The Guardian Chronicles 2: Dark Horizon (25 page)

“He probably just had to blow off steam, he wasn’t trained like us,” Elise shrugged. “Maybe that brush with the demon really shook him up.”

“We both don’t believe that,” Ryan grumbled.

“And how do you know that?”

“Because I know him and I trust him. He’s stronger than any of us know or think. I don’t believe for a damn minute that it freaked him out enough that he just decided to disappear off the face of the planet.”

“You haven’t known him that long...”

“Just trust me on that,” Ryan said.

The door to the gun range burst open and Cody came flying in, nearly running over Elise.

“Jonathan wants us in the command center now,” Cody snapped. “He said it had something to do with Gabriel.”

Ryan practically sprinted from the room, again, almost knocking Elise over. When they all arrived in the command center, they found Jonathan barking orders, not entirely uncommon for one such as him. He turned around and spotted the gathering of Guardians, though his face did was grim, not a good sign. Jonathan didn’t usually pull the grim thing often.

“We found Gabriel’s car two miles from here, it was pretty banged up.”

“Did you find him?” Ryan asked.

“No,” Jonathan said, shaking his head. “But we did find these.”

One of the screens shifted to show three Darklings, all of them had their necks bent at an odd angle as if they had all been snapped by some outside force.

“Darklings,” Ryan growled.

“It looks like he put up a fight though,” Cody responded. “Any other clues?”

“His cell phone was still there,” Jonathan said.

“What do you mean his cell phone was still there?” Ryan snapped. “Did you check the hospitals? Maybe he got brought in by someone.”

“We’ve checked. No one matches his description,” Jonathan added.

“Then why they hell did his parents call him in sick today?”

“I don’t think his parents did,” Everett said, entering the room. “After Ryan sort of freaked out I went by his house, there are glyphs on the doors and windows.”

“Persuasion spells,” Elise sighed. “Damn, you were right Ryan.”

“I wish the hell you would have listened to me!” Ryan yelled. “But no, you all thought that I was overreacting! How the hell are we supposed to find him now!”

“Calm down,” Tony commanded. “We’ll find him; there are a limited number of people that could have taken him...”

“Sainte-Pierre,” Ethan nodded. “Has to be him, which means that he still has an informant in the Guardians...”

“Impossible!” Jonathan snapped.

“Oh kindly shut your trap,” Cody growled.

“We don’t even know if it is Sainte-Pierre,” Elise started to say.

“Who the hell else could it be?” Ryan blurted out.

“We must exercise calmness,” Jonathan soothed.

“Shut up,” Ryan said, staring at Jonathon. “I don’t care about the mole right now, we need to figure out where Gabriel is and find a way to get him back.”

A spark of hatred started to grow within Ryan. He wanted revenge on Sainte-Pierre, if the demon had done the unthinkable and killed or even wounded Gabriel, Ryan was going to move heaven and earth to make him pay for. Elise reached out to touch his arm, calming him enough that he didn’t turn around and punch a hole in the wall.

Jonathan looked like he wanted to protest Ryan’s rather harsh response to his earlier statement but one look into Ryan’s eyes, now smoldering with intense indignation, persuaded him to keep his mouth shut. He clearly realized that, at the moment, no one really wanted to hear what he had to say, especially if it had nothing to do with the rescue of Gabriel.

“We haven’t found a clue as to where Sainte-Pierre is...”

“Then we find out!” Ryan ordered, cutting Elise off. Ryan instantly felt a pang of regret, yelling at his teammates was not going to get Gabriel back.

“There might be a way,” Everett nodded. “It’s highly dangerous but it might help us locate him.”

“What is it?” Ryan asked.

“Before we had all this fancy technology there were certain spells that one could use that could span great distances and allow members of the clans to talk to each other, even locate each other,” Everett explained. “It’s not without risks however...”

“Can you do it?” Ryan interjected, cutting Everett off.

“I can try,” Everett nodded. “I’ll need both you and Tony though, and we’ll have to move quickly, the weaker the person is that we are trying to locate the harder they are to find. As far as I know there isn’t a way to block it, though given how resourceful Sainte-Pierre is, that might not be the case for long.”

“Let’s go,” Tony said, starting for the door.

“You know, I can keep this up all day.”

A few moments after Sainte-Pierre departed, another man showed up. He was dressed in an expensive looking suit with a fedora, lanky build, and eyes that weren’t entirely human. He was apparently there to extract whatever information that he could from Gabriel, before he was handed over to this mysterious partner.

Gabriel spit out blood again, leaving a trail of droplets on the pristine white floor.

“You can go to hell,” Gabriel snapped, his breaths coming in ragged gasps. Though this man, assuming that he was a man, didn’t appear to have the same damaging touch as Sainte-Pierre, he was extremely adept at causing pain. He smiled, strode forward and let loose with another kick, slamming into Gabriel’s ribs again.

“You have lost,” the man said, slamming him across the face with another punch. “There is no escape for you and your precious Guardians. Your time on this earth my dear boy has come to an end.”

Gabriel smiled, or at least he tried too. He was doing his best to keep up the act that this man didn’t really scare him. Though he knew that he was being on partially successful, he didn’t feel the confidence that he was projecting.at least not all of it. He could only hope that he could fool this guy until help arrived, assuming that help was coming at all.

“You put on a brave face,” the man snarled, backhanding Gabriel again. “But I can see it in your eyes, you’re weak...even weaker than the rest of your order.”

Another back handed slap to the face filled his mouth with the metallic taste of blood. He looked up at the man, right into his coal black eyes. And that’s when he knew that this man saw right through his meager attempt at bravado. Whatever vestiges of self-confidence that he had slowly slipped away, leaving behind a hallow feeling of dread and terror. He wasn’t sure that he would make it out of this situation alive, a thought that terrified him.

“Ah yes,” he slithered. “There it is...the fear. The realization that you may not leave here alive, well I can assure you of that part at least. I work for Sainte-Pierre and he has made it very clear that I shouldn’t cause you any permanent harm. It appears that his ally wants you mostly intact.”

Slowly the man started walking around him, idly thumping a baton on his leg. Gabriel could only see the weapon out of the corner of his eye, though he could clearly see the end sparking and arcing with electrical activity. He didn’t know exactly what it was but he suspected that it was not a pleasant sensation when it touched you.

“Do you know this is?” the man asked, indicating the baton.

Gabriel shook his head.

“It’s called a pain stick, not the most flattering name in the world but very direct and to the point. Now, I realize that you Guardians are...what was it that our little spy said, oh that’s right, the pinnacle of evolution so we devised this little device. You see the discharges up here are magical in nature, which means that it can hurt you just as easily as a normal person. Same thing goes for that wonderful little tazer that we used on you before.”

“Oh good for me,” Gabriel grunted.

“Oh but it is,” the man said, grabbing Gabriel by his chin. “You will tell me everything that I want to know, your spirit might be strong but your flesh is weak...very weak.”

“I won’t betray them,” Gabriel hissed.

“Oh I think that you will,” the man smiled. “You’re going to be begging me to make it stop by the time that I am through with you.”

Gabriel screamed out in pain as baton jabbed into his skin.

“Can’t you hurry it up?” Ryan demanded.

“You want me to wind up scrambling your brains?” Everett asked, flipping through the pages of another spell book. “Because I doubt that would help Gabriel.”

“Relax,” Elise commanded for what seemed like the hundredth time. “They are working as fast as they can.”

“He could be in trouble.”

“Ryan,” Elise said, this time gentler. She placed a hand on his arm that ceased his pacing. “I know you are worried about him, we all are. And you’re right, we should have listened to you but we’re doing everything that we can.”

“I know,” Ryan sighed. “I just wish that we knew where he was.”

“Let’s find out,” Everett said. “I’m ready if you and Tony are.”

Ryan looked over at Tony who nodded.

Everett had traced a large glyph on the floor and placed several candles in the middle of it. He instructed Ryan and Tony to sit down. Everett took a seat next Ryan and took a deep breath.

“Alright, now everyone hold hands.”

Ryan and Tony both looked at Everett with raised eyebrows.

“Oh knock it off,” Everett snapped. “You’ve been skinning dipping together, huddled together for warmth to prevent hypothermia, and change in the same locker-room at school just holds each other’s hands already.”

That short little tirade brought a smile to Elise’s face. Reluctantly, Tony and Ryan grasped hands. Everett took hold of their hands as well, forming a circle. He blew out a deep breath, the intricate Owl tattoo glowing through his shirt. In his mind he started to weave the spell together, drawing on the shared bonds of all those in clan Phoenix.

Everett opened up his mind, searching for the spark that was Gabriel. He pictured the young Lion in his mind; the way that he looked, the way that he talked, and tried to pour everything that he knew about him into the spell. As spells go it was exhausting work, the consent concentration was starting a dull ache in the back of his head. But Everett continued, drawing on the feelings and memories of both Tony and Ryan.

An image started to form, taking shape in the mind of all three Guardians. It started off in a fog, details becoming clear as the fog sharpened into images. They saw a skyline with large buildings and a coastline. Boats slowly came into focus, mostly large luxury yachts that looked as if they should belong to millionaires and not the kind that you would find around Omaha. The fog started to lift around one boat in particular, allowing them to read the lettering on the stern.

“Devil’s Luck,” Everett muttered.

The side of the boat seemed to fade away, allowing them to look inward.

And then they saw him, lying on the deck. Beaten, bruised, and bloodied. And standing over him, dressed impeccably as always was Sainte-Pierre. Without warning the spell dissolved, leaving the three of them sitting there breathing heavy.

Ryan was practically trembling with rage. He wanted nothing more than to find Sainte-Pierre and smash his head into a wall. Whatever protection he might have enjoyed from the Guardians was now null and void. Sainte-Pierre was going to pay for what he had done; one look at Tony told Ryan that he agreed.

“We found him, he’s on Sainte-Pierre’s yacht,” Everett said, quickly standing up, he took a deep breath and steadied himself before talking. “It’s in New York, East Bay Marina.”

"Then why the hell are we standing around here?" Ryan snapped.

"Now hold on a minute," Jonathan started to say.

"We have a tactical plan," Ryan grunted. "Find Sainte-Pierre and get Gabriel back, that's pretty much it. Elise, can you get a plane ready to go?"

"Not a problem,” Elise nodded.

"Fine," Ryan growled. "Go find Ethan and let's get that part over with."

It really didn't take long to convince Jonathan of their plan, nor did it take long to get everything set up for travel. Within forty five minutes they were in the air and heading toward New York.

They landed at a private airfield not all that far from the marina and then used an Aegis provided car to take them near their target. Of course once they got there the security around the marina seemed rather lax, probably because Sainte-Pierre thought that he was untraceable. And having a bunch of armed guards roaming around a high priced and upper class marina wasn’t exactly
the best way to stay incognito.

Sneaking around the place wasn't all that hard for a covert team like the Guardians; they made quick work of the security systems and soon breached the simple chain linked fence that surrounded it.
Cody and the majority of the team took up residence on the top of sport fishing vessel while Marissa climbed to the top of another vessel opposite their position. Cody looked through the site on his bow, scanning the yacht for the various defenses that Sainte-Pierre had in place.

"Lots and lots of Darklings crawling around up there," Cody commented. "A few regular humans too but I don't see anything too dangerous though."