He was thorough, going into every crevice and corner, inside and out, making things stir to life under his arcane and physical touch. He was spiraling around the Darkness, and as he did, it burrowed deeper, drew in on itself, the turtle in its shell. He was going to hit it dead-on eventually, because now that gentle, inexorable flood of power was in her chest, around her heart, and deeper. The place where the soul resided, that closed fist. A fortress.

A dangerous part of her wanted to open it up, let him cleanse there. And he couldn’t. She couldn’t let him.

Leaning forward, he placed a kiss on her thigh as the water ran down, rinsing the soap. When he turned his head, his wet hair brushed her mound, the sensitive flesh between her legs. He settled the weight of his skull there as he probed the shape of that clamshell behind her heart.

“Derek….”

“Hush,” he said mildly, but in an unexpectedly stern tone, given his intimate position. “Be still, Ruby.”

“You can’t…. I don’t want you there.”

“I won’t force myself past your will, Ruby. I told you that. Though God’s truth, you’ve pushed that to the limits of my integrity. So be still and don’t push it further. Let me help the way I can help.”

She pressed her lips together, tense and uncertain as he wound the energy around her closed soul, stroked it, gave it touches of warmth and heat that made it ease, that made it feel like it could be unguarded. She could trust him to cleanse the area around that sealed, infected wound, not try to pry it open and drain the pus inside. Of course, they both knew that, without a full cleansing, the Darkness would rise up and wipe away his impact, as soon as he withdrew.

“A soul is a full container,” he rumbled against her flesh. “The only way there’s room for anything more to be inside of it is if pieces of it have been let go, leaving pockets for Darkness to grow, like tumors.”

“That’s my business.” She was ready to get out of the shower now. But he was blocking her way. The steam swirled around them, a pale mist. He rose now, holding her in that corner.

“The hell it is.” His voice was so mild, the words so at odd with the tone, that she finally looked up into his eyes. That was a mistake. The blue was such a fierce, vibrant color, she knew it had to be a residual effect from the fight, but the emotions she saw there were even more alarming. Her throat tightened.

“No. I need to go.”

“You promised to do a job for me. You’ve never been a chicken, even when you didn’t have the confidence to stand toe-to-toe with the Underworld and fight like a she-tiger. I’m not believing you’ll start now.”

“This is who I am,” she said, having trouble breathing. “I can’t…. I can’t fight with you about this, Derek. I need to get out. I need to go.”

In answer, he slid his arm around her waist, his other under her knees, scooping her up. Shutting down the shower tap with his elbow, he pushed out of the stall, using her feet to open the door. He carried her back into the bedroom, where Theo looked at her with that worry wrinkling his brow. She tried for a reassuring expression, but it gave way to alarm as, instead of putting her on her feet, Derek laid her on the bed. She knew that intent look.

“No.” She tried to roll away, but he was far quicker than she was. He had her trapped beneath the full length of his body in a heartbeat, his hips pushed between her thighs, holding her open. His cock brushed her sex, making her shudder again, though for the moment he was just holding her like this, pinned down, open to him, nowhere to look but up into those relentless blue eyes. “No,” she begged.

“Hell, yeah,” he said shortly. When he pushed against her, her traitorous body was already moist for him. It let him break through that initial gateway, seat himself inside that opening. A quiver went all the way through her, head to curling toes. Toes that were curling against his calves.

“Doesn’t matter what you do to try and shake me, Ruby. I won’t let you do it again. I don’t care if you tell me you hate me every day of your life and that you never want to see me again. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Until someone calls you from Atlanta, or Rangoon, or fucking Disneyworld,” she shot back. “I can’t do that anymore, Derek.”

“Me being a Guardian isn’t why you’re like this. Something happened, and you’re eventually going to trust me to help you with it. I’m not letting you give yourself to Darkness, Ruby.”

“I’m not giving myself to it.”

“Yeah, you are. And it ticks me off, because I know you know better.” He slid forward several more inches and she mewled, arching up to him as he came to a maddening halt once more. Her muscles were clutched around him, blood pulsing against his length in a rapid beat of need. “We’re going to figure this out. But for now….”

Catching her face in both hands, he made her look at him. “Look at me while I send you over, so I see you feel what it means, the two of us joined like this.”

He slid all the way in then, deep and filling her. She gasped, tears leaking out over his fingers. “There you are, baby,” he rumbled softly. “Keep feeling it. This is part of the cleansing, unique to you and me.”

He withdrew, then slid back in. The rest of his body stayed still and firm upon her, giving her his heat and life, his relentless presence, as he flexed his hips and thighs to slowly push in, draw out. Over and over, as he rubbed tissues that caught fire, that had her panting and her hands clawing at his sides, his hips and buttocks, wanting him to go faster, shove harder.

“This is the way it’s going to be, girl. My pace, my way. You just take it, go along for the ride. I want to see your eyes all wide and glazed. You open up to me; give yourself to me. I could break open the lock on your soul any damn time I want to do it, but I’ll wait, because I love you too much to be smart about it.”

The tears increased, but so did the arousal. He wouldn’t let her run from him, from the explosive cliff edge to which he was taking her, one long, dragging stroke at a time.

“Can’t….”

“Yeah, you can. You’ll come for me, scream for me. You’ll do it now.”

He knew her body too well, could already feel that telltale ripple in her lower belly, in her sex. Her lips parted, stretched, throat gulping air. He held that firm clamp on her head, made her stare at him as it took her, swept over her. As the first cry broke from her lips, and then the next, her nails raked his buttocks, drew blood while looking for a purchase. He was the only anchor, though, those blue eyes. His expression became savage, the irises going to seraphim fire.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Come for me, too….”

It was the sealing touch, a heat that could sweep everything else away, that would surround that locked Pandora’s box. Even if she couldn’t let him into that Dark part of her soul, he’d be the dragon guarding it on the outside.

Her legs and arms tried to hold on to him throughout his finish, but as her climax left her, her strength went with it. She could only cling weakly to his arms, melt back into the bed like candle wax as he completed. Soft cries came from her with every hard thrust. As he became more brutal and punishing, she relished it, relished him being in her body, finding release there.

When he finished, he lay down on her for a bit because, even though he was heavy, he remembered. He knew how much she loved that, needed that feeling of being encompassed by his strength, his weight, the stroke of his fingers along her face, her body, as he stayed within her, joined.

Perfect, at least for this one moment.

Chapter 11

SHE CRIED IN HER SLEEP.

Derek watched the tears seep out, slide down to pool on the bend of his elbow, crooked around her. Her chest quivered, her mouth twitching with silent sobs, her soul alone with her grief. Even though, lost in dreams, she trusted him like a cub hibernating against its mother. If she could have pulled him over her like a blanket, he thought she would have. He gave her as much of that feeling as he could, keeping his arms folded over her chest, cradling her hips in the lap of his, his legs pressed up against the backs of hers, feet tangled together. He had his head on the pillow just above her, his breath warming her fragile neck, her delicate, shell-shaped ear.

What he’d seen out there in the clearing had been far from fragile. She’d been an enraged yet purposeful force of nature. Thank the Lord and Lady that he’d lied. He hadn’t gone to Atlanta; his feelings were just too close to the surface, and he’d had to get away from her for a little while before he blew it by shaking her until her teeth rattled and then confronting her about all of it, the known and unknown. He’d gone only a few miles, to a quiet stretch of the Gulf. Unfortunately, it had still taken precious extra minutes for him to register the disturbance in the fault system, and pinpoint that it was back where he’d left her.

When he’d materialized in Linda’s backyard, the unique blend of Light and Dark energy had hit him, lightning forking through a thick wash of black, putrid smoke, the signature of the soul-eaters. They enclosed their victims, disoriented and trapped them, then moved in to feed. They were scavengers that roved in packs, and if not for Ruby being right in their midst, he would have exterminated them into harmless dust and swept them back into their hole with a healthy gust.

Yet more than that had given him pause. He’d taken that extra vital minute to feel the shape of the power being wielded against them, because it was like nothing he’d experienced before. And it was coming from Ruby, his shy Ruby.

It was the barbed weapon she’d used at the last that disturbed him the most. It took tremendous skill and in-depth knowledge of magical properties to concoct such a thing, let alone use it. While that was damned impressive, he knew enough about Dark power to know that type of magic came at a terrible price to the magic user. The stories of sorcerers who’d sold their souls for power, who’d been tricked by demons and torn to shreds outside their own circles, weren’t just cautionary tales. They were history.