The Rebel Guardian

Outlaw, A Thieves Series Book 2

About the book

From New York Times and USA Today bestseller Lexi Blake comes a new novel in her Thieves world…

After fighting her way across another plane of existence and facing off against ancient witches, there should be nothing more satisfying than coming home. Unfortunately, Kelsey Atwood had a different experience. The world she returned to has changed. Twelve years have passed, and they’ve been twelve hard years for the friends and family she never meant to leave behind. The little boy she adopted is now a grown man. The husbands she longed to see are scattered and on different sides of a war for control of the supernatural world. Her most trusted friend is now the leather-clad minion of the enemy, Myrddin.

Dealing with the wreckage of her personal life will have to wait, though, because the only chance at a hopeful future is deciphering an obscure prophecy, and she means to solve it. This quest will take her crew to a nest of primal vampires and the fierce world known as The Under. Filled with fantastic creatures and wonders she never imagined she would see, this new discovery leads her to something she is all too familiar with—a murder to solve and a killer to catch.

Trying to reconnect with her husbands and her son is already challenging enough, but as she begins piecing together the story behind the crime, it becomes clear that this mystery may tear down The Under and everyone who calls it home.

Excerpt

Chapter One

“Hey, Mom. You ready? Eddie’s packed up all our sh…stuff, and he says he feels better and is ready to work his magic.” Fenrir strode into my room, a backpack on one broad shoulder.

Five days ago he’d been nine and Eddie—our butler/all-around keeper—would run behind him in the magnificent apartment we lived in, trying to make sure the kiddo kept his pants on.

And now he stood before me, a young man. Technically an adult, though I thought it would take me a while to process that hard truth.

I had to force a smile on my face because if I didn’t, Fen would see the depths of my pain, and he didn’t need that. He needed a mom who loved him, who was happy to see him as he was today. Not one who longed desperately to turn back time and never have gone into that painting. “Almost good to go. I’m not taking much. Your dad promised he’ll take me shopping when we get to Atlanta.”

I needed that shopping trip since I didn’t have much. I hadn’t exactly packed for the excursion to the outer planes, and my condo full of clothes and shoes was now occupied by a bunch of witches who’d taken over the supernatural world, including the building I’d planned to raise my kids in.

I’d had to shut out every emotion that flooded my system the minute we’d come back through the painting and we’d realized that twelve years had passed here on the Earth plane. In our time, it had been mere days. Not even a week. We’d expected to return to a familiar world, to hold our children close and be happy to be home.

Instead, we’d found our world utterly changed and our places in it dangerous.

It had been less than twenty-four hours from the time we’d found ourselves in that basement staring down at the wanted posters to walking into the city of Frelsi, located deep inside a mountain on the northernmost part of Iceland. But it felt like I’d aged years.

My wolf, the one I’d finally properly integrated with, was rattling around inside me. She was not handling the situation as well as my human self was, and it was getting harder and harder to keep her in check.

I needed to see Trent.

Fenrir—the little wolf I’d adopted years before—was twenty-one years old. He looked more like his wolf now. Big, predatory, dangerous. But I could still see the little boy who’d just wanted someone to love him.

“I doubt you’ll need a parka where we’re going. The primals keep it pretty warm in their nest.” Fen leaned against the dresser as I checked over my pack one last time. “Did you talk to Lee?”

Oh, I’d definitely talked to Lee Donovan-Quinn. Lee had changed, too. He’d been one of my favorite people as a kid, one of the first people I’d really connected with and for some of the strangest reasons. “I’m still processing the fact that he’s a latent vampire. Is the king sure? How did he not know? It’s not like he didn’t live with Lee for eleven years.”

I’d been hit with so much change in the course of a few days that I was still trying to keep up. The kids were adults and warriors, and they’d spent the majority of the last decade off plane training to fight. Fenrir was in love with the queen’s daughter, Evangeline, and apparently he was also at war with a whole bunch of wolves who were either pissed with him because he wouldn’t assume their throne or afraid that he would.

And Lee—little Lee, whose small body housed my father’s soul—was now big Lee, and he loved a lot of people because he didn’t discriminate when it came to sex. He would turn into a vampire when he died, which could be any day now, from what I’d heard. He was every bit as reckless an adult as he’d been a child.

I’d asked him if he wanted to come with me to Atlanta. Beyond Fenrir, I was most concerned with Lee. He’d turned me down and said he was needed here.

Fen ran a hand over his shaggy hair, shoving it back. “Apparently puberty has something to do with it, though I got the feeling the king has always had his suspicions. Lee is being perfectly annoying about it. He’s going to be an obnoxious vampire. I hope he’s an academic and his primary skill turns out to be math or something. A supercharged Lee will be unbearable. I wonder how many years it will be before he stops whining about food. He hasn’t even turned and he’s already worried about missing pizza.”

Fen and Lee had a whole deep, familial relationship I hadn’t been a part of. They bickered like brothers. It was the relationship I’d wanted them to have, but the fact that I hadn’t seen it bloom made my heart ache.

I had to stay calm.

“When we get there, will you be able to cry, Mom?” Fen asked quietly. When I looked up at him, his expression had turned serious. “When you see Dad, will it be safe enough for you?”

I stopped, closing my eyes and forcing myself to be still. This was one of the reasons why I’d skipped breakfast this morning. I hadn’t been certain I could sit down with the royals and the kids and not lose my shit. I’d finally found the one thing that could squash my often never-ending appetite. Sorrow. Deep and aching loss. Well, I’d also had a little morning sickness, but I couldn’t think about the fact that I was pregnant right this second. It was all too much. “I can’t do this right now, Fen.”

If I let the emotion out, the wolf would come, too. It had been a while since I’d felt this deep need—to either fight or fuck—and I wasn’t doing either here.

“It’s okay to be upset. I think the queen’s already lost it a couple of times. Lee’s worried about her.” Fen moved over to sit on the bed I’d slept in the night before. “He thinks she might try to fix things.”

That sounded like the queen. Zoey Donovan-Quinn wasn’t the type to simply accept bad things happening to the people around her. I knew better. Also, Zoey didn’t lose her mind from time to time and threaten to wipe out the people around her because she had no control. “There’s no fixing this. Your papa saw it coming a long time ago. The queen probably thinks she’s in the wrong timeline or something, but I know now we were always going to end up here.”

“It would have been nice if Gray had found a way to give us a heads-up.” There was no mistaking the hint of bitterness in Fen’s tone.

“It doesn’t work that way. Please tell me what he’s done to hurt you.” I set the pack down and faced my son.

I had twelve years of family drama to catch up on. The apparent rift between my demon prophet husband, Grayson Sloane, and Fenrir was one thing I couldn’t afford to avoid dealing with.

I wanted to know why Gray hadn’t contacted me yet, where he was and if he’d missed me or if he’d moved on.

Because this was his baby I was carrying.

I’d been transported to the outer planes a few days ago, and that act along with the royals falling in as well had fulfilled one of the prophecies that my life seemed to revolve around. I’d fallen into Myrddin’s trap—the trap my dark prophet husband had been warning me about for years.

It turned out the trap was a painting, and now I understood why I’d never been a big art fan. Somewhere in the back of my head I’d always known fine art would fuck up my life.

When we’d returned to our plane, we discovered twelve years had passed. The pain was so overwhelming I wasn’t sure I would be able to breathe if I let it wash over me. I worried that pain was a tidal wave that would drown me in it, the fury of the water stripping me of my every defense.

I’d walked into a time where Myrddin had taken over the supernatural world and turned my best friend into something twisted and evil, where my son was an adult who’d grown up without me and he didn’t call Grayson Sloane Dad, where everything had flipped and I was reeling. I needed my defenses.

“It’s nothing he did. He hasn’t been around a lot in the last couple of years.” Fen’s shoulders shrugged. “I will certainly call him Papa if that’s what you want.”

“Why won’t anyone talk to me about this?” I asked the question quietly because I was worried about the answer. Fenrir had been upbeat the whole time we’d been here. When I’d briefly talked to Trent on the phone, he’d been cagey with me. When I’d asked Lee Donovan-Quinn, he’d changed the subject.

Of course he’d changed the subject by telling me he was a latent vampire. As diversions went, it was a good play.

“It’s complicated,” Fen replied quietly. “Honestly, I don’t understand everything that happened. It wasn’t one thing. After Papa started descending, he changed. He’s not cruel or mean. He’s simply distant, and he’s gone for long periods of time. Trent is my dad. Christopher and Gray have become…helpful male role models.”

Christopher was Fen’s biological father. He’d been accidentally killed when Fen was very young, and no one had suspected he was a latent vampire. When he’d turned, he hadn’t had the king around. Fen’s family had been on the run, and they’d hidden behind wards that stopped Daniel Donovan from sensing the vampire’s rising. So Christopher had turned, and he’d done what almost all vampires did in the first days of a turn. He’d killed. He’d killed his wife and would likely have killed Fenrir if Fen hadn’t run. “He’s still with the primals? You see him from time to time?”

“I didn’t for many years,” Fen admitted. “When we were on the run, we didn’t get back to the Earth plane a lot. When we did, the primals often gave us sanctuary. My biological father is doing well. He’s even taken a companion, and she’s wonderful. I think she’s helped him find some peace with what happened.”

There was a knock and before I could call out, Fen had the door open and Casey was walking through. “I am ready to get back to civilization, my brother.” He slapped Fen’s hand in some familiar greeting before glancing my way. “The primals have the best Internet. It’s hard here. Because we’re in a mountain. Behind twelve million wards. Also, not a lot of Internet connections on the coast of Iceland.”

Casey Lane was a vampire, a young academic who’d become part of my team over the last few years. He’d also been my BFF’s boyfriend when I’d left. My BFF who’d gone Dark Willow on me and seemed to be happily sitting at Myrddin’s side. As a vampire, his appearance hadn’t changed at all.

So why did he look older to me?

“Kelsey, it’s so freaking good to have you back.” He walked right up to me and wrapped his arms around me. “I know I’ve said it a million times in the last twenty-four hours, but it’s true.”

I held myself apart because if I gave up a single brick of my wall, it would crumble to the ground.

Casey stepped back, his expression turning blank as though he knew I couldn’t handle anything else right now.

But then Casey was an academic like my first mentor, Marcus Vorenus, who could always sense my emotional state.

Casey had matured in the years I’d been gone, and it seemed he’d truly come into his power.

“Eddie is almost ready for us to go. You don’t have long to wait.” Casey said the words evenly, and I realized he could feel how close to the edge I was. He wouldn’t have twelve years before. He’d honed his powers in the years I’d been gone. I had to wonder what else had happened to him during that time. “We need to have a long talk. I worried that I wouldn’t see you again, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t kept meticulous records for you. I’ve got a report on pretty much everything that has happened in the last twelve years here on the Earth plane. When we get to Atlanta, I’ll get you a laptop and send them to you so you can read the details, but there’s some stuff that’s personal and you need to hear it from me.”

I nodded, grateful that Casey had been on top of things. We’d already had one debrief, and I was sure we would spend a lot of time talking about what had happened over the last few years. He’d told me that my assistant, Justin, had been killed in the initial attack, but Henri and Hugo had survived. I’d been able to see them the night before.

Henri Jacobs and Hugo Wells were academics who, along with Casey, formed the vampire portion of my team. Justin had been my assistant and I felt bad for him. He’d been young for a vampire. He should have had hundreds of years of life, but Myrddin had taken that from him.

Casey had given me the updates on my mom and brothers, too.

The one thing Casey had avoided talking about was the situation with Liv. I’d let it go the night before because I’d still been reeling, but we had to face the fact that Liv had tried to take the royal group prisoner, and she’d been willing to play dirty to get the job done. But when we got to Atlanta, I intended to have a long discussion about what was going on with my bestie.

Casey glanced over at the backpack I’d set on the bed. “Is it in there?”

Casey was talking about the book, the one I’d brought back from the outer planes. The one I’d nearly died for. I nodded his way.

Fen took a deep breath, filling his nose. “Some of it’s written in blood. And the binding is animal skin, but I don’t recognize the species. It’s not from this plane at all. I suspect it’s never been here. It reeks of witch, but not Earth plane witches.”

I pulled it out of the pack and offered it up to Fen. I knew a bit about the book I’d risked my life for, but I was curious what Fen could ascertain. “It originated on one of the outer planes. A witch plane called Arete.”

Many of the outer planes held incredible supernatural civilizations, places where creatures who hid in shadows on the Earth plane rose up and dominated. On Arete, there were very few humans. It’s a matriarchal society and witches rule.

They also like to collect prophecies, and that was what the book was all about. I hoped that one of the prophecies would lead us to the weapon that could take Myrddin down and place the proper king back on the throne.

And it would be good to not allow Myrddin to open the door to the Hell plane and let demons run wild here on Earth. That was pretty much what we thought he was going to do, and I intended to stop him.

Fen frowned down at the book. “I don’t like it.”

I sighed. “Yeah, it’s got a lot of wards.”

“It doesn’t want me to even look at it,” Casey said, putting a hand to his stomach. “I’m feeling some nausea. I didn’t think I could feel that anymore. How are you touching it?”

I ran a hand over the thick cover, and the book sent out a pulse of warmth. The book liked me. The book wanted to stay with me. “According to experts, the book has something of a mind, or rather a will, of its own. It knows what it’s supposed to do. It also isn’t into dudes. That’s a whole witches of Arete thing. They wrote it and they don’t think much of males.”

Men couldn’t read the words.

Fen took a step back. “Then why do we think the primals will know anything about it? They’re all male and all from this plane.”

“Because the primals protect the Council’s library.” Casey got his academic on. He was so much more serious than the awkward man boy I’d known a few days before. He’d matured in a way that only came about from trauma. “The primals have spent millennia curating knowledge. They have access to the world’s most arcane information, and that includes some volumes we’ve collected from other planes.”

“I thought the academics kept those records.” History tended to be the academics’ realm.

“Records, yes,” Casey replied. “But the arcane library has always been kept in a primal nest. This is for several reasons, one being the Council sometimes finds itself involved in wars, and we all know what that did to the humans.” He waited as though he wanted us to acknowledge his level of smarty pantsness. “Come on, guys. The Library of Alexandria?”

He should remember he was dealing with wolves. I’m going to be honest. I love my people. Wolves are all kinds of awesome, but we do not tend to rank high on the intellectual scale. That’s not to say we’re not smart. I’ve solved many a mystery using logic. But ask me to search my brain for some piece of ancient history and you’re going to be waiting for a long time.

I was betting my son was pretty much the same.

“Uh, it was a library that got destroyed in a war?” Fen tried.

I probably should have felt guilty about that. He hadn’t had a proper education, but honestly, he also wouldn’t have had that with me around. Fen was never going to discuss human history around a dinner table.

Casey sighed. “Yes. It got destroyed in a war and set humanity back centuries. We don’t want to do that in our world, so the primals protect the knowledge vampires have accrued over time. We’ll be meeting with Rufus. He’s the leader of the primals.”

“And they live in Atlanta?” It seemed like an odd place to stash a big group of scary, mostly ancient vampires.

“They relocated the nest when the Council moved to Dallas,” Casey explained. “The primals originally had a couple of nests in Europe, but after the king took down the old Council, they chose to move to be closer. They have two nests in the States—New York City and Atlanta. Both have extensive underground spaces the colonies use. They’re, of course, far larger spaces than the human world acknowledges exists. The nest is protected with the usual wards, though the primals have other ways of protecting themselves. The library is kept in Atlanta. The New York underground floods too often and far too many people know about it. Atlanta was deemed the safest place.”

“So we’re hoping one of these scary-looking dudes is going to be able to point us in the right direction when it comes to a prophecy from another plane.” I wasn’t convinced, but I was willing to try. Mostly I wanted to see Trent. I wanted my husband’s arms around me. I wanted to look him in the eyes and tell him how sorry I was to have left him alone with our son.

I wanted him to tell me what had gone wrong with Gray.

My wolf wanted to smell him, to touch him, to know he was safe and still ours.

“They’re smart, Mom. Super smart, and I know they look scary but they’re cool,” my son assured me. “I spent a lot of time with them the last couple of years, especially when we had to hide out from the fuc…from some vampires who were after Evan. Trent stashed her with the primals while Rhys, Lee, and I took down a whole group of vamps who were selling companions.”

One of the repercussions of the king being gone for twelve years and Myrddin taking over his throne had been him throwing out all the rules Daniel had put in place when it came to vampires taking companions. Daniel had stopped the enslavement of the class of supernatural creatures known as companions. As superpowers go, the companions got the short end of the stick. Oh, sure once they’d been known as the warrior women Amazons and their DNA shared angelic properties, but the vampires mostly used them as convenient, pretty blood banks. Companion blood makes a vampire stronger and faster than a vampire drinking regular old human blood. It also turns the vamp into an addict who gets awfully sick if he can’t get his fix, but those vamps keep coming back for more.

And many of them didn’t give a crap about consent.

I was curious about how the companions were being treated in that nest. I wanted to make sure they weren’t being forced to trade their bodies and blood for protection.

“How many did you kill?” I asked my son, who happened to be in love with a companion.

Fen shrugged. “My fair share.”

“How many, Fenrir?” I needed him to understand he didn’t have to hide from me. “And I know you kept count. Your father would have taught you that.”

Trent understood the need for revenge and for marking the occasion. I was sure beers had been handed out long before any human law would have allowed. But then we didn’t live by those.

“Fourteen, though I think I should count the one who ran from me right onto Lee’s stake. I was going to rip his throat out. Lee got lucky.” Fen’s eyes went dark.

I put a hand on his arm. “Good. I don’t care if they’re using persuasion and the companions seem happy. If the companion didn’t agree to the relationship, it’s rape, and the vampire deserves to die.”

“There she is.” Casey looked to Fen. “I told you. She won’t judge you for anything. She’ll always be on your side, and when you fuck up, she’ll help you with that, too. Also, I know Trent’s given you this rosy picture of how delicate your mom is, but she can and will cuss up a storm.”

“Trent did what?” No one knew better how not delicate I was than my werewolf husband. While Gray always tried to treat me like I was breakable, Trent would toss me onto the front lines with him because he wouldn’t want anyone else watching his back.

Of the two approaches to marriage with me, there was definitely one I preferred, though Gray had been coming around to my way of thinking.

I was worried I’d taken one step forward and twelve years back with my demon husband.

Fen’s lips curled up. “Dad said I might want to watch my language around my mother. Out of respect.”

“Huh. I should think about that. I’m worried about this one’s first words.” I put a hand on my belly and then realized it might be weird for Fen.

“Dad’s going to be so excited.” Fen got down on one knee, his face lit with joy. “Hey, little bro. We’re all waiting for you. Stop making Mom sick. We need her to kick some ass.”

Or it wouldn’t be weird at all.

“I’m hoping I don’t have to kick ass for a while.” In my defense, when I’d gotten pregnant the world had seemed pretty sweet to me. The Council had been rock solid, and we’d made some real inroads to get the king to meet with the demons and renew our contracts. The day I’d married my superhot guys and asked Dev Quinn to perform a fertility ritual on our wedding night, I’d deemed it as perfect a time as I would get.

Now I had to face the fact that the world had changed, was infinitely more dangerous, and I couldn’t sit this one out because I was pregnant.

I was the Nex Apparatus, the Council’s death machine, and it was my job to find a way to put the world to rights, and it started with that book.

There was a brief knock and then Eddie was walking through the door. Our demon butler still wore a suit even in the wilds of Iceland. He carried a small tray with a mug and a Danish on it.

“My mistress, I’ve brought you some ginger tea. I was hoping you were feeling better,” Eddie said, looking me over. “Perhaps we should put this trip off. I can go to Atlanta and bring Master Trent back here for you. Frelsi is safe, and there is a midwife. His Grace is also here.”

I was sure having a fertility god around who could put a hand on me and tell me if my baby was okay would be comforting to all of us, but like I said, I had a job to do. Skipping breakfast this morning because I had my head in the toilet had obviously worried Eddie. He wasn’t used to me passing on food. Luckily my gut was calmer now, and though I didn’t deeply want a pastry, I could eat one.

I took the Danish and had a big bite. I knew it should taste delicious, but it was sawdust in my mouth. Still, I forced myself to eat. “I’m good, Eddie. I want to go. I need to talk to the primals, and Casey assures me we’ll be safe down there.” I had to wonder how comfy this nest thing would be, but it didn’t truly matter. It was underground, so I wasn’t expecting luxury. “I’m ready to go.”

Fen gave me a thumbs-up. “I’ll go get Evan.”

“Fen, are you sure? Her mom just got back. Maybe you should stay here with her.” I didn’t want to leave him. I wanted to grab him with both hands and never let him out of my sight again, but honestly, I was feeling guilty for asking Lee to come with us. I hadn’t thought about it at the time. I’d only thought about how much I wanted to get to know this Lee.

I was sure Zoey did, too. I was sure the idea of not being with her daughter would make her ache, and she’d ached enough.

“No.” Fen was back to frowning and looking worried. “I want to go with you. I was planning on joining Dad no matter what. And Evan comes with me.”

The wolf was back in the house. Jealous and possessive. I would have to talk to Trent about that, too. However, I knew better than to try to talk down crazy wolf hormones. “All right. Then it’s time to head out.”

Eddie nodded. “I shall gather our things. We’ll be in Atlanta in no time.”

And then I would start looking for answers.