Moonlit Guardian Read online

  Moonlit Guardian

  Crystal-Rain Love

  Copyright 2014 by Crystal-Rain Love

  Smashwords Edition Published 2015

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Moonlit Guardian

  by

  Crystal-Rain Love

  Acknowledgements

  This one goes out to all the readers who keep me motivated. I hope you enjoy it!

  1

  “How are you adapting to this realm?”

  Draven studied the female before him as he pondered an answer to her question. Long red hair, pretty features. Werewolf. He’d been surrounded by werewolves since leaving Imortia with Addix. They said they were helping them. Controlling them was more like it.

  “Draven?”

  “I heard you.”

  “It’s polite to answer.”

  He held the female’s gaze for a beat, just long enough to see the irritation light in her dark eyes. Then he smiled. “I’ve been doing just fine with my hands held, thank you.”

  She grinned. “I understand this has not been easy and you want your freedom.”

  “It is what was promised to my people, and no offense, female, but you could never understand.”

  “My name is Felicia,” the redheaded female corrected him, “and we all have had our hands held, as you put it, for a while. This is not Imortia. This is America, in Earth’s realm. We are the minority here and our strength does not matter. Humans vastly outnumber us and if they learn of us, we will be quickly destroyed.”

  “Yes, I’ve been told several times.”

  “Yet you still refer to me as Female.”

  “So?”

  “So it makes you sound like an alien. I’m a woman. Hell, even chick would be a better term.”

  “Fine. Woman.”

  “You could call me Felicia.”

  “Felicia.” He growled the word, his irritation growing. “Will you be assigning me a job today, Felicia?”

  “Possibly.” The female smiled, knowing she had him, before opening a manila folder on her desk and perusing its contents. “Draven, no last name, gargoyle shifter.” Her eyebrows rose at that. “Skills are fighting, protection, eavesdropping. Special abilities include flying and blending. The counselor thinks you need to work on relating to people on an emotional level.”

  “What exactly does that mean?”

  “Hell if I know.” Felicia shrugged. “Doc says the same thing about me and I’m awesome. You need a last name. It’s my understanding that not all Imortians have last names, as last names there are based on class level.” Her cheeks reddened a shade lighter than her hair. “That doesn’t matter here. We all have last names and all men are created equal.”

  “I wasn’t created here,” he reminded her.

  “Well, you’re here now. What would you like your last name to be?”

  “I have no preference.”

  “All Imortians without last names were given a directory and instructed to choose one.”

  “None struck my fancy.”

  “Some chose theirs from characters in the films we had you watch, or historical figures we had you learn about.”

  “Do I look like a Draven Obama to you?”

  A small laugh escaped the redhead. “No, no you do not, but you must have a last name.”

  “So give me one. Your choice.”

  She sat back in her leather desk chair, arms folded as she scrutinized him. “Tall, rugged, short dark hair, deep tan, eyes like coal, sharp nose and chiseled jaw, brooding good looks.”

  Draven raised an eyebrow.

  “I’m just appraising, nothing more.”

  “And has your appraisal helped you find a name?”

  “Draven Gregory.” She nodded. “Perfect fit.”

  “And a job?”

  “You were a guard in Imortia.” She leafed through a few papers in the folder. “You directly guarded the queen before being imprisoned in Hades for turning on her. You were with Addix’s people who came here in search of the White Wolf. You did quite well in the attack that occurred shortly after they reunited.”

  Draven sighed, unsure why she felt the need to rehash all of this.

  “You’re impatient, not an attribute.”

  “You say impatient. I say eager.”

  “I say risky. Why did you turn on your queen?”

  “She was evil, or didn’t you hear?”

  “Oh, I heard all about her. What I’m asking is what happened to make you turn on her after serving her so long. What action directly caused you to defy her?”

  “She was about to murder a female whose only crime was being more beautiful than her. I could not allow it.”

  Felicia looked up, met his gaze. “Fairuza was a vile woman, known for her short temper and absolute loathing of anyone who dared stand in her way. What was so special about the woman that you would risk your life to protect her?”

  “The queen was evil. The woman was not. There was no choice to be made. I did what needed to be done.”

  Felicia smiled, her eyes taking on a bright gleam.

  “What?”

  “I have a job for you.”

  Draven placed the last of his clothing in the suitcase and zipped it closed. His few toiletries could be grabbed in the morning before leaving. The small apartment he’d been given didn’t have anything else of value to him. He’d never had anything, not even a childhood. Material things meant nothing to him. Felicia seemed to think this made him a perfect fit for his current assignment.

  He sat on the living room couch and opened the folder he’d placed on the coffee table after returning from the Moonlight Agency. An 8x10 glossy photo of the most beautiful female he’d ever seen stared up at him.

  Her skin was a golden shade, a mixture of ethnicities, and absolutely flawless as if blemishes would not dare mar the perfection of such a canvas. Green, slanted eyes with long lashes and full, rosy pink lips set in an oval face took his breath away. Long blue-black hair perfectly framed her beauty.

  Her name was Kimiko Lee and according to Felicia, she was his assignment. According to the internet she was the reason why the sun rose and set.

  After leaving Imortia with Addix, he and his people had been put through training. Zaira Azzul, known here as the White Wolf, served as leader to the werewolves. Now married to Addix, they led all the wereshifters together. They gave the Imortian shifters the option of staying in this realm or returning to Imortia.

  With Fairuza dead and the realm now ruled by one of their own, Imortia was thought to be safer. Some chose to return home. He did not. Imortia held nothing for him but memories of servitude.

  He’d stayed in this realm which promised freedom but first he had to learn how to fit in. Imortia was a realm of magic. Earth was not. He’d been trained on American history and customs. Some of that training included music and film. Celebrities were America’s version of royalty. He’d first heard of Kimiko Lee during the training. She sang, rapped, and acted. All her songs went to the top of the charts and her movies broke box office records. It all seemed silly to him, but this realm worshiped such things.

  They worshiped her. But not all did so in a positive way. Threats had been made on Kimiko Lee’s life. His job was to make sure those threats weren’t carried out.

  Draven removed a disc from the folder as the front door opened and his roommate, Samel, a lion shifter, entered.

  “How’d it go? Get a job?”

  “Yes.”

  “Sleep with the redheaded female?”


  “Yes.”

  “So the rumors were true.” Samel smiled as he extracted a beer from the refrigerator and plopped down on the couch next to him. “Can’t wait for my appointment. So what’s the job?”

  “Her,” Draven answered as he crossed the room and placed the disc in the DVD player.

  Kimiko Lee’s music started playing before he retook his seat but he made it before her face showed on screen.

  “Whoa.” Samel leaned forward. “Who is that?”

  “Remember Kimiko Lee from our training?”

  “The singer?”

  “Also a rapper and actress, but yes. That’s her.”

  Samel laughed. “If they’d shown us her picture I would have been more enthused. So, uh, what’s the job?”

  “She has a stalker. I’ve been assigned to protect her.”

  “Lucky. I’ll probably get waste disposal.”

  “I doubt it. The Moonlight Agency specializes in security. Making the best of our gifts, as they call them.”

  “Yes, well, I doubt I’ll get to protect anything like her. Protect her well.”

  Draven stared at the beautiful multiracial female on the screen, listening as the documentary’s narrator told the story of how she rose to fame.

  “With my life,” he promised.

  Kimiko swiped out at the alarm, knocking it off the nightstand, but the noise didn’t quit.

  Propping herself up on her elbows, she turned her head toward the noise and realized it was coming from someone banging on the door.

  She wasn’t sure what day it was, or even what city she was in, but she knew who was at the door.

  “I’m coming, Kim, I’m coming.” She lumbered over to the door in pajamas and bare feet, her eyes barely focused as she swung the door open.

  “Well, good thing we’re getting you a new bodyguard today since you obviously have no sense of self-protection. Did you even look through the peep hole at all?” Kim sashayed through the door, her hips swinging wildly as she carried a cardboard tray with coffee in one hand and her ever present iPad mini in the other.

  “Only you bang on a door like that,” Kimiko answered as she closed the door and walked over to the sofa, scooping up a cup of pumpkin spice flavored coffee on the way. “My stalker is more discreet.”

  “You never know.”

  “So who’s the new guy?”

  “Draven Gregory. We got him from the Moonlight Agency. I’ve heard good things about them.”

  “So this one won’t take pictures of me while I sleep or try to sell my underwear on eBay?”

  Kim’s cheeks colored as she settled into the chair across from her and hooked a lock of her sleek dark brown hair behind her ear. “This one will be better. The agency gave us a guarantee.”

  “Like the others did?”

  “Well, honey, you’re just too famous.” Kim pushed her glasses farther up her nose with her index finger before fiddling with her iPad. “I specifically asked for someone not too into music or movies, someone who won’t be mesmerized by your fame and fortune and will do their damn job.”

  “There’s not a soul alive who doesn’t love music.” Even her crappy music. Kimiko sipped her coffee, letting it do its magic with her tired senses before she fell back asleep. “What time is it?”

  “A little after seven.”

  “So I got about three hours sleep? A new record.”

  “You’ll sleep when you’re dead. You need to be awake now to meet your new guardian.”

  “Then I can go back to bed?”

  “Then you can do a photo shoot, four interviews, and meet Harvey Lowell for a script reading.”

  “A script reading? What movie?”

  “Some vampire action thing.”

  Kimiko groaned. “I thought vampires were over.”

  “Vampires are never over, sweetheart, just the sparkly ones.”

  “I thought I was getting some downtime after the tour.”

  “You are. Instead of traveling all over the country, going through countless choreography sessions, sound checks, and live shows night after night, you’ll spend two months filming this movie and cutting a new album. Doesn’t that sound relaxing?”

  Kim had said the whole spiel without looking up from her iPad, her fingers flying over the screen.

  “You and I have two very different ideas of what downtime means.”

  “Remember Robin J?”

  “Robin who?”

  “Exactly.” Kim looked up from the iPad to deliver a pointed look. “She was on top of the charts but decided she wanted some time off. She took a little break one summer, slept in late, read a few books, hung out with her friends, and then released an album that went nowhere fast. She never recovered from that little break. Two months off killed her career.”

  “Maybe her new album just sucked.”

  “Her previous album sucked but it sold through the roof. Fans are fickle. They’ll give you every dollar they make as long as you keep putting something out there for them to buy. Ease up, even a little bit, and they won’t give you another penny. They will have already spent it on some other superstar who’s putting in the work. It doesn’t matter that you’re talented. It’s all quantity over quality in this business.”

  “Even if I burn out?”

  “Superstars don’t burn out. It’s what makes them super. Of course you might be happier if you had a gorgeous actor to attend to your needs.”

  “For the last time, I am not dating Rex Ziering. I don’t care what the studio wants.”

  Kim fumed. “Trust me, you have no idea how good it would be for you to just give him another chance.”

  “I said no, Kim. That’s it. I’ll go months without sleep and travel non-stop to put on more shows than a human being should, but I draw the line with dating Rex again.”

  “I really wish you’d reconsider.”

  A knock sounded at the door and Kim checked her watch. “Time to meet your new guardian angel.”

  Kimiko remained seated on the loveseat as Kim crossed the room to allow entrance to her new protector. She smiled to herself as Kim didn’t bother checking the peephole despite having warned her to do so such a short while ago.

  She located the remote to the television and turned it on, groaning as her very first movie popped on the screen. She watched a younger version of herself flirt awkwardly with the A list actor cast beside her. You’d never tell from the movie but he was one of the biggest jerks she’d ever met. Her own acting in the movie wasn’t nearly as good, but the movie had made a lot of money for both of them. The soundtrack was all her and the songs all shot to number one. Nobody cared that the script was complete crap, except for her.

  “Kimiko, this is your new personal bodyguard, Draven Gregory.”

  She turned away from the television to introduce herself to her new guardian but found herself gaping up at the man who stood before her with his hands clasped before him. The pose was casual, yet the set of his shoulders was anything but. Everything about him said danger from the sharp cut of his jaw line, the power in his stance and the promise of pain in his eyes if you dared cross him. He didn’t carry any weapons, like her other protectors had, and she realized he didn’t need to. He was a weapon.

  “Kimiko?”

  She looked at Kim, noticed the perplexed look on her face, and promptly closed her mouth before finding words. “Sorry. Hi. I’m Kimiko Lee.”

  “Draven Gregory.”

  “Well, I’ll fill you in on today’s itinerary, Mr. Gregory, while Miss Lee gets dressed.”

  Kimiko watched the man as he and Kim discussed the day’s schedule, noticing how he never once looked at her while doing it. The other bodyguards did. Everyone did. He appeared completely indifferent.

  Funny how it annoyed her when others fixated on her, yet this man’s lack of enthusiasm perturbed her even more.

  She was even more beautiful in person. Draven stood with his back to the wall, positioned in a way that allowed him to see all entran
ce points, as Kimiko Lee did her third interview.

  He didn’t know how she dealt with having to answer the same questions over and over, but she managed to do so without showing any annoyance. She even changed up the answers a little each time, giving each interviewer something different they could use for their magazines and blogs.

  She was friendly, open, and spoke repeatedly of her love for her fans and wanting to always be open and accessible to them.

  No wonder she was easy prey.

  “Thank you, Miss Lee.” Her latest interviewer stood and shook her hand. “Always a pleasure.”

  “I can say the same, Leon. Tell your girls I appreciate the drawings. They’re very talented.”

  Leon, a skinny dreadlocked man in a silk shirt and jeans smiled from ear to ear. “I will.”

  “Hungry?” Kim asked, sashaying over to Kimiko as her interviewer left, still beaming.

  “Very.” Kimiko rubbed her belly for emphasis.

  “Good. Your next interview will be a quick one over lunch. Come on. Oh, leave those here,” she said, noticing the papers in Kimiko’s hand, two sketches the last interviewer’s children had made for her. “The custodial workers will take care of those.”

  “These are gifts from my fans.”

  Kim looked at her quizzically before shrugging. “One man’s trash is another’s treasure, I suppose.”

  The ride to the restaurant was spent in silence on his part. Draven merely observed as Kim talked nonstop about charts and records, album sales and movie scripts. Her fingers constantly flew over her iPad as she droned on about business deals and scheduling.

  Kimiko spent the ride slumped in the corner of the limo, staring out the window, her finger drawing an invisible picture on the glass. Feeling his stare, she glanced at him and a slow grin curved her mouth.

  He quickly looked away before giving in to the urge to invade the short space between them.

  “Thank you, Miss Lee. Always a pleasure.”

  “Yes, it is. Have a great day, John.” Kimiko smiled at the man, her last interviewer of the day, as he walked away, then turned her attention to Draven, standing against the wall close to the table. “Sit down and eat something.”