our child.
Oakley stares at her future mother-in-law and grins before she picks up the second bowl of soup and starts to drink.
***
I stare out at the abandoned warehouse that for so many years was like a second home to the Guardians. Brought together by fate, held together by something more than friendship and loyalty—inside these walls, we release the beasts that hide within. Freeing them from their cages and allowing them to feast and ravage the souls of sinners until they’re sated.
Until the need rises again.
Now I stand here, wondering if this will be the last time I enter through these doors. Wondering if it is, what will satisfy my monster when he needs to feed.
Gravel crunches behind me at the same time Jax steps up and places an arm around my waist. I jerk suddenly, still getting used to the idea of him being here.
“Are you sure about this?” I ask.
I’ve never hidden the truth about what goes on in here from Jax. Though it’s never been discussed, he’s known for years what we do in the dark of night when God is asleep and the world is lulled into a false sense of security. But knowing and seeing are two different things, as are seeing and doing. I can’t help but fear what will change once we walk inside those doors. Will he ever be able to look at me the same? Or at himself?
“It’s no secret to me what goes on here, Maddox. I’ve known for a long time about the blood that stains your hands,” he says, “I’m here for you… and with you.”
I glance down at said hands and they fist in shame. How can he even look at me?
Jax reaches out and pulls my fingers back to loosen the tension. “Talk to me,” he says.
“This isn’t who you are, Jax. You’re not a murderer. You spend your life fixing the broken people… I—I can’t let you do this. I can’t let my monsters breed darkness in you too. This is my burden to bear, not yours.” How can I want him here with me with every fiber of my being, but at the same time, want him so far away that he’ll never witness my sins?
Jax’s hands fist my shirt roughly. “You’re right,” he says, and my heart plummets. “I’m a fixer. I will always want to give you and Oakley the most perfect version of the world that I have to offer. That’s what you do when you love someone, Madd.”
Jax leans forward, his breath ragged as he sweeps a kiss across my lips. “But loving you isn’t my only job. And if God requires it of me, I will give my dying breath to keep you both safe.”
Heart pounding, I grip his jacket and pull him into me, welding us together until there’s no space between us.
He growls into my ear. “That’s what love is, Madd.” Leaning back, he continues, “It’s putting yourself last but still feeling like you came in first because they’re happy. If tonight gives birth to a darkness inside me—so be it. I can and will live out the rest of my days finding harmony between the light and dark, as long as you’re both by my side.”
I thread my fingers through his hair and bring his head forward until his lips meet mine. When I slide my tongue along the seam of his lips, he opens for me and our tongues begin the twirling dance of tasting one another. Before things heat up too much, Bullet’s voice breaks the silence.
“Think maybe y’all could pull apart long enough to get this done? Or do I need to grab a crowbar?”
Jax laughs, and I lean in for one last kiss, biting at his lip to hear his groan before I suck and lick it to soothe the sting. Behind Jax’s back, I flip Bullet off and hear him chuckle as the door closes.
“Let’s get this done so we can get back to our girl,” Jax says.
“Yeah, we should probably hurry, or we’ll get home to find Mama has figured out how to perform an immaculate conception.” I laugh and Jax shakes his head, still smiling.
When we walk into the warehouse, everything changes in an instant. The atmosphere is so cold it’s almost as though the chill of death himself has descended upon us.
Like all sinners before him, Malcolm is in the middle of the room, on display, waiting to pay the ultimate price for his sins.
Instead of the usual