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Guardian's Joy #3

Page 29

by Jacqueline Rhoades


  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

  Enamored by the dress, JJ hadn’t heard anyone approach. It took her a moment to place the young woman beside her. Today she wore a knee length pleated skirt, pale hose and modest pumps. Her camel car coat was buttoned up leaving only a glimpse of the white cotton oxford collar at the throat. It was the girl from the night of the rave, the ‘other’ who gave her a finger wave as the group passed.

  “Sure is,” JJ answered her and then she smiled at the girl. “I almost didn’t recognize you without the make-up and heels.”

  The girl colored a little. “My cousin takes me out sometimes. He says there’s more to the world than Moonlight Sanctuary and he wants me to see some of it. My parents forbid it. They’d be so angry…” She shrugged apologetically.

  JJ winked. “The first time I saw you was right in front of this window.”

  “Thanks. I’m Evie, by the way.” Evie nodded at the gown. “Why don’t you try it on?”

  “JJ. Because it looks better on that dummy than it would on me. Besides, where would I wear something like that? It doesn’t exactly fit my lifestyle.”

  “You’re going to the dance, aren’t you? My mother said all the Guardian’s ah…” She blushed a deep red. “Women would be there.”

  “They’re mates, blood bonded, red roses and everything, so if your mother has a problem with that, maybe she should take it up with a higher power. Now me, she can say what she wants about me and it would probably be true, but not the others. They’re good women mated to good men. The other single woman there has lived through your worst nightmare times ten. She’s the strongest person I know and she’s my best friend.” JJ was furious. How dare these people pass judgment on the best people, male and female, she’d ever met.

  “It’s not me! My cousin Nathan wants to become a Guardian. He was born with the tear. His father won’t allow it, but in another six months or so, Nathan will have his lilies and his father won’t be able to stop him.” Evie gripped JJ’s arm. “Please, I didn’t mean to offend! We want to be like you.”

  JJ let out her breath. “No you don’t, kid. It’s great that your cousin wants to be a Guardian, but you don’t want to be like me. You’ve got family, friends, a good life. Don’t be too quick to throw that away.” She smiled to take the sting out of her words. “But your mother’s right about one thing, Evie. Lord Canaan has decreed we will all attend the dance whether we want to or not, so if you’ve got a few minutes to spare, I could really use some help here.” She nodded at the store.

  “You mean it? You want my help? Will you try on the dress in the window? Please? I swear it was made for you. Please?”

  Chapter 38

  By the time Nardo called to say it was time to leave, JJ had more than a dress and all the accoutrements to go with it. She also had some interesting information to take back to the Guardians.

  Everyone was crowded into the kitchen. Dinner was over and dishes were done, but no one had taken Grace’s suggestion to move to the War Room

  “According to Evie,” she told the others, “The first Paenitentia victim had the hots for some Indie named Ryan, no last name. This Ryan had a lot to say about the superiority of the Race and taking their rightful places in the world of men. Evie says the girl went on and on about Ryan says this and Ryan says that until they were all sick of hearing it. Then no talk of Ryan for maybe three months. The vic says he’s away doing something important. Her friends all thought he dumped her. Now here’s where things get hinky. Rumor has it, Ryan contacted the girl, wanted to meet. She goes and gets dead. A couple of the girls came forward and told the constabulary what they knew. Supposedly, Sanctuary’s finest checked the guy out, but his place was empty, even though his rent was paid up for the next six months. They’re calling it an elopement.”

  “Nice of them to pass the information along to us,” Nico snarled.

  “This Ryan on your list?” Canaan asked Nardo.

  “Yeah. JJ and I were kicking this around on the way back and here’s what we came up with, farfetched as it sounds. If this ad Fenton has found a way to create these things, maybe he’s testing to see if he can control them outside the lab. Maybe they wanted to see if the vamp could control himself around someone he knew, cared for even. The vic was a test.”

  “Guess he got an F on that one,” Dov muttered.

  “What about the other victims?” Nico wanted to know. “How do they fit in?”

  “Dog training,” Dov answered before Nardo could.

  “Dov,” Canaan reprimanded harshly, “We don’t have the time or patience for your humor.”

  “Who’s laughing?” Dov was confused. “You can train a vicious dog to be nice, but you ain’t gonna know if your training’s good until you take that dog out in public.”

  “That’s why the attacks are so sporadic,” Col concluded. “They’re taking them out on test runs. Makes sense, bro.”

  “Hey! Sporadic. That was one of your words from a couple weeks ago. Way to go, Col.” Dov high-fived his brother.

  “Much as it pains me to say this, I think the Terrible Twosome may be on to something. Their thought processes might be somewhat convoluted, but their reasoning may prove sound.” Broadbent thoughtfully pressed tobacco into his pipe. “They could be feeding regularly on donor blood.” He raised his hand to the murmured protests. “Not from blood banks, but from their own willing or unwilling supply. If they’re creating these creatures to begin with, I doubt they’d have any moral apprehensions about keeping blood slaves. If there are several of the creatures, live feedings would become a logistical nightmare unless, to capitalize on Dov’s dog training theory, they’re trying to teach the creatures to feed without killing.”

  Grace shook her head in disbelief. “Surely you don’t believe this is possible.”

  “I hope to hell we’re wrong, sweetling, but it’s best to prepare for the worst.” Canaan tucked his mate protectively under his arm. “I want surveillance on the exits at Sanctuary and on this building they’re using. How soon?” he asked Nardo.

  “Tonight, but it won’t be easy,” Nardo admitted. “The labs are out on Route 36, about two miles past the warehouse district and outside city limits. The building’s fairly new, one story and it was vacant until about six months ago. The land’s flat and any perimeter guards will see us coming from a mile away. JJ suggested she drive us out there before nightfall. She drives and we stay in the back of the van until it’s safe to get out. It would give us a few minutes before anyone came to investigate, but it won’t be enough.”

  “Why hide?” Col asked. “Just do what you and Dov did. Why can’t you pretend you’re the phone company?”

  “Because little old human ladies are easy to fool,” Dov explained. “These guys come out and check on us and they’re gonna know right off we ain’t the phone company.”

  “Not if you put a uniform and a cap on Hope and have her knock on their door,” Col argued. His idea made sense. “She can warn them the phones will be down for twenty minutes.”

  “No,” Nico growled.

  “When do I need to be ready?” Hope patted Nico’s hand consolingly. “I’ll be fine. Grace can’t do it. She’d be swimming in those uniforms and JJ’s coloring is too distinctive. Besides, this doctor already knows her. I can knock while it’s still daylight. If I can get in the door, I might see something useful.”

  There was that iron backbone again. JJ kept her smile to herself. These women were something else. How could she ever have mistaken them for weak?

  Canaan nodded his assent and Nico glared.

  Broadbent and Col were assigned to the road leading past the Sanctuary service entrance since Deter’s friend was sure this was the departure point.

  “Numbers?” the Lord Guardian asked.

  “These are guesses based on what Deter could dig up on short notice. We’ve got a dozen science guys being paid through ad Fenton and you’ve got to figure some of them are like Deter and his friend, not true
believers. There’s another dozen from the Sanctuary who’ve hired on as security, but three of them are no longer being paid.” Nardo paused to grin. “I’m assuming one of them is in our freezer. There were fifteen Indies, but likewise, seven are no longer being paid. Again, assuming freezer man is one of them, are the others dead or turned?”

  “So we’ve got maybe sixteen fighters and who knows how many vamps…”

  “There’s also a housekeeping staff. Generous payments are deposited for these worker’s families, but Deter can’t find any personal expenditures in their accounts. They have to be staying on site and that makes me think Broadbent’s got it right. They’d serve the dual purpose of menial labor and blood donor.”

  Canaan held out his hand for the papers Nardo held. “Let me look these over and get an assessment of how many we should consider hostile.” His eyes slid over the group. “There’s nothing we can do right now. Get some sleep. We’ll talk about it at breakfast.”

  *****

  JJ eased out from beneath Nardo’s arm and slid over the edge of the bed. She slipped his sweatshirt over her head and hopped on one foot as she pulled the sweatpants up on her way to the door. It was early, only 4:30. With any luck, she could make it down to the pantry where she’d hung the garment bag and left her packages and be back to Nardo’s room before anyone else was up. She tiptoed through the kitchen door and sighed. She wasn’t early enough. The garment bag was laid carefully across the island and the bags were in an orderly row.

  “We were going to take you shopping. Looks like you beat us to it.” Grace leaned over to check out the insides of the shopping bag. “Do I get first peek?”

  “Okay, Betty Crocker, but if you laugh I swear you’ll never wear an oven mitt again. You child will grow up surviving on store bought cookies and white bread, just like the rest of us.” She pulled out the packages from the children’s and men’s stores and set them behind her on the counter. “Those are Christmas presents.”

  Grace was already unzipping the garment bag. “Oh my God, JJ, I had visions of something in black leather or denim, but this is beautiful. Try it on! Try it on!” She ran to the pantry door and called, “Hope! Hope! Get in here. You’ve got to see this.”

  The toilet flushed, the water ran, and a bleary eyed Hope shuffled into the kitchen. She wore a man’s robe; one of those long satiny jobs that JJ had only seen in black and white movies from the 1930s, and peeking out at the neck was a white flannel nightgown like the one they’d dressed JJ in. Hope glanced down at the rubber boots on her feet and grinned sheepishly.

  “She said to hurry. I thought something was wrong.”

  Grace had the shoes and handbag unpacked and was digging into the tiny lingerie bag which held a wisp of golden thong and a pair of stockings so sheer they felt like woven air.

  “I hate you,” was Hope’s smiling response to the gold dress from the store window. “I’d give my eye teeth to be able to wear a slinky dress like this, but I’d look ridiculous. There’s not enough fabric for my girls to call home.” She looked down at her generous breasts.

  “There are more than few men out there who would give their eye teeth to see you wear it just in case your girls decided to run away from home.” Grace laughed and said in a loud aside to JJ, “She’s wearing a strapless number that ought to be labeled Mount Vesuvius Erupts. She had Manon take it in so much she can’t breathe.”

  “At least I won’t fall out! What did you finally decide on?”

  “The deep red with the scoop neck. It shows off my preggy boobs and falls loose to cover my bump.” Grace moved to the sink to fill the coffee pot.

  “You don’t have a bump,” JJ told her and joined Hope’s bark of laughter. Grace was eager to show off her pregnancy, but as yet there was no visible sign. “Be careful what you wish for. Six months from now we’ll be listening to you complain about maternity clothes.” She turned to Hope. “The earplugs are my treat.”

  “Does this mean you’ll be staying past Christmas?” Hope winked at Grace.

  “I’ll stay as long as Nardo wants me to.” JJ tried to keep up the cheerful bantering tone of the conversation, but it sounded false and flat.

  “You don’t need Nardo to stay here, you know.” Grace reached out to touch JJ’s hand. “If things had worked out differently, I would have lived alone in the house next door to Manon and Otto. I’d finally found a family. Not even Canaan could make me give that up. You’ve found a family, too. Don’t be so quick to give us up.”

  It was the same advice JJ’d given Evie, but she didn’t think she’d have the strength to follow it when the time came. She’d already decided to keep John’s house and rent it out. That way, when she needed it, she’d have a place to hole up and lick her wounds. Good things never lasted.

  Her maudlin thoughts were interrupted by the twins coming through the door.

  “I’m just saying… There could be a whole basement full of demons over there and someone ought to mention it to the boss man.” Col ignored the women and headed for the pantry where the snacks were kept.

  Dov, right behind his twin, stopped when he saw the fluffy pile of nylon and silk on the island. “O-oo-oo, what have we here and which one of you will be wearing it?”

  JJ snatched the items from the counter and stuffed them back into the bag.

  “Yours? Gee, I had you pegged more for a leather bustier and…” He changed his tactics when he saw Hope’s scowl. “Uh, Col thinks they’re keeping the demons in the lab basement. You know, like they did at the spaghetti place.”

  “How else are they letting them out with such perfect timing? It’s not random. JJ proved that.” Col popped a pretzel into his mouth.

  “I don’t think you could have that many Paenitentia in the same building with demons and keep it a secret. Humans don’t believe they exist, but Paenitentia? They’d know right off, wouldn’t they?” Grace took the bag from Col. “No junk before breakfast.”

  Dov took the bag of pretzels from under Col’s arm and handed it to Grace, but not before grabbing a handful from the open bag. He had to wait until he swallowed the mouthful before he spoke. “Demons smell bad. Don’t know if they’d recognize it, though. But we’re raised on stories about demons and believe me; none of them end good, so I’m with you. With that many people, word would get out, one way or another.”

  Col came back from the pantry refrigerator with a half-gallon of orange juice. He placed it in front of Grace. “No caffeine for you,” he said as he reached for the glasses and then said to them all. “Then explain how they’re doing it.”

  “They have someone on the other side,” Hope said quietly.

  Col gave her a look. “Right. Ding-dong, Paenitentia here. Could you send me a young one at 3:15 Wednesday morning? Oh, and I’ll need him on the corner of Main and Vine.” He shook his head and took a swallow of juice. “I don’t think the gates work that way.”

  JJ sat staring at the glass of juice in front of her. “You don’t need a gate. With enough power, all you need is a mirror and someone on the other side who’ll answer your call.”

  “So, like what? You can shave and call your pet demon at the same time?”

  “Shut up, Dov, and let her explain,” Col hissed.

  “I don’t know if I can, Col. It takes a special kind of mirror. I remember they were so excited when they got it. It just looked like some old mirror to me. They were trying to call a demon into a warded circle, but the power of the coven wasn’t strong enough.”

  Marion was convinced JJ had the power they needed. After she was mated to the High Lord, he insisted she participate in the coven’s ritual. She did, but she forced her power so deep inside herself no one could touch it. She could barely light a candle, never mind open a doorway to hell. It wasn’t until she heard about Samuel…”

  “The mirror, JJ, what did it look like?” Grace was shaking her arm.

  JJ gulped down half the glass to give her thoughts a chance to clear. “It was a long time ago, Grace. I
was a kid, a teenager. It was just old with some fancy frame, an antique. I know it was rare. Marion kept saying it was perfect, rare and perfect. They all wanted to touch the glass.”

  “Was it big or small?” Grace began to pace.

  “Big, really big. Maybe four wide, five tall. Why?”

  “It’s power, not the coven. Manon was wrong.”

  “What?”

  “She said she didn’t know how to bridge to the otherworld, but it could be done. It would take a full coven to do it and only a coven that had turned to the dark. She was wrong. It’s power and usually it takes a coven to pool that much of it. That coven you’re talking about thought the same as Manon. They wanted you to join them didn’t they?”

  “Yes.” The word was whispered, but it seemed to echo in the quiet of the kitchen.

  “They wanted your power. Did they get it?”

  “No.” JJ snarled the word.

  “I knew you’d say that. Get your coats ladies. We’re going for a ride.”

  “I’m not going anywhere looking like this. Give me fifteen minutes.” Hope headed for the door.

  The twins exchanged worried glances. “Ah, Gracie? It’s daylight.”

  “No flies on you, Dov, but daylight’s your problem, not ours. Oh and by the way, if you two ever want to see a German Chocolate Cake again, you won’t tell Canaan we’ve gone until the car is out of the alley. We’re taking Possie.”

  Chapter 39

  No one told JJ Possie was an affectionate term derived from POS, which was how the twins referred to their former vehicle. Grace claimed most of the dings, dents and scrapes came from the twins’ abuse and JJ detected no lie, but then again, truth was sometimes a matter of perception. Neither Hope nor Manon, who Grace invited along, seemed bothered by Grace’s lack of skill, so JJ sat back and hoped for the best.

  “Where are we going?” she asked, proud she didn’t wince as Grace took the icy corner at the end of the alley on two wheels.

 

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