Guardian

by Heather Burch

  “You met death and overcame it.”

  Fear had disappeared with the creature, leaving a strange emptiness when it went. She stood. “Uh, you overcame it. Was it really killing me?”

  “No. Just trying to intimidate you.”

  “Well, it worked. It was after Mace.” As soon as the words left her mouth, Nikki heard the groan of metal. She turned and watched as a beam broke directly over Mace’s head.

  It wasn’t that Mace feared death. He understood eternity, even had a healthy respect for it. But the idea of a dark infinity was enough to shake anyone. The humans didn’t know how good they had it. All they had to do was make a choice.

  Of course, he hoped for light, for mercy, and had made every choice in this life to do his best to be worthy of such grace. But ultimately that decision rested with the Throne. He wasn’t human. He wasn’t offered the mercy seat as they were. Yet Mace knew the grace of the One he served. And because he did, he’d had no reason to fear death.

  But the look on Nikki’s face as he heard her scream, and as he felt the shifting of the beam above and the wind as it dropped to him … that, he feared. And something, some deep force, threw his hands into the air, and he caught the beam before it crashed against him. He lowered it to the ground as it whined in protest. And as it fell, so did Nikki. She fainted in a heap at Will’s feet.

  Without stopping to think, Mace jogged the distance to her and pulled her onto his lap. He rocked her gently back and forth and thought of what a horrible day this was for a human to endure. She awakened wrapped in his arms. And then she cried. Great, heaving sobs. One hand stroked her hair, moving the tear-moistened strands from her face. The other stayed tightly fitted around her waist; an assurance, a promise not to let her go.

  “Mace, there are a few more wounded.” At some point Vegan had come alongside him, and she didn’t sound altogether pleased.

  He closed his eyes a moment. Back to work. He heard the other Halflings working to situate the remaining injured and dressing what wounds they could with torn strips of clothing. “Are you okay now?” Mace whispered, because Nikki needed to be okay. A seed of anger and indignation rooted into his heart, a seed that was connected to her. Because she’d lost her parents, her home, even her dog. Because she’d had to watch him almost die, because she was being hunted by evil creatures no teenage girl should have to think about. And for all those reasons, she needed to be okay right now. He would never let iniquity settle in his heart because she was destroyed by what he brought into her life. He’d always been okay with the destiny chosen for him. But he wasn’t okay with this. And iniquity, though it could be a fire able to warm the coldest soul, was also a one-way ticket to hell.

  Mace. Holding her. His beautiful face resting above hers. He asked her something. Was she okay? Nikki read every worry in his face and nodded. He needed her to be okay.

  So she was.

  She pulled a breath and with it drew her courage. “I’ve watched you die twice today.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she wished she could grab them and shove them back in. This isn’t what he needed right now. He needed someone strong, someone able to stand beside him, not crumble at every challenge. “But I’m okay. Vegan’s right. You have to help the rest of the wounded.”

  Mace’s eyes conveyed approval. His fingertips traced from her temple to her jaw, until his index finger trailed over her lips. “That’s my Nikki,” he said, then his lips were where his finger had been.

  She thought she’d already run the gamut of sensations in the course of this day, but the press of his mouth to hers created a new barrage of feelings. Her awareness heightened as she felt the shockwave rock through his system. Mace deepened the kiss, barely, but somehow monumentally. And Nikki knew as soon as she pulled the breath he released into her lungs that there’d be no going back. They’d just crossed a line. She wouldn’t apologize for this. It felt right being in his arms. To truly be his. How could she have ever doubted?

  He pulled away gently, but it felt as though they were still connected. Maybe they were. On some deep level that went far beyond feeling, it felt like their souls intertwined. And she didn’t think any power on earth could reverse that.

  When his body tensed to move her from him, she pressed her mouth to his once more, needing to be sure she hadn’t imagined the stir of her soul. All the energy that had gone into moving away from her melted away as they kissed. His hands wound into her hair, and she realized with awe he wouldn’t break the kiss this time. There was a hunger there, an excitement, an urgency, and she knew she shouldn’t have kissed him again.

  But they’d worked so hard to stay at arm’s length from one another. Worked so hard to do the right thing, though now it was impossible to resist what was right. She started to tip away, but his fingertips hardened at the base of her neck, a refusal to let her go.

  Vegan’s voice broke through the connection. “Nikki, you should get back to the hillside where it’s safe.”

  Her eyes snapped open and she broke the kiss. She hadn’t meant for such a strong challenge to appear in her gaze, but she knew it had.

  “No,” Mace said. He gave her a wink. “Nikki can help.”

  She hugged him hard. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”

  “You better,” he warned.

  Vegan gave her a hand up. “She can stay with me.”

  Mace was doing what he’d been created to do: lead. Orders flew from his mouth as he pointed Halflings toward different railcars to do a final check. Everyone deferred to his instruction, and the rescue mission moved with precision. Injured passengers had been carried on makeshift gurneys—pieces of thin metal, strips of broken boards from inside the train, even a steam trunk lid had been fashioned to carry the injured. The wounded lined a section of grassy area parallel to the train wreck at the base of the hill. Those who were less injured had rallied to help. After what seemed like an eternity, they heard the sirens. The train track snaked between the only road in and the only road out of this section near the Rhine River, sometimes hovering near the thin incoming road, sometimes veering away from it. Thankfully, in the valley where the wreck sat, the road wasn’t far.

  Raven ran toward Mace, wiping sweat smeared with blood from his hands. “You hear ’em?” he asked. The whine of sirens filled the air, bouncing off hills and seeping gloriously into the valley.

  Mace nodded, trying to catch his breath. “Yeah. Took them long enough.”

  “We’re out in the middle of nowhere, dude.” Raven’s eyes suddenly darted toward the road to the north, then off to the right, and then back again.

  Mace watched as horror filled his brother’s features. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  Raven pointed toward the road on one side, then the road on the other. And with his hand he made a perfect swooping motion demonstrating the bowl they were sitting in.

  It dawned on Mace what he was suggesting. A gauntlet.

  Mace turned and started screaming to the others, “Get them away from the hillside!” His arms flailed, motioning for everyone in the vicinity to move the wounded. And he prayed it wasn’t too late.

  Nikki heard the screams, the yelling, the uproar. Mace was hollering something about getting people away from the hillside. She left her task of searching for survivors and popped out of the train car. What had been a scene of relative order under Mace’s command had become chaos as people dragged, carried, and tugged the wounded back toward the train. As she neared Mace and Raven, she heard the first explosion, a ground-rumbling boom that reverberated through her system. Behind her, the hill collapsed onto the road like a great brown avalanche. A massive dust cloud rose and engulfed them. If the people hadn’t been moved, they would be buried under the dirt.

  She drew in a breath, but sucked only dust that caked her throat and caused her to cough. The second boom threw her a few feet, and she fell forward into Mace and Raven, who’d each run toward her after the first blast. They caught her weight together, but the reality of the situatio
n made all three less than solid. They’d barely gained their footing when on both the north and south ends of the mountain, the road disappeared beneath a hill of fresh earth.

  “They’ve closed us in. It will take hours for the emergency vehicles to get through,” Mace said, tearing off one of the sleeves of his T-shirt and wrapping it around his mouth.

  Nikki watched him for a moment, then did the same. Raven’s grip tightened on her arm. She protested and tried to pull away, but he looked as if he didn’t even hear her.

  Her eyes flew to Mace, who grabbed Raven by the wrist and twisted his grip from Nikki. “Dude, what’s wrong with you?”

  But Raven’s eyes were focused on the top of the mountain. Nikki squinted to see what had drawn his attention and caused him to hurt her, but all she saw was a large white van and four men piling into it. She rubbed her arm.

  “Raven, I’m going to need you to take charge of the wounded. I’ll organize a group to start digging from this—”

  But Raven wasn’t listening. He stared at the mountainside, his breaths coming in short puffs. Raven snapped his wings open and leapt.

  Nikki blinked.

  Mace sighed, a long, sad sound.

  “He … left?” Her eyes found Mace, pleading for him to tell her she hadn’t just watched Raven abandon them. But he wouldn’t meet her gaze, and she knew he was fighting his own disgust.

  Nikki looked at the pitiful scene around her. Women and children and a good number of men were crying, digging through the debris and dust, searching for loved ones they hoped escaped the earth slide. Stunned and bleeding, those who could walk were carrying wounded.

  And Raven left.

  She noticed a little girl clinging to a teddy bear. The girl’s eyes were saucers and her nose was bleeding. She sat on a rock, covered in a layer of dirt, and stared into the distance.

  And Raven left.

  An old man was yelling for help, hollering about his wife going back into the train car to get her purse right before the earthquake. He used his cane to try to pry open the sheet of metal encasing her in the railcar. When he realized his efforts were futile, he crumpled to the ground.

  And Raven left.

  The shock melted into anger and she ran from Mace to try to help the old man.

  “She went back in. We thought it was safe,” he said through tears. “Then the … the … earthquake …”

  Earthquakes weren’t accompanied by air-splitting blasts. She’d lived in Missouri long enough, had watched demolition crews blast through mountains to build roads often enough, to know that. This was intentional. Nikki grabbed the cane and tried to pry at the opening of a passenger car. From inside, she heard a whimper. It fueled her fight. She searched the surrounding area and found a piece of steel. Anchoring it, she pulled and heard the metal prison creak. Suddenly, tiny wrinkled hands appeared in the crack she’d made. They were bloody and quivering, but alive. The old man grabbed the hands and kissed them, and the whimper inside became a howl of despair and joy.

  “Mace!” Nikki screamed.

  Before she could fill her lungs to yell for him again, he was there, throwing his weight against the metal and prying it open around her. Blood began to run beneath his fingertips and Nikki knew the jagged sharp pieces of metal were cutting him. “Wait,” she said, and ripped the remaining sleeve from her top. But the old man stripped his shirt from his back and forced it under Mace’s fingers. The opening was large enough now for a child to pass through, and Nikki caught a glimpse of the terrified woman.

  “We have to get her out,” Nikki said and wedged her foot between the opening and the train track. She clamped her hands around the woman’s arms and pulled with all her strength. Just as the woman was freed and falling into her husband’s waiting embrace, Nikki felt the train shift. A deep rumble rose from the ground as the train car began to slide and settle. Her foot became trapped, but Mace’s hands were there at her ankle trying to pull her free. His fingers were slick, and when she heard the second whine of settling metal, something in her died. Her eyes found Mace, whose face read everything she felt. The train was going to crush her.

  Chapter 12

  Nikki drifted in and out of consciousness for days. She knew it had been days because darkness turned to daylight and daylight to darkness. Over and over. She was so tired. But in the sweet euphoria that was one part sleep and one part wakefulness, she’d pieced the pieces together.

  Raven appeared in the last moment before the train car came down. He must have taken most of the brunt of the falling car that would have squished her into the ground like a bug under a shoe. She gathered from the conversations around her, when everyone presumed she was asleep, that Raven had given Mace time to get her out and then disappeared completely.

  Disappearance was impossible for a Halfling. Sure, they could leap out of this realm into the other if there was room for their wings to snap open, but disappearing from beneath a train, as if vaporized?

  She heard Mace’s voice often. Sometimes soothing her, sometimes talking in a soft whisper to one of the others. From what she could tell they were at Viennesse, one of the Halflings’ ancestral homes in Europe.

  A part of her wanted to stay in this state of consciousness where Mace watched over her and nothing bad happened, but the continual healing of her body disallowed that. She loved Mace. And watching him in action, saving lives and leading the entire operation, reminded her why she loved him. But it was the kiss that swept her away. They’d never kissed like that. It was a pure, sweet, honest promise. No walls between them, placed by either of them. Nothing in their way. And that was as treacherous as it was wonderful.

  And then Raven had saved her. But, she tried to tell herself, he’d also left hundreds of people in order to chase after a mysterious van. Even if she were to decide his actions were right, that he’d done a noble thing, he’d disappeared without any explanation. And she had no idea what that meant. The Halflings seemed to think he was okay, based on the conversations she’d overheard. Some were even angry; another “Raven antic,” Vegan called it. But when days passed and Raven didn’t appear at Viennesse, their bitterness had softened. In fact, some were wondering if he’d even perished beneath the train, though they claimed he couldn’t have. They’d done a thorough search for him. He’d left, then returned to save her, then disappeared. He’d reappear eventually.

  With all that was swirling around her, Nikki knew it was time for her to join the world of the living. Even though it meant dealing with unsettling things like terrorists who blow up trains and demons who try to steal your soul to intimidate you, and most of all half-angel boys.

  Mace left the room before she could open her eyes. Nikki turned to the window and stared at a cloudless blue sky. “Come back, Raven,” she whispered. “You weren’t created to be alone.”

  There were a million reasons for Raven to stay dead and only one reason to be alive. Nikki. But the fact remained, Nikki was with Mace. Which made dead a whole lot more appealing.

  It was the kiss that sealed it. Its power reached out toward anyone who happened to be standing nearby. It was what he’d always wanted her to feel when she kissed him.

  He’d said he’d give her time. Against his better judgment, but hey, what did he know about this love thing? Now he was left with that day playing out over and over in his head. As if intent on making the anguish last, his mind forced him to watch Nikki rush to Mace even though all three of them could have been killed by the speeding train.

  Her concern, her fear, her attention had been Macecentered. And if anything, if anything at all, Raven had been a brief afterthought.

  Women were nothing but trouble. Hadn’t he known that before? The thing that really got to him was that he’d left the van of goons to go back and save Nikki when he heard Mace scream her name. By the time he changed course and got to her, other Halflings were there helping Mace hold the train car off the ground. They could have gotten her out. But he’d dived inside, tugged her ankle free, and too
k the weight of the car while she scampered into the sunlight.

  And the van full of bombers drove away as the train met the ground. The screeching of metal still hung in his ears.

  So, after the narrow opening closed and he knew she was free and, oh yeah, in Mace’s arms again, he’d scooted into the back of the train. When no one was looking, he’d shimmied out the back and leapt. They were probably crying over his death. Oh well. It was better this way. For all of them.

  His first stop had been Dr. Richmond’s house. The doc was glad to see him, and they’d even formed a bit of a bond since Raven visited him each evening. In fact, Raven had become an almost constant shadow of Dr. Richmond, helping him in the basement lab. Raven explained to the doc he was homeschooling now, and Richmond bought it. Or so he said. The madscientist-gone-high-school-teacher tried to broach the subject of Nikki leaving town and Raven and his “cousins” leaving school all in the same weekend, but Raven always redirected the conversation. Seriously, what could he say? Yeah, well, we don’t like Vessler, her godfather, because we think he’s connected to an ancient being so evil he’s actually seeking to destroy the human population. Did Nikki leave town with us? Why, yes she did. We all piled onto a yacht and headed to Europe. But I had to leave when I realized the girl I love is in love with someone else. So, here I am. Surprise. Did I mention I really need information on the laboratory you used to work for because they are also tied to that ancient being I mentioned earlier? Sorry to tell ya, but you were helping a group who is trying to destroy your race. But hey, don’t let it ruin your dinner or anything.

  What Raven hadn’t expected was that his plan to discover what Richmond knew had spawned a shocking revelation. One that caused the back of his neck to sweat.

  He’d found unconditional approval.

  Though there remained specific reasons for their time together, Raven couldn’t discount the acceptance he received from the older man. Round and partially bald, Richmond personified the weakness of man, his inability to control even his appearance. But deeper than the surface, the doctor gazed upon Raven as if he admired and … appreciated him. As if he respected and cared for—