The Guard

by Harri Aburrow-Newman

  I grabbed another mug off of the tree and made us both a coffee, splashing in a hefty dose of whiskey as well, then headed into the bedroom. Ysabel didn’t look up as I set her coffee on the bedside table next to her, then sat down on the edge of the bed.

  “I’m sorry, Yzzy.” I said, very quietly, “I only got you back yesterday. I don’t want to argue.”

  “Neither do I”, she whispered into my mind,

  “I know I was angry about Jesse, but… I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. And I realise I was hypocritical, to say the least.”

  She finally turned to look at me, taking her coffee off of the table and regarding me over the rim as she took a sip. She raised an eyebrow at me questioningly. I gave her a wry, half smile.

  “I was fuming about you not trusting me, but I didn’t trust you either. We’re a partnership; I’m not your superior anymore. You’ve known Jesse much longer than I have, and if you say he’s not a danger, well… then I trust you.”

  “Thank you.” Ysabel moved to sit next to me, lacing her fingers through mine with a sigh.

  “I do trust you, Beth. Implicitly. You know that, right?”

  I nodded, “of course. We would never have gotten through the last century alive if we didn’t trust each other.”

  “Mm. I just… thought that your reaction to Jesse was too extreme. We can make use of him, then send him on.”

  I squeezed her hand gently, looking down at our entwined fingers,

  “I know, I know. I over reacted completely, and again,” I reached up with my other to stroke her cheek, “I am so sorry.”

  She tutted and laughed at me, and I cocked an eyebrow at her,

  “You’ve already said that,” she clarified, “you don’t have to grovel.”

  “Grovel!?” I huffed and got up, “well. Beth Miller does not grovel. So I take it all back. I’m not sorry, I was completely right, and I reckon I might even be your superior after all.”

  “Oho,” Yzzy scoffed, “big words, little girl.”

  She grinned at me with shifted eyes, and her fangs slowly unsheathed. I opened my mouth to retort, but she darted up at me, yanking me down by my shirt and flipping me on to my back. She pinned my wrists above my head and growled low in her chest as I laughed,

  “ok, I yield, I yield.” I choked out,

  “You’re not even trying.” Ysabel actually pouted at me, making me laugh even harder.

  “I can’t help it, you trying to be tough is just so funny.” I grinned at her again. She gasped, mock offended,

  “Bet I can stop you laughing, at least.” She muttered through her teeth.

  I wrapped my legs around her waist, pulling her down on to me, and chuckled again against her mouth.

  We sauntered across the base the next morning, meandering towards the hospital building in no particular rush. As we walked through the front doors we heard Jesse talking with Michael.

  “What time did Ysabel say they’d come in this morning?”

  Jesse snorted a laugh, “she didn’t. She’s probably still arguing with Beth though.”

  I paused for the briefest moment, closing my eyes and releasing a slow breath through my nose, before continuing on more quickly. I could feel Yzzy watching me carefully and gurned in her direction.

  Jesse carried on spouting,

  “It’s such a shame really. I hate to come between them, but I suppose if it’s not meant to be…”

  He trailed off as I reached the doorway, just in time to see Michael roll his eyes. I ghosted up behind them,

  “Don’t get your hopes up Jesse. As if you would ever get to come between Yzzy and me.” I leered at him, although it twisted and turned into a scowl after a moment. Jesse raised an eyebrow as I moved past him to stand by Jacqueline’s bed, but I ignored it, making a conscious effort to pretend he wasn’t there.

  “Lady Jacqueline,” I addressed the vampire on the bed; she still looked wan and frail, “how are you feeling.”

  “I’m much better, thank you lady guard.”

  I cocked an eyebrow sharply,

  “Am I still?”

  Her eyes popped wide and she stuttered slightly,

  “Well, yes… of course… I mean…” she stopped, glancing between Ysabel and myself, and grimaced.

  “What you did,” she gestured between us, “was a blatant flouting of our laws. But, in light of everything… Of what you’ve done to help our people, and of what you’re risking to keep doing so…” she shrugged, “there are worse things than bonding. Far worse. And I, and many others, are more than willing to forgive that. You are our guard leader.”

  I narrowed my eyes, sensing her intentions. She was being honest, mostly, although her reasons for “forgiving” us were more down to fear than anything else.

  “Fine.” I said shortly, “when you’re strong enough, help Jesse wake and question the rest of the vampires. Then we will talk about what you would like to do.”

  I spun on my heel and stalked out of the room with no more acknowledgement of her, feeling a savage satisfaction as her shock at my lack of respect or protocol washed over me. She may have forgiven me, but I was not ready to forgive them. I would not bow to them any longer. If the high vampires wanted the help of the last remaining guards, they would have to learn to treat us as equals, not slaves.

  “You enjoyed that, didn’t you?” Ysabel cocked her head at me, smiling.

  I smirked back at her, “oh yes, very much.”

  Waking the rest of the high vampires was a slow process. Many were not very old or powerful, and their bodies could only absorb so much blood at one time, so healing them had to be dragged out over a period of days. The bloodlings would not accept any blood at all, even mine, so it was with regret that they and the vampires who had been bonded were burned. The destruction of their bodies would release any lingering energies, allowing their spirits to wander. Once awake, Jesse and Jacqueline recorded what had happened to them, trying to extract any information that could be of use. Unfortunately they all had pretty much the same story; they had been minding their own business, usually in hiding somewhere, before being attacked and staked. No more than that. I sat in a meeting room, listening to Jesse’s report and feeling increasingly ratty. I tapped my foot under the table, brooding, until Jesse had finished and Michael spoke,

  “So,” he sighed, “thank you for trying anyway. What are you going to do now?”

  I stopped tapping and looked up, gauging Jesse’s reaction to the question. He shrugged,

  “I’m not sure to be honest. I suppose it depends on you. I think I could continue to be useful.”

  I huffed dismissively,

  “How?” I asked derisively, “your spectacular combat skills, your outstanding tactical mind?”

  He scowled heavily at me,

  “Actually, I was thinking that I could help the high vampires we’ve awoken find new safe houses and then I could come back here… help you process all the paperwork I’ve seen lying around. There are many skills besides sticking swords in people you know.”

  I rolled my eyes and looked to Michael, who was frowning slightly in thought. However, Nathan answered first,

  “We do have people dedicated to research and analysis.”

  “Yeah, like me” butted in Lexi, “what makes you think you could do it better?”

  “Is that a serious question?” Jesse seemed genuinely surprised that such a question needed to be asked. Arrogant git.

  I narrowed my eyes at him,

  “given that you have a history of only caring about protecting your own sorry hide, why would you want to come back here and put yourself in the firing line?”

  He shrugged, “maybe I think it’s about time I cared about something else.”

  I snorted, but didn’t say anything else out loud.

  “I’ll believe that when I see it,” I muttered into Ysabel’s mind. I felt her amusement and agreement, but she too chose to keep quiet for now. Everyone knew our feelings about Jesse, partic
ularly mine; this was a decision for Michael and Nathan to make.

  Michael blew out a slow breath, a contemplative look on his face,

  “I think,” he began, a little cautiously, “that we could use all the help we can get. You can read faster than us, and you might have some insight that could help.”

  My heart sank a little as he spoke, turning to Yzzy and myself,

  “You two can’t be everywhere at once… Jesse will stay and help.”

  Nathan nodded in agreement, “there’s no sense in turning away an extra set of willing hands. And we’ve already got two pet vampires, why not three?”

  Chapter 43

  Michael

  Beth and Ysabel both pulled a face as I announced that Jesse could stay indefinitely. Even Lexi sighed, and Glen looked uncharacteristically serious. However, decision made, we moved on. Jesse would take the high vampires and find them safe houses, then return to help here in any way he could. In the mean time, we would carry on as normal. Or as normal as anything ever was around here. Once the vampires and Nathan had left to attend to their various duties, I turned to Glen and Lexi,

  “Do you think it was the right decision letting him stay?”

  Lexi shrugged, but reached over to rest her hand on my leg, squeezing gently,

  “I don’t like him, but… I don’t think anyone does.”

  “Agreed,” chipped in Glen, “he is not a likeable guy… but,” he mused, “you’re probably right, any extra help can only be a good thing.”

  I nodded slowly,

  “OK, thanks.”

  “aww, man,” Lexi groaned suddenly, “I’ve just realised. It’s alright for you two to say about extra help being a good thing, but it’s me and the other office monkeys who are going to be stuck with him, isn’t it? Uggh.”

  “Have fun with that,” Glen chuckled, and turned to me, “come on lover-boy, we’re taking a patrol out this afternoon, remember?”

  Lexi grabbed me for a kiss before I left, and I followed Glen with a smile on my face.

  The smile didn’t last long. Our patrols, and those that the IGS sent out, were turning up nothing. Jesse was out for three days with the high vampires, returning to report that they were all hidden away, safe and sound, but that was the only good news we had. The last time the ferals disappeared like this had been right before the hospital attack, and Ysabel’s capture. The whole base was twitchy and tempers were fraying; Glen and I broke up several fights over the next couple of weeks as the men directed their nervous energy into their fists. Jesse, despite Lexi’s qualms about working with him, turned out to be useful after all. He could read and process information much faster than all the humans put together, and the absorbing work gave him “less time to be an ass hat”. Between them, they churned through the reports being sent in from the IGS and brought back from patrols. Beth and Ysabel flew nightly sweeps over the city, but only once had a run in with ferals, and that was a small group, easily dealt with.

  It was late afternoon when the civilians marched onto base. I had been training with Beth when she suddenly jerked to a stop, cocking her head with an alarmed look on her face.

  “We need to go, right now!” she slammed her sword back into it’s sheath and ran for the door, keeping to a pace that I could match. She swung a right out of the gym and headed for the main entrance, talking as she went,

  “twenty odd thralls have just turned up, they’re being kept outside the gates…” she trailed off as a soldier ran towards us,

  “Captain!”

  “I know, I know,” I cut him off, “are they armed?”

  “Not that we can tell, sir.”

  I nodded grimly and kept running. By the time we reached the main entrance, the thralls had been trapped in between the inner and outer gates and were well covered by the soldiers on the guard towers, and more fully armed and armoured soldiers were sprinting into formation in the car park. Glen signalled me with a wave from the front of them, and I continued on with Beth, going up the right hand guard tower, where Ysabel and Nathan were waiting. The thralls were a rag tag bunch of men, women and children… different ages, different sizes, but all stood quietly, staring dead forward.

  “They don’t seem to be armed,” Nathan started, “or violent.”

  “They’re not doing anything,” Ysabel said quietly.

  Beth leaned over the rail slightly to look down at them, and as one, every thrall looked up at her. She jerked back, swearing,

  “Hello, Beth.”

  The sound of the thralls speaking in perfect time, in monotonous, mismatched voices made me shudder, and Beth paled a little.

  “Whaat the fuck…?” she muttered.

  The thralls looked forwards again, and then, like puppets whose strings had been cut, collapsed. Ysabel gasped,

  “They’ve been released!”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We can feel them again,” Beth said grimly, “they’re no longer enthralled.”

  The people below us began to move, staggering to their feet and looking around them in confusion. A few of the children began to cry and a woman burst into hysterics, spinning around in circles, looking for someone who wasn’t there. One of the men looked up at us,

  “What the hell is going on? Where are we?!”

  I blew out a long breath,

  “Shit,” I swore under my breath, then spoke louder, “you’re at a military base in London. You don’t remember how you got here?”

  “Uhh…” the man stuttered, “no, no I… I don’t remember anything for… what, what day is it?”

  “Christ,” muttered Beth, “some of these people have no memories of the last three weeks.”

  “I don’t think they’re dangerous,” continued Ysabel, “whatever the reason they were sent here, it wasn’t to attack us.”

  “Nevertheless,” cut in Beth again, “we should maybe keep them all together… and under a nice, heavy guard.”

  “Agreed.”

  Nathan, who hadn’t spoken until now, looked a little shaken as he also agreed.

  Beth shouted down to the people, grabbing their attention,

  “We’re going to lead you into the base,” she explained, “get you fed and warmed, and explain what’s happened as best we can.”

  Ysabel ran down from the tower, keeping her movements slow so as not to alarm the people watching her through the gate, and explained the plan to Glen. He directed the group of men in the car park to split in two, when the people came through the gate, they would be surrounded and led to the communications building. It was central and could be easily covered from all sides.

  The scared, hungry people didn’t cause us any trouble. They looked at the soldiers nervously, but barely a word was spoken. Some of the children still cried, asking for their parents, but they had been gathered up by the adults around them and shushed kindly. They sat around in shocked silence after Ysabel had explained what had happened to them, a few had injuries, which we saw to, and all were given food and blankets.

  “I think they’re in shock,” Lexi said to me, quietly, “these poor people...”

  “I know.” I agreed, “I’m worried about why they were sent here though.”

  I told her about what had happened before they were released, and her eyes widened, worried,

  “another of Archer’s games?” she asked, just as Beth came up beside us,

  “It certainly looks like it,” she hissed slightly, cutting it off with a sharp shake of her head, “but to what end? Ysabel and I are going to stay here and see if we can get anything else out of them. Lexi, do you mind staying at well? You might be able to convince them that we’re not going to eat them, when they find out we’re vampires.”

  “Of course,” Lexi replied without hesitation, “what are you going to do?”

  This question was directed at me.

  “Glen is going to stay here with a squad of men, Nathan and I are going to check in with the guards on duty. We’ll stay out tonight and do the rounds wit
h them. If anything’s going to come of this, it’ll be soon.”

  Beth nodded slowly, “I’d increase the guards on duty too, keep everyone on high alert.”

  I smiled at her, “already done. Get Glen to radio me if anything changes.”

  I paced briskly along the fence, listening to my radio crackle with regular reports. I glanced at my watch. 1am, and still no sign of anything happening… touch wood, I thought, tapping my head automatically. The night continued in that vein; pacing, crackling radios, a shivery energy in the air as every man on base kept a watch. Abruptly, Glen’s voice came through the radio, loud and urgent,

  “Heads up! Beth and Ysabel are sensing a lot of ferals, heading straight for us.”

  I snatched up my radio,

  “How many? And from which direction?”

  “Too many to count,” Glen’s voice was grim, “and they’re coming from every direction.”

  I sprinted for the nearest guard tower, wanting a higher vantage point, and began shouting orders. Here we go.

  Chapter 44

  Beth

  I could hear the ferals pouring in over the fences, their yammering punctuated by the cracking of guns firing and men yelling. I paced, twitchy and uncomfortable with the waiting game that we were playing, Michael having decided we would be of more use staying central and protecting the ex-thralls. The plan was basically to let the ferals go where they wanted; there were way too many coming in and they were spreading out too quickly to stop them, so all of the men who weren’t caught in the initial rush by the fence had been pulled back into the more defensible buildings. The civilians were all sat in the centre of the room in nervous silence, with the exception being Lexi, who was bustling around making cups of tea in polystyrene beakers and reassuring people in her energetic, eternally chirpy way. Ysabel stood quietly at the back of the room, her wings draping around her shoulders like a glistening leather cape and her hair loose and falling over her face. Her thoughts were turned outwards, concentrating on determining the number of ferals and which direction they were going to hit the building from first… the information pouring into her zipped across our bond, registering vaguely with me as I maintained my pacing, guarding the single door into the room and listening to the crackling reports from the soldiers’ radios.