by E. M. Moore
I kissed him back just as soft. Maybe even softer as if everything was just a big question.
Shortly after--too short--he pulled away and kissed my forehead. We sat in silence. If you could guess, I didn’t get out very much like this. I’d dated guys in high school before I became a full Guardian, but how could I have a relationship since then? I couldn’t date a human doing what I do. I couldn’t date someone from the magical folk. Talk about awkward. I guess I just needed someone like me.
I bit my lip. “We have a problem,” I whispered.
His breath caught. “What might that be?”
“I enjoyed it.”
He relaxed and chuckled into my hair. “Me too, Shortie. Me too.”
Chapter Four
It should’ve been of no surprise that the whole “Are we a thing? Aren’t we a thing?” awkwardness was even ten times worse as you got older. I legit hated high school for many awkward reasons. Actually, I probably just hated being awkward. It wasn’t in my nature.
Because Troian didn’t want to know anything about anything, I told him I had to go when it was time to meet Jake for our secret meeting with Sasha and left it at that. He told me he had to get ‘back to work’ also, so I left.
Jake’s room was in the next hallway down so I hit his room afterward. “Hey,” I said as he opened the door.
He locked his door and then shut it behind him. “How’d it go?” he asked.
“Oh,” I shrugged, going for nonchalance. “It went okay.”
“He’s not mad at you?”
Ha. I reigned in a laugh from bursting out. “I don’t think so…” That would be just like Troian though, wouldn’t it? I’m mad at her so I’m going to make her kiss me and like it.
“Glad to hear things went well,” Jake said as he led me down the hallway.
Maybe he knew something was up, but oh well. That wasn’t my concern right now.
We took a left and stopped by a Fire Exit door. “Is this the way?” I asked, pointing to the door.
“It’s one way,” Jake said.
I pushed it open and stepped onto a landing with stairs leading down. “What do you think she has to say to me?”
Jake followed, his hand gripping the railing just above mine. “I’ve been mulling that over since our training session earlier, and I really don’t know. I don’t know much about Sasha. I’ve only seen her in the training areas and in the lunchroom. Different squads tend to stick together. I would’ve thought you’d ask Troian.”
“I tried to,” I explained. “He got weirded out and told me not to tell him anything. He told me he couldn’t say why and that he wanted to help, but I couldn’t tell him anything and couldn’t ask him about it either. What do you think that’s about?”
I was only selfishly asking for the awkward girl inside myself.
“Who knows? He’s a fae. They lie more than any other magical creature. You won’t ever get the full truth out of him.”
My first instinct was to defend Troian, but I kept my mouth shut. Fae’s were cunning. I didn’t think that’s what happened earlier. He was so genuine. In answer to Jake, I just shrugged. “Well, I wasn’t going to push it. I figured asking him about Sasha would tip him off and he acted like it was important that he not know anything.”
“So, the fae is out?”
Way to talk myself into a corner. I hoped Troian wasn’t out completely. Whatever reason he had for not wanting to know anything, I hoped it was over with soon. But the thing about not knowing what was going on was that you had no clue. Maybe he didn’t want to know for personal reasons. Maybe he didn’t want to know because Command had him on a special mission and he had to focus on that. My mind could make up scenarios all day long, each one more far-fetched than the next so it was a waste of time.
“Yes, he’s out.”
“Sounds like it’s just you and me. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
“Speaking of the bottom,” I said. I motioned toward the last set of stairs below us. “Methinks we’ve gotten there.”
Jake ran ahead and opened the door. “We’re taking a right,” he said.
As soon as we exited into the basement, a chill ran up my spine. The decor was much the same as above. Everything clean lines and metal. But down here? Down here it had a cold dampness to it that made it seem that much more sharp and sterile. Unnatural.
Jake shivered next to me and it was comforting to know the vibe down here wasn’t just me.
“Jeez. What do you got to do to get stationed down here? It kind of sucks ass.”
“They do twelve hour shifts, too.” Jake nodded his head toward a Guardian at the end of the hall standing at attention, just looking straight ahead.
This type of work would break me. What a soul-crushing environment.
“Sasha was a supervisor down here before she got promoted.”
A voice interrupted us from behind. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me, but there are good people down here.”
Jake and I turned. Sasha eyed Jake with a wary glare.
“He’s a very old friend,” I explained. “Whatever it is you have to say won’t go anywhere else besides him and me.”
Sasha nodded and then walked ahead of us and took a right. We followed quickly behind her.
“So, what’s up Sasha? Why are we meeting in the dungeon in secret?”
She smirked as she held open a metal door that led to a small room. A table sat in the center with a few chairs. There were lockers in the corner so I assumed this was their break room.
“He tells me you’re a cut to the chase kind of person.”
My cheeks burned, but I ignored it. ‘He’ could only mean one person and there was no reason to go all girlie now. “With what’s going on, I’m sure you’ll agree with me.”
She took a seat. “Absolutely, so I’ll just get to it.” She waited until the door clicked behind us and then said, “The fact that we’re even about to have this conversation means we’re committing treason. I’ve banking on the fact that you want your brother back just as much as I want to see no one else hurt.”
“You can trust us,” Jake said.
She eyed him warily again and then looked at me. “I have some insider information. General Etau doesn’t have a taskforce working on this. Or if he does, it’s just for show.”
I scratched my head and blew a breath out. It seemed like a stupid move since a taskforce was a traceable thing. They asked him for names earlier. “And why would Etau do that?”
Sasha pursed her lips. “For only two reasons that I can think of. One, he knows there isn’t an actual threat. Two, he knows who the problem is and thinks he can brush it under the rug before it gets worse.”
“Worse than destroying Stonehenge?” Jake asked.
Sasha glared at him. “I think it can get much worse.”
“What makes you think that? It seems like an odd conclusion to come to unless you have other evidence.”
“A few years ago, a subset of Command broke off.”
“So?”
Sasha looked at Jake and then back at me before laughing. “It’s Command. You don’t just break off. They are the governing body. It’s like saying, ‘Meh, I don’t really like the way the U.S. does its politics so I’m going to move to Africa except there is no Africa. Command is the only game in town. This subset is trying to be Africa. It would be like someone trying to overthrow the Presidency.”
“Someone’s trying to get rid of General Etau? So, you think this subset has my brother?”
“I’m only stating the facts that I know. I haven’t come to any definitive conclusions.”
Jake shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense that the subset has her brother. Why would they take Damen and blow up Stonehenge to get back at General Etau? That wouldn’t serve their purpose. Historically speaking, when there is war, people unite under their ruler.”
Sasha raised an eyebrow in Jake’s direction. “Did that meeting earlier look like uniting?”
She had a point there. Maybe people were just starting to get sick of his shit. I knew I was.
Jake stayed silent and then took a seat at the table next to me, drumming his fingers on the steel. “I’m just not sure this new information gets us any closer to Damen.” He looked at Sasha and backpedaled. “I’m not saying it’s not nice to have, but what are we supposed to do with it? Should we try and find this subset and hope that Damen is there? Should we put more pressure on Etau for real answers?”
“Etau won’t talk,” Sasha and I said at the same time.
The door opened. My stomach flipped, hoping I’d see a blond-haired, green-eyed fae walk through.
Never thought I’d say that.
It wasn’t. A tall, dark-haired Elite with fair skin and the biggest biceps I’d ever seen walked in. Sasha smiled at him. “This is Cappy.”
Cappy nodded at Jake and then turned to shake my hand. “Cas,” I said.
“Nice to meet you.”
“You too.” I eyed him up and down, wishing I had my weyfinder to see if he was magical or not. Sometimes with the fae you could tell because they were disgustingly perfect, but with shifters or witches, or any of the other myriad of possibilities, you couldn’t tell one from another by outward appearance.
Sasha lounged back in her chair. “Cappy and I go way back. You can trust him. He’s been helping me gather information. We’ve been at this for a while. Elite Command hasn’t set well with us for a few years. We used to work the night shift here together and would get to talking. Remember them days, Cappy?”
Cappy smiled. He reminded me of a G.I. Joe. He stood at attention with hard angles on his face, and huge muscles. Instead of camouflage, he had on traditional Elite black, but it was still a good likeness.
“How have you been gathering information from the inside? That must be tough.”
“We haven’t, really,” Sasha explained. “Cappy here is on the perimeter patrol. They sometimes go into nearby villages to scope things out. That’s how he hears things.”
Jake nodded and then ran both his hands down his face before looking at me. “I think you going back to Salem is a good idea. You’ll be more useful there. Especially since you’ve managed to not make a commotion since we came back from Stonehenge, you probably aren’t on their radar.”
“Jake’s right.” Sasha leaned forward in her chair. “You should head back to Salem. Pretend like things are going back to normal. Put your feelers out. Don’t use the portals. They can track them. Most of them are shut down anyway, but to be safe, even if you find one that’s open, I wouldn’t use it.”
“Sure,” I said. “Done. I’ll head back to Salem in the morning. What’s after that, though?”
“I say we try and find this subset,” Jake said. “Either they have Damen or information.”
“Or both,” Cappy said.
“My grandfather kept diaries. I’ll look in them to see if he said anything about a subset breaking off. He was still heavily into Guardian happenings until he got Alzheimer’s. Maybe they can give us a direction to go in.”
“Excellent,” Sasha said. She eyed all of us and smiled. “Game on.”
*****
On the way back to my room, I stopped by Troian’s. I wanted to tell him I would be leaving tomorrow. All my knocks on his door went unanswered.
Chapter Five
Ahh…home. As soon as I stepped through the portal I felt a million times more at ease than I had the whole time at Command. I walked into the kitchen and stared at the stove, half-wishing I’d find Green Eyes making me some chocolate chip pancakes. God, I loved those pancakes.
Jake had been a little worried about me getting permission to portal back here, but everything went smooth. I’d already been on a list to portal back to Salem at any time. I wondered if that meant General Etau couldn’t wait for me to leave? Wouldn’t that be funny?
I’d just gotten out of the shower and changed into some regular clothes rather than the Elite issue black garb when the doorbell rang. My stomach hollowed out. There were things I had to do today that I wasn’t looking forward to. One of them was going to see Frankie, my Necromancer friend to apologize to him about the poor Stonehenge Necromancer who’d gotten left behind when the bomb went off and he couldn’t portal through. I’d told Frankie that I’d keep his friend safe and I didn’t do that.
The other—
Stupid doorbell rang again. “Hold on a sec,” I yelled before jogging toward the door and winging it open. My ring allowed the door to open without me having to unlock it first. There were times when magic like that came in real handy. Especially when you had an impatient mayor on the other side of your door.
I sighed. “Mayor, to what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Guardian.” He stepped into the house without being asked and looked around. He peeked into the kitchen and the living room.
“Can I help you with something?”
His assistant stood in the middle of the foyer as we both watched his eyes roam all through the house. The assistant shrugged when I gave him a look.
“Hawthorn. Maybe if you’d tell me what the hell you were looking for I could help you leave sooner.”
That got his attention. His head snapped toward me and he sneered. “You, you sorry excuse for a Guardian, need to get back to work. You left Salem unattended.”
Part of me winced. Leaving Salem unattended wasn’t very Guardian-like. However, desperate times called for desperate measures and there was no way I was a ‘sorry excuse for a Guardian’. “Excuse me for being a little preoccupied. That’s what happens when your brother is being held captive by a bunch of fucktards who have the ability to blow things up. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have more important things to do than to stand here talking to you about my qualities as a Guardian. We don’t discuss your ability to mayor.”
The assistant bit his lip to keep from laughing. Mayor Hawthorn’s face reddened until he looked like a big, red balloon head. “You will be expected to patrol now that you are back in Salem.”
“And just how did you know I was back in Salem? Last you heard from me, I was at Command working with them to find my brother.”
His eyebrow quirked. “Don’t think I don’t have ways of checking up on you.”
“Apparently so. For good reason, too, since I wasn’t the one who silenced the ley line not two weeks ago, saving Salem from an ultimate shit show.”
The mayor narrowed his eyes before walking to the door. “Watch yourself, Guardian. I want you back out on the streets. You have duties here. Your brother is not a priority any longer.”
I strode forward and pulled on his arm before his assistant could get the door open. “Who do you think you are? I run this Guardian business here. You have no say in the matter. The only reason you even know we exist along with the threats out there is because you were elected to this office, so don’t act so uptight, you superior ass. I will Guardian as I see fit. My family has been doing so for generations, far longer than the paltry amount you’ve been elected mayor, and when your term is over, you won’t even remember we exist. You do realize that, don’t you? We poof us out of existence in your head. You won’t remember a goddamned thing. So just ask yourself, when you’re sitting at home as regular Joe Blow off the street and some sort of magical creature comes up on your ass. Maybe it’s a vampire who thinks you look like a tasty treat. Maybe it’s a werewolf that just wants to play with you. It won’t matter. Do you want me on your side or not? If so, get off my back or I’m letting them have you. I’ll take pleasure in watching them drip you dry of any humanity you had because from here, Sir, it doesn’t look like you have much.”
It was a magical miracle I didn’t haul off and punch his ass, but I managed to push them out onto the porch and slam the door in the beet-red face of Mayor Hawthorn before I did it. Damen wouldn’t be happy. He’d think it was damn funny, but I’d also just told Mayor ‘Good luck, when you’re a regular person. See if I’m going to save your
ass when you need it.’
I’d have to save him anyway, whether I wanted to or not. My Guardian side wouldn’t let me act another way. Though, I could daydream about watching Mayor Hawthorn get his. I hoped he did.
Since I was already dressed and hyped up on a conversation I didn’t want to have, I might as well go over to Frankie’s shop to get the second conversation I didn’t want to have over with.
Out in the garage, my kickass black SUV started right up. I smiled over at the passenger seat remembering all the times Troian sat next to me, or even Jake. Or Damen for that matter. I liked working with people better than working alone. When I was alone, I tended not to make friends. The mayor conversation was a prime example. Damen would’ve told Hawthorn he’d be back on duty tonight whether he planned to or not. He was all about keeping the peace. I, on the other hand, hated the holier-than-thou attitude and the fact that he told me to get back to doing a job he knew nothing about.
I backed the vehicle out of the garage and headed toward Frankie’s. On the way there, I drove around town looking for anything out of the ordinary. People were acting like people again. We were still in full-fledged tourist season. There were families in droves walking down by the wharf toward Nathaniel Hawthorne’s house or the candy shop just across the street. There was a group just outside the Pirate Museum. They were everywhere.
I spotted magical creatures, too. They were also behaving themselves. Like normal, they camouflaged themselves in with the humans. The only reason I knew what they really were was because it was my duty to know who they were around here, and I’d had a hand in approving their move to the city.
Finally, after arriving at Frankie’s, I cut the engine. I sat in the SUV and stared at the main entrance to his shop. This was going to suck.
His assistants brought me into the backroom where Frankie sat at the table. The last time I was here, Troian was with me and I was promising Frankie that nothing would happen to his friend. Then, things went to shit.
