Guardian by Claire Delacroix

Author:Claire Delacroix
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance - Paranormal, Assassins, Prophets, Science Fiction And Fantasy, Paranormal, Fiction, Romance, Fantasy, Man-woman relationships, English Canadian Novel And Short Story, General, Angels, Fiction - Romance
ISBN: 9780765359506
Publisher: Tor Paranormal Romance
Published: 2009-09-29T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

XII

"I told you to kill him."

Rafe blinked at the sound of that dark voice. It was audible and louder, no longer in his thoughts alone.

Then he dismissed it as a figment of his imagination. After all, he'd been shot. He was lying on the forest floor, brambles crushed beneath him. The ground was unpleasantly damp. It was presumably where he had fallen when Ferris shot him.

Rafe opened his eyes, moved slightly, and winced at the pain that shot through his body. His reevlar codpiece had been heavily damaged, which Rafe hadn't thought possible. The polymer was supposed to be indestructible.

On the other hand, his was a really powerful laze.

And there was no sign of it. His empty holster made him feel naked, and the damage to the codpiece certainly left him feeling vulnerable.

Should he be grateful that Ferris had shot the only place where he was protected? Or was that reading too much into the boy's choice?

Rafe gingerly lifted the edge of the blackened codpiece and was relieved to find that everything underneath remained intact. His trousers were singed, and as much as he regretted the damage to good fabric, he could live with it. There were burn holes in all of his garments, probably from the sparks that were scattered by the blaze hitting the codpiece, but that was a small detail.

He could buy clothes.

Delilah's disappearance was a problem of a different magnitude. There was no sound of her presence and again he was assailed by a terror of the consequences if his mission failed.

But what exactly were the consequences? He pushed to his feet, impatient with his persistent memory loss.

"It's that pesky compassion shit," the voice continued. "You all get caught up in this selfless garbage instead of doing what should come naturally."

Rafe looked around himself then, not truly surprised that the fog appeared to have become thicker. He was startled to find a man sitting on a fallen log near him.

Not just any man. This one was gleaming black, muscled, tall, and nude. He also happened to have large, dark wings, wings that looked leathery and reptilian, which arched high above his head. He lounged on the log, his pose one of complete confidence.

He also sported a large erection, one that made Rafe think there was a theme to the proceedings.

He had to be dreaming.

Or hallucinating.

This man couldn't be real.

The man smiled, a flash of white against obsidian.

"As I was saying," he continued. That deep voice was the same that Rafe had heard in his own thoughts, which made him think that the cabin had issued some kind of powerful hallucinogen. "Whatever happened to survival of the fittest and looking out for number one?"

There was something insidious about his voice. It wound into Rafe's thoughts, leaving his mind feeling as soiled as his body felt in the fog. His words were persuasive, charming even, but Rafe felt a revulsion that went right to his core.

His words, in fact, expressed all of Rafe's doubts. The drug,

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