Free Guardians of the Portals by Nya Rawlyns Page B

building had more than four floors and each was relatively small compared to GFI’s more imposing structure.
    He worked at a steady pace, seeking residual energy, but found nothing. The building felt cold, abandoned. Indeed many of the offices stood empty and a few were still under construction. By the time he finished with the second floor he knew he was wasting time. He smashed the safety door open, no longer caring about revealing his presence. Leaning over the rail, he jumped to the floor below, landing easily.
    As he raced across the lane dividing the buildings he heard the dogs in high voice, coming rapidly toward him. Not good. Shields protected him from humans but not from their canine trackers. They would smell him long before he could hope to find the woman.
    Cursing as he charged across the access road, he skidded behind the building, smack into the woman huddled behind a stand of azaleas. He managed to catch himself before he buried her under his weight. He thrust her against the brick wall and mashed his palm over her mouth to keep her from crying out. She still managed an audible ‘umph’ and connected with his groin, sending spasms of pain cascading through his lower torso. He bit his lip to stifle the groan. The sweet iron taste of blood in his mouth triggered a sensual rush of heat to his head.
    “I’m here to help you, woman! Stay still. We have to leave. Do you understand? The dogs have your scent.”
    The woman nodded assent and whispered, “I’m so sorry,” when Trey removed his hand. As he pressed against her lean body, a surge of power passed through and over him, the like of which he’d never encountered. She seemed unaware that anything unusual had happened, but for him it opened every nerve conduit. Pleasure and pain morphed and oscillated and blended until his head swam with sensation. Body and soul separated, then merged and he knew a thing she did not; she was his and he ached to explore her essence. He pushed away, physically sickened by the separation. This was the one the witch had charged him to save, her daughter. How could this have happened?
    He wasted precious seconds drinking in her aura, invisible before he’d bonded with her, but now glowing like a beacon for his enemies to see. He’d just branded her with the mark of death in this world. He wrestled with the tangled mess his feelings had become. He didn’t ask for this. He didn’t want it. How dare the O’Brien woman task him with this burden, for burden it surely was. Already the demands of the bond gnawed at his belly, turning his world upside down, distracting him from his mission. Why him? Why now? He dare not risk it all, his world and his people, to feed this need. The only way out was to summon the berserker rage, let it wash over him, sweeping away the hold she had over him. He had no choice.
    Trey allowed the anger to build, not at a festering, toxic rate, but at full rolling boil, a volcano ready to blow. When the woman mouthed ‘who are you’ and squirmed against the pressure of his muscular body driving her frail form into the unforgiving brick, he dissociated, allowing the berserker rage to erupt in an inferno of anger. He slapped her face hard, rocking her head against the brick, the blood flowing freely from her nose and mouth. Long before he’d exhausted his furious descent into madness, the woman had sunk to a heap at his feet.
    Trey stepped away, debating whether or not to simply leave her there. The rage sloughed away leaving him stone cold, nauseous and terrified at what he’d just done to an innocent. He heard the dogs coming closer but couldn’t move a muscle, not a twitch, as he stared at the blank heap of bone and sinew crumpled at his feet. Empty, her aura gone, he knew not where.
    Dear gods, would they be so cruel as to bring him his heart’s desire only to have him crush it in one moment of insanity? Heart and soul, then cold intellect warred for control. If he could save her, one side