Guardian's Faith

by Jacqueline Rhoades

  "Why aren't you two in the gym? The Patron did not go out alone so you two could stuff your faces in here." Álvaro stalked into the kitchen and glared at the cat that was eating a tidbit of meat that Agdta had placed on the chair. "And stop feeding the damn cat. It can fill up with mice in the barn."

  Dito hissed at him and went back to eating her treat.

  "Got another mouse in your bed, huh?" Adam asked blandly.

  Faith wished she could school her face to look so innocent, though she knew why Adam kept his eyes on his burger. The mischief in them would give his merriment away.

  "No," Álvaro grumbled, "It was a snake and somehow she managed to get it under my covers."

  "Oh, stop your complaining and eat." Agdta slapped a burger into his hand. "You act as if she plots against you. It's a cat for heaven's sake." She broke off a piece and fed it to the cat that purred her thanks and then tilted her head to the side to give Agdta's scratching finger better access.

  "So did you kiss it?" Lalo asked.

  Everyone stopped eating and stared at him.

  "The snake," he explained, "Did you kiss it?"

  The back door opened and closed. "Who's kissing who? Are you having a party without me?" Vasco gave his daughter a kiss on the cheek and wrapped his arm around Faith's waist. "I would enjoy kissing you," he teased and leaned in to sniff her burger, "but better I take a bite of this."

  Faith snatched the sandwich away and held it with her mouth while she signed. "No you don't. Get your own, Romeo." She took a bite and held the remainder away from the old man.

  Agdta passed him the plate. "Lalo wanted to know if your son kissed the snake he found in his bed."

  "Ah, a snake. It figures. I was hoping it was a woman." The old man bit, chewed and swallowed. "His snake is all he ever takes to his bed."

  "Papi!"

  Faith clutched her burger with both hands and sucked in her cheeks.

  "I don't get it," Lalo said looking at Álvaro. "You sleep with snakes?"

  Adam cuffed the back of Lalo's head. "Idiot," he hissed as he sighed and looked heavenward.

  The light dawned in Lalo's eyes. "Oh! That kind of snake!" He nodded thoughtfully. "So, did you kiss it?"

  "I'd like to see him try," Adam laughed and then slapped his hand over his mouth, surprised that he'd made the comment aloud.

  Everyone but Álvaro laughed.

  "The snake the cat left, not the other one. That would be next to impossible," Lalo said looking down at his crotch and back up at Adam, "Wouldn't it?"

  Adam rolled his eyes heavenward "You really are an idiot."

  "Beats being an ass-kisser," Lalo retorted, "Right, Álvaro?"

  Álvaro was too busy fuming to answer.

  "I kissed a snake once," Vasco said conversationally. "It was many years ago when I was still young and foolish. I was seeking a stray calf through the rocks and a rattler kissed me. I was so angry, I kissed it back."

  Both trainees sat forward excitedly. That's what was meant by the term. If an animal took blood from a man of the People and the man tasted the blood of that animal, the man would then be able to shape-shift into that animal at will. Not all men of the People could do this, only those blessed with the gift. Of those that could, most could carry only one animal with them, but some, like the Vigilante could carry more.

  "So you can morph into a snake?" Lalo asked eagerly.

  "We exchanged blood, so I suppose so. I never saw the need."

  "That is way cool," Lalo breathed and Adam nodded in agreement.

  I'm learning about the people here. Because of their isolation from the outside world, in some ways they are much like the Community of Saints and oddly enough, I feel very comfortable with that. In other ways of course, they're very different and unique.

  As for myself, you and the others wouldn't recognize me. I have outgrown all my clothes and must make do with re-made hand-me-downs like we did when we were girls. I am tan and plump and growing stronger from working in the yard and stables with my new friend Diego, who is a very handsome young man of twelve. He took me into the village to meet his friend Goyo. Everyone has been very kind.

  Best of all, I have met a Daughter of Man although she prefers the name bruja or witch. Her name is Briza and not wanting to seem different from the other women, she keeps her gifts a secret. She is a widow twice over and she freely admits that she loved neither husband. The first she married for revenge against a former lover and the second for his money for which she claims he got good value. She is as beautiful as all of you and she reminds me a little of Manon. She is very sweet.

  Briza came to see her two days after the fight at La Cantina. Faith was still exhausted, sick and in pain, but she insisted on meeting Briza in the courtyard.

  "You look like shit," Briza said when she took the chair next to Faith's.

  "Thanks, though I think I'd prefer 'Wow, you're looking so much better today'." She offered Briza a glass of lemonade which Briza refused.

  "You can't keep doing this. It'll get you killed," Briza said.

  "I get sick if the person I'm curing is really sick. Otherwise, I just feel their pain for an hour or two. I won't die."

  "I'm not talking about your gift. I'm talking about the people you've made angry," Briza said taking the other chair. She had a natural grace that Faith envied.

  "Angry? Everyone was happy I could help."

  "No. Some were happy and some acted happy and others weren't happy at all. There's talk all over the village. People are taking sides. You don't know what it's like when the talk starts; people eyeing each other and wondering. They know the stain is there. It's always been there and always will be, but they don't know who has it."

  "It's not a stain. It's a gift," Faith protested, but a part of her always wondered. Everyone in the Community always said that like calls to like; good calls to good; evil calls to evil and she always wondered what it was about her that attracted Tyn.

  "You didn't grow up here," Briza said bitterly. "You don't know what it's like. Look at me. I've been widowed twice and people say 'Poor Briza has bad luck', but if they knew what I was, they'd be saying 'Stone her. She cursed her husbands for her own gain'.

  "But you didn't curse them," Faith said reasonably. "You couldn't."

  Manon swore she'd never met a Daughter who could level a curse and Manon had been around for a very long time.

  "You don't know me. Maybe I did," the woman laughed at Faith's innocence, "but the only proof I have is that husband number one was a mean bastard and if I'd had the power to do it, he would have died much sooner and husband number two would have left me his money a week after the wedding instead of two years." She pointed to the empty glass. "I think I'll have that lemonade now. I didn't know what a relief it would be to say some of these things aloud."

  They'd talked for an hour more until Faith's head was nodding with fatigue.

  Lastly, I suppose you are wondering about the Ice Dude. Lord Lucien isn't at all what he seemed. He has been patient with me and readily accepted my presence here and while he is strict with the trainees, he is never harsh. The people here call him El Patron and show him the utmost respect.

  I think he has been alone for so long he has forgotten how to get along with people. He's very old-fashioned and sometimes seems aloof, but he is always courteous and rarely loses his temper. Rest assured that he is an honorable man who would never hurt me.

  Faith closed her letter with her love, folded it carefully and slipped it into the envelope she'd already stamped and addressed. Everything she'd written in it was true except for the last line. Lucien ad Toussaint was going to hurt her. He was going to break her heart.

  Chapter 19

  Faith was falling in love. It wasn't what she wanted or ever intended to happen, but there it was. She was falling in love with Lucien ad Toussaint.

  She knew that she was being foolish. His claim that she was his shocked her at first, but now that she'd had time to think about it, she was sure s
he'd misinterpreted his words. Knowing this didn't help. Every time she closed her eyes, she heard him say the words again and the sound of them thrilled her and terrified her. Like watching a child playing with fire, she knew what the end result would be. Someone was going to get burned.

  Like a feudal lord of times gone by, Lucien was master of all he surveyed. He had a symbiotic relationship with the People. They took care of him and his holdings and he took care of them with his protection not just from the demon threat, but from outside contact as well.

  Agdta had told her how he paid for the private school the children attended to avoid state interference, how there were plans in the works to convert the village to solar power to take them off the electrical grid. He was the one who paid to bring running water to their homes and to have supplies shipped in through roundabout routes. He did everything he could to bring them modern comforts while protecting their anonymity.

  The People were his and he believed strongly in his duty to protect them. Faith was but one of many. She understood that and even tried to console herself with the fact that she probably wasn't the first young woman to fall in love with el Patron. He was strong and brave and handsome. What girl in her right mind wouldn't fall in love with him?

  As much as he cared for the People in an abstract way, however, Agdta worried that he had withdrawn from caring for them as individuals. Faith realized this when she mentioned one of Lucien's many visits to her sick bed during one of their early morning gatherings after lessons and patrols, but before dinner needed to be readied.

  "Must get pretty boring sitting there staring at the wall together," Lalo offered while filling his dish from the platter of french fries smothered in chili and cheese that had become his favorite snack.

  "Maybe they find other things to do." Adam snickered and made a lewd gesture pumping his fist by his side.

  "Ya think?" Lalo considered the idea and shrugged at the possibility. "I didn't think the Ice Dude had it in him."

  Face flaming, Faith rapped her knuckles on the table, a gesture which had become her way of showing irritation.

  "Don't be rude, you two, and stop calling him Ice Dude. He's not. He's not cold at all and for your information, we talk."

  "Ah," Adam nodded wisely, "So that's what they're calling it now." He grinned at Faith and winked.

  "Adam!"

  "He talks to you?"

  Agdta looked and sounded so surprised, Faith forgot what she was going to say to Adam.

  "Yes. Why is that so shocking? We talk about a lot of things," Faith said, a little offended.

  The cook threw her arms out in a dramatic gesture as if she'd proven a point. "El Patron talks to her!"

  The men all looked at each other and then looked at Faith, who shrugged. Lucien was a nice man. He was lonely. He talked. So what? She didn't realize her hands were moving.

  "Nice?" This was from Adam who realized how he must sound and quickly added, "I mean, he's a whole lot better than I thought he'd be, but nice? Not a word I would use to describe the boss. You're nice, Faith. Agdta's really nice." He winked at the cook and held up a forkful of chili fries. "Lord Lucien?" He shook his head. "Not so much."

  "But he is!" Faith protested. "You don't know him."

  "What do you mean? I've known him my whole life and how could he be lonely?" Álvaro poked at a piece of potato as if the concoction might bite, then grasped it between his fingers and popped it into his mouth. "He has us," he said and reached for another.

  "Use your fork," Agdta snapped. She looked like she was going to strangle someone. "Men are so stupid," she declared. "Papi, when was the last time the Patron went to the village to celebrate with us or just to visit?" she asked.

  Vasco thought about it. "When your Pio received his First Communion?"

  "Pio is thirty-two now, Papi. When was the last time we had dinner guests, the last time he accepted an invitation from his own people? Not in my lifetime. In yours, Papi?"

  "Si, when I was a boy. I remember him riding away on that big black stallion he owned. He had white gloves folded over his belt that my father said he would wear when he arrived at the party. He wore a top hat and a long black cape with red lining inside." Vasco laughed at the memory. "It billowed out behind him when he galloped away. I coveted that cape and would have to confess my sin to the Padre every time he wore it. I was sure that if it was mine, I could fly. Without having to shift," he added.

  "And yet he went to the village for Faith. He talks to Faith. He smiles for Faith. Don't you see?" Agdta put her hands on her hips and stated what she thought should be obvious. "I was right. She is his salvation."

  Whoa! Salvation? Faith had waved hers hands in front of her and shaken her head. No way!

  But now that she thought about her compulsion to come here, she reasoned that it was, in fact, for Lucien.

  "He needs to be brought back into the fold," she thought, using a term the Community of Saints used when someone strayed from the righteous path. She told him so when he came to visit her before supper, something that had become a habit while she was ill.

  They met in the courtyard which was now fully restored. Faith thought of Lucien's mother and the tragically lost Engracia every time she looked over the clean stone and overflowing planters. It was her memorial to the two friends and while she would never tell another soul, sometimes when the shadow and light formed a perfect balance, she thought she could feel them smile.

  Lucien laughed at her theory as he handed her a small glass of something he called an aperitif to stimulate her appetite and she called 'fire in the hole'. It went down very smoothly and exploded when it hit bottom. It, too, had become a ritual since the night at La Cantina.

  "So I am a sheep now, am I? And do you see yourself as my shepherd or my Judas goat." He laughed again. "Or shall we leave that to Adam who, after last night's patrol, would gladly lead me to slaughter?"

  She was dying to ask him what happened, but knew he was using it as a distraction.

  "Agdta worries about you."

  "Ah," he nodded, "Is that what they're calling it now."

  There was mischief in his eyes and he looked and sounded so much like Adam, Faith wondered if he'd eavesdropped on their conversation.

  "This is serious, Lucien," she argued, "You can't live your life alone. You can't continue to cut yourself off from the People or the Paenitentia. It's… it's not healthy."

  "Agdta worries," he repeated, ignoring the rest of it, "And what about you, little hummingbird? Do I worry you, too?"

  "This… this isn't about me," she signed with trembling hands as he approached.

  There was something in his eyes that made her take a step back. His irises were a deep, dark blue, so dark that she'd first mistaken them for black. There was no mistaking the color now. There was a half-smile on his face, turning up one corner of his mouth in what was very close to a smirk and those eyes glittered brightly with what she could only describe as victory.

  "I think this is all about you, little hummingbird." He took another step toward her and grinned when she took another step back.

  His eyes were hypnotic and Faith couldn't pull her eyes away. Her breath became heavy with the weight of his stare. She kept pulling in short gasps of air, but felt as if she couldn't breathe. The backs of her legs bumped the overstuffed chair behind her and she was left with two choices. Her head told her to sit, but her heart told her to stand and face what was coming. She not only stood, but kept her chin up and her eyes locked on his.

  Lucien took the glass from her hand and carefully placed it on the table alongside his own. Hands now free, he placed one at her waist and cradled her head with the other.

  "Hummingbirds feed on the nectar of flowers," he said softly without taking his eyes from hers, "I've dreamed of tasting that nectar."

  Keeping his hand in place, Lucien bent to kiss the lips that haunted his dreams. They were warm and soft and pliant beneath his own. She hesitated only a moment and then sighed softly as if s
he, too, had dreamed of this moment.

  Lucien used her sigh to press his cause. He touched his tongue to the tiny space between her lips through which her sigh escaped. Her lips opened only a fraction, but it was enough to tell him she wanted this, too. He withdrew and she followed him.

  His hand slipped further around her waist and his body arched over her, bending her back. He wanted to grip the curls at the back of her head and force her head back to give him access to that slender, enticing neck, but he held himself back and continued to hold her head gently in his hand.

  It was Faith who laid her head back in the security of Lucien's palm, exposing her neck to his kiss.

  "You are lovely," He whispered against the pale skin.

  "No," she protested, "I'm not," but it was hard to argue with a man who was running the tip of his tongue up her neck and sending shivers of excitement to places she'd long thought dead.

  Faith closed her eyes to keep the fantasy of this experience alive and emblazoned on her memory. For these few moments she was what she could never be; a beautiful woman in the arms of a beautiful man. She savored the feel of him as her hands moved along the muscles of his back. She relished the flavor of his lips against hers and when his tongue sought entrance, she opened for him.

  Even as the kiss deepened and his mouth's demands became more urgent, there was a gentleness to it that made her feel cherished as well as desired. Her heart swelled at the sentiment and she was grateful Lucien couldn't see the tears that welled up because of it.

  These were feelings that were previously unknown to her and they awakened in her a yearning to know and experience more. Tommy Barrett's kisses had been sweet, but nothing like these. Lucien's kisses had all the sweetness of honey tinged with a fire that heated her blood and warmed her body, preparing it for his touch.

  Her rational mind understood that this overflow of emotion was an excessive reaction to a simple kiss, but she did nothing to hold it back. This kiss was the fulfillment of a dream. This one kiss was filled with the last bit of cleanliness and purity her soul had left and she wanted Lucien to have it. It was all she had to give.