Broken (Book 3 of The Guardian Interviews)

by Michael Clary

  “If you hurt me,” I shouted while frantically casting my light about the room in an effort to locate her. “You’re as good as dead. This is your only chance at life. I’m your only chance.”

  The screaming stopped.

  “Turn out the light,” she said. “Come closer to me. Let me hold you. I’ve been here all by myself for such a long time.”

  “No,” I said as defiantly as I could.

  “Turn off the light!” she screamed so loudly that I wanted to cover my ears.

  My light finally found her. She was spread out like an insect on the ceiling. I knew at that moment that I had grossly overestimated the ability of these creatures to reason. I had failed. There was no way in hell the vampire was going to help me. I needed to get away. Coming here was a mistake, and I was an idiot. The vampire was clear across the room, and I just knew that I’d never make it to the door.

  I had to try.

  I moved slowly. I never ran. That would only entice her to attack. I forced myself to remain calm even though every instinct I possessed screamed at me to run as fast as I could. I had only taken a few steps when the vampire abruptly spider-crawled across the ceiling and dropped to the floor in front of the door with a dull thud.

  “Don’t come any closer,” I threatened weakly while back stepping away from her.

  “What are you going to do to me if I do?” She asked.

  “I still have the light,” I said.

  “Not for long,” she replied while slowly advancing towards me.

  My back hit the window. I could feel the chill of the night through the glass. And then it dawned on me. I had just backed up into another exit. I turned and slammed my elbow into the glass. The window shook and vibrated. It did not break.

  I had only taken my eyes off the vampire for a brief second. Apparently, that was all she needed. When I turned around to face her, she was right in front of me. I raised the flashlight to her face in an effort to chase her away again. She simply grabbed my arm and took the light from my hand and cast it to the floor.

  The flashlight spun on the dirty ground causing the room to go from light to dark until it finally settled with its beam pointing towards the vampires back. Her face was in shadow, but I was still able to see her jaw extend. I heard the soft popping sounds as the fangs broke through her gums.

  I cursed myself for being such a fool. I should have listened to Miriam. I should have listened to Momo. I should have stayed where I was safe. I should never have tried to play the part of the hero. I started crying. I remembered how Jax had run out and saved me from the zombies. He would save me now if he could. The vampire wouldn’t stand a chance against him but Jaxon wasn’t here. I was all alone.

  I was going to die alone.

  She still had me by the arm. I couldn’t break her grip. It was like being caught in a vice. I felt the bones in my arm bend, and I cried out in pain. The vampire enjoyed this. I could see the large smile spread across her distorted features.

  “Fear not my brave and beautiful visitor,” she whispered into my ear. “I won’t hurt you needlessly. I’m much too hungry for those types of games.”

  She wrapped her other arm around my waist and pulled me in close. The harder I struggled, the harder she squeezed my wounded arm. I felt her lips against my shoulders and neck. I felt the sharp teeth against my skin. Slowly, she bit down. Her fangs were so sharp I barely felt any pain…and then she bit harder.

  I screamed.

  I screamed as loud as I could. I actually felt her sucking out my blood, but I refused to quit. I refused to die. I kept on screaming and screaming. I kept on struggling. My heart was hammering against her. It was so loud and fierce I could actually hear it.

  THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.

  The sound just went on and on. And then I felt the glass of the window shatter. Shards of it sprayed my face like a sharp rain. I opened my eyes, and I saw a muscular arm reach through the window and grasp the vampire’s hair. I saw her eyes go wide as she was slammed against the wall beneath the window. I heard her scream as she vanished into the night.

  You look confused.

  “I am confused.”

  That’s exactly how I felt. Nothing made sense. I had no idea what had just happened. One second I was being drained by a vampire, a moment later I was lying on a dirty floor all alone.

  I was bleeding, but my injuries were not too severe. The vampire had taken her time with me. Still, there was a lot of blood, and that freaked me out. I pulled off my outer shirt and wiped at my wounds. There was a trickle still flowing when I was finished. Most of the blood covering me must have fallen from the vampire’s mouth when she was attacked.

  There were violent noises coming from outside the shack.

  I got to my feet. It wasn’t easy. I was feeling pretty woozy. I used the walls for support and made my way to the front door. Only then did I realize that the inside of the shack was ablaze with light. I opened the door and stepped out into a battle zone.

  Actually, that isn’t really accurate. In order to have a battle, two sides need to be fighting. What I saw instead was Jaxon beating down the vampire. He still had her by the hair and was slamming his fist into her face over and over again.

  Suddenly I felt hands upon my body. I struggled. I was so dazed and confused that I thought I was being attacked again.

  “Take it easy, mamacita,” Dudley said. “I’ve got you now. It’s going to be okay.”

  I was safe.

  I laughed out loud. It felt good to be alive. No, it felt great to be alive. My protectors had arrived. I warned her, didn’t I? She should have listened.

  Javie was with Dudley. Before I even stopped laughing, he had cleaned out my wound, and started rubbing some sort of gel over the bite. Whatever it was stung like hell but I wasn’t paying a lot of attention. I was watching Jaxon beat upon the vampire under the glare of the spotlights mounted on the helicopter hovering above all of us.

  It wasn’t the sound of my heart beating that I had heard as the vampire drained me. It was the sound of a hovering helicopter.

  “Why didn’t the vampire hear it?”

  I guess she was just too preoccupied with feeding on me.

  “So the Regulators managed to track you down. That didn’t take them very long did it?”

  No, it didn’t take them very long at all. I really can’t complain though, can I? They saved my life.

  I watched as Jaxon beat the vampire. He was merciless. I mean, the vampire tried to fight back but Jax was just too tough. The fight was one sided. She must have been a very young vampire.

  Jaxon was also dragging out the inevitable. He must have been very angry. He’s normally rather quick when it comes to finishing things off. The vampire began to beg. She began to try and talk to him just as I had tried to talk to her.

  Nick and Georgie were standing at a distance on opposite sides of the vampire. Their faces looked angry. None of them were here to take prisoners. There would be only one outcome. Jaxon pulled free his tomahawk from the back of his belt. I watched as he slowly twirled it in his hands.

  The vampire began to cry.

  More helicopters began to approach from the distance. The battle was all but over. The new arrivals were only coming to clean up the mess. I had but seconds to act.

  I bolted away from Javie and Dudley. I ran straight towards Jaxon. Georgie tried to stop me but I somehow managed to sidestep around him and place myself between Jax and the vampire.

  I didn’t like the look on my friends face.

  “Move!” Jaxon growled at me.

  “Just wait, Jaxon,” I pleaded. “Just hear me out.”

  “Move!” Jaxon repeated.

  He wasn’t listening to me. He wasn’t even looking at me. His eyes were locked upon the beaten vampire. The helicopters had landed around us. There were four of them. Out of the corners of my eyes I could see soldiers piling out. They took up positions all around us, with their guns trained on the vampire.

  “You can
’t kill her,” I said. “We need her.”

  Finally, Jax turned his gaze upon me. If I thought the vampire was pretty damn scary, it was nothing compared to the look on my friend’s face. His upper lip was twitching in rage. His eyes were burning with a cold fury I didn’t even know he possessed.

  Then, he moved.

  He moved almost as fast as the vampire. I screamed when he grabbed ahold of my arm and dragged me away from the violence. Nick and Georgie tried to follow, but Jax waved them away.

  His grip on my upper arm was frightening.

  “Jaxon,” I said. “Jaxon, you’re hurting me.”

  He immediately let go of my arm. We were far enough away from the circle of soldiers surrounding the vampire that we didn’t need to shout to be heard. Jax was glaring at me. I had really pissed him off.

  “What the Hell did you think you were doing?” Jaxon shouted so loudly that more than a few heads turned our way.

  “I had an idea,” I replied. “I think it might work…”

  “Fuck your idea,” Jaxon interrupted angrily. “You have no business out here. You should be dead right now. If we had gotten here thirty seconds later…you’d be a corpse.”

  “I know,” I said. “I know I underestimated the situation. I made a mistake. I thought I could handle myself.”

  Jaxon held out the handle of his tomahawk.

  “You think you can handle yourself?” He asked. “Then take it. Take it, go over there, and show me what a badass you are. You want to fight? You want to put yourself in harm’s way? Then, let’s get you started.”

  “Get that thing away from me,” I said. “It makes me nervous.”

  “You started this,” Jaxon repeated. “Consider this day one of your training. Take it.”

  “And do what with it?” I asked. “You want me to go fight her?”

  “No,” Jaxon snapped. “She’d kill you. I’ll hold her down. You take the swing. Aim for the neck. You want to remove the head. Keep swinging until it comes off.”

  “I can’t do that,” I muttered.

  “No shit you can’t do that,” Jax growled. “Most people can’t. Then again, most people don’t try and fuck with a vampire.”

  Jaxon tapped his earpiece and called for a car to come and pick me up.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “It won’t happen again. I didn’t realize how bad it would be.”

  “If it does happen again,” Jaxon said, “if I even think you might be entertaining a thought of endangering yourself, I’ll have you fired. I’ll have you thrown out. You can’t put yourself in harm’s way if you don’t know what’s out there or how to find it.”

  I started crying. I couldn’t help myself. My eyes filled up with water, and the tears started rolling down my cheeks. Jaxon took one look at me and walked away. I didn’t follow him. I didn’t want to risk having him yell at me again.

  He stopped about thirty feet away, stuffed his tomahawk back into his belt, and put his hands on his hips. He sighed deeply. I couldn’t hear it but I could see the movement of his big shoulders. He turned around and marched right back up to me.

  I could still see the anger on his face.

  I looked into his eyes. I watched his face go from angry, skirt around confused, and finally find a home with worried. He held out his arms for me, and I ran into them. Nestled in his embrace I felt safe for the first time that evening.

  “I already know what’s out there,” I cried into his shoulder.

  “Yes, you do,” Jax whispered. “You most certainly do.”

  “I’m glad you found me,” I said.

  Chapter 4

  Skie

  Talking with Skie is always a fun time. Her happiness is infecting. I don’t meet with her at the compound. Skie doesn’t like to go there. Instead, I meet with her at her home where she answered the door with a bottle of wine, and a smile so big it made her eyes almost vanish.

  She was wearing jeans and a white Harley Davidson t-shirt. Her boots give her an inch or two of extra height but she’s still pretty tiny. I’m guessing she’s just an inch or two over five feet. Her dark hair has grown longer but the face is the same. The big brown eyes and the constant smile make her look as if she’s barely out of her teens.

  “We didn’t get to talk the last time I was doing a series of interviews.”

  Nope, I didn’t have much to do with whatever went on with all the vampires.

  “What do you mean, ‘whatever went on with all the vampires’?”

  Wow, you’re good. I didn’t even mean to let that slip out.

  “Do you not know what happened with the vampires?”

  Skie gives me a warm smile.

  Are you married?

  “No.”

  “Do you have a man in your life?”

  “Not currently.”

  Have you ever been in love?

  “Yes.”

  Good, you will be able to relate because I’m very much in love with Jaxon. I love him completely. I will love him until the day I die and probably long after. Yet, I hate what he does. I’m a wife; I worry. I understand why he does it. I understand what it means when he does it but I wish it were someone else.

  I’ve never made it a secret that I worry about my husband. I’ve never denied I dislike the long periods of time we spend apart and the danger he places himself in. I don’t nag at him. I don’t hound him to quit. I never let it affect our marriage. I understand that he can’t stop. I understand that people will die if he turns away from his destiny. I probably love him even more knowing how much he cares about the people that need his help.

  Yet, I have a dream that someday he’ll give it all up. Maybe someone else will come along and take over for him. Maybe the world just won’t need him anymore. It’s a very fond dream and it means a lot to me. I believe that someday it will come true. I believe it with all my heart.

  When the day finally comes that my husband and I are finally free to live our lives in peace and happiness, I will pick up your books. I will read about the deeds of my husband and his friends. I will probably laugh a lot. They tend to crack me up. I’ll probably get angry a few times. My husband is a bit more reckless than I would prefer. Most of all, I’ll cry. I will cry at all the things he’s gone through. I will cry over the pain he’s felt, the betrayals he’s received, and the sacrifices he’s made.

  But not today.

  I can’t and won’t hear those things now. I don’t want to know what vicious monster is out there waiting for him. I don’t want to know how dangerous his life is. I’ve already seen him fight. I hated it. I never want to see anything like that again. I don’t even want to hear about it.

  I mean, don’t get me wrong. I still hear things. The boys are loud, but I try my hardest to avoid hearing too much. I do my best not to ask questions. I know too much already.

  “Tell me what you know. Take me back to the night of the awards ceremony.”

  Is that where you want me to start?

  “Actually no, can you begin when Jaxon got home? I’d like to hear a bit about what life is like for you.”

  Well, we were in Ruidoso, New Mexico. Jax came home a few hours late. I figured he had been held up with something zombie related so it was a shock when he started mumbling something about Ivana.

  I didn’t ask questions. I was just happy to have him back. I had even rented us a quiet and secluded cabin well off the beaten path. I didn’t tell anyone where we were, and I confiscated my husband’s phone as soon as he walked in the door.

  We had some catching up to do. I didn’t want interruptions. Of course I had brought Merrick with me. Both of them would never have forgiven me if I hadn’t. You see, the team had been climbing a lot of rooftops, and Jax thought things would go easier if she stayed behind.

  Merrick was none too happy this.

  As soon as Jax walked into the cabin, Merrick jumped right up into his arms. Jaxon laughed and held her with one arm while embracing me with the other. I think we held onto each other for
a good five minutes before he stepped away and headed for the shower.

  That night Jaxon and I had a few drinks before going to bed. Merrick slept in between us, under the covers, and refused to budge. It would normally have irritated the hell out of me but I let it go since both of them seemed so damn happy.

  Around three in the morning, Jaxon had a nightmare. I felt him shudder. I heard him groan and saw him suddenly sit straight up in the bed. He was covered in sweat and pale as a ghost. I tried to get up with him. I wanted to make sure he was okay. Instead, he rubbed my back and apologized for waking me. After that, he went into the kitchen and made himself another drink.

  “I imagine nightmares are pretty commonplace with all the horrible things he’s seen. If I ever had just one monster try and eat me, I don’t think I’d ever sleep again.”

  Nightmares are commonplace for him. Except it’s not the monsters he sees in his dreams. I wish it were that simple. Instead, he sees the faces of all the people he couldn’t save. He sees the lives that were lost. Those lives haunt him at night.

  “It must feel terrible to hold yourself responsible for the lives you couldn’t save instead of celebrating all the ones you did.”

  I wish I could talk to him about it. I wish he would listen. It’s a subject that he touched on just once. He never mentioned it again, and he changes the subject immediately if I try to bring it up.

  The next morning, Jaxon was already cleaning up his weapons and gear by the time I got out of bed. He smiled at me and pointed to the kitchen. The coffee was in the pot just waiting for me. Jaxon makes the best coffee, by the way.

  After both of us had showered, we drove up to Jaxon’s parents’ cabin. His parents and my kids were waiting for us on the front porch. His mom made an incredible breakfast. Jaxon stuffed himself. He always stuffs himself when he can. Sometimes while he’s working, he won’t be able to eat for a few days.

  All of us spent the day together. It was a great day. I remember that very much. Jaxon was very relaxed. The kids were enjoying themselves. Zombies were never once mentioned.