Page 26 of My Guardian Gryphon

His shoulders fell, and he nodded before turning to go back toward the scene of —whatever had happened. Murderers. Who had they killed?

I walked the street, following quickly behind Jared. He wove through the two blocks back to where everyone was standing. Rose was in the center of the group. Even though I couldn’t see her, I could feel the pulses from her magick radiating from within the crowd.

Eira, Sanctuary’s newest appointed sixth Protector, stood at the edge of the crowd with her mate, Killían North, rubbing her slightly rounded belly. The vampire-Elvin match had created a miracle between them. To my knowledge, no vampire had ever existed both alive and undead simultaneously. Eira’s heart beat yet she still needed blood to survive, but the baby within her demanded normal human food for sustenance.

I walked to their side and stood between them and Jared.

“I don’t suppose your super-sonic scream flattened anyone I can flay with my sword?” Killían asked, leaning closer to my arm. The Elvin was tall, but I still had a good six or seven inches on him.

“Nope, the spineless Lycan escaped with his Djinn.”

“Figures.” Killían’s voice edged with disappointment. “I haven’t had a chance to—”

“Killían,” Eira said, her tone firmly saying hold-your-tongue-or-else, a skill only a wife and mate could successfully master and wield. Still, her jewel-blue eyes held barely-contained fury. She was new to the town, but possessive as hell. She’d been recruited into the town—or manipulated—depending upon perspective, but she was family now and she considered every single person in the town somewhat her responsibility. A noble trait but an exhausting one. Her mate, though not a designated Protector, had taken up the same ownership of Sanctuary and its inhabitants that many of us—myself included—shared.

Jared nudged my other arm. “Did you recognize the Djinn?”

“It wasn’t her. They were both male.”

A despondent sigh slipped from his chest. “She’s still alive.”

I believed him. He said he hadn’t had long enough to form a connection link with her, but I knew he had something. Phoenix were telepathic and telekinetic. I’d seen him manipulate everything from the furniture in the room to snuffing out a house fire. He hadn’t given up hope, which meant he absolutely believed she was alive. Possibly even could feel that she was alive.

We were quite the pair. His soul desperately searching for a Djinn woman everyone in town wouldn’t hesitate to kill and me…emotionally flogging myself for even considering the possibility that Gretchen and I could to be together.

The crowd dissipated and I watched, sorrow twisting in my gut for those lost today. They wouldn’t be the last, no matter how hard we fought. Several Lycans lifted the mangled body from the asphalt. Finn held the man’s legs and Brogan the upper body.

“You said earlier one of the intruders was Lycan?” Erick turned to face me directly.

I nodded. “Two males. One Lycan. One Djinn.”

“It was quick thinking for you to shift and survey. We were all so surprised by the death inside our town borders we forgot to behave like the soldiers we are.”

“This is not the first time they’ve come into town, but it is the first time we didn’t know about it beforehand. Did the barrier fall?”

“No,” a familiar male voice rose above the quiet sobs and words of comfort being passed through the crowd. “They found a way to cut a hole right through it. The barrier is still at full strength. No one should’ve been able to blink or even walk through it. One of the Lycans in town offered to test it for us, and it tossed him flat on his back and singed most of the hair right off his body.”

“We just have to adjust the spell, Harrison. Come.” Rose gestured to the resident head witch of Sanctuary. He and his daughters used to live part-time in Ada and part-time in Sanctuary, but with all the threats and the Mason Pack’s lodge being destroyed, he’d moved them both down to Sanctuary permanently. Rose had quickly put them to work assembling a spell that would not only inhibit a Djinn from blinking through it, but also from crossing it at all. From what I’d heard, she’d infused her own magick into the spell to strengthen it.

Harrison followed her away from the crowd, and everyone else began breaking apart, returning to whatever duty was calling them next.

But the only place calling to me was the damn castle, where the woman I loved was trapped, not only by walls but by destiny itself.

Chapter 11

GRETCHEN

It was Friday again, and again I was hiding out in the library, as far away from the rest of the Sisters as I could get.

“Gretchen?” Astrid’s voice drifted through the ajar French door.

Apparently, it isn’t far enough. I held my breath and willed her to just keep walking. She couldn’t see me from the doorway. I was on my favorite couch in the farthest nook of the enormous room, the one that still held Alek’s scent. The one where he’d kissed me. Another week had passed and I wanted to run through the castle, screaming his name until he appeared. In my dreams, I’d gone to the parapet walk and waited for him near an open window. He’d come to me in his Gryphon form, and we’d flown away from the castle. Away from Sanctuary. Away from Rose’s oppression.

A tear rolled down my cheek. I wanted to lay all of this on Rose. She had protected us, and many people in this town had died to keep us safe. Here I was bitching instead. Alek was one who’d been with her for centuries—probably longer. I was asking him to be disloyal to someone he respected and held in high esteem.

I was a horrible person. Selfish.

Astrid’s footsteps thumped closer and closer. A moment later, her head appeared around the last row of shelves. “Gretchen.” She hurried the last few steps and sat down beside me. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”

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