The Guard

by Harri Aburrow-Newman

  “Alive?” it was barely audible, but there all the same.

  “Yes! She’s alive! A patrol found her in a building on the other side of the city that they’ve kitted out as some kind of storage facility. Ysabel’s there along with a bunch of other vampires, they’re having their blood drained.” I grimaced.

  The atmosphere in the room had darkened again quickly and now a strained growl exited the wasted body on the bed. She seemed to be struggling to pull herself together, literally, after so long of not feeding and being sedentary. Lexi, who had so far been stood quietly behind me, touched my shoulder, making me jump.

  “She needs blood, I’ll go and see if I can find some.”

  She disappeared out the door and I heard her jogging away down the corridor. I guessed she was heading towards the hospital buildings, it wasn’t far away so she shouldn’t be long.

  Beth’s eyes flickered open again and I felt her attention fix on me,

  “You’re sure she’s there?” the words wove through my consciousness, like a thought that had popped into my head, but alien.

  “As sure as I can be without seeing it myself. But I heard the radio transmission, the patrol leader was sure, and Ysabel is pretty distinctive right?”

  An almost imperceptible nod of her head followed this, and her focus went back onto the ceiling.

  Lexi ran back in ten minutes later with a cardboard box that was full of bags of blood that were really intended for transfusions.

  “Are you sure you got enough, Lex?” I asked sarcastically, raising one eyebrow.

  She shot me a dirty look and dumped the box down on one of the chairs, then dragged it over so it was next to Beth’s bed.

  “Evidently you have no idea how much blood a vampire can drink in a single sitting. And Beth is warrior class, hasn’t fed in weeks and is seriously injured, so she’ll need more.” She was concentrating on the box as she spoke, pulling out a pint sized bag of blood and investigating the best way to get it open, “this lot should get her back on her feet and able to hunt for herself, at least.”

  She located a small pen knife in one of her pockets and cut the top corner off of the bag she held, then carefully slid the open part between Beth’s lips, spilling some all the same, in a livid crimson splash down the side of her face,

  “Oops, sorry.” She muttered,

  Beth’s lips closed over the hole. I blinked, and the blood was gone, leaving the bag a wrinkled husk stained red on the inside. I stared, not sure whether to be amazed or appalled, as Lexi reached into the box again.

  By the time the cardboard box was empty of blood and filled again with the empty bags, Beth’s body had filled out impressively and she was able to speak properly again.

  “This part’s not going to be very nice,” she warned us grimly.

  Swinging herself slowly into a sitting position so that her feet dangled off the edge of the bed, she took hold of her broken leg and yanked it straight with a sickening crunch, forcing the protruding bone back inside. Glen gagged slightly, making Lexi smirk at him and call him a pansy. I focused my attentions on Beth, who was standing now, keeping her weight on her unbroken leg, shaking out her wings. She pulled the one that had nearly been shorn off around the front of her, squeezing carefully down the length of the large muscle that ran along the top edge of it near to her body.

  “Is it ok?” I asked, frowning, wondering why she hadn’t shifted to her human form yet, usually when she was around us she normalised as soon as possible.

  “It’s fine. Just wanted to make sure there are no tears in the muscle still. The last thing I’d need would be taking off and crashing straight back down again.”

  She released the wing and let it drape back down behind her. Her eyes had slightly shifted – some white was visible around the black, which seemed duller than usual – and flickered briefly to mine and then away again,

  “I need to hunt. I’ll be back soon.”

  With that, she strode out of the room. Not looking back to return Lexi’s wave.

  Chapter 38

  Beth

  I navigated carefully as I flew, using the bare minimum of mental power and my hearing to find my way into the city, crudely marking out objects by the different sounds that were being made around them like a damn bat would... it was hardly perfect though; my ears were already filled with a constant, shrill ringing sound. I shook my head violently, trying to get rid of it and the blindness that also wouldn’t budge, but all it served to do was make the splitting headache worse. The pain spiked and my wings faltered, dropping me several feet before I managed to force them open again, catching myself with a grunt before I hit the deck.

  Giving up on reaching my usual hunting grounds, I made a cursory sweep of the area and landed around the corner from where I’d heard a small group of humans. There were three of them; high-heeled, nervous young women. They were walking fast towards me in a huddle, I could hear them arguing with each other, all passing the buck for forgetting to book a taxi. I dithered, my conscience muttering at me annoyingly. The women rounded the corner and I melted backwards into what I hoped was a patch of shadow by the wall, but a sharp scream from one of the woman and the chaotic scuffle of them changing direction and making to run informed me that I had actually found myself rather too close to a streetlamp.

  I was on them before I even had time to notice myself making the decision to do so, snapping the neck of one and grabbing another. I drained the woman with the broken neck in a heartbeat and nearly tore the head off of the second in my desperation for fresh blood. The third was screaming, the sound sending ripples of agony through my head. Groaning, I lifted my mouth from the ravaged throat and spun round in the direction of the screaming woman, who had only just realised that she should probably be running. She made it about two steps before I hit her from behind. She crashed into the pavement, her head connecting with it with a crack that immediately shut her up, her screams turning to a low moaning, which was also cut off when I opened her carotid artery with my fangs and my venom flooded her system. The pain in my head and the ringing in my ears eased ever so slightly as the warm blood pulsed into my mouth in time with her frantic heartbeats, although my vision remained a stubborn, irritating blank.

  I drew back onto my haunches as she died, cocking my head to listen as the whisper of her mind faded completely. Guilt crept in then, once the adrenaline of the hunt had worn off, but only vaguely. What were three dead women when added to my record? A drop in the bloody ocean, I chuckled blackly. I suppose Ysabel really was a sobering influence on me. As soon as I’d thought her name I regretted it, the slight relief I’d felt whilst feeding wore off, leaving me destitute again. I launched myself back into the sky, feeling a little stronger at least, and headed back to the base.

  Michael, Glen and Lexi were all gathered in Michael's small office when I got back. I felt their attentions focus on me sharply as I walked in and smirked half-heartedly,

  “Were you worried about little ol’ me?” I asked, with maybe a little too much bite in my voice.

  I didn’t have to see to recognise the glare that Michael shot me then. I felt the air stir as someone moved, which evidently was Michael gesturing for me to sit down, as a moment later he spoke in a clipped, tense voice,

  “Are you going to sit down or just stand there and smirk at us?”

  I grimaced slightly, amazed at how annoying not being able to see was. After being a vampire for so long, the complete loss of one of my senses was surprisingly disorientating. I moved further into the room, placing my feet heavier than usual to create some echoes by which to help locate a chair. Sliding into one, I faced Michael,

  “Better?”

  “Much,” he replied suspiciously, “what’s wrong?”

  “Eh, I’m fine. Nothing I can’t handle.” I shrugged, “when are we going?”

  “When you tell the truth.” He said it bluntly, making it quite clear that I was not as good at dissembling as I liked to think. Lexi continued for him,
sounding concerned,

  “You know your eyes still haven’t normalised right? And they look odd, kind of… dull…” she hesitated, doubting her own observation.

  “Ugh,” I sighed, “fine. I’m having some… sensory issues.” I spread my hands with what I hoped was a ‘no problem’ kind of grin and was met with a shocked silence.

  “You can’t see? Really?” asked Lexi.

  I rolled my head towards her voice,

  “No. I’m lying for shits and giggles.” I cocked an eyebrow, “you said it yourself that they look dull. I can’t see a blasted thing. My hearing’s not quite up to par either, my chest feels like I’ve been hit by a truck and I’m fairly sure that my head is trying to split itself in two.”

  I could feel them looking at each other, all of them radiating concern. I slapped my hand down on the table, suddenly tired of their flapping and stalling,

  “Hey! By all rights I should be dead. Just because I’m firing on a couple less cylinders than usual, doesn’t mean I’m helpless. Stop being worrywarts and tell me what the plan is, if you even have one. It’s bloody ridiculous, clucking over me like a bunch of mother hens.”

  Michael’s mind immediately went in the direction that I expected and I growled low in my chest, answering him before he’d even voiced what he was thinking,

  “Don’t you dare even think about trying to cut me out of this, Michael.” I let my fangs lengthen menacingly, “not that you could stop me, but I’d rather go with you than despite you.”

  I could tell he was narrowing his eyes at me, in the calculating glare that made his soldiers tremble before him and me just laugh a little.

  “Please explain how you are going to be of use when you can’t see, Beth? Or hear, or god knows what else that you’re not telling us?” his tone pissed me off, he was talking as if to the eighteen year old that I looked like. I was over the table in a flash, grabbing him by the collar of his clothes and lifting him up against the wall, my other hand drawing a sword and pressing the point against his stomach hard enough to break the skin, and the talons at the apex of my wings slammed into the wall on either side of his head. The smell of the blood that escaped the tiny wound made my head roar with craving and I could tell from the sudden cessation of any movement of air in the room that everyone had held their breath, waiting to see if I kept control. So little faith… I lowered Michael down to my eye level, which involved forcing his knees to bend slightly, and brought my face in close to his,

  “I will be of more use blind than twenty fully functional, armed humans and you damn well know it.”

  I hissed in annoyance and let go of his shirt, letting him stand up straight again. He gathered himself for a moment, stewing in his fury, before resuming his seat at the table.

  “You can’t, can’t, leave me out of this Michael. Shit.” I ran a hand over my knotted curls, “it’s Yzzy.”

  “Fine.” The word was spat out through clenched teeth as he rubbed convulsively at his neck, “I’ll compromise with you; you’re not coming straight in. Even you have to admit that you’re seriously bloody volatile right now.”

  I shrugged, almost apologetically,

  “Fair point, I suppose.”

  The next night I found myself pacing up and down feverishly a few blocks away from the building where Ysabel and the other captives were, listening closely to the popping of gunfire and yelping of ferals. My wings trailed in the air behind me, twitching with irritation as I resisted the urge to throw myself towards the fight and Ysabel. However, I was willing to play along with Michael for a little longer at least.

  A scream ripped through the air, the agonised, heart wrenching scream of a human man who had probably just seen his own guts get ripped out by a feral’s talons. My patience snapped all at once and I drew my swords, leaping into the air and heading for the battle.

  Chapter 39

  Michael

  I cringed as someone screamed behind me, but locked in my own fight I couldn’t do anything but keep concentrating on the ferals in front of me. There were fewer than usual but they were all higher gens, and coming in concentrated waves from several directions at once, which was taking chunks out of our ranks with devastating efficiency. It was a tactic I recognised with some dread as being used by the ferals who had wiped out my squadron over a year ago. Movement at the far right of my vision made me swing round and fire reflexively, the feral I hit flinched back briefly and then continued towards me, wrecking-ball-fast. A blur of black flashed past, slamming into the feral and throwing it backwards away from me before resolving itself into Beth. She paused for a fraction of a moment then launched herself into the fray, wings and knives taking limbs off of ferals with rather less than her usual finesse. Even so, it shocked me to see her taking a hard swipe across the chest, opening ragged gashes in her tee shirt and throwing her backwards, usually this number of ferals wouldn’t get close to touching her.

  My attention was yanked away again and I lost sight of Beth. But with her help, we managed to do some more damage. The ferals attacked Beth before us, so our armour piercing bullets mostly just had to pick off the few that did attack us or those that were ejected from the scuffle surrounding her. I had to admit that it didn’t really matter that she couldn’t see anything; the knot that had formed around her meant that she couldn’t fail to hit an enemy no matter where she struck. We used the relative lull to try and drag our injured back outside, I quickly took stock of how the men were coping and then jogged out to see that everything was going ok there. I was met by Glen, who was helping Lexi patch people up. I looked at him quizzically, and in response he jabbed a finger towards a body lying about twenty feet away, before rushing off to see to another groaning soldier… its face was largely a pulpy mess, but the vividly red hair identified it as the chief medic. I scowled, marvellous. My radio crackled in my ear, and Nathan informed me that they’d disposed of the last ferals on the other side of the building and were going further in. I spun round on my heel and hurried back down to my side of the battle, flicking my gun off of safety again and lifting it to my shoulder so it was ready to fire should a feral be heading my way.

  As it turned out, I got back just in time to see Beth dispatch the last one, taking off its head with one sword and then falling upon its body as it hit the ground, slamming the other sword into its heart. She stood and shook out her wings, throwing up a haze of blood droplets into the air around her, then immediately strode away down the corridor from which most of the ferals had spilled, trailing her wings with a scraping noise down the walls on either side of her to help keep her way. I signalled the men to reform and we continued deeper into the building, following her lead. She slowed slightly and tucked one wing tighter into her body to allow me to come next to her,

  “Those were third gens,” she said, quietly enough that the men behind us wouldn’t hear,

  “I thought they probably were…” I chewed briefly on my lip, “I’m guessing that they really don’t want to let anyone get hold of what’s down here then…”

  Beth chuckled,

  “Idiots. They should have loaded the place up with at least second gens if they wanted to have even a prayer of keeping me out. They’re still underestimating us, you know.” She glanced over at me, “or Archer’s playing another game.”

  “This is underestimating us?” I spluttered, incredulous, “we’ve just lost a lot of good men and you’re saying we were might have been underestimated?”

  “Well would you prefer it if Archer has let us get in on purpose?”

  She didn’t bother waiting for a response, darting away faster than I could follow.

  I led the remaining men down the corridor after her at a steady jog, half of my mind occupied with checking each doorway we passed and the other half listening to Nathan in my earpiece, keeping me updated on the progress of his squad on their journey through the building from the other side. He cut off a sentence, telling me he thought he’d found the main room, with a burst of gunfire. I picked
up the pace, heading towards where I could hear the guns barking. Before we could reach them, the gun fire ceased and Nathan’s voice sounded in my ear again,

  “Found ‘em, Mike. There’s a massive room in the centre, keep going inwards and you should get here.”

  “Don’t call me Mike” I muttered back, without bothering to transmit it to him, but continued at my quicker pace towards him.

  The corridor opened out into a large, but fairly low ceilinged room. It was bright, clinical white, but the almost-medical air was marred by the rows of vampires strung up across the entire room on large, metallic crosses as if they had been crucified. Some of them had the tatters of clothing hanging from them, but most were naked, and each of them had a needle that looked more suited to knitting inserted in the vein of each arm. These needles led down into large, oversized IV bags or in some cases, glass medical bottles. There was no sign of Beth, but a furious growl sounded from somewhere near the back of the room, and then there was a rending sound, as one of the captives was torn from their bonds. I sprinted towards the sound, jerking to a halt as I rounded a corner and found Beth lowering Ysabel to the ground. Nathan was over the other side, also watching, but the men with him were busy liberating the other vampires. I hastened my own squad to do the same, immediately seeing why he had set them to work instead of letting them watch... Nathan certainly had it right in thinking that Beth probably wouldn’t appreciate a bunch of soldiers leering over her mate’s naked body.

  Not, of course, that they would have done much leering, given the state that she was in. Ysabel had a large metal spike protruding from her bare chest, attached to a thick pole that was obviously going clean through her heart – it looked like it had been used as a kind of harpoon. Beth had removed the needle from her arm, throwing it to one side, and was now holding Ysabel in a sitting position, feeling around the pole where it stuck out of the skin of her back. Lowering her down again, she placed one hand on Ysabel’s chest and with the other grasped the pole so that her hand was braced against the flat bottom of the spike, preparing to draw it out.