Free The Guardians: An Urban Fantasy Romance by Elise Marion Page A

table. She was clean, having avoided the shower of demon blood that had rained down on the two of them. Her questioning gaze darted between the two of them as she approached.
    “What was that?”
    Seeing the fear and confusion in her eyes, Jack stepped forward. “It’s okay,” he said, trying to reassure her. “We would never hurt you. Our mission is to protect you, remember?”
    She nodded, seeming to relax a bit at that reminder. “Micah is freakishly strong, and that thing you did with your voice …”
    “All Guardians possess gifts,” he answered. “Mine is my voice; Micah’s is his strength.”
    “That burst of light … it was coming from your chest.”
    He nodded. “All Guardians have an inner light, which we can use when we need a large bust of power in one sweep.” He sagged and sank down onto a nearby chair. “It’s exhausting, though, so we don’t do it often.”
    Addison’s brow wrinkled in concern as she stepped closer, peering down into his eyes. “Are you going to be okay?”
    “Nothing a few hours of sleep won’t help.”
    “Speakin’ of which,” Micah cut through. “If you two don’t mind, I’d like to get home and wash the stink of demon guts off me.”
    Jack stood, gripping the edge of the table as a wave of dizziness washed over him. Micah being stronger, it took more to sap his strength than one burst of inner light. Jack could curl up in a ball right there on the ground and sleep the rest of the night away.
    “Sounds like a plan. It’s not a long walk from here,” he added, turning to Addison.
    She nodded and fell in step with them, glancing back over her shoulder at the scene of their little fight in a bout of paranoia. She probably half expected another wave of demons to come crawling out of the shadows. The blood was disintegrating, vanishing in puffs of curling black smoke. Jack breathed a sigh of relief as the stench dissipated, though the dark stains remained in his clothes.
    Silence dominated the walk home. He watched her from the corner of his eye. She was holding up well considering all she’d heard and seen during the last couple of days. He’d had other people cry, scream, and object in stubborn disbelief when faced with the truth of the world that existed right under their noses. He wondered what had happened to this woman in her life that caused her to adapt to unforeseen circumstances with such ease.
    When they arrived at their place, Micah preceded them up the back stairway and straight to the door leading through their kitchen and into the apartment. With Addison there, turning in circles to observe her surroundings, Jack became very aware of how messy the place was. Her sparse, yet clean, apartment seemed like a palace compared to their little nook above the diner.
    His face heated as he took in the rows of empty mason jars on the kitchen counter, dirty clothes piled up around the washer and dryer in the corner of the kitchen, and the random junk strewn around the living room.
    “I call first shower,” Micah declared, making a beeline for the bathroom. A few seconds later, the sound of his off-key warbling drifted out to them, mingling with the cadence of water hitting the bottom of the tub.
    Jack cleared his throat when he realized he and Addison had been standing in the living room, staring at each other for a full minute without speaking.
    “I’ll sleep on the couch tonight,” he told her. “You can have my room.”
    Compared to the rest of the house, his room passed for somewhat clean. Clearing the bed of a few books, he stripped the sheets from the mattress. After replacing them with a set of clean ones he kept in his closet, he stepped aside and gestured toward the small, twin bed.
    “It’s not much, but the mattress is comfortable and with the hallway separating you, you won’t even be able to hear Micah’s snores.”
    Addison giggled at that, coming toward the bed and plopping down on it. Her bag slid from her shoulder and landed on the