Twilight Guardians

by Maggie Shayne

Killian emerged onto the uppermost deck to see a nightmare. Charlie was lying face down on the deck in a spreading pool of blood, and no less than twenty armed men surrounded her, aiming weapons and closing in. He was unarmed, one vampire, against twenty armed mortals. He didn’t think his chances were very good.

  She couldn’t see him. So he spoke to her from his mind. No. From his heart. I’m going to get their attention, Charlie. As soon as I do, pull yourself up and over the side.

  No! Don’t, you’ll be killed!

  Roland and the others are still out there somewhere with the boat. Call to them and they’ll find you. It’s your only chance.

  I don’t have a chance, Killian. I’m dead either way. We both know that.

  I love you, Charlie. There was never a moment when I didn’t. I love you. And I’ll damn well save you, or die trying.

  Killian, please, don’t–

  He lunged forward, grabbing the first man he came to, ripping the weapon from his grasp, and slamming its butt into his chin. Spinning, swinging the rifle like a baseball bat, he hit a second one, and then a third. That was as far as he got before the others turned to see him there and raised their weapons. He dodged, hit the floor, rolled as gunshots rang out, and listened for the splash of Charlie hitting the water.

  He couldn’t see her anymore, and as he lunged at full vampiric speed from one position to another, he felt fire rip through him, and knew he’d been hit. Why the hell wasn’t she going overboard?

  When the men turned their attention Killian’s way, Charlie got up onto all fours, scrambled forward and grabbed the gun she’d dropped. Its barrel was slick with her blood, but she picked it up, leveled it, and started firing at their legs, loath to kill anyone else. Her fury had made her do murder below. And she didn’t like the way that felt, didn’t want to feel that way again, not ever, if she could help it. These men were not evil. They were misled, lied to, and following their employer’s orders. And they probably believed they were fighting on the side of right. Fighting to protect their entire species.

  Men dropped, others turned her way and lifted their weapons. She felt it when Killian was hit, and it drove her to keep on fighting.

  But there was no way they could win. Killian was down, in pain and bleeding on one side of the deck, and she was in the same condition on the other. She kept firing, and so did he, and then she squeezed the trigger and heard a hollow click. Out of ammo. It was over.

  I love you, too, Killian. I’ll meet you on the other side.

  One of the DPI thugs came walking up to her, raising his weapon and looking her right in the eyes. She knew it was over. She knew it.

  And then someone came sailing over the side, onto the ship, airborne and dark, with black fabric flapping like wings behind him. He landed on her would-be assassin. Then he bounded from the fallen man, landing on one leg and then leaping off again, sailing over the tops of all of them to land between Killian and his attackers.

  Roland!

  Devlin’s voice came from the top of the stairwell, “Attack!” And vampires surged onto the deck.

  Charlie pulled herself upright and let loose a screech that split the night. When everyone was looking her way, she shouted, “We’re not killing them!”

  Roland stood across the deck from her. “Men, lay down your weapons. We are not your enemies, nor the bloodthirsty beasts you’ve been led to believe we are. Take the lifeboats and go. Pluck your comrades from the waters as you do. You will not be attacked.”

  There was a long, tense moment of silence, and then Killian stood up on the far side of the deck. “You’re outnumbered. Abandon ship or die. Those are your only two options.”

  One man, all dressed in black, tossed his rifle away as if it was polluted. “They don’t pay me enough for this shit. I’m out of here.”

  Then, one by one, the others dropped their guns and made their way to the lifeboats, carrying their wounded along with them. And the very vampires they’d held captive and tormented, manned the levers that lowered the vessels, and set them all free.

  Charlie collapsed. It was getting harder to see. She wasn’t sure if it was the blood loss or the pounding of her heart, which was faster and harder than it had ever been before.

  “You’re gonna be all right.”

  She looked up fast, as Killian gathered her into his arms, holding her head to his chest, his fingers threading into her hair. She put her arms around his neck clinging. “You’re okay?” she whispered.

  “I’m fine. And so are you.”

  She lifted her head a little, looking him over, one hand pressing to his face. He had a rag knotted tight around his upper arm, and the wound didn’t look as bad as she’d feared.

  “Roland bound me up. I didn’t lose much blood. It hurts like hell, but I’m fine.” But he was examining her just the same way she’d done to him. “You’re not, though.”

  “I....I don’t think I’ve lost that much blood. But my heart–”

  “I can feel it. It’s like it’s my heart too.” He stared into her eyes and deep into her soul, she thought. She felt him there, almost melding with her. And yet her heart was pounding faster and harder. So hard it hurt her chest now. “Let me go,” she whispered. “Don’t risk your life for mine.”

  “Without you, I don’t have a life, Charlie.” And then he bent to her neck, and he sank his teeth into her.

  She closed her eyes, in a twisted combination of fear for him and the most intense pleasure she could imagine. And when he didn’t cry in pain or back away, she knew there was no toxin in her blood. He wouldn’t die. “Oh, God, Killian, it’s so good,” she whispered, and her hands clutched his head, fingers tangling in his hair as she pulled him harder to her. She arched her neck toward him as he suckled her there, taking her into him, taking her very life inside him.

  And then the pleasure peaked, even as she felt herself begin to fade. And the pounding of her heart, she realized, had slowed. Was still slowing. And then beating just once, and then after a long pause, beating just once more. The darkness beckoned her, but she didn’t fear it. She embraced it, knowing that on the other side of it, there was life, endless life...

  ...with the man she loved.

  Roland hobbled through the broken wall panel, using a discarded rifle for a crutch, and went almost limp with relief when he spotted Rhiannon at the end of the hall in front of a large black door. He’d had no easy time getting down there, once he’d run into the swarm of Undead heading up. But most of them recognized him for what, if not who, he was. An elder. An Ancient One. And they parted to let him through, casting horrified looks at his stump.

  He’d hopped, for the most part, keeping his left hand braced on a wall as he made his way, rapidly down flight after flight of stairs. He’d made it into the observation room and from there had flung himself to the floor below, landing heavily on one leg, and then falling on his face rather gracelessly.

  But he’d felt her near and picked himself up with the help of the rifle he’d found lying on the floor, and hobbled on.

  Her hand was on the iron door as she turned, and beside her, a man he knew well.

  “Jesus, Roland, what the hell happened?” Reaper asked with a horrified look at his missing leg.

  “Roland!” Rhiannon ran to him, wrapping him up in her arms and kissing him repeatedly. “You were supposed to wait in the fishing boat.”

  “And you believed I would do so while you faced armed killers and death? Honestly, Rhiannon, how long have we been married?”

  She smiled when he repeated her own favorite sarcastic comment back to her, but then pulled away a bit, tearing her eyes from his. “The little girl. She’s beyond that door, Roland. I know she is. We have to take her with us.”

  “The little girl?” Reaper asked, and he opened the door. “There’s more than one, Rhiannon, and not all of them female.”

  Rhiannon turned and Roland put his arm around her and made his way through that open door with her. There were thirteen o
f them. Wild-eyed, matted haired children ranging in age from somewhere near two to possibly thirteen. They were kept one to a cell, their cages much smaller than the ones the vampires had been in. And all of them snarling and growling and lunging at the bars as the vampires moved slowly inside. They were children. Innocent children.

  “The Offspring,” Rhiannon whispered. “This was what they were talking about.”

  Reaper nodded. “I’ve heard enough to know what’s been happening. They’ve been bred using the sperm and eggs of parents who were referred to as Exers. Do you know what that means, Rhiannon?”

  “Exers are members of The Chosen who have been treated with a drug called BDX that changed them into super-humans, but cut their short lives even shorter. This must be what their true purpose was. To provide the genetic material to create a new race.”

  “They’re like animals,” Reaper said. “And they’re trained to do one thing and one thing only.”

  “Kill vampires,” Roland muttered. “By the Gods.”

  Rhiannon was eyeing them, and she found at last, the little girl who’d fought her so fiercely. “It doesn’t matter what they were trained to do. They’re The Chosen. At least, partly. We must protect them.” She blinked the moisture from her eyes before facing either of the men and spoke clearly and firmly. “We must find a place for them. Or create one. They’re our responsibility now.”

  When Charlie awoke, she was on the deck of The Anemone. And she was in Killian’s arms. But everything else was different.

  Everything.

  She lifted her head to stare into his eyes and then past him at the deck, where no battle raged, no bodies laid, and no blood stained the wood. The ship was plowing through the water at a powerful pace, and the sky was the unmistakable purple of twilight.

  “It’s a new night,” she whispered.

  “Yes,” Killian said. “It’s a new beginning. I took you below when the sun rose, but I brought you up here when it set again. I thought you’d enjoy the view...when you first felt your new nature.”

  She frowned at him. “We’re still on the ship?”

  “It’s our ship now. Lucas is back. So are your mother and Roxy, Christian and Larissa, even Olive and Pandora. Lucas told us that what was happening here was a Black Op. Very few people knew about it. We put all the DPI personnel off in lifeboats, and every vampire onboard joined together, and sent out our will to erase their memories. We replaced them with the memory of a storm at sea, their ship going down. Whether it worked, we can’t yet know. But if it did, it could be days before anyone realizes the ship is missing, and we’ve disabled everything that might send out a signal and give away its location. We have time.”

  “Time...to do what?”

  He shrugged. “Get away. Find a safe place, to live. Rhiannon mentioned something about finding a brand new Hotel Transylvania, but I think she was joking.” He lowered his head, kissed her lips softly. “Do you remember what happened?”

  She tried to remember, but it was hard. There was so much competing for attention in her brain. The smell of the water, the sounds of the large fish swimming beneath the waves, the stars in the sky sparkling so much more brightly than they had before, the feel of Killian’s cheek beneath her hand, and the power of his arms around her, and the love overflowing in her heart for him. She tasted the salt in the sea air and the lingering flavor of his lips. She picked up a thousand scents on the wind.

  And then that wind seemed to blow the clouds from her mind, and she whispered, “I’m a vampire.”

  “Yes.”

  She smiled, her eyes racing over his face. “God, Killian, you’re so much more beautiful than I could see before.” Blinking, she looked beyond him. “Everything is.”

  He laughed, and she laughed with him.

  “Where is Olive?” she asked.

  “There’s a gigantic arena type room on Level Six. She’s got full run of it, and lots of room to fly. I think Pandora misses her though.”

  “The owl and the pussycat went to sea,” she said softly.

  He nodded. “That they did. But the owl’s not going to be happy until she sees that you’re okay.”

  She smiled, happy the poor bird was out of the fishing boat’s cramped galley. “And everyone else?”

  “They’re below, waiting for us. Roxy and your mother are with them.”

  “A victory party?

  “More of a Charlie party. You led us to this victory, Charlie. Thanks to you, dozens of vampires who were captives on this ship are now free. Not to mention the children, but I’ll tell you about them later on. You’re not just a vampire. You’re respected among your kind. You’ll be legend before long.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “No it’s not. You were born for this. Roxy’s always known it. And now we all do, too.”

  Lifting her head she met his eyes, basking in the praise and letting it sink deeply into her soul. He watched her every moment of that time, feeling what she was feeling, she thought. Just the way she could feel what he felt. Love...the biggest most amazing love imaginable...and all of it for her.

  “We should join them,” he said softly, his eyes dancing over hers.

  She twisted her arms around his neck, pulled herself up and kissed him long and deep and slow. And then she said, “Maybe we can let them wait just a little bit longer.”

  Epilogue