Page 4 of Emerald Rising
As if by magic, the candles came back to life, casting their glow around the circle.
I swallowed.
Three sets of eyes stared back at me, catching the light like cats do in the dark.
Oh, sweet lord. What had I done?
RIVER
For twenty-one years, I’d been locked away. For twenty-one years they’d kept me suspended in a dreamless sleep, and now I was finally free.
I checked all my limbs to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. If you didn’t know what you were doing, a summoning could go awfully wrong for both the one summoned and the summoner. This little creature clearly knew what she was doing. I was in one piece and I didn’t feel like I’d been pulled through the wringer to get here. She must be powerful if it was that smooth of a ride.
My eyes dropped to the centre of the summoning circle and a terrified pair of eyes stared right back. Big, bright green orbs flittered between me, Ash and Blaze. I suddenly realised she wasn’t looking behind her. Shit.
“Where’s Griffon?” My voice was gravelly and hoarse after not being used for so long. Blank faces met mine along with some shoulder shrugs. Great, they had no clue either. This wasn’t how the summoning was supposed to go. The four of us were supposed to arrive together to complete the bond that would bind us to her. So that we could protect her as we promised we would.
That was our purpose. Our orders. Our mission.
We had to protect this girl at all costs and Griffon was fucking missing.
Something was wrong. He shouldn’t have been able to resist the call unless something was interfering with it. We wouldn’t be able to complete the bond if one of us were missing.
I tried to reach out to him, but I just met a brick wall. It was like he wasn’t there anymore. Either that or he had some seriously impressive mental shields up. I turned to my brothers.
“Can you reach him?” I asked.
They both shook their heads. Shit. If anything had happened to him, I was going to find his body, and bring him back to life just so I could kill him all over again for being stupid enough to let something happen to him.
These three men weren’t my actual brothers, but they were the closest thing to family we each had. As a small team of elite mercenaries, we’d lived through so much together before being given this mission. No one could find out about this, about her or why we needed to protect her. Not even we knew why we were protecting her. All we knew was that our King had given us orders directly to protect this child when she would need help the most. It was so secretive that we had been forced into hiding until she would summon us.
I didn’t know the whole story. It wasn’t my place to question the motives of my King but Ash, Blaze and I had been put into a deep sleep until she performed the summoning. That was an event that would trigger her powers, whatever they would be, into manifesting. We were supposed to help and guide her, as well as protect her from whoever might find her. One of us needed to watch over her as she grew up which meant Griffon, the oldest and wisest of us, had been left to live the life of a mortal on earth. So where the fuck was he?
“Who are you?”
Her voice was beautiful, like a song on a summer breeze, melodic and soft. The poor thing looked terrified. She hadn’t moved an inch while we’d been here. She just kept looking between the three of us like we were going to sacrifice her to some dark lord and have our wicked way with her. Well, I certainly wouldn’t mind having my wicked way with her; from what I could see she was a stunner. High cheekbones, big eyes, pouty lips that were just made for kissing, and a mass of black-as-sin waves that tumbled down her back. The most intoxicating thing for me, though, was the smell of her blood. I was a blood demon. I needed it to survive, and as I dragged her scent deep into my lungs, I shuddered.
Fuuuck.
I had never smelled anything that good before. I hadn’t fed in twenty-one years and I had to resist this? I bit back the moan that threatened to escape. Jeez, it was making me hard.
Come on, River, stop thinking with your dick.
“I’m River, and these are my brothers, Ash and Blaze.” I stepped out of the circle and took a step towards her.
“Stop! Don’t come any closer!” She screamed and threw her hand up as she shuffled backwards to stop my advance towards her. She winced as she realised she’d stretched the palm she’d used during the summoning, and I had to pause a moment because it started bleeding again. How was I going to focus on anything with that sinfully tempting scent wafting on the air?
“I mean you no harm,” I said, trying to keep my voice soft and friendly. I didn’t do friendly. I usually did I’ll-kick-your-arse-if-you-say-anything, but she was different. She was mine to protect and for some reason, I wanted to be nice.
I stopped for a second. What the Hell? I was never nice.
I was a lethal goddam killing machine. Not nice. This sensation was going to take some getting used to.
“Said the spider to the fly,” she called back.
Ash chuckled behind me. He was the one with the humour in our little merry band. Blaze was the stoic, quiet one with a thundering temper, Griffon the domineering one, and me, I was the bad boy, and I was in charge of this lethal quartet. I might not be the oldest in our group, but I had a knack for taking control in tricky situations and that had pushed me into the role of leader, almost by default. The rest of the guys just went with it and didn’t complain so I just stepped into the role and tried my best to keep us from dying.
“Honestly, we couldn’t harm you even if we wanted to. We’re your guardians and protectors.” I took another step closer. She flinched but didn’t back away, so I stepped forward again, keeping my hands where she could see them. “What’s your name?”
