by Craig Zerf
‘Got news for you, stone-man,’ said Tag. ‘Wars are back.’
‘We need your help once again,’ interjected Emily. ‘The vampires hunt once more and the Pack has been diminished to the point that we can no longer patrol in sufficient numbers. The bloodsuckers are killing humans at will.’
Coldstone shook his head. ‘No good,’ he said in his treacle-slow voice. ‘The masters have all gone. I cannot communicate over distance to aught but my designated master. And I have not felt his presence for many centuries now.’
‘What about other gargoyles?’ Questioned Em.
‘Them I can communicate with. Any of them,’ continued Coldstone. ‘All of them. Separately or en masse.’
‘What about the magician, Merlin?’ Asked Em. ‘Could you communicate with him?’
The gargoyle made an odd sound. A grinding percussion, like a sock full of pebbles been shaken about. It took Emily a while to realize that Coldstone was actually laughing.
‘Child,’ he said. ‘Merlin has been dead for centuries. He died during the last great vampire war between King Arthur and the bloodsuckers.’
‘Wrong,’ said Tag. ‘He’s alive and well. Hanging around with an old dame who’s also a young dame who’s also a crow sometimes.’
‘The Morrigan?’ Questioned Coldstone.
‘That’s it,’ confirmed Tag. ‘He’s with the Morrigan. Two of them are thick as thieves.’
‘This changes all,’ said the gargoyle, almost to himself. His face lit up in as much as it was possible for his grotesque features to show emotion. ‘The great magician can reassign our masters. He can make us all subservient to him and thereby we could all communicate to Merlin. Once again we could be a force for good. We can help.’
‘Cool,’ said Tag. ‘I mean, that’s gotta be better than sitting on a roof all day, draining rain water through your head and watching tourists walk by.’
‘You have no idea,’ confirmed Coldstone. ‘Boredom is a concept that can only be truly understood by someone who has not moved more than fifty paces in the last three hundred years. The thought of once again being of service is overwhelming.’
‘So what’s the next step?’ Asked Em.
‘Go to Merlin,’ answered the gargoyle. ‘Tell him about me. He will need my full maker’s name. Tell him it is, Coldstone Matthew Kent Granite, Guardian Seventeen thousand nine hundred and ninety four. He needs my exact nomenclature in order to change my master status. Once he has done so then I will contact all of my brothers and he can change them. Or at least change enough of us to be able to communicate directly with him and form a network of communication.’
Tag patted the gargoyle on the shoulder. ‘Good one, dude.’
Em kissed the living statue on the cheek. ‘Be seeing you, Coldstone,’ she said. ‘Thanks.’
The gargoyle raised an eyebrow in surprise. But he did it so slowly that by the time he had registered his emotion the three friends were gone.
So he crept a little closer to the edge and watched.
And waited.
Chapter 25
Merlin had been casting spells since Emily had gotten back and he was utterly exhausted. The young Shadowhunter had watched the magician for a while but, contrary to what she had expected, spellcasting seemed to consist mainly of Merlin sitting in a comfortable chair with his eyes closed and a frown of concentration on his face.
Every now and then he would break out in a sweat.
That was it.
So she grabbed a Desert Eagle .50 pistol and a couple of boxes of ammunition and went to the shooting range. Before she got there she could hear that someone else was already practicing. She was surprised to find that it was Tag.
‘Hey, big man.’
‘Hey, Em.’
‘Didn’t know that you were big on firearms training,’ observed Emily.
The big man shrugged. ‘Like to keep my hand in, even though it comes real natural to me.’
He ripped off a few more rounds and Emily was impressed to note that every shot was center mass on the human silhouette target.
‘Pretty good shooting.’
‘Yeah,’ admitted Tag. ‘I’ve always been the best. Well, until you lot showed up. Now I’m just the nerd amongst the X-Men.’
‘Rubbish,’ said Em. ‘You’re the un-killable, dead-shot, strong as an ox, superhero.’
Tag grinned. ‘I suppose I am,’ he said. ‘That be true. Don’t mess with Tag ‘cause you ain’t never gonna put him down.’
He blasted off another fifteen rounds, hitting with every one of them. Then he turned to Em with a grin. ‘Thanks, girly,’ he said. ‘I was feeling down but now I be A-Okay.’
‘You’re welcome,’ replied the Shadowhunter.
Tag collected up his gear and left, a spring in his step.
Emily carried on plinking until she had expended all of her ammo and the target was a simply a ragged piece of paper.
Then she went back to the house to see what Merlin was up to. When she entered the room, William was already there and the magician was drinking a cup of tea.
‘You did well,’ he said to her. ‘That gargoyle, Coldstone, was a very high echelon Guardian. When he contacted the remainers they listened.’
‘Remainers?’
‘It’s what they call the gargoyles that still have the life-spark,’ explained Merlin. ‘It was hard to tell but I figure that there must be about one thousand two hundred of them. They’re scattered pretty evenly about the United Kingdom. Sounds like a lot but, in reality, as there are fifty thousand or so towns and villages in the UK, it’s a drop in the ocean. One Guardian for every four settlements. Less actually because some are grouped together, three or four on one building.’
‘It’s a start,’ said Emily. ‘So what next?’
‘I can communicate directly with a few of them,’ said Merlin. ‘Coldstone, obviously, plus another thirty that I chose merely on geographical placement. Even those few took me all day to connect with, but it’s enough. If any of the Guardians see a vampire then they will either contact me directly or they will contact one of the thirty who will, in turn, appraise me of the situation.’
Emily thought of Coldstone and wondered what it must be like, sitting alone for centuries, watching, waiting.
‘It’s what we do,’ said a voice in her head. The young Shadowhunter did a double take.
‘What is it?’ Asked Merlin.
‘Coldstone,’ she said. ‘I think that he just spoke to me.’
‘Impossible,’ quipped Merlin. ‘Well, not impossible but shall we say, highly unlikely. You two haven’t been connected.’
‘She was born connected,’ said the voice. ‘She merely had to come into her power.’
‘There,’ said Em. ‘Did you hear that?’
Merlin nodded. ‘Extraordinary. Gods, girl,’ he continued. ‘Something that you could have told me this morning before I spent a whole day performing such exhausting magiks.’
Em shrugged. ‘Didn’t know this morning.’
‘Is it just Coldstone?’ Asked Merlin. ‘Or can you speak to others?’
‘I don’t know,’ admitted Em. ‘I don’t know any others so it’s hard to think of them, if you get my drift.’
‘We are all aware of you,’ said Coldstone.
A chorus of deep, resonant voices greeted Emily. Some of the voices were smooth and cultured, others more akin to rocks rolling down a hill. But they were all different. She tilted her head to one side as she listened and found, with a bit of concentration, she could tell which direction they were coming from.
‘They’re all saying hello,’ she informed Merlin.
‘All thirty of them?’
Em shook her head. ‘Sounds like hundreds.’ Then she attempted to mind-speak to Coldstone alone. ‘How do I stop the noise?’ She asked.
‘Just think, stop,’ he answered.
Em did so and the rising cacophony stilled instantly.
‘Thanks,’ she said.
‘Y
ou are welcome. If you need me, think of me. Meanwhile, we have work to do, the night is falling and we shall be in touch.’
Merlin smiled. ‘Great, I formally place you, Emily Hawk, in charge of the Guardian network. Now that’s one less thing that I have to worry about. Next, I recommend that you use William’s help to contact the Pack and tell them of what has transpired. Ready them all for the hunt and remember, I want them to catch me a few vamps alive so that they can lead us back to their nests.’
‘Excellent,’ quipped Em. ‘More work. Love it.’
***
The next few days were probably some of the most frustrating that Em and her companions had experienced for a while. The Guardian system worked perfectly and, in the first four days the gargoyles spotted six vampires out hunting. But the pack did not manage to apprehend one of them. The geographical distances were simply too large. While Charlie, Delta, Echo and Foxtrot groups were placed at pivot points across the country, every sighting that occurred was just too far away to take advantage of. By the time the group got there, the vamps had killed and were gone.
‘We have to break the groups up,’ said Em. ‘There are five wolves and twenty five Purebloods with each group, so put one wolf in charge of five Purebloods. That would still be a kickass team. Then spread them around. Out in the country. Away from the cities. That way we at least have a chance of lucking out and cutting down our reaction times.’
‘It’s not a bad idea,’ admitted William. ‘But it does carry an element of danger. The Purebloods are good but if a group that size came up against a clutch of three vamps they would struggle. Depending on the wolf that was with them.’
‘Look,’ said Em. ‘I don’t mean to be harsh but, that’s just tough. This isn’t a school prom, it’s war. We need to take some risks because what we’re doing at the moment simply isn’t working.’
William nodded. ‘Okay. I’ll tell the Pack. But first let’s take a look at a map and plan where we’re going to deploy the smaller groups.’
Em, Tag, Bastian and William spent the next hour with a large scale map and a box of red pins arguing about the placement of their new fast reaction groups and, when they had all agreed, William communicated with the Pack, telling them what to do.
Chapter 26
Troy had been put in charge of five SAS Purebloods. Hard taciturn men who were at the very peak of their skills. Trained killers. They treated the young wolf with the maximum of respect.
William and Em had moved his team, now referred as simply as Team Troy, to the large village of Silverburn some twenty miles outside of Edinburgh.
Then they had got the call. A vamp had been spotted by one of the Guardians situated in Carlops, only a couple of miles away. They had jumped into their Range Rover and sped over, following the ongoing directions being fed to Troy, via William who in turn was being instructed by Merlin who was in direct touch with the Guardians.
A veritable broken-telephone chain of communication.
By the time they pulled into the main street of the village it was empty but William told them to drive past the church and take the first lane right. That was the point that the gargoyle on the church spire had lost sight of the hunting blood sucker.
Troy followed instructions and, halfway down the lane they saw two people walking. A male and a female. It was instantly apparent by the way that they moved that they were leeches. Even though they tried to ambulate like humans their movements were simply too fast. Staccato and speeded up like an old-timey movie.
There was no subtlety in Troy’s plan. He simply stepped on the gas, pulled in front of the couple and jumped out at them. They reacted with alacrity, attacking him as he morphed into his wolf form.
And then it was a melee of claws and teeth and talons and fur as the three of them fought at speeds that baffled the human eye. Such was the intensity of their combat that the Purebloods dared not intervene as they might easily have harmed their team leader if they did so.
Within seconds it was over. One vampire lay in pieces on the pavement. Head, torso and both legs detached. The second, the female, was unconscious. A huge tear in her throat and both arms badly broken. She would recover due to her innate vampire abilities but it would take time. Troy had judged her injuries finely and ensured that he had gone far enough to incapacitate but not so far as to bring on the true death.
Two of the Purebloods wrapped a length of silver coated chain around the unconscious vamp, manacled it together and then tossed her unceremoniously into the trunk of the SUV.
Troy was about to get into the car after instructing one of the Purebloods to drive when he had a sudden vivid flare of Emily’s voice in his head. Almost like a movie flashback. He shook his head and ignored it. Then it came again. A clear vision of her face. She wasn’t speaking but he could hear her thoughts. She was wondering how his mission was going. Impatiently waiting for him to contact William so that she could question him.
‘Emily?’ He asked, thinking her name internally, not speaking.
He saw the surprise on her face.
‘Troy?’
‘Man,’ Troy continued. ‘Weird. Is that actually you?’
‘I think so. I was thinking about you and the next thing, you spoke to me.’
‘So you were thinking about me,’ quipped Troy with a grin.
‘Not that way,’ interjected Em. ‘I was wondering if you found the vamps.’
‘Yep,’ communicated the young wolf. ‘Put one down and got the other on ice. We’ll be there in a few hours. Tell Merlin and the Omega.’
‘So, we can communicate now,’ said Em unnecessarily.
‘Appears so,’ said Troy. ‘Unless I’m having some sort of mental breakdown.’
‘What about me then?’ Asked Em.
‘Maybe it’s some kind of shared illusion,’ said Troy. ‘No, wait. That doesn’t make any sense. If I were going mental then you wouldn’t actually be involved at all. It would all be a figment of my imagination. Tell you what; we’ll talk about it when I get there. See you soon.’
‘Sure thing,’ said Em. ‘See you soon.’
Troy climbed into the Range Rover and they set off for William’s forest hideaway.
***
Emily settled back into her wingback chair and stared at the ceiling. ‘How the hell did I do that?’ She asked herself. The she relaxed and decided to contact Coldstone, for no other reason than to once again test her communication skills, maybe have a bit of a chat.
‘Coldstone?’
‘Shadowhunter?’
‘How goes things?’ Asked Em.
‘I watch,’ answered the gargoyle.
Emily waited for the living statue to expand but he did not. It occurred to her that it was obvious that a gargoyle was not the correct being to approach if you simply felt like a bit of idle chatter. After all, he wouldn’t have much to discuss. He moved perhaps ten or twenty feet a year and he watched. In two words he had summed up his existence.
‘Umm…cool,’ said Em. ‘Okay, bye now.’
Coldstone didn’t react and Emily broke contact and sat still again. Thinking.
After a while she decided to concentrate her thoughts on Lucas Cain, the Alpha of the Protectors M.C. She formed a picture of him in her mind and then simply called his name.
‘Lucas.’
‘Shadowhunter girl?’
‘Yes.’
‘How are you doing this? Is the Omega with you?’
‘No.’
‘So you are doing this by yourself?’
‘Yes.’
‘And is it true that you can also communicate with the stone people?’
‘Yes. Sorry about all of the one word answers,’ quipped Emily. ‘It’s all a little overwhelming.’
‘Answers are answers,’ said Lucas. ‘They are not graded according to word count. You must tell the Omega. This might be important. Or it might just be one of those things.’
‘I will. Thanks.’
‘See you later, girl.’
‘Emily.’
‘Emily then. Sorry.’
The young Shadowhunter stood up and went to find William, who was, as usual, in the kitchen with Merlin. Both of them drinking tea. Em helped herself to a mug. Then she sat down and told William about her newfound skills at communicating with the wolves.
The Wolfman raised an eyebrow. ‘Amazing,’ he said. ‘Tell me, when you communicate with them, what does it feel like? I mean, can you feel their needs? Their desires? Emotions?’
Em shook her head. ‘No, nothing like that. It’s like a cell phone call. I talk, they talk. Nothing emotional or whatever.’
‘That’s very different,’ noted William. ‘When I communicate it’s almost all emotion. The message comes across but only as a part of everything else. I feel what they all feel, their thoughts fight against mine. It’s never easy. When I commune with the Pack it is always a struggle. I have to fight so that my thoughts achieve ascendency over theirs. Survival of the fittest kind of deal.’
‘Oh,’ said Em. ‘The whole, “Life is suffering: To suffer is to live”, thing.’
‘I suppose so,’ admitted William. ‘If it’s not worth fighting for then it’s not worth having. Anyhow,’ continued the wolf man. ‘This is a good thing. You can communicate with the Pack and the gargoyles simultaneously. That should save time, streamline the whole hunting process. So, now you are the mistress of the hunt. I shall tell Merlin and the pack. Congratulations, hunt leader.’
Emily rolled her eyes.
Chapter 27
The female vampire stared at Merlin with an expression of undisguised hatred combined with superiority. She was chained to a metal chair that had been bolted to the stone floor.
Merlin looked back at her, his face devoid of emotion. The Prof stood behind him. He was busy packing his pipe and mumbling to himself. The words were not audible to a human ear but the female vamp jerked her head towards him and laughed.
