Protector Unmatched, page 14
“Don’t touch him!”
Pearce spun around and saw Daphne stand in the open door, her eyes darting between him and Ryder, who’d also jumped up, his fangs dripping with blood.
“Fuck!” Pearce and Ryder cursed simultaneously.
“Step away from my brother!” Daphne ordered them, walking farther into the room, her hands shaking, her eyes shock-widened.
Pearce lifted his hands, then took a few steps closer to Ryder, away from Tim. “You should have stayed in the car,” he said calmly, mostly to distract her from what had happened here, but in his gut, he already knew that she’d seen too much. Her expression of horror and disgust said it all. The little trust she’d had in him had been wiped out by whatever she’d witnessed. Just how long had she been standing there? He could only guess that it was long enough to realize that neither he nor Ryder were human.
Knowing it was time for damage control, Pearce cast Ryder a sideways glance. The young hybrid had retracted his fangs, but his lips were smeared with blood. “Call backup.”
“Already did after I called you,” Ryder replied. “Enya and Grayson will be here shortly.”
“Good.”
Pearce caught a movement in the corner of his eye and spun around, but it was too late. Daphne shrieked. The man Pearce had knocked out earlier had snatched Daphne from behind and was holding a knife to her throat.
Pearce instinctively made a step toward them, but a warning growl made him freeze.
“One false move, and the bitch dies.” To underscore his threat, the thug pressed the knife harder to her throat, making her gasp.
Pearce saw the cold fear in Daphne’s eyes and wished he could undo it all. He should have smashed the guy’s head in when he’d had the chance.
“You hurt her, you die,” Pearce said with a calm that belied the storm inside him.
The assailant looked to where the second guy lay on the floor. “Vasili? Are you all right?”
The man was still out cold and didn’t answer.
“You killed him?”
“He’s alive,” Ryder replied.
“And what the fuck are you?” The thug motioned toward Ryder, while still holding Daphne in a tight grip.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Ryder answered casually. Then he looked at Pearce. The question was implied.
Pearce nodded. Then he locked eyes with Daphne. “Trust me, Daphne.”
In the next second, he made himself invisible. It was the only way to eliminate the assailant without risking Daphne’s life. That he’d have a lot of explaining to do afterward didn’t matter right now.
In his invisible state, Pearce rushed toward the attacker, snatched his wrist, and twisted it away from Daphne’s neck. He kept twisting until the knife clattered to the floor, and the thug screamed in agony. Daphne freed herself from her attacker’s hold and stumbled away toward her brother, while Pearce kicked the asshole to the ground and pummeled his face until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up. It was Ryder.
“Don’t. I can take care of him later. In a different way. He won’t know what happened.”
When their eyes met, Pearce realized that in the moment of utter rage, he’d made himself visible. He turned his head and saw Daphne stand beside her unconscious brother. She’d seen the violence he was capable of.
Fuck!
Slowly he lifted himself off the badly beaten man and turned to Daphne. “He would have killed you.”
22
Daphne stared at Pearce’s bloodied knuckles, then lifted her gaze to his face. Did she see shame there? Regret? She shook her head. One thing was clear: Pearce wasn’t who he said he was. When she heard the sound of a shot, she’d run to the front door and unlocked it with her spare key, then charged into her brother’s apartment, only to come to a sudden stop in the hallway, where she saw what was happening in the living room—two strangers battling with invisible foes.
She’d been so stunned that she’d frozen there. Frozen until she’d seen Pearce and the other man appear out of thin air. But when that stranger had then bent down to sink his fangs into his defenseless opponent, and Pearce approached her brother to—presumably—do the same, adrenaline shot through her veins and gave her the strength to intervene.
“Who are you?” She motioned to Pearce and the other man—or should she say the vampire? “Invisible vampires?”
The two exchanged a look as if they needed to get their stories straight.
“Your call,” the stranger, whose fangs she’d seen dripping with blood, said calmly, deferring to Pearce as if he was his leader.
Pearce ran his eyes over her. “I’ll explain everything. But your brother doesn’t look too good. We should check him out.”
She took a step to shield her brother. “Until I know who or what you are, you’re not getting near him.” She pointed to the other man. “You think I didn’t see him suck this Vasili guy’s blood? Do you think I’m blind?”
“No, I don’t think that at all. Exactly how long were you standing there, watching?”
She braced her hands on her hips. “Well, why don’t you take a guess, Mr. Invisible?”
For some reason, the fear she’d felt earlier had been replaced with anger. Pearce had lied to her. About everything. About who he was, about what he did.
“Okay. So you saw everything. Then you must have also seen that we saved your brother from these two goons. Even if we used, uh… unorthodox methods.”
Daphne thrust her chin up. “Who are you? Both of you.”
A moan suddenly came from behind her. Tim was gaining consciousness. She whirled around and crouched down.
“Tim? Tim, are you okay?”
“It hurts so bad,” he muttered through a thick lip. When he lifted his head, she doubted that he could see out of his eyes. They were swollen shut. Her heart went out to him. Even though she’d been so mad at him, she couldn’t stand seeing him in pain.
“Daphne?” Tim mumbled.
She touched his hand, stroked it. “I’m here, Tim. I’ll take care of you.” How, she had no idea. There were two injured, unconscious men on the floor, and she didn’t know if she could trust Pearce and his friend.
“Daphne,” Pearce said softly, and she turned her head. “We can help him with the pain.”
Hesitantly, she rose and took a step toward Pearce, but several feet still separated them. “How?”
Pearce motioned her to come closer, then pointed to Tim and then his ear and shook his head. He didn’t want Tim to hear what he had to say?
Curious, she approached him. “Talk.”
Pearce spoke in hushed tones. “You saw correctly. Ryder, my friend, is a vampire. But he’s not violent.”
She pointed to Ryder and said in equally hushed tones, “Hah! He sucked Vasili’s blood!” She’d seen it with her own eyes.
“I know. But he had to. Vasili shot him, and Ryder needed to heal. But Vasili is alive. He didn’t suck him dry. You have my word.”
Yeah, and what was his word worth?
He seemed to guess what she was thinking. “I know you don’t trust me right now. But for your brother’s sake, please let Ryder give him a little bit of vampire blood. It will take away the pain and speed up the healing process. He’ll be good as new in twenty-four hours.”
Was he completely mad? “You want my brother to drink vampire blood? Are you fucking nuts? Don’t you know anything about vampires?” Well, or about the lore, the legends, the fiction.
Pearce smirked. “Actually, given that I share a house with two vampires, I know quite a lot. And whatever you’ve heard, it’s wrong. The blood won’t turn your brother. It will heal him.”
She cast a look over her shoulder and looked at the sad state Tim was in. He moaned and shifted as if he was trying to shake off the pain. Tears shot to her eyes. She wished she had another choice. But she didn’t.
Turning her head back to Pearce, she said, “I hope you’re not lying to me this time.”
In his eyes, a flicker of shame lit up. “I’ll never lie to you again, I promise. And I’ll explain everything. But let’s take care of your brother first.”
Slowly, she nodded.
Pearce told Ryder, “Heal Tim.”
“No problem.”
Daphne watched Ryder walk to the armchair and crouch down. He extended his fangs. A shiver ran down Daphne’s spine. As if he’d noticed it, Ryder turned his head fully to her. “Don’t worry. He’ll be okay.” The eyes of the vampire shone red now, like beacons in the night, but in his voice was a kindness, a tenderness that calmed her against all odds.
“We’re here. What’s going on?” came a familiar female voice from the door.
Daphne pivoted. Enya entered with a young man on her heels. As soon as her eyes fell on Ryder, she cursed. “Ryder! Pearce, what the fuck? In front of her?” She pointed to Daphne as if accusing her of something. “Are you out of your mind?”
Pearce lifted his hand. “She knows.”
“Yeah, of course she knows now!”
Enya pointed to Ryder, who held his wrist to Tim’s mouth to let him drink his blood. Tim’s eyes were closed, and Daphne hoped it meant that her brother didn’t really know what was happening. Perhaps it was better this way. He’d gone through enough.
“Enya, stop. She saw me,” Pearce said in a tight voice.
“Well, that’s just perfect,” the man next to Enya said.
Enya shook her head. “Ah, fuck!” Then she looked at Daphne. “Welcome to our world.”
What exactly their world was, Daphne didn’t know. A world of invisible vampires? The thought made her shudder. What had she gotten herself into?
“I wish I knew what that meant,” she said to Enya.
Enya exchanged a look with Pearce. “I thought she knew.”
Pearce sighed. “She saw everything, but I haven’t had a chance to explain to her what it means. We need to clean this place up. You and Grayson can take care of these two thugs. Search them for any weapons, and take them away from here. Make sure they realize that if they ever contact Tim again, we’ll be back. Then let them go.”
“You’re not killing them?” Daphne asked.
Pearce gave her a stunned look. “They are crooks, but they didn’t kill anybody, even though they threatened yours and Tim’s life. We don’t kill indiscriminately.”
The last word gave her pause. “But you do kill.”
He hesitated for a moment. “Yes, but only those who’re truly evil.”
She didn’t know what to do with this information.
“I’ll explain later,” Pearce promised, then looked to where her brother was slumped in the armchair. “Ryder, I want you to take Tim to the safe house and watch over him to make sure he’s healing. Call Leila, and see if she can look at him to make sure he doesn’t have a concussion.”
Daphne listened to his instructions. He sounded like a leader, like a man who was used to dealing with situations like this. But with every word he said, more questions formed in her mind.
“A safe house?”
“The place we stayed at last night,” Pearce said without missing a beat. “Ryder will take your brother there. It’s best if he doesn’t stay here for a while, until we can be sure that there aren’t any other thugs coming after him.”
“It wasn’t your apartment,” she said, then looked to Enya. “You two don’t share an apartment, do you?”
“Not that one, anyway,” Enya said.
Daphne was sick of the vague replies. “What does that mean?”
“I’ll explain everything,” Pearce said.
“Yeah? When?” Because her patience was wearing thin.
Pearce sighed. “I guess sooner rather than later.” He gave Enya a look. “You guys don’t need me here, do you? I’ll take Daphne home.”
“I don’t wanna go home. I wanna know the truth. Now.”
“Not here. These two goons can wake up at any moment, and the things I need to explain to you aren’t meant for their ears.”
She couldn’t tell whether he was stalling, but she understood that Tim’s assailants didn’t need to hear what they had to discuss. Besides, she had a few personal questions she didn’t need Enya or Grayson and Ryder to overhear either.
“Fine.”
Moments later, they were in Pearce’s car, driving back to her apartment.
“I didn’t mean for you to find out this way,” Pearce said when they were about halfway.
“What exactly did I find out tonight? What did I see? Can you explain that to me?”
“I understand that you’re upset—”
She whipped her head to him. “Upset? You think I’m upset? Damn it, Pearce! I feel betrayed. I feel lied to.” She started choking up. “And I don’t know what to think about what I saw. Two guys fighting with air? And then you and Ryder just appeared out of nowhere. And his fangs. And the blood. My brother, beaten and bloodied. Fuck, Pearce, you have no idea what I’m feeling.”
“I didn’t mean to… Hell, Daphne, I never meant for you to get hurt. I wish I could have told you earlier who I am. But our race… We have to remain hidden.”
She sniffled. “Yeah, I get that. Nobody can know that vampires really exist.”
“I’m not a vampire—”
“You’re gonna deny it now? I saw Ryder’s fangs. I saw him drinking blood, and you admitted it. You told me that vampire blood can heal my brother, and now you’re just gonna claim it’s not true.”
Pearce shook his head. “Ryder is a vampire. I’m not.”
She stared at him. “Then what—”
“We’re called Stealth Guardians; we’re immortal warriors. Enya and I, and a bunch of others, live in a secret compound in Baltimore. So, in a way, yeah, Enya is my roommate, and we work together.”
He was an immortal, a man who didn’t get sick, a man who didn’t die. She wanted to say something, but he stopped her.
“Hear me out. Ryder and Grayson, who you just met, they’re vampire hybrids, half vampire, half human. They live with us to help us combat evil.”
She snorted at that, but didn’t say anything.
“I see why that may be hard to believe, but the vampires I know are good people. Honorable men and women. They’re our allies in the fight against the demons.”
“Demons?” she heard herself ask.
“They are truly evil, out to destroy mankind. The mission of the Stealth Guardians is to thwart their efforts. We’re tasked with protecting mankind. Our race has been around for millennia. We’ve developed certain skills. You saw one in action tonight. I can make myself and others invisible. I had to do it in order to save your brother, and to save you. Making myself invisible was the only way to make sure that bastard didn’t hurt you.” He ran a hand through his hair and cast her a long look. “Losing you would have been far worse.”
When he kept staring at her, taking his eyes off the road for far too long, she glanced outside and realized that they’d stopped in front of her apartment building.
“Say something, Daphne,” Pearce begged. “Please believe me when I tell you that all I did was in order to protect you.”
Her head was spinning with too much information. She had to go through it bit by bit. “So you’re not a shy computer geek working for a defense contractor?”
He smiled hesitantly. “Actually, I’m responsible for all IT needs at the compound. My job consists mainly of hacking into government and private systems to gain information that may help us ferret out the demons.”
“Why did you follow me last night? Why did you help me evade the police?”
He put his hand on hers and squeezed it. “Can we talk upstairs? That is, if you trust me enough to invite me in.”
That jolted something in her. “Does that mean you can’t come in if you’re not invited? I mean like a vampire?”
“That’s just lore. It’s not true. But I’d rather be invited in. I want you to know that I won’t do anything against your wishes.”
Why she believed him, she didn’t know. But she knew he wasn’t going to hurt her.
“Okay. Let’s go inside.”
23
Moments later, Daphne unlocked her apartment door with trembling fingers and entered. Pearce was behind her and closed the door, then flipped the deadbolt. The sound sent a shiver down her spine. Had she made a mistake allowing him in?
“You haven’t answered my question,” she reminded him. “Why did you follow me?” She turned to face him.
Pearce sighed. “I overheard you on the phone. I’d waited in a bistro across from your work. I wanted to fake running into you so I could ask you for a date. But when I caught up with you, you were on the phone. To Guido, or Kevin as we now know. And what I heard concerned me. So I followed you to make sure nothing happened to you.”
“I didn’t see you.”
“Because most of the time I was invisible. It makes it easy to shadow somebody. But I wasn’t doing it in a creepy stalker kind of way, believe me.”
A faint smile stole onto her lips. “I get that. But why didn’t you just call me for a date? You had my number.”
Pearce shrugged. “Maybe I got the feeling that you might say no.”
“So you’d rather get a rejection face to face, is that it?”
He chuckled softly. “I thought perhaps I could talk you into it with my charming smile.”
She decided not to comment on his attempt at levity. There was nothing casual about the entire situation. She’d just found out that vampires, immortals, and demons existed. She didn’t know what to think of it. Was she shocked? Yes. Scared? To a point. Could she trust Pearce? Not sure.
“What’s bothering you?” he asked, looking at her as if he could see into her mind.
“Everything.” She didn’t even know where to begin. “Will my brother be all right?”
“Yes. Ryder will take care of him, and Leila is a very accomplished doctor.”
“Is she a vampire too?”
“No. She’s human. And the wife of one of the other Stealth Guardian warriors.”
That stunned her. “An immortal married to a human?”
