Guardian's Faith

by Jacqueline Rhoades

  Self-discipline was the key to maintaining control of one's life.

  Chapter 3

  "You can't be serious. If the guys in this House are Neanderthals, that guy is a Troglodyte." Grace leaned back into the soft cushions of the sofa, arms crossed under her breasts, ankles crossed and propped on Manon's antique coffee table.

  They'd been relaxing in front of the fire in Manon's parlor for over an hour and most of that time had been spent talking about their latest visitor, who'd ended up spending an extra two days. The extra time had not endeared him to the group.

  JJ ran her tongue over the inside of her cheek and then laughed. "Grace's just upset because she couldn’t win him over with chocolate cookies and homemade ice cream."

  "Nobody passes on my Chocolate Delights and I had to promise to play poker on Wednesday in order to bribe Dov to crank that old ice cream maker."

  "You always lose at poker."

  "Exactly! The bastard didn't eat my caramel custard either."

  Hope snickered. "Maybe he's lactose intolerant."

  "Intolerant period is more like it," JJ responded. "Did you see his face when he found out I was going out on patrol? I thought his jaw was going to crack from the pressure."

  "He is a man formed by duty and honor and sacrifice," Manon shrugged and laughed. "I do not find him hard. I find him quite handsome and intriguing."

  "I guess, if cold and heartless turns you on." Grace took a sip from her wineglass and wrinkled her nose. "You know, it's very nice of you to give me cranberry juice so I feel like I'm sharing your wine, but I know what the real stuff tastes like and this isn't it."

  "The professor says Lucien ad Toussaint is old school; regimented; duty bound. Broadbent was raised like that, too," Hope said. So was her mate, Nico, but Nico never seemed cold to her.

  "Broadbent took to us right away. This guy's different," JJ pronounced.

  "Broadbent had been hanging out with Advisor Bitch," Grace told them and then giggled. "Oops. I meant Advisor Callista. Next to her, we'd have to look good. Personally, I think Lord Stick-up-his-ass would be a perfect mate for Callista and I can't wait until he goes back to wherever he came from."

  Faith tapped her glass with a spoon, something she always did when the women were gathered together and she wanted to get their attention.

  "I'm going with him," she signed.

  "No!"

  "What?"

  "Are you crazy?"

  "Absolutely not!" Hope looked at her sister suspiciously. "Where did this come from? What did he say to you?"

  "He said he meant me no harm." Faith smiled at her little joke.

  "When did he say it? What did he do?" Hope had no sense of humor when it came to her little sister.

  "Hope, you will make a wonderful Maman someday," Manon laughed, "but as a sister?" The French woman shrugged using that Gallic movement that said so much. She flicked her wrist. "Faith is not a child. Let us hear what she has to say."

  "Have you seen how he looks at us?" Hope argued. "Have you seen how he acts around us? Why would he want Faith to go with him? Why?" She threw her hands in the air.

  "Cause she's a hot chick and the Ice Dude needs to get thawed?" JJ suggested. She answered Hope's glare with a laugh. "She's not a virgin for God's sake." She wiggled her fingers. "Her power actually works. Faith doesn't have to spend her time shattering sugar bowls."

  Hope turned on Grace. "You told!"

  "It was funny."

  While the others laughed and argued, Manon watched Faith. The girl sat unnaturally still with her head lowered and her hands folded calmly in her lap. Like the others, Faith knew what it took for her powers as a Daughter of Man to be fully realized; an open mind, an open heart, and an open body, but the body must be opened through love.

  Manon knew Faith was no virgin, but had she given her maidenhead to a young lover or was it taken from her? If the latter, then her powers were not yet fully developed and she would someday be a powerful Daughter indeed - if she found a man who could heal her spirit and if she found him before her gifts began to eat away at her.

  Manon had the power of Hindsight and could look for an answer in the girl's mind if she chose, but that was an intrusion she hesitated to impose without the girl's permission which the older woman knew Faith wouldn't grant. Manon shook her head. She was getting too old for this. When her mate, Otto, had suffered a violent death and been turned into a vampire, Manon had begun to age like a human right along with him. It was times like this that she felt it most.

  "Why are you going with him, child?" she asked quietly.

  "Because I know I must."

  JJ was suddenly alert. "When you say you know, do you mean you think or you know?" She tapped her forehead with her index finger.

  "I know," Faith repeated the sign.

  There were things she knew. She didn't know how she knew. She just did. Like when the cross Nico had given Hope as a mating gift had gone missing when the couple moved to their new home across the alley. Faith knew where it was and told them, though she'd had no part in the moving. Back then, she'd barely moved from her room.

  Most of the things she 'knew' were trivial. Hope would have found the cross in the kitchen drawer eventually. The ability was usually mild and sporadic. This current feeling was intense, so intense it was almost a compulsion.

  "For him?" JJ asked her now.

  Faith thought for a moment and shook her head. "For me."

  "Did Lord Lucien ask you to come with him?" Hope asked, still suspicious.

  "No."

  "I'd like to have seen his face when you told him," Grace laughed. "What did he say?"

  "Nothing. I didn't tell him. He would have said no."

  "Then how do you plan to get there?" Hope shook her head at Faith's folly.

  That was the problem with knowing things. It didn't always come with details. "I only know I have to go."

  JJ put her wine glass on the table and stood. "I'll go find Dov and Col."

  *****

  The duffle bag was roomy enough and Faith was surrounded by the few clothes she'd chosen to take with her. She would only be there long enough to do whatever she needed to do and then ask for someone to call Hope, who would arrange to bring her home. That was the plan, anyway, and as Col pointed out, extra luggage would be a dead giveaway.

  "Come on, ladies, covert mission here," he'd said of the three piece luggage set Manon had donated to the cause. "No matchy-matchy, no pink and no kitty faces."

  Faith smiled, remembering the look on his face when Hope produced a small bag that was both pink and kitty faced. "For toiletries," she said.

  Dov took the empty bag from her and peeked inside, frowning.

  "He's trying to figure out how you're going to use that for a toilet," Jazz laughed to the others and to Dov, "Toiletries are stuff like soap, toothpaste, shampoo, that kind of stuff."

  "I knew that," he said, blushing furiously. He tossed the bag back to Hope."

  As it was, one of the recruits was going to be disappointed at the reduced size of his wardrobe. The twins had stuffed what they could into the other soft sided bags, but there wasn't enough room anywhere to hold the entire contents of the large duffle and make room for Faith and her things, too.

  The operation went smoothly. Grace ordered the twins to help with the loading since suspicion would have arisen if they'd volunteered. Dov grabbed the bag they'd chosen for the mission, ran it to the parlor where the women waited behind closed doors and the switch was made.

  There was one close call when Canaan met Dov at the entrance to the garage.

  "Give me that. You go back and get Lord Lucien's bags," the Liege Lord told him.

  "I got it, boss." Dov told him, holding the bag away and banging Faith's head into the dryer in the process.

  "Today is not the day to try my patience," Canaan said, "Now give me the damn bag and get Lucien's shit down here. I want him gone. The women have been walking on eggshells since he arrived. Grace is upset, but
won't tell me why. Hope looks like she's going to cry and Manon looks worried."

  "JJ's cool though, right?"

  The other women were still concerned about this mission of Faith's. JJ was all for it and would be the Twin's backup when the shit finally hit the fan, especially with Broadbent. The professor was going to go ape shit when he found out about Faith's escape. Who else was going to listen to him read those boring books aloud?

  "No, JJ's not cool," Canaan was saying. "JJ looks like the cat that ate the canary and I'm wondering what kind of revenge she's planning. I've warned her about it. I don't care for Lucien either, but I don't want an incident. The House is finally back on reasonably firm footing with the Ruling Council and I don't want to upset that."

  "JJ knows when to keep her mouth shut," Dov assured him.

  At least Dov hoped she did. They were all supposed to deny knowing anything about Faith's disappearance; give the old I-dunno shrug to whoever was asking the questions and keep moving. Faith left a note for Hope to 'find' saying it was all on her, which none of the Guardians would believe, but none could prove otherwise.

  Canaan wasn't nearly as careful as Dov with the recruit's cargo. He tossed the bag in the back of the van and Faith was once again grateful that no one could hear her "Ow!"

  Once she got over the shock of being thrown like a piece of baggage, Faith found another bag was wedged beneath her. It was filled with clothing that made a comfortable cushion. Other things were piled around her, but true to their word, the twins made sure she wasn't crushed.

  For a while, Faith was comfortable. It wasn't any different from the way she'd passed the time before; silent and unmoving. There was little conversation until Lord Lucien pulled off the Interstate.

  "We have to make a stop," he said to the two he'd insisted sit in the rear seats.

  The van stopped. The door opened and closed.

  "No Tell Motel," Adam, the first of the chosen initiates, laughed. "I wonder if the Ice Dude has an extra piece of baggage stashed here."

  "Baggage? Why would he have baggage stashed in a place like this?" Lalo asked.

  "Not luggage baggage," Adam said patiently, "A piece of ass baggage."

  "Oh, I get it," Lalo nodded, but he didn't.

  He didn't get how he had ended up here, either. Lord Lucien said he would only take the best and he'd given them all a pretty tough going over. Lalo knew he wasn't smart like Adam or as fast as some of the others. Nardo said that didn't matter, Lalo had heart which didn't make much sense because everyone had a heart except maybe Lord Lucien. The Ice Dude didn't act like he had one so why would he be impressed with someone else's.

  Lord Lucien returned with a Hispanic looking man who took over the driver's seat with a sharp nod to the passengers. He was of medium height and stocky with a face so weathered by sun and wind that his age was hard to define.

  Lucien settled back in the passenger seat and closed his eyes. "Home Álvaro. We have our novitiates and believe me when I tell you we have our work cut out for us."

  In the back seats, Adam and Lalo exchanged glances.

  Lalo mouthed the question, "Human?"

  Humans had a hard time recognizing any sentient being other than themselves. Most could spend days, weeks, even months with a Paenitentia and never realize they were in the presence of someone not quite human. It was only the Daughters of Man who instinctively felt the otherness of members of the Race and could distinguish demons from their human facades. Humans, however, were easily recognized by their Paenitentia cousins.

  Adam gave Lalo a look that said, "Well, duh," and yet he understood the reason for Lalo's question. There was something about Álvaro's humanness that didn't feel quite right.

  They continued their journey in silence. The two trainees were reluctant to speak freely in front of their new Liege Lord, unwilling to test his patience in the confines of the van. The Guardian never smiled and frowned frequently, though never gave a clue as to what he was frowning about. Initially excited to be chosen first among their small group of classmates, Adam and Lalo now wondered if in their eagerness to be chosen, they'd chosen badly.

  "Are you sure you want to do this?" Canaan had asked each in turn. "This is a two-way contract. You have the right of refusal."

  "It's only for three years," Adam said with the wisdom of the very young. "No big deal."

  He was twenty-six and the lilies and banner that signified his adulthood had only blossomed on his chest one year before. Three years out of a life of possibly six hundred really wasn't very long at all.

  "Unless they're the most miserable of your life," Canaan warned, but Adam wasn't listening.

  After several silent, meditative hours in the van, Adam was wondering if Lord Canaan might have had a point. The Ice Dude wasn't like Lord Canaan; a strict disciplinarian in the gym and classroom, but relaxed outside of it. Lord Lucien was strict. Period.

  When the silence in the van grew too intense, Adam was the first to break it.

  "Hey Lalo, do you remember that guy JJ who was a couple of years ahead of us?"

  His friend laughed. "Yeah. That first morning at the House when they said JJ was waiting for us in the gym, I thought how the hell did that little whiner get to be a Guardian?"

  "Me, too!" Adam laughed with him. "And then when I walked in and saw it was a girl, I laughed out loud. I thought… He formed a balance with his hands. "Guy JJ, girl JJ. Same difference."

  "I kind of thought the same thing, but I was too scared to laugh," Lalo admitted, "and she looked tougher than the other JJ."

  "Smart move," Adam told him. "She thought I was laughing at her and used me as a demo punching bag for the rest of the morning."

  Lalo shook his head. "I dunno. She knocked me on my ass three times in the first hour. That girl has some moves on her."

  "I wouldn't have minded her making some different kinds of moves on me." Adam made a lewd gesture. "Too bad she's mated."

  Both young men laughed.

  "I find nothing amusing about a female in the gymnasium," Lord Lucien intoned as he glared over the back of the seat.

  The driver, Álvaro, frowned.

  So much for a little conversation to pass the time.

  Lord Canaan had asked the same question of Lalo and his answer was much the same as Adam's, though for Lalo, it was a lie. He was afraid Lord Canaan wouldn't understand the truth.

  Lalo was going because of Adam. They'd met almost ten years before during the one and only year Lalo had been sent away to school. Adam was the only one who didn't poke fun at Lalo's funny clothes or funny speech. Adam would laugh and roll his eyes with the others when Lalo didn't understand a reference or misused a slang word, but it was also Adam who took the time to later explain Lalo's mistake.

  A tractor accident that injured his father beyond repair cut short Lalo's education and brought him back to the small isolated farm and community where he was raised. Eventually, when his sister's mate expressed a wish to take over the running of the farm, Lalo gladly gave up the position and pursued the only dream he ever had; that of following the tiny teardrop he was born with, the mark that told everyone who saw it that he was special. He was born to be a Guardian of the Race.

  Lalo thought the day he was accepted as a supplicant was the happiest day of his life. He had weeks to prepare before he arrived at Lord Canaan's House for training and he used those weeks to build muscle and endurance, afraid he would be found lacking when he finally met his trainers. He was terrified the night he boarded the train that would carry him to his new life.

  His fear was quickly relieved when he found Broadbent and some the other trainees waiting for him on the platform.

  "You must be Eduardo," Broadbent said as he checked the clipboard in his hand. Before Lalo could answer, someone else did.

  "That's not Eduardo. That's Lalo. I'd know him anywhere," that someone laughed and Lalo looked up and found Adam, older and broader, standing there with three other trainees.

  "His proper na
me is Eduardo…" Broadbent began, but Adam interrupted in that way he had of being rude without giving offense.

  "But he's Lalo to his friends, like the Guardians call you the professor." Adam gave him his best smile. "He's among friends, sir."

  "Ah," Broadbent nodded, "So he is."

  And just like that, he was Lalo as he had always been. The others took their cue from Adam and Lalo was welcomed into the group and it didn't matter that he wasn't wealthy or didn't have school ties. They all knew the Guardian, Nico, paid for Lalo's fancy dress-up clothes and some of his kit, but none of them said a word.

  Adam said they wouldn't dare cross Nico, who could look as fierce as Lord Lucien and had no patience for fools, but Lalo knew it was Adam who laid down the law.

  Adam was his friend, the only friend his age he'd ever had and he would gladly follow Adam anywhere he went.

  Chapter 4

  Faith heard the conversation from her hiding place and she smiled at the trainee's comments about JJ, but the smile faded when Lucien spoke. If he objected to a woman in the gym, how would he feel about one hiding in a duffle bag in the back of his van?

  She was also curious to see who this Álvaro was. He wasn't Paenitentia. She knew that, but he wasn't totally human either. She could feel it and it frightened her. She'd once sensed that Tyn Damon wasn't what he appeared to be and had ignored it. The price she'd paid for that ignorance would be with her for the rest of her life.

  Manon told her over and over that it wasn't her fault. When she first met him, her powers weren't developed enough to see Tyn for what he was, but that didn't excuse Faith's stupidity in leaving that bar with a man she sensed was dangerous.

  Was Álvaro dangerous? Was he the reason she was here? There was no way to tell confined as she was in her cloth coffin.

  Faith dozed, fitfully, with no idea of how long she slept or how far they travelled. She only knew that the cushion of clothing beneath her had turned to rock hard lumps and it became harder and harder to hold herself immobile. She used the opportunity of a bumpy stretch of road to shift her weight, but it only served to trade one set of lumps for another.