***Eliana***

 

“How long does it take?” I sigh in frustration. “They’ve been in there for hours.”

Velma shrugs. “No clue. It’s a lot to go over and plan. It’s a good thing, though. Shows that they’re not going in blind, blazing full fury.”

Sounds logical, I know, but all of this scares the piss out of me. “How can you be so calm?”

Velma snorts. “I’m not calm. I’m going slightly insane on the inside. I’m just holding it all in.”

“Because of dad?” I softly whisper.

She shakes her head. “No, that’s not it. I’ve made my peace with that, I have to. He made his choices in life and I cannot stand behind the state of mind he’s in, nor his actions, that’s something that’s inexcusable. It’s just that...”

I place my hand on her knee. “You want in.”

“Yes!” She half shouts as if she’s just won the lottery. “That’s exactly it. I want to help, but I’m sure they’ll put me somewhere in the back, or leave me here to protect you.”

“Geeezzz, thanks sis.” I roll my eyes and watch her face fall. I shove her shoulder. “I know you didn’t mean it like that, but I get it. It’s personal. But I’m sure it’s not because they don’t trust you, or that they think you’re not capable or something. It’s more like they are our guys that want to protect us. And even more...I heard Alistair’s thoughts. He might think he’s good at shielding them, but I managed to pick up on his worries. He’s struggling with the fact that he needs to kill our father. Not because of what that asshole did, or that Alistair isn’t strong enough or anything...nope, it’s us. He’s worried about you and me, the connection between us, or what we will think about him if he takes our father’s life.”

Velma jumps up from her chair. We’ve been sitting at a table in the clubhouse with our eyes locked on the door that leads to Church.

“That’s bullshit. Fuck. Eliana, we need to tell him we’re good with that scum leaving the Earth, his soul is due to be taken. He might have done everything because he wanted someone to blame for my mother getting killed, but nothing on this Earth equals an act like that. Nor will it get her back. He put hate in his hands and lost the ability to love the second he did. It was a selfish plan that dragged a lot of innocents down with him.”

I know Velma is right, except… “We can’t just walk up to Alistair and tell him, then he’ll know!”

“Know what?” Alistair’s voice flows through the room, making me jump out of my skin. “What the hell? That’s twice now you’re creeping up on us in full eavesdropping mode with your sneaky ninja skills.”

Alistair chuckles. “No, love. The last time, maybe, but this time I was just walking out of Church when I heard you two talking.

Shit. Our eyes were locked on that door the whole time. We fail to do so for a few seconds and they come rolling out? Shitty timing, and now I have to tell him because I can’t stand lying.

I grab his leather cut into my hand and pull him close. “I heard your thoughts earlier, and it wasn’t like I was eavesdropping or anything. Your words just flowed into my head, I swear.”

Alistair leans in and kisses my nose. “Our connection is there for a reason. With delicate things, information, or feelings, or even our fears, they sometimes share to our mates so we can be there for our mate. So, what did you hear?”

“That I think letting the vampire kill our dad wouldn’t be such a bad idea.” There, now I don’t have to exactly put it in other words. Oh. A thought comes to mind and I might as well take advantage of him being here. “And that it might be good to let us fight with you guys.”

Alistair’s jaw ticks. “The first part has a ring of truth in it. It matches my thoughts. That last part, though? When we’re done handling your father? Your ass will receive a count of twenty for lying.”

I gasp out in...yeah, that might be a mixture of fake horror and excitement all rolled into one. “I didn’t mean it as part of your thoughts. I just gave you some of my own thoughts.”

His eyebrow raises. Shit. I just lied again and we both know it.

“Fine. Twenty it is, whatever,” I murmur, knowing I should take my loss before he adds more.

Alistair cups my cheek, softly letting his thumb brush my skin. “Just so you know, we all decided to have you right next to us. Velma’s a Hellhound herself so…”

“No, I’m not. I’m a Guardian,” Velma states. “I might look like a white version of …holy shit. What if I’m now black instead of white?”

Os laughs and shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter, princess, you’re stunning either way. But somehow I get the feeling that you’re still you. Your job didn’t switch by our mating and neither will your appearance. You’re still a Guardian through and through. White or black…I need you right next to me, for whatever we might be facing at any moment.”

“Aw,” I sigh. “That’s so sweet.” My throat is closing up, there’s so much emotion crackling around those two.

A sharp sting on my earlobe makes me tip my head back to glare at Alistair.

“Same goes for the two of us, love. I’ll fight knowing you’ll have my back. I would never leave you behind or let someone else look out for you. You’re mine to take care of. So either we die together or we spend eternity loving one another. There can never be a middle road,” he vows.

“Can I vote for the eternity loving one another? Because I don’t want to die any time soon. I do however wanna come and kick some ass. That sounds like fun.” I give him a huge smile, one that Alistair returns.

“You’re cute. But we need to talk things through first and get you suited up.” Alistair turns to Os. “You fill in your Old Lady. I’m going to head over to Lajos and see if he has some things she can strap to her leg or something.”

Strap to my… “What does Lajos have that needs…”

“Knives, Eliana. We all have claws. I’m pretty sure you can get angry enough during a fight to be able to attempt to fry your opponent’s brain, but just humor me with having a knife on you so you are able to slice off his head if need be,” Alistair tells me as he guides me toward the hall that leads to the private rooms.

“But I never learned how to fight.” Yikes, is that my voice that sounds timid and scared at the thought of using a knife?

“Don’t worry, I’ll give you a few pointers,” Mr. Know-It-All says before he knocks on a door.

Lajos opens it and walks over to his bed that’s covered with a large, black silk sheet. Lying on top of it are a whole lot of weapons; knives, ninja stars, guns. Guns?

“Why do you have these things? You guys only fight with claws, not with your hands. Guns? Knives? Why? How?” I shake my head in confusion.

“Lajos here has a fascination with human weapons. He’s been collecting them over the years. He suggested that you take a look to see if there was something you could bring with you. We all thought it was a good idea and it makes me somewhat more comfortable.” Alistair sighs. “Look, you always seem to squint your eyes when you try to use your powers, like you’re forcing it. What if you can’t make it work? Even if you don’t know how to fight, you can always swing a knife or shoot a damn gun to hold them off long enough for me to kill them.”

“Okay.” That was kind of sweet. Although I will ignore the fact that he thinks I can’t do my magic when I want to…well, he does have a point, but that sucks when I think about it. Hang on. “I squint my eyes?”

The corner of his mouth twitches. “Uh huh.”

I bite my bottom lip and glance at Lajos. Taking a deep breath, I think of something that would get me pissed. A gun malfunctioning would…I raise my hand and point a finger at him, trying not to think, only wanting to warn him for double checking things.

“Stop, stop, stop.” Alistair wraps his fingers around my wrist and shoves my arm down. “Don’t. You never use it intentionally on someone who doesn’t mean you harm.”

“But I was trying to…” I don’t understand.

“Look at your goddamned hand, Eliana,” Alistair growls.

Glancing down, I don’t even recognize the hand that’s connected to my own arm. I can feel Alistair’s fingers that are still wrapped around my wrist, but it’s…

“They call it black magic for a reason,” Alistair snaps at me. “You’re using it for the wrong reasons, selfish purposes. You can never…”

“I didn’t know,” I whisper while I swallow hard, hating myself in this moment. I feel tears burning in my eyes.

“Aw, fuck. Lajos, leave us for a moment,” Alistair snaps before he pulls me into his arms.

Soft strokes on the back of my head are soothing while he’s holding me close. Melting in his embrace, I let go of all my emotions. The tears I was holding back from everything that has happened now flow freely. He doesn’t say a single word, not until I feel like I’m getting my grip back. I now feel silly for letting myself go like that.

I pat his chest. “Uhmmm, thanks?”

Bracing myself, I find the nerve to look down at my hand, thankful to see it back to normal again. It was as if I’d dipped my whole hand into a black paint bucket. There were black lashes, like roots, crawling up my arm. It was a horrifying image, like the hand wasn’t mine at all.

“How come it didn’t go all black when I used magic the first two times? Or if I think of Velma, to feel if she’s near?” I ask Alistair, because it seems like he knows more about these things.

“Probably because you were defending yourself, or me, the last time. With locating Velma you’re not harming anyone with your magic, that’s different. But I don’t know everything there is to know.” Alistair rubs the back of his neck. “If I run into a specific paranormal, The Orderly debriefs me. Or we dive into the archive if there’s something unexplained. So I know more about vampires because I’ve dealt with many in the past. Just like Fae, shifters, werewolves…”

“Werewolves…” I muse. “When I read about them in romance books, they’re always naked when they shift…are they naked? I mean, when they shift, do they like…rip all their clothes like the hulk? Hey…does the Hulk exist? Oh, better question, does Thor? No, more importantly…why aren’t you guys naked when you switch from Hellhound back to man? Because I’m kinda happy your naked ass isn’t on show for everybody.”

Somewhere in the middle of my rant, Alistair fell into a sea of laughter and is wiping his tears away while I glare at him. “What’s so funny? I’m serious here.”

“About what part, love? My ass?”

Seriously? He needs to ask me that in-between chuckles?

I put my hands on my hips and add a little bite to my words. “Yes, your ass. Covered up at all times, that’s kind of a big deal here.”

He’s now holding up his hands in defeat. “My Hellhound and I are two merged into one, like flipping a coin. You don’t see him losing all his fur when I switch back, it’s the same with my clothes. It’s me the way I am when we flip, and it’s him in full glory too.”

“Except when I have you both, kinda like balancing on the edge of the coin.” I bite my lip.

His cheeks heat. “That never happened to me before. It freaked me out because I couldn’t contain my Hellhound and I was afraid I would hurt you. I wanted to grab you, ravish you, consume you. I had no other choice but to step back…but then…”

“You’re one and the same for me. There hasn’t been a moment when I feared you would hurt me, so don’t ever hold back,” I tell him.

Alistair steps closer.

“Never again,” he growls against my mouth.