Guardian Demon (GUARDIAN SERIES) by Meljean Brook Read Free Book Online Page A

Taylor had to look away before she started crying, too. She glanced at the wall. A calendar always hung beside the phone, the month and year written in big black letters.
    Two and a half years. She’d lost two and a half
years
. When Michael had first transformed her, the shock of linking her brain with his had put her in a coma for three months. Jesus. It had taken her ten times as long to recover from tearing him out?
    Horror scrawled over her mind as she realized the rest of it. “I was in my room? In the bed?”
    Weeping, her mother only nodded.
    Two and a half years—with both of her children unmoving, unresponsive. Taylor’s throat swelled with unbearable pain.
    “I’m so sorry,” Taylor whispered.
    “Don’t.” Wiping her eyes again, she gathered herself. The kettle whistled and she briskly rose to her feet. “I was all right. And you were easy. No feeding tubes, no waste, no need to worry about bedsores. I just had to dust you off now and then.”
    Taylor tried to smile and couldn’t. She might have been less work, but she’d never believe that it had been easy.
    At the stove, her mother clicked off the burner. “And they’ve given me help whenever I needed it.”
    “The Guardians did?”
    “Yes. Along with your other friends. Savi and the pretty one.”
    Savi was pretty. Her fiancé Colin was something far beyond pretty—and after two and a half years, he might be her husband, not her fiancé. Taylor glanced at the pendant at her mother’s neck. “Did Savi give you that alarm, too?”
    “I’m to use it if anyone threatens us.”
    “Who does it signal?” But Taylor knew.
    “Michael.”
    “Did you push the button?”
    “No.”
    Good. She didn’t want to see him. Just hearing his name formed a cold knot in her chest, and now she couldn’t stop picturing his scales, his teeth. Couldn’t stop remembering the cruelty.
    Appearances were almost always deceiving.
That was the first thing every Guardian learned, because demons so often hid behind kind actions and beautiful faces. Michael had hidden, too. It didn’t matter how gorgeous he was or how many times he’d saved everyone. She’d seen what lived inside him.
    Her mother returned to the table and filled the pot with steaming water. “He comes every day. And night. Probably more often than I know.”
    “What?”
    “Michael does. I’ll be sitting beside your bed, watching TV—and all of a sudden, he’s there.”
    God. When Taylor had still been human, he’d done that to her, too. She’d woken up to see him standing at the end of her bed, watching over her, a giant warrior with black wings and obsidian eyes. In theory, he’d been protecting her, but by showing up like that he’d almost killed her with a heart attack instead.
    “Does he say anything?”
    “Not much, no. He’ll ask me how I am doing. Sometimes he brings a gift.”
    Taylor frowned. “Like what?”
    Her mother nodded toward the porcelain teapot. Taylor took in the delicate handle, the intricate blue flowers, the pearlescent sheen—then thought about Michael’s age.
    “Holy crap.” She swallowed. “You realize . . . ?”
    “Yes.” Calmly, her mother lifted what was probably a priceless antique pot and poured her tea. “He said that some things are worth more when they serve the purpose for which they’ve been created.”
    “He only says that because he’s never had to pay a bill.” And because her proud, iron-willed mother wouldn’t have accepted the gift if he’d said anything else. “So he doesn’t scare you when he teleports in like that?”
    “No.” Her mother’s smile softened. “He’s like . . . a guardian angel.”
    Taylor choked on a laugh. No, he really wasn’t. But the denial stuck in her throat. Happiness and hope filled her mom’s psychic scent. She truly believed in that image of Michael.
    So had Taylor. Once. Before he’d forced his way into her head. Before he’d threatened her with his teeth. Before he’d ripped apart