Bound by Revenge (Guardian Series) (16 page)

Morgan moved to stand between the two bickering men. “We’re all here for the same reason. We’re tired of hiding our true selves. Of pretending to be something we’re not in order to fit into this world while the inferior species rules everything that should be our own.

“You have the army but I have the knowledge and skill to get this job done. I know who the guardians are, where they work, where they spend their time. I’ve got all the intelligence that you need to direct this war. I’m your only hope of defeating the guardians.” Morgan held her head high, even in the face of the group’s opposition.

As much as Leus hated to admit it, the demon had a valid point. He had only discovered the warehouse by accident, while searching for Arriana’s killer. And, while it was a major victory for the leanthans, it didn’t bring them any closer to finding the guardians. As long as the guardian’s survived they’d do anything to protect the humans.

Leus had seen enough innocent casualties for his lifetime. He didn’t want to be the cause of any more so the safest way to protect all leanthans was to take out the main threat. Once that happened, the humans would be virtually defenseless against their armies.

He had never been a bad man. He wasn’t sadistic or cruel and that didn’t change now that his life had a new direction. Arriana dreamt of a world where humans and leanthans lived among each other. Peacefully. Sharing resources and working together. That would be his final gift to her after he took out the ones in league with the demons and then the demons themselves.

Morgan left the warehouse with the smug attitude of a child who got her way. She gave the board just enough information to keep them on track without letting them see her cards. She’d let them think they controlled their own armies and in turn their own fate when instead she guided them, to get them to do her bidding.

At the meeting she began her crusade. She told them exactly how best to pursue their goal. And they took all of her suggestions, just like she thought they would.

Their first direct attack on the guardians would be crucial. Morgan spent enough time with humans to know their weaknesses and considering guardians lived their lives as humans, she knew exactly how to gain the upper hand. They would go after the kid.

Using Maxwell to infiltrate the family had been the best thing that the demons could have done. Morgan wished that she could have taken credit for the suggestion herself but that had happened before she ever got to town. It would have been even easier if he was still inside, but she took what she could get and that was a real sense of how the family worked, the different roles of each member and their individual strengths and weaknesses.

By this time, Abby and Alex would have joined their father as guardians. She was almost sure of it. They had been trained for the job all their lives and would be eager to jump in. As guardians, they would immediately be granted the strength and speed of the race. It would have been nice to take them out before the transition but there was no point wasting her time and energy on regret.

Even though it would be too late for Alex and Abby, she was positive that Tom wouldn’t have turned guardian yet. The youngest boy was still in school. He was too young to make the decision to leave his human life behind according to his overprotective father. That made him the most vulnerable to attack, since he wouldn’t have their strengths, but also because he’d be ignorant of this whole situation. He wouldn’t even know that a threat existed out there in the world. Never mind why that threat would target him.

That would be their best chance, Morgan decided. There would be two phases to the attack. It would be necessary for the group to split up. One team would go to the school to kidnap the boy, while the other would draw the guardians into battle on their own soil.

By the time the guardians realized they’d left the kid unprotected, it would be too late. Morgan would use him as leverage, to get the guardians to give up their lives in return for Tom’s safe return. Once every guardian was dead, she would take out the boy anyway. There was no reason to leave him to turn guardian afterward and come back seeking revenge. It was always better to expend a little precaution now than deal with a lot of unnecessary hassle later.

It was a simple plan but Morgan knew the fight she had ahead of her would be brutal. The leanthans agreed to send a small team to capture Tom, as he left school for the day. Morgan and her team, along with Arratta and Leus, would be in charge of the distraction. Their battle would be quick, and they all agreed to retreat and pretend they were outnumbered and outgunned. She wanted to give the guardians a false sense of security and leave them confident that they had won the fight.

Everything was in place for the following day. Both groups knew their plans. There was no way anyone could screw this up.

But first, Morgan wanted to instigate the group a bit. She was going to send in the leanthans to attack some innocent humans just to piss the guardians off.
There’s no real enjoyment taking out the guardians so quickly without having a little fun first
, she thought to herself as she headed to meet with the select group of leanthans Arratta had assigned to her. 

Chapter
Ten

The three leanthans showed up at Morgan’s address as Arratta requested. They were new recruits who were inexperienced at the art of war and they were more than happy to take on any assignment Arratta doled out to prove themselves so early in the war. They hoped the tactic would lead them to larger roles within the organization as a reward for their success.

Arratta gave them little information about the mission. All he knew was that they were going to attack some human group that Morgan had gained knowledge of harming leanthans. It was a group that deserved to be punished for their role.

Morgan held the rest of the information. Everything that they would need to go in after the humans. Plus, any info on what they were going in to obtain.

Morgan stood outside the gate, waiting rather impatiently for the leanthans.
This is what I get for relying on the lesser species to get things done
, she thought. She was tapping her foot on the asphalt as they pulled up in a beat up black Chevy.

“It’s about time.” She yanked the driver’s side door open and bent down to look at the soldiers. “You better not screw this up.” She snarled and handed them an unlined sheet of paper with an address scribbled across the top.

“What exactly are we doing, ma’am?” The driver stammered as he averted his eyes from Morgan’s glare.

“It’s easy, really.” She said, pulling the sweet voice back out from behind the growling monster she had been just a second before. “You just need to go here.” She pointed to the address. “And shoot everyone inside.”

“What’d they do?” The leanthan in the passenger’s seat leaned forward to look at Morgan around the driver.

“That’s for me to worry about, not you. You’re just the hired help.” She stared him down, trying to keep the smile across her face. A look that appeared even more intimidating since it was painfully obvious that the expression was faked. “You’re just gonna have to take my word for it, they need to go in order to win this.”

Morgan was tired of looking at them.
I’ve spent way too much time, hanging around with these maggots today
, she thought and turned away from the car to walk back towards her house, without saying goodbye. It was one thing to rub elbows with the leanthan leaders; it was another thing, entirely to waste her time with foot soldiers that held no real power.

But, without question, this was going to throw the guardian’s over the edge. They might be able to ignore the leanthans’ raid of the arms warehouse. It would be easy enough to pass it off as a necessary evil in order for the leanthans to protect themselves but there would be no possible way for them to ignore this.

They wouldn’t be able to come up with any reason for the leanthans to attack a library. Morgan put a lot of thought into where she’d send them. Her first instinct was to send ‘em into a day care. That was the worst thing she could think of. But there was one problem with that, Vance would attribute the action to her, she was sure of it and if he did, he would never forgive her. Ever since he came to town, she’d spotted him over and over again with the guardian. She had no doubt their pointless morals would be starting to rub off on him by now. So she picked the next best thing, the library.

As far as she was concerned, libraries were peaceful and innocent. Nothing bad ever happened in a library. It was the perfect location for a massacre. It was bad enough to enrage the guardians, but not quite so bad to alienate Vance forever. Because, somehow, she was going to get him back on her side. He was always on her side.

The three leanthans watched intently as Morgan walked up the long driveway back to her house. When she was out of sight and they were sure that she wasn’t going to come back, they took the time to look at the address on the paper.

Smithfield
Memorial Library

1287 Main St
.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” The leanthan in the passenger’s seat burst out and stared at the driver, shaking his head.

“You heard her, same as I did.” The driver said, hoping that they were doing the right thing. “They must be a threat or we wouldn’t be going in to kill them. Think about it, she’s the one with all the information, all we can do it kill off who she tells us to and hope that it ends in our freedom.”

“Or we could end up dead.” The leanthan in the back added. “If this isn’t right, who do you think Arratta’s gonna blame? I’m pretty sure it’s not gonna be the perky blonde.”

“Trust me. I know what I’m doing.” The driver growled, tossing the paper over his shoulder into the backseat and throwing the car into reverse to back out onto the road.

The library was at the far end of Main Street, past the modern offices. It was one of the few relics of buildings left on the main drag. It was a beautiful brick structure, with five stone stairs leading up to the large dark carved wood front doors. Bushes with blooming pink roses flanked the stairway that bottomed out at a flagstone pathway flowing straight to the road.

The leanthans drove past the library and pulled into the municipal parking lot across the street. The driver threw the car in park and sat there watching the library in silence.

“What about the people in there getting books?” The passenger challenged.

“She said to kill everyone.” The robotic voice stammered from the suddenly guarded driver as he tried to insulate himself from the atrocity he was about to commit.

“Maybe we should call Arratta. Just to make sure.” The leanthan in the backseat suggested calmly, running his hand over the seat.

As much as he wanted to agree, to pull out his cell phone, to dial C & R, his body wouldn’t let him. “How do you think that’ll look? Do you think Leus calls to question his orders? No, he got where he is because he knows how to follow direction.”

“Ha. Now I know you’re fucking with me. Leus has
never
followed direction. He got where he is because Arratta’s his grandfather, not because he’s a good little soldier boy.” The passenger snorted, looking back at his comrade behind him before both burst forth in uncontrolled laughter.

“Great. I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself, but it still doesn’t change my point. If we call Arratta and tell him we don’t know if we should do what we were told, he’ll think that we’re not capable of following orders. We’ll never move up in the organization. I don’t know about you, but I wanna be sitting on the board when we win this thing.” The driver tightened his lips to the point that his whole face appeared at risk of shattering.

“The order didn’t come from him. It came from Morgan. I don’t trust Morgan and neither should you.” The passenger argued.

“But Arratta sent us to her. He’s the one that told us to do what she wanted. And if she wants us to kill the friggin librarian that’s what we’re gonna do.” Tired of hitting the conversational brick wall with his friends, he pushed open his door. “I’m heading in, you guys coming or not?”

The leanthan in the passenger’s seat groaned low in his throat before stepping out through his door and folding the seat forward for the one in the back to squeeze out through the small space.