Read Leopard's Kiss (Shadow Guardians) (Shadows Guardians Book 1) for Free Online Page B

you smiling?"
    "Because the fact you're instructing me on how to save myself indicates that you've decided to go with the guardian option. I'm really glad to hear that."
    His frown deepened. Was she right? He hadn't intentionally made a decision. The cost of keeping her alive when he'd taken a great deal of money to kill her was high. It violated his honor and his reputation, and that was beyond unacceptable. And yet, the cost of letting her die was to forfeit his life, which was equally unpalatable. Was it better to die with honor than to live without it? He'd never considered that before. He'd always intended to live with honor and hadn't entertained any other possibilities. "Maybe I should kill you."
    "My name is Anya Diaz," she interrupted.
    He narrowed his eyes. "I don't do names."
    "Too bad." She stood up, walking across the floor toward him. "I'm not a nameless, faceless victim," she said, coming to a stop in front of him, less than a foot away. She was much shorter than he was, but the fact she had to crane her neck to look him in the eye didn't seem to deter her. "I'm a real person," she informed him, "and you don't get to pretend I'm not."
    He studied the play of emotions in her eyes. Passion, energy, fire. He was wildly intrigued by her. Was she unusual, or was it simply that he'd never taken the time to notice anyone in the way his no-win-decision was forcing him to. "I know you're real," he said.
    She raised her brows and set her hands on her hips, lifting her chin defiantly. "No, I meant, I'm real , as in I care, I love, I hate, and I deserve to be alive and to be valued for who I am. I'm not simply a physical object that you can kill and dismiss. That's what I mean by real. "
    He blinked. "Oh." He didn't really have an answer prepared for that statement.
    She met his gaze with steely resolve. "My mother was murdered six months ago."
    He felt the depth of her grief, a soul-shattering horror that had brought her to her knees.
    Shit. He didn't want to know this. He didn't want to feel it. And he didn't want her to feel it, either. No one should feel pain. Not him. Not her. Not anyone who didn't deserve it.
    He immediately reached out to her mind, trying to shut down her grief, but she was ready for him, her mental barriers locking him out, keeping him from taking away her memories. "No," she snapped, shoving her palm into his chest, careful, he noticed, to avoid the place where the demon had clawed him. "You don't get to control me anymore, and you don't get to hide from the truth of what you do. I'm someone's daughter. I'm someone's best friend. I matter, and you don't get to pretend I don't. If you kill me, you will be killing me , not a nameless, faceless victim. Do you understand?"
    Swearing, he stepped away from her, striding across the room. "I'm not in the business of details. I don't care." It was his mantra, but even as he said it, he felt a tug, a need to learn more about her, a rabid desire to let her become the living, breathing, woman she was trying to show him.
    Shit. He couldn't live like this. He couldn't survive in that world.
    "Well, I do care!" She spun toward him. "My mother's best friend was a woman named Marjorie. They were..." she paused, and he looked sharply at her, sensing a shift in her. "They were being hunted their whole lives," she amended, clearly having changed her mind about what she'd been about to reveal, which made him want to know what she'd decided not to tell him. "Marjorie's daughter, Julia, was my only friend, my best friend. The four of us lived on the run, moving from place to place, making a home wherever we were at that moment."
    "What were they hiding from?" He watched her now, wanting to know what she'd chosen not to tell him. He probed her mind ruthlessly, but she still had him locked out.
    "Stop it!" She glared at him. "I'm excellent at protecting my mind, and you're not getting in there again, even if you try to win me over with kisses designed to melt my