The Guardian

by Elicia Hyder

  I smiled. “This is fun, watching you two.”

  “Shut up, Warren,” Fury said, shaking her head.

  Flint glanced over his shoulder at me. “I hear you have a daughter of your own. I’m sorry.”

  I chuckled. “And she’s the most powerful being in existence next to the Father himself.”

  Flint let out a low whistle. “You’re in trouble, son.”

  “Don’t I know it.”

  The helicopter started its descent across the water. “How’s Adrianne and the baby? Did she come with you this time?” Flint asked.

  “Yeah, she’s back at the house,” Azrael said. “She’s fine.”

  “Just fine?” Fury asked, crossing her arms.

  “Oh, you know. Hormonal and achy. All the stuff that goes with the last trimester of pregnancy.”

  Flint turned the helicopter toward the airfield. “I’d like to see her. It’s been a while.”

  “You’re in for a surprise,” Fury said.

  Azrael whirled around.

  Fury turned up her palms, pretending to be stupid. Azrael’s glare heated, and Fury sat back in her seat, letting her attitude fizzle.

  I needed to learn how to get her to do that.

  “While you’re in Asheville, I think you should see Sloan,” Azrael told me.

  My spine went rigid.

  Nothing in me wanted to see, or even talk about, Sloan. I’d just spent another fifteen (Eden) years licking my wounds from the last time I saw her and our daughter.

  This trip wasn’t about Sloan. Or even Iliana. For now, they were safe. My purpose was simple: rescue Fury’s sister, Anya, and seal the Nulterra Gate once and for all.

  Flint lowered the helicopter toward the ground.

  “Why?” My voice cracked with the question.

  “She’s struggled since the electrical storm.”

  “Is it true what they say about her?” Fury’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. “Sloan really got her powers back?”

  “Some of them, but it hasn’t been easy for her.” Azrael watched the ground beneath us nervously as Flint eased the helicopter down.

  “How is that even possible?” Fury asked.

  Azrael shook his head. “I have no clue, but I’m determined to figure out how.”

  Chapter Four

  As an orphan and then a Marine, my entire human life had been spent bouncing from bed to bed, and then rack to rack. Claymore headquarters was the first place on Earth I’d ever lived for more than a year. The first place I’d ever called home. And the first place I’d ever fallen in love.

  Fury walked beside me as the four of us crossed the airfield toward the main grounds. We passed the chow hall and then the PT field.

  A platoon of new recruits was climbing the fifty-foot rock wall tower and rappelling down the other side. It was eighty-four degrees, and they all looked like they were about to die.

  “I don’t miss those days,” I said, shaking my head as we passed.

  “Me either,” Fury agreed.

  Across from the PT field was Echo-10, a six-story concrete building with zero windows and only one door in and out. Even when it wasn’t locked down, only a handful of Claymore staff could access it. So it had become something of legend throughout the company.

  When I worked for Claymore as a civilian, before I knew I was part-angel or that Azrael was my father, Echo-10 perplexed me as much as all my colleagues. The rumor was it got its name because it had ten torture chambers, and all you could hear inside it were the echoes of your own screams.

  Ironically, the truth was even more impressive.

  Echo-10 was a supernatural fortress constructed from steel, concrete, lead, and a composite metal foam called high-Z. It had originally been made by a group of scientists at NC State to block radiation, but Azrael had found another use for it: blocking the supernatural.

  My daughter’s home in Asheville, a smaller version called Echo-5, was made of the same materials.

  Azrael stopped walking. I wondered if he would turn toward Echo-10. He didn’t. “Fury and Flint, you two head on to the armory. I need to talk to Warren for a minute.”

  Fury hesitated. She hated being left out of the loop.

  “We’ll fill you in soon,” Azrael said. “I promise.”

  Flint took her arm. “Come on. Gives us a chance for a little father-daughter time.”

  Fury groaned as he pulled her forward.

  Azrael put his hands on his hips and watched them until they were out of earshot. “Does she know?”

  “About Adrianne?”

  “No, Warren, that it’s physically impossible for an average human to lick their elbow.” He gripped his forehead like he was getting a migraine. “Of course about Adrianne.”

  “I haven’t confirmed anything, but she highly suspects something.” I lowered my voice. “You won’t be able to keep this secret for long.”

  He sighed, looking at the ground. “I want you to tell her.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. Fury will be an asset.”

  “What are you planning? She said you’ve been MIA a lot,” I said.

  “I’m making arrangements for when the baby’s born. I’ll show you when we have more time—”

  “Show me?”

  He nodded. “But get Fury alone and tell her. She’s the only one I trust to keep her mouth shut.”

  My jaw tightened. “She is an expert at it.”

  “You need to let it go, Warren.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “The two of you need to trust each other more than ever right now, and I’ll need her help when the time comes. We need to bring her back on board with SF-12.”

  “You have Chimera now. Chimera took Fury’s spot on the team.”

  “We’ll rename the team SF-13 if we have to. I need Fury.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ll explain everything once you’re back from Nulterra.” He started walking again. “Hopefully, your mission will be successful. We could use Anya as well.”

  “But you do have a plan?”

  “Of course I have a plan. I’ll tell you everything soon.”

  I looked around to make sure no one else was close enough to hear us. “Well, I hope whatever plan you’ve concocted is more solid than your plan for getting your powers back.”

  Az dropped his head.

  “A hair dryer in the bathtub? What were you thinking?”

  “I thought perhaps Illy could reinstate my powers the way she did when Sloan was struck by lightning,” he admitted.

  “You have to knock it off.” I nudged him with my elbow. “You’re no longer immortal.”

  “You think I don’t know that?” His face fell, and there was an unmistakable hitch in his throat.

  For the first time ever, my father was vulnerable.

  I swallowed. “I’ve asked all over Eden. No one knows how Iliana restored Sloan’s powers.”

  “They aren’t restored, exactly.” Azrael shook his head. “They aren’t as strong as they used to be.”

  “Has she tried summoning anyone?”

  “Yeah. It might have worked one time on Adrianne, but it’s hard to say because Adrianne calls a lot and shows up unannounced all the time anyway.”

  “What about healing?”

  His head tilted from side to side. “Again, maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t.”

  “Can she bring anyone back to life?”

  “Of course not.”

  I pointed at him. “So cut it out.”

  Azrael put his hands up. “I’ll stop.”

  “Good.” We walked several feet in silence. “Guess what happened today?”

  Azrael’s brow rose in question.

  I tapped my temple. “Iliana figured out how to talk to me.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. It only happened once, when Cassiel and I were still on the island, but she said Appa as clearly as I’m talking right now.”

  “That’s excellent, son.” He looked truly happy for me
.

  Voices drew our attention up ahead. Flint and Fury were arguing outside the armory. “I couldn’t tell if they were joking or serious on the helicopter. Is he really trying to stop her from going?” I asked.

  “You’re a father. Wouldn’t you?”

  Valid point.

  “Do I need to separate the two of you?” Azrael asked as we approached.

  Fury’s face was red, and her fists were clenched at her sides. “No.”

  Azrael opened the door to the armory. “Well, come on. We’re already late.”

  “Holy hell,” Huffman said when the four of us entered the armory. My former colleague walked around from behind the front desk with his hand extended. “I heard your ass might stop by today, but I didn’t believe it.”

  I pumped his fist. “Good to see you, man.”

  “Good to see you too, Parish.” When he released me, he grabbed Fury and pulled her into a tight hug. “Hey, heartbreaker. Long time no see.”

  She pushed him back and scowled, but I was fairly certain she liked the attention.

  Huffman looked at Flint. “Hello, Mr. McGrath.”

  Damn. Even Huffman knew who Fury’s father was.

  “Mr. Claymore, good to see you again,” Huffman said so politely I knew it was bullshit.

  “I can’t believe I’m still paying you to sit on your ass here all day,” Azrael said, shaking his head.

  Fury was looking around at the enclosed racks of weapons. “Right? Do you really expect Huffy to save the day if shit goes sideways?”

  “I’ve saved your ass a few times, haven’t I?” he asked.

  She smiled. “Fair enough. Do you have what I asked for?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Really?” Fury rubbed her palms together. “Lemme see.”

  “One sec.” Huffman walked back to his desk, leaned over it, and pressed a button hidden behind a file rack. Behind us, the front door buzzed and bolted shut. Then metal bars slid down over it.

  “OK. That’s pretty cool,” I said, impressed.

  “Have you not been to the vault before?” Azrael asked.

  I shook my head. “Not in all the time I worked for Claymore. And definitely not since.”

  “It’s been over a year since I’ve seen you in here at all,” Huffman said, leading us to a door in the center of the room’s back wall.

  “Longer than that,” I told him. The last time I’d been in the armory was the day Sloan first met Fury. That was an ugly day.

  Azrael looked at his watch. “There’s something else I need to attend to while I’m here. I think I’ll catch up with you at the clinic. You still planning to be there at nine?”

  “Yes, sir,” Huffman said.

  “The clinic?” I asked.

  Azrael nodded. “I want medical supervision when Fury tests out her new gear. Huffman’s got something pretty cool to show you. Flint, you wanna come with me?”

  “Nah, I think I’ll stay here and supervise. Keep her out of trouble,” Flint said.

  Fury shook her head and rolled her eyes. It cracked me up. This day had shown me the most genuine interaction I’d ever seen her have with anyone. Simply a daughter bickering with her dad.

  “I’ll see you guys in about an hour,” Azrael said, backing toward the exit. “I’ll let myself out and lock everything back up.”

  When Az was gone, Huffman used a numeric keypad to open the metal door. There was another buzz, and the heavy door slid back into the wall with a thud. “Welcome to my real office.” His voice echoed off the walls of the concrete hall.

  “Lovely,” I said as we followed him.

  “I hear you’ve got a kid now, Warren.”

  “That’s right. A little girl.”

  “You, Fury, now Damon. It’s like a baby factory around here.”

  “You next?” I asked.

  “Ha! Man, I’m done. One is enough.”

  I stopped. “You have a kid?”

  “My wife and I have a daughter. Same as you. She’s three.”

  “You have a wife too?”

  He chuckled. “Her name’s Brittany.” He opened another door to a stairwell.

  “I had no idea.”

  “You would if you came around more.”

  We started down the stairs. “I don’t really live in the area anymore.”

  Fury flashed a knowing smile over her shoulder, and behind me, Flint snickered.

  Huffman had been with Claymore a long time, but he wasn’t part of SF-12, so I wasn’t sure how much he’d been told.

  “The rumor is you’re dead,” he said as he turned at the midway landing.

  I froze.

  He grinned back at me. “I’ve even stood on your grave.”

  “I have a grave?” I asked Fury.

  “So I hear.”

  At the bottom of the stairs, Huffman took a hard right. “Got a headstone with your name and everything.”

  “Sure do. I can take you to see it if you’d like,” Flint offered.

  “Isn’t that something?” Huffman asked. “Good thing we’ve all got that confidentiality clause in our contracts.”

  “Yeah. Good thing.”

  “You missing Eden?”

  “Like crazy,” I said.

  Huffman turned on his heel, his jaw dropped. Fury started laughing, and Flint just shook his head.

  “I didn’t think you’d actually fess up,” Huffman said through a laugh.

  I looked at Fury. “He knows?”

  She was laughing too. “Yes. He knows.”

  “You’re all a bunch of assholes.” I shook my head as we walked on toward another door. This one was round, massive, and shiny.

  The vault.

  It looked a lot like vaults in the movies, except it had a combination lock and a retina scanner. After successfully turning the dial and letting the machine scan his eyeball, he was able to turn the wheel on the door until the bolt finally slid away. He pulled the heavy door open. It must have been ten inches thick.

  When he and Fury walked inside, the lights flipped on. I froze halfway through the doorway. “Day-um,” I said, drawing the word out slowly.

  The vault was a huge octagon. Easily as big as the armory above us and part of the indoor range attached to it.

  The half of the octagon to our left was a series of lockers, or safe-deposit boxes, that got bigger as they went around the room. But the right side was nothing but weapons in mass quantity. RPGs, grenades, Claymore mines—no affiliation, I’d learned—and guns. Cases and cases of guns.

  “They’re back here,” Huffman said, crossing the room to the far wall. He opened another combination lock on a smaller vault door. It led to another room lined with thick glass cases.

  The center one in front of us housed the gargoyle. It was dark and stone except for the eyes. The eyes glowed with an eerie green light. I had never seen it up close before, but it radiated supernatural energy.

  And it was kind of hilarious that an Archangel was trapped inside it. Moloch seemed to be glaring at me.

  “It’s creepy isn’t it?” Fury asked, leaning toward the statue.

  “Yeah. It’s like he’s watching me all the time. Freaks me the hell out. But that’s not what I wanted to show you.” Huffman turned to the case beside Moloch.

  Inside was a full-length mannequin wearing bloodred cuffs around the wrists, a collar around the neck, wide bands just above the elbows, and what looked like shin guards fastened backward over the calves.

  “You did it,” Fury said, a little mystified.

  Huffman unfastened the latches on the glass, letting it swing open. “To your specifications, my dear.” He pulled the mannequin forward, and it rolled on the platform underneath it. “The blood stone will cover most of the major superficial arteries.” He pointed to the neck first. “Carotid, brachial, radial, popliteal, and posterior tibial.”

  “Been studying anatomy?” I asked.

  “Dana helped with the design.”

  “Who is Dana?” I a
sked again.

  “Head nurse at Echo-10,” Flint answered. “Nice gal.”

  I looked over all the magical pieces. “It’s a little overkill, isn’t it? Azrael lived in Eden for years with only wrist cuffs.”

  When Azrael had sacrificed himself to save Sloan, the Father had used blood stone to allow him passage into Eden. He’d lived there with my mother for many years before returning to Earth to help with Iliana.

  Fury shrugged. “We had a lot of blood stone to work with. Figured we’d use it.”

  I leaned in for a closer look at the reddish-black stone pieces. “How’d you make them?”

  “Melted down that pillory Enzo and Cooper brought back last year,” Huffman answered. “Had to heat it to over six thousand degrees to get it to melt.”

  “What about the burns?” Flint asked. “Is what happened to her neck before going to happen again?”

  “I hope not.” Smiling, Huffman carefully slid off one of the wrist cuffs. “I added the quick release latch you asked for.” He showed Fury, then pressed a button on the side. The cuff sprang open on a hinge.

  “Nifty, son, but how will that keep her skin from getting scorched again?” Flint asked.

  “It won’t, but after Azrael told me all he could about blood stone, it sounds like it transmits supernatural energy much like we can transmit electricity. That energy creates heat, and like I said, this stuff has a crazy-high melting point. It can hold a lot of heat before it begins to break down.” He pointed at Fury’s throat. “Hence the burns.

  “So I started wondering if there might be something we could coat it with that conducts energy without conducting heat. Now there’s nothing at the hardware store that can do that, but I called our buddies at the NC State lab.”

  “The ones who created high-Z?” I asked.

  He nodded. “They directed us to a team at the Department of Energy that’s working with a substance called vanadium dioxide. Az has some very powerful friends at the DOE, and he was able to get them to help us come up with a coating that will hopefully protect Fury’s skin from the blood stone.”

  “Shut up.” Fury shoved Huffman’s shoulder. “Since when are you so smart?”

  He laughed. “Right?”

  I took the cuff from his hand for a closer look. “I don’t see any coating.”