  “After we’re clean, when we’re in bed, I’ll slide back into you,” he responded. They both froze, and he drew his head back. “You didn’t say that out loud, did you?” he asked softly, his eyes searching
hers.

  She shook her head. “No, I didn’t, but I certainly thought it.” She swallowed. “How? How in the world could you read my mind like that?”

  “The bond tying us together,” he said, a smile curving his lips. “About damn time that little bonus kicked in. I was ready to bust Hector’s ass for being a liar about that. Let me try something. See if you can hear this.” He stared at her with a look of concentration. You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing.

  The words drifted into her mind, some strong and clear, others a little fuzzy.

  “Thank you.” She felt as if he were caressing her with his hands, even when she knew he couldn’t possibly be doing that. “Oh, that feels so good.” She moaned as she felt his mental hands sliding over her skin.

  Laughing, he hugged her to him and squeezed. “Damn, it actually works. Holy shit, that’s amazing. We’ll definitely work on that. And if we can do that, potentially that means I can tap into your ability, too. But, again, that’s something we’ll have to work on and test the range of.”

  “Something that we can work on later, though, right? I’m so tired I don’t think I could hold a shield if I tried.”

  “Much later. After a lot of sleep.” Easing out of her body, he grinned when she internally cursed the loss. Chuckling, he shook his head. “That’s going to take a little getting used to. I guess I’m going to have to start watching my language, even in my head, with you around. Though, usually when I curse it’s in Ancient Greek, so I doubt you’d understand it anyway.” Setting her on her feet, he held on to her as she regained her legs.

  “I’ll just have to ask you what things mean, and if you won’t tell me, I’ll get Mercury to.”

  “Yeah, not happening,” he said, making a face. “And Mercury likely won’t tell you either. Though he’ll want to know where you heard it. Don’t be shocked if he starts laughing when you tell him you picked it from my head.”