A Very Levet Christmas (Guardians of Eternity)

Madre di Dio. They were so small . . . so fragile....

What if he couldn’t protect them?

What if his best efforts weren’t enough?

The constant worry gnawed at him, twisting his gut with a fear he couldn’t shake.

“Is something wrong?”

Salvatore instantly cleared his expression as he turned to head toward the large bed set in the middle of the room.

“Everything is perfect,” he assured his beautiful mate, climbing on the bed to stretch out next to her slender form.

She turned on her side to face him, her blond hair shimmering in the moonlight. Salvatore’s heart clenched with a love that threatened to overwhelm him.

This female . . .

She was the very reason he existed.

“I thought I heard Hess,” she said, her voice husky with weariness. “You only call for him when there’s trouble.”

With tender care, Salvatore tugged his mate into his arms, his cheek resting on top of her head.

“I’ve called in all of my soldiers to guard the lair,” he confessed.

He felt her stiffen.

“All of them?” she demanded.

“Yes.”

“Are you expecting trouble?”

He smiled wryly. “I’m always expecting trouble.”

Harley tilted back her head, studying him with a worried expression. “Salvatore, you’re starting to frighten me. Have there been threats against the babies?”

“No, nothing,” he hastily reassured her, his arms tightening around her slender frame. Despite Harley’s tough childhood, she possessed a basic belief in the goodness of others. He wasn’t going to allow his cynical nature to destroy that. “I might be . . . a bit overprotective.”

“A bit?” She gave a rueful laugh. “You had the doctor cavity-searched before you let him into the house.”

“You are my life,” he said with simple honesty. “And those babies—”

“Are our future,” she finished as the words became choked in his throat.

He pressed his lips to her satin tangle of hair. “The future for all our people.”

She snuggled closer, her lashes drifting downward. “Just promise me one thing.”

“What?”

“You won’t try to keep away the people I love.”

Salvatore grimaced, suspecting that the stupid gargoyle might be on the list of people who Harley loved.

“Rest, cara,” he murmured softly, wondering just how much trouble he was going to be in when she woke.





Chapter 2


Levet landed in the snow with a painful thud.

Sacrebleu.

He hated when he was popped from one place to another.

It was bad enough when Yannah or her mother, Siljar, thought they could yank him through space as if he were a puppet on their strings. But to have a complete stranger do it. Really. He was going to have a stern word with the Christmas Angel Union.

He muttered a curse as he rose to his feet, rubbing his tender derriere and checking to make sure the wand still clutched in his hand wasn’t broken. Only then did he glance around the frozen landscape.

It didn’t look much different from where he’d been standing just a few seconds before.

Lots of snow. Barren fields. Trees. An abandoned farmhouse along a narrow road. And off to his left the river sluggishly flowed toward the south.

Still trying to get his bearings, Levet stiffened as he caught the unmistakable stench of pure-blood Were. Damon. The wolf intent on challenging Salvatore and putting the pups at risk.

He turned to watch a man stride out of the trees, his large, muscular body covered in nothing more than a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt.

Levet shivered. Wolves were hot-blooded creatures, but . . . yow. Damon could at least have on a jacket to blend in with the humans.

Not that he was the blending kind of guy.

Towering well over six feet, the stranger had clipped his dark hair close to his head, emphasizing the stark perfection of his male features. His skin was a rich, golden brown that created a striking contrast to the pale, champagne color of his eyes.

He was clearly one of those dark, disgustingly gorgeous men who made women flutter with excitement. It was vastly unfair as far as Levet was concerned. Why did a demon who possessed the savage strength of a werewolf also need such compelling beauty?

It was one of those philosophical questions that had no answer.

Like why Firefly had been canceled after just one season.

At the moment, however, Levet was far more interested in the grim purpose etched onto the lean features.

This was a Were on a mission.

A mission that Levet was somehow expected to prevent.

Perfect.

Doing his best to ignore the shock waves of power that surrounded the approaching Were, not to mention the ginormous sword strapped to his back and two guns holstered at his hips, Levet moved to stand directly in his path.

Sacrebleu. The next time he discovered a Christmas angel trapped in a portal he was going to keep walking.