Shadow Guardians: The Beast

Horns hooted and tires screeched as cars swerved out of the way of the green Corvette making a beeline through the city, with absolutely no regard for road safety.

Magnus’ body hummed and tingled all over. The beast lingered just beneath the surface, like it was crawling around under his skin. This time, he welcomed it. He wanted to keep it there until he found Katherine. She was twenty-five miles out of the city at this very moment. In a town called Sleepy Hollow. He let out a hysterical laugh at the name. How fucking ironic that it also sounded like something out of a horror movie.

His throat burned as much from anger as from bloodlust, and his fangs hurt as much from craving to rip flesh apart as from wanting to sink them into a vein and drink. He was the perfect killing package right now—one big ball of agitated, angry energy.

He was nowhere near a clear head right now. He was focused solely on the end goal, smashing into wherever they held her and clawing and chewing bone. Then bringing her home and forcing her to drink from him if he had to. Didn’t matter if she drained him dry. She was not ever going to be vulnerable again.

He’d found the Bentley and Solomon’s body alongside the wreck, bled out. He was so thirsty that he considered going down on his knees and licking the blood off the tarmac. Apart from the fact that the act would have been an abominable one, the sun was on full blast, and even as he sat in the car with the leather over him, his skin was singed red.

He tried to swallow but found his mouth was too dry. The anger had, for some reason, fuelled his craving for Vitamin Plasma like it was no one’s business. When he wanted to change hands on the steering wheel, he noticed for the first time that he had subconsciously bit down on the fleshy part beneath his thumb on his free hand. Just with the front teeth, not his canines. It was an old habit that he had when he was desperate for the feel of yielding flesh against his teeth. When he managed to pry open his mouth to change hands on the steering wheel, the imprints of his teeth remained on his hand.

He considered the unthinkable.

He slowed, then stopped the car outside a dive bar just on the outskirts of the city and watched a couple of humans pour out of the brick building. The lot of them got into a blue van, but one of the women stayed outside—a blonde one, probably an employee.

Jesus, he was desperate. His hands shook, and his body screamed in silence. He hadn’t done this in a long time. Centuries. And the last time, it was also when there was no other choice. Digusting. Fucking disgusting you are.

But the thirst was more powerful than his disgust.

He got out of the car and went over to the woman with the leather trench coat still over his head. The sun still burned his eyes. Its light nearly blinded him outside the little shade of the corvette. But he didn’t need eyes to smell her. Now there were two screaming voices inside him. The bloodlust, and his instincts yelling at him that this wasn’t his woman. He wondered for an instant which one would win, but as his legs kept carrying him toward her, he had an inkling which had the upper hand.

“Hey, cutie. You hot? Why don’t you come inside?”

She was met with two teal eyes that lulled her into a stupor. She was vaguely aware of a hand coming around her arm and dragging her to the backside of the dive bar. Somewhere far away, she wondered if she was about to get a quickie from this handsome man. She didn’t mind.

At the back of the building, he turned the blonde woman around so she’d face the wall and pulled away her hair. He hesitated only for a moment as his instincts fought for dominance, bloodlust against loyalty. He let out an emotionally pained groan before his fangs elongated and sank into her flesh. She shuddered and let out a descending cry that sounded more like a pleasure moan.

He took from her but found no satisfaction or nourishment. Her blood was thin, tasted of rust, and was devoid of any sustenance. Human. Weak. He pulled out of her with frustration and licked the wound until it sealed.

She weakly sagged against the wall. He had taken a lot from her for no reward. He dragged her in through the back door and left her in the maintenance room, where she fell asleep. Then he wiped her memories and left, dashing back to the corvette.

Well, that was a waste of valuable time for nothing. His throat was moistened, but his body continued to crave. And he was left with nothing but guilt that he’d cheated on Katherine. He’d cheated on his wife. Fuck. Him.

The car roared beneath him as he sped off in the direction of Sleepy Hollow. Sundown was a long time off. But the chapel would be dark inside, so as to keep angels out. And the darkness was just what he needed.

Z and Draven weren’t too far behind him in the Mercedes. The waiting it out thing lasted minutes before they came to the same conclusion. Usually Magnus put up walls when he went out on his own so they couldn’t follow him. They shared the same blood, after all, the bloodties of brothers. But this time he was probably too agitated or too engaged with keeping his beast chained. The trail was easy to follow. And man, they were a sight to see, both of them hunkered down under their leather trenches against the sun. At least the Mercedes’ windows were tinted. That helped a little, but they were both baking out in the car. Z could feel the burn right through his leather gloves as he gripped the steering wheel.

Zachiel and Draven had also found the site of the wreck. By the time they got there, the police had secured the scene. And Z had called on some of their human friends to help clean up the mess and notify the family.

He couldn’t look Lizbeth in the eye and tell her her grandfather had died. Which was probably weak, but he was strung out as it was praying that Katherine and his brother would be alright, and please, gods, do not let tragedy come to their house. Not again.

“He’s thirsty,” Draven said. He could feel his brother’s edginess in his own body. Like he needed the extra nerve juice. “Real, desperate thirsty. He tried a human.”

“Shit.” Z sighed and turned up the air conditioning, all the while turning on his indicator and weaving through traffic. “Draven, if he’s thinking about turning her, his blood might not be enough to feed her the first time. Not when he’s like this.”

Draven gave a little chuckle. “You want me to hold him down while you feed her? He’s going to go fucking ballistic.”

“Can’t be helped. I’m mated, it’s not going to be a walk in the park for me either. I might as well be cheating Ophelia, but it’s better than letting Katherine die. And he’ll be less turbulent with me doing it. There’s less intimacy involved. I’ll let her drink from my wrist.”

“Yeah, if it were me, he’d tear me into pieces and disembowel me before setting flame to me. For you, he might just rip your skull off with your spine intact. But I can’t say I’m jumping for joy at the thought of holding him down either.”

“You have to get in quick and pin all his limbs before he has a chance to jump you. Maybe you can lull him into calmness.”

Draven’s head snapped toward Z. “Me? Lull him?”

Z rolled his eyes. “Come on, you have a better connection to him than I do. If you two were in our mother’s womb at the same time, you might’ve been joined at the hip.”

Draven laughed. Hard. “Sun isn’t doing you any good, my brother.”

“Magnus cares about you, Draven. I do too. You’re still our little brother. You know you can count on us, right?”

Draven frowned and looked away. “You know this plushy stuff is awkward to me.” Damn it, he hated it. Hated knowing he had a problem but not being able to talk about it. But then, they didn’t need to know. He could take care of it himself. Yeah right, like he’d been taking care of it for the past few centuries, fucking and whoring around to no avail. He was a disgrace.

“Yeah. I know,” He muttered.