The Guardian (The Guardian Book 1)

by Paula Stephanie Grogan

  “I think so let me zoom in a bit here, oh there we go.” Steven Matheson’s face came clearly over the screen. “Can you print it?” “Sure thing” said the guard. “Here you go,” he handed the Sheriff the picture.

  Then Nickel’s held the two photos next to each other, “Shit,” he picked up his radio from his shoulder, “Carter, Fuentes, the suspect is in the building, over. He is in the building and he is heading towards the nurses’ station on the fourth floor. Over.” “Copy that Sherriff, I’m sending Fuentes up to the seventh floor to Mr. Du Boise room, and I’m going to look for him. Over.”

  “Do you have any guards on the fourth floor that might head him off?” “Let me check,” the guard said, “sure do, he paged the other guards to meet in front of the stairwell while the others headed up to the south stairwell for backup in case, he made it to the other side.

  Stupid Cops Steve thought to himself, they have no idea what they’re dealing with, I am superior now, these people are nothing to me.

  Steve was mediocre before, but now he had ten times more strength then he ever had. He could kill and it did nothing to him. I would have killed Richard at his house if it wasn’t for that damn wolf, he thought to himself. He was strong and able to kill him, but he didn’t instead his newly acquired instincts wanted to play a game with the wolf. And it was almost time for the hunt.

  Steve had been doing well inside the camp until he was forced to start taking his medications; he didn’t like that and fought back. They kept trying to drug him, they said he was delusional he was crazy. Well who is normal he thought! Ha! No one. He escaped that place a stupid mediocre 17-year-old but now he was a man, better than a man, he was a vampire and soon he would have his prize.

  “We don’t want to scare him, cautioned the head guard he may open fire,” he hollered at the other guards as bullets flew by their heads. He called dispatch “we need some backup here now! We got a man here with a weapon with the intent to kill, please send back up, over.”

  The city police gave orders and in no time outside of the hospital was covered in police cars, and news vans. They were all awaiting news, swarming like vultures over a dead carcass. Meanwhile back in the guard booth Nickels changed into his uniform from his duffle bag, and had fastened on his lead vest when…

  “Crap, I just lost him! I don’t understand where he went.” He pulled up two more cameras trying to find all the different angels, when two screens went black. “What the hell just happened?” I think someone had jammed our wireless signal, were not getting feed from camera 2, no camera 3, oh no all the feed is going out on the fourth floor.”

  Steve saw what he was looking for a few minutes after he entered the fourth floor. He had purposely walked in front of the cameras, knowing the police were looking for him to draw them out and get the information he needed. “Bingo he said, this is too easy,” An officer was walking around the corner, he leaned against the door of the janitor's closet and waited for the officer to come around the corner.

  The officer did, and Steve grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and slammed him through the door of the janitor’s utility room. The man fought back, but it was almost useless. “Tell me what I want to know, and I might let you live.” The officer looked Steve in the face, and said “I aint telling you shit, you freakin piece of scum!”

  Steve waited patiently letting the suspense build hearing someone coming down the hall his fangs distended, and he brutally attacked the officer, the officer pulled his taser gun and tased Steve. Steve’s body flew back against the wall while the officers crumpled to the ground. Steve jumped back on him again and drank the remainder of his life force. His heart thudded from a high-speed thump...thump...to a slow step. Steve released the corpse. Getting up and wiping his face on the officer's coat.

  The steps where nearing the door and Steve pounced again, this time it was a security guard, the guard immediately withdrew his gun, but Steve was too fast and snapped his neck within seconds. He let the body fall. He then drug both the corpse towards the stairwell and started to pile them up one at a time, until he got the information he needed.

  “Show me the last footage you have of him,” he pulled up the tape. Steven was last seen leaving the fourth floor, heading towards the janitor’s closet, then he was gone, and all went black.

  “Where are the guards?” asked the Sheriff. “You know better than me, I saw them head down that way on screen three, but I’m not seeing them now.” Dwayne the young security guy, reached over to the com unite put his finger down and paged the other guards.

  “This is the Sargent, paging guards, do you read me? Over.” There was a silence from the other end, then static. “I am not picking up anything.”

  Then the Sheriff reached his side com unite and tried to reach his men. “This is Sheriff Nickels do you read me Fuentes?” there was silence. “Carter, this is the Sheriff do you read me?” More static. After going through a few guards, Steve started to get impatient, and started to seek out his next mouse. It came in the form of a Mexican officer, “ah,” he said, “I love Mexican food.”

  He came up behind her and put his hand over her mouth. She tried to scream but couldn’t. “I am going to find out where Richard is so tell me or I will kill you just like I killed your friends. He said turning her around so that she could see the pile of bodies.

  She was crying and shaking violently. She tried to stomp his foot to get him to release her, but he was too fast, and she ended up falling to the ground. He came toward her fangs drawn, eyes the deepest shade of red, “Oh Madre Mary por favor protégeme,” she whispered scooting back on the floor until she was cornered by both wall and dead bodies. Please don’t do this.” “This is your last chance lady; spill it or you’re done.” “He is on the seventh floor he is in the system under the name of Alan Lockhart.” “How do I know you’re not lying” he said, “you can check” she said, “there’s a wireless triage cart right there, please just check! I am not lying, please look,” she pleaded. He did and it was the right name and room number. He came down and read the lady’s name tag, “Fuentes huh? I like that name, does your radio work my dear?” “Yes,” she said. She turned the knob on. And they heard the sheriffs’ voice coming over the frequency. Hmmm he said this should be funny, he reached down and picked up the talkie attached to her shoulder and spoke.

  Then a man’s voice chillingly came over the frequency. “I’m sorry Sheriff, but they are not able to come to the phone right now, would you like to leave a message?” A malicious laugh then followed. “I'm sure they will get it in the afterlife.” He heard a woman sobbing, five shots were fired, loud booms roaring over the airway. Then utter silence.

  Fuentes had gotten her gun from the holster while Steve was distracted on the radio, she shot five rounds into Steve’s abdomen and he fell back, she got to her feet and ran up the stairs.

  Steve got up within a matter of minutes. He unzipped his coverall and the bullets started to pop out of his skin. He healed quickly, the skin already closing. He reached his hand to where he was bleeding and then licked his fingers, “Mhm” he said.

  Chapter 10

  Coura was still shaken by what she saw and didn’t understand how she saw it. All she knew was that she needed to get back to her dad as quick as possible. Nora could tell from Coura’s mannerisms that she wasn’t getting any better and would run if she didn’t remedy the situation soon. “Come on dear, we can come back here later. We have much to talk about and I think a dear friend is on the way to see you.”

  Who could possibly be coming to see me she thought and how does Nora know they are coming? Goosebumps sent chills up her arms. So many things were racing through her head, her dad, what happened to her mom, all at once. Suddenly she felt lightheaded, and she fainted.

  Nora tried to grab Coura as she fell to the ground. Oh, she thought. A man who was walking out of wall-mart with his wife saw Coura fall and ran over to help Nora. “Is she ok?” The man asked, “do you want me to call for help.�
� “I think she will be ok if I can just get her to my car, would you mind helping me with her?” She asked.

  The man stood there for a second pondering if this was the right thing to do, he must have figured it was because he picked Coura up in one sweeping motion and carried her over his shoulder. “Where to Mam,” he said, “she’s not exactly a sack of flour you know.” “Oh yes,” Nora said, surprised by how quickly he picked her up, “my car is right there,” she pointed at the silver Honda civic. She grabbed her keys from her pocket and beeped her car to unlock it. Once Coura was safely in the back seat the man’s wife asked what was wrong with her, Nora answered truthfully. I think she was so overwhelmed she fainted. She will be better once we get back to the room and she can lay down for a bit. The man nodded, still not understanding exactly what happened. Nora thanked him and drove quickly back to the hotel room.

  Unfortunately for Nora the rooms were all on the inside and she had to get past the receptionist to get to the elevator. Nora opened the back seat and tried to wake Coura up, but it was no luck, she was not waking up. She grabbed her purse and slung it over her shoulder, slid Coura out of the car feet first and then with incredible strength lifted her up putting one of Coura’s arms around her shoulders and her head leaning towards her she carried her to the lobby entrance.

  “Is everything ok mam?” “Everything is just fine, but would you mind pushing the elevator door for me?” “Sure, thing Mam,” the curious clerk did as she was asked. “Are you sure there’s nothing I can do to help you,” she said fishing for an explanation. “No I don’t think that there is anything you can do, I am afraid my niece here took too much Dramamine on the way up here for motion sickness, and fell into a good sleep, I’m just trying to get her to the room so that she can rest.”

  “Ok” said the clerk, “I totally understand, I got seasick on this cruise it was T- totally horrible. Here let me help you to your room.” The clerk rode the elevator up with her and helped her with the door key to the room. “Thank you,” Nora said sincerely. “I really appreciate it,” then Nora laid Coura on the first king sized bed. “Hang on a minute,” Nora said, “I want to repay you for your kindness.”

  Nora reached into her bag and pulled out a five-dollar bill and brought it to the clerk. “Thank you for your help, my dear.” “Sure thing,” the clerk said. “My name is Nicole, if you need anything else you just let me know.” “Will do,” she said and shut the door. Turning to Coura she looked down at her laying there on the bed, “I am so glad that your safe dear child I just wish I didn’t have to do that to you.”

  One of Nora’s gifts was telepathy, not only did she have the gift to read a mind but she had the power to have the body do what she wanted it to. She willed for Coura to be calm, but instead of being calm in her already weekend state she fainted. Well it’s not a perfect science she thought. Nora locked the door behind her and headed down to the desk were the nice clerk Nicole was at, she walked down the hallway billfold in hand.

  After going down the elevator she stopped at the ATM in the breakfast room and walked toward the desk. “Nicole?” The clerk looked up and smiled. “Hello again there miss, is there something else I can do for you?” “I was just wondering what time you get off tonight dear?” “I um I work until six tomorrow morning she responded curiously.

  “Then you may be able to help she said, I need to go to the store to pick up some things for my little niece, I am afraid that our luggage was lost, and we need some items. Is there any way that you could keep a close eye on my room for me and call me immediately on this number,” she said handing her a card; “if you see anyone leaving that room”

  “Also, if anyone comes here, and asks for us, we would appreciate your discretion, my niece is just getting over a terrible break up and does not want to be disturbed. For your troubles I will reimburse you ten times what your salary is this evening. Nicole started to count in her head, why that’s…that’s…a thousand dollars!? Are you sure about this? I am sure but remember your discretion and acute eye to that room is what matters most to me. Do you understand?” “Yes mam! I will do anything you ask, thank you. Thank you.”

  Nora could read the girl well and knew that she was sincere when she said she would watch over Coura. She felt safer now that Coura would be alright. Nora got into her little civic and headed back towards Wal-Mart. On the way there she called her brother and checked in, letting him know everything that has happened so far.

  “We will go up their sister we should be able to blend in pretty well; do you know if Richard is still alive?” “I don’t,” Nora said. “But I was not the one to have the vision it was Coura.” Roy, was quiet for a minute, taking in exactly what that statement meant. “So, it’s true he finally said, she is the one that are Elders prophesied about?”

  “I am not sure of that yet, but what I do know is that she is a gifted young lady that the spirit has brought her to us, and it is our duty to protect our friend Richard, and his daughter. You know that is the way of our kind. I will send everyone except Skye to the hospital to help the police apprehend this…man. Skye is already in his form, and on his way to you, I felt him leave an hour ago. Watch over my son Nora and keep yourselves safe. I will keep in touch.” Then the line went dead.

  Well that didn’t go as bad as I thought. Now let’s see… She pulled into the parking lot and parked in the front row. It was dark now, and the parking lot had cleared up considerably. She parked and went into the store. “Well the first thing she is going to need is clothes,” she said to herself. She walked over to the clothing section with her buggy and grabbed some pretty t-shirts, two sweaters three pairs of jeans, a packet of underwear, and all the other necessities she and Coura needed to have. As she was walking through the aisles, she made it to the beauty aisle and bought her some bath soaps, makeup, perfume and deodorant. She also picked up a first aid kit and big bottle of Excedrin migraine.

  Then she made it to the hunting section and picked out a rifle and ammunition. “It’s so awesome what you can buy at Wal-Mart,” she said to herself.

  Coura woke up and her head hurt terribly, then suddenly everything seemed louder. She got up and called Nora, but she was gone. “I am not going to wait around here any longer I want to be with my dad to protect him and make sure that everything is going to be alright. She slipped her shoes on and walked out of the hotel room. She made her way down the elevator, peeking around the corner she saw that no one was at the front desk. She ran past the check in counter and out the sliding doors to ensure that she was not seen. She stood outside thinking about her next plan of action, when she turned and saw Mr. Pollard standing in front of a red corvette in the hotel parking lot.

  Wow she thought…Coura walked over to him. He was standing there in his dark denim jeans, and tight-fitting white V neck shirt his muscles showing very attractively. His hair was in a messy spiked look and he looked up at her with those sexy bedroom eyes.

  “Hello Coura,” Keric said. “Hello,” she said. “What are you doing here?” she asked, “I could say the same to you,” he said to Coura.

  “I asked you first” said Coura. “Tu shay,” said Keric. “I am here for you Coura.” “Really?” Coura asked, “I didn’t see that coming.” “Look,” Coura said, “I really need a ride back to Many is there any way I could hightail it with you?” “Aren’t you afraid to get in the car with a stranger?” Keric asked in a sultry voice. “Umm... ya no not really, besides you saved me on the cliffs, and you’re like a teacher. They don’t have killers as teacher’s, right?”

  “No, I guess they don’t. I would be happy to give you a ride Coura; it is so nice to see you again.” Coura looked over at him and put her hand on his cheek bone staring deep into his eyes. “I feel like I know you Keric, like we had known each other before, not just when I met you recently. Do you know what I mean?” “Yes,” he said, “I do know exactly what you mean.” Keric walked around the car and opened the door for her.

  Nicole the desk clerk was in
the Laundry room making sure everything was going well when she walked up to the front desk and peered down at the security footage. She saw a hot guy, and then some lucky girl. But when she looked closer, that girl looked familiar. “Oh crap!” She said, she darted out the front door.

  The desk clerk ran out yelling something, but Keric waved a hand at her and she immediately turned around and went inside forgetting momentarily what she was doing.

  “What was that?” Coura asked. “Nothing really; those with weak minds are often easily manipulated. But I must say she will be calling Nora in just a few minutes so I suggest we hightail it as you say.” “How did you know I was with Nora? And how did you do that to that girl?” Then Coura thought back to what Nora had told her before she passed out about their being a lot of gifts in the world and how she barely knew the top of it. Coura turned Keric, “Keric? Coura asked. “Yes, my dear,” he said, glancing at her as he was driving down the road. “What are you?”

  “Why would you think I am anything different then what I am?” “Well I have seen some crazy things here lately and Nora said something to me… gosh you must think I’m crazy, but you have gifts, right? I saw you with the receptionist, and your looks I mean I have never…well seen any man who looked like you so handsome, I just can’t believe that you don’t have a contract with Vogue.”

  Keric laughed, “that’s flattering to hear Coura. But being good looking is not really a gift. Although, I could probably argue that topic with myself every time I look at you. You are beautiful, and special and rare.”