The Guardian (Callista Ryan Series)

by Alexandra Weiss

  It was easy to find that dark hallway of Serena’s subconscious; Serena wasn’t as dedicated to the memory she was having as Alex had been earlier. Callie stepped into that hallway, leaving the memory in a small frame, and proceeded to drift backwards through the years. After a few moments, she stopped, and selected the nearest memory she could find that had Zeke’s face in it.

  Callie landed on a sharp boulder in the middle of some sea, wincing as the pointed teeth of the rock dug into the soles of her feet. She heard a feminine giggle to her right, and climbed up the rock until she could see over the top of it. Below, sitting on a tiny plateau above the lapping waves, sat Serena and Zeke.

  Callie was astounded to see that Zeke had his arm around Serena, and that Serena wasn’t about to murder him for it. Instead, she snuggled closer to him, offering him a taste of the gelato she had in her hands. He moved as though to eat the gelato from the spoon, but dived in at the last minute for a kiss. Serena squealed, but didn’t pull away. Instead, she leaned in, seemingly enjoying herself. At least, she was enjoying herself, until Zeke pulled them both over the side of the boulder and sent them crashing into the water.

  She pulled herself out of the memory, focusing on the sand beneath her feet. When she opened her eyes, she blinked in shock. She watched as Zeke walked over to Serena, Serena’s face a little hazy, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She absentmindedly placed a hand atop his chest, a small gesture of affection of which she wasn’t even aware.

  Suddenly, though, she blinked, and her face cleared. In a burst of anger, she turned on Zeke and dug an elbow into his ribcage.

  She hissed, “Don’t. You. Ever,” she said, punctuating each word with a slap to various parts of his body. “Do. That. Again. You smug son of a—“

  “And that’s how it works,” Zeke groaned, sounding a little breathless. Still, barely acknowledging the full-body attack that Serena was bestowing upon him, he said, “It maintains a stream of consciousness, a specific emotion, just long enough for the subject to act upon that memory. And then she breaks back into the present.”

  “You two were together?” Callie asked, amazed.

  He shrugged again as Serena glowered at her. “We’ve been on and off over the millennia,” he replied.

  She sneered. “I’ve had several momentary lapses in judgment.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” he said. “That last run lasted a full twenty years before—“

  “Temporary insanity!” she shrieked, throwing her hands into the air.

  Zeke chuckled. “I must say,” he said, turning back to Callie, “having your sort of talent around is pretty useful.”

  “Moving on,” Serena groaned, obviously humiliated at what Callie had seen.

  For the rest of the day, Callie practiced maneuvering through Serena’s mind. Zeke trained her so that she could spot the happier memories right away; they were the ones that burned brighter than the rest. She learned some pretty interesting things during those hours. She had actually seen Menelaus’ face. It was unbelievable to her how cruel he looked, and how ugly he’d been. But Paris…he had been gorgeous. A little naïve, maybe, and it was true that he was somewhat too aware of his good looks. But when the stories said that the goddess of beauty had favored him, they hadn’t been exaggerating. Serena hadn’t agreed, however; the memories of those days, the ones before she had come to the canopy, when she had been the object of war and the cause of so many deaths, were all blackened in their tiny frames. No matter how beautiful Paris had been, she couldn’t reconcile herself with the fact that fathers and husbands and sons had died for his selfishness. Curiously, her memories began to lighten and shine right around the time that she met Zeke. In fact, even though they had fought over the years (for trivial things, Callie learned; twice, they had broken up for multiple centuries because he had disapproved of her hairstyle, leading Callie to suspect that they would reconnect in the coming years), the memories of Zeke seemed to be Serena’s happiest.

  But she could not stop her mind from returning to Alex. Time and again, she had to be yanked from her own memories of this morning by Zeke, who had a difficult time of keeping her on task. He seemed to know what she was thinking about, if the mocking smile he gave her each time meant anything. She didn’t mind, though; by the end of that day, she had seen Zeke at his most embarrassing moments. He seemed to have a particular talent for making a fool of himself in front of Serena. But those were the moments in which Serena loved him best.

  When the sun was setting behind the ocean, and the light was fading from the beach, Zeke ended the lesson. Callie was both emotionally and physically drained. Traipsing around in someone’s mind exhausted a person.

  But the excitement which swelled in her when she realized that this meant she could go back to Alex lent her energy. As Zeke flew her to Alex’s cottage, she could tell that something was on his mind. His usual playful expression was gone. He seemed pensive.

  “What is it?” Callie asked, looking up at him.

  He glanced at her, his eyes distraught. He slowed his pace, then, and said, “I heard you saved Lennie from banishment. Emeric told me.”

  Callie shook her head. “Not really. I don’t think he would have kicked her out. I just told him what he already knew.”

  “Ah, she’s a humble one,” Zeke said drolly. Callie smirked. Then his face fell again, and he said, “The thing is, while I appreciate what you did for her, I don’t really trust you yet.”

  Callie’s stomach flipped. Such honesty wasn’t really normal; usually, when someone said those words, it was meant to be taken as an insult. But Zeke was watching her with an open gaze, and she realized that he wasn’t being unfriendly. He was a blunt person by nature, almost childlike when it came to expressing himself.

  “Okay…” she said, unsure what he wanted from her.

  “See, you seem like a nice enough person. But Alex and I have been friends for a long time now, and I know when something has changed in him. He’s different now than he’s ever been, and I think it’s because of you. You can understand why that might make me a little nervous, seeing as how I don’t really know you,” Zeke explained.

  Callie frowned. “What about Adeline?”

  “Adeline?” Zeke asked, surprised. Then, with a knowing chuckle, he said, “You’ve heard the juice, huh?”

  “What I mean is, he’s been with someone before. Why are you so worried now?” she asked.

  “He’s been with lots of someones,” Zeke said. “But for some reason, the way he hangs onto you, the way he watches you….Look, I’ve only been home for a few days now. But from what I’ve seen, you’re news. Adeline was little league. You, kid—you’re the majors for him.”

  Callie still didn’t understand what he was saying; her confusion was written on her face, apparently, because he sighed.

  “I take it Alex told you about Adeline?” Zeke asked.

  “No, Serena did,” Callie said. “Well, she showed me.”

  Zeke nodded. “Yeah, Addy was a big deal to him back then. I think it was the first time he’d ever cared about anyone enough to hang around. We all thought it was going to be a forever-type thing. And then when she changed….”

  “She said she’d only pretended to like him,” Callie finished. Zeke looked at her, surprised.

  “No,” he said. “Well, that’s not all. Yeah, she told people that she’d only been into him because he had an in with Emeric. But then, that first day that he found the silver in her feathers, she went out and slept with some other protector, some sleaze who liked other guys’ girls. He confronted her about it, but she wouldn’t say anything. I think that pretty much killed him for a while, even though it was clear as day that Addy’d only been trying to help him.”

  “But how could that help him?” Callie asked, shocked.

  “Alex is a good guy,” Zeke said. “And if you’re someone he cares about, he’ll go the whole nine yards to keep you happy. He knew that Adeline couldn’t stay in the forest; she’d go nu
ts like all the other bozos. But he didn’t want to abandon her on that island, and so he was going to clip his wings.”

  “Clip his wings?” Callie repeated.

  “Yeah. See, it’s the wings that make the Sirens lose their marbles. So he was going to cut them down. Once a Guardian clips their wings, they still get the whole live-forever deal. The roots of the wings are still there, planted into the sternum. But they can’t fly anymore. And Adeline would never have let him do that to himself.”

  “Why not?” Callie breathed, astounded by the story.

  “Cause once you can fly, walking around for the rest of eternity is torture. It’s like being an Olympic runner, and then being told that you have to sit in a wheel chair for the rest of your life. Except that, for the rest of your life, all you can think about is that last race, the adrenaline you got from the good runs, and you start to get thirsty for that pleasure again. And everything else—love, glory, sex—is dulled by that thirst. Adeline knew that; even Alex knew that. And she wasn’t about to let him go through it.”

  Callie swallowed, feeling incredibly inadequate.

  “Alex went through a few years of hating her. He got really messed up there for a while. The thing is, he got over it. One year, I came back from assignment, and he was himself again. Not completely; he was still pretty out of sorts, but he was Alex again. He could joke around, concentrate on things other than his hatred. Being around him wasn’t like having a root canal anymore. And I knew then that he had gotten over her, but not over the situation.”

  Zeke looked down at Callie, his expression appraising.

  “But now that I see him around you….He’s not just passing through time anymore. And he never looked at Adeline the way he looks at you. It’s sort of the way Milo looked at this canopy: like it was the only place he wanted to be. Adeline? Nah, she was just a pretty tree, some small piece of something much bigger.”

  Callie was surprised at the poetry of Zeke’s words. Still, she felt sad at that. “But she must have loved him so much, to do what she did.”

  Zeke shook his head. “If she’d really loved him, she would have clipped her own wings. They could have lived together in the real world, amongst humans. But she wasn’t going to put herself through that. I think it was partly her own selfishness which caused her to act like she did. She knew that she wasn’t going to do what Alex had proposed to do, and she cared enough about him to let him go.”

  “Why are you telling me all of this?” Callie asked.

  Zeke halted, and Callie saw that they were almost to the house. She could see the cottage from where they were, a few meters away.

  “Because you can’t hurt him,” Zeke said. “He can’t go through that again; he was beat up enough the last time, and that was small-scale compared to this. If you pull any of the shit that Adeline did, it will destroy him. Do you understand me?”

  He pierced her with intense eyes, his words threatening though she knew that she was safe with him. She wasn’t afraid; she understood why he was doing what he was doing.

  “Yes,” she said, returning his gaze evenly. He waited a beat, then nodded.

  “Good. Let’s get you home, so you two crazy kids can have your time together,” he replied, a smile returning to his face.

  Chapter Twenty

  Magic

  Zeke placed Callie onto the doorstep, and then disappeared into the night. Callie took a steadying breath, and turned to face the cottage.

  A fire was burning low in the hearth; the scent of firewood filled Callie’s senses, warming her and calming her. Her feverish excitement was getting the best of her, and she needed to calm down if she was going to appear sane.

  Looking around the room, she didn’t see Alex. The lights were out, the amber glow of the fireplace the only thing casting deep shadows across the furniture. She walked further into the room, towards the fire, and crouched down beside it to ward away the cool night air. As the flames cracked and popped, she felt herself unwind from the day’s events.

  “Had I known, I wouldn’t have let Zeke keep you out so long.”

  Callie gasped and turned, standing up. Alex stood in the kitchen, grinning at her as he leaned against the refrigerator.

  “Known what?”

  “How I’d miss you while you were gone.”

  She felt the heat in her cheeks begin to spread, and shuffled her feet a little, unsure what to do now. He pushed away from the refrigerator, and rounded the counter, taking two wineglasses from the counter as he walked.

  Her heart quickened as he neared her, his brown eyes flickering with the reflection of the fire. He handed her one of the glasses, which was filled with ruby liquid.

  “Oh, Alex, I don’t—“

  “I know,” he said. “It’s grape juice.”

  She was touched that he had remembered such a small detail, taking a sip of her juice with a smile. “Thank you,” she said.

  He hadn’t lost his grin. “You’re welcome,” he murmured, gazing at her with more joy than she’d ever seen on his face. She sniffed at the air, noticing a smell there besides firewood.

  Pointing to the kitchen, she asked, “Are you cooking?”

  He nodded. “I figured you’d be hungry after a day with Zeke. I’m making macaroni and cheese.”

  Callie felt the butterflies in her stomach flutter. “That’s my favorite,” she whispered, realizing that he already knew that.

  With a gleam in his eye, Alex turned and walked again into the kitchen. As she watched him go, she couldn’t help but admire the view. He moved with an easy grace, an unconscious power. She wondered if he knew she practically drooled just seeing him walk.

  A heady sense of glee kicking in, Callie walked over to the counter and sat at one of the stools. She watched him ladle the pasta into two bowls. “I used to make this all the time,” she said. “At home. When Maggie was at work, I’d come home from school starving, and so I’d make a box. I tried using margarine once, when we were out of butter, and it was disgusting. But then, another day, I used cream cheese.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “And?” he asked.

  “It was actually pretty good. Different, but sort of sweeter,” she said.

  He chuckled and handed her a bowl and a fork, and then walked over to sit next to her. She watched as he took a bite, wondering what he would think. When he caught her watching him chew, he swallowed, smiling again.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” she said, shaking her head. “I just—I don’t imagine Guardians eat a lot of mac and cheese.”

  “I developed a taste for it,” he said.

  “When?” she asked, taking a bite of her own dinner. She nearly groaned in pleasure. Whatever he had done to the dish, whatever recipe he’d used, was delicious. It definitely wasn’t from the box.

  “Watching you. Some nights, after you had already gone to the kitchen for a drink of water, after Maggie had gone to bed, I would get hungry,” he admitted.

  “No way!” she said. “You’re the mac and cheese thief?”

  He rolled his eyes at the dramatic tone.

  “I always wondered where those boxes were going. Maggie swore she never ate any!”

  “You seemed to love it so much, I just tried it one night. And then, as the nights wore on, I found myself wanting more. It’s….”

  “Addicting?” she asked, laughing now. “Join the club.”

  “I have to say, though, Strawberry Poptarts are by far my favorite snack food.”

  “Ah,” Callie said, nodding. “Yeah, I never ate any of those. The weird thing was, I never saw Maggie eating them, either. I guess you’re the one we kept buying them for.” She watched him as he ate for another moment, and then turned to him with curiosity. “So what else?” she asked.

  He didn’t reply, his face blank.

  “What else did you do while you were in California? I can’t imagine you watched me the whole time. Come on…any museums? Ballgames?”

  “There aren’t a lot of
options,” he said with a shrug. Callie saw the heave and sigh of his massive wings as he did so, and realized what he meant. “Although, there was a day when I visited the Golden Gate Bridge. It hadn’t been my first trip, of course. But it’s exhilarating, standing on top of the bridge, looking out at the city. Especially at night.”

  “Really?” she asked. “Isn’t that kind of no big deal for a Guardian? I mean, you can fly. You could go anywhere you want.”

  “Exactly,” he said. “Once you have the option of going anywhere, you realize how small the world is. Sometimes it’s nice to keep yourself planted in one place, and enjoy the view.”

  She snorted. “Okay. But if I could go anywhere, I certainly wouldn’t stay in California.”

  He tipped his head. “Where would you go?” he asked.

  “London,” she said automatically. “I’ve always wanted to see the Big Ben.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  With a sheepish grin, she asked, “Have you ever seen the movie Peter Pan?”

  He laughed. “About a hundred times, I’d say. You were obsessed with that movie from ages two to five. Every time I’d visit, even though I was only there a few days a year, I would see that movie again and again. It got to the point that I had every line memorized.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ll bet if they had movies when you were a kid, you’d have had the same obsession,” she protested. “Anyways, there’s this one scene where the kids have just learned how to fly, and Peter leads them to the Big Ben. They all stand on the minute hand, and Peter points to the sky, and says, ‘Second star to the right, and straight on ‘til morning.’” She spoke the words in a theatrical, slightly masculine voice, and Alex chuckled. “I know now that it isn’t really there, but still….I’ve always wanted to see for myself.”

  She glanced at him, embarrassed. But he wasn’t laughing at her anymore. He was watching her with wonder, a certain fondness in the depths of his eyes.

  “This is really good, by the way,” she said, feeling self-conscious. She dug into the last few bites of her macaroni and cheese.