FORBIDDEN

by Curd, Megan

  The Guardian Chronicles: Forbidden

  Copyright 2011 Megan Curd

  The Guardian Chronicles: Forbidden

  Copyright 2011 Megan Curd

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the author.

  Cover design by Neil Noah

  Printed in the United States of America

  For Robin, who started this whole mess. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

  For Stephanie, who has one of the keenest eyes and best hearts I’ve ever seen.

  Finally, this is for Carter, who makes my world go ‘round.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  TWENTY-SIX

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  TWENTY-NINE

  THIRTY

  THIRTY-ONE

  THIRTY-TWO

  THIRTY-THREE

  BEFORE YOU GO

  WHERE TO FIND ME

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ONE

  Precariously leaning over the railing, I made sure she was safe. My Call, Hannah Gordon, walked in wonder three stories below, while she took in the sights of St. Peter's Basilica. She had no clue she was being followed.

  I didn't count myself in the category of follower. I had protected her since receiving the commission from the Almighty himself over three years ago. No, she had more problems than a Guard trailing her.

  She looked up, causing me to retreat into the shadows high above her. I was beyond tourist boundaries. It was to protect the sanctity of St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican guard would say. I made sure to remain in the shadows, nothing more than an insignificant flicker of cloud covering the sun. Gazing through the stained glass windows into the sky, I wondered what it would be like to be free. To enjoy a day like today, to feel the sun.

  Hannah's scream brought my attention back to the main floor. In a flash I was over the banister and down to the main level.

  No one noticed my leap. Humans never saw me. They chose to see nothing, insisting any miracle or unlikely event was a figment of their imaginations. It seemed like the longer I was around, the less people believed in anything supernatural. It’s not that they couldn’t see me, it’s that they didn’t want to. Pushing through the mass of tourists, they blamed one another. I was to Hannah in seconds.

  Dirty blonde hair whipping behind her, she ran into the arms of an Italian young man she met three days before. She embraced him, squealing in delight. Of course. Human girls screamed for a plethora of reasons. Males were one of the main culprits. Rolling my eyes, I pulled my black leather jacket tighter and retreated into the crowd once more, happy to observe from a distance. Personally, I thought she could do better than this schmuck. There was just something about him I didn’t like. His smile didn’t seem genuine, and his eyes were cold. When Hannah talked to him, he didn’t look like he cared one bit about what she was saying.

  They continued out of the Basilica, roaming the Vatican grounds together. Part of me wondered if I was growing soft for the girl as I watched them walk hand in hand. That would be the kiss of death. No, I couldn’t be. I hadn’t even gotten near her. Getting close just made it harder when their time came to go. Humans were so temporary. Regardless, I kept my senses on high alert and found myself jumping at the slightest thing.

  Staying in the shadows cast by the massive stone walls, I tried to appreciate the beauty of the day. The trees were in full bloom, and the waist-high bushes I stayed behind were as green as possible. The sun flickered through the trees, the rays dancing on the cement walkways. Tiny rainbows caught in the air from the water misting in the fountain at the center of the garden. Hannah and her escort sat on the edge of the fountain. I leaned against the wall, arms crossed, as I watched her.

  I felt the wind change behind me, signifying another Presence had arrived. I jumped in shock when the deadened hand wrapped itself around my shoulder.

  "A little jumpy today, are we Levi?"

  Jude had a way of always catching me off guard. He was jealous he hadn’t been Called, but everyone knew when you blatantly turned against everything good, you weren’t getting Called anywhere, at any time. He was a permanent part of the Dark One’s crew, and he wasn't going to drag me back with him this time. I chuckled as I threw a jab to rankle him. "At least I have the guts to do this job."

  He gurgled out curses, covering the gaping hole in his torso. "Very funny, cretin. Don't think because you've been Called that you're any different than the rest of us. You're still a bottom feeder."

  I grinned. He’d walked right into another one. "At least I can stomach it."

  Jude kept one hand over the hole in his stomach, but pointed the other one at me. His fingers were rotten and mottled. He bared his teeth in a snarl, revealing his blackened gums and teeth. His whole body was rotten, just like him. His eyes were black as coal as he began to retort, but he stopped. Grinning maniacally, he choked out a laugh that left me covered in his blood. "Looks like you just lost your Call. I'll see you in hell soon."

  Whipping around, I saw a single black, bloody feather floating to the ground where Hannah had just been seated at the fountain. Outside the Vatican walls in the distance, I heard her strangled cry for help.

  TWO

  Running at full speed, human eyes were unable to keep track of me. I took advantage of the convenience now, leaping over the Vatican wall. Jet-black wings erupted from my back, ripping my jacket to shreds and causing me a considerable amount of pain. Premium Italian leather, I thought, now some idiot will make a knock off purse with my favorite bomber. Landing on top of the metro heading back into Rome, I pushed my senses as far as they'd go. Hannah's scent was nearly impossible to miss if she was within a ten-mile radius. She wasn't.

  Retracting my wings, the familiar snapping of my lower three ribs reminded me having the gift of flight wasn't a gift at all. The punishment for your sins will not go away, young one, the Almighty had said. He meant it. While I was undoubtedly still damned, this beat Hell any day. Well, except for today. If I didn't retrieve my Call, I had a one-way ticket back to the Seventh Circle. Definitely not a place I planned on visiting anytime soon. I strained my ears to listen for Hannah's cries.

  I jerked my head to the west when Hannah screamed again. The way the sound reverberated, it sounded like she was in the Coliseum. Out of running distance. Crap. Sighing, I pushed off the metro, wings exploding out once more. The humans may have heard the snapping of my bones had I not pushed the metro roof in six inches. So much for low profiles. I laughed as I saw the perfect indentation of my shoes in the metal roof. I'd pay for that later.

  I dove into the center of the Coliseum like a bat out of - hah, I guess I was. Rolling out of sight and into the barred off depths of the lower levels, I straightened up, retracting my wings once more. Taking in a deep breath, the overpowering vanilla stink that Hannah insisted on wearing burned my nostrils. She was physically fine; I couldn't smell blood. Good sign. I followed her voice into the dank catacombs.

  "Please, oh God, please, I'm begging you..." she was pleading with the Italian man, who now had a hungry look on his face as I rounded
the corner.

  "Oh come on baby, you said you wanted to see the sights." Laughing, he grabbed her by the neck and pinned her against the nearest wall. He had unknowingly set himself up for disaster. They were three feet from where I was, in the shadows.

  I had seen enough. It was time to take action. Coming out of the darkness, I grabbed him by the neck and threw him against the far wall. A human would have been knocked out. He wasn't. Instead, he stood up, snarling. His ribs cracked as black wings erupted from his back much like mine, except for the fact his were bleeding.

  A Fallen. He was part of the Dark One's brood.

  I refused to show my identity to Hannah. Keeping my back to her, I squared up against the demon. No wings were necessary for this. "It’s not her time yet."

  The demon laughed. "That’s not your decision. The Dark One owns the earth. He takes who he wants."

  "Only in his mind. We both know who controls everything. She's my Call, and it's not her time."

  Screeching, the demon charged with his claws extended. Kneeling down, I caught him by his legs as he went to leap over. He flailed in the air, trying to get away. That wasn’t going to happen. I tightened my grip on his leg as he stretched his arms out toward Hannah and yanked him just out of her reach in the nick of time. Hannah’s arms were over her head and covered her face. That was a good thing; hopefully she wouldn’t see anything else.

  After I swung him through air one last time, I slammed the Fallen into the floor. Standing over my quarry, I smiled. "You need to return where you belong. Now."

  The power of the command took effect immediately. Writhing on the ground, the very stones opened up and swallowed him whole.

  Silence. That is, until Hannah vomited behind me. I suppose that was a pretty standard human response to a scenario such as this. Sighing, I whirled around and ran from her. She was probably completely at a loss for what just happened, but she could find her own way out of the catacombs. I’d watch from a distance and make sure she was safe.

  I knew later she'd thank God for getting her out of the situation. This was such a thankless job.

  THREE

  It was stupid to let Hannah see me, but I made sure I was visible to her in a quiet corner of the Coliseum. There was no way to make sure she was safe, unless I took care of it myself. I kept my head lowered, not giving her full sight of my face. Instead of saying hi, I let her come to me. Even then, I stood there in silence for a minute, surprised she’d come up to talk. She was a strong human. “Hey, you. Hey, don’t act like you can’t hear me.”

  I began to walk away, hoping she’d get the hint. Maybe it was more because I hoped I would get the hint and not get myself buried any deeper into this mess. Either way, part of me hoped she’d go away. It was better if she did.

  She didn’t. “Hey, I’m talking to you. You just watched someone dissolve into rock with me and you’re completely okay?”

  I refused to look at her. The scent of her vanilla perfume filled the air surrounding us. I shut off my sense of smell, hoping to avoid getting so familiar with the fragrance that I couldn’t get it out of my head. “Not someone. Something. A Fallen. There’s a difference.”

  “A Fallen? What the heck is that?”

  “Something you don’t want to deal with again, because you probably won’t be so lucky.”

  “Why?”

  She was persistent. I liked her more from a distance, when I didn’t have to respond to questions with answers I knew were lame. “Because I might not be there to take care of you next time.”

  “Well, where did you come from this time? You’re not supposed to be down in the catacombs of the Coliseum. You weren’t there by accident.”

  For just narrowly avoiding being killed by a demon, the girl was on top of things. It was ridiculous. “Well then count your lucky stars, lady. Don’t play with fire again.”

  Still trudging through the throng of people outside the Coliseum and following me into the Roman Forums, her questions continued. “I wasn’t playing with fire. Who are you, anyway?”

  I laughed. If only she knew. “The name’s Levi.”

  “Well then, Levi, can I at least see your face?”

  “Nope.”

  She huffed behind me. “Can I at least know where you’re going?”

  “To find a leather jacket. Going shirtless is generally frowned upon around here. You should probably go back to the hotel you snuck out of when your chaperone wasn’t looking. Mrs. Tincu is probably having a heart attack right now.” With that, I sprinted off, leaving her behind me, confused. Humans. They got over things like that pretty quick.

  * * *

  After finding another suitable leather jacket, I returned to tailing Hannah. The man I’d haggled with over the price seemed shocked at my fluent Italian, and eventually gave up on trying to convince me the jacket was real leather. Twenty Euros later, I had my jacket. Usually I wouldn’t have even paid for the thing, but I felt kind of bad just swiping it. Must have been because of being close to Hannah. Being around humans up close made me feel almost human myself, if only for a minute.

  Never out of hearing distance, I knew Hannah had gone back to the hotel in downtown Rome where her Honors History class was staying. She was currently talking to Angie, her best friend. Angie was what we classified as a “Kind Soul”. The clichés that humans used, “kind soul”, “good soul”, and “old soul”, just to name a few, really did come from our ledgers. They were categories. They also determined how long a human would be on earth. There were exceptions, but souls were delicate things. Most had their category by the human’s third or fourth birthday.

  Most of the Guards knew the category of their Call’s soul. I wasn’t privy to mine. No one would explain to me why, and for all my other humans, I had known. It annoyed me that I’d suddenly gotten the shaft for Hannah. Maybe she didn’t have a classified soul yet. I’d heard of it happening, but it seemed far-fetched. The new leader of the Guards, Owen, was probably just playing power cards now that he was promoted. That was a much likelier cause.

  Hannah was telling Angie all about her experience. I listened in while eating my gelato. I assumed it would be pretty good tasting stuff, were I allowed to enjoy things like food. I just used it as a prop, and maybe partly because I wished I could taste it.

  “Angie, I’m telling you, this thing sprouted wings. Then it rushed me like it had rabies or something, and the other guy just threw down like a ninja. Then the stones just swallowed wing-guy up. There was nothing left.”

  “You know I don’t believe you, right?”

  “Why not?”

  I laughed to myself. Why not? Because you just told her you saw a guy sprout wings. To top if off, you claimed to have seen rocks eat someone. Sure. That’s totally believable, Hannah.

  Angie sighed and tried not to be mean. “Sometimes I think you watch too many horror movies.”

  “I swear this wasn’t a dream.”

  “Then what did the ninja guy look like?”

  There was silence as Hannah seemed to figure out what to say. “Well, he was taller, kind of built, had brown hair that was messy… and he was shirtless.”

  Angie was done. She snorted when she laughed, and this time was no exception. “Now I really don’t believe you. Let’s just go to the Forums. Mrs. Tincu will give us extra credit if we go.”

  Hannah and I sighed at the same time. Tossing the remainder of my gelato in the trash, I ran back to the Forums to keep a better eye on the girls.

  Running was exhilarating. I loved it. Just a flash in the peripherals of a human, I was easily dismissed. This was one of the perks of being a Guard. No strings attached to our speed. No pain involved. I’d take running over flight any day.

  A moment later another Guard was running beside me. “You care to do double duty on Hannah and Angie for a couple hours?”

  “Ethan, you know I hate double duty.”

  He clapped me on the back and flashed his award-winning smile that worked wonders on the girl
s he talked to. “I promise to make it up to you.”

  Still running, we came to the Forums. Looking over at him, I shook my head. “You’re never pulling a double duty for Hannah. Ever. I don’t trust you to pay attention in the slightest.”

  He grinned. “That’s why I promised.”

  We scanned the crowd, looking for our Calls. Ethan found them first and pointed in their direction. “Two o’clock. Angie’s wearing that nasty stink Hannah does. They must’ve shared.”

  “Sorry.”

  Ethan laughed. “It’s all good. We don’t get close enough to the Calls for it to be miserable. Anyway, I’m going to try to sweet talk a Guardian across town. I’ll be back in an hour. Deal?”

  “E, you know Guardians want nothing to do with us Guards, right? They’re trouble anyway. How many times do they have to strip your status for you to remember it?”

  He grinned, instead of listening to a word I said. His eyes told me the decision was already made, and I was stuck with double duty either way. The Guardians were his weakness. “Angels make you loopy, man.”

  “I can’t help it. The Almighty did his best work on those ladies.”

  “They’re in heaven. We’re in hell. Do you not see a problem with that?”

  “You may be in hell, but I’m gonna do my job and get Guardian status. Might as well schmooze the ladies and have a leg up.”

  I rolled my eyes. Ethan was as close to a friend as I had. Shoving him out from behind the pillar we’d chosen to hide behind, he fell into a human. Apologizing profusely in ancient Greek, the woman just stared at what was probably the best looking guy she’d ever seen. The muscles he was so proud of contracted and strained his already too tight shirt as he ran a hand over his short black hair. He made sure his brown eyes looked apologetic, and plastered on the same puppy dog smile he’d given me a moment ago. That was another nice thing about our plight. We looked like angels of light, although we hadn’t received the status. It helped with the humans trusting us if we needed to interact.