The Guardian (Callista Ryan Series) (36 page)

             
“Emeric sent me,” Zeke replied, gamely going along with Alex’s nonchalance. Callie was mortified that they had been caught, and even more embarrassed that Alex apparently didn’t have a problem with it. “He wants me and Cal to work on her Spidey sense. I’ve got some ideas on how to use it against the bastards.”

             
Alex pushed to a stand, effortlessly drawing Callie up with him. “Would you like me to help?” he offered.

             
“Nah, chief, I think we got it. I thought I’d take her to the beach. Emeric thinks that’s where the battle will take place. He figures if we can lure them into an open area, we’ve got a better shot at collecting and surrounding them,” Zeke said, uncrossing his arms as he spoke animatedly about war strategy.

Callie wondered if he was concerned with the fact that he was talking about killing people, or if the thought simply didn’t matter to him.

              “I figure if we can put the kid into that environment for our practices, she’s got a better chance at visualizing the thing,” he continued. Turning his eyes to her, he said, “So what do you say, Cal? Are you up for some one on one?”

             
Callie blushed again as she understood the double meaning behind his words. “Sure,” she muttered shyly, trying to bury her face behind Alex’s shoulder.

             
“Great,” Zeke said, promptly walking over and scooping her up. She felt her muscles clench at the sudden action, and threw a glance over his shoulder at Alex. “See you later, friend,” Zeke said as he stalked towards the door, Callie in hand.

             
Alex smiled at Callie, winking at her when he saw the surprise on her face. Before he was out of sight, he walked into the kitchen, presumably to make himself breakfast. Callie felt something akin to panic once he disappeared; at the same time, she knew he wouldn’t be letting her leave with this man if he didn’t trust Zeke, and so she stamped the feeling down.

             
Zeke flew through the trees with a sort of buoyant speed, his pace bouncier than the others’. Sooner than she had expected, he split the last of the trees, and began to descend onto the beach.

             
When they landed at the forest’s border, Callie narrowed her eyes at a figure in the distance. After a moment, she discerned the identity of the blond figure.

             
“Serena?” Callie asked, raising an eyebrow at Zeke.

             
He grinned, shrugging sheepishly, and stuffed his hands into his pants pockets. With a tilt of his head, he said, “Come on.”

             
He led her to where the water met the shore, where Serena was pacing impatiently across the sand. She turned, hearing their approach, and an angry scowl took up residence on her delicate features. She drew a breath to say something, when Zeke interrupted.

             
“Finally,” he said, scolding her. “We’ve been waiting for you for
hours
.”

             
Serena sneered. “Can we cut the bad humor, please?” she asked. “Emeric said that I had to help with the training, not undergo your particular brand of torture.”

             
“Right,” Zeke said, rolling his eyes. “Trust me, sweetheart, when I’m torturing someone, they know it.”

             
“Exactly my point,” she snapped back.

             
“Wait a minute,” Callie cut in, holding up her hands to stop the impending fight. Turning to Serena, she asked, “Emeric said you had to help? Why not just let Alex help? Emeric knows how you two…get along,” she said. Serena looked disinterested, like she had Callie on mental mute. Callie turned to Zeke.

             
He shrugged one shoulder, and said, “I guess someone didn’t want you spending quite so much time with Alex.”

             
Callie drew back at the observation; it didn’t make any sense to her. Why would Emeric mind who she spent time with? Seeing her confused expression, Zeke leaned in and whispered, “You seem to be quite the popular girl around here.”

             
Callie frowned. With a gentle nudge to her shoulder, Zeke passed by her and walked towards Serena. She watched as Zeke walked past Serena, playfully extending his wings the second that he was beside her so that they grazed across her face. Serena swatted at them sourly, cursing beneath her breath.

             
Zeke turned around once he was behind Serena, and said loudly, “Alright, point number one. Never hesitate. When an enemy is attacking you, and you see an opportunity, don’t think. Just do. You can figure out precisely how much guilt to lay upon your conscious at a more opportune time.”

             
He spoke with the commanding bark of a drill sergeant, and Callie was forced to pay attention, even as her mind spun with what he had said about Emeric.

             
“Point number two: while under fire, never allow yourself to be distracted. Fear, shock, hatred…they all belong in a therapy session, not in your mind muddling up your focus. Think about exactly what you want to do, and then do it. Understood?” he asked.

             
“Yes, sir,” Callie said with a mock salute. Serena snorted, and Zeke smiled.

             
“Now,” he said, “onto points more exclusive to your abilities. You are, as we say in military circles, our secret weapon. Do you know what is expected of you?”

             
Callie hesitated, having only a vague idea of how to answer that question.

             
“Thought so,” he said tersely. “I’m sure Emeric explained the drill. If you can get into someone’s memory, you have the power to pull up old memories, manipulate which ones they have at the forefront of their minds. People act upon experience; if you remember loving someone, and you concentrate on that emotion, you’ll be less likely to want to attack them. On the flip side, if you remember kicking someone in the gut for, oh, trying to save your life—“

             
“Will you drop it already?” Serena snapped. “That was
once
, and if you’ll remember, I had the situation perfectly—“

             
“—you’ll be more likely to want to kick them again,” Emeric continues.

             
“I’d like to kick
you
again,” Serena grumbled.

             
“So if you can get into the Sirens’ heads, you can recall the memories of when they lived in the canopy. Secret weapon number two: they all, at one point, loved Guardians. Just because they mutated into some crazy psycho freaks, that doesn’t mean they don’t have those warm and fuzzy memories of us,” Zeke said. “Use those. Pull them up. They’ll be less likely to fight full-force if they remember the good ol’ days with the people they’re about to pummel, got it?”

             
Callie nodded. “Got it,” she said.

             
Zeke grinned, though this time there was a glimmer of mischief in his eye, and Callie sensed that he was about to make trouble.

             
“You wanna give it a try?” he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he walked over to Callie. “For example,” he said. “Right at this moment, Serena hates me. Or, at least she says she does.”

             
“Oh, trust me,” Serena said. “I’m not
that
good at hiding my feelings.”

             
Zeke chuckled. “But,” he continued to Callie, “if you can enter whatever memory she’s thinking of right now, and then skip back a few decades….”

             
Serena’s eyes widened. “
That’s
what you brought me out here for? Don’t you dare, Zeke—“

             
But Callie was already inside her mind before she could finish the sentence. She barely spent time in the memory that Serena was experiencing, the one which was bright with remembered pleasure as a younger Serena delivered a swift roundhouse kick to Zeke’s gut.

             
It was easy to find that dark hallway of Serena’s subconscious; Serena wasn’t as dedicated to the memory she was having as Alex had been earlier. Callie stepped into that hallway, leaving the memory in a small frame, and proceeded to drift backwards through the years. After a few moments, she stopped, and selected the nearest memory she could find that had Zeke’s face in it.

             
Callie landed on a sharp boulder in the middle of some sea, wincing as the pointed teeth of the rock dug into the soles of her feet. She heard a feminine giggle to her right, and climbed up the rock until she could see over the top of it. Below, sitting on a tiny plateau above the lapping waves, sat Serena and Zeke.

             
Callie was astounded to see that Zeke had his arm around Serena, and that Serena wasn’t about to murder him for it. Instead, she snuggled closer to him, offering him a taste of the gelato she had in her hands. He moved as though to eat the gelato from the spoon, but dived in at the last minute for a kiss. Serena squealed, but didn’t pull away. Instead, she leaned in, seemingly enjoying herself. At least, she
was
enjoying herself, until Zeke pulled them both over the side of the boulder and sent them crashing into the water.

             
She pulled herself out of the memory, focusing on the sand beneath her feet. When she opened her eyes, she blinked in shock. She watched as Zeke walked over to Serena, Serena’s face a little hazy, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She absentmindedly placed a hand atop his chest, a small gesture of affection of which she wasn’t even aware.

             
Suddenly, though, she blinked, and her face cleared. In a burst of anger, she turned on Zeke and dug an elbow into his ribcage.

             
She hissed, “Don’t. You.
Ever
,” she said, punctuating each word with a slap to various parts of his body. “Do. That. Again. You smug son of a—“

             
“And that’s how it works,” Zeke groaned, sounding a little breathless. Still, barely acknowledging the full-body attack that Serena was bestowing upon him, he said, “It maintains a stream of consciousness, a specific emotion, just long enough for the subject to act upon that memory. And then she breaks back into the present.”

             
“You two were together?” Callie asked, amazed.

             
He shrugged again as Serena glowered at her. “We’ve been on and off over the millennia,” he replied.

             
She sneered. “I’ve had several momentary lapses in judgment.”

             
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said. “That last run lasted a full twenty years before—“

             
“Temporary insanity!” she shrieked, throwing her hands into the air.

             
Zeke chuckled. “I must say,” he said, turning back to Callie, “having your sort of talent around is pretty useful.”

             
“Moving on,” Serena groaned, obviously humiliated at what Callie had seen.

             
For the rest of the day, Callie practiced maneuvering through Serena’s mind. Zeke trained her so that she could spot the happier memories right away; they were the ones that burned brighter than the rest. She learned some pretty interesting things during those hours. She had actually seen Menelaus’ face. It was unbelievable to her how cruel he looked, and how ugly he’d been. But Paris…he had been gorgeous. A little naïve, maybe, and it was true that he was somewhat too aware of his good looks. But when the stories said that the goddess of beauty had favored him, they hadn’t been exaggerating. Serena hadn’t agreed, however; the memories of those days, the ones before she had come to the canopy, when she had been the object of war and the cause of so many deaths, were all blackened in their tiny frames. No matter how beautiful Paris had been, she couldn’t reconcile herself with the fact that fathers and husbands and sons had died for his selfishness. Curiously, her memories began to lighten and shine right around the time that she met Zeke. In fact, even though they had fought over the years (for trivial things, Callie learned; twice, they had broken up for multiple centuries because he had disapproved of her hairstyle, leading Callie to suspect that they would reconnect in the coming years), the memories of Zeke seemed to be Serena’s happiest.

             
But she could not stop her mind from returning to Alex. Time and again, she had to be yanked from her own memories of this morning by Zeke, who had a difficult time of keeping her on task. He seemed to know what she was thinking about, if the mocking smile he gave her each time meant anything. She didn’t mind, though; by the end of that day, she had seen Zeke at his most embarrassing moments. He seemed to have a particular talent for making a fool of himself in front of Serena. But those were the moments in which Serena loved him best.

             
When the sun was setting behind the ocean, and the light was fading from the beach, Zeke ended the lesson. Callie was both emotionally and physically drained. Traipsing around in someone’s mind exhausted a person.