To Hell and Back (League of Guardians 1.50)

Fear slammed into her gut. “Where’s Logan? I’m not going anywhere without him.”

Something in his eyes told her that things were much worse than she’d imagined. The fear inside her doubled and she sank onto the bed. “No,” she whispered and shook her head. “I can’t leave without him.”

He crossed over to her and knelt down, though his eyes remained as hard and unyielding as the rest of him. “Look, I don’t have time to babysit. This is life and death.” She looked away, hating his intensity, his large frame … his overwhelming maleness. But he wasn’t having any of it. He grabbed her chin and when she would have yanked away, he held firm and forced her head back so that he could look into her eyes. So that she could see the truth.

“They know about you and they won’t stop. I need to get you the hell away from here or your ass is toast.”

A whimper escaped her lips as his fin

gers dug in. He arched a brow, voice low and steady. When he spoke, it was slowly, as if he was talking to a child. “Do you understand?”

He let go and Kira nodded, her thoughts chaotic, her heart breaking.

“But Logan—” Her voice broke and she couldn’t finish.

“Logan’s not here right now, I am.” He stood abruptly. “Let’s go.”

“Is he alive?” she whispered. She knew what monsters hunted her, and if he’d come to harm, the blame lay squarely on her shoulders.

The stranger didn’t answer. Instead he held his hand out.

Her own crept toward her belly and an overwhelming sadness leeched into her soul. “Who are you?” she asked, though her mind was elsewhere and she barely heard his answer.

“Priest.”

She glanced up. “What?”

He leaned down once more, his breath warm against her cheek. “The name is Priest, and right now I’m your only shot of surviving, because this town is crawling with otherworld. Their numbers have doubled in the last ten minutes alone.” He glanced at the window and scowled. “The air is rank with their smell.”

A sob escaped her lips but he went on, cruelly. “Winters is long gone and I don’t know if he’s coming back.” His eyes fell to where her hand laid, nestled against her belly.. Her heart was pounding so loudly she could barely hear her own thoughts.

“Are you coming or am I going to have to carry you from this room?”

Kira went cold inside. She closed her mind and let the canvas bleed out until it was blank and there was nothing. It was an old trick, one she’d used many times over so that her fragile mind would survive when she’d been in the hellhole that passed as a psychiatric hospital. She nodded, wiped away the few tears that had slipped from her eyes …

And without glancing back, followed the stranger from the room.

Chapter Three

* * *

PRIEST KNEW HE was in trouble about two seconds after they exited the bed-and-breakfast. Up ahead, just past the giant pumpkin display, stood a pack of blood demons. They’d donned their human guise, of course, but it did nothing to hide the menace they projected. A family of five gave them a wide berth as they traversed the sidewalk and he watched as the mother hustled her children past.

Smart humans.

The damn things looked like a bunch of thugs—all of them well over six feet in height, with thick necks, tree trunks for legs, and shoulders as wide as a Mack truck.

They were mean and strong, but dumb. Bottom-feeders who kissed the asses of most of the underworld. He wondered who they called boss.

Normally, Priest wouldn’t blink. As an immortal Knight of the Templar, he was used to dealing with all sorts of otherworld scum. In fact, it had been a few months since he’d flexed his muscles and connected his fists with demon hide. Normally he looked forward to this kind of shit because life, such as it was, gave him only a few moments to feel truly alive. Making love to a hot-blooded woman did that. Waking up to the smell of fresh rain did that. Killing a bunch of punk-ass demons did that. He glanced to his side.

But normally he worked alone.

Casually he leaned his tall frame against the brick wall, just outside of the coffee shop and kept Kira out of view. The woman didn’t say anything—she didn’t have to. Her pale features and large exotic eyes couldn’t hide her fear. But there was something else there, and it was that something else that was going to make all the difference in the world. Anger.

He reached his hand forward as if to caress her cheek while his eyes scanned the immediate area looking for otherworld. To anyone glancing their way, they appeared to be a couple deeply involved in each other. Lovers.

Priest ignored both her flinch and her quick recovery as his gaze swept along the street behind him. His liege—the Seraphim, Bill—hadn’t told him much about this assignment, but he knew enough. He knew where Kira Dove had been.