The long table could easily seat thirty and the heavily carved chairs looked like thrones. Sideboards on high legs and more of the throne-like chairs marched along the walls in perfectly balanced order. There was no place to hide.
In the small room behind her, Álvaro cursed. Faith didn’t understand the word, but it was definitely a curse. She heard the cat’s “Rr-ee-ow!”, another curse and the sound of breaking glass and then the woman’s scolding voice. Faith didn’t think it was directed at the cat.
She used the cover of the ensuing argument to duck back out into the hall to search for a room with better places to hide.
Several of the rooms were locked and she had already turned the corner into the next long hallway when she heard the couple’s whispers behind her as they, too, checked for open doors. There was nowhere to hide here, either. The building appeared to be laid out in a giant square with a wide hall giving access to the rooms on either side. Álvaro and the woman would see her as soon as they rounded the corner. She would not have time to reach the next turn.
Faith began to panic as she moved along from one side of the hall to the other, trying to find an open door without making too much noise. Fortunately, the two behind her weren’t concerned with stealth and their noise covered the click-click of the knobs she turned. At last one opened so smoothly she almost fell into the room.
The huge open space took up the full length of the house; three spacious rooms flowing, one into the other through the wide archways that tied them together. Once upon a time, these rooms must have been where the family entertained guests.
The end where Faith stood was still used. The sofas and chairs were comfortable looking and roomy. A book lay open, upside down and cover spread, on a table near one of the chairs. The air smelled of a recent fire in the stone fireplace that sat between a series of French doors.
The other furnishings of the vast room were covered with sheets. It was the perfect cover and Faith ran to the far end. She dove beneath what turned out to be a grand piano in the darkest corner of the room. The sheeting had barely settled into place when the door she'd entered through opened again. Crouched on hands and knees, she waited.
The pair was arguing again and Faith thought she heard the word estúpido and by the way the woman said it, she was pretty sure she knew what that one meant. Álvaro snapped something back and then sighed in disgust. There were footsteps walking away and the door shut.
Faith let out the breath she'd been holding and rested her forehead on the floor. Glancing back between her slightly spread knees, she saw the tips of her sneakers poking out beneath the sheeting. Her soles would have been visible to anyone who took the time to look. Thank heavens the bickering couple hadn't bothered.
With her headache still pounding and her jangling nerves coming down from their frightened high, Faith could have fallen to her side and slept where she was. Instead, she decided to make her way back to the van and lock herself in until the Liege Lord returned with Adam and Lalo.
Now that she had a moment of safety in her refuge under the piano, she thought about Lord Lucien and the boys and wondered if they had been successful in tracking down those who had broken into the house. It looked like the work of humans.
As long as the Liege Lord was with them, she didn't worry too much about the boy's safety. He was colder and more formal than Canaan, but he was every bit as capable as a Guardian. He would not let any harm come to his young charges.
Adam and Lalo were her age, but in the Paenitentia world, they were barely out of childhood. They were only partially trained and inexperienced. According to JJ, neither had seen a battle with a demon nor witnessed the result of an attack. They still thought of this as an adventure, a game like those Nardo designed and sold.
Faith hated those games. They gave a false image of what the world of demons and dark magic really looked like. Those young trainees had no understanding of the destruction demons caused to the lives of the innocents who crossed their path.
She shook her head to clear it of the thoughts she knew would follow. The past was the past. Ahead of her was her future and she was about to take her first steps into it.
Still on hands and knees, she crawled from beneath the piano and lifted her head up. Her mouth opened in an O of surprise.
The woman threw her hands out shouting, "Álvaro, no!"
Something clunked Faith behind the ear.
Chapter 6
"Who are we chasing? Don't we need more weapons?" Adam asked as he bounced along in the seat.
The window was down and his arm and shoulder were thrust through it, his hand gripping the roof of the cab to keep himself steady and crushed up against the door. It was an older model pickup with a bench seat and with three large men sharing it, there was no room to spare.
"The ones who broke into my House," Lucien answered. "Are they human or demon? Adam?"
"Uh, human, my Lord?" Adam answered cautiously.
"Was that a question or an answer?" the Liege Lord demanded. "State your opinion with confidence and tell me why."
"Human. The woman was alive. A demon would have killed her."
Lucien gave a curt nod. "Get out and get the gate and don't forget to close it."
They were silent until they'd passed the second gate and veered off from the road.
"Why do we leave the road here, Lalo?"
Lalo swallowed and looked worriedly at Adam. "I don't know, my Lord."
"You do. Think, boy. Observe! What do you know about those gates?"
Lalo took a deep breath and slowly blew it out. "Those two gates were tampered with. You had a hard time getting them open." He frowned in concentration.
"Without destroying them," Lucien muttered.
"Yeah, without destroying them," Lalo repeated and then he smiled. "They locked those gates against someone following from the House!" he almost shouted.
Again Lucien nodded. "Now why…"
"Wait! Wait!" Lalo interrupted with his finger in the air and then froze when he realized he'd interrupted his Liege Lord.
Lucien showed no emotion, but nodded for the trainee to continue. It wouldn't do to let them think he approved of this lack of courtesy.
"Sorry, my Lord. Only two gates. If they'd reached the third, they would have done the same thing to that one." He hesitated. "Wouldn't they?"
"Any farther out and we would have seen them," Adam answered. He rolled his eyes at Lalo. "Not you. You were asleep."
"I was bored," Lalo argued. "There was nothing to eat."
"That's all you do, eat and sleep."
"Well, all you do is chase girls and drink beer." Forgetting who he was talking to, he turned to the Liege Lord. "It's his life's goal to drink a can of every beer ever made and poke anyone who can wear a skirt."
"That's not true," Adam objected, laughing. "I drink my beer from bottles and I wouldn't dream of fucking a Scotsman."
"Gentlemen," Lucien sputtered. "Let us keep to the subject at hand."
He would have closed his eyes and sighed if he wasn't driving. Eating, sleeping, drinking, 'poking' women? He couldn't remember if those things were once a part of his young life, but he didn't think so. They certainly weren't once he was recalled to his home.
The plaintive bellow of a calf and a shadowy form lying near some scrub brush drew his attention. He took his hand off the wheel and pointed out his own open window.
"There." He turned the truck toward the shadow.
It was a cow, clearly shot and hastily butchered. Lalo tried to capture the bawling calf, but it skittered away.
"Leave it. Álvaro will send a man out for it at daybreak," Lucien told him as he turned back to the truck.
"You have humans work your land, my Lord?"
Lalo was curious. When his father was still alive but bedridden, he and Lalo had discussed the possibility of hiring human help to work their farm. They decided the cost and the risk of exposure would be too great.
"I couldn't run a ranch this si
ze without them. The local Paenitentia have no aspirations to become cowboys."
Lalo looked to Adam with raised eyebrows.
"Aspirations. Hopes, wishes. You know. My greatest aspiration is to become a concert pianist," Adam explained.
Lalo looked surprised. "I never knew you wanted to play piano."
They drove for another hour following the tracks left by the stolen truck, stopping only once where the tracks crossed others. There was no reason to think the fleeing travelers had stopped there for any particular reason, but Lucien made the boys get out of the truck and tell him what they learned from the tracks. They would need those skills once they were patrolling alone.
Lucien, used to the quiet companionship of Álvaro, soon found himself rubbing his temple to alleviate the headache that was forming. Damn it! He didn't get headaches.
"Must you two constantly chatter?" he finally snapped.
"Sorry my Lord. We were just passing the time," Adam explained.
"Did it never cross your minds to pass the time in quiet contemplation?" Lucien asked.
His sardonic tone went right over Lalo's head.
"Can't say that it did, sir," Lalo answered honestly. Then he turned back to Adam. "And I know what it means."
Adam grinned. "Glad to hear it, chief, but it was rhetorical."
Lalo sighed. "Okay, you got me on that one."
"He wasn't looking for an answer."
"Then why'd he ask the question?" Lalo asked as if Lucien wasn't there.
"Why, indeed," Lucien muttered more to himself than the two trainees.
"Because he wants us to shut up and think," Adam explained.
"Well why didn't he just say so," Lalo said, again as if Lucien couldn't hear, then to Lucien, "What would you like us to think about, sir?"
Lucien sighed. "Why are you here? Where are you going? What is your purpose?" They were the questions he asked himself the most; a constant reminder of his reason for existence.
Lalo frowned. "There's not much there to think about, sir. I'm here because you chose me and I don't have any idea where I'm going because I don't know this place and you haven't told me. I'm not sure what you mean by purpose, but I figure you'll tell us what to do once we get there." He put his fist over his heart and said very solemnly, "I serve at my Liege Lord's command."
Suspecting impudence, Lucien glanced at the boy, but if impertinence was there, it didn't show on Lalo's face. The lad was being truthful. He glanced over at Adam who smiled wryly and shrugged.
"We are here, Lalo, to track the ones who have broken into my home," the Liege Lord told him. "We will follow them into the hills, onto lands supposedly protected by the human government and where the culprits will feel safe. Once we find them, we will retrieve that which has been stolen, deal with the ringleaders and confiscate any drugs they may be transporting."
"Drugs, sir?" Adam sat a little straighter.
Most human drugs, both medicinal and recreational, had little effect on members of the Race. The few that did were metabolized so quickly, they were hardly worth the bother. Still, young people experimented and there was a concern among their elders that someday they would find something that worked, bringing the trials of the human world into the Paenitentian realm. That, however, was not Lucien's concern.
"Humans from the South have been crossing my land for a very long time. The People used to feed them, give them shelter, and perhaps a few day's work. It was not our concern where the travelers came from or where they were going. That changed a few years ago when the travelers began breaking into homes, stealing what they could and injuring or killing those who tried to stop them. Many now carry drugs, either by choice or because they are forced to and too often those drugs smell of demon."
"Will we fight a demon tonight?"
Lucien could hear the eager anticipation in Adam's voice. He was excited by the idea of battle and that was something Lucien could remember from his own youth, perhaps because he felt that same anticipation today. He was a warrior. Killing demons was what he was born to do.
"One never knows. Demons have always hunted in these hills, more so since the travelers began using them to make their way north. The People say that evil lives here and certainly many of those humans who once populated the area were known for their cruelty and brutality, but these are not the hills they truly fear." He pointed out through the darkness. "Those lie to the east." Lucien brought the truck to a halt. "We go on foot from here. There will be no talking," he ordered.
He was both pleased and amused when both trainees clamped their mouths shut. He knew there would be questions about the Hills of the Dead, but those questions could wait. From a box in the bed, he passed out the weapons he thought they could handle and might need.
They hadn't travelled far when they came across the stolen truck. The doors were open. The toolbox attached to the bed behind the cab was jimmied open, but it looked like most of the tools were still there. A backpack was torn open and bits of clothing were strewn across the ground.
Lalo reached for a lacy pink piece but Lucien stopped him before he touched it. The Liege Lord wagged his finger and then pointed to his nose. He lifted it and breathed deeply of the night air and motioned to Lalo to do the same.
Adam was already pointing off to the left where the trees grew thicker. He'd caught the scent of demon.
At Lucien's direction, they spread out and began to search until Adam found the drag marks.
A woman's voice cried out weakly. It didn't take a translator to understand it was a cry for help. Adam started forward, but Lucien, moving with incredible speed, stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. He shook his head and motioned for Adam to wait.
Cloaking himself in the white light that made Guardians invisible to the naked eye, he waited until the trainees had done the same. The white light state used a lot of energy and wouldn't normally be needed for what they were about to do, but he thought it necessary for practice.
Lucien drew a wicked looking blade from the sheath at his thigh and was pleased that he didn't have to wait for the trainees to draw similar weapons from theirs. Creeping forward, they found the woman crouched before the body of a man or what was left of him. Lalo gagged, but swallowed it down. Adam watched the woman. He looked to Lucien for the go-ahead and Lucien surprised him.
The Liege Lord dropped the white light and shouted, "Attack!"
The trainees dropped the light as well. Lalo looked around to see where the attack was coming from while Adam stepped forward to shield the woman thinking she was an innocent, a human victim of a demon attack. She was no such thing.
She was the demon.
At Lucien's shout, she rose and at Adam's move forward, her young woman's body wavered and dissolved revealing a yellow scaled humanoid creature with jagged teeth and muscular tail.
It leapt at Adam, but instead of striking at him head on, the creature turned in mid-leap and lashed out with its tail. The muscular appendage caught the young trainee across the midsection, sending him tumbling backward.
"Keep your feet, boy!" Lucien shouted. "You've trained for this."
At the Liege Lord's shout, the creature turned and lunged, but instead if engaging the demon, Lucien pushed Lalo forward and stepped back.
Lalo used the long, thin blade as a defensive weapon, fending off the razor sharp claws that seemed to come from everywhere at once.
"Engage, Lalo! You have only your weapons and your wits. Use them!"
Adam, who had flipped back to his feet, felt his fangs eject downward through his gums. His muscles swelled and his blood thundered in his ears. He roared with his need to kill the monster in front of him and anything else that got in his way.
Lalo's fangs dropped, too, as if the Battle Rage was contagious. The blade spun in his hand. No longer on the defensive, he lunged at the attacking demon, plunging the short blade into the base of creature's neck. The soft give of flesh beneath the blade startled him and the next thing he knew, he was caught in
a rib cracking bear hug with the demon's teeth inches from his own neck. He had only his grip on the hilt of the knife to provide leverage to keep the monster's jaws from coming closer. He felt the flesh tear and knew he was moments away from a bite that could kill him.
Adam lunged at the same time, meaning to grab the beast from behind and run his blade across the front of the thing's neck. Lalo was now in the way of that plan and so, mid-lunge, the plan was changed. Adam brought his blade around and down, his arm moving in an arc, and then up into the demons back. Unlike his companion's, his blade did not meet soft flesh. It hit hard bone.
The force of his lunge, however, sent the demon diving forward and because of Lalo's position, sent all three combatants tumbling in a ball, one over the other. Adam's blade shifted in the creature's back and continued on between the ribs, finally finding the heart.
With a short, sharp bellow of pain, the demon collapsed.
Lalo, who'd ended up the way he began, at the bottom of the pile, scrambled from beneath the demon, kicking at it with his feet as he went. One missed blow to its head almost connected with Adam's who was struggling to free the arm that was trapped beneath the monster's leg.
They had barely extricated themselves from the mess when Lucien ordered, "Adam, take the heart."
There were only two ways to bring permanent death to a demon; remove the heart or severe the head.
"I was going to take the head, my Lord," Adam said as he withdrew his blade from the demon's back.
"The heart," Lucien repeated.
With the Battle Rage still on him, Adam's anger now turned to the Liege Lord, but with Lalo's aid, he flipped the demon over. Its eyes were open and seemed to stare up at him. He drew back his fist and punched down into the demon's chest. He felt a crunch beneath his curled fingers, but the chest remained intact.
"Again!" Lucien ordered. "Any Guardian worth his salt can take the heart of a demon."
"I'm not a Guardian," Adam retorted through clenched jaws.
Guardian's Faith Page 5