by C. L. Parker
“Yeah? Well, care to do the honors then since you were also in on the conspiracy?”
“I would, actually, but watch your tone, young lady. I won’t put up with it like your mother will,” he warned with a strict look.
Tori was twenty-one and had pretty much been grounded her entire life, so there wasn’t a lot he could do to her, but she held a deep respect for her father and didn’t want him to be upset with her.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
Dominic smiled and then drew his attention back to smothering his fish in tartar sauce. “The reason we didn’t say anything about bringing you here to meet Dante was because we learned a long time ago that free will is what forges our destiny. If we had told you that Dante was your Guardian, then the choice over whether or not you accepted him as such would’ve already been made for you. It’s human nature to accept what is told to you by your parents as fact because you trust us not to steer you wrong. And despite your gifts, you are still human.”
“I didn’t get to choose whether or not I wanted the title of the Guardian of Mankind,” Tori challenged.
“No, you didn’t. But, you can still choose not to accept the responsibility.” He took a long drink of his beer.
What?! She couldn’t have heard that right.
“Did you just say that I can choose not to do it? Not to be the Guardian of Mankind?”
“Absolutely. Remember the whole free will thing we talked about? Ultimately, the decision is yours.” He shrugged. “I don’t know where that will put the fate of mankind if you do, but your mother and I will stand behind whatever choice you make.”
“Maybe. But she would still be disappointed in me.” And then the quaking leg thing began again. Maybe she really did have to pee.
“Since when do you care whether or not your mother is disappointed?”
Tori put her fork down on the plate and sat back with a huff. “I care, Daddy. I’ve always cared. It’s just that she makes me crazy with all the pressure she puts on me. I’m not her. I never will be.”
Dominic leaned across the table and covered her hand with his. “Baby, nobody’s asking you to be anything more than what you are deep down inside. You can’t see how amazing you are, but it’s there. I promise. I see it every day, and I have no doubt that you will accomplish whatever task is ahead of you, but if you don’t believe in yourself . . .”
. . . then the whole world is screwed, Tori finished the last part in her head. Neither of them really needed to say the words out loud. They dangled in the air, so thick with their meaning it was suffocating.
“Look at you.” Tori laughed. “And here I thought Mom was the deep one with all the fancy words.”
Dominic chuckled and grabbed his beer. “Maybe spending so much time around her and your Grammy Availia rubbed off on me.” He stared off at nothing in particular before tilting his glass as if in a toast and then taking a drink.
“You would’ve loved your Grammy. I really wish you could’ve met her.”
Tori furrowed her brow. “I think I did once. Maybe.” She shrugged while shaking her head. “It was a really long time ago; so long I don’t even know how I have memory of it.”
“Oh yeah? Tell me about it.”
“You’re going to think I’m crazy.”
Dominic arched a brow at her. “After everything I’ve seen and been a part of, crazy is the norm. Try me.”
“Okay, well, I think I was in my baby bed, just staring up at the ceiling. And then there was this soft glow of light hovering over me. It got bigger and bigger until it sort of started to dim and there was a woman with long, white hair and gorgeous blue eyes beside my bed looking down at me.”
Dominic nodded. “Sounds like Availia. Did she say anything?”
Tori shook her head. “No, but she was humming a song . . . This Little Light of Mine. But that’s not all,” she said, lost to her memory. “Another light appeared and grew into another woman. Only this woman had red hair, and she was really . . . she was beautiful. I remember thinking that. Her smile made me feel so safe and protected.”
Dominic stilled and then inhaled a deep breath that he let go on a whoosh. “Sarah. My mother. Your grandmother. You get your angelic bloodline from her. That’s also where you get the red tint to your hair. You look a lot like her, you know.”
“I know. As I got older, Mom showed me pictures when she told me about them and I knew that’s who they were.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“Are you kidding? No way was that a real memory. People do not remember things that happened to them as a baby.”
“I think you should know by now that you’re not like anybody else.”
Tori nodded. “Which is why I’m telling you now.”
“Have you ever seen them again since then?”
“Nope.” Tori took a bite of her fish despite her chattering teeth from the whole leg-bouncing-uncontrollably thing. Where the hell was Dante? “That’s another reason I didn’t think it was real.”
Dominic drank his beer down, and then his eyes lit up with a curiosity. “So, anything else freaky-weird like that going on that you want to share?”
Tori barked a humorless laugh. “Freaky-weird. That pretty much sums me up in a nutshell, doesn’t it? How much time you got?”
“First of all, how many times do I have to tell you that you’re not a freak? And secondly, I have all the time in the world for you. Always will.”
“Yeah, well . . . nothing outside the norm that is my world has happened as of late,” she lied. And she didn’t like the way the words felt on her tongue, either, so a change in topic was in order. “Where’s Mom today, anyway?”
The waiter came by to pick up the check, and Dominic pulled his credit card out of his wallet. “She’s out shopping with Gabe and Sinclair. Let’s hope this,” he said, slapping the credit card onto the table, “doesn’t come back declined. You never can tell with Gabe. He has a way of getting her to buy things she will never wear just so that he can, quote/unquote, borrow them.”
Tori laughed, the sound not quite genuine to her own ears. The table began to vibrate, the salt and pepper shakers shimmying their way to the edge.
Dominic put his hand on Tori’s knee. “Tor, go to the bathroom. Christ, I feel like you’re two all over again, doing the pee-pee dance.”
Tori looked inside the pub, considering it, and then back to her father. Leaving him alone meant leaving him vulnerable to the demons without being able to launch herself on top of him to keep them at bay. “I don’t want to leave you alone.”
Dominic looked at her like she was crazy. “Are you serious?” He pulled up the hem of his shirt, showing Tori the gun he had stuffed down his pants.
“Daddy!”
“Never leave home without it.” He winked and then pulled his shirt back down.
Resigned, she pushed her chair back and stood. With one last glance at her father, she grabbed her purse and then turned to walk inside the pub. Maybe if she hurried, she’d be back before anything catastrophic could happen. And just to be sure of it, she kept her head down as she walked back to the bathrooms. Hopefully, if she didn’t make eye contact with anyone, she’d be spared the waking nightmare. So far, so good.
As luck would have it, the ladies’ room was empty. She locked the stall door behind her and went about her business. Once she was done, she opened the stall door and nearly jumped out of her skin to find a man just on the other side.
“Hey, gorgeous!”
Tori looked up, finding him looking down at her with an amused grin.
“Jesus Christ!” she said with her hand to her chest. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Just popping in for a visit. It’s been a while, and you’re rarely ever alone these days. I’ve missed you.”
Tori pushed past him and went to the sink, sitting her purse down to wash her hands. “So, what? You’re getting off on listening to me piss now? That is so sick.”
“It’s
a necessary human function. There’s no need to be embarrassed. Besides, I know everything you do,” he said, coming to stand behind her.
When he brushed her hair off one shoulder and leaned in to kiss her neck, Tori pulled away. “Don’t!”
“What? Why? What’s your problem?”
Tori turned on him, and poked him in the chest. “You are my problem, and I’m in no mood for your shit today.”
He held his hands up in the universal sign of submission. “Okay. What did I do to you?”
Fisted hands went to her hips and she cocked her head to the side. “Are you serious right now?”
He looked at her like he didn’t know what she was talking about.
“Okay, well let’s forget all about the fact that you’ve been stalking me lately and I have no clue how the hell you’re doing it, but how about the fact that you threatened Dante? Huh? How about that?”
His glare turned cold. “And I meant every word I said. He’s getting in the way.” He took a step back and motioned toward her with his hands. “Case in point: he’s obviously already turned you against me.”
Tori guffawed. “You don’t get it, do you? He hasn’t done anything but help me.”
“He’s trying to make it impossible for me to see you. Oh, and yeah, there’s also that thing where he fucking touched you! And not just with his fingers, huh? Did you like having his mouth on you? Or, what about him? Hmm? I bet he loved the way you tasted. He just wanted to eat you up, and you let him.”
Tori was flabbergasted by his accusations. Every one of them was true, but it wasn’t like he had been a pervy fly on the wall or anything. That she knew of, anyway.
“How do you know about any of that?”
He took a step forward, bending at the knees until he was face to face with her. “I told you, I see everything you do. And quite frankly, it’s pissing me the fuck off.”
Tori crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin indignantly. “Yeah? Well you should probably try to find some way to get over that because like I told you before, you don’t own me.”
He took a step back, giving her space so as not to seem quite as intimidating. Any trace of ire on his face before was replaced with a pleading desperation. His shoulders slumped as he backed up to the counter and leaned against it.
“He’s making a fool out of you, Tor. Can’t you see that? I just don’t want you to get hurt. And all I’m doing is trying to help make sure that doesn’t happen. Yes, I show up when you least expect it, but that’s because I don’t want you to forget about me. You have no idea what you mean to me. I can’t lose you.”
“Well, I can tell you this much: Stalking me and making threats toward the people I care about definitely isn’t helping your case.” Tori grabbed her purse and went for the door. “I have to go before my dad comes in here with guns a’blazin’, but I really hope you think about what I’ve said. You’ve always been near and dear to my heart, so I’d hate for our relationship to have to end because you couldn’t grasp the concept of personal space.”
“You’re still mad at me?”
Tori sighed. His behavior had definitely been creepy, but after all he said, she guessed she could sort of understand his reasoning for doing it. He really did care for her—she’d never doubted that—but his methods for ensuring her happiness were definitely questionable. And she guessed she could also understand his desperation in light of thinking he was losing the only person who acknowledged his existence. If he didn’t have Tori, he would just cease to exist. That had to suck big time. On the other hand, she couldn’t give him a free pass to continue his recent behavior either.
“No, I’m not mad at you, but I’m not happy with you, either. Give me some time to get over it, and stop being a Peeping Tom. Okay?”
“I can’t just turn it off, Tor. I’m a part of you. Literally.”
Tori glared at him. “Try.” With that, she opened the bathroom door and walked out on him.
Outside the doors, she stopped to compose herself. If he was in there with her, then that meant they were somewhere outside. As nervous as that made her, she pushed her shoulders back, ready to take it head on. Might as well get the horror show over. With any luck, Tori would somehow manage to keep her lunch down by the time it was all said and done.
There were no screams of terror, no howls of pain as she reached the main bar area, and stepping inside, no blood, guts, or gore. But her father was outside, and wouldn’t he make the perfect target for those demonic bastards?
Nearing the doors, she spotted Dominic’s booted foot, tapping against the sidewalk, probably impatient since she had taken longer than expected in the bathroom. But he was moving, so that meant he was still alive. Tori breathed a sigh of relief and plastered a smile on her face as she stepped out into the afternoon sunlight.
Off in the distance, a distinctive roar of a motorcycle engine caught her attention.
She looked across the way at the far side of the intersection, seeing Dante maneuvering his bike around the now-flowing traffic. He’d come. Tori’s heart leapt in her chest at the sight of him, and then she heard it . . .
The screeching, demonic growl.
Tori looked up at the ancient building a block behind Dante, seeing a hideous-looking gargoyle break free of its stone confinement, shaking the broken pieces from its body to take life. It spread its leathery wings as if stretching from a long nap and screeched as it looked out over the people below. Beady red eyes scanned the scene, searching, and then it sounded another screech when it found its target.
Tori followed its gaze, her heart pounding in her chest. Dante. It had its sights set on Dante.
The gargoyle took flight, reaching up, up, up until it touched the clouds. Then its wings folded back and it dive-bombed back to Earth and down the length of the building, swooping up just before it would have crashed into the sidewalk below. Wings spread again, heavy thuds echoed through the space from the force of their powerful flaps. Dante had nearly reached her, but he wouldn’t make it before the gargoyle demon was upon him.
Tori wanted to scream out to him, she wanted to conjure up a ball of Light and send it sailing through the air to knock the gargoyle on its ass, but she knew no one but she saw what was happening around them. Maybe he’d make it. Maybe Dante would reach her in time, touch her, and make the beast disappear before anyone got hurt. But if he didn’t, she was about to expose all the unknowing people in the immediate vicinity to the hidden world right under their noses because she wouldn’t hesitate to save Dante’s life.
Hurry, Dante!
The gargoyle came ever closer, its lips pulled back to show fangs eager to bite into flesh. Razor-sharp claws elongated as its legs stretched out, prepared to pluck Dante from his bike and carry him off. All Tori knew was that if the gargoyle succeeded and she ever found Dante again, there would be no life left in his body.
Close, so close. He could make it. He could make it.
With one final push of its wings, the gargoyle screeched and swooped down.
“Dante!” Tori screamed out in warning.
Dominic’s head snapped up at his daughter’s outburst and then in the direction where her attention was fixated. Dante looked up, his eyes widening when he apparently registered the panic on her face. In his distraction, he nearly collided with the vehicle in front of him and overcorrected at the last moment. He hit the brake hard just as his bike jumped the curb and fell over onto the sidewalk. The gargoyle grabbed the minivan that was now exactly where Dante would have been had he not been distracted, and shoved it forward to careen into the rear end of the car in front of it. With the power of the thrust, the front end of the minivan ran up onto the trunk of the car, and then toppled over, flipping twice onto its side before it came to a skidding halt. The other cars swerved, nearly missing each other as well as the pedestrians on the sidewalk.
“Tori!” Dante’s arms wrapped around her, and then the gargoyle vanished into thin air before it had a chance for round two.
“Son of a bitch!” Dominic cursed. “What the hell just happened? Dante, are you okay?”
Dante held Tori tight, but nodded. “Yes, I’m fine. More concerned about this one, actually.” He put his lips to Tori’s ear. “Are you okay, Angel? Was it another nightmare?”
She nodded, still in shock.
“She’s fine,” Dominic said. “But I can’t say the same for those other people. Come on, Dante. We need to help.”
Dante pulled back and took Tori’s face in his hands. “Will you be okay if I leave you?”
She nodded again, and then Dominic was in front of her.
“We’re going to go help, but I want you to stay here, okay?”
Again she nodded, barely registering what was said. She watched, stoically, as Dominic and Dante sprinted across the street and through the chaos of cars that were now at a dead stop. They fought to wrench mutilated doors out of the way, even kicking in the passenger side window to grant an escape for the occupants. Other bystanders joined in on the cause, helping to pull the family of five from the overturned minivan. A vicelike grip took hold of her chest when she saw Dante pull out a little girl that couldn’t have been any more than five from the wreckage. The lifeless form in his arms was limp as he laid her down on the street and urged the others to back up to give him room.
The little girl’s mother sprinted around the wreckage, but was caught in Dominic’s arms to keep her far enough away that Dante could do his thing. She sank down the front of Dominic’s body when she saw her little girl lying on the ground, falling to her knees as she clasped her hands over her mouth and sobbed uncontrollably.
“Sianna! My baby! Please let my baby be okay!”
Tori moved in the same direction, never taking her eyes off the little girl as she watched Dante check her vitals. Judging from the look on his face, he didn’t think she was going to make it, but determination to save her quickly wove into every part of his being.
Tori stared on in awe as Dante put one of his hands over the other on top of Sianna’s chest and pumped gently. To everyone else, it looked like he was administering CPR, but Tori saw the way he closed his eyes and the spark of Light radiating from the palm of his hand into the child’s chest. He wasn’t attempting to get her heart pumping by traditional means—he was pushing his Light into her.
