Daughter of Earth (Tales of the Guardian)

by Brianna Merrill

“I guess the first time I noticed anything was just before we came to Eden. He told me about the vision Dante gave him and…”

  “A vision,” Aldara breathed out, she looked as though she just might faint. “Dante gave him a vision?”

  “Yes, in Cooperstown,” Xavier seemed confused as to why that would alarm Aldara. “Why do you act so surprised, Cyreena saw the battle.”

  “I saw the battle but I cannot see Ancient Ones. They are blocked from my view. I had no way of knowing Dante had given Alexander a vision,” Cyreena said from behind.

  “If we had known Alexander allowed Dante to give him a vision we would have taken the necessary measures long ago. Now, I fear it could be too late. Six months is too long. It is a miracle Alexander was able to fight off the poison for as long as he has. His heart and will have proven stronger than most. We need to get him on that table.” Aldara pointed to the large wooden table with the weapons display.

  A Guardian cleared it with one swoop of his arms, flinging the blades and daggers to the ground as six of the men hoisted Alexander up and carried him over to lay him down upon it.

  “What do you mean, poison?” Emily asked, the horror was beginning to take over every nerve in her body. She fought to regain her ability to speak. “Too late? It’s too late for what, Aldara?”

  “When a Guardian allows an Ancient One to penetrate his or her mind,” it was Athos who offered the explanation, “or in this case, when Alexander allowed Dante to give him a vision, an invisible yet very real poison is placed within the recipient of the vision. A small evil seed is planted, and all it needs is time to grow and take hold, and then spread through the blood stream, slowly turning and converting the host.”

  “And, being in Eden only accelerates the spread of the venom,” Matthias added. “We heal quicker in Eden because our blood pumps faster throughout our bodies. The quicker Alexander’s heart pace, the faster the venom is pumped through his veins, spreading to each and every cell of his body. Once the poison takes hold of all of him, there is no reverting his blood. It will forever be blackened and we cannot save him.”

  “Keep fighting, my son,” Aldara stroked Alexander’s hair back and wiped his sweaty forehead with the hem of her dress.

  “What do you mean you can’t save him, how do you know what to do?” Xavier now voiced his concern.

  “We know what to do because we have seen this happen many times before,” Damarus said as he glanced over Aldara’s shoulder, a deep look of terror had spread across his face. “This is one way the Ancient Ones gained their numbers in the beginning; this is how they stole so many Guardians from Eden and caused the Great Dissension. They poisoned their minds and let the venom spread until it had clenched down on every piece of their heart. Once a heart and all its blood turns black, there is no reversing it.”

  “By the time we figured out what was going on we had already lost so many. We were only able to save a hundred or so who had not fully turned. We did not realize that is was truly an internal battle being waged and not one of just ideas and beliefs but of evil possessions. We should have recognized some of the things Alexander was saying. I should have known the moment he started voicing his distrust, and showing his anger while we were training weeks ago.” A tear slid down Damarus’ cheek, he refused to wipe it.

  “Oh, how could we have not seen the signs, Damarus? How did we not know what was happening?” Aldara moaned.

  “They have not used this method since the beginning; they know it comes with great risk to themselves, which is why they stopped. I had almost forgotten it was possible. It has been thousands of years since we have seen this,” he placed his hand on Aldara’s shoulder to offer comfort.

  A Guardian suddenly appeared with a large leather satchel. He was out of breath but went straight to opening up his pouches.

  “He’s turning, Adonis. He’s turning. Before Damarus rendered him unconscious his eyes flashed yellow,” Aldara ended her sentence in a whisper.

  The surgeon’s eyes grew wide like a deer in headlights.

  “No,” he said in disbelief as he reached into his bag and removed two long metal tubes. Their gauge was only a fourth of an inch wide but they were long and came to a sharp point on one end. “Drop his arms down, that will help speed the process.”

  Emily watched, horrified as the surgeon jammed both metal rods into each of Alexander’s arms at the crook of his elbow. The sharp point slid in effortlessly but the sheer enormity of those needles almost made her faint. As if it wasn’t enough, a thick tar-like substance began to ooze from the tubes, dripping to the ground like sticky molasses. It flowed smoothly after the first few ounces had passed. When Mathaius had said the poison blackened his blood, Emily wasn’t sure if he meant literally, but now it was quite clear he did. There it was, thick as tree sap and black as coal as it spilled from the metal rods.

  “What…what are you doing?” Emily could barely get her words out.

  She felt as though she might vomit, although she wasn’t sure if it was because of the blood or the fact that she now understood just how critical this situation was.

  “We are bleeding him out,” Cyreena said as she stood closely behind Damarus. “It is the only way to rid his blood stream of the venom. The surgeon will bleed him until we see red flow from those tubes. If we see red then he is saved.”

  “And if we don’t? What happens if no red comes out?”

  A crowd of Guardians now stood in a half circle around the makeshift operation table. They all remained silent, like they all somehow knew the answer to Emily’s question.

  “We will bleed him until he dies,” Aldara answered with a barely audible whisper.

  “What?” Emily jumped back from Alexander’s side where she’d been hunched over and stood straight up. “You can’t do that!”

  Aldara looked across Alexander’s body to stare directly into Emily’s eyes. “It is better for him to die than for us to allow him to become one of them. In death he receives his eternal rest. As an Ancient One he will only know eternal damnation.” Tears streaked her face and soaked her neck as they traveled down to her gown.

  A sudden twitch came from Alexander’s body and then another. The convulsions became more violent and the frequency began to build until there was no time between spasms. His body began to seize.

  “Hold him down,” the surgeon shouted as one of the tubes fell out of Alexander’s arm. He worked to get the rod stuck back into place, using a thin leather strap to secure it to the forearm. Numerous hands reached over to restrain Alexander creating a web or over his body, blocking Emily from her previous position by his side.

  She had followed the decent of the surgical tool and for the first time glanced down to see the pools of black blood which formed beneath the table. There was so much blood, more than she’d ever seen. Too much!

  “Stop!” she half shouted, half sobbed. “You’re killing him, you’re killing him!”

  She moved to pull the metal rod out but Xavier caught her hand. She pushed against him. He easily crossed her arms and drew them into her chest as he bear hugged her from behind.

  She had no choice but to watch as blood gushed from the oversized needles. Ounce after ounce came out and she could do nothing. It was hard to fathom how much blood had actually been lost.

  Alexander’s body continued to seize fiercely and Emily saw Damarus and Aldara exchange concerned looks over his body. Damarus shook his head. His face showed defeat.

  “He’s going to die. They are going to let him die.”

  “Don’t. Don’t take him away from me.” Emily fought against Xavier’s unyielding grip, even as her words were said with defeat and resignation.

  Alexander’s body gradually stopped seizing and the black ooze dripping from the pipes slowed to a rate indicating there was practically nothing left. They had drained him of every drop his body could offer. A normal human being would have been dead quite some time ago as there would be no way for them to survive on such a small amount. />
  Emily wondered what kept him alive this long. It must have been his supernatural genes because his human genes had been siphoned out at this point.

  Emily kicked against Xavier again and this time he released her. She pushed past the hands that were withdrawing from their position to hold him and then flung herself on top of Alexander’s chest.

  “Don’t go,” she whispered. “Please don’t go. Don’t leave me alone, Alexander.”

  She turned her head to the side and watched as the surgeon removed the metal rods, his face was grim. He accepted there would be no saving him. Every drop had been extracted and the black had never given way to red.

  Sob’s racked Emily’s body as she nuzzled her face into Alexander’s chest. His familiar warmth was gone. The internal heat which had always been present was now shut off. She would no longer feel the heat radiate from within him.

  “I love you, please come back. I can’t—I’m not…” Her pleas were lost in the moans beginning in her chest and climbing their way up her throat.

  The last few moments she had with him, against his lifeless chest, transcended time. She felt each strand of her heart being twisted, tortured. Never would she have fathomed she could feel such a strong, unconditional love for someone she’d known for less than a year.

  She had been allowed a momentary fairytale when it came to love. Although the difference for her was she would not even be allowed a full year to be with him; she was not going to be granted a happily ever after

  “Emily,” Xavier gently said, grabbing her by the arms and pulling her back. His voice was rough, and stung her eardrums like salt in a wound. “You’ve seen what happens to our bodies. You need to step back.”

  Indeed she had. In Cooperstown she’d witnessed Dante’s body suddenly burst into flames just moments after he had fallen lifelessly to the floor. It was a freaky, unnatural internal cremation mechanism all of their kind possessed. Emily refused to watch Alexander’s body disintegrate into a pile of dust.

  It didn’t seem like a fitting end for a hero, for the man she so fervently loved. He deserved a monumental gathering, a head stone she could visit and talk to, just as she did with her mother’s.

  Emily forced her head down.

  All the others kept their eyes fixated on Alexander’s face.

  “Look!” Someone from behind shouted.

  Emily glanced up to see who had hollered. A female Guardian only a few feet from her pointed toward Alexander’s arm hanging from the side of the table, his fingers almost touching the ground.

  Emily followed the direction of the woman’s finger. At first she saw nothing because she wasn’t sure what she was looking for. But then, just as gasps began to circulate through the crowd she saw the tiny drop of red, which had formed at the opening of the hole created in his arm by the needle. It slowly grew until its mass swelled and fell from his arm to the ground.

  Another droplet began to form just as the first had.

  There was a moment of utter stillness as everyone questioned whether or not they dared to hope.

  “Quickly! Get his other arm and fold it,” Aldara said as she grabbed the arm closest to her. She then placed her ear to Alexander’s chest and waited for what seemed like an hour.

  A tearful laugh escaped her lips, “His heart is beating again, it’s beating.” She grabbed his hand and then squeezed and kissed it.

  The swarm of Guardians tightened the circle around him as they all wanted to get a peek at Alexander. They all wanted their own confirmation this leader they all looked up to, a great war general of their kind, would indeed live. Before this event he was simply an anomaly but now, he was unique for yet another reason.

  Not only had Alexander defied Guardian law for loving a human, an emotion Guardians weren’t designed to experience, but he now was defying what they knew about the Opposition’s poison. He lived, though everyone around had been certain he would not.

  Emily didn’t step forward at first. She was afraid to hope, too scared she would have to let go again. There was only one feeling worse than losing someone and it was thinking you had them back only to lose them again. It had happened with her mother and she was certain it was what made the aftermath harder to overcome.

  After a few surgeries and a round of chemo the doctors said they had gotten all of the disease and believed she would make a full recovery, there was no longer cancer in her colon. Then two months later, at a checkup they had found cancer cells in her liver and other organs. The cancer had spread and the doctors said there would be no recovery from it. They gave her a few weeks, possibly a month to live.

  Emily had let her heart soar when the good news came about her mother’s colon cancer being terminated. So when the deathly diagnosis had come the second time, Emily felt all the more wounded. No one likes to be maliciously teased or lied to and that was exactly how she had felt. She already had emotional baggage before her mother actually passed, which made her mother’s death sting all the more.

  Xavier knew exactly why Emily hesitated, why she didn’t feel safe rejoicing too soon. He had been there to witness the events that transpired with her mother and he knew Emily had just experienced a close friend’s death only a week ago. He understood it went against her pessimistic nature to fool herself with hope.

  He reached around her shoulder and drew her in closely, giving her a tight squeeze.

  “He’s going to live, Emily. He’s really going to make it.”

  “But, I felt his cold body, everyone here expected to see him burst into flames. And now, because of two drops of red blood, you’re telling me he is magically okay?”

  She had a blank stare. Her mind had been severed by pain and fear and was now split between reality and a dream. She didn’t know what awareness she was currently experiencing and didn’t dare believe the words Xavier had just spoken.

  “If this had been done back in New York he would have died. Since he is here in Eden, his body heals and thrives at an accelerated rate. Two small drops would not be enough for a human or even a Guardian in the human world but they are enough here. They are enough here, Em. Watch carefully. You’ll see.” Xavier pointed at Alexander’s chest.

  Emily wiped the tears blurring her vision. She waited and saw nothing, and then there was a very slight rise of his rib cage and then 10 seconds later another. He was, indeed, breathing. It was at a slow pace, one which a human would not be capable of doing and still receive adequate oxygen but, there was no doubt a very slow rhythm to the movement of his chest.

  “It won’t be an instant recovery, but do not doubt he is going to make it. He’s as stubborn as a mule and as hearty as an ox. And now all the venom has drained, his body is working a thousand times faster than any human’s at replenishing the blood he lost. ”

  Could it really be possible? Just when Emily had said goodbye and watched all of her future dreams with Alexander shattered and broken, he had been given back to her.

  She slowly walked forward, pausing a moment before grabbing his free hand. She didn’t want to feel its coldness; she feared the clammy feeling she remembered from her mother’s hand, from Rob’s hand. Swallowing her fear and paranoia, carefully, she let her fingertips crawl across the top of Alexander’s limp hand.

  There was warmth in him again. It wasn’t the intense heat she was used to but there was still life in it as she flipped it over to view his palm.

  There was a healthy pink color spreading through each curve and crease of his skin, she could actually see blood making its way back into his capillaries and veins.

  Yes, he would live. She could feel it now. Those dreams began to resurface and silently float back to her like balloons drifting in the wind. Like a small child she tried to quickly grasp at them before they threatened to drift away again. She could once more dare to fantasize and look forward to a life with the man she loved. She could see a future with him and suddenly nothing else mattered.

  Chapter 19

  Emily’s upper back ached with
a dull soreness from poor posture, but she snubbed the pain, she wouldn’t concentrate on things she had no interest in.

  She’d sat hunched at Alexander’s bedside so she could hold and cuddle his hand and often lay her head against him. Each hour that passed his heartbeat grew stronger and she didn’t need a hospital monitor to prove it. All she did was place her ear against his chest and the thundering sound grew louder and louder.

  Almost twelve hours had passed since the surgeon had bled Alexander, twelve hours since Emily had felt her world slip away only to have it return moments later.

  There was a warm breeze blowing in through the bedside window.

  The light was faint and flickered each time the air tickled and tossed the sash fastened above the window. But, it was still bright enough to see the genuine color returning to Alexander’s face with each passing minute. She’d never seen such a wonderful sight. She remembered seeing him in the morning glow of the sunlight when he stood beside her bedroom window one day. He looked like she imagined an angel would, and with the same glow coming through the window at present, he looked more angelic than ever.

  Stretching her back with an over exaggerated curl, she let out a sigh. She was tired. She’d only closed her eyes sporadically when she felt comfortable resting her head on his bed. She hadn’t wanted to leave or fall asleep. She wanted to be near when Alexander opened his eyes. Aldara thought he would awaken very soon and had just left to tell those who waited down the hall.

  Everyone wanted to be in the room but there was simply no space. So only the Governing Five with Xavier and Emily remained by his bedside.

  Closing her eyes momentarily she let her head droop down again.

  “Just five minutes.”

  She sank deeper and deeper until her head rested beside Alexander’s arm, but she did not let go of his hand.

  It was hard for her to comprehend how much time had actually passed. All she knew was how groggy she felt when she woke. Something had snapped her out of her dreaming, and that something was a soft squeeze of her hand.