Guardian

by Sam Cheever

  Too damn many questions.

  Somehow I needed to figure it all out. And while I was doing that I had to continue to sidestep Etta and appease the Council, while dealing with the growing attachment I was feeling toward Ian Lavelle.

  A man I’d been ordered to kill.

  I sighed, turning away from the window.

  My life was filled with what felt like insurmountable challenges.

  I figured I’d get the job done. Somehow.

  I always did.

  But first I really needed to take a shower.

  Chapter Five

  A Room Full of Malcontents

  Fortunately for me my leather pants could be surface cleaned. But my pretty black sweater was ruined. So I was wearing one of Ian’s shirts, belted at my waist with a long piece of string. It was a weird and rakish look and it had me feeling cranky.

  Ian looked spectacular in black wool slacks and a turtleneck of a garnet red. He smelled great too. I glared at him for looking good.

  He grinned. “Very sexy. You look good in my shirt.”

  My glare deepened. I tugged at the extra long tails, which fell almost to my knees even with the string belt. “Stick me in a sailboat and this thing would catch wind and take you halfway around the world in ten seconds.”

  He chuckled. “Not unless we took you out of it.” His dark gaze slid down from the place where I’d left the top button undone in an effort to look less like a pile of bed sheets and more like a girl, to where my tight, leather jeans skimmed my body in the appropriate way.

  Despite my crankiness, I felt my blood begin to heat. “Not happenin’ human. Tell me about this meeting tonight.”

  Just like that, his playful demeanor slipped away. He shook his dark head. “All you need to know is you’ll be well within your purview. There will be some humans there, yes, but they’re interspersed with creatures from the magical realm. And you aren’t gonna like what you hear.”

  “What am I gonna hear?”

  He glanced at his wrist. “Nothing if we don’t get going.” We returned to the rooftop and retraced our earlier route until we were far enough away from the faery guards to descend to the street.

  From there it was just a matter of walking down several dark and scary streets to an old warehouse building that looked empty and deserted.

  Ian stopped a block away and turned to me. “You need to get to your travel layer and stay there. If they catch sight of you we’re both dead.”

  I frowned. “You’re assuming you don’t feel pain with me several layers away.”

  He stared hard at me. “You’d better hope I don’t. Or your little trick might cost us all more than we’d bargained for.”

  I opened my mouth to defend myself but he turned and walked out of the layer and was striding down the street. I hurried to catch up, burrowing myself deep into a wrinkle as I walked. I hoped I was deep enough so that they wouldn’t see the air shimmering but not too deep for Ian.

  I looked at him as I caught up and, although his jaw was set and he had a fine sheen of sweat on his face, he seemed to be bearing up. Some pain then, I mused, but not more than he could handle. Good enough.

  He reached the dark and, to all appearances, deserted building and ducked through a large hole in the wall beside the door. I wasn’t even through the hole before two long, dark objects slid out of the darkness on either side of Ian and rested against his cheeks.

  I sucked in a breath.

  Ian lifted his hands in the air. “It’s me.”

  The guns didn’t move. A deep, rumbly voice came out of the darkness. “You’re late, hada.”

  Ian shrugged and said nothing.

  After another moment the guns slid back into the darkness. “The meeting’s started. I think they’ve already decided to obliterate your girlfriend. Sux to be her.” The first voice broke out into quiet laughter and was joined by a second.

  If I squinted really hard I could see the two men standing there, but they weren’t much more than outlines in the lightless space.

  Shadows. Holy shit! What were a pair of shadow men doing there? What the hell was Ian mixed up in?

  Ian moved further into the building and I followed, careful not to create any disturbance on the air. I wondered how he could see where he was going. The building was completely and claustrophobically dark.

  After a couple of minutes I started to hear the rumble of voices. When Ian finally stopped to open a door deep in the center of the building, the light that poured out, though dim by normal standards, felt blinding to my light challenged eyes.

  Ian stood there a moment, allowing the dense blackness of the building behind him to outline his wide stanced form in the door. I knew what he was doing. And so did the creatures in that room. The room had fallen silent and they were watching him. Some of the faces in that room paled as he stood there, unmoving and silent.

  Interesting.

  Finally he spoke. “This meeting will now begin.”

  “You’re late.” The voice was high pitched and most definitely feminine. I moved up to Ian’s shoulder and peered into the room. It was filled with all manner of creatures, from human to Elvin and even demon. The humans looked pale and nervous. The monsters looked smug and sure. The woman at the front of the room just looked pissed.

  She was tall, elegant, and beautiful. And I realized at once that she was faery.

  “We’ve already decided Tana’s fate,” the woman said. “You’re too late.”

  Ian walked into the room, leaving the door open. Probably for my benefit. I slid into the room and prayed he wouldn’t get too deeply enmeshed in the crowd because I wouldn’t be able to follow him without raising some eyebrows. I cursed silently as he stepped into the middle of it, wishing we’d had time to plan.

  I heard the door slam shut and turned to see the young woman Mack and I’d been trying to rescue, the one who’d killed Mack, standing beside it looking petulant. My hand flew to my weapon but I realized, with a sinking heart, that I wouldn’t be able to take her down. I forced my gaze away from her as Ian spoke.

  “You wasted no time with that vote, Dawnia. What if I’d been on time?”

  She smiled a smug smile. “You’d have had to be early.”

  A few in the room chuckled at this but Ian’s deadly gaze slid through the room, silencing them like a knife across the throat. “We will vote again.”

  Dawnia’s pretty face darkened and she stepped forward, her lithe, slightly green flesh glowing with anger and power. “We…will…not!”

  Ian was on her almost before my eyes could register that he’d moved. He held the tip of his sword under her throat and her pretty green eyes looked a little wild. “Yes…We…Will!” Then he smiled, and it wasn’t a pleasant sight.

  I shivered.

  Dawnia’s glittering green gaze pierced him for a few more seconds. She held herself rigid, with her hands clenched at her sides, but finally she gave the slightest of nods and Ian stepped away. “Call it out.”

  Dawnia seemed to have trouble speaking. I wondered she could speak at all with her jaw clenched like that. But, with an effort, she managed to grind out the words. “The vote on usurping Queen Tana of the Faeries is null and void. We will now recast the vote.” She turned hate filled eyes on Ian. “With a show of hands. Do we strip the crown from Tana…”

  “Queen Tana!” Ian interjected with a scowl. “We make a huge mistake if we forget her role in the magical realm, and her power.”

  Dawnia looked ready to eat her teeth. “Queen Tana... A lifted hand is a vote for removing Queen Tana from the throne. Vote now!”

  Several hands around the room, including Dawnia’s flew skyward. Ian’s gaze slid around the room and a couple of them withered and slid back down. The few hands left in the air weren’t nearly enough to pass the effort.

  Ian turned to Dawnia. “Failed. Next issue.”

  Dawnia’s fists clenched more tightly at her sides. Her aura flared until her slender body gave off more light than t
he single bulb above our heads. But she fought visibly for control and unclenched her hands. She turned to Ian. “There is no point. Tana is the central issue. As long as she’s in power we cannot defeat the gods.”

  I gasped. Holy shit!

  Ian just stared at her.

  Dawnia finally turned away and strode toward the door. “Meeting adjourned.”

  “Halt!”

  Dawnia, amazingly, stopped and turned back to Ian.

  “Sit down, Dawnia, and listen carefully.”

  She sat, though her body was rigid and she looked as if she was only a breath away from jumping up and striding out the door.

  Ian stared hard at her for a moment longer and then turned toward the room. “As I’ve said…on many occasions…” his dark gaze swung back to Dawnia for just a flicker in time, “dethroning Tana would unbalance the gods but not defeat them. They would just hunker down and find a way around the problem. It is too bold a move…too visible. We cannot hope to take the Council if we don’t show some restraint.”

  “Restraint…hada…or cowardice?”

  I turned to the speaker, now on his feet in the middle of the room. It was a tall, golden elf with long blond hair that flowed over bulging biceps covered in Earth tattoos. He was dressed in a shimmering white tunic of a fabric so fine I swore I could see his golden flesh beneath it. The shirt was belted in silver, over cream colored leather tights. I couldn’t see his feet but I knew they’d be encased in soft leather too. No other race could rival the elves for style.

  I sighed and tugged at my voluminous shirt.

  The elf’s skin sparkled liberally with elfin magic, marking him as one of the more powerful of his race.

  Ian had stiffened visibly when the elf addressed him but I saw that he’d regained his composure. “Is it cowardice to create a viable plan of attack against an enemy, Aubrie of the Glan Forest? Is it cowardice to determine the best chances for winning? Or is it cowardice to simply bluster and bully, in hopes that your own personal dreams of power will eventually win the day?”

  Aubrie bristled and his powerful aura flared. The violently hued aura shot away from him, burning all in its path. Those around the angry elf dove to the floor in an effort to avoid being burned by the ring of violent power.

  One man, a human, didn’t move fast enough. He cried out and fell to the ground, twitching and moaning from the effects of Aubrie’s uncontrolled aura. No one went to help him. No one even seemed to notice him. All eyes stayed on the drama playing itself out in that room. Between an elf and a…human?

  Suddenly the incongruity of this made me draw a quick breath. How was it possible that a mere human could control a room full of angry, ambitious creatures from the magical realm? My gaze flew to Ian and, like a flash of magic induced insight, I saw him as he really was.

  Hada.

  I’d heard it but it hadn’t registered.

  Faery dust, faery sword, skin the color of the earth, long time ties to Tana, queen of the faeries. And now this.

  Holy shit!

  Ian wasn’t human, he was faery. How could I not have known?

  As if he’d read my mind his brown eyes swung to me. I knew he couldn’t see me, but I suddenly felt as if he were trying to communicate with me. Then I noticed the tense aspect to his square jaw and the slight sheen across his forehead and I realized he was fighting pain.

  I looked around and realized I’d been stepping away from the bodies in that tense room as they agitated and roiled with anticipation of the coming battle and, without realizing it, I’d been pushed to the back of the room.

  I was too far away from him.

  I looked for a way to get to the front without being noticed but the room was packed and anywhere I went I’d be felt. With a sense of horror I watched Ian fall to one knee, apparently losing the battle with pain he’d been fighting for gods knew how long while I’d been caught up in the skirmishes being played out in that room.

  The crowd erupted as Ian’s knee hit the ground with an audible crack.

  Everyone assumed that Aubrie had taken him down somehow. Dawnia stood up with a smug smile and started pushing her way toward the front of the room. I leapt in behind her, using her none-too-gentle method of clearing a path for herself to my advantage.

  I even threw a few elbows myself, happily releasing some of my pent up fashion anger on the hapless monsters in that room.

  Unfortunately for Dawnia, by the time she arrived at the front of the room with me tightly in her wake, Ian was back on his feet and looking strong again. I went to stand behind him and whispered, “Sorry” in his ear.

  “Stay close.” He murmured back.

  Dawnia stood there for a moment, looking surprised and confused, and then her eyes darkened and she threw out her hands. Evidently deciding she was tired of being under Ian’s thumb.

  I tensed, knowing from personal experience how much it was gonna hurt when Dawnia’s faery power hit me.

  But Ian lifted his hands and held them, palms out, in front of his body. Dawnia’s power stopped, shimmering in front of Ian and me like a thin sheet of water in the air and then, amazingly, slid into Ian’s hands with a soft gasp.

  Dawnia hit the ground hard with both knees. She managed to catch herself with her hands and knelt there, head bowed under some kind of internal struggle.

  Ian’s hands remained outstretched and, if I squinted, I could see a string of shimmering power still running between the two of them.

  When Dawnia’s arms gave out and she crashed to the floor face first, Ian finally lowered his hands. He looked away from her, disgust visible in every line of his body and every nuance of his beautiful face. He addressed the now silent room. “Meeting adjourned.”

  The room erupted as its inhabitants scurried to remove themselves as quickly as possible. Two minutes later all that remained in that room were Ian, me, a still prostrate and unmoving Dawnia, and Aubrie.

  The elf stood where he’d been before the altercation, his golden face dark with anger and something else. My guess was frustrated ambition.

  He just stood there for a long moment, staring hard into Ian’s eyes. I felt the promise of violence between them like a living thing in that room.

  Then Aubrie turned slowly away and sauntered out of the room.

  Ian waited until the door slammed shut behind the elf before letting his rigid stance soften. He brushed a hand over his face wearily and turned to Dawnia, still unmoving on the floor. I thought he might have forgotten I was there as his eyes suddenly swam with emotion. Regret seemed predominant among the range of emotions swirling in their brown depths.

  But then he shook his head and turned, flinging dust over his head and stepping back into his travel layer. I joined him there.

  Jerking my head toward Dawnia I asked, “Will she be okay?”

  He didn’t look back. “She’ll be okay.”

  Then he took my hand and we moved out of that room, gratefully leaving behind the monster meeting from hell.

  ~ ~*~ ~

  We walked in silence for quite a while, Ian obviously dealing with the residual effects of the meeting. My head swam with questions but I forced myself to remain quiet, figuring I’d get more out of him after he’d had time to come to terms with nearly killing another faery.

  After a while it occurred to me that we weren’t heading in the right direction. “Where are we going?”

  Ian glanced at me, his pretty brown eyes unreadable in the night. “We’re not done yet.”

  Shit! “What the hell does that mean?” I was getting pretty sick of being dragged around completely blind. I wanted some answers, dammit!

  He stopped and turned to me, his face dark with sudden anger, his nostrils flared and his mouth tightened against barely restrained rage.

  I realized my mistake immediately, but couldn’t do anything about it at that point. He needed a release from the pent up, roiling emotions caused by that meeting. I’d just given him a handy place to release them.

  On me.<
br />
  He took two steps toward me, his long, hard body bending over me in obvious threat. I forced myself to hold my ground and look up into his face, shoulders squared.

  My hand fell to my weapon though. Just in case.

  “You will shut up and follow along quietly like a good little dog. It’s entirely your doing that you’re here now…I certainly didn’t invite you along. I don’t have the time or the energy to babysit you and I WILL NOT listen to your whining and complaining. You’ll just have to learn to deal. And do so SILENTLY. Is that clear?”

  I stared at him for a moment, judging the depth of his anger and the probability that he would take it out on me in violence. I decided the depth, for whatever reason, was considerable and the probability that he’d whack me upside the head was pretty high. So I did something I rarely do. I backed off and kept my big mouth shut.

  I gave him a brief nod and stepped back, allowing him the win.

  Ian turned away and stalked off, his big hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. I suddenly realized he hadn’t wanted me to back off. He’d been spoiling for a fight. Watching him I grinned, shaking my head.

  Men.

  I started walking again, catching up with him. “So where are we going?”

  He turned a still angry face to me and blew out a frustrated breath. “To the Wood.”

  “The Wood?” Unfortunately for me my voice had a slightly shrieking tenor that I didn’t relish. All I could think of were those damnable harpies. “Why?”

  He rounded on me. “Didn’t I tell you to keep your mouth shut?”

  I stared at him for a moment and then gave him a slow smile. With a thought I stepped into my own layer and took several, ground eating steps away from him. Then I crossed my arms and waited.

  Within seconds he was a writhing puddle on the ground. When I stepped back into his layer he looked up at me from the ground and took a deep breath, “Point taken.”

  I reached down to help him to his feet and, after a second’s hesitation, during which he sat on the ground and glared at me, he finally grasped my hand and allowed me to help him up.