Soul Sentinels 3: Nehi and Menna (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  She was short standing at only five foot one and although she wasn’t skinny she certainly wasn’t fat. She was often mistaken for a child from the back and when she turned around to face whomever wanted her attention and they saw her face and bigger-than-average breasts their mouths usually gaped open. Men and women alike. And then they had the nerve to talk to her as if she didn’t have a brain in her head, or as if they were talking to a child. Although she had been dealing with that sort of reaction since she was a teenager, it was no less frustrating. Most of the time she just ignored other people’s reactions, but sometimes it was hard to keep a civil tongue in her head. There were a couple of times when she’d given the belittling assholes a piece of her mind, but afterward she always felt guilty.

  Lavinia’s mind came back to the present when she heard an eerie moan. A shiver of fear raced up her spine and had her jumping to her feet. She turned in a full circle trying to see who or what had made the sound, but she couldn’t see anyone.

  She decided that maybe she would be better off trying to walk home than hanging around here in the dark all alone. It was going to take her hours to get back home, but she didn’t see that she had any other choice. She tried to calculate how long it had taken Gary to drive them out here from Ogden and figured it had to have been over half an hour. Lavinia sighed as she started walking. It was going to take her eight to ten hours to get home on foot depending on how many times she had to stop and take a break. Thank God she’d worn flat shoes and jeans. At least she wouldn’t have to try to walk on heels. Any time she went out she always wore heels because of her diminutive height, but since she was tired she hadn’t bothered to get changed.

  She had a bad feeling in her gut that David and Carrie had planned this. She wasn’t surprised about Gary doing such a thing, but for another woman to treat her like this made her absolutely furious. She had no idea what she’d done to upset Carrie but when she got back home she was going to confront the other woman. That is if she ever made it back.

  Lavinia peered into the darkness when she heard another moan and put it down to the light breeze blowing, but when she saw movement near the large trunk of a tree she began to get very scared. While she tried to see what it was, it was too dark and though she’d normally put being afraid of the dark down to her overactive imagination, this time she knew it wasn’t.

  Her heart pounded against her rib cage and her breath stuttered just before she began panting. Lavinia turned to run away from the shadow as fast as she could but stopped after about taking five steps. Sweat formed on her brow, under her arms and trickled between her breasts. Her legs began shaking and then the quaking traveled through her whole body. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out but a choked gasp. There was so much adrenaline surging through her body her muscles became so tight they started to ache. She watched in macabre horror as the shadow seemed to separate and break off into five different pieces.

  Lavinia willed her legs to move again so that she could run, but she was so terrified she couldn’t get her mind and body to work as one. The closer the shadows got the more she trembled and she wondered if she would end up embarrassing herself by losing control of her bladder.

  The shadows were almost upon her and just as her knees buckled and she went falling to the ground two almighty roars echoed through the quiet, still night.

  “Move!” A tall broad-shouldered muscular man roared as he lifted his arm above his head.

  Tears welled and rolled down her cheeks when she saw the curved blade of his sword coming toward her. How she managed to crawl away from him she’d never know. One moment she was on her hands and knees on the ground, the next she was crawling over the hard asphalt as fast as she could. She turned to look back over her shoulder and almost fell flat on her face. She had no idea where the other guy had come from—maybe she’d been too scared to see him—but the two dark-skinned guys twisted and turned, slashed and lunged as if in an intricate dance on a dance floor. They moved separately yet as if they were one being. Their swords swung from side to side, up and down as the slightly glowing gold blades of their scimitars cut through the shadows. One by one the shadows seemed to turn to ash floating away on the soft breeze.

  When they turned toward her, Lavinia tried to push up to her feet, but she was a quivering mass of fear and didn’t seem to have any strength left. Both men raised their swords over their heads as they moved toward her. That was the incentive she needed to scream as loudly as she could. Tears streamed down her face, and if she hadn’t been screaming, she would have been sobbing as well. She hadn’t realized she’d closed her eyes until she felt a hand on her arm. Her eyes snapped open and she jerked back hoping to get away from the slice of one of those wickedly curved blades.

  Her gaze skittered from side to side and then seemed to zero in on the men. They were both squatting down in front of her and it took her a couple of seconds to realize they were no longer holding the swords in their hands.

  A sob of relief erupted from her mouth and although she tried to quell them, another followed and then another.

  “Shh,” the guy with the longer than collar-length black hair whispered. “You’re safe now. We won’t hurt you.”

  “Are you injured, little one?” the guy with the shaved head asked.

  Lavinia swallowed around a fear-constricting lump in her throat. She licked her dry lips and opened her mouth to answer, but all that came out was a squeak, so she shook her head.

  “My name is Nehi Fadil. My friends call me En. This is Menna Jahi, but we call him Men.”

  Lavinia nodded and shifted when she went to clasp En’s proffered hand, and although she tried to hide her wince of pain, both men noticed. En and Men clasped her upper arms and gently lifted her from the ground onto her feet. The moment she stood on both feet pain pierced her right ankle and shot up into her calf. A whimper escaped her mouth before she could swallow it back down, and before she could draw another breath, Men swept her up into his thickly muscled arms. Zaps of heat and desire coursed through her veins, centering in her pussy. Her clit began to ache and her folds grew damp.

  “Is she all right?”

  Lavinia glanced over Men’s shoulder and gaped when she saw six other men and two beautiful women close by. She had no idea when they’d gotten there because she hadn’t even heard them walking, but they had sort of appeared out of nowhere. She bit her lip and looked back to En who was looking at her as if it were breakfast time and she was on the menu.

  After what seemed like and interminable moment, Lavinia finally found her voice. “I’m fine.”

  “No you’re not. Don’t lie,” Men said in a hard voice.

  She met his gaze and as she stared into those dark-brown orbs she felt like she was being drawn into his soul.

  “She’s hurt,” En said before he moved closer and carefully clasped her lower right leg.

  Lavinia held in a gasp as fire shot up her leg and into her body. She had no idea what was going on or what those things were that had nearly attacked her and although she wanted to ask the questions, she wasn’t sure she really wanted to know the answers.

  Some very strange things were going on here and she had a feeling she wasn’t going like what she found out.

  Chapter Two

  The moment Menna saw the small sexy woman surrounded by the shadow demons, fear and horror had swept through his body. The terror he’d seen in her eyes had filled him with rage and he hadn’t even known he was going to yell before he heard himself doing so. En’s shout of rage had joined his and they had moved in to take down the demonic.

  Now that he was holding her in his arms he didn’t want to ever let her go. He could still feel her trembling and even though he wanted to soothe her, he had no idea how to go about it. Now that the other sentinels had arrived as well as Zara and Nina, who were mated to Set and Sab, and Pen and Paser, he was hoping that by having the other women here, the woman would settle down.

  What he wanted to know besides her n
ame was what the hell she was doing out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. He also couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off of her. She was so fucking tiny at first he’d thought she was a kid, but there was no mistaking this little woman for a child now that he’d seen her up close. She was like a voluptuous fairy minus the wings, and the moment he’d touched her, his dick had started filling with blood. His cock was so fucking hard it was aching and leaking. He just hoped that he didn’t end up with a wet spot on the front of his black jeans.

  Some of the sentinels wore leather pants while out hunting the demonic, but he and Men preferred jeans since they had more give in them and made moving less restrictive when they were fighting.

  “Hi, I’m Zara. This is Nina. What’s your name?”

  The woman in Men’s arms licked her lips and cleared her throat. “Lavinia. Lavinia Flock.”

  “Hi, Lavinia.” Nina smiled at her, and Men sighed quietly when Lavinia began to relax and her breathing slowed.

  “Hi.”

  En nudged Men’s arm and when he looked down at Lavinia’s bare foot he had to bite back his curses of anger so he wouldn’t scare her. En had taken Lavinia’s sneaker and sock off and lifted the leg of her jeans. Her ankle was already swelling and although it didn’t look like it was going to bruise it was pretty damn red. He suspected she’d sprained her ankle quite badly. When he looked up at her face he noticed that her lips were pulled tight and there were lines of strain around the edges. She had to be in a lot of pain and yet she hadn’t said a word.

  “What are you doing out here all alone?” Zara frowned.

  Lavinia sighed, glancing to the left and then looked at everyone before meeting Men’s gaze. “Can you please put me down?”

  “No,” Men said quietly yet emphatically.

  “No! What do you mean, no?”

  En chuckled but stopped as soon as Lavinia turned her glare on him.

  “If I put you down, you’re likely to end up on your ass again. You shouldn’t put any weight on that foot,” Men stated.

  Lavinia crossed her arms underneath her abundant breasts and continued to glare at him. He tried not to, but his mouth twitched and the smile pulled at his lips. He chuckled and then burst out laughing. She slapped his shoulder and frowned at him.

  “Are you laughing because I got hurt?”

  Men’s humor fled in an instant. The hurt look in her eyes tugged at his heart. “No. I was laughing because you’re so fierce for someone so little.”

  “I’m not little,” she snarled. “I’m a fully grown woman.”

  “You look about sixteen,” Mit muttered loud enough for all of them to hear.

  At Lavinia’s indrawn breath Men knew she’d heard him, too. “I’m twenty-five for God’s sake.”

  “Really?” Wen asked. Men turned to glare at his friend, but when Wen winked at him he knew the ass was goading Lavinia.

  “Why does everyone think that just because I’m vertically challenged, I don’t have a brain?”

  “We don’t think that,” En said. “Now, are you going to answer the question?”

  “What question?”

  “What the hell are you doing out here all by yourself? And where is your damn car?”

  “Put. Me. Down,” Lavinia ordered through clenched teeth.

  Men cursed his blunt arrogant attitude. It didn’t take a genius to figure out he’d pissed Lavinia off. He didn’t want to put her down. In fact he wanted to keep holding her for the rest of his life, but she didn’t know him or the others and he was sure she was still a little scared after coming face-to-face with the shadow demons.

  She was strong of mind if not of body. She had to be since she wasn’t crying or hysterical anymore. She’d only lost her shit once and that was only for a short time.

  He carefully lowered her to her feet and could tell by the stubborn set of her jaw and the tension lines around her face she wasn’t going to concede to the pain she was in. Men reluctantly moved his hands from her hips but didn’t release her totally. He moved one hand to her elbow just in case she became unsteady on her feet. She wasn’t putting much weight on her right leg at all and when he saw perspiration break out on her upper lip he mentally cursed her tenacity.

  She glared at him and then looked over at Nina and Zara. A long gusty sigh left her mouth and she threaded her fingers through her hair.

  “I took up my housemate’s offer of going out for a drive with her and her boyfriend.” She paused and drew another deep breath. Men didn’t say anything because he knew there was more to her story. He glanced over at En and saw that his hands were clenched into tight fists and the muscles in his jaw were flexing. He had no doubt he probably looked as pissed off as Nehi did, because he had a feeling he wasn’t going to like where this story was going.

  “Where are they?” Zara asked as she glanced about before frowning at Lavinia.

  “They started fighting. I couldn’t stand their bickering, so I got out of the car and walked to the edge of the lake. I don’t know if they worked out their differences or if their argument escalated, but Gary started the car and then took off out of the parking lot with a squeal of tires.”

  “They just left you here?” Nina asked incredulously. “What the fuck kind of friends would do that?”

  Lavinia lowered her gaze and Men watched as pink crept into her cheeks before all color seemed to drain from her face. “I don’t know.” She shifted on her feet and yelped when she put too much pressure on her injured leg.

  Before she could draw another breath Men scooped her up into his arms again. He sighed with relief when she rested her cheek against his chest and didn’t berate him for his actions. That was when he knew she was in more pain than she was letting on. His heart clenched when he looked down. Tears were welling in her eyes and a second later they began to spill over.

  “Let’s go,” Set said. “There’s no point hanging around since we’ve dealt with the demonic. Can you ladies feel any others out and about?”

  “No,” Zara and Nina replied at the same time.

  “We’ll take you home with us,” Men said as he met Lavinia’s gaze.

  She glanced about her as if looking for something and frowned up at him. “Where are your cars? How did you get here?”

  “We’ll explain everything when we get you inside where it’s safe. Okay?”

  Lavinia nodded and then shivered. “What were those things?”

  “We’ll tell you soon, pixie.” En smiled and stroked a finger down Lavinia’s face.

  She glared at En but didn’t say anything about him calling her pixie.

  “You can’t carry me if you’re walking. I know I don’t weigh that much, but I’ll become a heavy burden after a while.”

  “Don’t worry, baby. You don’t weigh much more than a feather and I’m a lot stronger than I look.” Men winked at her.

  “You look really strong to me,” Lavinia muttered under her breath, before saying in a louder voice. “If I get too heavy, let me walk.”

  “Not happening, little one.” Men adjusted her in his arms and nearly moaned when she clutched at his shoulders before slinging an arm around his neck. The feather-soft touch of her fingers on his nape had his hard dick throbbing in his pants. He wanted to have her hands all over him, but she was clueless about what was going on and how much she meant to him and En. He had no doubts that Lavinia Flock was his and En’s mate.

  He just wasn’t sure how to go about telling her what she was to them.

  “You might want to close your eyes.”

  “Why?”

  “Ever heard of teleportation?”

  Lavinia nodded and then her eyes widened as if in disbelief. “Uh, I think maybe you should put…”

  Men didn’t give her a chance to finish her statement. He envisaged the kitchen in their underwater base and within the blink of an eye that’s where he was standing with Lavinia still in his arms. It took a few seconds for his brain and body to catch up with each other and if his m
ate hadn’t looked so scared and amazed he would have gasped in a breath of air, but she was, so he made sure to breathe quietly so he didn’t scare her. He became really concerned when her face paled and she closed her eyes as she reached up to clutch at her head.

  “Are you okay?” En asked when he appeared beside Men.

  “I feel sick to my stomach,” Lavinia whispered and then groaned as she placed her hand over her belly.

  “Keep your eyes closed and take some deep breaths,” Men ordered as he hurried toward his and En’s shared apartment. He carried Lavinia to the bathroom in case she got sick, but when the color began to return to her cheeks he knew the effects of teleporting were waning.

  Lavinia’s eyes fluttered open and her gaze skittered around the bathroom causing her to frown. “Where are we? How did we get here?”

  “You didn’t feel me moving?” Men asked.

  She shook her head. “You can put me down now.”

  “In a minute.” Men nodded to En to take the lead and followed him out. He carried Lavinia to the living room and gently lowered her onto the sofa. After grabbing a cushion he carefully lifted her right leg up and placed it on the small pillow. “Can you get some ice?”

  En nodded and raced from their apartment to head to the communal kitchen and the ice.