The Sentinel's Vow
She had tilted her head back, offering the sweet, soft expanse of her throat to me like a sacrifice.
You're going to get her killed, I warned myself, my jaw grinding until my teethached. Touch her again like that, and you lose your focus.
I reached into my inner jacket pocket, pulling out my leather notebook to stare at the faded photograph of her from three years ago. I had sworn to protect her from the monsters of her father's past. I hadn't prepared for the reality that the greatest monster in her room, the one most capable of ruining her completely, was the man sitting in the shadows, counting her breaths in the dark.