The Guardian Chronicles 1: Rise of the Phoenix (16 page)

“Oh come on,” Ethan grumbled. “Seriously? You know you’re like the millionth person to tell me that. I don’t care that he’s not tearing my clothes off with his eyes anymore!”

“You loved the attention,” Alex continued, taking a few steps closer to Ethan. “You loved the way that he used to look at you and how you could make him feel, you liked that power, didn’t you?”

Ethan’s felt like a coiled spring, ready to explode into action. He had to stop himself from reaching out and punching Alex right in the face. He took several deep breathes and unclenched his fists before taking a few steps closer to Alex, closing the gap between to two teenagers to just a few feet.

“You don’t know anything about me.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Alex admitted, his blue eyes roamed over Ethan’s body. Ethan didn’t react, instead he never let his gaze fall from Alex’s face. “You do have an awesome body.”

“Get to your point.”

“That ends now,” Alex stated. “Don’t follow us again.”

“Fine,” Ethan snapped. “But if you hurt him in any way I’ll hunt you down and end you.”

Alex laughed at that comment. “First off Gabriel is a big boy, he can take care of himself. He’s pretty good at what he does, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“And secondly?”

“I didn’t betray you Ethan and neither did my father,” Alex stated. “Remember that, because I’m done saying it. Stay out of my way when it comes to Gabriel. I like him and he likes me.”

And with that said, Alex slipped past Ethan and headed out the door.

“Would you hold still,” Gabriel insisted.

“You’re holding a sharp object very close to a very personal area of mine,” Tony hissed back. “And we are in an airplane that could hit turbulence at any time causing you to completely screw up.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. Tony wasn’t being the most cooperative patient at the moment. They were at their cruising altitude and would be for several hours, which meant that Gabriel had more than enough time to finish stitching him up.

“Oh knock it off,” Everett spoke, looking up from where he was examining the skull. “Just let him get it over with. You’ve had worse. Remember that time you got gored in the rear by that demon in Russia. Cody had to sew you up in that rundown barn.”

“You could have gotten any number of infections,” Gabriel stated.

“I didn’t!”

“See, this is much cleaner,” Everett said with a smile.

“He didn’t have a sharp object near my boys,” Tony protested.

“Oh shut up. Your boys are going to be fine,” Gabriel remarked.

Tony looked like he was going to say something else but then stopped as Gabriel pulled the edges of part of the wound together. He instead laid back down on the table, muttering to himself all the while. Everyone in the cabin ignored him.

“Are you sure that we should be giving that thing to her?” Gabriel asked. “I mean we don’t know who she is going to give it too or what they are going to do with it.”

“They can’t do much with it,” Everett stated. “Most of the power is gone from this thing, it’s an ancient artifact. I mean I guess you could use to amplify some magical powers to a degree but it’s nowhere near as powerful as it was before.”

“I suppose that’s a good thing,” Gabriel responded. “But I still don’t like the idea of turning that thing over to her.”

“We don’t really have a choice,” Marissa reminded him. “We promised we would bring it back to her and she has information that we need.”

“You’re right.”

Gabriel finished stitching Tony up a mere half hour later. Almost everyone spent the rest of the flight lightly dozing. When they finally landed again, they all felt somewhat more human, though they probably didn’t look it. They had only time for a quick shower when they emerged from the jungle on the way to bring the skull back to Eve.

“Glad to see that you made it back in one piece,” Eve stated, as the Guardians entered the hangar. “Sorry about this rather crude meeting space but my client really wants the skull. I need to scoot out of here here as soon as we finish our business.”

Everett handed the skull over to Eve. She examined it slightly before placing it into a case that she snapped shut.

“Your turn,” Tony warned. Gabriel took note that his hand had drifted down to his sidearm. He was even more surprised when he looked down and saw that he had his hand on the top of his own weapon. “Tell us what Sainte-Pierre had you looking for.”

“He was looking for a place called the Well of Souls,” Eve stated.

“You mean as in the resting place of the ark?” Everett inquired.

“No,” Eve said shaking her head. “That I can find. He was looking for something right out of Guardian lore. He wouldn’t tell me what he was hoping to find there though.”

“That’s all the information that he gave you?” Gabriel asked, narrowing his eyes. Now, Gabriel was really starting to regret giving her that skull. It didn’t sound like she had any information that would be helpful to them at all. He was starting to think that her earlier concerns about just using them were coming true.

“Are you kidding me?” Tony snapped. “We nearly get turned into fluffy’s chew toys and that’s all that you can tell us!”

“That’s all that I know,” Eve responded. She dug around in her coat pocket and tossed Tony a flash drive. “That’s everything that I could uncover on it. It’s not much but you have more resources than I do, especially when it comes to secret Guardian things. Maybe you can make something of it.”

“Thank you,” Everett quickly said. He shoot a look at Tony that appeared to silence any further protests.

“I need to go,” Eve said. “It was nice doing business with you.”

And with that said, Eve turned left the hanger. She walked toward a waiting helicopter and quickly boarded. Within moments the helicopter lifted smoothly into the air and then took in an easterly direction, leaving behind the Guardians.

“So glad that’s over with,” Tony said with a grunt. “Seriously, I could never see her again and it would be too soon. Can we please get our ass back in our own plan and go home now?”

As the helicopter banked away from the airport, Eve pulled out her cell phone. She hesitated for a brief moment, wondering if the price she paid was worth it. She didn’t like the idea of anyone holding anything over her head but betraying the man that had been working with Sainte-Pierre was not something that she took lightly.

But she had made a deal and she intended to keep her word. She scrolled down her contacts list and found the right name before punching the call button.

“Yes?”

“It’s done,” Eve said.

“You’ve told them about The Well of Souls?”

“I pointed them in the right direction,” Eve admitted. “They will no doubt throw considerable effort into finding it. My debt to you is repaid, that’s the deal that we made.”

“Indeed.”

The line went dead.

CHAPTER 11

“He was looking for the what?” Jonathan asked. He seemed more annoyed than impressed by any of the information that they had learned from Eve. The first time that they mentioned the Well of Souls his face turned red and he got all huffy. He didn’t rapid fire off questions the way that he usually did, which everyone found rather strange.

“The Well of Souls,” Gabriel answered.

“We looked through the archives as best we could,” Marissa stated with a heavy sigh. “But we didn’t really run across anything. Maybe the Council of Mages or the council knows something about it.”

The team had landed only a few hours ago and Jonathan insisted that they head right to Aegis, despite the fact that they could have used a few hours’ sleep. And a proper shower. Though it did give Gabriel a chance to take Tony down to medical and look him over again much to his chagrin.

“Did she know anything useful?” Elise inquired. “I mean aside from this place that no one can confirm even exists.”

“Not really,” Gabriel admitted, leaning forward. “She did say that even she couldn’t really dig up all that much information on the place.”

“Which is hardly all that surprising,” Jonathan spoke with an annoyed edge. “It appears as though this Eve didn’t have any information that was useful to us at all. She didn’t happen to say who it was that had her begin searching for the Well of Souls to begin with was, did she?”

“She didn’t,” Tony admitted with a shrug. “I have a feeling that there was no way that we were going to get that information out of her.”

“Now hold on a second,” Everett said, leaning forward. “True we haven’t come up with anything right away but that still doesn’t mean that we should just give up on it. It’s the most promising lead we’ve had yet.”

“We have other matters to attend too,” Jonathan stated with annoyance. “I’ll pass this information off to the council but I can assure you that they will want us to direct our efforts toward other missions.”

“And what other leads are you talking about?”

“As much as I hate to admit it, the council actually agreed with your plan to escort a lycan strike team to an Imperial Medical facility.”

“I did not see that coming,” Gabriel responded.

“Those hybrids are a serious threat. The council realizes this. If whoever created them managed to get out to the black market or into the hands of some other unsavory characters, well there is no telling what kind of damage they could do.”

“If we could prove that the vampires were behind this, at least Imperial Medical, then could we take action?” Elise asked. “These hybrids represent a threat to everyone, not just the lycans.”

“After reviewing the data that Aadesh and Cody provided, they are well aware of the threat that these creations represent not to mention the ethical and moral violations that occurred in even creating such abominations.”

“So, if we can prove it then they may sanction action against the vampires?” Everett asked. “That might mean that we could effectively end his conflict.”

“Even with the most advanced medical technology and sorcery out there,” Aadesh explained. “It would still take would still take weeks to create such a complex organism.”

“It’s not clear what the council will do if they uncover information regarding the vampire’s involvement in creating the hybrids,” Jonathan continued. “But they are sufficiently concerned enough to at least look into it.”

“I suppose that’s something,” Ethan grunted. “I just hope that ‘sufficiently concerned’ translates to something more than just standing around talking about it.”

“The operation with the lycans is scheduled to commence tomorrow night,” Jonathan went on. “Your contact will arrive here tomorrow morning.”

“Do we even get to know who that contact is?” Gabriel asked.

“The lycans would prefer that they keep it a secret for the time being,” Jonathan explained. “They aren’t entirely sure that our own mole problem has been solved.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Ethan grunted. “We wouldn’t to take the risk of anyone tipping off our blood sucking friends.”

“And how do we know that they haven’t already been tipped off?” Cody asked. “I mean the wankers could be upping the security at all their installations right now and we wouldn’t have a clue until it’s too late.”

“The lycans are picking the target,” Jonathan snapped. “We will have no knowledge of the actual target until we leave to escort the lycans.”

“What about someone invading Gabriel’s dreams? Or did everyone conveniently forget about that?” Marissa asked.

“No one has forgotten,” Jonathan spoke tensely.

“I wish I could forget,” Gabriel grumbled. “But Everett does have a point, how do we know that they won’t try something like that again? I mean they broke into my mind once, what’s to stop them from doing it again.”

“And that spell that I used is only stopgap measure,” Everett reminded them. “He’ll need something more permanent.”

“I’ll need time to prepare the spell,” Aadesh responded. “I should have it ready by tomorrow morning. You should be protected for tonight however and now that this mysterious person knows that we know he’s behind the nightmares, it’s doubtful that he’ll show back up again.”

“There’s something else that’s been bugging me,” Gabriel stated, leaning forward. “When Sainte-Pierre kidnapped me he said that his partner wanted me alive and now, almost nine months later and they haven’t made another play for me? Maybe that means their strategy changed.”

“Or breaking into your mind was his other play,” Ryan pointed out.

“Shouldn’t you be glad you aren’t back with those bloody loons?” Cody asked, a look of confusion crossing over his face.

“Oh believe me I am,” Gabriel responded, looking around the table. “But it doesn’t strike any of you as odd that they haven’t tried to get me again? I mean if we still have a traitor in our midst you would think that he or she would try and engineer some scenario where they could get their hands on me.”

“Perhaps they are working on a new strategy like you suggested,” Jonathan answered. “And to be honest, at the moment, I really don’t care. What I do care about is stopping whoever it is that’s creating the hybrids. I suggest that you all go home and get some rest, you are going to need it.”

The team filed out of the command center, heading toward other areas. Gabriel headed down to the locker-room to change, part of him wanted to go home and fall into bed, although another part of him wanted to get in some training. He had no idea why that sounded like a good idea but soon found himself in the training room, going through a series of attack moves.

“You want to fight something that hits back?”

Gabriel turned to see Ethan standing there, twirling his blades around in the air. He wore a half smile, one of his cocky and arrogant grins that used to make Gabriel melt. Admittedly, they still sent a flutter through his stomach, however, at the moment all he wanted to do was wipe that expression from his face.

“Go away Ethan,” Gabriel grunted.

“Shouldn’t you be sprinting home so that you can spend time with your boyfriend?”

“At least I have someone to spend time with,” Gabriel countered. He felt the blood rush to his face. He knew that Ethan was goading him; trying to provoke him into getting so mad that he acted blindly. Gabriel took a deep breath, trying to center himself. He wouldn’t let Ethan get to him. Battles were lost as soon as you surrendered to passion and not thinking with a level head.

“Oh I have plenty of people that I can spend time with,” Ethan countered, slowly walking toward him. “What’s the matter, afraid that I am going to beat you or something?”

“Not as easily as you think,” Gabriel barked.

“Then go ahead and attack me.”

“I’m not going to fight you.”

But, even as the words came out of his mouth one of Ethan’s blades came flying toward his head. Gabriel back flipped, avoiding the attack. He landed and called his blade to him, catching the handle just in time to block a series of stabs and slashes by Ethan. Sparks exploded as the blades hammered into each other.

“That was low,” Gabriel growled.

“It got you to defend yourself, didn’t it?”

“And if I didn’t were you really going to take my head off?” Gabriel asked. He parried several more attacks before back flipping away again. He needed time to think, it had been months since he had faced Ethan in the training room - something that he intended to use to his advantage.

“What’s the matter Gabriel, too afraid to stand and fight?”

“Just lulling you into a false sense of security,” Gabriel retorted.

Ethan smiled and charged forward but Gabriel held his ground. He was through letting Ethan dictate the way that this encounter was going to go. If Ethan wanted a fight, then Gabriel was more than obliged to give it to him. Gabriel braced himself, letting out a slow deep breath as Ethan came crashing into him.

Blades whirled through the air, creating harsh flashes of sparks and light as they encountered each other. Together, Ethan and Gabriel began to duel across the room, striking at each other with almost barely contained fury. Gabriel knocked away several blows and then struck out with a kick that landed solidly against Ethan’s sternum. The blow wasn’t hard enough to break bone, Gabriel had learned long ago to pull his punches when it came to that, but it carried enough force to momentarily stun the more experienced Guardian.

Gabriel launched a haymaker, smashing across Ethan’s face so hard that he almost spun to the mat. He popped right back to his feet again, this time blocking a series of thrusts and slashes on this twin blades. Ethan hadn’t been prepared for that move nor the increasing ferocity of Gabriel’s attacks.

“You’re getting better,” Ethan panted as he blocked another blow. “Changing things up like that. I’m actually starting to think that you could hurt me.”

“I’m not the one who’s bleeding.”

Ethan smiled and wiped the blood away from his cut lip.

“Don’t get cocky.”

“That’s funny coming from you.”

Ethan charged him again, his swords a blur of blessed metal. Gabriel thrust his own weapon forward, getting round Ethan’s defenses long enough to slice a wound along his left arm. That prompted a startled yelp from Ethan and allowed Gabriel to press his attack.

Gabriel exploded into motion, crashing into Ethan with all his might. At first, it appeared that Ethan was able to hold his ground against the onslaught but then, ever so slowly, Gabriel started to force him backwards across the training room floor.

And Ethan didn’t appear to be able to stop him. As their blades clashed, Gabriel became aware of an odd sensation that started to flow through him, it felt as if his limbs were getting hotter. A warmth spread through his body, starting in his chest and flowing outward toward the rest of his body, invigorating muscles it washed over them.

The look on Ethan’s face went from mildly amused to concern and then to pure concentration as Gabriel continued to push forward with his assault. Gabriel kept the pressure up, his sword smashing against Ethan’s defenses with precise and powerful strikes. The more that he pressed his attack the more the hot feeling continued to burn throughout his body and the more confident that he became.

He knocked away several strikes and the slammed a kick into Ethan’s chin, causing Ethan to stagger slightly. Gabriel followed that up with an uppercut and then a strike that freed one of Ethan’s swords from his hand. Now, with just one sword, Ethan had to work even harder to keep Gabriel at bay.

Ethan parried several strikes from Gabriel and then hesitated just a millisecond. That was all the time that Gabriel needed. His sword lashed out with force, knocking Ethan’s defending blade high and away just in time for Gabriel to knock Ethan on his rear with a series of kicks. Gabriel stood over him, his sword pointed right at his throat.

He was breathing heavy, he could feel his heartbeat thundering inside his head, and the hot feeling that he had been experiencing had now turned into an almost electric sensation that pulsed through what felt like every cell in his body. His mind snapped back to what Imogene had said about letting his heart turn dark and that momentary hesitation was all that Ethan needed. He swept his leg out, catching Gabriel behind his knees and knocking him to the ground as well. Ethan leapt to his feet and Gabriel let go of his own weapon.

“Wow,” Ethan spoke, his breaths coming in ragged gasps. “Seriously, what the hell was that? I’ve never seen you do that before.”

Ethan appeared to almost be in shock at the fact that someone, could have gotten the better of him; even more so when that someone turned out to be Gabriel.

“Gabriel, are you okay?” Ethan asked, kneeling down next to him.

“Fine,” Gabriel stammered. “Sorry about your arm.”

“Better hurry up and take a picture of it,” Ethan smirked, helping Gabriel to his feet. “Otherwise no one will believe you.”

Despite himself, Gabriel smiled at that remark.

“Seriously, that was your best fighting yet,” Ethan continued. “Where in the hell did you learn all that? Not even Tony or Ryan are that fast.”

“I don’t know,” Gabriel admitted. “I just felt this...spark I guess.”