by S. A. Moss
I dashed over to Alex’s side, inspecting his arm and face. “Shit! Are you okay?”
“Yeah,“ he gasped. “It’s not deep, it just stings like a bitch.”
My gaze flitted around the room. “Pearl, can you bring me those wraps on the floor over there?”
She delivered them to me with an anxious look on her face. I unwound the long strips of cloth and twisted them around Alex’s arm to stop the bleeding. Then I looked around the room again. Splotches of dark vampire blood mixed with the droplets of human blood splattered across the walls and floor. The chair had been knocked over in the scuffle, and it looked like the vampire’s massive weight had actually bent the metal. Thank goodness the tarp concealed us from the front room with its large windows.
“Was the vampire mortal when you stabbed it?” Arjun asked, standing over us.
“I don’t think so,“ I said grimly. “If he was, it wasn’t for long. He’ll survive.”
“Well, that could’ve gone… better.” Pearl, in that posh British way she had, summed up our situation with a perfect understatement.
Alex shook his head, pressing against the wall to leverage himself back to his feet. “At least we know what we’re up against now.”
I thought back to what the vampire had told us.
Yep, we did know.
And we were so screwed.
7
After cleaning up the demon—and human—blood as best we could, we all limped quickly back to Alex’s apartment. We needed to meet with the Council, but I refused to go anywhere until I properly bandaged Alex’s arm. The sweat stained hand wraps I’d used as a temporary bandage wouldn’t do for the long term.
Arjun was a little resistant until I gestured between myself and Alex—encompassing his wounded arm and my shredded pants and bloodstained hand and forearm. Once I pointed out how much unwanted attention we’d draw looking like this, he grudgingly agreed.
Alex’s first aid kit was woefully understocked for the kind of lifestyle he was living now, but he did have disinfectant, gauze pads, and medical tape. He’d lied; his injury was more than just a scratch. But it wasn’t deep enough to need stitches.
He hissed when I poured on the disinfectant, and I tried not to remember the last time I’d tended his wounds—in the tiny bathroom at Sarah’s place. This time, I had insisted on treating his wounds in the living room. The two of us together in a small enclosed space was a recipe for a bunch of feelings I wasn’t prepared to handle. Even here, with Arjun pacing nearby and Pearl hovering over us, it felt way too intimate.
I looked up as I pressed the last piece of tape to his arm. “Are you really okay?”
Alex grinned crookedly. “Yeah. Chicks dig scars, right?”
“This chick would rather you stop getting yourself sliced up,“ I shot back, and he chuckled.
“I'll do my best. How’s your leg?”
“Good as new.”
I’d had to trash the pants, which were unsalvageable. But the deep gash in my thigh had already healed by the time I’d pulled off my destroyed jeans.
I felt a little bad. Alex was basically bankrolling this whole operation, and even though I didn’t eat his food or run up the electric bill by keeping the lights on all night, at this rate it looked like I’d tear through my wardrobe pretty quickly—pun intended.
Once we looked a little more presentable and a lot less gory, we followed Arjun and Pearl outside. It was such a beautiful spring day, it was almost hard to believe that an hour ago we’d been fighting a seven-foot-tall vampire that looked like a cross between Dracula and an elk. If I saw him appear on the street right now, I would barely believe my eyes.
Shaking off the thought, I knocked on the wooden door behind me for luck. I sincerely hoped we wouldn’t see him out here. I doubted he’d risk facing Alex again, considering his reaction to being turned mortal the first time. But I still felt better traveling in a group of four. We needed to warn the Council that pairing Guardians up was going to become a less effective safeguard as stronger Fallen crossed over from the Shroud.
Pearl and Arjun faded out before we reached the train station, but I stayed visible and sat with Alex. We rode in tense silence. Although I’d been the one who insisted on stopping for first aid, my nerves thrummed with urgency.
When we arrived at the mouth of the pee-stained alley downtown, Pearl and Arjun went through the portal to fetch the Council. Since I couldn’t leave Alex behind, and he couldn’t enter the Shroud, they’d have to come to us.
As the green door marked EMPLOYEES ONLY closed behind them, Alex shot me a curious glance. “Why do they have to go through that door to get to the Haven? Can’t you all just fade over into the Shroud?”
I glanced at him, struck again by how quickly he’d accepted all of this as his new reality. My own brain still reeled sometimes from the strangeness of at all, and I was impressed with how well Alex was keeping up.
My fingers tapped out a beat on the side of the building at the alley’s entrance. “It doesn’t work that way. If they faded over, they’d wind up in the corresponding place on the Shroud to here on Earth. I don’t know where the Haven actually is, but it’s not in Chicago. There’s a room in the Haven full of portals to places all over the world.”
Alex’s eyes widened. “Oh. Wow.”
I grinned, feeling a small surge of pride—not that I’d had anything to do with the construction or creation of the portal room. “Pretty cool, right? The room is huge. Must be the size of two football stadiums put together. There are doors all over.”
He raised his eyebrows. “So you could go anywhere in the world from the Haven?”
I wobbled my head back-and-forth. “Well, not anywhere. But lots of places. Except I’m kind of stuck in Chicago right now.” I gave him a slight nudge with my elbow.
“Sorry to hold back your jet-setting lifestyle.” He smirked.
I laughed. “Does it count as jet-setting if there are no jets involved, just magic portals?” Twisting the ends of my brown hair around my fingers, I added, “I've actually never left Chicago, so you’re not holding me back from anything.”
“Never? Not even when you were alive?”
“I couldn’t. This city was the last connection I had to my parents. Leaving would’ve felt like giving up on them.”
His eyes warmed with understanding. “I get that. They were lucky to have you.”
My jaw clenched involuntarily. “Well, maybe not. Seems like I should’ve been off traveling the world. I didn’t realize my dad didn’t want to be found.”
Before Alex could respond, the door at the end of the alley opened again. Arcadius stepped out, followed by Owen, Sada, and Adele. Pearl and Arjun spilled out behind them.
Pearl had obviously told them enough for them to realize the seriousness of the information we had. I’d expected one or two of them, but instead the entire Council had come.
As far as I knew, the Council members all had equal power, but I’d always considered Arcadius and Sada to be the unofficial leaders of the group. Maybe that’s because Owen reminded me so much of an—extremely—oversized kid with his messy blond hair and massive amounts of energy. And Adele seemed too crabby to be the leader of anything. But when it came to matters like this, they obviously functioned as a cohesive whole.
Arcadius strode out of the alley, his steps purposeful. When he reached us, he said nothing, just gave a slight nod and continued down the street. Alex and I fell in with the group behind him.
We must’ve made a strange sight. Although Pearl gave up her Victorian dresses when she visited Earth, and no one else was wearing clothes that overtly didn’t belong, each of the council members had an air about them that screamed, “I don't belong here!” Arcadius was too powerful and dignified to ever truly be mistaken for the businessman he was dressed as. Though Pearl certainly enjoyed that look on him, judging by the way her eyes kept flicking up and down his form.
Arcadius lead us to a diner down the street, and we all tro
oped inside. It looked about as old as the city itself; the vinyl seats squeaked as we all crowded in around a large booth in the back. The place was mostly empty, which wasn't surprising. It was after 6 p.m. on a weekday.
A bored looking woman with gray-streaked brown and a name tag that read “Debra” wandered over to us, pulling a notepad from the pocket of her apron.
“What’ll you folks have? Breakfast is served all day, dinner is on the back of the menus.” Her pencil hovered over her pad, but her eyes fixed on Owen and didn’t move. Apparently, she liked her men beefy.
Alex ordered I cheesesteak sandwich, but when the rest of the table tried to order nothing, the waitress finally wrenched her eyes away from Owen’s bulging arm muscles to glare at us. “You gotta at least order a coffee. Diner policy,” she grumbled.
Everyone—including Alex—dutifully ordered a cup of coffee, but it didn't seem to placate our poor waitress much. As she shuffled away to put in the single food order, I made a mental note to make sure she got a good tip. Waiting on a bunch of Guardians and one human was the definition of drawing the short straw.
As soon as Debra went back behind the counter, Arcadius leaned forward, his gray eyes serious. “Pearl and Arjun told us what happened. We’ll send out an alert to the Guardians on Earth that they may not be safe even in pairs. If more powerful demons make it across, we may have to temporarily recall all Guardians to the Haven.”
My chest tightened. “All of them? Who would protect the humans?”
Sada ran a hand through her jet-black hair. She was wearing a cream-colored pantsuit that perfectly complimented her dark skin. “If we allow them to be taken by the Fallen, the remaining Guardians won’t be of any help to humans.”
She had a point, but that just meant we had to move even faster if we wanted to have a shot at defeating the Fallen.
“So? What did you find out?” Adele leaned back, her large frame spilling over the sides of her chair as her shrewd blue eyes watched me closely.
“The vampire that attacked Pearl and Arjun was huge—and insanely powerful. If Alex hadn’t been there to help us, we never would’ve stood a chance against him. Let alone gotten him to talk.”
Adele nodded grudgingly. It seemed to pain her to give Alex, or me, credit for anything, but she definitely wanted to hear what we had learned. She still didn’t lean forward, but her head cocked to the side in interest. We were all crammed so close together that the action caused a ripple affect around the booth, and I squeezed to my right, trying to give Owen a bit more space, which of course just pressed me closer to Alex on my other side.
The warmth of his skin burned into me, even through two layers of fabric, and I felt him tense slightly, as hyper-aware of my touch as I was of his.
I tried to scoot back the other way, so I could clear my head and refocus, but Owen had already filled in all the space I’d given him.
Sheesh, I couldn’t win.
8
“Well? What did the vampire say?”
Adele’s words wrenched my attention back to the conversation. I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could, Debra returned with Alex’s sandwich. She filled each of the mugs in front of us with coffee—a process that took long enough for the silence to grow heavy. The smell of the coffee and food made my mouth water, and I wondered briefly if I should’ve ordered some pancakes or something just so I could sit here and sniff them.
After Debra left, I looked around the table and continued. “The vampire told us that Akaron is having the abducted Guardians bound and transported to a central location. Once they’re gathered in critical mass, powerful Fallen will be able to use the Guardians to cross over to Earth from the Shroud.”
Owen let out a low whistle, his lilting Scottish accent hard. “I’ll be damned. They’re using them as portals. That’s just about as clever as it is bloody despicable.”
I glanced around the table at the grim faces surrounding me. “Why do they need to use Guardians to pass through to Earth? Alex is a human, remember, and I’m just a baby supernatural. Talk us through this like we’re five.”
Arcadius rubbed his chiseled jaw. “Although Guardians can pass freely between the Shroud and Earth, the Shroud tries to contain the Fallen. It’s where they belong, and the stronger the Fallen, the more powerful that pull of ‘belonging’ is. Humans have never had anything to fear from the most terrible supernaturals in existence because those monsters could never escape the Shroud.”
I blanched. “Until now.”
“No.” Arcadius’s voice was hard. “Not yet. But soon. If they get enough Guardians in one place.”
I wilted a bit. “We tried to find out where they’re being brought, but the vampire escaped before he told us. All he said was it’s ‘a place everyone knows, and all will soon fear.’”
Sada squinted slightly. “What does that mean?”
I shrugged. “Heck if I know. I think it must be in Chicago though. He said something about the Fallen bringing the Guardians ‘here.’ The gathering place must be in a part of the Shroud that corresponds to somewhere in this city.”
“That seems probable,” Arcadius said thoughtfully.
Owen twisted to look down at me. “You grew up here. You don’t have any idea what location the vampire might’ve been talking about?”
I shook my head slowly. “Not really. A well-known landmark, maybe? I can think of some possibilities, but they’re just guesses.”
“Well, we should pursue all of your guesses. Right now they’re the best chance we have,” Sada said firmly, and Arcadius nodded next to her.
“Arjun and Pearl,” he declared, gesturing to them, “will continue to relay information between the Council and Guardians in the field. And Cam and Alex, use your knowledge of the city to search for this gathering place.” His expression hardened. “If you find it, do not attempt to free anyone or fight the demons on your own. Alert the Council, and we’ll develop a plan of attack.”
Part of me bristled at being chastised like a little kid, but I guess I had just told him to talk to me like I was five. Plus, I’d given Arcadius good reason to doubt my impulse control when I’d decided to storm Paradise looking for Boss Man. But contrary to what he thought, I could restrain my instinct to rush into a situation with guns blazing. Usually.
“Sounds good. I’ll do some Googling tonight to get more ideas, but I can think of a few places off the top of my head where we should definitely look.” I shot Alex a look. “Guess it’s a good thing I didn’t do all that world traveling when I was alive.”
He grinned back at me.
We made plans to rendezvous with Pearl and Arjun the next day, and then we all shuffled out of the booth. Debra eyed our mostly untouched coffees and Alex’s empty plate and mug dourly, but her expression lifted when she saw Arcadius drop several large bills on the table.
I stretched my legs gratefully. We hadn’t been sitting for long—just enough time for us to do a quick debrief—but no diner booth was big enough to comfortably fit eight people, especially those with the sheer size and presence of the Council members.
We walked outside, and Pearl pulled me into a quick hug. “Be safe out there. We’ll meet you at Alex’s place at—”
She stopped abruptly.
I pulled back to peer into her face. “What?”
“I’m so silly. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner.” Her eyes were wide as her mouth dropped open.
“What?” I asked again. Pearl’s brain often got ahead of her mouth, and she would be several steps ahead on a thought before she chose to share it with the group.
“I don’t need a cell phone!”
Arcadius’s mouth curled up at one corner. “I thought we’d already established that. You’ve seen for yourself what the Shroud does to modern technology.”
Her expression grew sad. “I remember. My poor phone. All those games I could’ve played…” She shook her head slightly. “But that’s beside the point. What I meant was, I don’t need
a cell phone to reach Cam and Alex.”
“Explain,” Arcadius said with a smile, watching her bounce on the balls of her feet with excitement.
“All I need are quarters! Pay phones are less ubiquitous now, but they do still exist.” She turned to me. “Right?”
I nodded, suppressing a grin at her casual use of the word “ubiquitous.”
“Then there you are! I can call Alex’s cell phone. Since he can’t go to the Shroud, his phone will stay functional—and he and Cam are always together. So we can reach them in an emergency without having to physically track them down.” Pearl’s brow furrowed. “Of course, it won’t work in reverse. But if Alex is stuck on the earthly plane, we might as well use his weakness to our advantage.” She shot him a look. “No offense.”
He coughed and looked down. Trying to hide a laugh, I thought. “None taken.”
Pearl turned triumphantly to the Council members. Adele scowled at her, but Arcadius, Sada, and Owen were nodding.
“Very well. If you’re able to reach Alex by phone, that will free you and Arjun up for other tasks. And I don’t want you leaving the Haven any more than absolutely necessary. It’s too much of a risk.” Arcadius’s hand twitched toward her, like he was about to brush the side of her face, but he froze suddenly. Stiffly, he looked at the other Council members. “Is that acceptable to you?”
They all agreed, and Alex wrote down his number for Pearl. She shoved the slip of paper into the back pocket of her jeans, beaming.
“I’ll call you!” she declared. Just saying the words seemed to give her so much joy that I had to laugh. A pay phone would be a far cry from the fancy phones she’d gotten to play with on our first visit to Earth, but apparently it was enough to satisfy her technology craving.
As we split off from the group—Pearl and Arjun accompanying the Council back to the Haven—Alex was quiet. I glanced at him curiously. Was he finally feeling the weight of all this? It was a lot for anyone to handle, and he’d adapted unbelievably well so far.
