Bodyguards by Kallysten Read Free Book Online

Each Celden ruler had worn the QuickSilver insignia, the men
as a pin over their heart, the women as a pendant around their neck. It had
been the visible symbol of who they were, like human rulers wore crowns. And
from the time of Lahien the Great, all members of the QuickSilver Guard had
worn the same symbol imprinted on their skin.
    Without thinking, Bradan dropped
to one knee in front of Vivien and raised his hand toward her, closed into a
fist, his wrist facing up.
    The swirls and spirals of the
tattoo gleaming on his skin were a match for the finely crafted metal in
Vivien’s trembling hand.

 
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
    QuickSilver
     
     
     
    The instant Vivien unwrapped her
birthday present, her entire world shifted on its axis.
    Brad’s story still made no sense.
The magic he had performed for her was still beyond anything she could
comprehend. She was still scared and confused.
    The difference was that now she
believed him.
    She’d been meaning to ask him what
his tattoo meant from the first time she had noticed it. Now that she’d found
an exact replica of that strange symbol where no one but Anabel could have
hidden it, she had all the proof she needed: the link between the strange
stories he was telling her and her real life, the one in which Anabel had taken
care of her since she’d been five and her parents had died.
    “What...” She gulped. Her throat
felt too tight, too dry. Her eyes went back and forth between the pendant in
her hand and the elegant lines on Brad’s skin. If she had laid the pendant
against his wrist, it would have only been a little smaller than his tattoo.
“What is this a symbol of?”
    “It depends who wears it,” Brad
said with a small smile. “On my skin, it’s a symbol of the oath I swore as a
QuickSilver guard, a reminder that I’ll give my life if need be to protect the
true king or queen. And when you wear it, it’ll be a symbol of what you are.
The heir to a long tradition of rulers. The person who takes care of Foh’Ran—”
He reached into her hand to follow one spiral of the pendant with a fingertip.
“—of those who channel the Quickening—” He brushed against a second spiral.
“—and of the vampires.”
    His finger followed the last
spiral, ending where he had started. As he pulled away, his fingertips brushed
against Vivien’s. She shuddered, and the pendant fell from her hand. Brad
caught it before it could tumble to the floor and offered it back to her in his
open palm.
    “I can’t be a...a ruler,” she
murmured, crossing her arms over her chest so she wouldn’t be tempted to take
the pendant again. She didn’t want it or anything it symbolized. She didn’t
want to be part of this strange world where people were kidnapped or killed in
broad daylight. “I don’t want to be a ruler.” Her voice was firming up
with her resolve. “I just want to live here and be me. You can tell that to
your king.”
    Brad looked crestfallen. He got
back to his feet, his hand still extended in front of him. “Vivien, this is
you. You can’t just push it away like this.”
    “Why not?” she challenged. “How
can I pretend to be a ruler when I know nothing about your world or its people?
I can’t do magic. I’m not a...a vampire. I’m just a college girl.”
    “You’re a lot more than that.”
Brad’s gaze was burning with the same intensity as when he had first told her
about his oath, back at his apartment. “And what about Anabel? Are you just
going to leave her in Rhuinn’s hands?”
    Guilt flashed through Vivien. How
could she have forgotten Anabel?
    “How am I supposed to help her?”
she protested. “I don’t even know where she is. You said you don’t know
either.”
    “But we can find out,” Brad said
urgently. “We can go to Foh’Ran, find out where she is, and find a way to free
her.”
    “Why don’t you go and do that? You
and your brother. I’d be of no use to you.”
    He shook his head. “We swore to
protect you, not her. We