Back Home (Edited) Book 4 of the Guardians Saga

CH 1.1 Surrender

"Surrender, Rile," Alex said, her voice cool and even.

Alex was unperturbed by the fact that he had her pinned to the training mat in their carriage house apartment. His German Shepherd type eyes lost their police dog look in surprise.

"Me? Are you aware of what's going on?" he asked. As the much larger, draconic humanoid, he usually won their wrestling matches.

"Sure: this." Alex laid a glowing hand on his chest. She loved watching his eyes go all puppy from her neuro-electric powers sending waves of pleasure through his body.

"Alex! That's cheating."

"Are you complaining?" Alex asked, mirth dancing in her eyes.

Rile tightened his grip on her wrists. "No, but I'm not surrendering either."

Alex smiled, and the glow intensified. The waves of pleasure crashed harder and faster.

"Still not surrendering," Rile told her. "I don't think you understand the concept of beating me in a fight."

Now her smile held mischief. As the glow stabilized, she said, "I can leave you here, right on the brink, for hours." His body tensed under hers and when he moaned in protest, Alex breathed into his tympanum, whispering, "Hours, Rile. Are you ready to surrender yet?"

"That's unfair."

"Lots of things in life are unfair. Do you want me to list them for you?" Alex breathed into his tympanum, which coaxed out another moan.

Rile surrendered. He also agreed to buy daiquiris and bring them back once they were finished.

***

Rile opened the door to his carriage house apartment, carrying two blue daiquiris in his hands. But what he saw upon entering caused a red rage to consume him like no other before. A Morgan stood there with one hand on Alex's throat, her mouth duct-taped, and the other hand groping her breasts. Tears streamed down her face, accompanied by a look of terror that seared itself into Rile's core like a branding iron. Alex was his only source of light and love and some Morgan was torturing her.

Morgan was the tall, wiry dirt-blonde; his eyes were like that of cold fish. The CIA had given him an experimental neuro-electric implant, not as advanced as their state-of-the-art model that Alex had received. When Morgan was deemed unworthy of a full implant, he retaliated by kidnapping Alex and torturing her until she escaped. He dodged Rile and the agency while relentlessly stalking Alex until she had cut off his head. But his counterpart from another timeline took his implants and continued to stalk her.

Rile slammed into Morgan and sent him crashing to the floor. In a flash, Rile had his dagger out and drove it down. But Morgan had enhanced reflexes like Alex and the dagger embedded deeply into the floor, rather than his heart. Morgan delivered an elbow strike straight to Rile's throat that caused him to stumble backwards. Taking advantage of this opening, Morgan scrambled back up and attempted to flee.

Rile was having none of it though, and swiftly kicked out Morgan's back leg, sending him tumbling face first onto the floor. Still clutching his blade tightly, he dragged it across Morgan's back as he whirled away. The wound tore open painfully and blood soaked into Morgan's shirt as he let out a furious howl. He rolled onto his back and kicked up with all his might into Rile's stomach, causing him to double over.

Without waiting for him time to recover, Morgan dashed from the room just as Alex choked from somewhere behind them.

Rile stumbled closer to Alex, hissing in pain as he clutched his abdomen. Even after he gently peeled off the duct tape, Alex could not speak. He could see the terror in her eyes, and it broke him. He filled up a glass of water for her, but when he handed it to her he saw that his hand was trembling. Without hesitation, she brought her glowing hand up to his cheek, soothing away the fear in his eyes.