My mood turned peaceful. I became agreeable and nodded my head slowly. Mr. Aleksandrov turned on his heel and exited the room with Gwydion in tow. Seconds later, the uneasy, angry feeling crept back into my chest and I was filled with the urge to fight again.

I stormed from the house muttering curse words under my breath. My emotions were all over the place. I felt hard done by and weak. What happened to me being so bad ass that they made me a head guardian? Was that all a ruse to force me to stay here so I could be experimented with? I didn’t like the council. They’d been nothing but an inconvenience—as for trusting them—no way. They were secretive and sneaky. If they wanted me to help, they should have asked instead of going through the trouble of breaking traditions and making secret plans behind everyone’s back.

I stopped in the middle of the field and tugged on my bracelet. I pulled so hard that my chest and stomach began to hurt. I could feel heat rising in my cheeks and there was no doubt my face was turning as red as a tomato. I screamed in frustration and grabbed my knees, bending over to catch my breath.

“Don’t give yourself a hernia.” Eli chuckled, approaching me from the side.

I straightened up and scowled at him, but that scowl turned into a smile. It wasn’t his fault I was a walking vampire antidote.

He folded his arms as his green eyes narrowed in on me. “I hope you aren’t going to claim that’s a real smile.”

I shrugged. “It’s all I can do right now. Aren’t you supposed to be helping Mila?”

“She has Lyric, she’ll be okay.” He sighed. “Is everything okay with you?”

My chest grew heavy as all of the events from the last year bore down on me. You’re not going to cry. Don’t do it. I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth and pinched the bridge of my nose. I managed to fight back the tears.

“Uh, yeah. I’m over-reacting.”

Eli took a step toward me, but didn’t touch me. I bit my lip in disappointment. Even though we had sex, we still couldn’t be in love in public.

“You’re not over-reacting. Last night—”

“Why do people keep talking about last night?” I interrupted. “I’m fine! Last night had no effect on me.”

“A vampire got into the school. The one place where you were meant to be safe is now under threat. That has no effect on you?”

I pursed my lips together and shook my head.

“You’re lying.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“I just want you to be honest with yourself. Let your heart feel pain, it makes you stronger.”

A single tear rolled down my cheek. He was right. I was so conflicted about everything. After my year as a vampire, Sage took me in and changed my life. Sage Sanctum became my home, the one place I could be safe away from the monsters that hunted me. Now that’s gone, what was I supposed to do? Where were we supposed to go?

“I’m scared.”

Eli stroked my arm with his index finger. “I know, but I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I promised you that when we were in the cells when you first arrived, remember?”

I nodded. His warm finger brushed along my jaw line and then under my chin, tilting my face upward. I stared into his eyes. In the sun, they glistened like a lake on a lazy afternoon. He didn’t care that we were standing in the middle of the field outside of the higher power’s house and neither did I. I rubbed his arm.

“I love you,” I whispered.

“I love you, too.”

A GUARDIAN ANGEL

My guardian uniform was hanging from the handle of my front door. I couldn’t help but feel a little giddy. I was the only goddess in history to wear one, so this was a big deal for both me and our world. It gave me hope. If the council was willing to budge on the whole ‘goddesses don’t fight’ and ‘only gods can be a higher power’ thing, then maybe there was hope for me and Eli. Maybe one day, Eli and I could be together in public and have the freedom to kiss, hug, and go on dates like normal people.

I brought my new uniform inside and slung it over the back of the couch. I strolled over to the fridge, pulled out a bottle of water, and drank it back. I was excited about the uniform, but it wasn’t enough to trump the now guilty feeling I had for not telling Eli I had the chance to bring Hunter back. I was worried—I didn’t know how he’d react. Would he want Hunter to be saved or would he forbid me to do it? I’d never pegged Eli as a jealous guy. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and texted Eli.

Are you free? We need to talk.

I sat on the couch and waited for forty minutes before a soft knock sounded at my door. I rose to my feet and stumbled over my big guardian boots on the way to the door.

When I corrected myself and straightened my shirt, I opened the door. Eli’s oh-so-gorgeous face met my gaze. Momentarily, I changed my mind about telling him. You need to do it. I inhaled deeply, praying that this went down well.

“Hey,” he greeted me as he stepped inside.

“Hey.”

We stood there awkwardly for a little while, or at least I did. I looked everywhere except at his face. I could still feel his curious gaze burning into me, though.

“There’s something I didn’t tell you… when we were standing in the field.”

He leaned against the door and folded his arms, his gaze not easing up.

“Mr. Aleksandrov found out what the council wants with me.”

Eli straightened up and stepped closer.

“They want to use my blood to heal vampires.”

Eli’s smooth forehead creased and his brows furrowed as he stared at me for several long seconds. “That’s not possible. Vampires are dead. It isn’t a disease that can be cured.”

“I’m the only living case that couldn’t be fully turned because of my Heelian side. I was cured. The council thinks that if they extract my blood and mix it with the formula they’ve created… then we can cure vampires.”

He took a long time in replying, his eyes weighing me heavily.

“What do you want to do?” he asked.

I looked away, unable to meet his eyes. “I want to save them. I want to save Hunter.”

To my surprise, he reached out to touch my chin and tip my head back up. His gaze caught mine, allowing no escape. “You do what you need to do.”

“That’s it?”

His lips twitched. “Yes.”

Now it was my turn for my brows to furrow. “This isn’t what I expected.”

“What did you expect?”

“Well, a lot of shouting and chastising, for one.”

“Ruby, you want to give people a second chance at life. It’d be selfish of me to be angry over something so selfless.”

“And the part about saving Hunter doesn’t bother you?”

He bit his lip in thought. “It does bother me. A lot. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

I pouted. “Why are you so nice and understanding?”

Eli chuckled. “One of us has to be.”

After our surprisingly pleasant conversation, Eli went home to shower and change. I did the same. In my reflection, I saw my cheeks were pink from my overly hot shower, so I splashed cool water on my face. The mirror showed me a girl with bloodshot eyes and small bags hanging underneath. I looked sleep-deprived. I hadn’t gotten much sleep last night for both good and bad reasons. Now I needed to be in my uniform and helping the other guardians evacuate students from the school. I’m not going to lie, I was nervous—okay, I was more than nervous. Butterflies in my stomach—what an understatement, it was more like jackhammers, and they were in my chest, mostly, threatening to come up my throat. Why was I so nervous to see the students? It wasn’t like I’d grown close to any of them. Most of them probably wouldn’t recognize me—I don’t even recognize me. I’d lost a bit of weight, nothing too drastic, and my hair was longer… on second thought, perhaps I didn’t look as different as I felt.

The uniform fitted nicely and it clung to my body perfectly—black was definitely my color.

I tucked my pants into my boots. The boots were a little heavy and I felt like I had strapped a brick to the bottom of each shoe. Ignoring that, I went outside. The midday sun shimmered in the sky and suddenly I felt out of place in my uniform. I was the first goddess to ever wear a guardian uniform—what if I wasn’t doing it properly? A few passing guardians stopped to stare at me with smiling faces. One of them was Sera. Her auburn hair glistened in the sun.

“It suits you. Welcome to the team.”

I nodded and smiled back. That was a good sign at least—I hoped the other guardians felt the same way. I stood on my porch, unsure of what to do next. I know I was supposed to go to the school and help, but was I supposed to go alone? Slowly, I stepped down onto the grass and proceeded to walk toward the school. I passed small groups of guardians, all of whom gave me approving nods and cheers. It boosted my confidence tremendously, but it wasn’t until I saw Eli that I realized his was the only approval I needed. He was standing with Xavier and Aaron in front of his house. I flushed as Xavier cheered and clapped loudly, drawing more attention to me. I focused on Eli. A hot flush spread over me. The look in his eyes made something flutter inside of me.

“Well, well, well, look who’s officially a guardian,” Xavier cheered, slinging an arm over my shoulder.

I smiled sheepishly.

He ignored me. “What do you think, Eli? Does she reach guardian standards?”

His sexy gaze bore down on me, saying more than words ever could.

“She surpasses it.” He cleared his throat and averted his gaze.

“Aaron?” Xavier prompted.

“Xavier, this isn’t a fashion show,” I muttered.

Aaron answered anyway. “You look fantastic in your uniform. You are officially one of us now. Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

Xavier clasped his hands together enthusiastically. “Shall we go evacuate the students?”

The student campus was a lot quieter than I expected it to be. There was no screaming or crying… nobody was running around screaming for dear life, in fact, there was no one there at all.

“Where is everyone?” I asked.

“It’s lunch time, they’re gathered in the hall,” Aaron replied.

“What about the evacuation?”

“They’ll continue it after lunch. You can’t evacuate a school on an empty stomach. Let’s go.”

I fell behind the three boys as they walked. I really didn’t want to go into the dining hall. I had better chances of avoiding the school’s student body hiding out in Mila’s room. Aaron and Xavier entered the hall, but I stopped on the steps.

“Ruby? Are you coming?” Eli asked.

The jackhammers pounded away in my chest relentlessly. “Yeah, I just need some more air.”

“You’re worried about the students?”

“No, not really… I mean, yeah, I guess so. It’s been awhile, that’s all. I’m a little embarrassed, god knows how many times I’ve disappeared and then just showed up out of the blue.”

“You have nothing to be embarrassed about. You’re the head guardian and you’re years younger than our student senior guardians… look at how much you’ve accomplished.”

I chewed the inside of my bottom lip. “Will you stay close to me?”

“As close as I can without being banished for it.” He winked at me and I laughed.

I joined Eli at the top of the stairs and we entered the dining hall.

All the students sat together, eating and socializing, faces alight with whatever current gossip was circulating around the school. As soon as my shoes touched the wooden surface of the dining hall’s floor, the loud buzz of conversation stopped instantly, like someone had hit the mute button. I stopped and stared back at the hundreds of eyes that watched me. Eli nudged my elbow and I forced myself to walk. One foot in front of the other—that’s all. I kept my gaze fixated on Mr. Aleksandrov by the teachers’ table. Hopefully, once I got there, the meaningless gossip between the students would resume… boy, was I wrong. The students continued to stare and whisper as I sat at the table, between Eli and Xavier.

“Tough crowd,” Xavier murmured.

I glowered sideways at him. Mr. Aleksandrov cleared his throat and stood up, drawing everyone’s attention.

“Good afternoon, students. Many of you are probably confused as to why Miss Moore is wearing a guardian uniform and sitting at our table.” He paused and surveyed the whole room. “She is officially a head guardian—” an eruption of chatter interrupted Mr. Aleksandrov’s speech. He tapped his spoon on his plate and the students quieted. “And you will treat her with the same respect as you would a teacher or any other guardian at this school. Is that clear?”

The students nodded and mumbled in agreement. Mr. Aleksandrov sat back down and the sound of voices filled the room again. The kitchen staff brought out plates of roast chicken and vegetables for us. My stomach groaned happily as the scent filled my nostrils. As I ate, I looked around the room, hoping to spot Mila. I saw her, sitting by herself at the back of the room. I grabbed my plate and made my way over to her, ignoring the whispers and stares.

“Hello, you!” I greeted and slid into the space in front of her. “How’s your tattoo?”

She placed her fork on the table and rubbed the bandage. “It’s a little itchy, but other than that, I think it’s okay.” She glanced over my shoulder. “Rylan is staring at the back of your head.”