“What, exactly, do you know about Guardians?”
Michael blinked. Was Lee testing him now? It reminded Michael of something his mother had said to him once: when talking to an opponent, always know what advantage they seek before you speak. It seemed to be as true in talking to humans as it was with demons. Unfortunately he was blind in this situation, and had to rely on guesses.
“Only slightly more than anyone else, I suppose. The Temple guards its secrets quite well, especially from someone like myself. Guardians work with Priestesses in the field to serve as bodyguards and fighters.”
Lee nodded. “True, but there is a great deal more than that. A lot less, as well.” He smiled, ran his fingers through his artfully shaggy black hair and his whole personality shifted. “Mostly it’s scaring imaginary ghosts out of shopping malls and curing supposedly possessed teenagers. Which is to say it’s mostly just for show, although there are occasional times the mall is actually haunted or the teen is bespelled somehow after all, but those cases are pretty few and far between. We’re more like rat catchers than warriors most days, chasing small critters that can infest and weaken alchemical engineering and the like and assisting our Priestess to purify them away.” Lee laughed quietly. “It is true, however, that every team forms it’s own structure. Everyone is different, after all, so no two teams interact exactly the same way. Some set up like a business partnership, some like a military unit. Paula, for example, would never have worked in any team that wasn’t also family in one way or another. That’s just how she was made. May, also, was more comfortable working with James and Pike as if they were her brothers. They were already as close as family—had been since they were kids— and their Bonding didn’t change that at all. Now, you have been Bonded to May, and Pike and James are gone. We shall have to see how that works out. I won’t pretend that I am not very concerned about it.” Lee looked at Michael to gauge his audience. Michael kept his face neutral, concealing his thoughts from long practice, but memories of his own brothers surged though his mind. The fights, the schemes, the plot that ultimately resulted in Michael fleeing not only his clan but the whole Demon Realm.
He compared those memories with images of May interacting with her previous Guardians, and of Paula when Sam had been alive and they had been working together with Lee. The differences between his own family interactions and those of these two teams was jarring. Michael also recalled another Priestess he had known once though she hadn’t interested him much. She had been very clearly in charge of her team, issuing orders like a military commander rather than making requests, and her Guardians behaved like subordinates. There had been other teams as well that he had seen but not cared to know much about.
“I will make every effort not to interact as was expected in my clan. I am fully aware of how unusual that would be within a human family situation in this culture. I will do my best to learn what would be expected of me.” Michael commented. Lee raised an eyebrow.
“What was expected in your clan?” he asked. “Why did you leave it? Nobody I have ever spoken to seems to know.” Michael hesitated for a moment, then sighed quietly.
“My brother attempted to have me framed for several misdemeanors and crimes, and tried to have me killed the same night. I felt it was prudent to leave before he sent more assassins, and I didn’t wish to be drawn into a protracted series of strikes and counterstrikes. It was either exile or war, and while I would have won it would have taken far more of my energy and time than I was willing to spend.” He said dryly. “I never did enjoy the intrigue and scrambling for position. I suspect that answers both your questions.” Now both of Lee’s eyebrows had crept up his forehead and his eyes showed his surprise— at the answer he gave or that he answered at all, Michael wasn’t sure. He wondered what the man was thinking now, and if that had been another weight on the side of those who would simply kill the demon and be done with it.
“Well. I don’t know that you two will organize like a family of any sort or not.” Lee finally said, trying to warm back up to the topic. “Each team has to find its own footing. That’s one reason we put them together so far in advance of completing the Bond and sending them out. Those with the ability to train as a Priestess are uncommon, and of course each one has a different personality. We felt very lucky that May formed a bond of such deep friendship before we even began to consider who to team her with. James and Pike really were her family.” He leaned over and poured himself some more coffee from the carafe that Michael had brought out of the kitchen what, an hour ago? Longer? Michael wondered how much longer this interview would last. It seemed that Lee was content to let things stay as they were for now at least, and Michael simply wanted to close himself into his office for a while to find some solitude and think. He was beginning to feel like he desperately needed more information first, though.
“So you let each member meet the others early?” Michael asked. Lee nodded.
“Not usually as early as those three found each other, but yes. It’s a chance to allow a team to organize itself before their lives get put in danger, and sometimes they simply don’t work out. If we can find out that two or three people dislike each other or simply can’t work together it is an easy thing to change before the Bonding, but afterwards? It is possible, but dangerous. I can only think of one time a Bond has been dissolved in my lifetime, and I was a child then. The two Guardians had developed a hatred for each other and would likely have killed each other if they had been forced to carry on.” Lee frowned at his coffee, staring into the past. “I only saw one of them once after the Bond was severed and he looked haunted. The Priestess they had served with never left the Temple building again, and I never saw her.”
“Oh, I remember that. It was so sad.” Paula came up behind Lee and rested her hand on his shoulder. Lee jumped. Michael almost flinched as well. When had he let his guard down so much?
“Paula, good lord. You know, at my age you could give me a heart attack!” He said, running a hand through his short hair again, making it stand up in a mess.
“I’m sorry, Lee. Sam always said he thought I was part cat. I remember her, though, that priestess whose Bond was dissolved. Her name was Alice, I think? She looked haunted as well. She barely ate and stayed mostly in her room in the ladies’ dorm, reading and praying. I saw her in the library sometimes, looking almost skeletal. She did some sort of research, writing papers about whatever it was. I never knew what had happened between them, but I always felt so badly for her.” She looked up at Michael. “I managed to get May out of bed to wash up a bit. Shall I call room service for lunch?”
“Please, let me call. Is there anything you would like, particularly? If the kitchen doesn’t make it there are a number of restaurants nearby.” Michael was glad of the interruption. It gave him a chance to consider the information. He’d known that Guardians were magically bound to their Priestess, and that the Mark they carried was a visible imprint of that almost like a label or an I.D. tag, but he hadn’t realized it went so deep. He had been prepared to carry out a Guardian’s duties as well as he could, to watch over and protect May until she was past the need for such things, but he hadn’t realized it could affect them both so completely. Her reaction made a great deal more sense now. If a Bond was dissolved and the individuals still lived in such a diminished way, a death could well be devastating. But Paula had not merely been Bonded to her Guardian, Sam, she had been married to him. Michael was well aware of how humans viewed such a connection, and Sam had died some years back. Paula was clearly not hiding herself away from the world, so why was May?
Paula was perched on the arm of Lee’s chair when Michael came back.
“She’ll be okay after a bit, Michael. She just needs some time, that’s all. The human heart is remarkably strong, even when it takes such a severe blow.” She smiled at him, looking a bit like a child that isn’t actually causing any mischief yet but is looking forward to doing so soon. “How do you feel about this whole thing?”
“Feel about it?” Michael asked, his eyes finally flickering with something other than blankness.
“Yes, honey. I imagine demons do at least have feelings of some sort.” She paused for a moment and tilted her head a little to smile at him. “Although you’re not exactly a proper demon anymore, now are you? I wonder.”
“At any rate, I think he’s got enough to think about for the moment.” Lee said. “Personally, it’s been in interesting day and a lot of travel. You do have guest rooms up here, I imagine? I’d love a shower and change of clothes.”
“And I’m going to take May some food as soon as it’s here. You just show Lee a room and don’t worry about me for now.” Paula shooed them both down the hallway like a pair of boys needing to wash up for dinner. The fact that Michael was more than a century older than she was didn’t stop her from treating him like an exasperating schoolchild. Clearly he was embarking on a whole new sort of interaction with the humans around him, and he wasn’t entirely sure that he was going to enjoy it.
CHAPTER FIVE
May hunched down on the playground, trying to shield herself from the sticks and dirt being thrown. The girl doing the throwing had a sulky frown on her young face, and was hurling insults as well as mulch. May had no idea what she had done, but Hannah seemed to be furious about it. There were two boys standing between her and another girl who was shouting and pointing, face scrunched up into an ugly scowl.
“Why don’t you just go home? Nobody wants you here anyway!” Hanna jeered and launched another volley. “Weirdo!” May scrunched herself as far into the corner as she could. There was nowhere else for her to go: she was trapped by the corner of the fence and hidden from the playground teachers by some wildly overgrown azaleas. Hannah scraped another fistful of debris from under the nearest bush and May squeezed her eyes shut, hoping the bell would ring soon.
“Hey, cut it out, Hannah!” said a voice. May peeked carefully out and saw two boys now standing between her and her bully. She could only see their backs, but the taller one had hair so blonde she wanted to call it golden, but a boy would probably hate that. The shorter boy had light brown hair, but the same gold sparkled here and there. He was the one that was talking. “Stop being such a jerk.”
“She’s just a nasty old leftover. Not even her own uncle wanted her!”
“Well we like her fine and we don’t want you, so leave her alone.” The taller boy said. The shorter boy took his cue and grabbed May’s hand.
“Yeah. James ’n I want to play with her and you can go play by your stupid old self. Come on you guys.” And with that the boy dragged her off to the swings. “Don’t worry about her, May. She’s just jealous cause you keep learning those spells so fast, and she can’t do any of them at all.”
The image spun again as they ran over the playground, and the three of them stopped, to stand in front of the school’s council of elders.
“We think that the three of you work very well together, and would like to group you together as a trial team. This means you would live together in a dormitory suite, have special training, and be assigned various tasks in addition to your schooling.” May glanced over and saw Paula on the end of the council table, grinning widely. The boys were just barely holding themselves back from bouncing with glee.
“Well, May? What do you think?” The headmaster asked her.
“It’s my fault, Paula. Nothing I did had any effect on those things! I just wasn’t good enough! James and Pike at least knew the risk of all this, and could fight back, but that poor innocent jogger. There has to be something I could have done!” May sobbed into Paula’s lap, soaking the older Priestess’ jeans and the quilt May was still tangled in. The gush of tears ripped past the numbness that had filled her, and she gave in to it helplessly. The older woman just let May cry and stroked a hand over her hair, carefully untangling the worst snarls that the fight had knotted into the long brown curls. After some time the sobs calmed some, and Paula sighed and spoke quietly.
“It isn’t your fault, May. From all reports you were lucky to have defeated them at all. You did extremely well to keep them from rampaging any further.” Paula sighed, the serious expression sitting oddly on a face more used to laughing. “But you cry, honey. Cry all you need.” May did, though the tears came less aggressively now. They sat that way, barely moving until the sun crept up the wall reddening as if embarrassed to have witnessed the emotion pouring out of the young woman. Eventually May’s tears dried on her face, leaving her feeling sick and sticky. She obediently sat up and drank the water Paula put into her hands.
“What do I do now?” she asked, her voice cracking after the abuse.
“Eat. Sleep. Shower. I strongly recommend showers. When my Sam died I felt like I had died with him, and showers were the one thing I could almost bring myself to enjoy. Then after a while bubble baths.” Paula smiled. “Then wine and friends and trashy summer thrillers, and eventually you’ll be able to live again for yourself.”
May nodded. Then, frowning, she looked up at the door. She could hear male voices rumbling in conference in the main room. Paula followed her glance.
“Yes, that is a very interesting complication, isn’t it? Lee has no doubt examined Michael by now and we would know if it wasn’t a true Marking. So part of James does live on. Do you know how this happened?”
“I just know what Michael told me, but I couldn’t really understand it all, it hurt too much. He said that James asked him to do it. It was his last request, apparently, to make sure that I was looked after. But that doesn’t make any sense, couldn’t Michael just help me out as a friend? Why does he need to be a Guardian just to help me out? How could James even think that was a good idea? How could Michael do it?” May felt the tears well up again, more angry now. “How can I possibly even trust him now? I mean, yeah. I sort of have trusted him till now for some reason. But why would he take James’ soul? How could he think that I would work with him if he is willing to do such a thing? How can a demon even take a Guardian’s powers? It’s impossible!”
“Clearly it isn’t impossible.” Paula stopped the rush of hysteria that May’s words were becoming. “I don’t have an answer for you, May. I wish I did. What I do know is that Michael has never been like any other being from the Demon Realm I’ve met, either High Demon or beast, and that he has cared for you as best as he can since this all happened. I’m sure the poor thing has been at a complete loss with you, hon. I have a strong feeling that High Demons don’t curl up in bed when they grieve, for one thing. Michael has a great deal to learn, and so do you.” She refilled the water glass. “Now that Lee and I are here, we’ll try to help you sort things out a bit. Now I’ll go get you something to eat and I want you to go wash your face at least.”
May nodded, and watched Paula bustle out of the room. She was glad that Paula and Lee were here; it was like having family show up and take over her life while she couldn’t function. Although, thinking about it, that was exactly what Michael had done as well: taken the burden of thinking off her shoulders while she’d been so numb with the sudden loss of her two closest friends. She shoved her sleeve over her face, smearing tears around like a child, and dutifully followed instructions by crawling off the bed she’d hidden in for the past day.
May couldn’t argue that Michael had indeed done his very awkward best to take care of her since he’d sat down at her side in the ambulance, but how had he known about the hounds’ appearance in the first place? She thought back to the beginning, when Pike had come in to knock on her bedroom door in the very early hours of the morning and wake her with a report of monsters on the waterfront. They had gone out in a good mood, joking that it was probably just some drunks growling at folks from the bushes. They had never known demon hounds to run in a group like the report had mentioned, so were entirely unprepared for the assault when it came.
And the size of the things— no demonic beast was that big! The few beasts that managed to find their way to the human realm on their
own were small, like squirrels or housecats. And even the few that were brought over as guard dogs or whatever weren’t much bigger than that either. The monster they found was the size of a city bus, and it was surrounded by not very much smaller versions of itself. All claws and drool and jaws like a cartoon piranha, the beasts had been ripping up trees by the roots and knocking over retaining walls and play structures when the three had come around the corner to find themselves under ferocious attack. May couldn’t recall most of the fight, everything had moved so fast. She remembered the awful moment when the jogger bounced out from behind the basketball court, oblivious in his own world of headphones and good health, just before being thrown entirely across the remains of the lawn like a dog toy, to lie broken and still on the other side of the grass. She remembered Pike somehow spearing two of the smaller beasts so that she could purify and destroy them with some very fast enchanting. She remembered firing off spell after spell to try to weaken the damned things and each one just sliding off their hide like they wore enchanted armor. She remembered James slicing one of the ears off the large beast and it swiping at him. She remembered Pike and James both struggling to keep the huge thing still long enough for her to get her spell finished, and the thing shaking them both off and lashing out in its last act of life as their bodies went flying: Pike being slashed by the huge claw and James flying off to lie still in a pile of rubble that slid to the ground as he landed, dust billowing out across the battlefield. Oh gods, she watched them die.
“May? Are you still in there, sweetie?” Paula called from the bedroom. May started as she was yanked out of her memories. The water was running warm and comforting over her cupped hands as she had slipped back for the millionth time, trying to think of what she could have done better, how she could have saved them. She looked up at the mirror, finally noticing the tangled mess of brown hair and the puffy red eyes. Maybe Paula was right and a shower would be a good idea.
A Demon's Duty (The Demon Guardian Trilogy Book 1) Page 3