Tall, Dark, and Deadly: Seven Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance

  Darkness surrounded them. How high were they? Specks of light dotted the ground, but blackness dominated the rural, nighttime landscape. She shook so hard her teeth rattled, nothing to do with the cold. She shouted over the noise. “Raphael, how can you tell where we’re going?”

  “I can sense what direction I’m headed in, and how high I am. Other than that, I’m blind in the dark.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll get us there. I saw the house’s location on the computer. Easy to find. You’ll see.”

  She closed her eyes, forcing out of her mind the fact that they careened high over the earth in the middle of the night and focused on Jett. His honey-and-tea scent. His dark crimson eyes. The sexy way his voice changed when there was no one else to overhear them.

  “We’re nearly over Morgan,” Raphael said after a short while. “Those lights must be it. See the moon reflected below? That’s Lake Seymour.”

  “Already?”

  “We’re going that fast.”

  She didn’t doubt it. The force of the air hurt her skin even through the ankle-length jacket.

  “I’m bringing us lower,” he said. “The house is on the northern end of the lake, on the shore.”

  The lurch of the sudden descent nearly made Lexine heave.

  Raphael banked. “I see lights. That’s the place, where the shore juts out into the lake.”

  The wind prevented her from looking over her shoulder, but a gut feeling told her Jett was near. “Yes!”

  Raphael reversed the pattern of his wing beats, slowing them as a gravel driveway rose up to meet them. He landed and set her on her feet. Trees shielded them on either side, the lake spread out behind the house, a back road with no traffic crossed in front. No visible neighbors. Thank goodness for small towns.

  Lights shone from every window of the farmhouse. Nothing moved. No sound.

  Struck with dread, she ran toward the door, Raphael on her heels.

  She ignited fire on her skin, ready to block Raphael from any human who posed a threat, and threw open the door. The scent of blood hit her hard.

  “Jett!” She froze, facing the kitchen. That horrible floor, a pool of blood. A human missing part of his head from an apparent gunshot wound slumped against the far wall. A little boy knelt by Jett, stanching a leg wound.

  Jett, his face so, so pale, glanced up, astonishment and disbelief on his face. “Lex?”

  She dropped to her knees as the boy scurried away. Jett’s arms wrapped around her body.

  “Lex.”

  “You’re going to be all right.”

  Déjà vu overtook her as the moment from the dream played out. Jett’s hands slipped from her shoulders and his eyes closed.

  “Jett?”

  A wing brushed her arm. Raphael knelt in the blood, the liquid staining his flight feathers. He grasped Jett by the shoulder with one hand and covered the bleeding wound on Jett’s leg with his other hand.

  Lexine squeezed her eyes shut.

  “He’s going to be fine, Lex.”

  At the words, she slumped and cried into Jett’s chest.

  …

  Raphael carried Jett, unconscious from the healing, out to the SUV. When Lexine had calmed, she got in the driver’s seat and headed out.

  Instead of taking flight, Raphael went back into the house. He ignored the body in the kitchen—Lawrence deserved no mercy or even a second thought from him—and squeezed down the narrow hall, his wings tight to his body.

  Drew sobbed at the side of an unconscious woman on the bed. Raw skin on her wrists and ankles indicated she’d been bound recently.

  Another body lay on the floor, dressed in a pastor’s uniform.

  He kept his questions to himself. No need to make Drew repeat the gruesome events. Jett would explain, later.

  “Andrew, is this your mother?”

  Drew nodded, tears dripping off his chin.

  “She’s going to be all right. She’s fainted.” Raphael leaned over the frail human woman. His healing talent prickled his skin. “Interesting.”

  “What?”

  Raphael pressed his palm to the woman’s forehead and released his healing talent. Color returned to her cheeks and her breathing deepened.

  Drew’s eyes brightened. “Did you just heal her?”

  Raphael shook his head. “I cannot cure her cancer. But yes, I healed some of the damage her body of sustained from her disease and her treatments.” Raphael touched her again, reading her body. “I cannot prevent her death, but I promise you, I have set her disease progression back a few years. When she wakes later on, she’ll feel much better.”

  Drew began to cry again, the tears falling around a wide smile. Raphael stroked the child’s hair.

  “Be good to your mother, and use the time you have well.”

  “Yes, sir.” Drew wiped at his eyes.

  “I have to go.” He noted the phone on the nightstand. “Call 911 and stay out of the kitchen. In fact, stay on this side of the bed. Don’t look at the body.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You’ll be okay. I wish you well, Andrew.”

  Raphael left the house and perched in the tree, waiting, making sure help arrived for Andrew and his mother. A couple minutes passed. Sirens wailed. Police cruisers and an ambulance arrived.

  Drew and his mother would be okay, despite this wretched night. Drew would grow up strong. He had that indomitable spirit. Sneaking into the colony to get help for his mother was just the beginning of a life that would make a real difference in the world.

  Raphael spread his wings and flew into the sea of stars overhead, eager to get home.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  With the help of two Guardians, Lexine brought Jett to her apartment. After they left, she stripped him of his blood-soaked clothes and sponge bathed him. She arranged his weapons carefully on the couch.

  As Raphael had warned her, Jett slept for hours. She lay down next to him on the bed. When he finally stirred, the sun hung high in the sky.

  His fingers brushed her hair. “Lex?”

  She propped herself up on her elbow and kissed him. Light. Tender.

  He lifted the blanket and looked under it. “I’m nude.”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m healed.”

  “Yes.”

  “But I lost too much blood to survive the healing fever. How…?”

  “Raphael.”

  “Raphael went to the lake house?”

  “He’s fine. He’s back at home.” She bit her lip. “I think I heard Lark yelling from here, though.”

  Jett sat up. The ivory sheet pooled around his waist. “Why did Raphael go after me?”

  “Because I asked him to.”

  “You what?”

  She lifted her chin. “After you left, I went to see Ginger. I saw her computer and the pictures of the lake house. That kitchen floor was in my dream. I saw you die on that floor. I had to do something. I asked for help the only place I could think of.”

  He glowered at her. “Lexine.”

  She folded her arms and stared right back.

  “I love you.”

  The tension eased from her body, and she took his face in her hands. “I love you, too.”

  He pulled her down to the pillows with him. An arm over her chest and a leg over her thighs, he held her, his eyes closed.

  “Lawrence is dead,” he said after a while. “So is the accomplice who kidnapped Bryce.”

  She nodded. “I’m not glad for death, but I’m glad we’re all a little safer.”

  “Yes.”

  “Raphael called a little while ago. He said to tell you Drew will be fine.”

  “I’m glad. You’ll never believe who I talked to.”

  “Who?”

  “My father. While I was bleeding out on the floor, I heard his voice.”

  She held him tighter. “What did he say?”

  “That he loved me, and that he left something for me in his office.”
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  “Then we better go see, shouldn’t we? How are you feeling?”

  He kissed her lips and worked his way down to her throat. “I feel fine, but we’ll go out later. First, we have a problem. Two problems, actually.”

  “Oh?”

  “First, I’m nude, but you’re not.” He eased her sweater over her head. He unhooked her bra and flung it across the room. He kissed her stomach and worked her jeans free of her hips, tossing them away, as well. Her panties followed.

  “Second.” He knelt between her legs, his hands flat on her belly. “I still want you. I still love you.”

  She bit her lower lip.

  “Lex, there is a job I have to do, and a strong female I want by my side. I’ll have long hours, grave responsibilities, and my life will be in immediate danger at times. We won’t always be able to protect each other. But, if you’re willing, I want to love you and have you as my mate.”

  She sat up and laced her fingers into his hair. “Yes.”

  She’d barely gotten the word out when he seized her mouth in a fierce kiss. He ran his tongue over her fangs and sucked her lower lip into his mouth as his hands smoothed over her body. When his mouth followed his hands, he teased her with his fangs and she cried out.

  They made love, their union both a relief and an additional torment. He stilled, pinning her beneath his weight. He lifted her left hand and kissed her fingers. The back of her hand. Her palm. Her wrist. He kissed his way up the tender skin to just below the crook of her elbow, pressed down with his fangs, and met her gaze.

  She rubbed his nape with her free hand. “Yes, Juneau.”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “Not yet.” He nibbled her skin. “Not until after I’ve told Lark and Raphael we’ll be taking at least a few days to be alone.”

  “Ah.” She smiled. “Good plan.”

  …

  That evening, Jett returned to the office where his father had worked for so many years. He lit the demon fire lantern on the desk. Jett pulled the journals from the shelf and set them carefully on the table. He opened the safe. Inside, a set of gold wings—fascinating in their intricacy for their inch width—rested in a box on a piece of black velvet. A note in his father’s handwriting stated that he’d made them himself, just in case his son took the path of an archangel’s Guardian.

  Jett couldn’t sense anything unusual, but he knew his father stood at his side at that moment. “Thank you, Dad. I haven’t earned these yet, but I will. I promise.”

  Jett closed the safe and replaced the journals, leaving the wings for safekeeping, and left the office. No rest for Guardian trainees, especially if he wanted to earn the time to properly make Lexine his mate.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Another month of training passed before Jett took Lexine out of the colony in a black SUV fitted with a standard Vermont plate on the back and the “I am Vermont Strong” plate on the front. A trip like this would be next to impossible after he became an official Guardian to Raphael’s family, so as irregular as it was, he insisted on the plan and the colony provided the funds as a mating gift. They packed for a week, including everything they needed to pass off as humans. He’d had plenty of experience with that, after all. They’d only need to mind their fangs.

  Niagara Falls, not because it was a popular wedding destination, but to take Lexine to the plethora of wineries in the area. He’d hoped the trip would make her happy, and sure enough, they went all day and most of the night, nonstop, so she could see everything she wanted to see.

  Well, almost nonstop. On their second night, after viewing the falls, they returned to their room, bathed together, and curled up in bed.

  “You’re sure you don’t want something more fancy?”

  “I just want you,” she said.

  He cradled her in his arms and pressed his mouth to hers, taking his time, just savoring her presence, her skin, her scent. Kissing his way down her throat and arm, he pinched her skin with his teeth, teasing her. She shivered.

  “Jett,” she said. “Please.”

  He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and lifted her left arm—the traditional choice—to his lips. He kissed the soft skin just below her elbow and pressed his fangs in just hard to break the surface, numbing the spot with venom. Pausing, he let the full weight of what he was doing wash over him. He trembled and his heart flailed, unable to maintain a steady rhythm. “I love you,” he whispered.

  He tightened his embrace and bit harder. He targeted muscle, aiming to infuse her body with venom without spilling any more of her blood than necessary—he’d been man enough to get some advice on technique, though the conversation had been uncomfortable as hell. For Lexine, it was worth it. He wanted this done right. Within seconds, pain coursed through his body, an effect of the forming mating bond, which he’d been warned about.

  Her body tensed as the same unusual pleasure-pain rocked through her, her fingers fisted in his hair. After she relaxed with a contented sigh, and his own discomfort gave way to pleasant warmth, he withdrew his fangs. He licked her wound and held a white cloth to her skin until the bleeding stopped. All the while, she gazed up at him, her head resting on his shoulder.

  She kissed him. “I love you.”

  He opened his eyes wide at the sound of her voice in his mind. “I thought they were joking.”

  “Someone told you?” She scowled. “I wanted to surprise you.”

  He held her face in his hands, parted her lips with his tongue, and kissed her deeply. “We can truly hear each other’s thoughts?”

  “Only when we’re touching.”

  He held her close and lightly bit her shoulder. “I’ve never been happier than I am right now. Can you “hear” how much?”

  “Yes.” She leaned away, tears in her eyes. “Yes, I can.”

  As the weight of her joy flooded him—through the mating bond and his empathy talent—he lay down on his back and pulled her over his chest.

  They passed the night in bed, even though they didn’t sleep, making love and watching movies, eating popcorn.

  “Lexine?”

  “Yes?”

  “You know why you make me happy, right?”

  “Tell me.”

  “I could list numerous reasons, of course, ranging from your tenacity to learn to fight with Raphael, to the way you smile in your sleep, but you were the first demon in Sanctuary to trust me and to care what path I took. You gave me the strength to do what I’ve done, Lex. I owe it all to you.”

  “No.” She kissed him. “You’ve earned your own success, won your own battles.”

  “You saved my life. And I don’t mean in Morgan. I mean the first moment I saw you.”

  “Then to be fair, you saved me. Even though there was never a real poacher in my nightmare, I thought the worst of myself. Before I realized the truth of the lover in my dream, you gave me hope. You gave me faith in myself. So we’re even.”

  “We’re more than even.” Warmth filled his chest. “We’re mates.”

  She kissed his neck. “Yes.”

  “And I’m going to make sure it only gets better from here.”

  “Tall order.”

  “Just wait and see, beauty.”

  …

  On a crisp November morning, Jett walked through the first snowfall of the season to the garden behind the archangel house, his mouth dry, his legs unsteady from adrenaline. Several inches of heavy, wet snow clung to every surface, every branch and evergreen plant in the garden and forest beyond. Fat flakes drifted through the air and one landed on Jett’s nose, melting on contact.

  Beneath the snow-frosted pear trees, Raphael waited with Wren, Ginger, and the twins—the infants bundled in blankets. Opposite them stood Devin, Lark, Vin, and a dozen of Sanctuary’s eldest Guardians. Lexine graced the garden as well, standing between the two groups, dressed in an ankle-length red coat. Her smile could have stilled his heart.

  Jett stopped in front of Lex and knelt in the snow, the snowf
lakes landing and melting on his black uniform. His weapons, all cleaned, sharpened, and polished, clung to his body, their weight and the weight of the ceremony a welcome burden.

  Repeating after Lexine—whom Raphael had elected to give the ceremony—Jett took the oath to protect the lives of Raphael’s family with his own, naming them in turn. He meant every word, focusing on the core of his being as he spoke them. He hadn’t just earned this position, he’d gained friends, and he’d do right by them.

  For the second time in his life—the first being his recent mating—he’d gained something invaluable: a place to belong.

  “You may stand,” Lex said, a smile in her voice and tears on her cheeks. She took a step forward and opened her fisted hand, revealing tiny wings forged from gold—the ones his father had made. He’d finally earned the right to wear them, finally found his place in Sanctuary.

  Jett stood and tilted his head. His mate pinned the wings to his collar and threw her arms around him in an embrace so tight, his spine popped.

  “Ow,” he whispered in her ear.

  I love you.

  I love you, too. He gave her a light kiss before he released her, a quick brush of lips that warmed his entire body and his soul.

  Lexine backed away and all the demons in attendance approached one at a time, shaking his hand before departing in silence. The second to last Guardian, Devin, whispered threats of creative bodily harm if anything ever happened to his daughter. He smiled and moved on, letting Lark step forward.

  “It’s been a honor kicking your ass,” he said.

  The archangels approached last and they each thanked him for his commitment, formal words accompanied by brushed from their wings. Ginger gave him a kiss on the cheek. With the ceremony over, Jett turned to go and take up watch in the woods.

  “Join us for dinner and wine tonight, both of you,” Raphael said. “We need to do some real celebrating.”

  “We will.”

  Jett pulled Lex close and escorted her to the house behind the archangels, as happy as he’d ever been and looking forward to much more of their new life.