Personal Guardians

by Rachel A. Collett

  “We’re not sure what happened yet, but for what it’s worth, I am sorry,” I said. And I was. For Zane. I placed a hand on her shoulder. She jerked away, shooting to her feet. I suppose her rejection should have stung, but it didn’t.

  “I’ll go with them to the prison,” Charlotte said to the Healers. Fiona eyed her carefully then nodded her assent.

  I climbed to my feet, wiping the dirt from my palms. “What will we do with Payton?” I asked. “With Yvette?”

  “We will bury him and find someone to take care of Yvette,” Fiona said. Cedric was healed but remained where he was, his head resting in the lap of his mate. Fiona brushed his blond hair to the side. “I will ask Madelyn and Gerald to watch over her until someone more permanent can be found. I will tell her—”

  A bright light flashed. Without warning Aaron, my caretaker and angel, knelt before us. His clothes were torn and bloodied, his breathing heavy, and his body shook. When his eyes found mine, he blurted, “They have Cheryl.” Then he crumpled to the ground.

  18

  Taken

  I rushed to his side, dropping to my knees. “Aaron!”

  He was conscious, his eyes regarding me with a mixture of sadness and awe. He reached out a hand and I took it, thankful it was warm and that the same energy he always carried still zinged up my arm. I smoothed back his hair.

  The others crowded around us. “What happened, Aaron?” Darius asked, taking a place next to me.

  “That can wait,” I said. “Fiona. Can you heal again?”

  But Aaron only shook his head. “I do not need a mortal healing, my friend. I only need to return to my God. He will provide my regeneration.”

  I nodded. “Cheryl. What happened with Cheryl? Who has her?”

  “The Annihilator.”

  I swallowed back the anxiety that swelled in my chest and threatened to close off my airway. “When?”

  “Just now. I didn’t sense them coming until they were at the doorstep. I’m so sorry, Ava.” I shook my head. I needed to keep him talking. “I fought her and her demons, but there were too many for Ray and me to combat.”

  “Ray?” Elisa dropped to her knees. “Aaron, what happened to Ray?”

  “He is alive, but injured. You must get to him.”

  “But how can we get to Arizona that quickly?” I asked.

  Fiona stood. “It’s only a two-hour trip by plane. Ced and I could leave on the first flight available.”

  Laith nodded to Fiona. “Make the arrangements. Elisa and I will go as well.”

  She left the courtyard without another word. Noah—her silent body guard—followed behind her.

  “What about me?” Frustration grew. I was being intentionally left out again. “The Annihilator said she would kill everyone I loved. If Ray was there, she might believe he’s important to me even if she doesn’t know the connection.”

  “I agree,” Laith said standing over the group, his arms folded across his chest. “I don’t think they knew who he was or else they wouldn’t have left him alive, but I have a feeling they’ll be back with reinforcements to take care of him.”

  “So shouldn’t I go with you?”

  “No,” Darius said. “Not until you’re strong enough.”

  Before I could argue, Cedric interrupted. “Should we place an anonymous call to the police?” He had raised himself to a seated position; already his color was returning to his face.

  “No,” Aaron said. “They will take him to the hospital, and that would only put others in danger.”

  My heart squeezed. “How long will it take you to be fixed?” I asked. “Can you go back and protect him until someone arrives?”

  He nodded. “Time in heaven is different from time on earth. It will only be a moment to you and I will be back at Ray’s side, but I have to warn you. I am not made to fight off demonic warriors. If they come again, I will not be able to hold them off for long. That is what God has his immortals for. His Three.”

  “But you fought off Jonathan—”

  “Yes, but that was one demon, Ava, and I only surprised him. As a preemie, my power is limited. The Annihilator came with over a dozen demonic souls. I alone cannot fight against all of that.”

  “A dozen?” I almost cried. Cheryl must have been terrified.

  “So many to take one woman? She must have known Cheryl would be protected,” Elisa said.

  “It’s okay, Aaron. Go do what you can. We’ll figure something out for a quick removal of Ray,” Laith said. “And thank you for your help.”

  Aaron nodded. “I will protect Ray to the best of my abilities.” Then he was gone. I sat back on my heels.

  “Dang it.” My hands balled into fists, my nails digging into the skin at my palms. “So what do we do now?”

  “We get there as fast as we can. It’s only a two-hour flight,” Laith said.

  “But it will take longer than that to actually get to him!” I yelled, before checking my voice. “And we need to find Cheryl.”

  “It will be alright,” Elisa soothed, placing a hand on my shoulder. Apparently, she was over being angry with me, but I wasn’t quite there yet.

  “Are we friends again, Elisa?” I said, my voice full of spite.

  “I have always been your friend, Ava, even if I don’t agree with all of your choices.”

  I shrugged off her touch. “This is stupid. They have Cheryl and may be coming back for Ray, and all I can do is sit here and wait for others to hopefully take care of everything? I need to be able to do something!”

  “There is another way,” Darius interjected. “A much quicker way.”

  “What?” I spun on my heel and stood in front of him.

  “This may not be the best time for this, Darius,” Laith warned.

  Darius looked over my shoulder at Laith, but I placed a hand on his face re-directing his attention. “What other way?”

  “We can move the sanctuary if…”

  “If what?” I demanded, my voice louder than I had meant it to be.

  Darius gave me a curious look. “Accept me, Ava Matthias.” He said. His eyes dove into mine, keeping me captive. “Accept me as your Guardian. If later you want—”

  “Yes,” I cut him off.

  Grabbing him by his shirt at the scruff of his neck, I kissed him full on the mouth, not holding anything back. I let him have every bit of frantic, positive energy I had in me. I would accept him to get to Ray, to find and save Cheryl, and to finally defeat the Annihilator. But in order to do so The Three needed to be as strong as we could be.

  At first there seemed to be no reaction from Darius, and I hesitated but before I pulled away, his hands suddenly gripped my arms, his fingers almost painful against my muscle. A flutter of emotion moved through me and I deepened the kiss to seal the deal.

  “Oh my.” Fiona’s voice came through to me and I broke away.

  When I released his shirt, I looked straight into Darius’s wide eyes. “I accept you as my Guardian.”

  His honey-colored eyes were orbital. When he didn’t answer right away, only stood there with an expression of stunned amazement, I glanced around at the others.

  Surprise flitted across most of their features. One eyebrow raised, Cedric regarded me with a half-smile. Laith downright beamed, while Elisa, I could tell, was fighting a bout of laughter.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” she said.

  “I accept Darius as my—”

  “Temporary Guardian.” Darius’s deep voice cracked. He coughed, clearing his throat. “And thank you, Ava, I am honored. No, more than that, I…” he straightened, taking my hand in his. “I will do my best to honor the position you have given me—”

  “But I just said—”

  “—until you choose your Guardian fully and completely.” For the first time I had seen, Darius was actually blushing alongside me, whether in embarrassment or pure mortification, I couldn’t tell.

  “Which would include a marriage ceremony,” Fiona int
erjected.

  “Which I’m not opposed to. At all.” Darius added, with a maddening half-smile.

  Fiona continued. “And giving yourself completely as a mate, Ava darling.”

  A terrible noise protruded from my mouth as the air squeezed from my lungs. “Oh,” I mouthed my silent and belated understanding. My face ignited into flames of crimson.

  Fiona nodded. “And I do mean completely.”

  Darius reached for my hand, gripping my fingers. “And I’m not opposed—”

  “Darius,” Laith warned. Cedric laughed.

  “But due to our current time restraints, I suggest we press on,” Fiona said with a smile.

  I debated whether I could use my newfound powers to explode my body into a million pieces. The wind could carry away the fragments of my destroyed ego—if it would only cause them to forget my obvious ignorance and stupidity. Instead, I avoided my new temporary Guardian’s gaze as it burned into the side of my face, and I pulled my fingers out of his grasp.

  What must he think of me?

  Laith cleared his throat. “We have a new plan, Fiona.”

  “Obviously.” She enunciated every syllable. I grimaced.

  “We will try to move the sanctuary, but afterward I suggest we meet with our people that are waiting in the library. I’ve sent Noah ahead to tell them that the situation is under control and they may expect us soon.”

  “May I also suggest,” Elisa interrupted, “that if everything goes as hoped, we move back to our same location right after? If the Annihilator has Cheryl, I would assume she is going to make contact with Ava again. We need to be somewhere she knows to find us.”

  “Agreed,” Laith and Cedric said at the same time. Fiona helped Cedric stand and together they joined the rest of the group.

  “And what of you?” Fiona asked, her gaze toward Darius. I shifted from one foot to the other, still feeling his eyes on me, but I couldn’t look at him.

  His voice was soft and low as he said, “Agreed.”

  “Let us take our positions,” she said.

  Laith came to my side, Elisa next to him. Fiona stood beside Darius, while Cedric moved to her right. Creating a circle, everyone grasped hands with their mate and the person next to them. Laith took me by the hand and squeezed.

  “May I?” Darius asked. He reached toward me, his palm facing upward.

  Just kill me now.

  Without looking at him, I nodded, placing my hand in his. His touch sent chills through my body.

  Cedric glanced to me from across the circle. “Ava, as explained to you before, the sanctuary is middle ground—a territory not of earth or of heaven. It is dissolvable if God chooses it to be, and it is movable if we choose it to be. Even if only one person knows the desired location, all we must do as a combined unit is tell it where to go. It will listen but we must be of the same frame of mind. For this experiment, and since this has not been done for almost twenty years, I suggest Laith direct the veil.”

  “But I know the location better than he does. Shouldn’t—”

  “It’s not just knowing where to go,” Laith interrupted. “We understand you are more familiar with Cheryl’s home, Ava. The problem comes in the form of moving our location somewhere less conspicuous than Cheryl’s front door. If someone were to see us appear in the middle of the air, that could cause a scene.”

  “And there’s another problem on top of that,” Elisa added. “The veil attracts mortals. They perceive the peacefulness of its aura and only after a short time, its invisible doorway starts to gather spectators.” Her eyes flashed to Cedric before adding, “We’ve had a problem with this in the past.”

  Cedric cleared his throat. “Yes, well… When we are a functioning Three, we cannot guarantee the smoothness of an operation, and no matter how quick we think an operation may go, we cannot risk—”

  “Okay, okay, I get it,” I said.

  Cedric nodded, unperturbed. “Good. Use your energy to aid the veil. The rest of us will focus our energy toward Laith.”

  I nodded. Worry wore that this would never work, but I tried to rid that bothersome thought and instead focused on remembering Cheryl’s home. Ian’s home. My home.

  Following my friends’ lead, I closed my eyes. Laith whispered something in Chords and I squeezed my eyes tighter, envisioning the house with the Arizona ash tree in the front yard. The ground quaked beneath my feet. My breath caught, but instead of making sure the ground remained solid, I fought my fear and continued to envision the home of my friend.

  To my left, I felt Laith’s energy wane, his words slurred, as the compound’s foundation groaned. Sensing his power drain, I thought of Cheryl and my love for her. And I thought of my friend Ian. As my heart filled, I gathered as much energy as I could and pushed it out through my hand and into Laith.

  And my world began to reel. My head spun as the sanctuary flew, sling-shot through whatever cosmos it existed in, before coming to a jarring halt. My knees gave in, and I tumbled numb to the ground.

  Hands touched my face as someone called to me. When was I ever going to stop passing out? This was ridiculous.

  When my energy finally returned, I opened my eyes. Cedric stood over me. His fingertips massaged my scalp. Fiona, Elisa, and Darius were gone.

  Laith sat next to me, his head between his knees. After a moment, he looked up and smiled. “We did it.”

  “Why are we on the ground?” I asked. “And where are the others?” And why did my body ache thinking Darius had left me in such a condition?

  “Despite some rather heated objections”—he peered at me, as if he had read my mind—“the others left to get Ray. It took a lot more energy to move the sanctuary. I assume this is because Darius is only a temporary Guardian, but it’s no matter. It is done. Going back should be easier. Since we all know the location, we should be able to direct the compound without it draining one person’s energy.”

  He rested his head between his legs again, taking deep breaths. I had never seen him so weakened. My energy restored, I gestured for Cedric to attend to our friend.

  “I’m so sorry, Laith.”

  “No,” he said, as Cedric scanned his face. “Don’t be. I felt you give me your power. You made this possible, Ava.”

  I stared at brown-sugar-sweetened pork-chops, buttered rice, and green beans with hardly the proper enthusiasm for one of Madelyn’s best dinners. Instead, I poked at it with my fork, moving it across my plate.

  Laith had been correct. It was a lot easier moving the sanctuary back to where it was. Almost as if the veil itself remembered where to go after being stuck in one place for so long.

  Ray had been retrieved from Cheryl’s house, healed, and was now resting in his suite.

  Despite my desire to see my old home, I was too weak to go, and we were running out of time. I had been told that the demonic warriors the Annihilator had sent left the place in ruins, so maybe I didn’t want to see it after all. I would keep the memory as it was in my mind forever.

  Afterwards, I had asked—no, begged to go to the veil and demand contact with the Annihilator, but I was denied. None of The Three thought it wise. If I allowed myself to think straight, I knew my friends were right, but logic didn’t seem to be something I was capable of anymore.

  The others agreed that we needed more information before we confronted Annie again. If she hadn’t killed Cheryl already, she had a plan for her. We would be best able to help her by learning as much information from the resources we had: Ray and Zane. Laith believed them to be our biggest leads.

  But I knew otherwise.

  “You should eat,” Elisa said, taking another bite of her food. She sat next to me, Fiona on the other side. “Both of you.”

  Fiona had just returned from informing Yvette about the death of her father. My heart broke when I dared a glance. Her olive complexion still held no color and carried the stains of additional tears upon her cheeks. I placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, but I doubt it did any good.
r />   Darius, Laith, and Cedric had gone to check the perimeter of the veil themselves.

  The compound residents were briefed, but had no idea—and were not informed—that the sanctuary had moved at all. I wondered how they missed the grumblings of the ground beneath their feet until Fiona told me that we were the only ones who could feel it.

  No one knew who had caused the initial chaos and who was in the prison sleeping off his possession. Instead, they went about their day as normal.

  As for me, I didn’t think there was a normal anymore. Especially not after today. The Annihilator had taken Cheryl and all I was allowed to do was sit and wait… but for what? For Cheryl to be killed? For her to be used as a means of retribution?

  Voices caught my attention, and my back muscles stiffened as Darius entered the dining room. Again, I could sense his eyes on me, watching my reaction or lack thereof to his presence. My body trembled as I remembered the way his mouth had felt against mine, how his hands had felt against my skin.

  Nope. Not normal. But since when had anything between us ever been?

  “Madelyn,” Laith poked his head into the kitchen.

  “She’s getting Yvette settled in,” Fiona answered in monotone.

  Laith made a noise. “Of course she is.” He shook his head. “How is Yvette?”

  Fiona’s chair scraped the ground as she shot to her feet. “I’m going to bed.”

  Cedric was behind her in an instant. He wrapped his arms around her and for a moment, she stiffened. Then after a deep breath, she melted into him.

  “Come, darling. We will go together.”

  With a nod, Fiona allowed her mate to guide her out of the dining room. I closed my eyes as a wave of sadness swept over me. Yvette was so young to lose both of her parents already.

  Laith and Darius took the seats opposite Elisa and me. Knowing I couldn’t continue to avoid him, I looked up and gave both men a curt nod. Darius shifted in his chair.