Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

What Was The Magic Cure?

His mind went blank. She wanted to know what happened to his Keeper? What did that mean?

Thankfully, she clarified her question. "Once they refuse you, do you know if they ever marry? Or change their mind? Anything about them?"

Raptor shook his head. "No. Until they are reincarnated a few hundred years later, we have no idea what happens to them. If they don't choose us, we only have a few moments with them."

"Has there ever been a time when your Keeper was already married? Or had kids?" she asked.

"No. Not only for me, but for all Keepers. We... keep a record and share what works and what doesn't. When we are awakened, we access the record and discover which Guardians found the Keepers of their Tomorrows and which were refused. The record states in what manner they approached the Keeper. For the times they were successful, they give more details. There is even a record of when an unusual outcome occurs. For instance, one of the earliest Guardians found their Keeper locked in a tower. Her parents had borrowed money from a man who wanted their youngest daughter in return for the money. They wouldn't give him the youngest, who I think was about twelve. But they agreed to give him the older daughter, who was eighteen and considered at the time to be an old maid.

"You've noticed that locked doors don't keep out Guardians. He got in and offered to rescue her if she would go with him. She said yes with one condition—she wanted to take her sister. The girl said the parents would give the young girl away to pay their debts. So, the Guardian took the younger girl, too. Years later, they discovered the sister was another Guardian's Keeper."

Grace rubbed her forehead. "This is absolutely insane. How the hell do you know when you've got the right woman? Do they give you a name? A location? Does a fricking light go on over her head when you see her? What?"

He slowly nodded. "When a Guardian comes out of stasis, when they regain consciousness and focus, the Interstellar gods provide a place and a name. It is the name our Keeper is using at this time, and where she lives. This isn't an address. It starts with a continent or a country. Then, if it is the United States, they would provide a state. Sometimes a city. In this technological age, it is easier to look it up, but as we get near our Keeper, there are physical changes in our body to guide us."

Grace frowned. "What are the percentages? Do you know what the success rate is? What kind of changes?"

Raptor took the questions in order. "I don't know specifics. The percentages of success were very low until recently. If I had to guess, I'd say less than twenty-five percent. In the last few years, it's been about seventy-five percent."

Her eyes were wide, and she shook her head. "The early percentages don't surprise me. What happened recently to change everything?"

Pressing his lips together, he debated the foolishness of telling her. This did not seem like a good idea. But he promised to tell Grace everything. To answer all her questions. So, he took a deep breath and confessed, "Several of the men who recently found their Keepers, including Falcon, Makayla's Guardian, suggested I appear as a tall, heavily muscled male, with long hair... that could either be blond, black, or brown. It was my choice what color of hair and eyes. I was told to add a leather jacket and tattoos, as that was an even bigger draw. Supposedly, using this body style and clothing meant Earth woman would be more friendly to me. This was the advice for just coming to Earth, and for me to use with a Keeper if I found her."

Grace frowned at him. "You came in short, bald, and greasy. I understand why you didn't want to find a Keeper or have a woman notice you. But you're telling me that other Guardians used the biker hunk form to attract their Keeper, and it works?" She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Okay. I buy that. At least enough to get someone to talk to you the first time. Not if you scare the bejesus out of her by unlocking doors and entering her residence! But there has to be more."

Raptor nodded. "There is. Other Guardians who recently found their mates on Earth advised that if I found my Keeper, to not delay. That showing my Keeper my natural form early—then using the Guardian's naked form and Binding Pollen to convince my woman that she belongs with me—is supposed to be a sure strategy. However, I'm not sure how that works, because showing off the body I was born with always got me into trouble before."

Grace rolled her eyes. "Raptor. I have to tell you that if you came to the door naked, or we had a first date and you got naked, I'd shoot your ass. That is stupid advice. Wait. What is that pollen thing? Binding Pollen."

Raptor was careful to make and hold eye contact with her. "Binding Pollen is the silver dust you see on my arms. It only appears in the presence of my Keeper, so it is another tell when Guardians are near their Keepers. Our bodies increase production when we first meet our Keepers, or they are injured and need it for healing purposes. Binding Pollen exists in order to maintain a healthy Keeper.

"Guardians are born strong and nimble. Their skin is thicker, which provides a type of protective shield against bullets, knives, or any injury. The Binding Pollen helps make our Keepers stronger, faster, and will thicken their skin a little over time. But Keepers are always more susceptible to harm than their Guardians. So, if you get hurt, injured in any way, or become sick... the production of Binding Pollen increases and will speed up your healing. When you experience a life-threatening injury or disease, the properties of the pollen change from an aphrodisiac to caring and comfort. Oh, and an added benefit of the pollen is that it will allow you to pass undetected through the dimensional gates, so you can move easily between planets and dimensions," he explained.

Grace's expression never changed as he confessed she was his Keeper. She watched him with a small frown on her lips and in her eyes. When he finished, she sat there. Silent. Not moving. Not breaking eye contact.

He remained focused on her. Not moving, either. Letting her figure it out.

She took a deep breath and asked, " Is that the silver stuff on your arm that you told me not to lick? "

He nodded.

"Raptor, what did you use as a magic cure when we were in Garret's office?"

Raptor slowly smiled. "I think you know the answer to that, Grace. Binding Pollen ."

Grace

"I'm your Keeper?" Her voice rose on the end. "How the hell did that happen?" Her mind went blank. Grace couldn't imagine having several lives. Straining her brain, she tried to find something… that just wasn't there. She didn't feel any different. Taking a deep breath, she focused on the man who claimed he belonged to her.

Raptor paused for a moment, as if to think. He took a sip of the sweet tea before meeting her gaze. He had the most amazing brown eyes. Gold at the edges with lighter flecks—she could get lost in them forever.

Raptor finally answered her, "Guardian pairs are yin and yang, souls that were intertwined at conception. Many thousands of your years ago our souls were joined, yours to mine. Long ago, they chose me to be a Guardian. It has taken a very long time, but you have been reborn—destined to take your place at my side. Without your acceptance, we remain separate... on our own. If it is what you wish, I'll drop you off with Makayla and leave. If you agree to become my Keeper, then eventually we'll be given a mission. I will explain to the gods that our first mission must be to go help the Keeper Makayla. Only when that mission is complete would we accept others."

Grace opened her mouth and closed it. Oh boy. She looked at Raptor and shook her head. "I didn't mean the whole Keeper for one Guardian thing. I meant—you ran away. You were no longer searching for your Keeper. I don't even know where to start. How long have you known I might be her? Did you come here knowing I was your Keeper? Did they somehow change your Keeper and give you a new one or have I been your Keeper all along? This is totally unbelievable and not what I expected." She hadn't expected it, but she wanted it. Now.

When he first came into her house, she didn't. Then the man started growing on her. Once he changed his shape, it was all over. Stupid biker dude advice. It really did work. Yeah, she had hoped for this.

Raptor sighed and leaned forward, locking his gaze on her. "When I agreed to come get you, I didn't know you were my Keeper. I was running from you, from rejection, remember? When my brother asked me to do this for him, he gave me all sorts of advice on how to win my Keeper when I found her. None of my friends believed I'd given up. They thought I was still looking for my Keeper—and just didn't want to go into stasis. They sent me advice, but I didn't read it, simply shifting it to my digital trash. That is why I looked the way I did when we first met. That was me not trying.

"I knew who you were the moment I saw you. After I crawled through the cat door and stood, my body immediately started pumping out Binding Pollen. I knew then that you were my Keeper. I was so shocked. And while I didn't want to face rejection again, I couldn't stop myself from hoping. From doing everything in my power to get you to choose me." Raptor explained. "Which meant I reclaimed every shred of advice given to me over the years and read all of it. You have always been my Keeper, from the very beginning. The Interstellar gods didn't make any changes," he promised.

She believed him. He hadn't known. Hadn't wanted this. And now? "How do you feel? You have been living on your own for a long time. This isn't what you wanted."

"I did want it. What I ran from was the constant rejection. When I found you in that little house, I was ecstatic. I wanted to take you and run. I was determined to slaughter all your enemies and be whatever you needed. Nothing would make me happier than you declaring you want to be the Keeper of my Tomorrows."

Grace blinked. This was forever. Except... his forever was longer than hers. "I'll die before you do," she said bluntly.

Slowly, his smile spread across his face. "Would it make sense for us to get together, then have you die within a few short years? No ." He didn't wait for her to answer. "Binding Pollen will take care of all those issues."

"Okay, then. What do we do now?"

Raptor sucked in a breath. "You agree? I know the other Guardians warned me not to question the Keeper's acceptance. That if you said yes, that was it. But I need your words, Grace."

She rolled her eyes. "Maybe we don't pay attention to their advice. I think I'll write a self-help book for the next generation of Guardians. A dating handbook. Because the advice they gave you is ridiculous. But yes. I choose you, Raptor. I was actually feeling a little... interested from the very beginning. And I couldn't understand why. So now what?" she repeated.

He smiled and took her by the hand. Saying, "Come with me." Raptor led her down the hall and to another door she hadn't been through.

When the door opened, Grace realized this was his room. There was an enormous bed, with bedding in shades of green and gray. A smaller door stood ajar just a bit. It was a bathroom. The space was clean, with only a few knickknacks that she longed to study. Were they from Earth or different planets?

She was nervous. Excited. They hadn't truly kissed yet. Just that amazing healing kiss in Garret's office where Raptor shared his magic cure. And that was toe-curling. She'd like another kiss.

Soft lighting turned on, and the door closed. Raptor turned her to face him. He peered into her eyes.

"If you want to stop this. You need to say so," he said seriously.

Grace frowned. "I'm not even sure what this is."

His grin was a little devilish and bad boy rolled into one. "Remember. The Guardians had one last piece of advice—get naked and let the Binding Pollen do its job."

She didn't have time to argue or suggest something else. Because, within moments, he stood naked in front of her. Naked, and in his natural form. It was a really nice form. Raptor was built from his head to his toe. His hair brushed his shoulders and was a beautiful shade of dark olive green. He had amazing golden yellow eyes. His body was a gorgeous, shimmering silver.

That's when she realized that he was covered in Binding Pollen. What was she supposed to do? Lean over and lick him?

Once the thought hit her mind. It's what she wanted to do.

Raptor's voice was hoarse and filled with emotion. "You are the Keeper of my Tomorrows, Grace. I am yours to do with what you will."

She shuddered and felt a hint of arousal slide over her skin. What she wanted was to touch him. She reached out her hand. Her pulse racing. This was crazy. This man was so gorgeous. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do but give her a minute and she'd figure it out. Just looking at him was pure pleasure.

"The Binding Pollen appears on my body for you. It isn't always there, although, in the beginning, it might seem like it. The simple explanation of its function is that dust appears when you need it. I can't produce the pollen for anyone else. Only for you, Grace. I told you earlier that one property will allow you to pass undetected through the dimensional gates. The pollen will change your physiology so that the gates and some dimensional life forms will recognize you as being part of a Guardian pair. Having the gates recognize us will allow us to do our job undetected. We won't need to stop and ask for permission whenever we need to go through a gate." He held his arms out, ensuring she could see all of him, and slowly twirled.

The man had been beautiful before, but in his true form, he was mind-blowingly exotic and eerily compelling. It certainly didn't help that he was standing before her, completely naked. She could see that he was like any Earthman she'd ever seen. The physical attributes of their bodies were the same. Except for his strange coloring, everything looked human. Very large, but human.

She didn't see any extra bits. And she made sure to look.

Raptor watched her with hooded eyes as she appraised his body. He couldn't control his reaction to her assessment of his true form. His manhood grew under her perusal. Grace knew he was waiting for her to speak, to accept or deny him. She wasn't sure— yet —what she wanted to say.

Slowly, in ever-smaller circles, Grace walked around the vision in front of her. Her eyes filled with the man standing silently, waiting. The view of his backside was awe-inspiring. It was a view that made her want to reach out and grab hold of his ass with both hands. He'd granted her permission to do what she wanted... but she couldn't quite bring herself to reach out. Not yet.

She took a huge gulp of air, trying to get her overcharged brain cells to function. The action drew his scent into her lungs. She had to close her eyes for just a second to savor the exceptional fragrance of his body, take pleasure in the sweet-spicy scent with the hint of... something. She couldn't describe that smell, but it teased over her senses. Raptor's heady scent seemed to tunnel through her body intimately, caressing her from the inside out.

All she could think about was getting closer to him. Her body was completely aroused. Silently, she moaned with frustrated need, wanting him to touch her. Wanting to touch him. Grace knew he was waiting for her to make the first move. To give her permission.

She was dying to run her fingers through all that glorious deep green hair and to stroke her hands over every inch of his shimmering silver skin. Every inch. It couldn't be as silky as it looked, could it?

Slowly, carefully, she reached out to evaluate his flesh... and ran the tip of one finger down his spine and over the curve of his ass. She watched as he shivered in response to her light touch.

Looking down at her hand, Grace noticed she had quite a bit of the shimmering powder on her finger, from where she touched him. Without thinking about it, she brought the finger to her mouth and touched her tongue to the residue, groaning at the sweet cinnamon zing that swamped her senses. That small taste wasn't enough.

He told her once she wasn't supposed to lick him. But she didn't care. Grace leaned in and set her tongue in the middle of his back... and licked .