Gideon Read online

  “What happened?” Her pouty pink lips revealed white teeth and a sexy little pink tongue he suddenly wanted wrapped around his cock.

  “There was an accident. I rescued you.” He breathed over her face, adding more of his glamour and watched her eyes half close as she arched her spine and sent her lovely breasts up closer to his mouth. Did she want him to kiss them again? He lowered his head until he was an inch from her lips. He put his words inside her mouth. “I am your Guardian angel.”

  “Angel?”

  He smiled and nodded. He was going to ask her if she wanted to call someone, though he would try to dissuade her from that course of action. He just wanted to distract her a little bit to sample some of the things that had been denied him for so long.

  But suddenly she looked at his lips, then raised her eyes to his, and sucked him in. He had no choice, but he was surprised she wasn’t afraid. He bent and kissed her again and felt her moan into his mouth as if she was giving up her soul. He was captured, stirred nearly to tears.

  A cheap San Francisco motel room watching porn wasn’t going to be good enough. He decided on another more glorious plan.

  A loud rumble interrupted his journey of delving his tongue deep into her, finding hers and playing with it. Supreme Being was calling.

  And he wasn’t going to answer. Not until he got good and fucked.

  Chapter 2

  “Persephone here to see you, sir,” Cedric addressed Father, who was seated on a raised dais. Two grade-school-aged cherub boys were lounging on the steps at his feet. They were in the midst of a reading lesson. Father’s white hair and beard encircled his full, slightly tanned face, like egg white frosting.

  “Ah, welcome, Persephone,” Father greeted. “Now, boys, you must leave us in private,” he boomed to the two young angels. One of them, the shorter one, burst into tears.

  Father sighed and drew the boy to his chest, then kissed the top of his head. “Talbot, you must mind the sensitivity.” Pushing the boy out in front of him with powerful hands gripping the youngster’s shoulders, he spoke, “You will be no good to the human population if you let your feelings get in the way. We must talk about this some time.” Father frowned.

  “Yes, sir.” The boy wiped tears from his cheeks with the backs of his hands.

  “Okay then. Off with both of you. Go downstairs to Mrs. Dickenson. Ask her to find you a treat.”

  The two little angels’ eyes widened as they sprouted small white wings and began to flutter toward the doorway, giggling.

  “Wait!” Father called out. Both boys landed immediately with two light taps as their feet hit the ground. “No wings here. If you are going to work with the human population, you have to know how to walk and act like one of them. Your wings are only for emergencies. Mind the enthusiasm, you two.”

  “Yes, sir,” they chimed in unison. They bolted through the doorway. Persephone could hear their whoops and hollers all the way down the stairs. She could not hear footsteps.

  Father shook his head, but he smiled. “You remember those days? I love little ones who are so excited, full of life.”

  “Yes, sir. Although I was turned as a young woman.”

  “And you were chosen for your enthusiasm.” He got up and motioned her to a pair of overstuffed chairs next to a roaring fireplace. Persephone sat, but Father stood, gazing through the stained-glass window overlooking Heaven’s playhouse. His hands were clasped behind him as he thought about something that made him frown again.

  “Persephone, Gideon has gone missing.”

  “Gideon, sir?”

  “Your first soul.”

  “Oh! Gideon. I remember him. The tall one who saved the woman from the truck. Very brave. Very handsome.” She blushed and ducked her head slightly. “When did he go missing?”

  “This morning.”

  “I’ve totally lost track of him.” Father probably knew she was lying. She’d looked at the bridge every time she was called to assignment there. One day, Father’d caught her trying to bring Gideon a cup of hot tea.

  “Yes, well, he’s been on special assignment in the human world. And I’m afraid a bit isolated. I may have made a mistake there.”

  “He used to growl at me every time I saw him in the hallway during his training. A most ungrateful angel, if I may say so myself.”

  Father chuckled. “Yes, it seems Gideon has become more ungrateful as the years of isolation have gone by. And now he has gone dark.”

  “Perhaps that was his true nature?” she asked.

  “Yes, well he’s different than most. He was not entirely human.”

  “Sir?”

  “You never knew?”

  “Knew what, sir?”

  “Gideon was vampire.”

  Persephone felt her blood pressure rise. “You mean—?”

  “Yes. Turning him was a mistake. He already was immortal.”

  “Oh, goodness. But forgive me if I need to ask, why would he be upset with this?”

  “Because you forever altered him. He’s no longer a full-blooded vampire. He’s now part Guardian. Sort of like emasculating a strong male human. You understand?”

  Persephone blushed again and searched for answers in her toes.

  “I’m sorry. Perhaps that’s not a good analogy,” Father whispered.

  “No, I understand your meaning perfectly.” Her cheeks felt hot, a most disturbing reaction.

  “Good.”

  “Then what is he?” she begged to ask.

  Father chuckled. “Very good question. I’m not quite sure we have a name for it. But I call him a hybrid.”

  “A hybrid? So how does that work?”

  “I wasn’t sure. That’s why he’s been at the top of the Golden Gate Bridge for fifty years. I was hoping he’d take to liking it up there all alone. You see, I’ve built free will into angel DNA. But I don’t think a dark path, even though he was already vampire, is what he was destined for.” Father turned and looked into her eyes. “He denies his light side now.”

  “Shame. That is truly a shame!”

  “No, my dear. I think it brings with it some opportunity to do some housekeeping.”

  “Sir?”

  “It’s a labyrinth, you know, the circle of life and death, light and dark. Sometimes in a brief snapshot of time, it looks like the dark forces are stronger, looks like a step back. But it winds about, and you never really know where it’s going to turn out until the end.” He chuckled again and added, “It’s like the kudzu of life. It just grows and grows and alters and changes everything in its grasp.”

  “Well, if you say so, sir. Can’t say as I understand completely.” She had no idea what kudzu was and was afraid to ask him. She figured it was probably something he’d created and now regretted doing so.

  “No? Well then, you understand I don’t ever give up on angels. Or humans either.”

  “Or vampires?”

  “Or vampires. I’ll bet you never thought they existed.”

  “No, sir. I thought it was make believe.”

  “Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. Trust me on that.” Father was gazing out the window again. “I want everyone to have time to choose the right path. This is why I haven’t changed him back, although I could have.”

  “This I know, sir. You’d have been correcting my mistake, otherwise.”

  Father abruptly turned and faced her again. “It’s never a mistake to care about someone else. Human, angel, or other being. Never a mistake.”

  “But it still remains that I made a mistake in turning him. My inexperience. I am so sorry, Father.”

  “So this is what I’m going to do. I’m sending you on a special assignment to find Gideon. And I don’t think he’ll be expecting to see you. He thinks I’ll be coming after him. You see, Persephone, he’s been very, very bad.”

  “Oh dear.”

  “And I want you to follow him, since you’re the one who turned him. But be careful. He is more apt to do something even more unpredictab
le than before when you saw him in the hallways. Something stronger than growling at you.”

  “Do you think he will cause me harm?”

  “You will be under my special protection. But yes, he may try. Be cautious, but I ask also that you find compassion for him in this difficult time.” Father turned back to the window, the colors of the stained glass washing over his face. “He’s going to need it.”

  Persephone hovered over Gideon’s abandoned post at the top of the north tower. She could still smell his scent as well as the acrid smell of smoke, oil, and fear. Fear did indeed have a scent, she’d learned. This scent was definitely Gideon’s.

  As she scanned the destruction below, picking up traces of the Guardian messages, she was relieved to discover everyone on the bridge had somehow survived. Cars remained buoyed in the water longer than normal, and a nearby container ship lent a hand with lifeboats. The Coast Guard was busy trolling back and forth, sending divers back into the water to search for additional victims. But she was satisfied no further harm had befallen the good people of Marin and San Francisco or the tourists on the bridge, and that the Guardians were the cause of the save. She was extremely proud.

  She touched down on the cool, slippery rust-painted metal, encasing her cellophane-thin wings back in the wing sacs at her shoulder blades with a snap, and watched dying sunlight pour into the waters of the Pacific outside the Golden Gate. She loved this time of day—the blue sky bursting with dark clouds rimmed in light grey, with shards of sunlight filtering through. The bridge itself was truly golden, but she’d always wondered why they painted it rust red, like dried blood.

  Looking down, her bare white toes were cold, so she divined a pink hooded jacket and knee-high leather boots that were lined in flannel. Pink flannel with yellow daisies.

  There were no cars snaking down below. Twenty-foot barricades with yellow flashing lights blocked off both entrances to the bridge. The empty tollbooths were host to rescue vehicles and police and other unmarked cars, as well as officials walking all over the approach to the bridge. The scenic point on the Marin side was closed to public access but the parking lot was filled with official vehicles. Two tan and green military boats were evaluating the piers at the water’s edge. Sea traffic was halted as a debris ship identified, marked with inflatable buoys and retrieved debris. A salvage barge was steaming on its way to pick up large pieces of cable, hunks of car parts and other miscellaneous debris.

  It was eerie not to have the sounds of motors revving, rap music blaring or air brakes being applied. A couple of Caltrans trucks started up near the bridge office and took off towards the City.

  She understood how lonely it must have been for Gideon, that strange angel she had turned years ago. She had been proud of the turning, her first. Gideon was the sort of man she was always afraid of—dark and brooding—but non-violent. That fateful day he lay dying, sacrificing himself to save the young girl from the large delivery truck. With nearly supernatural strength, probably because he was in love with the girl, he tossed her body out of harm’s way like she was a rag doll. But he’d assembled super-human strength and she landed poorly, her neck at an odd angle.

  It broke her heart to see how he’d been so focused on getting her to safety, he misjudged the speed of the truck, which hit him with its enormous grill, and dragged poor Gideon for yards, leaving parts of him all over the roadway. Gideon screamed and slithered out from under the enormous cab of the truck. Beginning to bruise and covered in blood, he wept in anguish over the sight of the girl’s nude lifeless body in a bed of flowers at the side of the road. Persephone briefly wondered why the woman was naked, but put that thought out of her mind. She could see he still cared about her welfare, even as his own life was being extinguished.

  He looked so weak. Remarkably, he attempted to stand but fell back, unconscious. Persephone deduced he was not only in great physical torment, but he grieved for the girl. And that’s exactly when she decided to save him. He deserved his wings. She had thought Father would be more pleased. It was a shame to let such a hero die.

  Persephone thought he might be finally dead, but as she approached, she saw he was just barely alive. She bent over his white face, straining from the obvious pain and fear that his life was ending. She heard him mumble something and then repeat it.

  “Tell me, brave hero. What is your wish?” she spoke to him, allowing him to visually see her, while using some of her dust to dampen his pain. It fell in sparkles around his handsome face. Persephone’s heart was dancing along with the choirs in Heaven in the background.

  “Let me catch my breath a minute. I’ll be fine,” he said, his voice raspy with a disturbingly deep rumble.

  It warmed her heart to hear this. “Silly. You are a true hero. Protecting the innocent and then not even thinking about yourself.”

  Gideon squirmed and made a sour face.

  She wasn’t expecting him to know what was coming next, that she could save him. “I’m going to match your good deed with one of my own. You’ll see.”

  Gideon looked up at her with horror in his eyes.

  “Who the fuck—”

  “Shhh, shhhh. Don’t use any more of your strength.” She pulled aside his ragged shirt, seeing the ribs poking through his chiseled chest. With the puddle of blood now forming around her knees as she straddled his hips, she knew the skin covering his back was shredded and nearly gone. The ragged edge of his right humerus bone protruded through his well-developed bicep. She expected he’d go into shock any second, so she worked quickly, placing a hand over the gaping chest wound, which glowed yellow, then white. She gripped his upper arm and applied the same healing to it and felt the bones align, the connective tissues wrapping themselves around for protection, and then the healing of his deep flesh wound and bicep muscle beneath. She admired the smooth surface of his enormous shoulders and arms.

  And then she lifted him and brought him with her to Heaven.

  There had been a celebration that day. Her first soul. And he was a big specimen, although she didn’t dare look on him as a man. He was healed in perfect form and an angel now. On the path to becoming Guardian. He would now live forever, to be able to protect humans. Forever saved and free from the bonds and limitations of an earthly body.

  Persephone had done well, or so she thought until the conversation this afternoon with Father. Now storm clouds gathered, dark and dangerous.

  So what happened? The angel never thanked her like others would do in subsequent years. In fact, he harbored anger toward her, so she avoided him whenever they ran into each other in the teaching center. He was given some private instruction, as he didn’t mix well with some of the others, and actually scared more than a few, especially the redheaded Guardians he seemed to be most angry at. Probably because of the redheaded girl he couldn’t save, she thought.

  So this had been his kingdom then, his place of refuge, she thought as she looked over the chilly bay, wondering why Father made him a Watcher and not a full-fledged Guardian. Gideon seemed to be a man of action, not someone who liked to watch at the sidelines. Perhaps Father’s miscalculation, along with her huge initial mistake in turning him, sealed poor Gideon’s fate.

  Strange.

  A can of Red Bull stood alone on top of the tower, defying the wind. Well, it was time to visit Gideon, and perhaps she would bring him his favorite drink as an introduction. It was time to save him again!

  Will he recognize me?

  Chapter 3

  Her pheromones were blazing. The little redhead was light as he transported her through the cool air high above the green hills north of Marin County. She nearly floated in his arms. She turned and placed her cheek against his chest, bracing against the wind. Her cheek warmed his breast and caused him to inhale. How he wanted to pull back her hair and drink from her. She surprised him by grazing her lips across the smooth flesh of his pecs. She teasingly missed a nipple, generating a soft moan from deep inside his chest.

  “My Guardian,” she
whispered, kissing his breast afterward which sent a vibration all the way to his cock. “Here I thought I’d be ended by some deranged monster. But even I have a Guardian!”

  It was an odd comment, but he suspected she suffered from low self-esteem, so dismissed his reservations. “Yes.” He smiled down at her and saw her blush. “How do you feel?”

  She scanned his face, touched his cheek with her tiny fingers, ending with her forefinger tracing over his bottom lip. She took in a deep breath. “Grateful.”

  He nearly dropped her he had gone so rigid. Now he wondered if he’d be able to make the trip home without a mishap of some kind. He’d never fucked while flying before, but perhaps today was the day…

  “You need to contact home, let people know you’re all right?” he asked as the wind whooshed through his hair. He cupped her, sheltering her from the cold.

  Her smile was as wicked as he’d seen on his vamp mentor. “I’m all alone right now. With you.”

  The rumble from a distant bolt of lightning made him shiver. He tore his gaze away from her and concentrated on the trip, urgent to get her to his bedroom.

  “Am—am I flying?” she asked him. Her green eyes beckoned the truth.

  “Yes. See my beautiful wings?” He allowed his shoulders to tense, hitching his powerful dark wings up overhead, making a flapping noise as a special sound effect just for her. She buried her head in his chest.

  She wasn’t nervous, being carried through the clouds as he’d worried she would be. She snuggled into the embrace of their shared warmth.

  He wondered if he could still trace to speed their journey. He’d not tried it for several years.