ReEmergent -Guardians of Vesturon [4] (13 page)

“
I find that I quite like you here, just like this,” he told her, his voice husky. He put his hands on her hips and looked into her eyes. “Will you be my mate Saylan?”

“
Yes! I will. I love you Xarrid.” She placed her forehead against his and sighed. “I hope I don’t disappoint you.”

“
You could never do that.”

He put his hand under her chin and lifted it so he could look into her eyes. “Saylan, look at me please.” When she opened her eyes, he smiled at her and traced the curve of her brows, then held her face between his hands. He knew he’d never find another woman as lovely as she was, even if he searched the whole universe. “I wanted my life to end when you disappeared. You can never think you could disappoint me. You breathe life into me.” He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Ask Jurek if you don’t believe me. Hell, ask anyone. I was a mess when we didn’t know where you were. We looked for you for over a year. Jurek had to take me to his sanctuary. I couldn’t eat or sleep. Finding you and then knowing you would live...well, I have no words. You are my reason for being who I am so don’t ever think you could disappoint me.”

She covered his hands with hers and asked, “Will your family accept me? Knowing about what they did to me?”

“
Yes. Without a doubt. You don’t know my family Saylan...other than Maddie. They will accept you. They will love you as I do. They looked for you as much as I did.”

Saylan looked at Xarrid and something flashed in her memory. She gave her head a slight shake, rubbed her eyes and then the images scooted across her mind in rapid succession.

“
What?” he asked.

“
Graduation night,” she whispered. “From the Academy. That’s the first night we really met, isn’t it?”

“
Uh huh. Maddie introduced us.”

Saylan saw the flashbacks again, but then her face grew solemn. She remembered making the comment to Rayn about how dangerously close to dying Maddie came, at the hands of another student. Maddie had chosen to keep that from Rayn, along with the fact that she was even in training to become a Guardian. Rayn went ballistic and didn’t speak to Maddie for six months after that. Saylan felt responsible for their temporary breakup.

“
Don’t sweetheart,” Xarrid said, reading her mind. “That’s extremely old news and Maddie and Rayn are solid as can be now. You’re troubling yourself over something that’s been long resolved.”

She gave him a half smile and nodded. “I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive myself for that faux pas.”

He kissed her gently on the lips. It was meant to be a quick one, but it didn’t quite turn out that way. Once he tasted her lips, he didn’t want to stop. He took her lower lip between his and nipped at it and then ran his tongue along its curve. Then he slipped his tongue into her mouth and felt her response. He heard himself groan and didn’t try to stop.

Whispering into her mouth, he said, “You are perfect, in every way Saylan.”

He pulled away then, knowing he needed to but definitely not wanting to. He looked at her and kissed her nose, her eyes and then her cheeks.

Rafe and Maddie had gone out to keep watch on the message drop point. They wanted to intercept the next message to come in so they could get the information to Jurek and his men. They were taking turns, alternating keeping watch with Sharra and Zander.

Maddie had been feeling a bit under the weather the past few days so Sharra and Zander and taken watch the last three days in a row. Tonight was their night off. They were back at their makeshift headquarters, setting up the plans for the following day. Sharra and Jurek had discussed Xarrid’s idea about getting all the minions out and she was trying to set up a way to do that with Zander.

“
I’m not sure it will be feasible to do that all at once. If we try it, there will be a lot of casualties,” Sharra remarked.

“
I think you’re right. I’m not sure how we could create a diversion big enough to get all the leaders out of there long enough for us to teleport all the minions to safety.”

Sharra jumped to her feet and started pacing. Her arms were flying back and forth and Zander just looked at her and started laughing.

“
What is so funny?” she asked as she stopped moving.

“
You. You look like one of those crazy cartoons we used to watch when we were kids...where the bots would short circuit and their limbs would fly everywhere.”

She put her hand on her hip and gave him one of those
I can’t believe you
looks. Then she stuck her lower lip out and started pouting. That made him laugh even harder.

“
If you think that’s going to make me feel bad, you’re going to have to try something else. I’ve got news for you, the only thing that does is make me want to kiss you.”

Sharra’s mouth formed a perfect little O when he said that. But before she could think of a witty retort, he had her in his arms and was kissing that pout away, along with that O.

Her arms snuck up around his neck and her fingers suddenly wound themselves in the soft hair that curled at his nape. She wanted to melt on the spot. She loved his kisses. She felt them from her lips all the way to her toes.

“
Hmm, just what I thought,” Zander mused as he pulled away, albeit reluctantly from Sharra’s lips.

“
What?”

“
You taste absolutely perfect.”

“
Oh yeah?”

“
Oh
yeah
. Sharra, when we go back to Vesturon, I want to make sure we are together. As in together together.”

She gave him a sly look. “Together together? Like, play dates or something?”

He nudged her with his elbow. “If you want to think of it that way, then I may just let you.”

She looked into those soft mocha eyes and her toes almost curled.

“
I wasn’t going to tell you this but I may as well. My brothers have checked you out. They are overbearing brutes and very protective of me.”

Zander grinned, and not just a little one either. “They did?”

“
Yes! Are you not angry?”

He pulled her to him and kissed her hard on the mouth and quickly released her. “Hell no, I’m not angry. I’m ecstatic. Think about it from my perspective. Any male worth his salt would want to protect his sister. I would be worried if they hadn’t checked me out. That would mean you had no interest in me at all.”

“
Males make absolutely no sense to me. So I guess my judgment doesn’t mean a thing, does it?”

Zander laughed. Sharra got angry.

“
Now don’t stick that lower lip out at me again or I’m just going to end up kissing you instead of explaining.” He laughed again.

Sharra huffed.

“
Look, they think you have excellent judgment. It’s mine they’re questioning. They adore you. You’re their only sister and the Deity help anyone that hurts you in any way. They’re just doing their job, honey.”

Sharra smiled. “I like it when you call me honey.” She put her hands on his chest and fisted his shirt, pulling him to her. “Do I have to keep my lower lip stuck out all the time in order for you to kiss me because if so, I’m really going to start looking like a bulldog.” She kissed him then.

Zander realized he needed to break this kiss off because things were getting a bit too steamy. He whispered against Sharra’s lips, “I want the time to come when we don’t have to stop...where I can pick you up in my arms and love you with my body until we both fall asleep from exhaustion. I want to hear your heart beat and feel your breath as it caresses my skin as we lay together each night. I want to wrap your silken hair around me before I go to sleep every night, and not just in my dreams. I want to know that if I hold out my hand, yours will be right there, waiting to grab onto it. That’s what I mean by together, Sharra. I want you as my mate. Please say you’ll be mine forever.”

Sharra couldn’t speak. She thought he loved her. She felt like he did. But they’d never spoken the words to each other. This was so unexpected the only thing she could do was stare at him like a fool. When several moments passed and she didn’t answer he said, “I guess I was expecting a different reaction that this.”

Then she felt his body tighten but she didn’t want that. She wanted
him.
So she did the only thing she could think of. She jumped against him and blanketed her body around his.

“
You surprised me Zander...I wasn’t expecting this. I love you and yes! Yes, I want to be your mate!” Then they were kissing and that’s how Maddie and Rafe found them.

********

“
Sorry we interrupted you last night,” Maddie grinned.

“
No worries. We were so...”

“
Hey, no explanations are necessary. It wasn’t that long ago for Rayn and me you know. So what are your plans?”

“
We aren’t going to make any until we’re finished here. Then we’ll have to talk to my parents and set our date for the ceremony and, well, you know how it all works.”

“
I’m there for you Sharra. And Rayn is impressed with Zander so that’ll be smooth sailing.”

Sharra had a goofy look on her face for the rest of the day that nothing could erase.

“
I want to take them out...every last one of them,” Xarrid said as he looked at Jurek. “I want to go back to the beginning...to find who actually implanted the chip in her brain, and then follow the trail. Everyone that touched her is going to die Jurek. I’ll do this with or without your help.”

Jurek looked at his friend. Xarrid’s cobalt eyes had darkened and his lips were pressed into a thin line. There were creases on the bridge of his nose and he was incessantly flexing his fists.

Jurek rubbed his forehead. He scraped his lower lip between his teeth and was silent for a few minutes.

“
Are you sure about this? Remember what I told you about my background? Once you do something like this Xarrid, it can’t be undone. It’s forever etched in stone and your conscience will bear it for the remainder of your life. It’s not always easy to live with. Think about it long and hard before you make this final decision. We could be taking out dozens of lives here.”

“
Already done that. If I could expunge that entire species right now, I would do it. My conscience be damned. They raped her Jurek. Not once. And not one of them. Dozens most likely. They made her pretend to
enjoy
it or she would suffer the consequences as in beatings. They will die...every last one of them. Even if it takes the rest of my life to hunt the bloody bastards down.”

Jurek released his breath and said, “When do we start and where?”

“
On Earth. But first, I want you to trance her and see what you can pull out. She’s getting memories back in the form of flashbacks. They’re flying in now. We’ll be talking and she’ll get a distant look on her face and
wham
! She gets barraged by them. What you need to find out is where they first went and who was in charge. I don’t want to know the gory details. But I want to know every last person that freakin’ touched her.”

“
You don’t want to do it telepathically?”

Xarrid looked at his friend and ruefully said, “I couldn’t bear it, Jurek. I’ve closed myself off from those thoughts and I think she’s closed her mind off from me getting into them too.”

“
I can understand that. Does she know that’s what you’re planning to do?”

“
Not exactly.”

Xarrid explained how he mentioned to Saylan that he wanted to go back and destroy everything that had anything to do with the minions.

“
She thinks I need the information because of that.”

“
Good enough. She’ll comply because she’ll not want anyone else to go through with this.”

“
I’ll tell her when it’s over, but not until then.”

Jurek nodded. “Xarrid, this may take a while.”

“
I have the rest of my life.”

The two friends arranged for Jurek to meet up with Saylan the day after the next.

********

Jurek spent most of the afternoon with Saylan. He learned things that he wished he hadn’t. When he left, he went far away from anyone because his anger and violence was threatening to explode from him. He ended up at his sanctuary, his place where he could always find his balance and peace of mind. Now he would have to find a way to deal with this. He would kill those bastards even if Xarrid didn’t want him to. Xarrid would never know the truth of what they had done to Saylan. Jurek wished he could erase all of her memories of those monsters. They had been so cruel to her, but he would see to it they would die.

Now he needed to find a way to get to every last one who had hurt her. He would do it...he had no doubt of that, but he needed a sound plan.

********

Lare-Stell Base

Jurek, Tak, Ludo, Marik and seven other members of his team, along with Xarrid sat in one of the conference rooms.

“
So, we start on Earth. At the airport where they are keeping the minions. We can pull one commanding officer out at a time and bring him here for questioning. He won’t know where he is,” Tak said.

Xarrid thrummed his fingers nonstop on the table. “He’ll be wearing a tracer.”

“
We’ll remove it when we get here.”

Jurek looked at Marik and said, “Remove it before you get here, while you’re still on Earth. Take him to Siberia first, strip the damn thing out of him and then bring him here. Understood?”