Guardians: The Triplex (The Guardians Series, Book 4)

by Lola StVil

  That is so pathetic…

  I see the girls heading out of Goodwill but Miku goes back towards the hotel and Ameana walks in the opposite direction. Maybe she’s meeting Wolf. She checks to see if she’s being followed, then double checks again.

  Why is she acting so suspicious? At this point everyone knows that her and Wolf are together. Though I’m sure she didn’t mention to him that Rage saved her life.

  I follow her as she dodges into an alley a few streets over. She takes off into the sky. I follow at a safe distance. Something tells me she could be in danger. I have learned to follow my instincts as leader over the past few months.

  Well, on anything but love…

  She flies to the West Coast, to an out-of-the-way beach with a hidden cave. She double checks to make sure she’s alone. I quickly pull back.

  What is she doing here?

  Maybe this is some romantic tryst she and Wolf are having before they go into the Light. I think about maybe turning back and giving them their privacy. But again, something tells me to stay with her. She walks into the cave toward a figure I can’t make out.

  There’s a fire burning in the center, it gives everything a warm, orange glow. The flames enable me to make out a shadow along the wall. Ameana is in the cave with a male figure who has wings.

  So, I guess it is Wolf.

  She sits next to him and examines his chest, silently. I guess all of his wounds from Pyron aren’t healed yet. She gently applies a mixture to different spots on his bare chest. He studies her as she tends to him.

  When she’s done, they sit in silence for a few moments watching the flames. Then she strolls out of the cave and onto the beach. Hiding is just an extra precaution because Ameana is too deep in thought to see me.

  The wind blows carelessly through her hair as she stands on the soft sand overlooking the waves. Wolf stands up by the fire and walks towards me. I quickly hide in the shadows, not wanting to interfere with the couple.

  I was wrong about the guy being Wolf. I was wrong about the guy being an Angel. Rage emerges from the cave shirtless and heads toward Ameana by the water.

  He embraces her from behind. She leans into him. He nuzzles the slope of her neck slowly. She puts her hand through his hair, silently seeking out his kiss. He hungrily complies. She inhales deeply and closes her eyes.

  Ameana is in heaven…with a Demon.

  * * *

  I leave them alone and take off into the sky. I could have stopped them but for some reason, I didn’t. I’m not sure why. However it plays out, it’s gonna have to be dealt with in the Light and not on earth. I pick up speed and head to West Africa.

  When I get to the meeting point just outside of Ghana, I find Ameana standing next to Miku looking flushed, Jay stands proudly with Isabelle. But there is no sign of Rio.

  “Have you guys seen him?” I ask.

  “We talked a few minutes ago he was on his way,” Miku says.

  I call his cell. He picks up on the first ring.

  “Where are you? The Light is coming. We need to be in it, you know that,” I scold him.

  “I was helping some kids trying to escape a fire a few miles outside of Moscow. I didn’t realize it was that late.”

  “Did everyone make it out okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Were any of them supposed to die?”

  “No, Marcus. I wouldn’t do that again.”

  “Okay, we’ll wait for you.”

  “No, you guys go, I’ll be right behind you.”

  “No, I don’t want to leave anyone on earth for any reason. We came together, we leave together.”

  “Did you say goodbye to Emmy?” he asks hesitantly.

  Damn, how can just hearing her name hurt?

  “She doesn’t want to see me, Rio.”

  “Do you want to know what her Wave says?”

  It would just make it harder to walk away for “us.”

  “No, I don’t. Just get here so we can go, okay?”

  “Okay, be there in a sec.”

  At exactly midnight, a brilliant light streams down into the forest. I tell the group we need to wait for Rio and they all agree. The Council will be slightly pissed but given everything we’ve been through, I think they can cut us some slack.

  “Isabelle, you can go ahead of us,” Jay says.

  “Aw, come with me,” she asks sweetly.

  All of us make childish sounds and cheer them on. Embarrassed, Jay plays it off like it’s nothing, but I can tell he’s gonna give her his Rah very soon.

  “No, it’s cool. We’ll catch up,” I tell him.

  The two take off into the Light. Their bodies glow, become small beams of light, and then disappear.

  A few minutes later, we see Rio flying towards us. I’m relived because I was about to give in and go see her, knowing that it would only make things worse. We wait for Rio to land so we can all take off into the Light together.

  But Rio never lands because at the very moment his foot is about to touch the ground, a nuclear kind of explosion goes off in the sky.

  The bomb sends us hurtling into the air without control. We’re blown miles away from where we once were. The sky splits wide open and millions of snowflakes fall down on us.

  I look closer and realize it’s not snow falling from the sky, but Angel debris. The explosion had caused massive damage to the Angels in the surrounding area. We run back to the site to find out what is going on.

  The Forest looks like an Angels’ mass grave. Their bodies lay lifeless and in pieces. The first living Angel we see is Jay.

  His left wing has been blown off. His right arm hangs uselessly at his side. But the worst thing isn’t Jay’s missing right wing or his broken arm, the worst is the expression on his face. He is in utter disbelief. We surround our bleeding friend and teammate.

  “What the hell just happened?” we ask.

  Jay doesn’t respond immediately. It’s like he forgot how to form sentences. Finally he streams some words together and tries to make us understand.

  “We went to the Light…found the Sisters…They had an orb, big, big, orb…Chance said Godfather told them the time is now…no more hiding in shadows…no more outcast…the age of the Quo has finally come…they got the Amulet and now they are free from their winged oppressors…they said ‘the winged ones will no longer be permitted into the Light.’”

  Jay stops as if the memory is too much too relive. Ameana pushes him to keep going. His voice is frail from shock.

  “Chance called the orb to life, it glowed. Then Choice harvested this massive energy of rage, she must have been saving it up for Cycles. And then Charity, she used her ability to boost the power of others, together they…they…”

  “What did they do, Jay?” Miku asked, clearly afraid of the answer.

  “They made a bomb a trillion times more destructive than the ones made by humans. They set it if off and…”

  “How many Angels are hurt up there?” I ask him.

  “You don’t understand,” Jay says, making eye contact for the first time. “Marcus, they’re dead,” he says.

  “Who’s dead?”

  “Isabelle. The Originals. The Paras of Daraquin. The Council.”

  “The Council?” the Twins ask.

  “Guys…everyone is dead.”

  * * *

  We ask Jay again because his answer is simply too difficult to digest. But no matter how many times or how many different ways, the answer is still the same:

  “The Quo came in and just blew Angels up,” he says.

  “And they said ‘Godfather’ told them to do this?” I ask.

  “Yes.”

  “Where is he?” I order.

  The team all start speaking at once. It finally begins to skin in: We have lost most of our friends, families, loved ones, and not to mention, The Council.

  “Will Omnis come down?” Miku asks.

  “Why?
He never has before,” Rio says bitterly.

  “I don’t know what Omnis is going to do, but I damn well know what I’m going to do,” I vow.

  The rage that builds up in all of us is palpable. Jay, having seen the attack in person is growing more and more murderous by the minute.

  “We need to go to Adam City, find the Sisters, and make them understand the power of Angels,” Ameana threatens with venom.

  Jay tried to recount what he read in the history book regarding the Quo. Unfortunately, he’s too distracted to really be of help. The Twins are busy calling around to see if they can find out exactly how many Angels survived the massacre.

  Finally, the Twins are able to string together pieces of information from different parts of the world, from Angels who managed to escape the attack.

  “Eighty percent of the Angel population has been murdered,” Rio informs us.

  Eighty percent???

  Armed with the devastating new information, when we get to Adam City, we destroy everything in our path. We call out for the three murders to appear.

  The temple is empty. The three sisters are nowhere to be found.

  “Well, where the hell is this Godfather? What kind of malevolent evil exterminates over twenty million Angels?” Rio asks, more pissed then I’ve ever seen him.

  “I don’t know who the Godfather is, but when I find him, he should run,” Jay swears.

  “They’re not here, we need to head back in the city and search everywhere. We start with the market and we don’t stop until we find this evil and cut him down like we did all the other evil that stood in our way!”

  The team cheers wildly and starts to march out of the temple. That’s when I hear a conversation taking place in one of the back rooms. I direct the team to where I heard the voices.

  Behind the door, we hear a man say:

  “Yes, I will go get it for you right now, Godfather.”

  Then we hear a door open and close.

  “The Godfather is in there,” Jay says.

  What kind of evil would kill millions of innocent Angels? The Godfather has to be an evil more destructive and deadly than even Kairo. We will take him down. The Godfather must be killed at all costs.

  I kick in the door to confront the evil entity.

  He sits calmly on a chair and greets me.

  “Hello, Marcus.”

  “Hello, Sage.”

  Author’s Note:

  Guardians Book 5 (the final in the series) will be out soon!

  Also author would greatly appreciate a review on Goodreads and the site which you purchased this ebook.

  For updates on book 5, please go to

  http://www.marcusandemmy.wordpress.com