Broken

by Zara Novak

  “Naturally.”

  Guardians sure had a way with words.

  “But uh, actually finding a mate, the one you’re meant to be with? That’s different for vampires.”

  “Different how?” I asked, crossing my arms.

  “It’s not just a feeling for us. It’s an empirical truth that beats through the fiber of our soul. Each vampire has one mate, one person that they’re meant to be with, and we know when we find them.”

  “Okay…”

  “You’re my mate, Rachel,” he said. “You’re my one. I should have told you earlier. I’m sorry. I knew it from the moment I set eyes on you.”

  “This is all a bit insane,” I said. Hunter laughed, which made me laugh. I wasn’t expecting that reaction. “Why are you laughing?”

  “Because you’re absolutely right. It’s completely insane. But I have to be honest with you now, that is how I feel and that is what you mean to me. I have found you now, and I can never unfind you. You have left your mark upon my soul, and that mark can never be taken away.”

  “I’m still getting my head around this. I was single a few days ago. I mean, I am single. Now I’m supposed to commit to one guy for ever and ever, amen? Oh, and he’s a vampire?”

  “Look I know I’m supposed to tell you that you can walk away, and you have a choice, but let’s be honest, that’s all bullshit.”

  “Is it now?” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

  The giant vampire stood up from the bed and approached me. Walking with a swagger that belayed absolute confidence. “Yeah, because there’s no fucking way I’m letting you get away from me, and there’s not a chance in hell that I’m taking no for an answer.” He stopped in front of me, his huge body brushing up against the front of mine. My throat went tight and I forgot how to breathe.

  “From the sounds of things there’s more you haven’t told me,” I said, turning away from him.

  “Oh?”

  I walked over to the cabinet where I had stashed the amulet and pulled it out, holding it up so Hunter could see it. “You were around last time this was found. Davian told me.”

  “I see,” he said.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about this? It seems like a pretty crucial piece of info to leave out. You said that no one knows who made the last wish, and now I learn you were there? What happened exactly?”

  Hunter let out a long sigh.

  “I killed my best friend,” he said. The answer took me by surprise.

  “What?”

  “Trey. He was my partner in the guardians. More than a partner. A brother. We grew up together. He was my shadow my whole life. Well… a girl found the amulet in 1883. Her name was Lauriel. Trey and I were assigned to look after her, and what would you know, she turned out to be Trey’s mate.”

  “Wait,” I said. “1883? How old are you?”

  “I stopped aging when I became a vampire,” Hunter explained. “I was born in 1801. If you were counting by human years, then that would make me 219. Biologically I’m still in my thirties.”

  There was so much I still didn’t know about Hunter’s vampirism. It was amazing to me that someone could live that long and look so… great.

  “So you were around when Krakatoa last erupted?”

  “Yep. The ever dark was the same last time around.”

  “And this girl, this Lauriel, she was the keeper, like I am now?”

  “Yup,” he nodded. “Lauriel learned to use the amulet and we found Halo’s hiding place, but when we got there things went horribly wrong. Trey killed her, and he tried to take the amulet for himself. The amulet had consumed his mind, and the draw of absolute power had taken him in. I was left with no choice but to kill him.”

  “Hunter I’m… I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. With the clock ticking I could let the amulet disappear or make a wish. Letting it disappear wasn’t an option, so I took the wish. It was me. I was the last one.”

  “What did you wish for?” I said, enraptured by the story.

  He looked away. “I can’t say. I made a deal with Halo. That was part of it.”

  “A deal?” I asked. “What deal?”

  “Rachel,” he said sternly. “I can’t.”

  “Okay. Sorry. What now then? If you’ve done this before it can’t be that hard to find her again?”

  Hunter shook his head. “The hunt is different every time. That’s all I can say. Last time we had to employ someone to help us, and I’m afraid we’ll have to ask that person again.”

  “Who?”

  “Her name is Nalinth. She is a dark witch, and sister to Saydra, the witch that receives visions for the guardians. She’s also Davian’s ex.”

  “This Nalinth, is she dangerous?”

  “Extremely, and if Saydra’s predictions are right then Nalinth has only got more dangerous.”

  “Can’t Saydra help us?”

  “No. She doesn’t understand how the amulet works. Look we’re on day three here. We’ve got four days left until the sun goes out forever. I don’t exactly want to go back to this crazy vampire bitch, but we haven’t got a choice.”

  “Let’s go then,” I said. “If worst comes to worst then Halo will protect us from this Nalinth.”

  “There’s just a small matter of finding her,” Hunter said. “And that’s where you come in.”

  “Me? How should I know where she is?”

  He gestured to the amulet in my hand. “With that. That’s how Lauriel found her last time. Hold the amulet up, look in the stone, and ask for help. Ask to find Nalinth.”

  “I… it can’t be that easy. Right?”

  “Trust me,” Hunter said. “Nothing about this is going to be easy.”

  I glanced at him for a moment before taking the amulet out of the cloth. I walked over and sat down on the bed before holding up the stone. The green gem turned on the chain and twinkled in the room’s light. It was oddly hypnotic, like waves crashing against a beach, or flames dancing over a burning fire.

  As I looked into the stone It seemed like all the sound in the world was slowly fading out. A gentle ringing sound whistled in the distance and started to grow louder. The chain felt taut in my hand. My eyes were drawn to the stone, like a wave of magnetic energy was keeping my attention in place.

  I felt as though I was leaning forward, or sinking in the middle of a giant lake, a stone plummeting down into cold and icy depths. My periphery faded to black, it was just me and the stone now. A voice echoed in the distance. It was Halo.

  What do you want?

  “How do I find you?” I asked. “How do I use the amulet?” In the stone I saw a face appear. It was an elfin-featured girl with beautiful golden hair. “Halo?” I asked.

  Find Nalinth. She will guide you there.

  “Where is she?”

  A church of bones. Blood on the river.

  Images swam in my vision to accompany her words.

  I saw swamps and bayou. Spanish moss dangled over still water. Twisted trees curled into night like broken fingers. Fire burned on a black lake. A huge wooden church stood tall among the trees, a dark tower against a night of fire. I saw boats, I saw bones. I saw flames.

  The water was black. A cursed mirror.

  The vision broke and I felt the trance end. I heard myself gasp and then realized I was falling backwards.

  “Rachel!” Hunter shouted, his strong arms wrapping around me as he caught me. “Rachel? What happened? What did you see?”

  It felt bizarre to be back in the room. It was like a dream had just ended and thrown me back into a world I had forgotten about. “Trees,” I said. “Bayou. Swamp. I think Nalinth is meant to be there somewhere.”

  “That’s hardly narrowing it down, darling,” Hunter laughed. “What else did you see?”

  “A church. All tall and painted black. The wood was carved. It looked almost like a cathedral. I saw boats, I saw fire… I saw bones.”

  “Voodoo,” Hunter said to himself. “Nalinth must have
taken up residence as a voodoo priestess, that kind of thing is right up her alley.”

  “You know where she is?” I asked.

  “No, but I reckon someone that might. Bayou. Voodoo. I’d put my money on Louisiana. I’ve got an informant down there; he might be able to point us in the right direction.”

  “All we have to do is avoid the bad guys and find Halo, right?” I said. “It can’t be that hard. Is Harkin still a threat?”

  “Harkin is the threat,” Hunter said. “Any vampire that learns about this amulet will probably want a piece of us. “Luckily for us Harkin has no way of getting in here. He doesn’t know where the guardian HQ is and even if he did it’s a fortress of—”

  Hunter’s words stopped dead in his mouth as a distant rumbling sound shook through the room. “What the fuck was that?” he muttered to himself.

  The rumble was followed immediately by the muted clatter of gunfire, which I never thought I would be able to identify before this week. I heard guardians shouting in the common room outside, screaming orders over the gunfire.

  “Hunter? What’s going on!” I asked.

  “I think the powers of your amulet are starting to come into play,” Hunter said. “But they’re working against us.”

  “Back down!” a voice shouted outside the corridor. “Back down!”

  “Where are they? Give them up!” another muffled voice shouted.

  Suddenly a small screen came to life on the interior wall by the door. Rocky’s face filled the monitor. “Hey! Anyone order a wakeup call?”

  “What’s going on out there?” Hunter said to Rocky.

  “So, Chase from Cerberus unit has turned on us—”

  “No surprises there,” Hunter growled.

  “He’s just blown open the door to our unit and he’s got a mech-suit. Oh, also he’s with like ten other guys and they’re all in mech-suits too.”

  “Harkin’s guys by any chance?”

  “I haven’t got an ID on them yet, but I’d put my money on it. You’ve got about fifteen seconds before they break down that door.”

  “Chase must have let Harkin’s guys in. That means he’s working with Harkin. Have you got an exit strategy for us?”

  “Hey, it’s me, Rocky. Of course, I do! I’m about to slam the common room with an EMP. That will take out the mech-suits.”

  “But it also means you won’t be able to communicate with us.”

  Rocky clicked his fingers and pointed at the camera. “Bingo. So, I’ll have to unload a bunch of instructions on you right now. All guest rooms have a secret weapons cache. Punch the ceiling panel directly above your head.”

  Hunter did so.

  The ceiling panel dropped through the air, along with a metallic briefcase that had been hidden above it. Hunter caught the case, crouched down and opened it to reveal a huge shotgun and two handguns. All the weapons had huge clips sticking out of them.

  “Do you know how to fire a gun?” he said and threw a handgun to me. He tucked the other into his waistband and grabbed the shotgun, immediately taking point as he aimed it at the door.

  “I guess we’re about to find out,” I said, though I’d never even held a gun before.

  “Lock your arms and keep your feet apart. Only aim at something if you want to kill it. Congratulations, firearm initiation over.”

  “Eight seconds,” Rocky said. “Listen and don’t talk, because there’s no time. You have to get out of guardian HQ right away. Take Rachel and the amulet with you. Don’t come back until the mission is done. You’re going to take a left when you get out the room. Head for the maintenance tunnels underneath the common room and then head for sanitation.

  “I stashed a vehicle there for situations like this. Take it to get wherever you’re going. Contact me when you’re back online.”

  “What about you?” Hunter asked, his gun still trained on the door.

  “Don’t worry about me. I always come out on top. I’m dropping the EMP now. Bye!”

  I expected a huge explosion, but the reality is that everything electrical immediately died a death. The lights went out and the room plunged into darkness. The pace of the commotion shifted outside and then the gunfire continued.

  Hunter looked over his shoulder at me and smiled.

  “Get ready Doctor Stone,” he said with a note of excitement in his voice. “This might get a little hairy.”

  The door to the guest room exploded open and Hunter fired his shotgun. I squeezed my finger against my trigger and hoped for the best.

  Mayhem had started.

  10

  Hunter

  The shotgun exploded in my hands, wiping out the vampire that had blown down the door. The cloud of pellet shrapnel tore through the air and made mincemeat of his chest, instantly turning him into a ball of screaming flame.

  I pumped the chamber to reload and two more figures came around the corner. Rachel’s gun went off, nailing one of them square in the head. I was impressed, my crash-course firearms initiation had obviously been effective.

  The headshot sent the second vampire up in flames, and I took out the last one with another blast from my shotgun.

  “Stay close!” I shouted to Rachel as I ran to the door. A quick check revealed that the hallway immediately outside was clear, but as soon as we stepped out the action caught up to us.

  Guardian HQ’s sleek gunmetal hallways were now bathed in dim red light from the emergency lighting system. The common room was to our right, where I saw Hammer and Mac holding off a group of Harkin’s men. Hammer was swinging his giant fucking mallet around and making quick work of the minions, while Mac was using the deadliest weapons he had available: his bare hands.

  Throughout the surrounding hallways I could hear the theatre of combat and gunfire coming from all directions. We just had to follow Rocky’s instructions and get out of there alive. I wanted to stay and help my brothers, but that wasn’t an option right now.

  “Mac!” Hammer shouted while dealing with three minions at once. “Watch out!”

  Mac had no problem dealing with idiots like this, Harkin’s goons weren’t trained fighters and couldn’t match the speed or strength of a guardian, but this was a surprise attack, they had numbers, and they fought dirty.

  One of the downed goons had found a pistol on the floor and had it aimed at the back of Mac’s head while he was facing another direction.

  Fucking coward.

  With a flash of my hand I whipped out the handgun tucked into my waistband and nailed the fucker. The gun dropped to the floor as he burst into flame.

  Both Hammer and Mac looked down the hallway to trace the shot and saw me with Rachel. “Hunter!” Mac shouted. “Run!”

  Saving Mac’s life had drawn unnecessary attention to us, but I wasn’t about to let my brother die to one of Harkin’s goons. I temporarily holstered the shotgun and flung Rachel over my shoulder as I burst down the corridor, heading away from the common room. Looking back, I saw my guardian brothers fighting off the advancing hoard, giving us time to get away.

  There was a small section at the back of the chapter set aside for maintenance. A long tunnel ran down the back of the communal living space and led down to basements with washers and dryers. There was also a service elevator that went straight up to a private flight deck.

  It would have been my escape route, and it was the one I’d laid out in my head before talking to Rocky, but as we came around the corner, I realized why he’d suggested an alternative. Chase, the guardian that had betrayed us, was standing in front of the elevator with another group of Harkin’s goons. Large mech-suits were scattered across the floor, rendered useless by Rocky’s EMP.

  “There!” one of the goons shouted as I came around the corner. They all instantly pointed their rifles in our direction. The maintenance tunnels were directly past the service elevator, if we wanted to get out of there, we needed to somehow get past Chase and his men.

  “Lower your weapons!” Chase shouted to the goons, sounding
like he was in a hot panic. “We need the girl alive!”

  I kept my own weapon pointed directly at the group, but a solitary shotgun was little fucking use against ten vampires with assault rifles. I could probably withstand the brunt of their fire, but it would only take one bullet to kill Rachel, and I wasn’t going to take that risk.

  The goons followed Chase’s orders. “It’s over Hunter,” he barked at me. “Hand the girl over.”

  “Not on your fucking life.”

  “Don’t make me risk her,” he said. “I will tell them to shoot if you don’t cooperate.”

  I wasn’t going to stand there and bargain with Chase over Rachel’s life. Turning on the guardians was already a big fucking indicator that his mind wasn’t making rational decisions, I couldn’t be sure he valued her life over his own insanity.

  “Put me down,” Rachel whispered in my ear. “I have an idea.”

  “Can you throw the amulet again?” I asked.

  “Better than that.”

  I set her down and she turned around to face the group. “You need me alive,” she said to Chase.

  “Without the keeper the amulet is pretty fucking useless, so yeah—you’re a necessity.”

  “Then how about we make things a little fairer?” she said. Her next act caught all of us by surprise. She pulled out her handgun and pointed it at her head. “Let us past or I blow my fucking brains out!”

  “Rachel!” I shouted.

  “Christ!” Chase shouted, shaking his head in disbelief. “She’s the fucking craziest one here!”

  “Drop your weapons now, all of you,” she said to the group. “If you don’t let us past, I’ll pull the trigger, and then you all lose.”

  “Do it!” Chase said. “Fucking do it!”

  “Fuck that,” one of the goons said. “Harkin’s orders were very clear. Get the amulet. The girl is optional. And you,” he looked at Chase and pointed his gun at him. “You are just as expendable.”

  “What the fuck did you say?” Chase said, his brow turning down with anger. “You’re not getting out of here without me, so remember who you’re talking to!”