Passion Ignited (28 page)

“Twice.” He smiled, showing a fang. He was
right though; the first time she had worn a red sweater. The second
time had been when she’d been kidnapped by Damion, and he, Draven,
and Blaze had interrupted the vampire’s plans at claiming her.
“Pink looks good on you, too. If it weren’t for Draven’s scent all
over you, I’d say you’re…edible.”

She ignored his remark. “Did you and Ferox get
things worked out?”

“What would make you think that that would
happen?”

“Well, I guess I just assumed since I just
passed him walking away from the alley.”

Thrash’s smirk fell. His lips peeled back from
his fangs as he looked behind Ally. When he looked at her again, he
growled, “What are you doing here?”

“I…I, uh,” she stammered. “I came looking for
you. To let you know you can stay with Draven and I until we get
things sorted out.”

He turned his back on her and watched the
flames from one of the demons’ bodies burn out. “There’s nothing to
work out anymore.”

“Thrash, come on. I think it was all just a
big misunderstanding. If you’ll just come with me, we can fix
everything between you and the rest of the Guardians.”

“Didn’t you hear me?” he whirled around. “I’m
not a Guardian anymore. Now get out of here. You don’t need to get
caught in the crossfire.”

Ally stepped back, reacting to the growl of
his voice. “What crossfire?”

“Drop it, Red.”

Draven materialized into the alley with
another man by his side. Both men had their weapons drawn and were
scoping out their surroundings. Draven spotted Thrash first and
moved on, trying to spot if there were nearby threats to his
female. The other guy kept his eyes trained on him.

Dropping his weapons by his side, Draven
pulled Ally into his arms. “
Caalia
, why did you leave
without bringing one of us?”

“I knew I could do it on my own,” she
replied.

“You can’t do everything on your own. You
don’t even know how to handle your gifts yet.”

“She would if she’d let me train her,” the
other guy offered.

“Shut up,” Draven said. “Don’t even get me
started. You let her walk out the door without giving a shit. Some
warrior.”

“This, coming from a man who has no strength
to do anything during the day? This is all new to me, leech. So I
was amazed by this realm’s technology…kill me.”

“Gladly.” Draven unsheathed his blades and
stalked toward him.

Who the hell was this guy?

“Hey, I got you here, didn’t I? You’d still be
driving or flashing here if it weren’t for me.”

Draven obviously didn’t care as he strode
toward the man.

Ally reached forward, gripping his arm just as
Thrash stepped between the two men. “Not that I mind a good fight,
but who the hell are you,
Pretty
?”

His face screwed up in distaste as Draven
barked out a laugh. “Why do you warriors have to call me that? I am
Dellingr, the god of the sun.”

“Ooh, well then. Not really sure I need to
save your ass from Draven, seeing how you’re practically
invincible.”

“Practically,” Dellingr agreed before facing
Draven again. “I told her I would come with her. We were just
finishing a game first.”

“It’s true,” Ally admitted. “He said he’d come
and I left without him.”

Draven’s eyes remained on Dellingr a few
seconds more, the hatred between the two growing more palpable. He
had to pry his gaze away from the god before all his anger focused
on Thrash. “And what the hell did you do to my female to scare her?
I should cut your head off now.”

“Draven, don’t,” Ally begged. “He didn’t scare
me.”

Thrash glanced at her before returning
Draven’s stare. “I did, she’s lying. Next time, you might want to
avoid sending your female out to babysit me.”

“Ugh,” Ally groaned. “Fine, he scared me, but
it wasn’t his fault. I accidentally upset him.” She pulled on
Draven’s arm, forcing him to look at her. “Draven, listen. This is
all just a misunderstanding. He didn’t scare me on purpose. I just
barely found him and was offering him a place to stay.”

“Truth,” Thrash said. “But I don’t need a
place to stay.”

“Yes, you do,” she argued.

Draven studied Thrash and Ally as they fought
over what he needed. Thrash could tell without a doubt that he
didn’t agree with Ally’s asking him to stay with them. To be
honest, he couldn’t blame him. He was a sexy bastard. Who would
want their female around such a potent male?

“What Ally is trying to say, is that not all
of the Guardians agree with my father’s decision to ban you from
the brotherhood.” Draven wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “We’re
offering you a room at our house until we get everything worked
out.”

Thrash caught a scent that was coming from
just down the alley. He allowed his gaze to hone in on the man that
was hidden within the shadows. Q. No one else sensed him there, but
now that Thrash had spotted him, he could make out the grin that
had spread across the Abassy’s face.

Thrash turned to Draven again and met his
eyes. “Fine. Until we get everything worked out.”

****

Raider remained by Nitro’s side on the
hospital bed until the sun had set the next night. The higher the
sun was in the sky, the harder it had been for him to remain awake.
Nitro hadn’t moved the entire day. Hadn’t even taken a breath. She
had warned him that her heart would cease beating during daylight
hours. Otherwise, he would have panicked at her lifelessness. As
soon as the sun had set, her eyes flashed open.

The infirmary still caused her to tense
whenever she took in her surroundings. He’d reminded her time and
time again that they weren’t at the Institute, but the feel of the
room was too much for her to handle.

So he had lifted her from the bed and carried
her from the basement. They barely made it to the main floor before
Nitro hissed, her eyes riveted to the wall. On the other side, he
could hear Ethan and Blaze laughing as they played a video
game.

“Blood,” she whispered.

Faster than Raider could react, she was out of
his arms and in the room with his brothers. Both Ethan and Blaze
turned, noticing Raider first.

“Raiderman,” Blaze said. “Good to see you out
and about. Thought you might like to know that the security system
is fucked up.”

Raider’s eyes were locked on Nitro, but he
replied to his brother. “How?”

“It keeps showing that something is trying to
get into the mansion, but every time we investigate there isn’t
anything there.”

“And the hits are coming from all over. Ground
floor, second level, attic, garage,” Ethan added.

Raider’s gaze left Nitro now and he looked at
his brothers. “There isn’t anything there?”

Blaze shook his head. “No, the system is just
fucked.”

Like he needed something else. Just then,
Nitro growled, and both brothers noticed her.

“Holy…gods damn it,” Blaze gaped.

She was crouched now, ready to pounce if
either of Raider’s brothers-in-arms made a move. Both Blaze and
Ethan stood and faced her, but neither stood in surrender. They had
pulled daggers and were gripping them in their hands. If it came
down to it, there would be a battle right here in the Guardians’
mansion.

“Look at her eyes,” Ethan said.

Raider’s gaze never strayed from her, but he
did step forward so he could see what Ethan was seeing. Her eyes,
which had been her lovely brown just seconds ago, were filling in
with red. She peeled her lips back, revealing her sharp fangs as
she let out a long, slow hiss.

“Nitro. Doll. Calm down. It’s just Ethan and
Blaze.”

“Blood,” she hissed.

Raider reached out with his mind, connecting
his to hers. Her mind was a jumble of emotions. Anger, fear,
confusion. Hunger. He couldn’t sense his female in there anymore,
but he knew he had to reach her before anything went down here
tonight.

She took a step toward Blaze and Ethan, her
hunger gaining in intensity. Raider touched her mind again, sending
warmth and love into her jumbled madness and did something he only
hoped would make a dent in her resolve. He spoke to her by sending
a message from his mind to hers. “
If you crave blood, you can
have all of mine you want, doll.
”

She froze. Her eyes widened as her head
whipped toward him.

“You heard me
.
I willingly give my
blood to you. They don’t
.” He gestured toward his
brothers.

Nitro’s jaw tightened, and she didn’t reply
out loud. She responded the way he’d been communicating with her.
“
Need
.”

“You need blood? Great. You can have mine.
I’ll always give you as much blood as you need
.” He’d never
allow her to feed from another. If she went after either of his
brothers right now and drank from them, he’d have to kill
them—assuming she didn’t.

“I heard that
.” A surprised smile
spread across Nitro’s face, and some of the red started to fade
from her eyes.

Raider blinked in alarm. “
Heard
what
?”

“That you’d have to kill them if I drank
from them
.”

He stood there, gawking at her. She’d somehow
focused on him enough that she’d been able to hear—and
comprehend—his side thoughts. Her eyes started to warm more, but
the intensity in her face hadn’t vanished.

“Raider, you have to get me out of
here
,” she thought. “
Their pulses. It’s too much. I need to
get away
.” She closed her eyes tightly as if in pain. “
I
can’t even look at them, or I’ll lose myself again
.”

He surged forward and took her in his arms. He
spared only a quick glance at Ethan and Blaze before he and Nitro
were out of the room.

Chapter
Twenty-Eight

“There you are,” Kyle called out. He ran down
the sidewalk, dodging around people, hitting many of them with his
oversized backpack.

The kid’s dirty brown hair had grown down to
his ears. It had a shagginess to it that left something to be
desired, but Bob wouldn’t change the boy for anything.

“We’ve been looking for you
everywhere
.” Kyle finally stopped just in front of him.
“Grandpa said you went after some ass-wipes that kicked
him.”

“Language.” He knew how much Eugene hated
cussing. He’d have a coronary if he’d just heard “ass-wipe” escape
his grandson’s mouth.

“Sorry.”

Kyle started yammering on about this and that,
about all the places they’d searched for him before they figured
that he hadn’t wanted to be found.

“How’s your grandfather?” Bob
asked.

“Pfft
, sometimes you act like you’re
really old. What are you, like twenty-nine? Thirty?”

He shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t know,” Kyle said,
defeated. “Grandpa’s fine. He got bruised a bit, but he’ll heal.
It’s happened before.”

They walked down the sidewalk toward their
alleyway community. “Where is he?”

“Back at our place. He’ll heal, but he hasn’t
yet. So where did you go?”

“I went to find out who I am.”

Kyle stopped in his tracks on the sidewalk.
Bob turned around and raised an eyebrow just as he asked, “Really?”
He peered up at him as if he feared finding out the answer to his
next question. “Did you find anything?”

“I did.” He gestured with his chin and they
started walking down the sidewalk again. “I went back to the place
where I woke up and found this.” He handed Kyle the
journal.

He flipped through it backwards, just as Bob
had done. His eyes rested on the note that was handwritten in the
front of the book. “Cool. What does it say?”

“It says a name. Two actually.”

The kid looked up at him again, his eyes
surprisingly even wider. “Well, what are they?”

“Damion and Ferox.”

Kyle pulled up one side of his mouth and
crinkled his nose. “Ferox sounds cool. But Damion? I knew a Damion
in school, and he was a complete dick.”

“Kyle.”

“Sorry.” His eyes dropped to the sidewalk.
“So, do you think that one of those is your real name?”

“Don’t know.” He shrugged. “I still need to
find out.”

Kyle sighed and handed the journal back.
“Let’s go show Grandpa what you found.”

****

“Faster,” Nitro hissed. “I can feel the
others.”

Raider had almost reached his doorway before
her eyes had started filling in with red again. She’d focused
intently on the walls, and even on the ceiling as they rushed down
the hallway, and Raider realized it was because she could sense the
other Guardians in other rooms. Her fangs came out, lengthening at
the same time her eyes began to glow.