The Guardian Chronicles 2: Dark Horizon

by Matthew Burkey

  Ethan executed a series of back flips, putting more distance between himself and the now surging Sintipedes. They were taking a more measured approach this time; probably having learned slightly from what had transpired just moments ago. The one to his right struck first, lunging in with its mouth wide open. He threw himself the side and came back up slashing, sending black blood flying from several deep cuts on the Sintipede.

  That got its attention. It flung its head sideways, smacking into Ethan and launching sideways and bouncing off a nearby tree. The armor he was wearing absorbed most of the impact, although it still stung slightly. Getting back to his feet he had to dive sideways as the Sintipede unleashed its self from a coiled position, almost smashing Ethan flat.

  Cody couldn't get a shot off, what was worse was that they were already living on borrowed time. The police would be showing up soon, assuming someone had the intelligence to call 911. He did a back flip off a picnic table, landing some feet away as the creature slammed through it, sending chunks flying everywhere. Cody took off in a run; the Sintipede close behind him, at the very least he could draw it away from where Ethan was engaged with the other two.

  Cody knew that he was running out of time, the Sintipede was crashing through everything in its path. He leapt over another concrete bench and landed to see that his attacker was still hot on his tail. He grabbed another arrow and fired. Second before impact, he punched a button on his bow, sending the tazer wire out and over the charging monster. The wire came alive with crackling electricity, causing the Sintipede to writhe in agony.

  “Sucks, doesn’t it,” Cody grunted, pulling free another arrow and firing.

  It hit the convulsing creature right in the eye. It roared in pain and tried to lurch forward, then another arrow buried its self into its left eye. Now thoroughly upset it roared again an oddly deafening sound in the wide open area of the park. While its mouth was open, Cody took aim and fired, lodging an arrow deep into the creature’s brain.

  Cody took off in a sprint back toward where Ethan was dealing with the other two.

  Ethan rolled to the side causing the Sintipede to crash head long into an oak tree. It would have been slightly comical had the things not been trying to eat him. He didn’t have all that much time to admire his handy work before being attacked again, this time by the one that he had managed to get tangled in nearby playground equipment, which was now a smashed wreck.

  “You guys are creating a pretty big mess,” Ethan grunted, dodging another strike.

  He spun around, the glowing silver-blue blades slicing through the flesh at the creature’s neck and sending a gout of black blood skywards. The Sintipede tried to roll away but Ethan was faster, striking out with his blades he stabbed it through the head, killing it instantly. He looked around, trying to spot the remaining one, which he assumed would be lunging at him at any moment. Ryan and Cody jogged over to him, looking at the dead creature.

  “Well, that was interesting,” Ryan said, wiping black blood off his daggers. “This is going to be a real pain in the rear for the clean-up crews. Too bad not everything turns to dust like the vampires…wait, where is the third one?”

  That’s when they heard the scream.

  “Aw hell!”

  Gabriel was an avid reader of most things; fantasy, science fiction, even historical books. And what he was seeing looked like it had crawled right off the pages of Lord of the Rings. He thought that he was seeing things initially, that maybe someone was smoking something and he got a contact high. Now, looking up at the snarling beast in front of him he realized that he wasn’t seeing things at all.

  He wasn’t even aware that the scream came from his mouth. Gabriel was slowly backing up and away from whatever it was that regarding him curiously, cocking its head from side to side like some sort of confused puppy.

  He slowly started backing up, although judging by the things musculature and how fast it had snuck up on him, he knew that he didn’t have much of a chance to flat out run it. The rest of the park appeared to be devoid of people that brought a small sense of relief to Gabriel.

  At least Sean and Tim got out, he thought. Better me than them anyway…

  Still the creature seemed to regard him with curiosity more than something that he appeared to want to eat. Gabriel didn’t think that would last long, however, at least not by its outward appearance. Seconds later the creature struck out toward him.

  It was blindly fast and Gabriel had no chance to avoid the incoming blow. He tried to roll away but was not fast enough. Pain exploded through his right shoulder as razor sharp teeth sliced through skin, tendon, and bone. He cried out and could feel warm blood pour down his arm and across his chest…and then the pressure was gone. He had a vague feeling of falling and then blackness swallowed him up.

  The Sintipede roared in rage as Cody’s arrows pierced its skin, it turned letting the now limp body of Gabriel fall from its jaws and thump onto the ground.

  “Good, now you made it really mad,” Cody mumbled, grabbing another arrow.

  “Take it down, now,” Ethan ordered.

  Cody let another arrow fly, this time landing squarely in its throat. About the same time, Ryan unleashed a blast from Reaper, tearing a ragged hole in the side of the creature. It gave one more death rattle before falling to the ground, blood pouring from its wounds.

  “Crap,” Ryan said, rushing toward the body lying on the ground. “It's Gabriel.”

  “Who?” Ethan asked.

  Cody ignored him, sprinting over to where Gabriel lay motionless on the ground. The Sintipede had gotten him on the right shoulder, its mouth pretty much engulfing the whole thing. Ragged lacerations and deep puncture wounds covered all of his right shoulder, down his right shoulder blade, and down the front part of his right chest. The wound was bleeding badly, so much that Cody feared Gabriel was already going into shock.

  “This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Ryan said, shaking his head.

  Cody ripped open a pocket on his quiver, taking out first aid supplies. Although all Guardians had some basic battlefield medicine training, Cody was by far the best at it. He started placing sterile gauze over the wounds as Ryan checked for a pulse.

  “He’s got a pulse, its weak.”

  “Ethan get this set-up,” Cody commanded, tossing Ethan an IV set up. “And get us a way out of here now.”

  “We can’t take him with us,” Ethan protested, spiking the IV bag. “What if he came with someone, we can’t just abduct him and not expect someone to come looking for him.”

  “Bull we can’t,” Ryan practically yelled. “Even if we could get him help, the venom could kill him before he even reached an operating room and they don’t have the antidote, we’ll let Jonathan handle his parents.”

  Ethan seemed to just stand there in a daze, his fingers ready to dance over his gauntlet mounted computer to send word for an evac.

  “Ethan, move it!” Cody ordered.

  Cody’s insistence seemed to shake Ethan out of his inaction. He tossed the IV bag at Cody and started a rather hushed report to base. Ryan rushed around to the bodies, dropping off incendiary grenades that would erase all evidence that there had ever been demons and Darklings running around. They would leave the authorities to speculate on what happened here.

  Cody already had an IV catheter out and in his hand and slipped it in a suitable vein. Next, he grabbed the thermal blanket that was in the pack and wrapped it around Gabriel as Ryan slipped oxygen onto him. He was already starting to turn pale and despite the bulking dressings, the bleeding tissue underneath threatened to soak through.

  “He’s going to be in shock pretty soon,” Cody said. “We have to move him now.”

  “He’s a civilian.”

  “That got injured while we were doing our jobs!” Ryan yelled back. “We are not leaving him here to die, where the hell's that evac?”

  “Two minutes,” Ethan said, looking down at his watch. He had a feeling that he was going to catch hell for this
later.

  The trip back to their Omaha headquarters hadn’t taken very long as soon as the pilot realized the dire nature of their passenger. The helicopter was a Bell 222, heavily modified with a myriad of high tech systems and even a few magical glyphs that allowed them to avoid most conventional means of detection. The Guardians had several such helicopters for medical evacuations covert insertion.

  The Guardians operated a legitimate business as well that provided most of their funding, called Aegis International. Aegis was a defense contracting firm, giving the Guardians access to some of the best military grade equipment on the planet.

  The industrial complex that housed Aegis was massive. It was composed of three buildings; all of which were dome shaped. The buildings were arranged in a triangle; with a small green area and helicopter landing pad located in the center.

  Elise Vaughn met them at the landing pad with a stretcher, where they carefully loaded Gabriel onto it before rushing inside.

  “Ethan, what the hell happened?” Elise snapped, as they jogged toward the door.

  Elise was seventeen, a year old than Ethan or anyone else on the team. She was from England and as such had an accent that Ethan found cute as hell. Of course that wasn’t the only thing about her that he found cute; she had olive colored skin, dark brown pools for eyes, and black hair the cascaded down her shoulders in a way that made her look as if she should be modeling swim wear not combating supernatural forces.

  And then there was her body, a finely tuned instrument that she knew how to use with great effect. She was athletic, with lean muscles that still let her retain curves in all the right places. And she had a lot of good curves. Elise was the team’s language expert. Ethan was pretty sure that she could swear in at least five languages, possibly more.

  “We got a little sidetracked. Apparently Ryan here thinks that it would be a bad idea to let an innocent civilian die an agonizing death alone in a park.”

  “Just shut up,” Ryan growled, as they entered the building.

  As soon as they were inside, they headed toward the elevator that would lead them to the underground complex where the majority of their business took place. The other two buildings in the complex were actual functioning departments, mostly research and development.

  The hallways were lined with modern art; most of the offices had lucent furniture with transparent glass walls. The building they were currently in held most of the research and development offices.

  The doors opened a few moments later, spilling out onto a brightly atrium that had corridors branching off in several directions. The largest corridor was directly ahead and led off to the command center, conference rooms, training facility, and medical bay. And standing the center of the atrium was Jonathan Reyes.

  Jonathan said nothing as Cody and Elise rushed the stretcher off toward the medical bay, where a staff of doctors would be waiting to see what they could do for Gabriel.

  “What the hell happened?” Jonathan asked.

  Jonathan was twenty-four years old but often acted much older. He was of average height dark skin, an athletic build, green eyes, and short black hair. At the moment he was wearing a dark charcoal gray suit and carrying his computer tablet. And he did not look happy to see them, especially since they appeared without Saint-Pierre in tow.

  “Dude, what the hell happened?” Tony asked. “Is that Gabriel?”

  “Sainte-Pierre had demons, Sintipedes. They got loose and we couldn’t bring one down before he got a hold of Gabriel and used him as chew toy.”

  “Conference room,” Jonathan ordered. “Now.”

  “This was not my fault,” Ethan insisted, as they started down the main corridor, almost jogging instead of walking.

  “Not now,” Jonathan growled.

  The conference room was large, dominated by a massive black stone table. Two large LCD screens were located at either end of the room; eight chairs were situated to either side of the table with a single chair at either end. Jonathan took a seat at the head of the table while the rest of the team filed in. Jonathan wasted no time in diving right in.

  “What in the name of heaven were you thinking?”

  “He was injured.”

  “How the hell did that even happen?” Jonathan angrily inquired. “You were supposed to apprehend Saint-Pierre, not go on a rampage throughout the city!”

  “Now what a damn minute!” Ryan fumed. “If it weren’t for us three very dangerous demons would have gotten lose, they were the ones doing the rampaging we were the ones that stopped them.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Jonathan snapped, cutting Ryan off. “What does matter is that now we have a civilian down in the medical bay, in critical condition no less. How in the hell are we supposed to explain this to his family?”

  Neither Ryan or Ethan seemed to have an answer to that question, although both Ethan and Ryan were well aware of all eyes around the room looking at the both of them.

  “We sort of thought that you might have an answer for that,” Ethan said with a shrug.

  Jonathan muttered several swear words, most of which he had learned from Elise.

  “I’m working on his parents right now; the issue is what to do with him?”

  “Couldn’t we just mind wipe him?” Ethan asked.

  “Not advisable,” Everett said. Everett was the only one in the room that could use magic; as such he was usually the expert on such things. “He’s already in shock; mind wiping could cause serious harm to him.”

  “We could patch him up and since he is out of it...

  “We are not leaving him in some park to be found by some stranger,” Ryan yelled.

  “We could make sure he is okay and then drop him off at the nearest ER,” Everett offered.

  “And then they are going to asking a ton of questions about his wounds, unless you want to explain to them what those bite marks are from,” Ryan growled.

  “You afraid we are going to end up with another Dominic?” Jonathan asked.

  If looks could kill Jonathan would have been dead instantly. He got death glares from everyone on the team.

  “That was out of line,” Ethan said, his voice low and taking on a dangerous edge.

  “You can’t keep beating yourself up for that.”

  Ethan forcefully pushed himself back from the table and stood up. He stared at Jonathan for a moment before turning and stalking out of the room. Jonathan looked like he was going to get up and follow him until Ryan shook his head.

  “He won’t talk to you when he’s like this, you know that,” Ryan sighed. “And he was right, that was a low blow.”

  “He can’t just get up and leave,” Jonathan snapped.

  “Deal with it later,” Ryan warned.

  The conference room door opened again and for a brief moment they thought that it might be Ethan returning. Instead in walked Aadesh Singh. Aadesh was well dressed; dark jeans, an athletic fitting white tee-shirt, and dark spot coat. He was of Indian descent, with dark skin, brown eyes, and short spiked black hair. He was twenty-eight years old and served two functions; first being a doctor and trauma expert, secondly he was a mage and had even greater knowledge of the mystic arts then Everett.

  “How is he?” Jonathan asked, as Aadesh took a seat.

  “Stable,” Aadesh nodded. “But the situation has become more complicated.”

  “Well, that’s never good,” Ryan grunted.

  “The antidote isn’t working,” Aadesh warned. “We’ve stopped the bleeding and he is ready for immersion in a Phoenix Tank -”

  “What do you mean the antidote isn’t working?” Ryan asked.

  “It isn’t working,” Aadesh shrugged. “Why, I don’t know. There is something different about these wounds, something more than damaged flesh. It’s almost as if his soul was wounded in the attack as well. Bottom line is, he’s dying and I have no idea how to stop it.”

  “Wounded soul?” Jonathan asked. “I’ve heard of weapons that could do that, even a few spells, but ne
ver any lesser demon that had such power.”

  “It is possible,” Everett said, leaning forward, after thinking for a few seconds. “There are numerous hexes and spells that you can place on a person or demon that could have that effect. They are all high level spells, stuff that the Trial of Mages keeps locked up tight.”

  “I’ve not seen something like this in my lifetime. I have my assistants looking into possible cleansing rituals,”

  “How long does he have?” Ryan asked.

  “A matter of hours, I am afraid,” Aadesh sighed.

  Silence hung in the air before Ryan spoke again.

  “What about the Rite?”

  “You can’t be serious!” Jonathan stammered. “Guardians are chosen from a young age, and trained for years and years before being allowed to undertake the Rite…”

  “The Rite rebuilds the human body, including the soul,” Aadesh nodded. “It is possible that would be enough to completely cleanse him of this wound.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Ryan said, pushing back from the table.

  “Now wait a damn minute. We can’t just do that. The Rite has to be approved. You’re talking about the most ancient and scared of our traditions here, we can’t just go around bestowing it on everyone! And besides, he doesn’t even have a clan!”

  “Clan Phoenix will sponsor him,” Ryan said.

  “You aren’t allowed to make that decision, I am afraid,” Jonathan responded, frowning.

  “We aren’t going to let him die because we made a mistake!” Ryan fumed.

  “Actually, in extreme situations two or more members in good standing with the clan can sponsor someone. It hasn’t been done for several hundred years but if Ryan could get another member of clan Phoenix to agree then it,” Aadesh was cut off as Tony spoke up.