Marisa Chenery - Embraced by a warrior

Darius headed in the direction of the bar he inevitably arrived at once his night was just about over. This habit of getting a drink before he returned to his home had started six months before. Out of the last five years he’d lived in Miami, not once had he’d been drawn to a place as he was to the White Sands Bar.

He knew exactly why he went there night after night. It had nothing to do with the bar’s atmosphere. To be honest, Darius really didn’t pay much attention to the mortals who sat around him. No, the other patrons would never hold his interest as one mortal in particular would. The image of the woman bartender rose in his mind.

Before Darius let his thoughts wander down a path they shouldn’t, he felt a familiar pull on his senses. It was something he couldn’t ignore. Something that had him out walking Miami’s streets once the sun went down each night.

Changing direction, he followed the invisible trail that tugged him closer to its source. His nose picked up the scent of evil, something only he could smell because of what he was. Ducking down a dark alley, Darius prepared himself for what would play out when he arrived. Even though he’d been through it thousands of times, it still wasn’t pleasant to experience.

He reached the end of the alley and turned the corner into a shorter one that dead-ended. And there was the source of the pull. A man had a woman up against the brick wall, a knife held to her throat while he groped her, tearing at her clothes. The woman’s whimpers of fear reached Darius’ ears.

He walked closer, the man oblivious to Darius’ presence. As he did so, Darius felt the change start to take him over. His eyesight was keener, heralding the shift. It happened quickly, but it didn’t mean it was any less painful. He growled as his bones realigned themselves, growing larger. He grew taller to stand at almost seven feet. His body shifted to his half-human and half-jackal form, his muscles becoming bigger. Black fur sprouted from his skin until he was completely covered from head to toe. Gold armbands appeared around each of his thick biceps, and last, a snow-white Egyptian-styled kilt formed around his hips to fall to the middle of his thighs.

Having finally caught sight of him, the woman let out a scream. Darius’ pointed ears on top of his head twitched, but he ignored her and focused his sights on the man assaulting her. The scent of evil seemed to ooze out of every one of the man’s pores. He was Darius’ prey. The man didn’t know it yet, but he was about to finally get his comeuppance for every evil deed he’d ever done.

Darius grabbed the man by the back of his shirt collar with one furred hand and threw him. A loud growl rumbled out of him as the man sailed across the narrow alley and slammed into the opposite wall before he slumped to the ground. Darius only took the few seconds needed to snag the frightened woman’s gaze and wipe her memory of him before he sent her on her way.

He turned to the man to find him slowly regaining his feet. Darius moved in to subdue him. His prey slashed out with the knife he still held. Darius blocked it with a sweep of his arm and knocked it from the man’s hand. With a snarl, he took hold of his prey by his throat and lifted him off the ground with one hand, the man’s feet dangling in the air.

“What the fuck are you?” the man gasped as he struggled for breath.

“The one who sends you to be judged,” Darius said, his voice deeper and gruffer in this form.

He pushed into the man’s mind, not caring the pain he caused. Scenes of each crime and assault his prey had ever committed flashed through Darius’ head. The screams of the man’s victims echoed inside it. Darius lived each one as if he’d been the one on the receiving end. He felt their pain, their terror.

Seeing all he could, Darius definitely knew this one was for Anubis. He willed a gold dagger into his hand. The blade had hieroglyphs carved on it—the spell Anubis had infused into it to send evildoers to the underworld. All it took was one cut to do its job. Darius sliced it across the man’s chest, cutting through his shirt to his skin. His prey gasped some more, clawing at Darius’ hand.

But it was already too late. The dagger had already done its magic. The man’s body lost its solidity, then he was gone. Sent on his way to face the god of the underworld. There, Anubis would weigh the man’s heart on the Scales of Justice. If he was evil, his heart would be fed to Ammit to be consumed.

Lowering his arm, Darius willed the dagger away. The shift took hold of him. He growled as the familiar pain tore through him once again. After it was over, he stood in human form, wearing his black jeans and t-shirt. He’d become one of Anubis’ warriors back in 1218, as a dying German soldier lying on the banks of the river Nile, having fought in the fifth crusade to Egypt. Only Anubis had answered his call, not the god Darius had worshipped.

He pushed the thoughts of that fateful day aside. His work done, he headed out of the alley. Once he hit the sidewalk he backtracked to where he’d been. This time he reached the bar with no interruptions.

Inside, Darius scanned the place with his gaze as he “felt” it out. If there happened to be prey there, he’d have no choice but to act quickly to get that individual outside before Darius shifted. As long as the person wasn’t in the middle of an evil deed, the change could be held at bay for a short period of time.

Not feeling a pull, Darius walked farther into the bar and sat at a table at the back corner of the room. He’d learned long ago if he wanted to be around mortals without being set off, he had to choose places where evil did not go. The White Sands Bar was such an establishment.

After a waitress took his order for a beer, he ignored the mortals who sat nearby and focused his gaze across the room at the bar. She was there, working. Darius followed her movements, able to see her face clearly even from this distance with his sharper-than-normal eyesight. His gaze touched on her long black hair, which hung to the middle of her back. He watched her hazel eyes crinkle as she smiled at his waitress when she came up to the bar to place his drink order.

Darius could stare at her beautiful face all day. And her slim, curvy body heated his blood, making his cock hard with thoughts of how good she’d feel under him as he took her. Even now he was getting an erection. He let out a deep breath, sighing silently. He wanted her, but wouldn’t approach her. She wasn’t the type of woman he’d be able to have a one-night stand with and just walk away. He’d become too obsessed with her. One taste and he’d crave more, which wasn’t something he could do. What he was, what he did, left no room for a woman in his life. Besides, he doubted one would be able to accept his being a warrior of Anubis, and what it entailed. No, he was better off alone, only finding a willing woman to slake his lust when his need became too great, then leaving her behind.

Brisa took the cap off the bottle of beer she held, knowing it would go to him. She snuck a quick look across the room at the large man who sat at the back corner of it, alone. He was always alone.

When he’d first started coming to the bar, she’d noticed him right away. What hot-blooded woman wouldn’t? The man was sinfully gorgeous. Besides being at least six-foot-five and having a build of a bodybuilder, he had the sexiest longish, light-brown hair with blond highlights. It was the type she wanted to run her fingers through. Having never gotten close enough to see his eyes, she’d found out from the waitresses who had served him that they were a piercing blue. And his face, god, the man would make any woman wet just from looking at him.