The Guardian Chronicles 2: Dark Horizon

by Matthew Burkey

  “We won’t start with torture,” Ethan said, starting to pace around the room. “But let’s start off with something that we know is near and dear to you. Marissa, Tony, Elise, you get the charges in place?”

  “Ready to go when you are,” Marissa’s responded.

  “By all means, blow it,” Ethan smiled.

  Seconds later the windows of the large mansion shook and bright flash illuminated the room before a brief moment followed by the thundering sound of high explosives detonating. Daniel started to sweat and looked around nervously, clearly unsure of what was about to come. After all, it wasn’t every day that his home was invaded by teenage commandos.

  “That was the five million in crack cocaine you had sitting in your warehouse,” Ethan said, as he stopped and looked out the window. Another explosion echoed through the compound, shaking the walls of the house.

  “And that was your arms collection,” Everett added. “Don’t worry; we know where all your other warehouses are. We’ve left enough out there for a nice long conviction on multiple counts.”

  Daniel started to look even more nervous.

  Something broke through the window, causing Daniel to yelp. Everett and Ethan looked over to see an arrow placed perfectly in between Daniel’s legs, barely missing the crotch of his pants. They both chuckled at the response; Cody always did have near perfect timing.

  “We can keep going on like this,” Ethan shrugged. “Or you can save yourself some trouble and tell us what we want to know.”

  “He’ll kill me!” Daniel snapped.

  “And you don’t think that I won’t?” Ethan asked, cocking an eyebrow.

  As if to illustrate his point another arrow pierced the window, burying it’s self in the mattress millimeters from Daniel’s head.

  “Talk,” Ethan commanded. “Now.”

  “He approached us about a year ago,” Daniel finally said.

  “Who’s he?” Ethan asked.

  “I don’t know his name...”

  Another arrow flashed through the window, this one imbedding it’s self in the mattress on the other side of Daniel’s head.

  “You do realize that eventually he’ll run out of things to shoot around, right?” Ethan asked.

  “He called himself Sainte-Pierre, Jean Sainte-Pierre...”

  “And what did he offer you?”

  As Daniel talked, Everett looked down at the small screen mounted on is gauntlet. Marissa sent him a text indicating they had downloaded the contents of his computer network. Everett responded and then looked up, nodding to Ethan.

  “He offered us weapons,” Daniel said. “Lots and lots of weapons, some stuff that we didn’t even know existed. And he offered us new bio-tech and canceled government experiments.”

  “Bio-tech?” Everett asked.

  “I don’t know what it was really,” Daniel shrugged. “Only that it made people faster and better soldiers.”

  “What kind of weapons did he offer you?”

  Daniel looked between the two Ethan and Everett before answering again. “Mostly normal stuff...RPG’s, AK-47’s, ammunition, and assorted other stuff.”

  “What kind of canceled experiments?”

  “I don’t know, honest!”

  “You do realize that if you are lying that we’ll figure it out, right?”

  “How did you contact him?” Everett asked.

  “He always contacted us,” Daniel answered. “He never let us contact him, he was paid in off-shore accounts set up by our finance guys.”

  “You have finance guys?” Ethan asked, his brows going up in surprise.

  “We’ve got the account information,” Everett said, looking up from his gauntlet. “I doubt there is much more that he can tell us. We have his whole network on downloaded now.”

  “You can’t do that!”

  “Daniel,” Ethan said, as he pulled the older man to his feet. “I think that you’ll find right now, there isn’t a lot that I can’t do. We destroyed your weapons and drugs. In the morning, we’re going to let the FBI know everything that we know, minus the weird stuff. You can turn yourself in or take your chances on the run from both the FBI and your buddies with the weapons out there.”

  “They’ll kill me!” Daniel practically squealed. “And the FBI won’t ever let me see the light of day!”

  Ethan gave an annoyed grunt before firing several stingers into Daniel, knocking him out cold. Without warning, the window on the other side of the bed shattered as a body flew through it, rolling back into a standing position.

  “What the hell happened to you?” Ethan snapped.

  Ryan shook his head, sending glass and debris falling off him.

  “You know when you said that there weren’t any demons here?”

  “Demons?”

  “Look out there!”

  The three Guardians ran to the window, looking out at the compound below. Making its way around the area was a demon, a fairly powerful one by the looks of it. It stood on four legs, each one as big around as Ethan and a body the size of a rhino that was rippling with muscle. The head was a mass of writhing tentacles, at least six of them that darted out several meters and then recoiled back, stabbing through most anything that it came into contact with.

  “We appear to have missed one,” Everett said.

  “Really,” Ryan grunted. “Hadn’t noticed.”

  “Where in the hell did that thing come from?” Ethan asked, as they sprinted from the room.

  “Just appeared out of nowhere,” Ryan responded.

  The three of them bounded down the stairs and outside, where the rest of the Guardians were already attempting to deal with the demon. Cody landed next to them in a perfect crouch. The archer popped up and fired a glowing silver/blue arrow, burying the shot in the demon’s hide. The demon let out a roar, tentacles lashing back toward where the arrow as sticking out of its skin.

  Marissa’s glowing whip lashed out, leaving deep scorch marks as it seared through the thick flesh. The demons responded by sending her bouncing along the ground with a blow from a tentacle. A burst from Tony’s rifle managed to distract it long enough for Marissa to get back to safety.

  “I thought you said there weren’t supposed to be any demons here!” Elise snapped. She pulled her pistols from their holsters and unloaded a few shots into the demon. Of course, the glowing blue bullets didn’t appear to have any effect on it, other than to annoy it more.

  “Looks like we have to do this the old fashioned way,” Ethan grunted.

  “We can’t get close to that thing without being smashed,” Gabriel snapped.

  “Oh come on now,” Ethan smiled. “Where is your sense of adventure?”

  “Dying is not what I call fun!” Gabriel retorted.

  “Down!” Ryan shouted.

  The demon brought all its tentacles together, unleashing a blast of pink/white energy that rippled outward in a cone, ripping apart several windows and slicing a tree in half.

  “What the hell was that?” Gabriel yelped.

  “Azura demon,” Ethan grunted, getting back to his feet. “Always thought that it was myth that they could do that.”

  The demon unleashed another blast, this time striking a parked SUV. The vehicle flipped sideways, smashing into the house and exploding on impact.

  “I’d say that it’s no myth,” Gabriel gulped.

  As they spoke both Everett and Ryan had moved off to counter the demon, dodging incoming tentacle attacks in an attempt to get in close. Cody was still staying on the periphery, unloading a barrage of fire; most of them were arrows that had been tipped with small explosive warheads, probably due to the fact that he had a limited number of blessed metal tips. No doubt he was waiting for the perfect shot. Sadly, the demon didn’t appear to be willing to present such a target.

  “Are you suggesting that we just run up and stab it?” Gabriel asked.

  “Unless you happen to have another idea?” Ethan inquired.

  Gabriel turned back around and
watched as Everett unleashed a massive burst of telekinetic energy in the form of rippling white sphere that slammed into the demon, causing it to stagger slightly. That bought time for Tony and Ryan to leap onto the demon’s back; slashing and stabbing away, leaving smoldering wounds were their blades penetrated the flesh.

  “Come on!” Ethan yelled.

  Gabriel and Ethan took off at a run toward the demon, which was now thrashing about. The demon unleashed another blast of energy, ripping through the courtyard wall. Seconds later, its whole body glowed and its skin discharged a massive pulse of energy, sending Tony and Ryan tumbling off. Both of them hit the ground, smoking curling from their armor.

  Gabriel was starting to think that his first mission out might be his last, as least the way that things were starting to shape up. He charged in toward the demon with Ethan, ignoring the nagging feeling that he was making a mistake.

  The tentacles flashed toward them, intending to spear them through their armor. Gabriel wasn’t sure if they could actually penetrate the armor and he wasn’t anxious to find out, he spun away from one of the muscular appendages as it speared toward his chest. The blessed metal blade sliced through the slithering appendage, sending part of it smoking to the ground.

  Gabriel looked to his left, where Ethan’s dual blades flashed silver/blue, slicing his way through another tentacle. The demon roared and then charged forward.

  “I think we made it angry!” Gabriel yelled.

  “Thanks captain obvious!”

  Both Gabriel and Ethan dove to the side, avoiding the demon as it ran past them. For as large as it was it was a lot quicker on its feet than Gabriel would have thought. It managed to skid to a stop before plowing completely into a shed near the barn.

  “How do you kill those things?” Gabriel asked.

  “Someone hasn’t been doing their studying,” Ethan said.

  “Shut up Ethan,” Elise snapped.

  “And you told me I wasn’t allowed to bring along lots of explosives,” Cody grumbled, after he jogged over to them.

  “We can’t even - duck!”

  They all hit the ground on Gabriel’s warning as the beam of destructive energy arced through the air where they had been standing before. Gabriel would really have to review his Codex when they got back; this demon probably wasn’t the only one that had a nasty surprise like the energy blasts. Next time he intended to be ready for it, well that was assuming that he survived for there to be a next time.

  “Find the head,” Gabriel said, finishing his train of thought.

  “He does have a point,” Tony agreed. “And where the hell did this thing come from?”

  “We’ll worry about that later,” Ryan grumbled. “Right now let’s just kill the damn thing.”

  “Easier said than done,” Cody grunted, firing another arrow.

  Everett channeled a blast of magical energy through his staff, the purple blast knocking the charging demon off course and into a golf cart that it smashed flat.

  “We’ve got another problem,” Marissa pointed.

  Darklings charged from the still smoldering skeleton of the warehouse, moving directly toward the Guardians and the demon. Cody drew another arrow and fired; it exploded mere inches above of the heads of the incoming herd, the shockwave and metal bearings shredding the incoming ranks.

  “Marissa, Tony, Ryan, and Cody - you take care of the Darklings,” Ethan ordered. “The rest of us will deal with Mr. Smiley here.”

  “Oh joy of joys,” Ryan muttered.

  The Guardians split up. Ethan, Gabriel, and Everett took off running in the opposite direction of the incoming Darklings. The demon was quick to follow the smaller group, unleashing another blast of energy that sliced several trees in half.

  “Do you have a plan?” Gabriel hissed, as they skidded to a stop.

  “I’m formulating one as we speak.”

  The demon charged in, it’s remaining tentacles darting out seeking targets. Ethan back flipped out of the way, while Gabriel slashed through another limb, leaving behind a burning stump. Everett’s staff spun in a blur, knocking away all attacks that came anywhere near him. Gabriel took a step back, narrowly missing another tentacle coming at him, he spun back around, intending to bring Aequitas to bear but never got the chance.

  One of the severed tentacles darted on, hitting Gabriel hard in the chest and sending him flying backwards. He smashed through one of the windows of the barn, luckily, his newly honed instincts kicked in and he managed to tuck and roll to avoid the worst of the impact. A blast of energy seared through the barn a moment later, nearly taking his head off.

  “Next time Sean asks me to go to a concert in a park, I need to say hell no,” Gabriel grunted, sprinting back out toward the fight.

  Ryan was not found of Darklings, even less so when they attacked en-masse. They came pouring out of the woods around the compound, surging toward the Guardians incredibly fast. The one good thing about the situation was that these Darklings appeared feral, completely untrained in the art of war. At least they had that to their advantage.

  Sadly, though with just Stinger rounds, they wouldn’t be able to use their modern firearms to great effect. Cody grabbed another arrow and fired, again it exploded inches from the incoming group of Darklings, shattering bodies and sending black blood splattering everywhere.

  “Eventually, I am going to run out of arrows,” Cody reminded his teammate.

  “Then start hitting them,” Ryan smiled.

  Marissa lashed out with her whip, catching one of the Darklings across the chest, sending a wave of blood flying from the wound. Cody sent several more arrows down range, they were all deadly accurate. He dashed forward, smashing his bow across the face of one Darkling so hard that it’s neck snapped. Cody back flipped, sweeping his bow low and dropping several of the charging creatures to the ground, where he finished them off by stabbing them through the heart with several arrows.

  Tony was right behind him, Stormbringer slicing through the first two that he encountered. Elise followed right on Tony’s heels, unleashing a flurry of blows from her twin axes. Darklings went down left and right, thinning the herd.

  Marissa’s whip wrapped around the waist of another Darkling. She yanked it toward her, smashing it across the face when it got to her. She twisted around, sending her whip coiling around the legs of another Darkling and dropping it to the ground. She leapt toward it, landing on it and snapping its neck with a well-placed kick.

  “How many of these things are there?” Tony asked.

  Tony stabbed another through the chest before whirling the blade around to take the head off another attacker. The katana arced through the air around Tony, not evening slowing as it lacerated Darkling skin, muscle, and bone.

  “Does it matter?” Ryan asked. His daggers pierced through the neck of another Darkling. He spun around, letting one of his daggers fly, striking a charging Darkling right in the head. He surged toward the downed creature, ducking under another attack and slicing through a Darklings throat, sending black blood cascading over his armor.

  Ryan took in the battle around him, summing up the situation so far. His team had the situation with the Darklings under control, at least for the time being. Across the courtyard he watched as the demon let loose with another blast of energy, tearing apart a parked golf cart.

  "Looks like we got the easy job," Tony grunted. A Darkling managed to get around his defenses, slashing him across the face with its overgrown fingernails. Tony responded with a roundhouse kicked that snapped the attacking creature's neck.

  Ryan knelt down and pulled Daylighter from the Darkling's head. As he stood another Darkling flung it's self toward him only to be yanked out of mid-air as Marissa's whip wrapped around its neck and slammed it into the ground.

  "Thanks," Ryan grunted.

  "Don't mention it," Marissa smiled as she slammed her elbow into the face of another Darkling. The blow spewed black blood all over her armor.

  "Somehow I think that
we have our hands full at the moment," Elise grunted. Ryan watched her turn back around, her twin axes dealing death as she spun and slashed through Darklings. Even covered in gore and blood there was something alluring about her.

  Of course his momentary distraction nearly got his face gnawed off. A Darkling leapt toward him and he barely had time to sweep it from the air with a roundhouse kick before it landed on top of him.

  "Get your head in the game," Tony snapped, as Stormbringer burst through the chest of another Darkling.

  Ryan nodded, found the nearest knot of Darklings and went to work.

  Gabriel was really wondering what plan that Ethan had up his sleeve. So far all they had succeeded in doing was making the demon even more irate. Well, that and destroying yet another golf cart, several garden gnomes, and what was left the trees standing in the courtyard.

  "So, this is your brilliant plan?" Gabriel asked. "Let it destroy everything first and hope that it wears it's self out?"

  "Not exactly what I was going for," Ethan grunted. Another tentacle came stabbing toward them, causing them both to dive sideways in order to avoid being either impaled or sent flying.

  "Then might I suggest you use that wonderful tactical mind of yours and figure us a way out of the situation!"

  "Since when did you grow a pair?" Ethan remarked. He flipped forward; avoid the tentacle as it slammed into the ground, throwing up chunks of dirt and concrete.

  "Since my fearless leader's plan was to run in circles!" Gabriel snapped.

  The demon was now missing another tentacle, although loss of the appendage did nothing to slow it down. It was still charging around the courtyard, smashing through anything that stood in the way of getting at the Guardians.

  Everett launched another rippling white sphere of telekinetic energy at the demon, sending it flying sideways. But the strain of constant magic use was starting to show on the young mage and both Gabriel and Ethan knew that he couldn't keep it up forever.

  "Everett's going to get tired soon," Gabriel snapped. "We need a plan and we need one now."

  "Gee, ya think?"

  Gabriel didn't waste time in a response. The demon had recovered from Everett's attack and was now charging at them again. This time though, Gabriel didn't move. He braced himself and brought Aequitas around in a powerful swing, severing another tentacle. The demon continued toward him, the remaining two tentacles angrily reaching out to crush him.