Eternal Guardian Read online

  “Holy shit, there are? Do the gods know about them?

  Where the hel were they when Baal destroyed the world the first time? When he demanded his sacrifices?” He put a hand to his head, rubbing his temple. “I thought I had lived long enough to understand the world, but I have to admit, I know nothing.” She walked over to him and laid her hand on his shoulder, unable to stop herself from comforting him. “This is not your world, Max. There should have been no need for you to know more. And if this works out the way I plan, you’l never remember it.” She couldn’t keep the hurt from her voice, though she could feel it tear at his heart.

  He stood and turned toward her, gripping her shoulders when she would have escaped his grasp. “Do not mistake me, Phoebe. I am not sorry I came. I regret nothing.” Except leaving your arms.

  By his expression, she could tel he knew she heard him.

  Meant for her to. Tears blurred her vision. “I regret. I should have left you to defend your people. To stand with them. I should have chosen another warrior. One I wasn’t personaly attached to. One I didn’t—”

  Love. She wouldn’t say it out loud, but he had to feel it. He couldn’t read her thoughts as she read his, but he knew. She had given him her heart, and, it seemed, he had tried to throw it away at the first opportunity, leaving her arms while she slept to find his way back home. For duty. She had a duty as wel, and in order to do it, she needed his help one last time. Even though he couldn’t love her back. Not enough to want to stay.

  “Phoebe, I—”

  She shook her head mutinously, stil unwiling to look him in the eye. “There is no life here. We aren’t human, Jude and I. Not even Igigi. We may have taken names and created familiar landscapes for you, but we aren’t flesh and blood. Not in the same way you are. You don’t fit here.”

  Max‘s growl sounded like a denial. “You forget. I’ve tasted your blood. It may not be like anything I’ve tasted before, but it’s in me now. A part of me, just as you are.” He lowered his grip to her hips and tugged her up high, until she could feel his erection pressed against her bely. “I fit, Phoebe. Like a key to a fucking lock. Or do I need to remind you again?”

  Phoebe shuddered against him. Since she woke from their lovemaking to realize he was gone, she’d been struggling against her desires to keep him close, against her feelings of rejection. She’d reminded herself over and over again that they’d just met. Max didn’t understand, not completely, that she had been at his side his entire life. Walking with him. Watching him. Those were her memories, not his. Al he knew was she had taken him from his life, plucked him from the people he cared for and had sworn to protect.

  Had she expected him to change so much after their intimacy? Expected him to be transformed as she’d been by the joining?

  Yes. She had.

  But she couldn’t alow herself to get lost in emotions. She wasn’t even sure why she had them. What purpose did they serve a Watcher? Look what they had done to their third—he no longer existed because he alowed emotions to sway him. Because he cared. And, Universe forgive her, she was about to do the same thing for the same reason. She cared. More than that. Loved.

  Max’s body against hers wasn’t making it easy on her. She instinctively melted against him, though she knew it would only make things worse. “We don’t have time for this, Max.” He picked her up as though she were a feather and carried her into the garden. Then he lowered her until she felt the back of her favorite apple tree scrape against her spine. “We have time.” He smiled wickedly. “In fact, in this place, I think that may be al we can be sure of.”

  He cupped her bottom in his hands, and her throat went dry as she studied his determined, sensual expression. How could she deny him? He was too beautiful. A mountain of a man. Muscle and sinew, bronze flesh and battle scars. Every inch of skin her eyes took in, she longed to touch. Longed to lick. To caress. He was wrong. There would never be enough time. Not when it came to him.

  He pressed closer and she held up a warning hand. “We aren’t isolated here, Max. Jude can sense us and everything we do.”

  Max’s dark eyes sparkled. “Good. He’l need to know what he’s doing in case I let him join us…next time.” Through their connection, Phoebe felt Jude’s shock match her own. Shock and excitement. He wanted to? The idea of al of them together, of her sharing body and mind with the two men who were both so much a part of her soul… Her thighs clenched, heat pooling low in her bely. The idea was beyond tempting.

  She welcomed Jude into her mind and knew he could see what she saw—Max bending his head to her neck, his sharp teeth grazing her skin as they extended. She made their clothes disappear and Max groaned his pleasure at the closer contact. At the sound she couldn’t deny herself, couldn’t deny any of them this pleasure.

  Even if it was just this one last time.

  Phoebe looked down at her breast to see that the love bite Max had given her was stil there. She could have healed it, but for reasons she wasn’t wiling to think about right now, she’d left it where it was. When Max saw it, the darkness of desire began to fil his eyes, and she could hear his possessive thoughts. Feel his need to bite her again. But she had needs of her own.

  She wrapped her legs firmly around his waist, reaching down between their bodies until her fingers closed over his thick erection. Jude mentaly shuddered inside her, feeling her grasp as if it were his own. The heat and texture of Max’s impossibly long shaft—like silk—Jude was feeling it too. Did he like it?

  Max had stiled, like a predator suddenly unsure of his prey.

  Good. She wanted to surprise him, to show him how she could make him feel. To remind him of their connection.

  His neck arched slightly as she bent to kiss his throat, his shoulder. She licked her lips, remembering his taste, wishing she could taste him again. It was al the more arousing, the knowledge that Jude was with her. That he recaled with her the salty flavor of Max, the earth and life that had exploded on her tongue the last time she’d had her mouth around him.

  “Don’t tease me, Phoebe.”

  Sarasvatti.

  She heard the silent murmur he wasn’t even aware he’d formed in his mind. Angel. Kit had caled his mate, Jesse, by that endearment. Did Max feel the same way about her?

  She stroked him with her fingers, loving the feel, the hardness of him. He hissed, causing her to smile and repeat the action. Again and again she touched him, tormenting him with kitten-like laps and closed-mouth kisses everywhere her lips could reach.

  She loved his reaction, but her body wanted more. She shifted in his arms, her skin hot and tingling, her sex soaking with arousal. The images Jude was sending her weren’t helping. In her mind, he’d already joined them. He stood behind her, his hand between her thighs, two fingers stroking deep inside her as she touched Max.

  Phoebe moaned against Max’s mouth in response as the movements of her hand grew faster, more aggressive. Jude’s thoughts became chaotic. He liked that, and he wasn’t sure whether or not he should.

  Suddenly her hand was lifted off Max’s erection and he growled with impatience. “Why is it I feel that I don’t have al your attention, my love? Tel Jude he’l have his chance later. Right now, I only want him to watch. I need you too badly to have you distracted.”

  He leaned back until only his hips and strong hands held her aloft, studying her body. “Can he see through my eyes? See this delicious pink bounty, al for me?” One hand mimicked hers, sliding between them to slip a finger through her juices before lifting it to his mouth. He closed his dark eyes as the flavor hit his tongue. “Mmm.

  Does he know how good you taste? How addicting your scent is?” His gaze narrowed on her. “Does he know you’re mine, Phoebe? That you belong to me?”

  She gasped in answer, wondering if he was aware of what he was saying. He smiled. “Shal we show him?” The first intoxicating thrust of his hips brought the head of his cock inside her. Stretching her. She noted Jude’s stunned moan of arousal on the edges of h
er awareness, but al she could see was Max. Al she could feel was Max. Her Igigi. And she belonged to him now. No matter what came after this.

  She pressed her lips against his, desperate for more contact. He didn’t leave her wanting. His kiss consumed her. She moaned into his mouth when his hips rocked against hers, filing her.

  Loving her. It felt like love. It felt like dying and being reborn. She leaned away to try and catch her breath.

  “Max.”

  His jaw tightened, his eyes completely black now. Inhuman.

  Hers. She knew what he needed. She needed it too. “Bite me again, my love.” Love me.

  He groaned and lowered his head once more to her breast, piercing her flesh with his sharp fangs. She could feel its effects instantly, her body on fire. Arousal so sharp it cut through her and made her shout out in reaction. There it was again. Stars were born, bursting into glorious flame in every cel of her body. Her spirit scattered to every corner of the universe, but her heart stayed with him. Always with him.

  Max cried out in passionate surprise against her skin as she came. He was halfway inside her as her muscles gripped and squeezed his cock with the power of her climax. She sensed his loss of control an instant before he dragged her to the soft grassy ground. His tongue quickly stroked the marks his bite had left behind before he flipped her over onto her stomach, with her ass high in the air.

  A constant rumbling growl vibrated in his chest as he thrust inside her from behind, one large, hot palm pressing on her back with just enough pressure to demand her submission.

  My sarasvatti. My angel.

  His other hand squeezed one cheek, spreading her open so he could see al of her. So he could watch as she took al of him.

  Phoebe saw herself through his eyes. Not untouchable. Not invisible. Sin incarnate. A sexual being. His sexual being. She embraced it, pressing herself closer. Higher. Offering anything he wanted from her. Everything.

  He powered against her, and she took him in with a glad cry. His thumb pressed between her cheeks, along the seam of her ass, and she held her breath, waiting to see what he would do.

  Max’s voice was barely recognizable, his need was so great. “Have you watched, my Phoebe? Watched Lux and Arygon with their Antara, Sylvain? Watched them take her together?

  Watched them fuck each other for her pleasure?”

  “Yes!”

  “Did you watch me, Phoebe? Did you watch me as I shared in Jesse’s pleasure?”

  Was he trying to torment her? “Yes.”

  “Would you like it, my love? If I could share you? If I lowered that sweet, blushing body of yours onto Jude’s cock? If I took you,” he pressed his thumb harder between her cheeks, “here, and let him have a piece of my heaven?”

  If he could share her? Would he want to? She would be a fool to say no—the idea was too arousing. That arousal only increased with Jude’s obvious excitement at the idea.

  But something in his tone made her hesitate. She shook her head, confused. “I want you, Max. Whatever you want.” He lifted his hand, laying his chest over her back and whispering raggedly in her ear, “Oh, angel, do you have any idea what you’re doing to me? Whatever I want?“ His thrusts grew faster, wilder. “I want this, you. Over and over. My world is burning and I stil want this. Just this. To be inside you when I come apart. To hear my name on your lips.” Love you, Phoebe.

  “Max?”

  “Phoebe. Love, I—” His climaxed threw her back into the stars, her body quaking with it, her mouth opening on a soundless scream. Yes. Just this. Just him.

  Tears flowed down her cheeks when he lowered himself to the ground beside her and puled her into his trembling arms. How could she ever let him go now that al the pieces of her that mattered belonged to him?

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “I don’t like this plan.” Max knew he’d said it a few times.

  He watched Jude rol his eyes at Silas in a very un-Jude-like gesture and admitted to himself it was more than a few. “I just don’t understand why it has to be Phoebe going.”

  Silas sighed. “It’s her plan, yes? Her decision. She knows what she’s doing better than we do.”

  Max eyed him suspiciously. “Why can’t you come with me?

  Surely two warriors would be better than one.” Jude shook his head. “He’s needed here. He has the gift of sight and he is a warrior. He can help keep the window open, as wel as fight back whatever may decide to close things from this end.”

  Max narrowed his gaze on Jude. He’d changed, this Watcher. He seemed more relaxed, more…normal. He’d also exchanged his shapeless tunic for a white shirt and a pair of leather breeches that looked a lot like the ones Max was wearing. Maybe the jackass was warming up to him.

  The Watcher shrugged, smiling a little at Max’s thoughts.

  “Perhaps your memories have rubbed off on me. Some of them anyway. I’m not ready to grab a sword and join you, but I think we can hold our own here.”

  Phoebe appeared beside him with a smile. “Yet. Not ready for a sword yet.” She nodded at Jude, her expression sobering.

  “You know what you have to do. I trust you won’t falter.” Max wasn’t so sure. “I’m stil not clear on how the Legacy wil help Alexei. If we can do this at al, why can’t we simply stop those pictures from getting out?”

  Phoebe and Jude shared a look. “That window is closed to us,” she answered. “We cannot affect a human timeline.” Jude nodded. “Technicaly we shouldn’t be able to affect a god’s,” he added, referring, Max knew, to Shalem and Jesse, both of whom had held the stone. “But you were there, as was Kit, Regina, and the others. You are our window, Maximus. And the fact that the stone went missing is our key. Our…loophole. Trust us, this is our only option.”

  Damn it. That was not the answer he’d wanted to hear. In his mind he saw the powerful, yet stil so innocent heir of Zander Sariel. A child. Even if this did work, the fate of the world shouldn’t rest on Alexei’s shoulders. He was Max’s charge. Regardless of how much time had or hadn’t passed, it was stil true.

  Phoebe laid her hand on his arm. “I know how you feel, you know I do. This is the best chance we have to protect him, Max. To guard them al from their fate. Our fate.” As it had from the moment he’d met her, her touch soothed him. Her musical voice drew his gaze to her and helped him focus.

  He tried to smile. “Then we should go, bright one. Just remember to stay close to me.”

  She sighed in relief. “Try and keep me away.” Max watched Jude and Silas focus on a particular section of the mirror-like reflective wal. A scene appeared that was familiar. Yet not. He watched from a distance as the god so feared and abhorred by his people kiled him. An icy wind raced up his spine. It was disorienting to watch his own murder. After the others beside his body—Regina, Lux, Jasyn, Priestess Magriel—had falen, Jude’s hand, now nearly incandescent with light, slid into the image, causing it to ripple.

  “Go now.”

  Max felt Phoebe take his hand, puling him into the wavering image. “Don’t let go or we could lose you,” she warned, disappearing and taking his hand with her.

  “Hel.”

  Max took a deep breath and pushed forward, unsure of what to expect. He’d known there would be pain. Had felt it before. But this was so much worse. It was bone shredding, mind-numbing pain. Something was trying to tear him apart, piece by piece. Trying to rend him away from Phoebe. He curled her tiny form into his body to protect her. Seconds that felt like days passed before the red haze fel from his eyes and he could see again.

  He blinked as he took in the scene around them. “Why aren’t they moving?”

  He saw Kit and Jesse along with Baal and Jesse’s father Shalem, god of the dawn and Baal’s brother. Al of them frozen.

  Shalem was holding the stone his people had worshipped throughout most of his memory. Legacy. A gift given to the Igigi for safekeeping by the Great Mother.

  Phoebe walked up to Shalem. “This is the only moment we have. When Shalem s
ends Baal into his eternal prison, the Legacy wil be stolen on its return to your Great Mother, never to be seen again.” She paused and glanced at Max over her shoulder. “Do you know what it is you held for so long? What your people hid away and never touched or studied?”

  “Our gift and our burden,” Max shrugged. “That is what my father told me. Our gift of knowledge, and burden of grief, that the Great Mother had not been the one to fashion us. Had chosen humanity instead.”

  Phoebe’s smile was sad. “I suppose he was right, then. This is a part of her. The part of her that is also a part of the Universe. A powerful grain of sand that was once far larger than you see it today. It was filed with love and grace, compassion and patience, awareness and power. The divine spark of consciousness. It was from this that most of the greatest deeds of the gods were done.

  Worlds were formed. And it was from this that the first human souls were made to populate the world. She gave it to the only beings she trusted to keep it safe. Her guardians. She gave it to the Igigi.” Max nearly staggered under the weight of her words. “Why are we here, Phoebe? How can we dare to take a part of Her? It is beyond blasphemy.”

  She took a deep breath. “Do you trust me?”

  That stopped the chaos in his mind from spreading. His response was instantaneous. So swift it surprised him. Goddess, he realy did hate surprises.

  “With my life.”

  “Then trust me now. Your goddess, were she here, would do the same if she knew what was coming. I’ve known her longer, I know she would. Now draw your sword, Maximus of the Igigi. I wil need more than a moment to draw what I need from it. And the Universe wil do its best to set time in motion once more. To restore balance.”