Guardian of My Soul (7 page)

Kyle pressed a tender kiss to her temple and once again
inhaled her flowery scent. He knew they should get up, shower and get ready for
the day but he wanted to hold onto the intimacy of this moment for just a few
seconds longer. Sally spoke softly, breaking into his thoughts.

“Why didn’t you tell me before now how your coming for me in
the darkness left its taint on you?”

Kyle’s heart stopped for a moment until he reminded himself
to breathe. For a crazy second he thought about denying such a claim, until he
remembered she had seen his soul just as he had viewed hers. Denying it was not
possible.

Until his dying breath Kyle had never wanted Sally to know
the true cost coming after her had placed upon him. Never had he planned to
give Sally even a hint of the stain he had brought back with him. Lightning
quick he ran through his options of how to be honest—for he never wanted to
outright lie to his witch—without fully divulging every sordid detail.

Sally already carried enough of a burden about that time. He
refused to add to it.

“What makes you think it was when I came for you, love?” he
replied with what he hoped was a casual tone. “Think about the work we do, the
darkness we face on every mission. The manner in which we fight, the power we
need to expend when need calls for it. Our work has left its stain on me,
Sally. I’ve tried telling you before I have darkness within me. It’s different
to yours, but holes nevertheless. Are you repulsed?”

Kyle winced at the almost pleading sound to his voice when
the last sentence slipped out. He hadn’t meant to ask that. The worry had been
subconscious, not overt. Instantly, however, Sally pressed her body into his
and kissed him fiercely. Kyle automatically responded deeply in kind, loving
the spontaneous gesture and hungrily eating at her soft, full lips. When they
pulled apart they were both panting.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Sally replied as she caught her
breath. “I could never be repulsed by you, Kyle. Never. Your magic is strong
sincere, far stronger than I had realized previously. I just hated the thought
I might be responsible for your carrying a burden.”

“If you recall, sweetheart, it was I who insisted we become
Guardians,” Kyle replied with a small smile, relieved at such a convincing
response to his timid question. “We could have done practically anything. This
was my idea, you just followed along.”

Sally huffed out a breath and sat upright, folded her legs
to the side and glared down at him with an astonishing regal manner.

“I don’t follow along with anything,” she insisted. “I
weighed our options and decided your idea had merit. That’s something totally
different.”

Delighted with the teasing tone in her voice, Kyle pressed
his luck. Grinning impishly he winked saucily at her and rested a hand up high
on her inner thigh, his fingers dangerously close to intimate territory.

“Go on,” he purred temptingly. “Admit it. You’d follow me to
hell and out the other side. Wouldn’t you? I freely admit I would do so for
you, love.”

Sally smirked at him, her eyes dancing with laughter and
love.

“I’ll admit to no such stupidity,” she insisted, tilting her
chin dangerously. “Why, I don’t even know how you could suggest such a thing,
Kyle Revell. For all you know—”

Not wanting to know where her comment would lead, Kyle
pounced on her and pressed Sally’s back into the mattress. Kissing her fiercely
he let his fingers trace delicately down her sides until he reached a ticklish
spot he had known of for years. Using the knowledge without remorse he tickled
her until she screamed and cried uncle.

“Okay!” she shouted as she gasped for air. “Of course I’d
follow anywhere you led. You know that, Kyle. But a witch needs her pride. Stop
it!”

Pleased he had made his point, Kyle wrapped his arms around
her once again and hugged her fiercely.

“I love you,” he said quietly, holding her as if he could
never bear to let her go again. Sally pressed a kiss to the edge of his jaw.

“I love you, too,” she replied with brutal honesty. Kyle’s
chest swelled with happiness. “But we have work to do. Why don’t you make us
something to eat while I shower? I’ll be quick, I know your water tank is
small.”

Kyle held her for just a moment longer. With their love
finally blossoming between them he knew they would be unstoppable together.
They shared one final kiss before parting. Kyle watched hungrily as Sally
walked across the bedroom to his tiny en suite. She left the door open and
after she turned the faucet on for the shower steam began to fill up the tiny
nook and trail into the bedroom.

Tempted, Kyle stood and pulled on his boxer briefs. One
final glance into the steamed mirror over the basin and he headed down the
stairs and into the kitchen to make them something to eat.

Kyle came down the stairs from his loft dressed in a pair of
comfortable, torn jeans and a black t-shirt. His hair was still damp from his
shower, a few drops of water soaking into the shoulder of his cotton shirt.
Sally sat at his small, circular wooden table in the corner of his kitchen. An
orange, segmented and partially eaten, lay on her plate and a steaming cup of
coffee sat in front of her.

The small bowl of pancake batter still sat beside the
skillet, untouched. Kyle opened the door to his pantry and removed a bottle of
maple syrup and a blueberry jam he knew Sally adored. Placing them both in the
center of the table Kyle moved to the skillet, turned the element on and
stirred the batter mixture before throwing a grin over his shoulder to his
witch.

“Still don’t trust yourself around my stove?” he teased her
lightly. Sally twisted her mouth in what might have been a smile or a repressed
snarl and simply cast him a speaking glance.

“I trust myself in my own kitchen just fine,” she retorted. “I
know my insurance covers every conceivable version of house fire and accident
possible. I just thought before I burned your home to the ground I would wait
until you were present to appreciate the show.”

Kyle laughed and poured two large circles of batter into the
skillet, watching them carefully as they heated and then bubbled. Sally’s
cooking skills—or rather, her lack thereof—were an ongoing joke between them.
It was one of many running taunts between them.

“You’re just angling to see me in that apron you can’t let
go of,” he joked. The air that had hung around his partner had been serious and
weighty before he had teased her. Kyle knew the conversation they were about to
have would not be a laughing matter. He wanted to place Sally in a better frame
of mind before they discussed the options on where they could head next in
their mission.

A few weeks ago Morgan Kingsburgh—a member of the ruling
Tribunal of witches and wizards in the greater Chicago area—had been in
possession of a manuscript that contained a horrendous dark ritual. The ritual
was one of how to render tears in Time and in the wrong hands could have
devastating, potentially catastrophic consequences.

Morgan had given it for temporary safekeeping to his two
protégés, Kiera Patrick and Josh Delamere. Together with Hayden Foxworth they
had ended up destroying the document, but not before both Josh and Kiera had
glanced at it, small parts of the ritual burning into their memory.

Soon afterward an attempted kidnapping had gone wrong and
Josh, Kiera and Hayden had been in a run for their lives. A group of
mercenaries had attempted to retrieve those memories and knowledge of the
ritual by any means necessary. Kiera and Hayden had split off and as a
Guardian, Kate Williams had been given the duty to protect Josh.

They were all safely secreted away, and the mercenaries had
gone to ground, but the larger issue was still at hand. Only other members of
the Tribunal had known certain pieces of information relating to the dark
ritual. The fact this knowledge had been instrumental in the attacks meant
someone had gone rogue amongst the elders. Hayden had requested as a favor for
a long-standing friend for Kyle and Sally to look into the matter.

To date, none of their contacts had been able to assist with
any pertinent information. Kyle had every intention of remedying that as soon
as he and Sally could change their game plan. With Sally so somber he knew her
mind would be working along similar lines. He just hoped to lighten her mood
somewhat before they returned to the very serious business at hand.

Kyle flipped the pancakes and left the skillet for a moment
to open the fridge. Grabbing the butter and some cutlery he set the table and
placed the tub in front of Sally. He reached a hand out and tenderly stroked
her cheek with his index finger. She lifted her head and their gazes caught
once again.

Not for the first time and certainly not the last either,
Kyle felt his breath catch at the depth of beauty he saw in her face. Her eyes
were a stormy blue, pale and rolling with emotions rather like the ocean on a
brisk day before the thunderclouds rolled in.

“I know,” he said softly. “But let’s enjoy the meal before
we discuss our options. It will look better on a full stomach. I promise.”

A wry smile twitched the corner of her mouth and her eyes
lightened. Feeling better about her mindset, Kyle quickly returned to their
breakfast and checked the food was ready. Placing both pancakes on her now
empty plate he returned the skillet to the stove and repeated the process for
himself.

They ate in companionable silence, well used to each other’s
company. Neither of them needed idle small talk to make the meal go smoothly,
they were perfectly comfortable. Sally denied the need for seconds and Kyle
refilled her empty coffee mug before he moved to the sink and started to soak
the pan he’d used. He grabbed an apple on his way back, sliced it and then sat
down so they could discuss their situation.

“We need a new plan,” Sally started as she sipped at her
cup. Kyle nodded.

“Definitely,” he replied. “I think we’ve sent out enough
feelers to discover who the rogue Tribunal member is. If the information was
discreetly out there for sale we’d have heard by now. I’ve exhausted all my
contacts and I know you have too.”

“I’ve never known you at a loss,” Sally replied with a warm
smile. “So I know you’ve already thought of the next step. I think we need some
bait. What do you think?”

Kyle ate another slice of apple and grinned at Sally. It was
icing on the cake to know she was already on the same page mentally as he was.
Her sharpness and intelligence had been one of the first things he’d noticed
about her in their joint classes in the Academy.

“Absolutely. The manuscript is beyond redemption, and sadly
I think enough people in the wizarding world know that for a fact, so it would
be useless to try to force a copy or recreate it.”

Sally shook her head.

“If it’s anything like what Hayden and Morgan have described
to us it would be too dangerous to even attempt reviving it,” Sally insisted
softly. “Magic like that, the truly evil stuff, it takes on a life of its own.”

She paused and respectfully Kyle held his own counsel for a
moment. Sally hesitated but continued more cautiously.

“Something as powerful as Morgan described, something that
Hayden described as almost sentient, it has a life and understanding all its
own,” Sally said with fearful awe. “Trying to tap into it, trying to control
it…there’s no use. Something like that could consume even the strongest
individual. Josh and Kiera did the right thing, burning it and scattering its
ashes. I don’t think we should attempt anything in regards to it.”

Kyle reached out and took her hand in his. Her final words
had been strained, as if they were an effort for her. He knew in his heart a
part of Sally urged her to seek it out, to just try to dabble. He didn’t need
to read her mind to see how torn a small part of her felt about it.

As she told him time after time, the temptation always
resided in her. He swore again to himself he would protect his love, keep her
from harm, even from herself. He knew he would not want to be in this world if
she succumbed and broke.

Sally didn’t fully believe him, but he always spoke the
blunt, complete truth when he told her he would follow should she return to the
darker world and lose herself in the black magic.

He would not lose her. He couldn’t.

As he watched her, Sally’s lower lip trembled slightly. Kyle
forced the conversation back on track and pulled his mind from such somber
thoughts.

“Well that leaves us with another clear option,” he said
firmly, forcing her to move her own thoughts on. “We need to seek another dark
ritual from our contacts. That shouldn’t be difficult at all, considering the
breadth of scope we have between us. Even if we get a relatively harmless one I
think we both have the power to convince others we have amended it, altered it
to be something far more potent, darkly dangerous.”

Sally frowned thoughtfully at this.

“We could bring the rogue out of hiding by spreading the
rumor we have something worth their time?” she summarized. Kyle nodded.

“We bait the trap and then finish this ourselves,” he
concluded. “Hayden and the others are in hiding. It’s obviously left to us to
wrap this up. I’m sure given time and enough planning the others could do it
just as easily as we can, but I’m not inclined to force their hand. There’s no
reason we can’t do this.”

“We’ve spent most of the last decade convincing everyone we’ve
changed, that neither of us are interested in black magic,” Sally pointed out
logically. “It will take weeks to re-establish ourselves. Not to mention the
damage it would do to our reputations as Guardians. Even when the traitor is
unmasked and we bring him in, many will start whispering again. All the old
stories will be revived and the finger-pointing will begin again.”

Kyle shrugged.

“So we move into a new area. Hell we could even relocate if
you want,” he insisted causally. Sally cast him a firm glance, clearly not
believing him.

“You love this city, and I know how much you relish being a
Guardian. This was your idea, remember?” she parroted his own words back at
him. Kyle pressed his lips together before replying.

“Okay, fine. I love being a Guardian, protecting those who
need it satisfies something deeply inside me,” he replied honestly. “But this
is important, not something we can just pass off. Enough people will listen to
the Tribunal and believe the truth that it will dint, but not destroy, either
of our careers.”

“Kyle,” Sally spoke softly, “if we convince those in the
shadows that we’ve truly turned back to their side it will cause irreparable
damage to our reputations. You can’t just dabble with this. Not only because
the rituals and magic itself sucks you in worse than a drug, but also the
temptation itself to just paddle in the shallows is so strong. Once your feet
get wet—so to speak—it’s only a few small steps and suddenly you’re drowning in
it.”

“I won’t let you fall, Sal,” Kyle insisted instantly. Sally
shook her head sadly.

“It’s not something I’m willing to risk
you
for,
Kyle, not when there are other solutions,” she argued firmly. Her tone alone
told Kyle this was not negotiable for her. Kyle frowned, frustrated at her
stubborn insistence.

“Sally, I’ll be fine,” he pressed. “I can keep my head and
guard your back at the same time. We’ve done it a million or more times over
the decades.”

“Not like this we haven’t,” she insisted stubbornly. “We’ve
never dabbled in this. It won’t be the same as you coming after me when I
called for your help all those years ago. That was you coming with a set action
in mind and a quick in and out. And it still stained your essence, just that
brief day’s rescue. I won’t have it.”

“Fine,” Kyle bit out, frustrated. “I’ll do it myself then.
You can stand guard over me on this side and haul me back if I get in too deep.”

Sally shook her head again and Kyle had to resist the urge
to stand up and pace. Usually their roles here were reversed, Sally the angry,
frustrated and volatile one and he the calm head of reason. It set him further
off balance to realize while he had always felt protective of his partner,
their deepening intimacies had only enhanced this tendency.

“It’s not necessary, Kyle. Listen to me. I can write my own
dark ritual, something that will tempt the Tribunal member into acting,” she
replied cooly.

Kyle blinked, stunned for the moment. It took him a minute
to digest this and react. He turned the thought over in his head, looking at it
from every angle.

“It can’t be as simple as writing a regular Casting,” he
guessed shrewdly. “Otherwise the world would be littered with such rituals.
What am I missing?”

“I’d have to enter a trance,” Sally replied hesitantly. Kyle’s
eyes narrowed. He could all but taste the “but” hovering at the end of that
sentence.

“And?” he prodded when she didn’t continue. Sally gazed at
him and he held her stare. Their willpowers struggled for a moment until with a
capitulating sigh Sally finished the explanation.

“I’d also have to enter the darkness again,” she admitted. “Submerge
myself in my own demons and go back to the nightmare to write a genuine ritual.
Otherwise any foolish dilettante would be able to spot it as a fake in seconds
and our chance would be lost for good.”

Kyle shook his head vehemently, not even needing to consider
the full ramifications. His stomach tied in knots plenty just from Sally’s
vague explanation. He didn’t even want to consider the option in detail. The
threat to Sally, her psyche and her soul unbearable for him to even
contemplate.

“Not a fucking chance in hell,” he insisted so fiercely his tone
shook. “I’ll dabble, even immerse myself in the shallows of the dark magic
world. It might take a week or longer to convince some of the fringe dwellers
that I am sincere, but I already have some stain on my essence. It won’t take
them long to believe me. I’ll get one of the tamer rituals and bring it back,
then we can—”

“It’s too dangerous, Kyle,” Sally cut him off just as
fiercely. “Dammit I am not going to lose you. Not because you think I’m too
weak—”

“I do
not
think you’re weak.” Kyle insisted, cutting
her words off just as she had his. “For Circe’s sake, Sally, surely you know
how much pride I have in your strength, in your sense of self. I’m not treating
you like a lesser partner here. I’m protecting your
soul
. This isn’t
something I take lightly. If it were physical danger I would kick up a stink,
sure, but I would bow to your wishes. This isn’t even remotely similar to a
situation like that.”