Free Her Guardian's Heart by Crymsyn Hart Page B

by my new family or Tannin. At this moment, he doesn’t want me. And I’ll put my new family behind me.”
    “No, Mel, you shouldn’t have to do that. You shouldn’t have to turn your back on that now that you’ve found something so genuine.”
    “I don’t have a choice, Nick. I can’t be around Tannin without feeling that desire to be with him. The longer I’m around him, the stronger the compulsion will get to cement the bond. That’s what it was like between me and Landon. It was an agonizing month of pain building inside of me. It was like I was coming out of my skin every time he touched me. And when you made love to me, it was doubly worse because I could feel Landon fighting it.”
    “He only fought it because of what had happened to his first mate. He couldn’t face the fact of losing another person that he loved.”
    “Yeah. Then he accused me of killing you. It tore my soul out. How could I know that Eric would come to claim me? I never wanted you to die. I wanted to be with you for an eternity. It didn’t matter if I was a vampire or a werewolf. Then Landon shut down the link between us, leaving me all alone. I live in a fog. After having such happiness, will I be able to have that again?”
    Nick nodded. “He sensed the wall in your mind even before he asked me for help. He knows you want to reconcile. But Landon didn’t know if you were planning on opening your mind to him again.”
    “He’s my mate, Nick. I want to fall into his thoughts and be caressed by them when we make love. The way that we used to. I can’t say that I’ll ever fully forgive him, but I want to try. Tell him that I’m not going to run away after we’re done working things out.”
    “I’ll tell him that.” He brushed his lips across mine.
    The cold kiss made me want him all over again. To have him in the flesh, but only the goddess had the power to bring someone back from the dead. Was it even possible to resurrect a vampire?
    “Now, about the angel?”
    “He doesn’t want me. Goddess, it’s hard being around you. All I want to do is hold you. All I want to do is hold him. Seeing you here only makes this worse. I appreciate it though.”
    He grimaced. His eyes scrunched up from the pain. “It’s hard for me too. But we both know there’s nothing that I can do. I can only watch out for you. Don’t give up hope on the angel and the beautiful Guardian inside of you.”
    His power thickened. I felt his hand on my face. I curled my cheek into it, feeling how wonderful it was to have him back, at least for a moment. “I’ll try.”
    “Can you show me her? Can you show me your wings?”
    “I don’t know how.”
    “Close your eyes and open your mind to me the way you used to.”
    I did what he said. Nick pressed his forehead to mine. He hovered on the edge of my mind. I relaxed and brought him down into the darkness of my thoughts, further than I had ever let him go before. Through what used to be a padlocked door, the door now opened into a field that was lit by twilight. In the middle of the meadow was my Guardian. She was combing through her feathers. She looked up. She rose and stepped toward the both of us. It was hard to be separate here when I wanted both of us to be together. This was the first desire I had about that. She touched Nick’s chest.
    “Hello,” he whispered.
    “Hi. How can you be here?”
    Nick looked at me and then back at her. “You’re not aware of each other yet?”
    “No. We’re not integrated. At least not yet. Soon, if Tannin realizes that he has me. Us,” my Guardian said.
    “It’s an honor to meet you. You’re as beautiful as your mirror image. Will you do me the honor of showing me your wings?”
    My mirror image took my hand. At the contact, more of us came together. She opened her wings. I felt the weight of them on my back. When I looked behind me, there was nothing there. Nick gasped when he saw them.
    “Can I touch them?”
    “Yes,” we said in unison.
    When he