The Guardian (The Guardian Book 1)

by Paula Stephanie Grogan

  She got to the fourth floor but when she tried to open the door it was jammed; she couldn’t get it open. “Crap, crap, crap,” she said. She pushed on the door, and then again with all her might thinking of little Elaina up there with the fugitive on the loose. She pushed so hard this time it gave, and whatever was blocking the door was pushed out of the way enough for her to squeeze through. Thank God, she thought. She got through the opening and then looking down she screeched in horror, hand covering her mouth she saw three guards piled on top of one another, all shot in the head execution style. “Dear God, Mother Mary, blessed saint she said.” Then she started running in the opposite direction, towards Elaina’s room.

  She got to the door of the room completely out of breath, but Elena wasn’t there. “Elena, she called are you their bunny?” Remembering that Elena was deaf she knew that calling her would be futile. She ran up and down the corridor looking in each room, when she had gone through each of the rooms and couldn’t find her she went to the desk and called down to the surveillance room.

  “Surveillance room, can I help you?” he said over ear piercing alarm warnings from the fire alarm. “Yes, this Judy the R.N. from the fourth floor…” he cut her off, listen lady he screamed over the loud alarm, we are evacuating, you need to leave…” this time she cut him off. “No, you listen you little shit, there is a little girl missing! She hollered.

  “Her name is Elaina and she is deaf; she was here at last rotation before the fire alarm sounded but she was gone before we could evacuate. I need some help she can’t hear the alarm! “Hold on Just a second mam I will look at the screens.” He then put her on hold. “UUUGh” she growled, “I’m on hold!”

  The screen on the seventh floor appeared and there on the screen was a man who looked a lot like the janitor from earlier, except now he was wearing tan pants a black polo and a lab coat. “How much you want to bet that’s our guy,” he murmured glad the screens had come back on. He picked up the guard com, and paged the Sheriff, telling him that he found the fugitive on the seventh floor. Then the sheriff came over the com, and said he was on the way. Looking closely as Steve turned the hall, he saw a little girl in his hands fast asleep. His heart dropped. “Oh, dear GOD!”

  “Sheriff this is guard shack, listen Steve is not alone I repeat he is not alone; he has taken a child from the fourth floor, a one Elaina Matthews, and sir she appears to be unconscious, over.” The line was quiet for a minute then the Sheriff came on, “is there anything that I should know about the child before I go? Over” he said, trying to maintain his calm. “The child has cancer and is deaf sir, over.” The surveillance guard picked the phone up again, “Mam, we have located the girl. I need you to leave the building.” “But what are you going to do with the child?” Judy asked.

  “She is under my charge, is she alright?” The guard said, “I am sorry mam, but I have orders not to disclose any further information, please leave the building immediately or you may be terminated for being insubordinate during an emergency.”

  “I know that there is a Fugitive in the building what I don’t know is why you're being such a jackass,” she protested. “Mam, she is ok, I can assure you, but you do need to leave.” “She is ok,” Judy repeated. “She is alright now, the guard said sympathetically.” “Alright then,” Judy started down the emergency elevator to help the rest of the nurses outside.

  Coura and Keric made it into the building and went for the rear stairs; they climbed and continued until they ran into a bushel of Police officers. “What are you doing here?” One of the officers screamed over the loud fire alarm. Coura looked at Keric asking with her eyes, what do we do now?

  Keric nodded his head and she got the signal he told her to run; she had to get to the seventh floor to her father before Steve did and they both knew it was a time crunch.

  Keric hit the officer that was holding a gun to her, then all the other officers where in the brawl. She had just enough room to slink past as an officer was thrown into the wall, she had just passed to climb the stairs. She ran up the stairs and kept going, until she heard more police officers ahead of her. Crap she muttered; she knew she couldn’t go that way so she carefully tried to go out the door that led to the fourth floor, but it was partially blocked. She made it through the door with ease and looked around hoping she wouldn’t run into any more police officers.

  What she found however was exactly what she was trying to avoid. On the floor partially blocking the door, the smell of blood stung in her nose, she saw one police officer and three guards piled on the floor all dead.

  Coura started getting queasy again, and then she turned and vomited on the floor. “Snap out of it Coura,” she said to herself wiping her mouth with her sleeve she walked away from the dead bodies in hunt for an elevator. Coura pushed the button to go up on the emergency elevator. The doors to the elevator opened and Skye was standing there in front of her. She ran into the elevator and gave him a great hug.

  “Skye! Oh my God, it is so good to see you! It’s horrible here. There are Police everywhere, and my dad I haven’t been able to get to him yet! And there are DEAD PEOPLE, she pointed, right over there!”

  Skye hugged her in return and then held her at a distance two arms still placed securely on her, he looked at her. Then he turned while she was talking and hit Lobby on the elevator button. “Why did you do that Skye? I am going to see my father, and no one not even you is going to stop me. She hit the seventh floor and the elevator stopped going down and started going back up. “You can’t go up there Coura, there are a lot of things you don’t know about. What's really going on is complicated and quite frankly I don’t have the time to tell you, but you need to listen to me it is not safe here for you.”

  Coura hit the emergency stop button on the elevator and pointed her finger in his face. “No, you listen to me, I know exactly what’s going on, and I know that I am the chosen one! I know that because of me, my father is being hunted down by my ex who is now a vampire! I will not allow you to stop me from saving my father so either you suck it up and help me, or I’m going to fight you every step of the way. And if I’m not mistaken, I can probably still take you, given my new gifts I received tonight.” Skye took a big gulp; he didn’t know what the Gods had gifted her with, but he did know he didn’t want to be on her bad side. He cared about her and was falling in Love with her and didn’t want to see her hurt so he agreed to go with her and protect her. “Coura,” he said, “I know that we don’t have a lot of time, but I think you need to know this before we go in, he took a deep breath and told her.

  “I am one of the sons of the shaman, me and my brothers, we are werewolves. And we have been given the charge of protecting you Coura. We believe your something special, and we love your father. It is rare to find good friends in this time, and my father has taken a liking to your dad. He is already on his way up top to stop Steve. My dad the leader of our pack gave me orders to protect you. But I am doing it for me too. Skye put his hands around Coura’s waist and drew her in. “I love you Coura, I have since we were kids. You are everything that I think about Coura, please say something to me.”

  Coura was shocked hearing this confession from Skye. She too had developed strong feelings for him, but at the same time she felt torn, because of her newly acquired memories with Keric. She pushed Keric’s face from her mind took Skye in her hands. “Skye, if this is the last moment we have together, I want you to know something. I love you too.” She pulled Skye down to her and held on like her life depended on it. She kissed him, hard and passionately. She slammed him against the wall with one hand going beneath his shirt with the other. She let their passion for each other out. Then with a raspy moan, she pulled herself off him and hit the emergency stop button again, and the elevator started climbing.

  Skye stood there in shock of what she did, he did not complain. Instead he took a shuddering breath and put his hands through his hair. He tried to get his train of thought back together but it wasn’t that hard give
n the grave situation they were about to face. The door to the elevator buzzed open and Skye took Coura by the hand and led her out. The fire alarm had finally stopped. The ringing in her ears subsided. “Stop, Coura I smell my dad, will you stay here for a sec. I need to find out if it’s safe.”

  “Alright I will,” Coura said, he told her to hide down behind the desk at the nurses’ station in the center between the two hallways. She did as he asked and crouched down but she felt it was kind of pointless. And as soon as Skye left to go hunt down his dad Coura was up typing on the computer trying to get her Dad’s new room number. She knew she had a limited time and moved quickly. The modem was moving way to slow but when it finally did show up which room her dad’s alias was in; she heard a man’s scream. Coura ran into the hallway following the sound of the screaming. What she found was not her father but the Sheriff, he was in the hallway in the doorway of one of the far rooms. He was on the floor, holding his neck and sobbing.

  “Oh my God, Sherriff are you ok? Of course, you’re not ok, she ripped the bottom half of her t-shirt off and used it to stop the bleeding from his neck. She bent over him clearly showing her abdomen and looked into the sheriff’s eyes. Sherriff can you hear me?” “Yes, he said, “Who did this to you Sheriff? It was a demon thing in the body of Steve Matheson he had… fangs. He would have killed me if it wasn’t for Fuentes; she came in the nick of time. He came up behind me, so fast and then he jumped on me ripping my flesh here on the right side of my neck. Fuentes ran up behind him and shot him several times, then he disappeared I heard Fuentes running, but he was too fast. I’m not sure what happen to her. Then you showed up.

  “Why aren’t the police up here? Why aren’t they saving my Dad, and you?” They can’t come up here, because he has a hostage; a child, from the fourth floor. We can’t do anything to him without endangering the child. If we can get him to be where one of the snipers’ line of sight is, after we found the child that might work. My orders were to get him to a window, but that changed since he took the child.

  “What can I do? Do you know where they put my father?” He is at the end of the left hall on the right. We have a group of five FBI agents protecting his room, he is safe for now. I believe that Matheson might escape before we are able to take him out, and that child with him. There are too many exits in this hospital, and way too many contingencies for my liking. Plus, he is something that I have never seen, he bit my freakin neck! “Stay here ok, Coura said to the Sheriff, she moved him out of the entrance of the doorway and shut the door, please don’t be mad with me but it would be best if you were out of the line of fire.

  Chapter 13

  Sirius and his minions had blocked off the hall, so that Steve could get his revenge on Coura. There were three of Sirius’s men; two at the end of the hall and one in front of Richards’s door standing guard. The officers protecting his room strewn across the hall. “Go to the room Steven, take that girl with you and finish this.” Steve carried little Elaina with him and walked down the hall.

  Roy’s pack had spread out down the hall, and they transformed into their giant Wear form. They could smell the death reeking from the hallway, but they knew that they were there. Roy was hidden in the closet in Richards’s room waiting for Steve to come into the room. Michael a tan colored Wear and Jessie a grey Wear ran at the two vampires at the end of the hall. Talon and Maoris, the guards that Sirius had put into place were prepared for the fight. The Wears charged and pounced, but Talon moved to the left and Maoris moved to the right avoiding the sharp teeth flying at them. As the two vampires moved Ryan, and Paul, and Andrew flew down the hallway trying to get into the room where Richard and Roy were.

  Talon caught Paul in the throat, and he flew down the hallway on his side, whimpering, he tried to get up but couldn’t. Ryan stopped and tried to touch Paul with his nose to make sure he was alright. Paul whimpered and was unable to get up. While Ryan’s back was turned Maoris attacked him. Ryan’s teeth grazed his neck as he jumped, and his body turned missing death by inches. Jessie flew and missed. Maoris had landed headfirst through the glass of the fire extinguisher case. Michael twisted and slid down the hall barely missing the corner wall.

  The fighting was vicious, and Skye came around the corner to the rescue. He was angry that his brothers had gotten hurt. He changed into a giant black wolf and attacked. He killed Talon, chomping his head clean off, then he pounced on Maoris and punched him in his side, Maoris came up fighting tearing a big gash in Skye’s flank, then he jumped on him and a large crack erupted from Skye’s leg. He howled in pain. Ryan and Paul, got up, healing quickly, and killed Maoris. Then turned on the guard at the door, Sirius.

  Lying on the bed still sedated was Richard. Steve walked into the hospital room and saw him lying there. Coura was not in the room, and his agitation grew. He laid the little girl in the chair next to Richard’s hospital bed. “This is too easy; I am going to pay her back and you the pathetic weakling that you are” Steve walked over to the bed and grabbed Richards arm; he sunk his teeth in deeply and drank from him.

  Seeing the little girl, he waited to attack until Steve sat her down. Steve moved quickly and had already bitten Richard. Roy jumped out of the closet as a golden Wear over six feet tall, with massive legs and attacked Steve from behind. Steve heard the Wear and turned to face Roy as he bit into his side. Steve flew over the bed to where the little girl was sitting and picked her up, Roy paused evaluating his options.

  “I will kill her if you take another step!” Steve grabbed at his side where Roy had bitten him. There was a gaping hole, where his side would have been, all bloody, with torn flesh hanging loosely. “You’re going to pay for ‘this!” he threw the girl up and as she was flying over Richard’s unconscious body he ran from the room in a flash, in mid motion Roy pounced over his body catching the little girl in his human form.

  Running out through the hall only took a second; he saw Sirius’s body detached from its head which was rolling down the hallway, mouth gaping open in horror eyes wide open. Steve took a deep breath seeing the Wears and booked it down the hall, out the corridor and vanished. Ryan, and Paul where nipping at his tale, until he turned the hallway and they couldn’t find him. Andrew, and Jessie where helping Skye get to his feet, there clothes were torn, and Skye was limping.

  Coura went down to the room where her father was supposed to be but there was something chaotic going on. There was a lot of yelling and a glass breaking and then someone screaming again. She darted down the hall further hearing a lot of commotion then everything got silent. She walked in the room but there were no FBI, No officers, just Roy and her dad. Roy was injecting something into Richards I.V. “What’s going on? What are you doing to my Dad Roy? I am so sorry Coura, I thought that we would get him in time; Steven drained him so quickly I attacked him, but then he tried to hurt the child. He pointed to the little girl wrapped in a cotton bedspread sitting in the corner chair.

  “Dad, are you ok?” She looked over at Roy, please tell me there is something that you can do something to save him please! Roy please!”

  “He is dying Coura, he was already weak from the attack, and then this, I did the only thing I could think to do, and I gave him my blood. She looked from Roy to her dad, it wasn’t something that he was injecting into her dad but rather something that he was tying into his I.V. there was a tube from Roy’s arm which was carrying blood to Richard. “Roy, will this work, will he make it?” “I am not sure if it will work, or what this will cause. I saw something before in Roy, he’s got a fighting spirit and he’s my best friend. I will do all that I can do for him.”

  Just then Skye came into the room followed by his brothers, but they were all wearing torn FBI outfits, and were out of breath. Ryan had a deep scratch across his face, and Paul was holding Skye up, it appeared that he had a broken leg. Roy looked at them, “did you get him?” “No sir, we did not. He was too fast; we were able to get the others though.” “You need to take Skye and the girl downstairs an
d get them fixed up.” He said pointing to the little girl in the corner. But make sure to change clothes first,” he said pointedly staring at their torn, stolen, uniforms.

  Coura then spoke up, I saw Sheriff Nickels he is in 3a he’s got a deep gash on his neck. He was attacked, but Steve was distracted and left him for dead. He will be needing help also. Roy feeling week sat in a chair next to Richards’s bed and waited for something to happen. Roy’s sons left and Coura stayed by Richard. Once Roy could give no more, he undid the tubing from his arm and disconnected it from Richards IV.

  Then a loud sound started alarming from everywhere. Richards vitals where dropping fast, his pulse dropping by the second until he flatlined. Coura was screaming panicking, not knowing what to do, she was freaking out. “Daddy please no! God Daddy! She pounded on his chest trying to give him CPR begging Richard to come back.

  She asked Roy to do something to get some help. But it was no use, she was in the middle of an evacuated hospital there was help nowhere. She cried and cried over him. But after a while, she couldn’t cry anymore.

  Roy tried his best to calm her to hold her but there was nothing that he could do. Then something snapped in Coura she stood up wiped her raccoon eyes and looked out the window, it was still dark and there were police lights everywhere. Something happened inside her, she could hear exceptionally well, and see, she felt powerful and she knew her powers that Keric had spoken of had come to her. “I am going to find him, and I am going to kill that Mother Fucker!” “No Coura! You can’t leave, he is a Vampire and you are a human, you can’t go after him. You will die, and all this fighting and sacrifice would have been for nothing.” He grabbed ahold of Coura’s arms trying to stop her from leaving the room.