Guardian

*****************Author's Note***************

Oh man. This took soooo long to get out. It's just been hectic with moving, a new job, and finishing up a class....sigh. I don't know if I like this chapter or not. It was definitely time for a turn in the story...but, hmmmmm. Let me know what you think.

Reviews--

Misawo-hope you like this chapter just as much!

MnMs-oooh, i don't know...he makes it sooo easy.

cubiclesecrets-here's another update!

Solitude- another long wait, I'm afraid. Poor Andy's in a rut. She just needs a little "creative" thinking. ;D

Firebreather-naughty, naughty. I like the way you think. Anyway the vamp's name is Nicholaus.

Monddame-Thanks! Another is here at last...

pikapika-so glad you like!

LAMBM-sorry it took so long! but it's here now!

shadowkeeper-why is it that men like that are soooo yummy?...hmm. Best not to think about it to much and just enjoy!

johnny- Here it is! and yes I am - story is under the same title ;D

And now...CHAPTER FOURTEEN!!! YEAAAAAAY!

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“Don’t be afraid,” I repeated, numbly.

He stepped closer and my stomach clenched. The rest of my body was paralyzed. Thorns were at my back and he loomed at my front, strange twisted thing he was. I honestly couldn’t tell where the boy ended and the beast began. It was as if the wolf had squeezed on a Matt suit. It couldn’t hide what was underneath.

His joints stuck out at odd angles. His limbs were warped to unnatural lengths. Fur was creeping across his skin. But none of that was as bad as his face. It was distorted, still recognizable and eerily unreadable.

I couldn’t tell if he was trying to trick me or not. Past experience and common sense told me that this was a bad situation. Very bad.

But what could I do? There was nowhere to run.

Could I really fight—that?

My mind went blank as I tried to scramble for an idea that would get me out of there alive.

I jumped when his hand struck out. It grabbed a fistful of my hair and brought it up to his face. Was that a growl or a groan? I couldn’t tell.

A hot hand landed on my neck tangling in my curls, capturing me fully.

“Matt!” I cried, slightly panicked as something near my stomach lurched.

Yellow eyes darted to me, and he froze, nose still buried in his palm. He didn’t speak, he didn’t move. He just stared with that expressionless gaze.

“Please…” I blurted. I didn’t know how to finish. Stop? Let me go? Don’t kill me? All of them sounded good to me, but the words froze on my tongue with the weight of his stare.

I swallowed dryly, unable to look away or speak. His transforming body was disgusting, his face was beyond revolting, but those eyes were…

“Maaaatt!”

We both started as the shout carried down the ditch. I turned to look and could just see the crown of someone’s head when I was jerked forward and crushed to a rumbling torso. Something hot and wet dripped on my shoulder.

Saliva.

Holy shit.

His roar split the air. I felt it tear from his chest and go right though me. I buried my head down, trying to escape the horrible sound. I might have screamed, but if I did, no one heard it.

I was shaking and couldn’t stop. I could feel it—his bones sliding under his skin, popping in and out of place. And he was mad. Or threatened. Or God only knows what—and there was nowhere to run…

“Matt,” cool and calm his name was soothed into the sudden quiet. His already tense frame went rigid.

“Matthias,” the female voice fell deeper and his big body shuddered around me, claws clenching and unclenching. There was an edge to the name, like her teeth were clenched.

I heard the crunch of footsteps circling around the brambles. He gave a low half-hearted growl as they neared and finally stopped. I held my breath; waiting, unable to even guess at what was going to happen next.

There was the dry sound of someone’s hands smoothing over fabric. I swallowed audibly. The pain from his claws was gone. My shoulders had already gone numb.

She was saying something softly, too soft for me to understand, but it must have worked. Slowly, by degrees, I felt his muscles relax; creaking from the stiff arrangement they had been held in.

His head drooped slowly. Releasing a long pent up breath, his arms fell, and I could finally feel my heart beat.

I took a weary step back, never blinking.

Slender arms wrapped around his hollowed waist. His eyes were hooded as those manicured fingers stroked his belly and ran across his chest. Was he growling? I didn’t think so. That low sound that tickled my ears seemed to be more from pleasure than anger.

Her voice had taken on a more seductive tone, and his head fell back, revealing a crown of golden hair behind him…and I couldn’t watch anymore.

Doggie-style love-fests weren’t my scene.

I kept my eyes averted as I searched the brambles recklessly. I found a hole, more or less, that I could squeeze through. All my concentration was bent on forcing myself between the clinging, scratching thorns rather than the sounds that were coming from behind me.

When I reached the other side someone grabbed my arm and pulled me up, nearly yanking my arm out of the socket.

“Hurry,” they hissed. I didn’t argue.

I scrambled behind them up the ditch, fingers of one hand clawing into dirt the other jerked and pulled as we reached the top and sprinted across the highway.

We ran all the way to the parking lot and my little dented blue Nova. I crashed against it, hardly able to breathe from the break-neck speed.

“Jesus!” I jumped as the curse burst out beside me, followed by a bark of harsh laughter.

My eyes must have been the size of saucers when I finally realized who was casually panting beside me. It only made him laugh harder.

Chris tossed his blond hair; fingers raking it back as color flushed his cheeks.

“That’s what I love about you,” he said, with a smile good enough for a GQ magazine. “There’s never a dull moment.”

I frowned. “So happy to be of service.” The words didn’t sound half as sarcastic as I wanted them to. The trembling in my voice prevented that.

He grinned, eyes rolling to look at me sideways. He’d had that same look when I had called him a whiny brat (but not exactly those words). The next day his football buddies pummeled me into the dirt as he watched.

“I can’t believe you bird-bombed the Jag.” The smile disappeared, leaving behind a cold expression. His playboy mask had slipped. What was it about my company that brought out the worst in people? “But that’s just like you, isn’t it? A little bit brave, and a lot a bit stupid.”

The barb stung, but I knew it was coming. They all liked to tear me down a peg or two. “You have a point, Chris?”

“Just wondering when you’re going to wise-up, princess.” He pointed behind us, at the woods. “You’re lucky we got there in time.”

I wanted to say something smart, but I kept my lips sealed shut. Those words forced an ugly truth into the light—one that had been gnawing at the edge of my attention for a moment or two.

They had rescued me from Matt. The people who had been tormenting me for years had saved me from my own stupidity.

Hot, sickening shame flooded my belly.

Chris took a step away, Cheshire grin exposing all those pearly whites. His eyes narrowed, as if he knew what I was thinking. Maybe humiliation had its own smell. “I’ll give you a little advice, Andy, my sweet. Next time don’t run. It makes us all…excited.”

He tipped an imaginary hat, “Drive safely home, princess.”

Burn in Hell, dog shit.

I wanted to laser those words into his back as he walked away. I would have given anything to erase the last half-hour of my life. Why couldn’t I have paid attention and walked to my own Goddamn car?

No. Why was I so pathetic that I couldn’t save myself?

Those awful emotions tore through me as I fumbled with the door handle—shock, anger and complete mortification. They had seen me so weak. He had seen me so weak. I didn’t fight. I didn’t cast. I just stood there. My fingers shook as I gripped the steering wheel. My knuckles turned white with the pressure it took to keep them still.

For all my promises and threats over the last ten years, I hadn’t been able to do one damn thing. Because a part of me…when he had…

No.

Even just second-guessing was disgraceful. It was disgusting. I glanced at my face in the rearview mirror as I backed up. Was that a person that could be so easy?

I smirked meanly at myself.

“A lot a bit stupid is right,” I told my reflection.

Why would I think anything had changed?

Was it because of that kiss? The one where he mockingly told me how unworthy I was? Or was it in the nurse’s office where he held me so close and proceeded to maul my neck?

Or maybe, the nasty voice in my head continued, it was because he saved a stupid little witch from exploding on the highway? Didn’t want to get those expensive shoes dirty.

Luckily, someone had come along who could handle him. My lips curled as I remembered Becca’s hungry eyes and his slack face. She’d probably been “handling” him for a while, from the fact that they had been so…familiar.

Yeah, those two deserved each other.

“Match made in heaven,” I said to no one, grinding my teeth together against the sick, bitter lump forming in my stomach. There was no way in Hell that I would ever admit that maybe, way down, somewhere so miniscule it couldn’t even be seen with a microscope, lurked a smidgeon of something like…disappointment.

No, that couldn’t be it, because something like that would be beyond stupid.

How he would laugh if he knew what I had been thinking. How he would scoff at the mere idea of it—that I was anything to him other than a convenient play toy.

“It would’ve been great, though,” I whispered. “What revenge…”