Page 92 of Guardian's Destiny

Shit!

What were the odds that he was Nova's brother? The one she thought dead?

I needed to talk with Silla as soon as we got to Astrionis. If anybody could find him, it was her and her database.

The door opened, and Vraax entered. He was balancing an assortment of food bowls and cups with drinks. I jumped up to help him before he could make a mess.

VRAAX

Sloane was adjusting betterto the fated mate-reincarnation-Soulweb thing than I had expected. She spent the entire journey to Astrionis reading up on anything she could find and pestered Zapharos relentlessly. More than once, a black aura appeared around him, making me worry about her safety, but unlike the first time, he was able to get himself under control.

One afternoon, after it had happened again, I cornered him when we were alone. "Want to explain why your aura gets as dark as any criminals I have ever seen?"

"Not really," he responded, trying to get by me.

"I wasn't really asking." I grabbed his arm.

"Easy. I let you hit me once; that doesn't mean I will allow it again."

I scoffed, "You won't have a choice unless you use those neat little mind tricks."

"I don't need those to?—"

Ella exited their room. "Boys?" She arched an eyebrow.

"Nothing, lumiya, everything is fine," Zapharos smiled at her. I sent her my most winning smile as well to assure her.

"We're best buddies." I slapped Zapharos on the shoulder, harder than I needed to, but the bastard didn't even flinch.

"Hmm, hmm," Ella looked from one of us to the other.

She made her way to the breakroom, leaving Zapharos and me in the hallway. I arched an eyebrow at him. "So?"

He sighed; he didn't pretend he didn't know what I was asking. "You and Sloane are a perfect match."

"Flattery isn't answering my question," I stated.

"Light and dark, good and bad, order and chaos, creation and destruction. You know what they all have in common?" Zapharos asked, and I prepared myself for another one of his enigmatic, evasive explanations.

"One can't exist without the other?" I guessed.

He nodded. "That's right. Every person, every species experiences both to some degree. Some people are bad; others are good. My species is gifted with experiencing both to the extreme. We can kill the population of an entire planet without flinching, or we can bring love and light to it."

Looking into his amber eyes as he was saying this brought chills down my spine. I didn't doubt his words for a moment. "Some of us chose the path of light; others chose the path of darkness, ever since our temperance left."

"Which path did you choose?" I was curious because he seemed to be straddling both.

"The darkness," he replied, "the darkness was my home."

"But not anymore?" He was intriguing me. I had never seen an aura go from black to light. Never. Not even on the people who claimed to regret their actions.

He shrugged and surprised me when he placed his hand on my shoulder, "Take care of her, will you."

"Sloane? Always. With my life."

I didn't see him again. He and Ella stayed in their quarters for the rest of the flight. Which was more than fine with me, I had never met someone who crept me out like the Arkhevari did. Usually when I saw someone with a black aura the urge to terminate them was nearly unbearable, not with Zapharos though. As much as I wanted to kill him because… because he was an ass, I didn't feel a drive to rid the galaxy of him. I wasn't sure if that was because of his mind control or something else. I had a suspicion though that it was something else which kept him alive. For now.

A couple of days later, we landed on Astrionis, where Lord Protector Garth and Lady Silla waited for us. As soon as the Lord Protector saw my mating marks, he exclaimed, "Ah frygg, please don't tell me we lost another Space Guardian."

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