by Salem Cross
The man who walked by first was tall, muscular, and walked like a king making his way to his throne. The strong jawline was covered with a hint of blonde stubble that was slightly darker than the golden locks on his head. His arms were thick, and his wide chest tapered down to a narrow waist.
The woman who walked by my window was tall, thin, and glamorous. Her blonde pixie cut was slightly tousled as if windblown. Her petite nose was held high with confidence. Her skin was practically glowing from being in the sun, and her pretty pink lips were turned upwards with a warm smile.
If I hadn’t known who these two were at first glance, I certainly figured it out when the woman turned to look through the window at me as she passed. Her familiar teal eyes twinkled, and her warm smile grew even warmer as she winked at me. Both Guardians came up to Rylan and the female warrior. The wide smile that spread across Rylan’s face spoke to the love he had for his parents. I felt his joy through our bond.
It took me a moment to realize he was feeling the love for his parents again after almost two thousand years. Rylan embraced his mother in a bear hug and spun her around. The delight on his mother’s face shone bright like the sun. He kissed her cheek and set her back on the ground. She said something to him, and he threw back his head and laughed. Then, he turned and embraced his father. His father stepped back while placing his hands on his son’s shoulders to study him. They laughed about something Rylan said.
They exchanged a few more words before Rylan took a step back and introduced his parents to the other Guardian who stood with him. As they spoke, Rylan pulled out the quartz necklaces and passed them out. When everyone else had adorned the simple piece of jewelry, Rylan turned towards me.
Mae, please come out and meet everyone, Rylan called.
With a deep breath, I braced myself to meet another group of Guardians.
I exited the truck and walked over to everyone. Both of Rylan’s parents eyed me curiously, but their smiles seemed welcoming. I couldn’t detect any hostility from either of them. Behind them, the female Guardian’s whole body shook hard once as the curse over her lifted. I heard her swift intake of breath as shock settled over her. She stepped forward, her brows coming together, but not in suspicion. If I wasn’t mistaken, she looked almost concerned.
Rylan beamed at me as I approached. This was it; I was about to meet Rylan’s parents for the first time. Butterflies took flight in my stomach. Rylan’s arm came around my shoulders, and a wide grin spread across his face.
“Mother, father, Zara, it is my pleasure to introduce to you my better half, Mae White. Mae, this is my mother and father: Diane and Samson Lindström, and behind them is Zara Stone.”
Diane Lindström stepped forward, her eyes twinkling with mirth, and embraced me. I stiffened for just a moment, expecting to be crushed by her inhuman strength. But the moment the thought appeared, I brushed it off. She wouldn’t crush me in front of Rylan. I relaxed and returned the hug.
“Welcome to the family, Mae! There is nothing I have wanted more than to see Rylan find his mate,” she purred in my ear. She stepped back and placed her hands on my shoulders to study me. “You are absolutely beautiful, and the power I feel radiating off you… It is magnificent.”
“Do not bogart our new daughter,” Samson said as he took his wife’s elbow and gently pulled her away from me. He stepped forward, grinning, and planted a kiss on my cheek. “When Rylan told us that you were special, I had no idea how special. A demi-god in the family, I would never have foreseen this.”
He took a step back, beaming. Standing next to their son, there was absolutely no question both Guardians were Rylan’s parents. He looked more like his father, but his lips and eyes were definitely from his mother.
Standing there under their jubilant stares, all my anxieties about meeting them vanished. Rylan had been so confident that his parents would love me, and he had been right. I should have listened to him, but how could I not have doubted him when my very existence could be seen as a threat?
“Mae, it is good to finally meet you. I have been searching for you for quite a while,” Zara said, taking a step towards me.
I stared at the woman, confused. Was I supposed to know who she was? She didn’t look familiar. I frowned. Next to me, Rylan stiffened. His good mood disappeared instantly. His brows came together in a scowl, and his pupils narrowed.
“You know Mae?”
The female Guardian turned to face Rylan.
“Yes,” Zara answered with a frown. “She made quite a scene in a bar back in Baltimore a few years ago. After reviewing the security cameras, I became concerned for her well-being. I have been searching for Mae to help her.”
My friends and I had done our share of running around the city in our attempt to keep the streets relatively safe. Occasionally, we ended up in bars, and half the time we made a scene. So which bar was she talking about?
“When word got around what this young woman had done to the Fitz gang in that bar, all the scum in that area, both of the human and supernatural variety, scattered like cockroaches and have stayed away ever since,” Zara continued.
My whole body went stiff as I realized the bar Zara was talking about. I remembered the Fitz gang. They were renowned for snatching children off the street and selling them on the black market. It had been our most dangerous attempt at helping the community. The small group of us had gone back and forth about trying to do something about this gang. I had told Rylan the truth; most of what my small group of friends and I had done had been pretty mild. Taking on an honest to god gang was never something we had attempted before. But it wasn’t the gang that stuck out to me that night. I pushed down the rising fear and panic that was beginning to blossom in my chest.
“After what I saw that night, I figured your mate here was in a little bit of trouble, but then she disappeared,” Zara said. “I caught wind that Mae had resurfaced in Chicago just a few weeks ago. I attempted to reach out to Arthur to show him the video so I could warn him that there was a young woman in his territory who needed looking after, but he was out of town. Then, just two days ago, I got a call from him saying he needed my help with a matter up here, so I figured I would talk to him now… I see he must already know about Mae.”
I tried to push down the memories of that night before terror overwhelmed me. That night had been horrible on every level imaginable.
“You have a video? Do you have it with you?” Rylan asked, his pupils narrowing.
It’s not going to be pretty, I grumbled.
Rylan didn’t acknowledge my comment. Instead, he raised a brow at Zara. A wave of nausea crashed over me.
“Yes, you can have it. I only kept it to find Mae,” Zara said. She looked at me. “It is a relief to know you have someone to watch after you now.”
The kindness in her voice surprised me. Knowing what she must have seen and what her duties as a Guardian were, I wondered why she wasn’t trying to tear my head off. The image of the man’s head on a stake from the pictures earlier popped into the forefront of my mind. My stomach churned as I pictured my head dangling from that same stake.
“Thank you for your discretion,” Diane said graciously as she placed a hand on my shoulder.
Zara bowed her head respectfully. I knew I should thank her as well, but my mind was spinning. I was too busy choking down the emotions evoked by the memories of that night.
“Where are the other Guardians now?” Samson asked, drawing the attention away from me.
“A few went with Jasmine Sing south to look for any clear signs of trouble. Arthur House has a group of warriors with him to scan the area for creatures that are not native to this area,” Rylan told him. “We went to talk to the park rangers to find out what they knew.”
“Did you learn anything?” his father asked him.
“The rangers have been corrupted,” he explained. “Whatever dark magic that has been cast over these woods has prevented us from compelling the humans. Mae was the one who learned they wer
e tainted and was able to destroy the darkness in them. On their computer, Mae found files of sacrifices made in these woods. There are hundreds of dead hikers buried in the park.”
“Do you know where they took place?” Diane asked with a worried frown.
“No.”
“Has anyone gone to visit Cain?” Samson asked.
Rylan shook his head and frowned. “It is on the list of things to do. We have not heard from him or Ekon.”
“Ekon?” Samson repeated the name with surprise. “He is an ancient like us… I hope he and Cain are alright.”
“We can go to Cain’s residence now. With such a small window of time before the gates open, we do not have much of it to waste,” Diane said, looking to Samson who nodded. “It is alarming to know that two Guardians are missing. We need to find them.”
I felt the buzz of communication in my mind before Rylan said out loud, “Use that as your coordinates to find Cain’s home. If he has gone missing, his place will have been abandoned for quite a while. I am sure I do not need to warn you to keep an eye out for anything that may have made his place their home.”
“We will be fine,” Diane said with a chuckle at her son’s warning. “It was us that taught you to keep vigilant.”
Both Samson and Diane turned to me.
“We will talk tonight when we return. I would love to learn all about my new daughter,” Diane said with a warm smile. Despite the turmoil in my gut, I smiled back.
“I look forward to it. Please be safe,” I told her.
“I will come with the both of you,” Zara offered. She turned to Rylan and pulled something out of her back pocket. She handed it to him and said, “Watch it. It is quite incredible. I wiped the memories of anyone who was there that night, but rumors of a badass chick still linger on.”
The three Guardians stepped away from me and Rylan. They pulled off their shirts, and I watched them as their wings began to grow from their backs. After a friendly wink from Samson, all three took to the sky and disappeared over the treetops.
Rylan looked down at the USB stick that Zara had handed him. My anxiety was beginning to skyrocket. The chill that ran down my spine was chased by another as I tried not to think about what was recorded on that small storage device. Rylan looked up at me and steadied my face.
“Let’s go inside,” he said softly.
Oh, shit. Rylan wanted to watch it now. As we headed towards the house, I made a face. I said nothing as my fear began to mount as we entered the house. I didn’t want to relive that night. The heartbreak, the fear, the grief… The hole in my heart that had slowly healed over time threatened to crack open. I dragged my feet as I followed Rylan into the family room. He walked over to the large television hanging on the wall and slipped the USB stick into one of the HDMI slots in the back of it. A moment later, I was staring at security footage of one of the worst nights of my life.
Chapter Twenty
Rylan
Even without feeling Mae’s anxiety, I would have seen and heard the signs of it. It was in the way her heart fluttered and her face paled. She had shoved her hands into the pockets of her pants, but not before I saw the way they shook. My foremost concern was that someone else had witnessed Mae’s ability. I wanted to remove the video from Zara’s possession at once. But now, seeing Mae’s reaction, I was curious. What had happened that caused Mae to grow silent and fearful?
The video was split into four screens. The date at the bottom of the screen was dated two years ago, August 28, and it was just past midnight. One camera was pointed to the small parking lot just outside the building. Two cameras had been somehow hidden in the bar from two different angles providing us with a complete view of the small, dirty establishment. One view was facing the bar, the other facing the clientele. There were about ten men scattered about the room at different tables. They were not trying to hide their usage of drugs. The last camera screen was placed in the basement of the building. My stomach sank as I realized what I was seeing in the fourth screen. There were twenty children all chained together, gagged and blindfolded.
The video was edited to jump ahead. Suddenly, a half-hour had gone by. In the bar, the men were rowdier now, and the children were still trapped in the basement. Movement on the upper left-hand screen that pointed to the parking lot caught my attention. Five people dressed in black moved along the shadows, circling the bar before they disappeared. The video was cut again, now another fifteen minutes had gone by. Someone dressed in black walked back into the frame. The figure walked into the middle of the parking lot, heading towards the front door. The individual stopped, pulled the ski mask off their face, and there, standing just outside the door to the bar was Mae.
Her face was half turned away from the camera, making her expression unreadable. She dropped the mask to the ground and shook her hair out of its braid before walking through the front door. On the second screen, I watched Mae enter, as did everyone else in the bar. Her presence drew the attention of every single man, even the bartender, who had been pretending to clean a glass behind the bar.
Without looking around, she headed over to the bar and sat down. The third camera view allowed me to see her face. I noted the dark circles under her eyes, the hard set of her mouth, and the suspicious gaze she let linger on the bartender. They spoke to each other. The bartender reached down and pulled out several shot glasses. As he began to pour liquor into each glass, Mae ran a hand down her face, but not before I saw a flash of agony she was trying to hide. She turned in her seat to survey the room.
The bartender said something to Mae, and she turned back to face him. In front of her sat five shots. She looked down at them, then back up to the bartender. She gave him a half-smile before downing all five shots back to back. The two of them exchanged words again, and this time Mae chuckled. She stood up, reached over, and grabbed the bartender by the front of the shirt.
Mae pulled the bartender towards her, smiled at him, and then kissed him. There was no fight from the man as Mae ran her fingers through his hair. She broke the kiss and shoved him away. Mae grabbed an empty shot glass sitting in front of her, turned around, and chucked it across the room at the nearest gangster. She hit her mark in the forehead. The man leapt to his feet while the rest of the room went still. Mae said something to the man before throwing her head back to laugh. The man charged over to her. Mae stopped laughing. The amusement on her face vanished as she got up and met the man halfway across the bar.
When he grabbed for her, all hell broke loose.
The man went down fast. Mae’s strike to his throat and fist to the temple toppled him to the floor. At once, the rest of the gang members were on their feet and charging towards her. My heart nearly stopped as I watched my mate take on men more than double her size. I would not have believed she was capable of taking down so many men at one time. The way she moved; it was almost like a dance. She never stopped to catch her breath. She hardly flinched when a fist connected with her. If someone grabbed her, Mae slipped out of their grasp with ease.
As the chaos ensued, I watched as Mae’s movements grew faster. Almost inhumanly fast. As she turned and landed a punch on a nearby gang member, he literally flew across the room. As she turned to her next opponent, I caught just a glimpse of her eyes. They were glowing violet. The room shook, and the walls began to crack.
In the frenzy of violence, none of Mae’s opponents seemed to notice the wall of the bar begin to crumble. Chairs and tables moved on their own accord. The shot glasses that lingered on the bar counter exploded one by one. Mae’s opponents likewise began to fall. Without even making contact, her hand shot out and a man was thrown into the two men behind him.
Movement in the fourth screen drew my attention away to the chaos in the bar. As Mae continued to take down every man in the bar, the children began to move around. Four individuals in black masks came into view of the camera. They worked quickly to free the children. It took a few minutes, but then the four masked individuals herded them out
of view.
Upstairs, Mae suddenly stopped moving. She fell to her knees and grabbed her head. Four men took advantage of her sudden distraction and jumped forward to grab her. Mae threw back her head and screamed in obvious agony. I could see the veins in her face glowing. The four men were thrown back in different directions. The tables and chairs lifted off the floor and exploded into large pieces. The windows shattered, and every liquor bottle behind the counter broke. The lighting in the bar flickered on and off. In the camera view overlooking the parking lot, eight cars exploded and burst into flames.
The few men still standing backed away from Mae. Slowly, Mae rose to her feet and faced them. One pulled a gun out and pointed it at her. Mae raised her hand, and the gun exploded. He screamed, and the lingering gang members tried to turn and run. Mae was there before they could get far. It took only a moment before all three were lying with their friends on the ground, out cold.
Mae stood in the middle of the mess, her shoulders heaving up and down. In the far corner of the room, something moved. The Mae in the video did not appear to notice but next to me Mae gasped. As the lights continued to flicker on and off, a woman appeared out of thin air in the corner of the room. Her blonde hair was pulled up out of her face into a bun to reveal sharp features. The cloak she wore was dark green and covered the rest of her body. She stood there watching Mae with a smile. As Mae in the video turned in her direction, the woman vanished.
Next to me Mae gasped in surprise.
In the video, Mae grabbed her head and sank to her knees. From this angle, I could see my mark on the back of her neck as her hair tumbled to one side. She didn’t sit there long. Mae jerked her head towards the door as if someone had called her name. She got to her feet slowly and stumbled towards the exit. A masked individual rushed to her side as she appeared out in the parking lot. The unknown person scooped Mae up in their arms and darted out of view.