Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Gobsmacked

Once he slid back through the pet door, Raptor stayed in the shadows. He used his Guardian magic to change his body to its natural form and donned a one-piece camouflage suit that made it almost impossible to see him. In this black and shades of gray outfit, even if Grace looked out the window, she'd never catch sight of him. The suit would also protect him from bullets or knives. Which was important since he didn't have a weapon.

Before he could do anything about the men surrounding the house, he needed a moment to get his head on straight.

Grace was his Keeper.

Raptor put his back to the wall and took several deep, calming breaths. Breathing in the aroma of growing things. Trying to soothe his soul. He was... shocked. Gobsmacked. That was a word for it. Staggered. And he didn't know if he wanted to scream and shout for joy or use every curse word he knew. And since Raptor was fluent in not only all the Earth languages, but most of the alien dialects as well... he knew a lot of profanity.

He fought the urge to go back in that house, throw Grace over his shoulder, and head straight to Megoth. Locked in a room on board his ship, she'd be safe from danger, and he could fulfill his promise to Falcon. When that was done, he'd leave her on the planet without mentioning a word about her being his Keeper.

Or he could simply leave her on Earth and run in the other direction. Forget about Falcon and his Makayla. The babies. Shit.

That wasn't an option. Not only would it be impossible for him to forget about his brother and the unborn children. But someone was trying to kill Grace. He couldn't leave his Keeper to that fate.

For the first several hundred years of his life, he'd given no thought to his one and only mate. As part of the Guardians, he'd been tasked with keeping watch over Earth and all the planets and dimensions. The Interstellar gods chose Guardians for their willingness to travel to all Realms throughout the universe, to track down beings who moved illegally through the gates or between the inhabited planets in space—intending to cause harm. The Guardians were a universal police force.

Then—when he matured—it became time for him to find his Keeper. He'd gone through several centuries of hell fighting his feelings of inadequacy. Raptor had been born a Guardian. But he had never fulfilled his destiny. He'd repeatedly failed in the most important task the gods created him for.

For almost a thousand years, Raptor existed as nothing more than thought. Only waking and gaining a physical body if there was a threat to humanity, and if the other half of his soul— his Keeper —existed in the same time period.

Only when those two things happened simultaneously, would he be given the chance to have a body again. If a Guardian failed in this all-important task of uniting with their Keeper, they were released from service and guided back into a trans-state. Their physical bodies returned to the void.

Throughout the long years of rest, he remembered what it was like to be set apart from the physical reality of the universe—yet kept aware of passing time and all the changes in the world. Raptor could recall in vivid detail every time he awakened. When the wind passed over his slowly forming body and the whisper of feeling tempted, then sparked his awakening.

That small light of awareness would grow within him, and his heart started beating. He would be so excited. Knowing that once again, his Keeper had been reborn. Her soul called to him, prompting his rebirth. Once more, purpose burned within his soul, and he was always so— positive —that this time was different. This time, he could do it.

Each time, his soul understood that the gods had given him another chance to claim his Keeper, so together they could serve all the dimensions and planets that made up the universe—as a Guardian pair. He was driven to hunt down the danger that walked somewhere in the universe. But he wouldn't be allowed to search for that danger until he won his Keeper.

He remembered what it was like to take a deep breath, filling his lungs with crisp, clean air for the first time in centuries. Raptor would be so happy for those first few moments as the air pulsed, shifted, and his body crystallized out of the mist. He always promised himself that in this time and place, he would finally fulfill his destiny.

Yes... his Keeper had refused him before. In fact, she had refused him every few hundred years, over the last millennium. Most often at the point of a gun... or some other weapon. But each time he woke, he believed things would be different.

Until... he stopped counting how often she refused him. Then stopped caring. Then it got to the point when he decided he'd had enough, and Raptor refused to return to stasis when he failed to win her.

So, he ran away. Skipping from planet to planet, refusing to return to Earth, where his mate kept being reborn. He didn't want to run into her. It surprised Raptor when the Interstellar gods let him go and didn't chase after him. They said it was his life, so his choice.

He remembered thinking that it would have been nice to know he had a choice... a few hundred years earlier.

Raptor ran from his fate for centuries. Until today.

Today he found his Keeper without looking for her. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. He'd run from this possibility for long decades. Hell, if he were honest—he'd been running from the thought of never being enough for his Keeper—more than from the thought of being returned to stasis.

While he had avoided Earth since he ran, he didn't really believe it was possible to find his Keeper without the ritual awakening. Obviously, he was wrong about that. Or maybe it was a fate that couldn't be denied.

Now he needed to figure out what to do.

Did he ignore the fact that Grace was his Keeper? He could take care of her enemies, get her to Falcon, and leave. Raptor held his hand up to his face. His skin shimmered with the Binding Pollen his body produced to heal and bind his Keeper.

He wasn't sure ignoring Grace was an option.

Hell. The only thing he could do was what came next. And that was keeping her safe. It meant taking care of the men surrounding her house, talking to her to clarify why they were there, and then dealing with the root problem. If he made sure her enemies were defeated, then no matter what happened—if she chose Earth or Megoth as her home—she'd be safe.

Dealing with the men surrounding the little cabin was something he could handle. Raptor had been trained to capture or kill the universe's worst criminals. In the scheme of things, these human men weren't that difficult. It wasn't as if they were Soul Vampires.

Soul Vampires could move faster than the speed of light for short distances. They had razor-sharp claws and looked like something out of a bad nightmare, with a tapered mouth, long ears, and an ugly, lumpy body. If they got their claws into you, they would suck the soul from your body. Their favorite prey was small children.

The only way to kill a Soul Vampire—was with a very small crossbow that was equipped with a tiny bomb strapped to the tip. You had to get a direct hit to the center of the being's chest, which would blow the damn thing into minuscule fragments that couldn't regroup and put themselves back together. The trick was—you had to be close enough to use the weapon. Too close—and you'd blow yourself up.

Human men shouldn't be a problem. Even without a weapon.

The night camo suit helped him sneak up behind the driver. He wanted to make sure this man couldn't leave or call for help. The vehicle was situated on a hill, looking down at Grace's house. If he'd been in the car, it would have been harder for Raptor to get to him without being detected. But the man was outside, smoking a cigarette. He was leaning against the hood, watching the house through binoculars.

Raptor broke his neck with one movement. He laid him on the ground, then searched the man and found a knife. The man also had several guns. Now that he had weapons, it was easy to take care of the others. Not wanting to make a sound, he used the knife. Keeping the gun as an insurance policy.

When he was done, he used his magic to ensure there was no blood on his body. He switched the camouflage suit and his Guardian body for the form and clothes he'd worn earlier. This time, he walked through the front door.

Grace had the rifle pointed at him.

Raptor smiled, hands in the air. "It's done. We should leave."

"I'm ready to go. Hell, I had everything packed before you showed up. Just in case I had the opportunity to run."

She propped the rifle beside her two small bags. "I've even put some stuff in my basement vault. I don't think anyone will find that without directions." She looked at him and sighed, making a sweeping motion with her arm indicating the room. "I feel like I'll never see any of this again."

Raptor didn't want to lie to her. Nor did he want to tell her the truth. "I can't tell you what the future holds. Just concentrate on what you need to do next."

Raising her eyebrows, she studied him for a moment before spinning on her heels. "I need to find Baby before the dead men miss their check-in. Once that happens, more men will be sent to figure out what transpired here."

"We should hurry," he agreed.