Guardian's Joy #3

by Jacqueline Rhoades

  “Earth to Nardo. Earth to Nardo. Come in please.” Dov’s nasal radio imitation came in loud and clear.

  “What?” Nardo repeated, embarrassed to be caught dreaming.

  Dov grinned and pointed with his thumb.

  Col was standing next to his twin with his arm draped over the shoulders of a young Paenitentia woman who looked up at him with adoring eyes.

  Shit. No one said anything about females. Nardo nodded to the woman in the way he’d seen Nico do it, a kind of half bow that showed respect but wouldn’t draw too much attention.

  “Col, can I talk to you for a minute, privately?” Nardo walked a few feet away with Col at his heels. “How old is she?”

  The Race was pretty liberal when it came to sex. Once mated, most couples chose to forego sex with others as part of their contract and among the blood bound, extracurricular sex was unheard of, but there were no taboos against sex between unmated consenting adults. The key word here was adult. For females, the age of maturity was twenty-five and this young woman looked like she had a few years to go.

  “Twenty-one and before you ask, no, I don’t have any big plans,” was Col’s indignant reply, “Damn, what kind of guy do you think I am? Dov’s the one that nails anything that moves. I have standards.” And then he grinned, looking like the devil’s twin rather than Dov’s. “Besides, now I can tell my mom I took a nice girl from the Sanctuary out dancing. That should shut her up for a while.”

  So much for standards. “Did you bring her here?”

  “No, she came with her brother and a few friends. They’re video gamers and big fans of Demon Destroyer, so when I said I knew the guy who wrote it…” Col shrugged and grinned.

  “The guy let you walk off with his little sister?”

  “Yeah, well, that’s your fault. Your characters give the impression that we’re some kind of knights in shining armor. All that chivalry shit. And I got to tell you, man, that may be your deal, but it’s not going to pull in any recruits. In the new one you need to put in something about our great ‘appetites of the flesh’. Sex it up some. That’ll reel ‘em in.” Col shrugged and grinned.

  “So noted. Now take the lady back to her brother and tell them to get home. Their head honcho called Canaan and we’re supposed to clear this place out. Tell them to spread the word and then you can report back to me.”

  “This is my night off,” Col protested loudly.

  “You fuck up, you pay up.” Dov couldn’t resist aggravating his twin.

  “Shut up, asshole.”

  “Shithead”

  “Lady!” Nardo barked.

  “Oh yeah. Sorry honey. Let’s go find your brother.”

  He sent Dov with Col to round up those who wouldn’t take a polite suggestion and began to search the room again. He wandered around the edges of the crowd, tapping a shoulder now and then, telling the recipient of the tap to move along, playtime was over. And all the while, he searched for the woman in black. She was gone and if he didn’t believe in order and discipline, he’d turn his shift over to the twins while he went to find her. There was something about her that intrigued him.

  Chapter 3

  JJ saw the two when they first walked in the door. She’d never seen anything like it and she quickly scanned the crowd to see if anyone else noticed. No one did.

  They were bathed in a halo of light like the saints and angels in museum paintings. The crowd kept moving in and out, blocking her line of sight, so she commandeered a chair and climbed up for a better view. The blonde one, a giant of a man, had a sweet face that looked gentle and kind combined with the build of a linebacker. When he took off his jacket, she could see the huge squares of his pectoral muscles outlined against his white tee. His broad shouldered body narrowed in that perfect manly vee to hips supported by thighs the size of tree trunks. It was a face and body most women would drool over, but it was his companion that made her mouth and throat go so dry she had to swallow twice before she could breathe again. Then she blinked her eyes and the light was gone, but the two men remained and for no reason she could understand, she was relieved.

  Her interest didn’t make sense. He wasn’t her type at all. She didn’t find ponytails appealing, yet his fell halfway down his back. She’d always liked a man with a little bulk to his body, yet he looked tall and a bit skinny, until he took off his jacket and threw it to his companion who was now sitting in a chair a few feet away. Good goddess, he was tall, but he wasn’t skinny. His shoulders were almost as broad as his companion’s and his arms, left bare by the short sleeves of a faded blue t-shirt looked roped with steel cable beneath the skin. Even from across the room, she could see the corded muscles in his neck as he stretched himself taller to look around the room.

  She watched him as he watched the room and then his eyes landed on her and she almost fell from her perch on the chair. She was embarrassed to be caught staring. She wouldn’t want him to think she was looking to hook up. She pretended to look for someone in the crowd, moving her head slowly back and forth, but her eyes remained on him.

  She tried not to show her surprise when a matching blonde giant wearing shorts and a tank top joined his twin. He had his arm around a girl who was too well dressed for a place like this. She was one of those ‘other’ types JJ’d noticed on the street and the girl didn’t fit with these men. It was bad boy attraction, she supposed, though a closer look told her this girl may have more in common with these men than JJ first realized.

  Even at this distance she could sense it. White light aside, these men were something different, something other and something more, maybe dangerous. She felt both fear and excitement shiver down her spine at the thought.

  JJ was so engaged in her speculation about the three that she almost missed the creature she was hunting and only caught a glimpse from the corner of her eye. It had been months since she’d seen one and if it was the real thing and not a figment of her wishful imagination, she needed to find it fast and kill it.

  She was off the chair and heading in the direction the thing was moving; all thoughts now trained on the task at hand. She saw it strolling through the crowd to the right, a man and a beast, two images, one overlapping the other like the double exposures old time cameras used to take. People moved around it like it was one of them. They couldn’t see it like she could.

  When she saw her first beast, she thought it was a trick of the light. Months later, when she saw the second, she thought she might be going crazy and that scared her more than the beast. She researched her condition, learned about mental illness, hallucinations and brain tumors and opted for the tumor. She signed up for a thorough physical actually hoping that was the cause. It wasn’t.

  More months passed and while she was always waiting for the symptoms to recur, it seemed the problem, whatever the cause, was cured. Until one night when she and John were riding home together after work. That was the night she knew she wasn’t crazy, the night she’d learned these creatures were real. That was the night she saw what the beasts could do and learned, too late, what she could do about it. That was the night that changed her life.

  The beast acted like it was enjoying the music and the dancing. It moved from group to group laughing at the flashing buttons, collecting glo sticks and passing them on. JJ followed, staying far enough back to remain unnoticed. There was nothing she could do while the thing was indoors and among people. If she killed it here, the act would be seen as the murder of a man, a human and not a beast.

  Eyes intent on her prey, she almost ran into the other in the faded blue t-shirt which she now saw advertised a Concert for the Americas in Spanish. His jacket was back in place, the pockets loaded and heavy in an easily recognized weapon’s sag. Holy shit! How much hardware was he carrying? He passed by her, head turned to the center of the room, eyeing the dancers with an angry glare as he moved through the throng.

  He moved with confidence, but without aggression and by the way he weaved through the crowd, the way his head moved slo
wly from side to side, she could tell he was hunting, too. But what?

  Damn. Once again, she’d allowed herself to be distracted by things that didn’t matter and now the beast was gone. JJ began a frantic search, climbing on chairs, pushing people aside, and ignoring the curses that followed her as she elbowed her way through the crowd. The thing was no longer in the building.

  JJ began to run for the exit. She had to get outside and find the beast before someone else died.

  The last of the Paenitentia kids were out of the warehouse and on their way home. Nardo turned up his collar against the cold.

  “The babysitter’s club is hereby adjourned. Let’s go home.”

  Dov looked wistfully back at the warehouse behind them. “Oh please, Daddy, can’t we stay and play?” he asked plaintively.

  “No. I’ve had enough raging or raving or whatever the hell it is for one night. Besides, Grace is making pot roast and you don’t want to miss that.”

  “Then can we get our asses in gear here, because mine’s about to freeze off.” Col hugged himself and looked down at his bare legs.

  “But…”

  Nardo held up his hand and sniffed the air. “You smell that?”

  The twins raised their noses and sniffed the air like hounds on a scent. Their demeanors changed from whiny pups to trained hunters in an instant.

  Nardo was already unloading weapons and passing them to Col in his unarmed shorts and tank when a faint scream rippled the air in an eerie, repeating echo, heard only by the Guardian’s sensitive hearing and one lone dog who’s howl joined the eerie refrain.

  The twins took off at Nardo’s hand signal to circle the area behind the row of warehouses while he ran forward down the wide lane that served as a street front for this group of buildings. Shattered windows, doors hanging from hinges and broken light fixtures all attested to the economic blight that infected this area making it ideal for illegal parties and more deadly activities.

  Halfway down the lane, Nardo stopped to listen and to sniff the air again for the distinctive odor of demon. He heard a soft, sharp, whimper of pain from one of the buildings to his left. The lock on the gate of the chain link fence that surrounded the property hung broken and useless and he could see recent drag marks in the dirt and debris leading to the door.

  Dov and Col were crossing the lane’s dead end up ahead on their way to complete their perimeter search and he flagged them down with a wave of his hand and motioned them to follow at a distance.

  Then the Guardian, weapons at the ready, jogged across the small parking pad and through the door. Very little light penetrated through the grime laden windows high above, but his night vision was nearly perfect and it wasn’t hard to see the two figures, one lying prone and the other kneeling over it, at the back of the empty cavern.

  Nardo screamed a war cry to attract the thing’s attention away from the victim and felt the burst of energy course through him. His eyes glowed gold and his muscles bulged as the battle rage took him and his fangs fully extended. He roared again when he hurled the throwing stars across the space that separated him from the creature.

  It fell to the side at the last moment and rolled to its feet with a grace unusual in a demon. In a deliberate action, it flung out its bloody hand toward him as if flinging a weapon, again unusual for those who usually relied on brute strength. A streak of bright light shot across the darkness, momentarily blinding the Guardian.

  Now it was he who leapt aside, but not quickly enough. Recognition of the attacker caused him to hesitate and the hesitation cost him. The streak of fire seared the flesh of his thigh.

  He roared again and should have flung a series of stars at the retreating back, but he ran to the victim instead. The young woman lying on the floor, legs sprawled and arms flung wide, was a member of the Race and her murderer was no mindless demon nor was it a human innocent. It was the leather clad woman from the club. He wanted this kill to be up front and personal.

  “Take care of her and call Canaan,” he shouted to the twins as he headed out the partially opened bay doors in search of the killer. No human could outrun him and he wouldn’t use white light to catch her. He wanted her to know she was being stalked. He wanted her to feel the same terror as that poor child in the warehouse. The jangle of chain link told him where she was headed and he trotted off in the other direction to cut off her escape. She was certainly making no effort to soften her footsteps or control her ragged breath.

  Nardo ran at an easy lope, always keeping her within sight or sound. Occasionally, he crossed her path to let her know she was pursued. He cut off her retreat, made her jog and backtrack and turn, driving her deeper into the concrete jungle where only the rats liked to play.

  He was angry with himself for not seeing her for the killer she was. Dammit, he was a member of the Paenitentia, a Guardian of the Race and he’d been blessed with talents and powers most humans only attributed to their gods. He should have been able to sense her evil from across the room. Instead, he’d let his imaginings wander to thoughts of those long shapely legs wrapped around his waist and feeling that wide sensual mouth against his own.

  And what about the demon smell? It was in the air, but it wasn’t in the warehouse. It was still on the loose and as long as it was out there, it was a danger to everyone. He had no business playing games with this bitch. It was time to end this.

  Chapter 4

  JJ ran without thought of where she was going. She knew now what made those men different. They were vampires, another myth come to life and one of them was responsible for the death of that poor child.

  They were every bit as bad as the beasts she hunted, so why couldn’t she kill him when she had the chance. She’d aimed true and only had to throw the fire, but at the last second, the fire sputtered and her aim faltered. If he hadn’t moved, she would have missed him.

  The wound didn’t seem to slow him down much. Shock and panic had her running in circles and she no longer knew in which direction lay the safety of the street and her car. Her only hope was to keep moving until the sun came up, if that part of the mythology was even true. She was a marathon runner and she could keep this up for as long as she needed to. She heard him coming at her from the right and she sprinted forward, ducking into the next alley.

  With the occasional patch of yellow moonlight providing the only illumination, JJ was running blind and the brick wall at the end of the alley appeared out of nowhere. She slammed her palms against it as if her fury could knock it down and then she spun away to run back the way she had come. He was there, standing at the mouth of the alley, hands on hips; a blacker silhouette against the darkness of the night.

  She watched him walk toward her with long, slow strides, his shoulders rolling with each step and she knew, by the movement of his body, that this was an accomplished athlete. She hadn’t outrun him, hadn’t evaded his pursuit. He’d been toying with her, running her up one alley and down the next. He wasn’t even breathing heavily. She rubbed her thumb across the tips of her fingers to bring forth the fire, but it was useless. For six months, she’d been fully in control, yet now, when she needed it most, the power abandoned her.

  He paused in a pool of moonlight half way down the alley and JJ had time to study the face of the man who might kill her. His sharp, almost too thin features had sharpened even more with his anger. His fangs flared, piercing his gums and forcing his lips back into a snarl. His muscles hardened, seemed to grow, thighs bulging in definition against the narrow cut of his jeans. His eyes blazed with a golden fire.

  He stalked toward her, his body language daring her to flee. She couldn’t, though everything in her screamed at her to run. This creature, this vampire, was something feral. If she ran, she would trigger the primal instinct to chase and maybe the other, more deadly instinct; the need to kill one’s prey.

  All this flew through her mind in an instant as she watched him close the distance between them, his eyes locked on her face. She shifted her weight to the ball
s of her feet and moved her hands up and out, ready to defend. There were nights in her past when she’d prayed for death. Now that death was here, her anger rose against it and the anger overrode her fear. She might go down, but she would go down fighting.

  Nardo saw the shift from fear to fury, saw her ready herself for battle and had to admire her courage. Not many humans could face down a Guardian transformed by rage. She was awesome in her anger. He’d never killed a woman before, never dreamed he’d have to, but he was a Guardian and it was his job to do what must be done. He flashed to white light and was on her before she had time to react.

  His hands grabbed her biceps as he pushed her to the wall. Through the silky softness of her sleeves, he felt her muscles bunch beneath his fingers, still ready to fight and he tightened his grip. He should have snapped her neck and ended it there, but he brought his body close to hers and set his pelvis against the tops of her hips never taking his eyes from that arresting face.

  Nardo was surprised by the strength of her slender body as she strained against him. She’d looked so delicate when she stood alone watching the dancers. Her skin was smooth and unblemished, a dark, dusky rose though whether it was from nature or from anger, he couldn’t tell. And she was more angry than afraid. Her body vibrated with it and the vibration set his own body thrumming in response. Her eyes were defiant as she boldly returned his stare. Lightly lined and mascaraed, they were pools of liquid smoke, a dark and glistening grey that looked almost black. Her face was long and narrow, her nose long and straight. Her wide sensual mouth, now tightened and shaped with anger, beckoned to be softened with a kiss. She was beautiful in a way that sucked the air from his lungs and all thought from his head.