“She’s wondering what went wrong, JJ. She wants to know why it didn’t work,” Hope said, coming from the kitchen. Her knuckles whitened on the tray of mugs. “She’s the one who tried to kill you, isn’t she?”
“That’s a lie!”
JJ would have doubted the accusation until Marion denied it. The creepy feeling of a lie slithered up her spine. “I should say thank you, Marion. If you hadn’t tried to finish what the High Lord started, I wouldn’t be here now.” She looked the woman up and down. “You certainly have come up in the world. How’d you learn that wind thing? Or should I be asking who you stole it from? Did you kill her, too?”
“You never deserved him,” Marion told her, ignoring the questions. “You did nothing to earn it. You never slaved or sacrificed the way the rest of us did. We all sensed your power, but you refused to share it. Still, he had to have you, his little half breed. You were supposed to bear his sons, continue his line. You ruined everything and almost killed him. I was the one who nursed him. I was the one who discovered the mirror and showed him there was another way to reach our goals. The Nonveniae will live on, if not through the Father then through his army. You’ll be nothing but a brood mare for his men.” Her eyes strayed to the mirror and then around the room.
“Are you saying the old bastard can’t have kids?” JJ was tempted to pump her fist in the air and cheer.
“He doesn’t need you anymore. He has me.”
“That’s what you want, not what really is.” Hope set the tray on the coffee table.
“You’re spoiling my fun, Hope. I thought I was going to get to beat this shit out of her.” JJ picked up a mug and wrinkled her nose. “Tea?”
Hope shrugged. “There wasn’t any coffee.” She took a sip from her own mug. Her eyes widened and she choked.
“See? Tastes like crap, doesn’t it?”
“L-Look.” Hope pointed with her mug.
The mirror was shimmering, tiny ripples floating across the surface. The ripples grew wider, stronger, no longer on the surface of the glass, but becoming part of it. JJ hurled her mug at the glass. It disappeared into the waves.
“Stop it! Stop it!”
Hope was shaking Marion, but JJ could see it had no effect. The woman’s eyes were glazed and unseeing. Her pale lips moved in a silent chant. JJ cocked her fist and hit her. Hard. Marion didn’t wince, she didn’t flinch. She kept chanting. JJ drew back her fist and hit her hard enough to break her jaw. She heard the crack. Hope screamed. Marion’s lips kept moving.
A lamp flew past her ear. Hope screamed again. JJ snapped her head around in time to see a small brown body leap from the shimmering glass. Her hand came up and a streak of blue flashed across the room. The demon squealed, its spindly arms flung wide as it toppled forward. She looked around for Hope.
At the same time, a string of foul words streamed from the dining room across the narrow entryway. Hope’s obscenities were followed by a grunt and the shattering of glass.
“See that? That’s your head, you fucking bastard!”
JJ had no chance to enjoy the moment. She felt another creature behind her lunge. She bent from the waist and with a little help, used the demon’s momentum to carry it over her shoulder.
She hissed when a claw sank into her shoulder. “Son of a bitch.” Anger drove her booted foot downward into the prone demon’s stomach. Off balance, she was unprepared for the sudden twist of its body. Hind legs swept her off her feet and she was suddenly on her back, one arm trapped beneath her, the other at the demon’s throat and using all her strength to hold back the snapping jaws. She could feel the blue flame tingling through her fingertips, aching for release, but she was afraid of the kickback. She could hear Hope engaged with another of the creatures and knew no help could come from there nor was she sure Hope could hold out alone. She only prayed she could end this before another beast came through the mirror.
She squirmed beneath the demon finally wedging her knee beneath its bulging gut. She heaved and groaned as her knee sank into the soft flesh. The demon didn’t budge, but her lower leg compressed the abdomen enough to pull her other leg in and up. The use of both thighs gave her the power to raise her legs and roll.
It wasn’t enough to get free. The thing seemed to move in four directions at once. JJ fought to keep the claws and teeth from finding a purchase. She heard Hope scream Nico’s name from the other room, heard the door crash back on its hinges and suddenly she was free. She rolled to her feet, blue flame at the ready, but Nardo had already plunged his fist through the demo’s chest.
“Goddammit, woman,” he snarled as he rose to his feet. His fangs were fully extended and his face was hardened in Battle Rage. “What the fuck did you think you were doing! I ought to whup your ass.” He lunged for her.
He looked so angry and fierce that for a moment she was afraid. She saw movement behind him and screamed, “Down!”
Blue fire tore through the shoulder of his jacket and struck the demon behind him. Nardo roared, pulled a long knife from the sheath at his wrist and the demon’s head rolled up against the baseboard.
JJ saw only a blur of motion, knew Nardo had it covered and sprinted to the dining room, praying Hope would be all right. She needn’t have worried. Nico held his mate in a crushing embrace that might have injured a smaller woman. His mouth covered hers as if he would devour her unless, of course, she devoured him first. One pile of dust gave evidence to the first demon killed and the second, with Nico’s knife beside it, was already beginning to disintegrate.
Nardo’s arms slid around her and she turned to him, remembered Marion and shoved him aside to run back to their captive and the mirror.
“No!” she shouted and threw herself forward.
Chapter 41
Marion, hands and legs still bound, was sliding into the mirror. Her upper torso was gone in a gruesome illusion of a body cut in half.
Without thinking, JJ threw herself at the disappearing body and grabbed for the space where Marion’s waist should have been. Her hand closed around a solid form and she tried to brace her knees and pull, but instead found herself sucked into the void beyond the mirror. She could no longer feel her physical body. Pain laced through her arms and shoulders so excruciating that she screamed, her voice joining Marion’s.
JJ tried to release her grip on Marion’s waist, but had no way to know if she had succeeded. It didn’t seem to matter. As hard as she fought to pull herself back from whatever horror lay beyond, she was dragged forward. How much forward she judged by the progress of agony moving steadily down her body. She heard voices shouting both before and behind her, but they sounded muffled and far away.
The darkness parted to reveal glowing eyes and flashing teeth and then the indistinct face of a humanlike being. The face became clearer, a woman not Marion, and she held out her hands reaching for JJ. JJ grasped them in hopes of being pulled from this unbearable pain, until the woman’s eyes came into focus. Those eyes and the smile that joined them were the embodiment of evil.
She knew what this woman wanted from her, knew what she had to do to stop this, but didn’t know if she had the strength. The pain was killing her, sapping her power, devouring her ability to reason clearly.
On the other side of the mirror, Nardo and Nico worked desperately to extricate JJ from the mirror. Each held a booted foot and pulled with all their might. While their combined strength was enough to halt her being completely enveloped by the mirror, it wasn’t enough to pull her back through to this world.
Nardo braced his foot against the mirror frame which had become as solid and as immovable as the wall behind it. He’d tried to dislodge it when he first saw JJ dive for the other woman’s legs and Nico had tried again when Nardo shouted for his help.
Nardo’s heart was pounding in his chest. He was afraid their strength would tear Joy apart and kill her. As that horrifying thought threatened to overwhelm his mind, another, more terrifying, took its place. What if she was already dead?
&n
bsp; “Can you feel her?” he called to Hope who stood crying and wringing her hands behind them.
“Yes. Yes, but I can’t connect. It’s like a mass of gray static.” Her voice quivered with panic as she struggled to hold back a sob. “Nico, oh Nico, I don’t know what more to do.”
“Call Manon. See if she has any ideas.”
Hope grabbed the phone from his pocket and dialed immediately. The two Guardian’s struggled for a few more minutes before Nico voiced what Nardo had feared to say aloud.
“I don’t know how much time we have or if we can save her.”
“Let go,” Nardo told him, “Let go and I’ll follow her through. I can’t let her go alone.”
“No!”
“Wait!” Hope clicked the phone shut and came to stand near her mate. “I have to touch her.”
“No.” Nico’s vice was sharp, decisive. His eyes pleaded with Nardo to understand. “I can’t risk losing her, too.”
“He’s right, Hope, we can’t risk it. I’ll go with Joy and if we can, we’ll be back and if we can’t…” He shrugged. “We’ll be together and that’s all that matters to me.”
“Nonsense,” Hope said and slid her fingers through a tear in JJ’s jeans. “Joy Justice, you look at me.”
Could this be a trick? JJ knew the voice, but refused to open her eyes.
“It’s not a trick. It’s me. Open your mind, not your eyes.”
How could this be? No words were spoken and yet she understood what the ‘voice’ wanted.
“Kind of like talking to Faith, huh?”
JJ opened her mind. The blinding pain immediately lessened to a pulsating throb as images of Nardo passed through her mind. No! Don’t let go! Not yet! I can do this. Need time!
A giant yellow smiley face blossomed in her mind.
JJ was vaguely aware of her hands clenched in those of the woman beyond. Now that the pain had subsided, she realized there was power there beyond the woman’s own. There was no way she could break the hold. In fact, she now believed that her resistance actually pulled her deeper into the unknown. She forced herself to relax.
She needed Hope’s help, but when she tried to convey the message, all she got back was a question mark. The pounding rhythm of pain provided her solution. SOS, ...---..., and then she pictured an electrical tower along with the Danger – High Voltage warning on an imaginary sign.
This time Hope’s answer was ‘thumbs up’.
“She’s going to use her power,” Hope told the men, “But there’s going to be blowback. It’s happened before only this time it’s going to be fierce. You two have to be ready to help us. I’m not sure how powerful the shock will be.”
“No. I forbid it. This ‘blowback’ might kill you. I won’t allow you to put yourself in such danger.” Nico’s fangs peeked over his bottom lip. He refused to meet Nardo’s eyes.
Hope gripped JJ’s leg more securely and used her free hand to pat Nico’s cheek. She glanced at Nardo. “What would you say if I asked the same of you, love? Would you abandon a fellow Guardian because of my fear?” She smiled. “Of course you wouldn’t. Now trust me as I trust you.”
“No.” Nardo echoed Nico’s objection. “Tell her not to risk it. I’ll go with her. We’ll be together. We’ll be all right as long as we’re together. You’ll have the mirror. We’ll figure it out. Tell her. Show her. Do whatever the hell you do, just get my message across. I love her.”
Hope smiled sadly. “Where she’s headed, a Guardian couldn’t survive. If you want to be with her, this is your only option. Trust her, Nardo, as Nico trusts me.”
Nardo swallowed hard, closed his eyes and nodded his assent.
At Nico’s curt nod, Hope focused her eyes on something in the mirror. Her face paled and her body began to shake. At her nod, both men let go of JJ.
The room exploded with blue light and enough energy to set their hair on end. Hope was thrown across the room followed by a shower of glass. She landed against the sofa. Her eyes flew open and she gasped. Nico was instantly at her side.
JJ was collapsed over the now empty frame of the mirror, her forehead against the wall. Smoke rose from her leather jacket and her white hair was singed with black. With shaking hands, Nardo lifted her away from the frame mindful of the possibility of jagged glass beneath her. He stripped the jacket from her and cradled her against his chest, grateful beyond all measure for the heartbeat matching his own. He closed his eyes and prayed his thanks for this gift of Joy. His Joy.
“Hey,” she whispered hoarsely. She ran a gentle finger down his cheek. “Guardians don’t cry.”
“Who says so?” He turned his head to kiss her fingers. They tasted of sulfur and smelled of something vile. A shiver ran through him at the thought of what had wanted her on the other side of the mirror. “I was afraid I’d lost you,” he whispered.
“Hmph.” She offered a weak smile. “Only the good die young. Everyone knows that.”
“Then you are the exception to the rule,” he said inches from her lips.
“Are you going to kiss me?”
“Before or after I whup your ass?”
“I’m not afraid of you, Guardian. You…” The words caught in her throat and she wrapped her arms around his neck burying her face against him. “I was afraid for you, afraid you’d come after me, afraid of what would happen if you did.”
“Shh, baby, shh.” Nardo stroked her hair and when he heard her sniffle back tears, he lifted her chin. “It’s over and we’re both here.”
He kissed her, long, and deep, and hard, and she kissed him back, could have kept on kissing him till the end of time, but Nico cleared his throat, twice, and Hope giggled.
“I guess she’s okay.”
JJ struggled to her feet pulling Nardo with her.
“I called in to report,” Nico told them, “If we’re right about these demons…” he nodded at the piles of dust, “there will be vampires looking to feed tonight. Broadbent and Col were posted to watch the service entrance on the far side of the Sanctuary; one to watch, one to follow any vehicle that looked interesting. The Director’s car left about a half hour ago and drove straight to your suspected lab. Canaan wants to move tonight. We’re to pick up Broadbent on the way.”
Chapter 42
They rode like two old married couples; men up front, women in the back. It was snowing and the wiper blades thump, thumped against the windshield. JJ felt like a perp in the back of a squad car unable to hear the low conversation going on in the front seat. She snorted a little laugh and wondered how Nico would take the comparison of his luxury Town Car to the PD’s battered Crown Vics. She leaned forward.
“What’s the plan?” Her question was directed to Nardo, but she saw the corner of Nico’s mouth twitch, whether in amusement or annoyance, she couldn’t tell.
“The plan,” Nardo answered, “Is for you two to stay in the car.”
“I’d be happy if you could take us home, but if you can’t…” Hope began.
“You will stay in the car,” Nico finished for her and then glanced at JJ in the mirror. “You have already done more than your share this night.”
Hope shrugged apologetically at JJ, but didn’t argue with her mate.
“Damn right she did. Hope saved my life and don’t think for a minute I don’t know it. She’s not meant for this shit and that makes what she did all the braver.” JJ gripped the front seat. “So I’m not talking about us, I’m talking about me. I’ve trained.” She wiggled her fingers. “I have talents and I can help.”
“Joy, you’ve done enough, too,” Nardo told her. “This one isn’t your fight.”
“The hell it isn’t. You’re not the one they’re planning to use as a brood mare. Yeah, that’s their pet doctor’s plan and it’s making you fangy already. Now imagine you’re me.”
Nico kept his eyes on the road. “It’s not our call. Or yours. If you wish to be a member of this House of Guardians, you must follow orders, as we all do and your orders are as follow
s. You are to stay in the car and keep watch. You will notify Canaan of any suspicious activity outside once we have penetrated the facility.” He eyed them both in the mirror again. “You are not to leave the car.”
Nico was Canaan’s Second and JJ knew he was right. That didn’t mean she had to like it. She frowned, nodded, and started to slide back in her seat then stopped and leaned forward to peer through the windshield.
“What the heck is that?”
“Broadbent, I assume.”
“I know that, but who or what is he talking to?”
Hope undid her seatbelt to get a better look. “A powder puff?”
The round pink ball next to the tall, lanky Broadbent turned, waved and moved off, skimming over the snow covered road in a cloud of pink and white. The cloud disappeared as they pulled up next to the professor. JJ opened the door and scooted over in the seat to give him room. He handed her a steaming Styrofoam cup before dusting off his coat and climbing in.
“Well?”
“Well what?” he asked. He lifted the wooly flaps of his plaid hunting cap. Earflaps sticking out, strings hanging, his long beak of a nose red from the cold, he settled himself into the heated seat. “Ah, nights like this do give one an appreciation of modern amenities.” He reached for the cup.
JJ held it away. “Well?”
“Well what?” he said again. “I don’t mind answering inquiries, but I do need to know the subject.”
“Pink powder puff floating off in a cloud,” she prompted and handed him his cup.
“Oh that,” he said and took a sip of the steaming liquid. “She didn’t float off. She scooted. On a scooter,” he explained.
“A scooter. It’s twenty degrees out there.”
“Yes,” he said, smiling. “Quite extraordinary, isn’t it.”
“The weather or the scooter?” She glanced at Nardo who rolled his eyes, grinning. “Professor, tune in here. Who the hell rides a scooter in this kind of weather?”
“Highway Helpers,” he answered unhelpfully.
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