Hospital. He smelled the blood of the injured from outside the ER doors. His teeth grew in response. He was too hungry to enter without shredding a few humans in the process. Xander used his senses to find the girl within the bright building. Even more interested in what the Black God was doing, Xander lingered for a few minutes then left.
Whatever it was, he wasn’t about to enter a hospital until he’d had his dinner. Xander returned to his condo and his night’s entertainment.
She wasn’t in his bed waiting like girls were every other night. Xander left his bedroom, irritated, and stretched his senses. He recognized Ingrid’s mind; she was passed out on the couch, curled up with his cat. But there was no one else in the condo.
“Ingrid,” he called. His mental prod jolted her awake. “My dinner?”
“What? Oh. Oh.” Ingrid looked around, disoriented. “She got hit by a car.”
“Not again.”
“You have to stop putting that spell on them. They’re like blind deer. Just wander out onto the road.”
“Your job is to keep that from happening.”
“All I did was leave her by the car door. She just had to sit. That’s it.”
Xander rubbed his face, agitated at losing his dinner and his night of fun.
“There’s always me,” Ingrid said hopefully. “You can turn me. I won’t tell.”
“No.”
“Xander,” she whined. “I wanna be a vampire. You promised!”
“I said someday. That’s not today,” he snapped.
“Pleeeeeeease!”
“I’m not turning you into a vampire.”
“I’ll be your dinner. I’ll sleep with you again.”
“I don’t do reruns. You know that.”
She sighed. “You want me to call one of my friends so you have dinner?”
“No. I’ll find my own.”
“Don’t fire me. Please!”
He pushed into her mind and put her to sleep. She dropped back onto the couch. His black cat leapt from the ottoman onto her chest, content to curl up and sleep. Its glowing red eyes narrowed into slits then closed. If Ingrid didn’t know how to hide his money in offshore accounts, she would’ve been gone long ago. She was a brilliant hacker and familiar enough with the underground internet forums to find him new hunting grounds and blood exchanges.
Ready to hunt down his second dinner for the night, Xander pulled off his sweater and replaced it with a t-shirt. His phone vibrated, and he checked it.
Training ops. Lost a Guardian. On my way.
The text came from the station chief of the local Guardians. As part of the uneasy truce they had with Xander, they often used him for training for the new Guardians. Most Guardians listened when their station chief, Gerry, told them the rules about not directly challenging Xander. Some didn’t, and Xander usually found them before their boss could interfere.
Good. Hungry. He texted back then tucked it in his pocket.
Xander stripped off the t-shirt and his shoes then trotted to the main floor of his condo. He exited out the sliding glass doors off the formal living area that led to the private beach behind the building. The sand was soft between his toes, and he made his way to where the sand was moist but not wet.
He started his Tai Chi routine, focusing externally while the night filled his heightened senses. The fragrant ocean breeze was chilly as it brushed his skin, and his movements fell into the rhythm of the ebb and flow of waves. He closed his eyes and felt his muscles relax at the soothing routine. He waited.
The Guardian trainee who intended to attack him triggered the wards Xander set around the building first. He was moving quickly, around the building and seeking shelter among the rocks that lined one side of the moonlit beach to separate it from the property of the neighboring set of condos.
Xander continued his slow, steady movements, watching the Guardian in his mind. Gerry, the station chief, tripped his wards a moment before the stealthy Guardian crossed the threshold into the ten meter radius around Xander, where he was able to absorb thoughts and manipulate minds.
His would-be attacker was a woman. Female Guardians were very rare, and he recalled the last he faced with a mixture of respect and anger. Xander almost smiled, entertained by her thoughts. She was trying to determine the best way to attack and debating the validity of her boss’s assertion that the human-made weapons she carried were useless against Xander.
Gerry stayed outside his mindreading range up the beach, his movement stilled as he watched. Xander made it clear who taught lessons to the Guardians who failed to respect the boundaries.
Xander turned his back to the approaching Guardian to give her a better target then addressed her.
“You have a choice,” he said in a low growl. “You can challenge me and pay the consequences.”
She froze.
“Or back off and go home intact.”
Most Guardians freaked out when he spoke to them. This one was no different. Her first strike might as well have been in slow motion; no one moved like he did with brute strength that flattened her after a particularly harsh block.
Her breath knocked out of her, the Guardian lay still on her back. Xander crouched over her body, one knee in the center of her chest to keep her in place. His eyes scoured her youthful features. She was in her mid-twenties with dark hair and eyes. The effect he had on human women was dulled on female Guardians, but she sensed his strange draw nonetheless and stared at him.
“That is why you follow my directions,” Gerry said from nearby. The tall, blond Guardian built like a college quarterback was frowning. “You get a warning from me, but Xander gets to deal with you how he wants.”
The woman’s eyes widened. “I don’t want to be a vamp!”
“I won’t turn you. Just bleed you dry,” Xander assured her.
She squirmed, eyes flying to Gerry.
“Gentle, Xander,” Gerry reminded him.
Xander reached down in response and gripped the Guardian by her neck. He took her with him as he stood. Gerry was tense and worried, as he had been since Xander decapitated the one Guardian who tried to attack Ingrid, thinking she was a vamp, too.
“Second warning. Don’t fuck with me,” Xander said, gazing down at the Guardian in his grip. “Got it?” As he spoke, his incisors grew.
She swallowed hard without responding. He held her by the back of her neck, high enough off the ground that her tiptoes barely touched the sand, and forced her head back, until the soft skin of her neck was exposed. His eyes went to the visible pulse. Even without accessing her mind, he could see she was panicking.
“You move, it hurts. You don’t, it won’t hurt as bad.” Xander gave the typical warning.
“I hate this part,” Gerry muttered.
The Guardian Xander held suspended didn’t move and squeezed her eyes closed. He lowered his head to nuzzle her neck, loving the smell of a woman’s skin almost as much as he did the taste of her blood. Normally, he didn’t dampen the pain for the Guardians, who felt the full length of his four inch incisors enter their necks. But he had a soft spot for women anyway and granted what little mercy he was willing to.
She jerked as his fangs sank into her neck. A few feet away, Gerry flinched. Xander drank as much as he did from male Guardians. Easing her pain cost him nothing, but he wasn’t about to go hungry.
She slid into unconsciousness after a few minutes, and her body went limp. He wrapped an arm around her but continued to feed. Her heart started to slow.
Xander withdrew, sealed the wound with a flick of his tongue and licked his fangs free of every drop of blood he could. The rich smell of blood was in his nose, the taste and scent almost as good as fucking.
He lifted the Guardian over his shoulder and faced Gerry.
“I really wish they would listen,” Gerry said, shaking his head. He let an uneasy smile slip free.
“It only takes once.”
“Is she alive enough to Travel?”
“Take h
er and find out.”
Gerry cursed. Xander grinned. The station chief almost lost a second Guardian Xander drained close to death and learned the hard lesson that the near-dead should never Travel.
“It’s a long walk home,” Gerry said. “I guess I should be grateful you don’t kill them.”
Xander said nothing. They walked around the building to the front, and he passed off the unconscious woman to Gerry.
“Why don’t you kill them?” he asked, grunting as he shifted her over his shoulder.
“I have nothing to gain by it,” Xander said with a shrug.
“Can’t teach that lesson to the rest of those monsters you created?” Gerry asked.
“G’night, Gerry.”
The Guardian sighed and turned, starting the long walk towards LA. Xander watched him for a short while before returning to the beach to finish his Tai Chi.
He just slid into the zone when his phone rang. Xander snatched it.
“Hey, X, we need your unique set of services.” The caller was none other than Dusty, the leader of the White God’s vampire killing operations for the Western Hemisphere.
“Ask Jule to moderate,” Xander replied.
“Jonny requested you. All three of them are locked up on this one, and the Watchers are getting pissy with us.”
“When the fuck did I become the peacekeeper?” Xander asked with no real heat. He had no loyalties to any of the Gods, a fact that rendered him useful to all three of them when they were in pissing contests.
“I’ve got Cuban coffee. There’s nothing wrong with being universally hated,” Dusty added, amusement in his voice.
Of all the White God’s brothers, Dusty was the one most likely to understand Xander’s position. The former head of the assassin corps for the White God was revered and feared among the Guardians. His wife was also Cuban and made a damn strong cup of coffee.
“Alright.” Xander grunted in response. He started up the beach towards his condo.
“Short summary: Damian wants to hunt down the Others. Jonny wants the sole existing Tracker back, and Darian wants to kill the Watchers. The Watchers aren’t too keen about Darian’s idea.” Dusty summarized.
“Be there in ten.” Xander hung up, irritated at the constant interruptions this night.
Chapter Two
Jessi staggered under the grocery bags filling her arms. The elevator in her building was half-broken again. It worked, but it stopped a foot short of her floor, which made her load even more precarious. She stepped up and out of the elevator. Her back foot caught on the lip of the doorway, and she stumbled. One bag toppled then another. With a sigh, she knelt and released all the bags. Her eyes went to the door of her apartment, two down on the right. She grabbed what she could carry and went to her small home.
“Hey, guys, I could use a hand with the groceries!” she called as she entered. She stacked the bags on the couch.
Silence.
“Please put this stuff away!”
Irritated with the two teenage cousins for whom she was an appointed guardian, she left the apartment to recover the rest of the bags. It was close to seven on a Sunday morning, which meant they were probably still asleep. When she entered again, the elder of the two cousins was putting stuff in the fridge.
“Brandon, you have to take stuff out of the bags,” she said and kicked the door closed behind her.
“Whatever.” His hair was mussed, and his state of dress – T-shirt and pajama pants – indicated he’d just woken up.
“Every week, it’s like it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a grocery bag,” she said. Despite her agitation, she ruffled the eighteen-year-old’s hair fondly. “Get out. I’ll do it.”
“But I’m hungry.”
“You can wait ten minutes.”
The moody teen sighed but obediently left the kitchen and sat on the couch. All three of them inherited the gray eyes of their grandmother, though Brandon and his sister Ashley had dark brown tresses whereas Jessi’s hair was dirty blonde.
“Wake your sister up,” Jessi called.
“I just sat down.”
“Omigod, Brandon. How can someone so lazy be so skinny?”
He mumbled something as he went to the hallway leading to the bedrooms. Jessi put everything away then glanced at the clock. She had an hour until she had to be at her weekend job. Raising two teenagers in a place as expensive as southern California was not easy. She made do with two jobs, but there was no way to save money for their colleges.
And no personal life for her. She found herself yearning for friends again. At the bistro where she was a weekend waitress, she saw the same friends meeting up for coffee every Saturday.
Her movement stilled. The last time she’d hung out with anyone was at a PTA meeting. Did mandatory interaction with other parents count as friends?
“She’s not here,” Brandon said.
“What do you mean? Of course she’s here,” she replied. “Did you check the office?”
“Yeah. I texted her. She went out last night.” Brandon’s protectiveness was in his voice. As the elder brother, he took his role seriously, even if it was the only thing he put any effort into. “Didn’t you check last night when you got home?”
“I pulled a twelve hour shift, and you guys aren’t supposed to leave the house without telling me,” Jessi snapped. “Where did she go?”
“I dunno.”
Alarm was starting to form within Jessi. The one night she’d been too tired to check on her cousins before bed …
“Where’s my phone, Brandon?”
“I’ll call it,” he replied, accustomed to helping her find her phone, keys and wallet when she was too tired to recall where she put them after work.
The familiar ringtone drew them to the couch. Brandon shoved a hand between the cushions and fished out the cell.
“Yeah, I don’t remember sitting down,” Jessi sighed. “Yesterday was awful.”
“You’ve got like, twenty messages,” Brandon said with a frown. “What if she needed a ride or something?”
“If I don’t know you’re going out, I don’t know you need a ride!” she said, worried. She listened to the first message.
“Jessi, this is Laurie again, the nurse overseeing your cousin’s care. Please give me a call as soon as you can.”
Jessi’s worry turned to panic. She listened to the next two messages, also from Laurie, and all but dropped the phone.
“What’s wrong?” Brandon demanded. “Jessi! What’s wrong?”
“Your sister’s in the hospital,” she said at last.
Surprise crossed Brandon’s face. He recovered faster and snatched her purse, rummaging through it before he dropped it on the couch.
“Where are your keys, Jessi?”
His raised voice pulled her out of her stupor. She searched her memory for where she might’ve dumped the keys last night. She’d been a zombie and took the bus to the store this morning. Brandon lifted the couch cushions while she crossed to her bedroom and pulled the jeans she wore yesterday out of the dirty laundry with shaking hands. The keys were in the pocket.
“Brandon, I found them!” she yelled.
“What did they say is wrong?” he asked as she emerged into the living area again. He yanked the door into the hallway open.
“They didn’t,” Jessi said. “Just said to call or come as soon as possible.”
“Why couldn’t you keep your phone with you?” Brandon asked angrily.
“Why didn’t someone tell me she went out?”
They rushed out of the apartment building to her beat up car. Brandon peppered her with questions, until she finally gave him her cell and let him listen to the messages. She pulled onto the crowded street and drove with barely contained patience through the residential areas before flooring the car when she reached the highway.
Jessi’s head was spinning too much for her to register much of the world. Somehow, they made it to the hospital and managed to track down her cousin�
��s room. She stepped into the room and saw Ashley in the hospital bed, an unwelcome memory surfacing at the sight of the girl.
Jessi was reminded of the last time she saw the mother of the cousins, a day before her death. Ashley was a spitting image of her mother: brown curls, blue-gray eyes, a willowy, graceful body. In the middle of the white bed, she looked small. She was dressed in a hospital gown, the silver A charm she received for her birthday resting at her neck. The similarities between the girl’s appearance and the memory of her deceased mother made Jessi nauseous.
This is my fault! Jessi screamed at herself silently.
“Ashley.” Jessi was crying by the time she reached her cousin. “Oh, god, are you okay?”
“I’m okay.” Ashley’s voice was groggy.
Jessi hugged her the best she could, relieved, and stepped back. One of Ashley’s shoulders was bandaged, and her skin was pale. Jessi smoothed the hair away from her face.
“You look awful when you cry,” Ashley said with a smile.
Brandon clutched his hands together across from Jessi, as if wanting to hug his sister but unwilling to make such a gesture.
“What happened?” Jessi asked. “Why didn’t you tell me you were going out?”
Ashley’s face grew troubled. “I … it was just to meet a friend.”
“Jessi Campbell?” a nurse asked from the doorway. “If you have a moment?”
Jessi hesitated then left her cousins, assured Ashley was relatively okay and Brandon was with her. She joined the nurse in the hallway.
“I’m Laurie. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get a hold of you last night,” the nurse said with an expectant look.
“I work two jobs. I didn’t get your message until this morning,” Jessi said lamely. “She’s okay, right?”
“She is. We kept her overnight for observation. She’s got some blood loss, but not much.”
“Blood loss from what? What happened?” Jessi demanded.
“I was hoping you knew.”
“No, I have no idea. She went out to meet a friend and that’s all I know.”
“You seem awfully young to have two teenagers,” Laurie said.
“I’m their legal guardian. Their parents died a few years ago,” she explained. “Hence the two jobs.”
Lizzy Ford Page 4