by Sonia Harper
"I wasn't tall enough," she replied sardonically.
"For what?" Pytho frowned.
"Pytho, later!" Donovan snapped, uncharacteristically annoyed as he checked the time on the wall. "I'm afraid we can't give you any weapons. We'll be watching your movements as soon as we can. We'll find where you are and come to collect you within one day. One day," he emphasized by holding up a single finger. "That means you have to collect as much information as you possibly can. Try to find out how many of them there are. Find out who is in charge. Find out how much they know about us."
"Wait!" Adelyn's heart started pounding as she realized what happened yesterday. "I shot that guardian that got away yesterday. How do I explain that to them?"
"Tell them you meant to hit Pytho, but you missed," Donovan replied quickly. "I'm afraid we're out of time."
"Don't worry," Pytho leaned forward and rested a hand on her shoulder. He seemed to be assuring himself as well as Adelyn. "We'll come and get you as soon as we can."
"Not as soon as we can," Donovan frowned at Pytho. "In one day. She needs time to collect information."
Pytho glared at Donovan. "Fine," he ground out. "Don't worry," he put a forced smile on his face and spoke with a sarcastic lilt in his voice. "I'll come and get you as soon as Donovan lets me. Deal?"
Appreciative of his light humour, Adelyn smiled and reached up, grabbing his shoulder as well. "Thank you, Pytho," she squeezed his shoulder.
"We need to go," Donovan opened the library door and peered out into the hallway. "It's clear. Let's go."
"Where should I go?" Adelyn stood slowly, tucking the spy camera pen into the waistband of her pants.
"Head up to the empty bedroom across the hall from yours," Pytho guided her to the door and dropped his arm once they were in the hallway. "I'll see if I can draw a few of them up there. Once they find you, and once I'm sure they're not going to kill you right away," he added for emphasis in Donovan's direction, "I'll give them a clear escape through the bay window again."
She nodded as Donovan separated from them, running toward the kitchen as fast as he could. She followed Pytho up the staircase to the second floor. Jogging lightly down the hallway, she shook her head.
"Is this going to work?" She asked Pytho, trying to push aside all doubt and fears. She stopped just short of the bedroom door. "Please don't answer that question honestly. Just tell me this is going to work. That's all I need to hear."
Pytho turned around and gave her an encouraging smile. "I'm not going to lie to you. I have no idea, but we have to try...for all our sakes. I'm afraid you're pretty much lumped into our situation. You're one of us now, Adelyn."
"I'm not sure how I feel about that," she murmured, eyebrows furrowing as she looked up at him.
His smile faltered slightly, but he brought his hands up to rest on her shoulders anyway. "Whether you like it or not, I've adopted you into my weird little replacement family," he grinned, his eyes brightening. "You're the only one that can understand pop culture references, and I'd hate to lose you before we had a chance to gang up on the others and drive them crazy with it."
Adelyn smiled and nodded, reaching up and squeezing his hand. "Sounds like a plan," she grinned as his hands slipped from her shoulders and he stood up once more. She turned to grab the bedroom door handle and threw a glance over her shoulder as a loud boom shook the windows.
"Gideon's going to be in a good mood tonight," Pytho rolled his eyes and removed his gun from his belt. "He finally got to play with his new toys."
"Grenades? Seriously?" She made a face at Pytho before shaking her head and turning the door handle. "Gregory's going to have a fit once he sees the damage to his gardens."
Just as she was about to take a step inside the bedroom, a loud shattering sound filled the hallway. She didn't have to look up to know that the bay window had been broken into once more. Spotting three grey figures, her eyes widened. This was it, she thought to herself, willing her body to remain calm.
"Fuck!" Pytho raised his gun and fired off several shots before two of the three guardians descended on him, claws reaching as he frantically twisted and danced out of their reach, gun forgotten as he grabbed the closest guardian by the arm and threw him to the ground.
Adelyn froze as the third guardian approached her swiftly, its eyes practically glowing as it examined her from head to toe. Its grey skin looked disgustingly wet and slimy up close, and she felt her stomach churn as it grew closer. Lean muscles worked fluidly underneath its skin, and she eyed the creature's long and dagger-like claws with trepidation. Heart pounding, she tried to force her brain to think of something, anything to do, but her body was frozen in place.
All she could think of as she watched the guardian raise its arm and backhand her across the face was that they were going to kill her after all. The force of the blow knocked her head into the door frame, and everything went black.
Pytho lifted his arm and shot one of the guardians in the face before turning around and catching a glimpse of Adelyn underneath the third guardian's arm. His heart had pounded when he saw her lying still on the floor, her head raised at an awkward angle against the door frame.
Choking back a plea to make sure she was alright, he instead took out his aggression on the other guardian that had lunged for him. Stepping quickly to the side, he brought his leg up to knee the bastard in the stomach. As it went down to the ground, he whipped his arm around and shot it in the back of the head.
Frantically turning his body, he watched as the third guardian reached down and lifted Adelyn's body up and over its shoulder. Noticing Pytho's attention, it screeched at him before turning around and running back towards the bay window.
Reassuring himself that Adelyn must be unconscious, he raised his gun and fired a few shots into the wall next to the window, making it look as if he wanted to stop it from leaving. His heart constricted as he watched the bastard jump out of the window with Adelyn and disappeared from view.
Furious at himself, at the situation, and for forcing Adelyn into this dangerous position, he gave an angry cry and turned around, emptying a few more rounds into the two guardians that were incapacitated on the floor.
Feeling slightly better, he focused his energy on the space around the two creatures, willing the air to spark around them. They burst into flames, and he poured his anger and helplessness into the flames, making them soar high to the ceiling before finally extinguishing, leaving nothing left behind, save for a large, dark scorch mark on the floor.
Spitting on the mark, he raised his eyes as something caught his eye on the west side of the hallway. Frowning as he watched a guardian rip open his bedroom door, he had to suppress a grin as a terrifying ball of fur came flying out of the open door and latched onto the guardians face, hissing and yowling as it dug its claws into flesh.
"Good kitty," Pytho purred, sauntering down the hallway and approaching the mezzanine at a leisurely pace, knowing perfectly well that Salien could hold her own for a while longer. He leaned over the balcony as a screech nearly blew his eardrum.
Firing his gun down at one of the four guardians that surrounded Derion, he checked to make sure that it went down before calling down to his friend.
"Hey! Quit stealing all the fun! Didn't your mother ever teach you to share?" He frowned as Derion received a rather nasty looking blow to the face, the skin on his cheek ripped open. Shooting the offender in the face, he finally caught the attention of the two remaining. They screeched up at him, one of them racing to the staircase to take after him.
"Don't say I never gave you anything!" Derion managed to shout up at him before diving into the parlour and recovering his gun from under an upturned chair.
Pytho laughed before racing down the hall toward his bedroom, relieved that Salien was still digging her claws into the guardian's face and avoiding any attempt to be dislodged.
"Off!" He yelled and fired a shot into the guardian's face just as Salien jumped off and ran back into the bedroom.
He kicked the door shut behind her and turned around, quickly dropping his gun to the ground and throwing his arms out toward both the guardian that was down and the one currently racing toward him. He physically felt the fire rip through him and leap into the air toward each of the creatures.
He was definitely going to pay for this tomorrow.
Chapter Thirteen
An annoying buzz echoed around her head, persistently worming its way into her ear and slowly pushing away the heavy fog of sleep that clouded Adelyn's mind.
Her eyes fluttered open slowly, her body instinctively taking in a deep breath of air as she did so. She groaned as a sudden pain nearly split her skull. Her eyes closed, she bit her bottom lip, breathing through the pain as it slowly ebbed with each breath she took.
Reaching up, her fingers gingerly sank into her hair and felt around the side of her head. The area where she had been backhanded by the guardian throbbed slightly under the pressure of her fingers, but she didn't feel any blood. Her hand reached around to the other side of her head, where her forehead had connected with the door frame.
"Great," she breathed, fingers sliding over sticky, congealed blood. Busted nose, arms covered in blood, and now a bleeding gash on her forehead. Between the injuries and the lack of bathing for the past few days, she was sure she looked and smelled simply amazing at this point.
Though it could be worse, she reminded herself. She could be dead.
Her eyes flew open at that sudden thought. Glancing around at her surroundings, she was relieved to find that she was alone, though not anywhere that she had expected. Judging by the furniture in the room, it appeared that she was sitting in an office. She glanced at the large metal desk in front of her, devoid of any papers or office supplies. Behind the desk sat an empty banker's chair, tilted back as if it had been broken in from years of use. In the corner of the room sat a single three-drawer filing cabinet, the only piece of furniture in the room that looked relatively new.
The buzzing noise sputtered at the same time as the light above her started to flicker and dim. She tilted her head back to examine the florescent lighting that hung from the ceiling with a glare. The noise, not to mention the harsh light, was doing nothing to ease the headache that gripped her skull.
Frowning, she glanced down at the chair she was sprawled out in. She couldn't remember anything after her face was slammed into the door frame at the Manor. Someone must have dumped her in the chair and left her alone, presumably until she regained consciousness. Cain must have been right, she thought. They wanted information out of her; otherwise, they would have just killed her outright.
Of course, that didn't mean that they weren't going to kill her after they dragged information out of her.
She sighed and tilted her head back, eyes closed. Would they hurt her? Would they torture her? What would they do to her if she didn't give them the information that they needed?
Would she be able to keep herself together until the daemons came to get her out?
She was somewhat thankful that she hadn't had much time to think about these sorts of questions before she had agreed to undertake this little fishing expedition. Even though she may have had a little prodding from Cain-
Understatement of the year, a tiny voice popped up from the back of her mind.
-she knew that deep down, she really wanted to help them. Aside from the fact that they had initially lied about their true identities, they had done nothing but help and had protected her. Gregory was a kind and generous man, and he made her feel welcome from the moment she stepped foot in the house. He knew about her financial situation and made an effort to help her out without hurting her pride. Pytho and Derion made her feel as though they genuinely cared about her well-being. Donovan may have initially suggested wiping her memory and dumping her, but he, too, took the time to ensure her safety on more than one occasion.
Gideon hated having her around and probably wouldn't think twice about making her death look like an accident, but she had a feeling he wouldn't go against Cain's orders.
Then there was Cain. Her eyes flew open, and she stared at the flickering light above her. She knew that he was dangerous, but she also knew that he was only dangerous because of his powers. Donovan had said that he couldn't control his powers and it caused him to lash out at times.
She had certainly seen his lack of control first hand, she thought as her fingers ghosted over her upper arms. His furious pacing and shouting down in the basement had been the tip of the iceberg, she now realized.
My control is tedious at best. If pushed too far, I will push back, and you will die at my hands in a horrific manner that is not of my own choosing.
His words echoed in her mind. He was most certainly not in control when his eyes had slid out of focus and when he had her pinned against the wall. He had definitely not been in control of himself when his hand had slid up and wanted to choke the life out of her.
Yet when he was in control of himself...
She remembered the stillness, the authority that he carried when he wasn't insane from his own powers. The way that his eyes pierced into everyone in the room; the way they pinned her on the spot and commanded her attention. Demanded her focus. It was a complete change from when he wasn't in control.
She shook her head as if to clear it.
Either way, she owed a lot to Pytho, Derion, Donovan, and Gregory. Pytho had told her that he had adopted her into his replacement family, and she smiled at that thought. She liked the idea of belonging with them, of being part of their little group. It didn't matter that they were different; that they weren't human.
She would do anything she could to help them.
Pressing her hands into the padded arms of the chair, she lifted her body with a grunt and sat up straight, more alert now that she was situated properly. She turned her head to glance at the windowless door behind her to make sure it was still shut. As she turned her head, she caught a glimpse of the giant watch on her wrist and suddenly remembered all of the items that Pytho had given her.
Her hands flew up to her chest, and she sighed in relief as her fingers came in contact with the small GPS tracker that remained tucked inside her bra. She carefully reached into the waistband of her pants and felt around for the cool metal of the pen recorder. It was exactly where she had left it, pressed tightly horizontally between her pants and the front of her hip. They must not have searched her when they brought her into the room.
Remembering why she had the items in the first place, she glanced down at her wrist and angled the face of it up so that she could inspect it. She pressed the button Pytho had shown her. Locating the small, black eye of the camera in the centre of the clock, she then tilted her wrist discretely and slowly swept the camera around the room. She wasn't sure what good it would do considering the room was practically empty, but it was worth a try.
Licking her dry lips, she threw another glance over her shoulder at the closed door and started to ask herself questions once more. What were they going to do to her? Why would they bother keeping her alive after they tortured her for information? That speech the guardian gave the other night about not wanting to harm her was probably just to encourage her to follow them out willingly.
She would have to keep stringing them along for as long as she could in the hopes that the daemons would be able to get to her in time. One day, Donovan had said. She glanced down at the watch again to check the time. It had already been six hours. That meant that she had either been unconscious for a very long time or she was very far away from the Manor.
She hoped it was the former.
A half-gasp, half-shriek escaped her lips as the door behind her suddenly opened with tremendous force, hitting the wall with a loud bang. Whipping her body around in her chair, she felt herself grow pale at the sight of a rather tall guardian as it filled the entire doorway with its broad shoulders. Its golden eyes narrowed down at her, and she thought she heard a slight growl in the back of its throat before it snorte
d and turned down the hallway, disappearing from her view as it walked past the door frame.
Taking a deep breath to calm her pounding heart, she slowly lifted herself out of the chair and took a hesitant step toward the open door. In the stretch of hallway that was visible from where she stood, she couldn't see any windows, just another door across the hallway with an empty placeholder for a nameplate. She couldn't hear anything other than the buzzing from the lighting above her.
She adjusted her wrist to face the doorway and took another few hesitant steps, the toes of her shoes coming in line with the crack of tile across the doorway. Leaning forward slowly, she peered around the corner in the direction that the guardian had left.
Adrenaline pumped through her veins as grey-tinged flesh filled her vision, and a loud screech rang in her ears. Ducking her head back into the room and instinctively throwing her arms over her head, she waited for an attack.
When none came, her eyes flew open to find the doorway completely empty. Confused, she swallowed, then forced herself to step toward the doorway again. She leaned forward quickly once more to pop her head out into the hallway before throwing her body back into the room. Her quick glance confirmed the presence of the same guardian just outside the door.
Pressing her body against the wall next to the door, she shook her head. Why wasn't it doing anything? Was it just guarding the door?
Her head jerked to the side as the sound of footsteps echoed down the hallway, the clip of each step getting sharper as it approached.
"Is she awake?" A familiar voice asked as the footsteps paused just outside the door. Adelyn's heart started pounding as her head swam in confusion. She knew that voice, but it didn't make sense that she would hear it now.
"Yesss," the guardian hissed. Adelyn could actually feel the disdain it had for her as it forced the word out.
"Excellent," the familiar voice approached the room, and Adelyn turned her head to watch the doorway. It must be a mistake, she thought to herself. It must be someone else.