Guardian of the Stone

by Amity Grays

  Raised voices and scuffling were heard just outside the chamber.

  The haunting chants of their audience were replaced with the sounds of bodies turning.

  Through the open chamber door, a man was thrown unceremoniously into the room and onto the floor. Wearing camouflage and covered in dirt, he hit the ground hard, then lay there a moment, seemingly injured.

  Graham, the man she now knew to be a traitor, followed him in to hover over his helpless form.

  Slowly the injured man looked up.

  “Dane!”

  Horror ripped through her, sending her bolting forward to be by his side. But halfway to the floor, her arm was caught and she was ruthlessly jerked back by what was surely of the devil’s own blood.

  “What do we have here? A want-to-be hero?” said LaFay, laughing as he pulled Edeline and the child closer to his side. “Ignorant man, unless there’s a cavalry behind you, I’d say your journey’s done.”

  “Get your hands off her,” Dane said, struggling to get to his feet. He made it to his knees, but was pushed back to the ground by Graham’s booted foot.

  “Your fate is sealed, soldier. I’d tell you to say your prayers, but I doubt seriously they’d be heard from in here.” Looking to Graham, LaFay nodded toward Dane. “Kill him.”

  Graham aimed his gun at Dane’s head.

  “No!” Bolting against LaFay’s hold with the child still tucked in her arms, Edeline fought wildly to break free. “Please, oh please, don’t do this.”

  LaFay only tightened his hold, turning an angry glare Graham’s direction. “Damn it, I said kill him!”

  Hatred sparked from Graham’s eyes. Pulling back the lever, he positioned himself to fire, lifted the barrel and pulled the trigger.

  Stunned silence filled the room.

  Staring back at Graham with a look of disbelief, LaFay stood a full second, blood streaming in a steady line from the hole now planted between his eyes.

  As Dane burst from the floor, the monster’s body plummeted to the ground.

  Grabbing hold of Edeline’s free hand, Dane rushed her and the child out of the altar and into the cellar.

  “Make one move and you’re dead,” yelled Graham to the worshipers as he swung his gun wildly and backed out of the altar behind them. Stopping outside the chamber’s door, he reached into one of the wine racks and pushed up a bottle.

  The door to the altar turned out to be a wall. It moaned its burden as it sealed the room in. “They won’t wait long,” said Graham, moving from the lever to the stairway. “We’ll need to move fast.”

  Edeline held on tight to the little girl as she and Dane hurried to follow, her eyes never leaving Graham.

  What role, exactly, is the man playing?

  Stopping at the top of the cellar stairs, Graham quickly poked his head out the door, then back in. “It’s clear.”

  Dane nodded toward the child. “Can you handle her and fast?” he asked.

  “Yes.” And she could. She could handle anything if it meant getting them out and away from this man-made hell.

  They followed Graham out into a long breezeway that ran the length of a well-manicured lawn. Back inside the mansion, they followed the same long hall where she’d made her escape earlier that day. Four lifeless forms dressed in hooded capes appeared along the way. Guessing them the same men from the altar, she looked for their master but found him missing.

  “Where’s Martin?”

  “Martin?” Dane repeated, looking back her way over his shoulder as he headed around the next corner. “He wasn’t with—”

  “Dane!” Edeline screamed just as Graham reached out and grabbed his shoulder, stopping him from walking directly into Martin’s gun.

  With the barrel still pointing squarely between Dane’s brows, Martin threw Graham an angry snarl. “I should have known,” he said dryly. “Drop the guns.”

  Neither man moved to follow his instructions.

  The barrel’s nose shifted to Edeline. “I said drop ’em.”

  Without further hesitation, both men dropped their weapons.

  “Fools,” Martin said just before a shot fired from further down the hall.

  Jolting forward, their captor’s face twisted into an ugly collage of pain and surprise.

  The barrel flayed from its mark as the gun, slipping from his grip, bounced along the edge of his fingers. Finally sliding off their tips, it crashed to the ground, clattering only a moment before Martin’s dead weight silenced its jangle.

  With her face buried deep in Edeline’s curls, the little girl whimpered.

  “It’s going to be all right,” Edeline said, her gaze like the two men’s at her sides, moved from Martin’s now motionless form down the hallway to its end.

  Looking somewhere between haggard and dead, the butler stood near the door, his hollow stare focused on the body lying at their feet. Dangling from his right hand was the smoking gun.

  Graham knelt down beside Martin, checking for a pulse before looking back to the butler. “Why?”

  The man turned, opening the door behind him. “You should hurry,” was his only reply, not a show of remorse anywhere on his face.

  None of them waited for a second invitation.

  Outside in the courtyard, the Mercedes sat idling.

  Dane ushered her inside and hurried around to the driver’s seat.

  The back door swung open and slammed closed. “They’re coming,” said Graham, immediately turning to face the mansion, his gun still drawn.

  With gravel spitting behind their wheels, they bolted forward down the drive. Reaching across the leather seat, Dane pulled her and the child down across the seat. “Stay low.”

  Behind them shots fired, shattering the rear glass and rocking the car as it continued to fly down the drive.

  “Hang on,” Dane said, punching down further on the accelerator. This time the car flew straight through the gates, sending the iron barriers flying and setting off a new string of alarms. Gunfire seemed to explode from every direction, thankfully echoing from an ever growing distance.

  Hesitantly handing the little girl back to Graham, Edeline once more cast doubtful eyes Dane’s direction.

  “She’s safer back there,” he assured, sensing her discomfort, though never actually taking his eyes off the road.

  The child stared wide-eyed at Graham as he secured her the best he could into the oversized seat. He turned off his cell, handed it to her to play with and then promptly went back to his role as lookout.

  Edeline couldn’t help but stare at him, wondering what bizarre happenings had transpired to bring the man to their side. Not that she was entirely shocked. She’d caught his expression outside the mansion earlier that day when LaFay had shared with Martin his vile intent. The look read like an open book. Without a doubt, he hated LaFay. In fact, it seemed as though he loathed them all. Was that why he was helping her and Dane now, or had he ulterior motives?

  Her thoughts ran back to the stone.

  Glancing down to the floorboards at Dane’s feet, she saw no trace of the stone or the tin can. If the stone wasn’t in the car, then it undoubtedly was lying somewhere upon the devil’s hill. The thought made her sick, but she couldn’t deny it. There was every possibility the monsters had already found it?

  Shoving her fingers beneath the seat’s cushions, she searched their unseen crevices.

  “It’s not there,” said Graham.

  “You found it?” she asked, looking tentatively back over the seat.

  “Yes,” he said, not bothering to elaborate or look her way.

  “Where is it?”

  “Safe.”

  “It’s all right, Edeline,” Dane said. “It’s in the trunk, hidden inside the rim of the spare tire.”

  Breathing a sigh of relief, she situated herself back in her seat. A hundred questions swarmed in her head, but she couldn’t see past the terror of the last few hours to form a single one.

  Staring at Dane’s profile, she was overw
helmed by the memory of him lying flat across the chamber’s floor, a gun pointed directly at his head. Her stomach curling, she flinched and looked away.

  He shot her a curious glance. “Are you all right?”

  She avoided the question with one of her own. “How’d you find me?”

  “Once I figured out Martin was behind it, finding you was easy.” He motioned back toward the manor. “The mansion’s his.” He slowed the Mercedes and took the next turn. “Reaching you is what took a little skill…and luck. You’re attempt at escape actually served me well. It was the cover I needed to get in through the gates.”

  “I can’t believe they didn’t see you.”

  He nodded toward the backseat. “I hitched a ride from our friend. Edeline, you remember Graham don’t you?”

  “I…yes.” She didn’t know quite what to say. The man was merely another bizarre piece to a plenty bizarre day. Her mind was simply too muddled. Along with her hundred questions, she had a hundred concerns…and a nervous breakdown was long overdue.

  Opting for silence, she stared out the window.

  Rich, decorative lawns sprawled on both sides of the winding road. Huge, gorgeous homes adorned the hills. Edeline looked back to Dane. “How’d Martin afford such an extravagant lifestyle?”

  “He was born into a great deal of money. I always wondered why he didn’t just retire. I assumed it was passion for his country.” Dane shook his head as though angry with himself. “I read the man completely wrong.”

  “He fooled everyone,” said Graham. “Matthews, Blaine, the entire unit. Me,” he added on a note of self-disgust. “I should have killed him years ago. To be honest, I don’t know why I didn’t. I don’t know why I didn’t do a lot of things.”

  Dane looked back at the man through the rearview mirror. “Have you told me everything?”

  “Everything I know.”

  “Matthews and Blaine—neither are involved?”

  “Not in any way or form. They’re both good men. They have no idea what Martin was up to, and I imagine they’ll both find it hard to believe. Their faith in him is one of the reasons I never went to either.”

  Looking once more into the rearview mirror, Dane pulled his cell from his pocket and began dialing. “I can’t promise you what will happen,” he said to Graham, “but I’ll do what I can.”

  The general picked up instantly, his voice blasting through the earpiece to sound throughout the car. “Where in the hell are you?”

  Pulling the phone further away from his ear, Dane replied, “We’re about twenty minutes away. Look, I need you to—”

  “We? You and who else?”

  “Edeline and Graham. I need you to listen—”

  “Edeline and Graham! What are you talking about—Edeline and Graham?”

  Slowing the car, Dane merged right, taking them onto the connector which would lead them to the freeway.

  “It’s a long story,” he continued. “I’m going to need you to accept the short version.” He moved onto the on-ramp. “I need you to take Patten into custody. Martin’s the one behind Edeline’s kidnapping, and Patten was in on it. I also need you to put in place a wide sweep near Martin’s mansion. I need the whole damn thing closed down and—”

  A loud explosion boomed from behind.

  The road rocked as the earth rumbled.

  Rolling into the sky behind them was a huge ball of fire.

  “What was that?” The general’s voice cut across the echo of the blast.

  Still watching the rearview mirror, Dane visibly cringed. “That was evidence—a whole mountain full.”

  Chapter Twenty

  A LONG ROW OF IDENTICAL BLACK SUVS lined the streets outside the parish. Armed soldiers stood on every corner. No longer were they hiding in bushes or stalking from cars. The yard looked like a warzone. Men dressed in high-ranking military uniforms walked back and forth in and out of the church.

  All of it did a nice job of putting an exclamation mark on the last few hours lived.

  Nothing was as it had been.

  Edeline looked sorrowfully toward Dane.

  Smiling reassurance, he reached across to take her hand. “It’s all right, Edeline. It won’t be forever.”

  There wasn’t a bare spot along the curb. Dead center in the middle of the road, Dane pulled the SUV to a stop right in front of the church.

  The car’s doors were instantly opened.

  Both she and Graham were grabbed and pulled from the vehicle. But while she was taken gently into concerned arms and pulled under a protective cover, Graham was pulled from the rear seat and taken immediately to the ground.

  “Wait,” she cried, trying to capture sight of Dane and the child. But no one stopped. They simply hustled her into the church and quickly closed the door.

  The cover was removed and the soldiers all stepped back.

  Both her father and Father Tom came around the corner as though they were racing a speedway.

  “Dad!”

  “Edeline,” he said, his arms wrapping around her. Burying his face into her shoulder, he shook with the depths of his emotions.

  “It’s all right, Dad. I’m safe.”

  Tears pooled in his relieved but angry eyes as he pushed her back to look at her. “Edeline Depuis, don’t you ever leave my side again. From this day forward. Not ever. Dear God,” he said, pulling her back into his embrace, “I thought I’d lost you.”

  “I’m sorry, Dad. I’m so sorry.” Holding her father tight, she looked over his shoulder to Father Tom.

  The priest ran his hand lovingly over her head. “All is well, Edeline. You’re back,” he said, looking around the well-guarded parish. “And you are safe.”

  “For now,” a deep voice said from behind her.

  Edeline turned to find General Matthews. Dane stood right beside him, holding the little girl protectively in his arms. Behind them, Graham stood between two heavily armed guards.

  “I’ll be right in,” said General Matthews, motioning for the soldiers to take their prisoner into the room at their left.

  Following orders, the men disappeared with Graham inside the room, then shut the door behind them.

  Looking to Dane, the general’s expression was one of uncertainty. “What do you think?” he said, nodding back toward the room.

  “I think the man’s been living in hell and is ready to get out.”

  General Matthews looked down, sorrow and disappointment evident in his stance. “I can’t just let him go.”

  Dane nodded. “He’s made some serious mistakes, and he’ll be the first one to admit it. But he did save Edeline’s life and mine today. He didn’t have to do it, but he did and with plenty of risk to himself.”

  “He’s not innocent.”

  “No,” Dane said, “but that might actually work in our favor. You should have seen him. He knows how they think and how they’ll respond. He’s quick, precise and fearless. I wouldn’t mind having him at my back.”

  Federic shook his head, obviously uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was going. “We can’t trust him.”

  “I think we can,” Dane said. “The kind of rage I saw in his eyes can’t be feigned. He hates them—almost as much as he hates himself.”

  “I don’t know, son,” Father Tom said. “The type of anger you describe can easily backfire.”

  Dane looked toward the closed door. “I know,” he said, running his free hand uncertainly through his already disheveled hair. “He was a soldier once,” he said, looking back to the general, “and a very good one. He’ll know how to handle the anger, and more importantly, he’ll know how to handle them.”

  General Matthews closed his eyes and rubbed a soothing finger atop the crease between his brows. “Let me talk to him. Maybe then I’ll know what to do.”

  Turning on his heels, he headed for the room, but stopped halfway there and turned back.

  “I let you down,” he said to Edeline and Federic. “I’m sorry. I’m afraid I was
a bit of a nonbeliever. I could stretch my imagination only as far as my eyes could see. They could see the portal and understand its risks, but demons and angels were a little out of my vision.”

  “I can hardly blame you,” Edeline said. “I had the same problem.”

  “Had, but not now?”

  “No, not now.”

  Having only that day stood beneath the altar of the damned and flown under the wings of an angel, she could hardly deny their existence.

  Dane opened the door to the chapel and stood momentarily just inside its walls, studying the lovely blonde waiting patiently in the pew at the front of the church.

  It was still hard to remember the past they’d shared belonged only to him. He’d give anything to have her know what they’d shared, but to simply blurt it out didn’t really seem an option. The last thing he wanted to do was to scare her away. He’d have to choose his words carefully, telling the story without what was to him the most important part. They’d fallen in love.

  “Is there a reason you hesitate?” she asked, turning in the pew to look his way.

  He grinned, knowing her well enough to feel her annoyance. She’d been kept waiting long enough.

  Stepping forward into the aisle, he made his first step toward a moment he had both dreaded and longed for. As much as she wanted to know what they had lived, he wanted to tell her. He only hoped he could do the truth justice.

  Her lovely curls cascaded across her shoulder as she tilted her head to look past him toward the door. “Is my father coming?”

  “No,” he said, entering the row where she sat and sitting down on the bench beside her. He sighed, fearing she’d be none too happy with the why. “He’s already heard a good share of it.”

  Edeline watched him silently a long moment, her beautiful blues showing no sign of either anger or disappointment. “I knew he’d pull it out of you. My father has his ways.”

  Dane laughed, certain of its truth. “In this case, he didn’t have to pull too hard. It came up in conversation. I felt it was necessary at the time. I’m sorry, Edeline.”

  She fidgeted, looking up toward the altar. “I forgive you. I imagine you had a good reason.”