The Guardian Chronicles 2: Dark Horizon (26 page)

"Well, that's sorely disappointing," Ethan grumbled. "I wanted a bit of a challenge tonight."

“You might still get that challenge,” Marissa muttered. “We don’t have any idea what Sainte-Pierre is capable of in a fight.”

“Nothing that I can’t handle,” Ethan shrugged.

“Don’t you mean anything that we can handle?” Ryan asked.

Ethan shrugged again.

“Do you have any idea how we would get onboard?”

“Frontal assault might not work well,” Cody suggested. “Both me and Marissa have a pretty good view point from here. Maybe we stay here and cover you while the rest of you take a more stealth approach?”

“Looks like we’re going for a swim,” Ethan smiled.

Five minutes later, Ethan, Tony, Everett, Ryan, and Elise slide into the water, make their way toward the large vessel. Cody and Marissa were at their positions on the fishing vessel, Cody armed with his bow and Marissa with her high powered Lancer sniper rifle. Both of them continually scanned the decks, making sure that they were clear enough for the other Guardians to make their entrance.

“Clear aft,” Cody said, as the team broke the surface of the water.

They slowly climbed aboard; so far they had yet to encounter any of the roaming guards.

“Contact coming on the right,” Marissa stated. “Ten meters and closing, human by the looks of it.”

“Take him out,” Ethan ordered.

They never even heard the shot, just the dull thud of the man hitting the deck. Ryan and Ethan surged forward and checked to make sure that target was indeed down. Once they established that they moved down the starboard side of the vessel while Elise, Everett, and Tony moved down the port side.

“Looks clear so far,” Cody said. “You’ve got movement ahead of you portside.”

“Roger that,” Elise stated. She drew both her pistols and slowly started inching forward; readying herself for the target that Cody had said was coming.

“Five meters,” Cody said.

The Darkling came lumbering around the corner. He didn’t even get a shout out as heat rounds ripped through his torso and chest, sending him tumbling over the rail and into the water.

“Crap,” Cody hissed. “Looks like that raised an alarm, you’ve got guys moving toward your position and they appear to be armed... really armed.”

“That’s real technical,” Tony grumbled.

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, four heavily armed men came around the corner. Two dropped before they even realized that they had been targeted. The remaining two, seeing the arrows jutting from the chests of their compatriots looked up and opened fire.

The blasts went wide and before they could fire again, Everett sent them tumbling over the edge of the boat with a blast of telekinetic energy.

“You’ve got incoming,” Cody snapped. “Oh hell, demons...look like four Unkari and they look pretty upset about something.”

“Gee, I can’t imagine what that is,” Tony grunted.

The Unkari came around the corner, cocked their assault rifles and opened fire. Luckily, Everett had already created a shield spell around them, which sparked and flared when the deadly lead projectiles hit it. Two of the Unkari fell backwards as Cody’s arrows pierced their hearts. It also allowed the rest of the team to close the gap and get within melee range.

Elise and Tony sprinted forward, engaging the first line of Unkari. Everett on the other hand turned around, using a spell to rip open the deck plating and send it soaring toward the approaching Darklings from the rear.

“Take them, I’ve got these guys!” Everett shouted.

Tony dashed forward, throwing all his weight into ramming one of the Unkari that was trying to get up off the deck. Another arrow glinted by, burying it’s self in the Unkari’s shoulder, causing him to drop his guard just long enough for Tony to slice him from shoulder to hip and send him tumbling over the side.

He looked up ahead just in time to see Elise bury one of her axes in the Unkari’s head.

“You two find him yet?” Elise asked. “We’re sort of running out of places to put the bodies out here.”

“Nothing yet,” came Ryan’s tense reply.

“Well hurry it up or that won’t be any Darklings left for you to kill,” Tony snapped, drawing his sidearm.

“Somehow I don’t think that will be a problem,” Everett grunted, smashing his staff across the face of another Darkling. Several more rushed up to fill the gap.

Given what was going on the port side of the boat both Ryan and Ethan thought that they might run into the same amount of guards. So far, though they were happily surprised that they hadn’t. Marissa kept up a running commentary through her optic scope.

“The party appears to be on the port side,” Marissa said. “Door ahead.”

They inched forward until they found the door, which appeared to be unlocked. Ryan went in first, sweeping the area with Reaper, Ethan followed behind him, his Hammer assault rifle doing the same. They stepped into a large forward salon, lavishly decorated in leather furniture and dark wood. Expensive looking paintings, vases, and other items lined the shelves.

A quick look around the room revealed a door with a key coded door lock. If they had Everett or Marissa with them they might be able to slice through it.

The lock blew apart in a shower of metal fragments as Ryan blasted it with Reaper. Ethan looked up at him and arched an eyebrow.

“That looks like something that I would do.”

Ryan didn’t answer, instead he moved forward, stepping through the door into another room, this one was about the same size of the salon but with dull gray walls, a bare metallic floor, and what looked like a space to restrain someone in the center. It all looked exactly like the room that Ryan had seen during the spell that they used to locate Gabriel.

“This is it,” Ryan said. “This is where we saw him.”

“He had a prior engagement.”

Gabriel and Ryan turned around to see Sainte-Pierre and two other demons standing behind him. Both demons held Immortal Blades and both where huge, almost bursting out of their suit coats with muscle.

“Your friends are keeping most of my associates busy but I did manage to spare these two wonderful individuals for yourselves. Have fun boys; make sure that you kill them both.”

Sainte-Pierre turned and left and the two demons in the room charged forward. Ryan blasted the one coming at him with Reaper, succeeding in only slowing him down momentarily. He was knocked off his feet as the demon barreled into him, sending them both to the hard metal deck. He drove both hands hard into the side of the demon’s head, stunning him enough so that he could slide out from underneath his considerable bulk.

He looked to his left to see Ethan already dancing around his attacker, locking blades with him whenever he got the chance. Ryan pulled free his own daggers, taking up a defensive stance as the demon nearest him came at him again. For as big as they were, they were certainly fast, probably something that they used to their advantage more than once.

He blocked several sword strikes, knocking the blade aside each time. The demon seemed to be getting increasingly aggravated by this and lunged at him again. Ryan side stepped the attack and then caught it in the head with a jump kick hard enough that he ended up on the floor.

Ethan, meanwhile, was busy blocking a whirlwind of blows from his opponent. The demons were well trained but Ethan knew that he and Ryan were better. He ducked under another slash before having to drop both his blades down to block another blow. The demon surged forward, unleashing a hammering series of strikes intent to drive his weapons from his hands.

Ethan turned each strike away, redirecting the power behind it so that it either slide off his blade or was parried far enough up on it that it didn’t threaten his grip on his own weapons. He went on the offensive, driving the demon back just as he had done to Ethan moments before. His blades slipped around the demon’s defense, stroking the side of his inner thigh. The demon faltered and hesitated slightly, allowing Ethan to press his attack.

He jabbed forward, fainted right, and then slammed a foot into the demon’s ribs. He felt and heard the crack of ribs, which caused his attacker to howl out in pain. The slight lapse was all that Ethan needed; he drove both blades forward into the demon’s chest, dropping him to the floor.

He looked over just in time to see Ryan slam both his daggers into the side of his attacker’s skull, effectively ending that threat as well.

“Bad news is that everyone knows we are here now.”

“And what’s the good news?” Ryan asked.

“He’s got to be around here somewhere.”

“Aft section!” Marissa called out. “It looks like he’s trying to load Gabriel onto another boat.”

“Tony, how are you guys doing over there?”

“We’re a little busy,” Tony snapped, barely audible of the din of battle. “Not sure we can make it there.”

“On our way! Marissa stall them!”

“I’ll do what I can.”

They both bolted from the room and back out the door that they came. Luckily, Tony’s team on the port side appeared to be doing a good job of distracting everyone making their route to the aft end pretty much free of any defenders. Several charged toward them and were promptly blown out of the way as Marissa’s sniper fire found its mark.

They both rounded the corner to the back end of the boat where Sainte-Pierre was loading a very beat up looking Gabriel into smaller speedboat.

“Hold it,” Ryan ordered. “Right there.”

“Oh really, come on now,” Sainte-Pierre stated, rolling his eyes. “You don’t think that I wouldn’t have planned for this. Alright, fine you killed a few of my guards but that doesn’t mean that you are going to get me...”

He hit the deck hard as Marissa fired several Heat rounds into him.

“You can’t stop me.”

“You aren’t leaving here with him,” Ryan said. “You can either come quietly or we can do it the hard way.”

Sainte-Pierre laughed. “And do you two really think that you can stop me?”

“Probably not but that’s why they brought back up.”

Sainte-Pierre wheeled around just as a glowing arrow shot through the air, slamming into Sainte-Pierre’s knee and dropping him to the ground. He screamed out in pain; unlike the bullet that Marissa had fired the arrow head was made of blessed metal, which could have been lethal to the demon.

“I’d be careful if I were you,” Tony responded, leveling his sword at Sainte-Pierre. “Cody doesn’t miss and you’re lucky that the council wants you alive.”

“Oh I bet they do,” Sainte-Pierre sneered, finally getting back to his feet. “You’re all idiots! Do you even know what your precious Guardians are capable of, what dark secrets are buried in your order’s past?”

“Shut up,” Ethan ordered. “Shut up right now or I swear to god I will have Cody put an arrow through your other knee.”

Sainte-Pierre laughed an oddly haunting sound. Ethan nodded toward Ryan, who had started toward the demon with a pair of handcuffs. Before he could place them on Sainte-Pierre however an explosion rocked the boat, sending everyone stumbling to the deck. A column of fire and smoke emanated from the bow. Seconds later another explosion ripped through the ship, this time completely tearing apart the forward salon where Ethan and Ryan had been moments before. The boat shuddered violently and started to slide into the water, bow first.

The distraction was all the time that Sainte-Pierre needed; he bolted, throwing himself over the deck to the water below. Ryan went to go after him until Ethan grabbed his arm.

“We need to get off this boat!”

“He’s getting away!” Ryan yelled back.

Tony was kneeling next to Gabriel, checking over the unresponsive Guardian. Once Tony determined that he was alive, he scooped him up and handed him down to Everett and Elise, who were already in the speedboat.

“We have to leave, move your asses!” Tony called out.

Ryan took one last look at the fleeing Sainte-Pierre and darted toward the speedboat.

CHAPTER 12

Getting off the yacht before it sunk completely was easy. Getting away from the scene of the crime was slightly harder once the emergency response vessels started to arrive. They had to dodge several patrol craft and Everett even had to use a persuasion spell on a few policemen before they got the boat to a dock and tied up.

“How is he?” Ryan asked.

“I don’t know yet,” Cody said. “I’ve got most of his wounds bandaged up but we won’t know if he suffered any internal injuries until we get him back to the plane. We need to move.”

Ryan and Tony each took an arm and carefully carried Gabriel to the waiting SUV. Once he was inside they took off toward the airport, luckily the plane that had brought them in carried a full medical suite, which could hopefully stabilize Gabriel until they could get him back into the skilled hands of Aadesh and the medical teams at Aegis.

“Get him strapped down,” Elise ordered, making a beeline for the cockpit. Marissa was hot on her tail, slipping into the co-pilots seat. “I’m going to get emergency clearance to get out of here, we’re going to make it a fast flight.”

Once they got him aboard, Ryan and Tony strapped him down.

“He’s waking up,” Cody said. “Hey mate, easy there.”

Gabriel slowly opened his eyes, trying to focus hard on the faces in front of him.

“What...what...happened,” Gabriel croaked.

“We got you man,” Ryan said, grabbing Gabriel’s arm.

“I feel like I got hit by a truck,” Gabriel winced.

“You sorta look like it too,” Ethan said. “You have to protect that pretty mug of yours better, get your arms up.”

“Stop being an ass,” Ryan growled.

“It’s sort of what he does,” Gabriel managed to say. “Is it ok if I go back to sleep now?”

Cody was busy flipping several switches, warming up the portable X-ray and MRI systems that they had onboard, also inventions of Aegis. The engines whirled as they taxied toward their runaway drowning out the noise that the MRI and the X-ray systems. They started to appear instantly on the display in front of Cody as well as a display back at Aegis were Aadesh could examine at them.

“How is he?” Ryan asked, as they plane lifted smoothly off the ground.

“Hold a second,” Cody said. “Still cycling through the scans, nothing looks out of place though. I don’t see any bleeds or broken bones.”

About ten minutes later Aadesh gave them the all clear. Despite the painful torture that he appeared to have endured, everything looked good, at least from a physical stand point. The emotional toll, well that would be a lot harder to assess. No one on the team had been held captive before and tortured at the hands of the Unkari, at least no one in recent history. The plane banked to the west and then powered on toward home.

“Do. Not. Blame yourself for this.”

Ryan looked up from his tablet as Tony came into the library.

“I wasn’t...”

“Nope,” Tony said, holding up his hand to halt Ryan’s denial. “Don’t even say that you weren’t going too, we both know that’s a lie.”

“Maybe we do need to take the blame for it,” Ryan sighed, setting down his tablet. Tony frowned and took a seat on the couch across from Ryan.

“Sainte-Pierre did this; he’s the one to blame not us.”

“How long have we known each other?”

Tony settled back into the couch, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes. “Dude, I dunno...since we were what...five? Why?”

“I kept telling everyone that he was ready, that there was something different about him...”

“Stop it,” Tony snapped. “He was ready and you are right, there is something different about him. I didn’t see it at first but how fast he picked everything up and how good he is at it, I think there is something more photographic memory going on.”

“We haven’t let someone get captured for what...a hundred years.”

“Sainte-Pierre has help,” Tony responded, eyes still shut. “He has an insider in the Guardians. They gave him all the information that he needed to get to Gabriel, hell to get to any one of us.”

“I can’t imagine what he went through,” Ryan shuddered. He had heard horror stories about what the Unkari could do with their touch; most of them involved alternating between blissful pleasure and intense pain. Ryan couldn’t imagine what that would have felt like.

“Let this go dude,” Tony warned. “Don’t let it eat you up inside, ok?”

Ryan nodded; he hoped that he could do just that. Tony looked down at his phone as it vibrated. A look of confusion crossed Tony’s face before he sent a quick text message and slid the phone back into his pocket.

Ryan hoped, after what happened to Gabriel, that Ethan would reconsider Anton’s offer. Sainte-Pierre had crossed a line when he had taken Gabriel hostage and virtually sealed his own death warrant when he tortured the Guardian. In their world an act like that was a good way to get yourself to the top of the Guardians most wanted list.

“Sainte-Pierre will get what’s coming to him,” Tony added, getting off the couch. “He won’t be able to find a rock to hide under now, not with the Guardians looking for him. His days are numbered man, remember that.”

“Where are you going?” Ryan asked, as Tony started toward the door.

“Apparently I made a date tonight,” Tony shrugged.

“Do you ever stop thinking about sex?” Ryan asked.

“You have your vices and I have mine,” Tony responded. “Let me know if he wakes up or needs anything. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Ryan watched him go and then picked up his tablet to resume reading. He knew that he should have been in bed and in a few hours no doubt his body would be begging him for rest. But he couldn’t go to sleep now, at least not just yet.

Every time that he closed his eyes he saw Gabriel lying in his cell, beaten, bloody, and bruised.  He was tortured by someone that Ryan and several other Guardians had a chance to kill several times over. He really wanted to barge into the council chambers and blame them for what happened.

“Hey.”

Ryan turned around to see Gabriel walk gingerly into the room.

“You should be in bed,” Ryan stated, hurrying to his side to help steady Gabriel. Gabriel smiled at the gesture, though he didn’t really need it. Surprisingly enough he actually felt okay, not entirely rested and recharged yet but a lot better than he thought he would have considering the circumstances.

“So should you,” Gabriel grunted, as he slipped into a chair.

“I’m not the one that just survived a torture chamber with Sainte-Pierre.”

“He got away again, didn’t he?” Gabriel asked.

“Yeah,” Ryan nodded, sitting on the couch.

They sat in silence for a few moments, watching the flickering fire.

“Thank you,” Gabriel said, in a low voice. “Thanks for coming after me.”

In the dim light, Ryan could just barely see Gabriel’s eyes tearing up; a few moments later he felt his own resolve starting to go. He reached up and wiped a few tears from his eyes.

“You’re a teammate,” Ryan said. “And you’re my friend; you’d do the same for me.”

“Yeah, I would.”

“And now I get to hold it over everyone’s head the fact that I knew something was wrong right away and everyone else kept telling me that I was overreacting. Do you have any idea how much it is to tell Elise that she’s wrong? Or Ethan?”

“I imagine pretty entertaining,” Gabriel smiled. “I haven’t gotten a chance to say thank you.”

Ryan’s brows came together. “You just said it. Do I need to call Cody or Aadesh...”

“I don’t mean about the rescue,” Gabriel sighed. “But again thank you. I was talking about...well...I mean...for everything these past few months for...you know being my friend.”

And suddenly, Ryan saw what it was that Gabriel was trying to say. It wasn’t just about rescuing him from Saint-Pierre, it wasn’t about making him a Guardian or teaching him all the new skills he now had. He was saying thank you for something as simple as genuinely caring for another human being. Judging by what Ryan had seen at school and what Gabriel had told him, it had been a long time since anyone, aside from his parents, showed they cared about him.

That realization suddenly made Ryan want to cry, he hadn’t realized how isolated and alone Gabriel must have felt; he could imagine he would be a wreck if everyone that he ever called a friend suddenly stopped talking to him and acted like he didn’t exist.

“You don’t have to thank me for that,” Ryan sighed. “Gabriel, you’re an awesome guy...I feel bad that I didn’t approach you at school before you got hurt.”

And Ryan did feel bad, horrible even. He knew that Gabriel looked lonely and it would have been so easy to invite him to hang out or to eat lunch with him. The whole school knew that David picked on him and yet he did nothing, just like everyone else. Ryan liked to think that the Guardians had taught him better than that but he fell to peer pressure just like every other teenager. He felt ashamed by that fact.

“Don’t be sorry,” Gabriel said. He slowly got out of the chair and walked over to the fire place. He stared into the dancing flames for a few moments, resting his arm on the mantle. “I thought that he was going to kill me, he kept telling me that his partner didn’t want me dead but I didn’t believe him....

He took a deep shuddering breath.

“I kept waiting for it to end...for him to finally realize that I didn’t know anything...”

Gabriel forced down a wave of emotion. He had felt so helpless around Sainte-Pierre, someone that had a lifetime of knowledge when it came to dishing out pain and suffering. He knew that if he looked at Ryan he would lose it, instead he kept most of his focus on the fire.

“I tried to stay strong,” Gabriel said. “I really did...”

“Don’t think about that,” Ryan urged. He got up off the couch and went to stand next to his friend. “You’re safe, remember. We got you out of there and there is no way that Sainte-Pierre is going to get you again, do you understand me?”

Gabriel nodded and wiped tears from his eyes.

“The only thing that kept me going, when he started torturing me again was the thought of seeing my family again and the thought of seeing you again...wait that came out wrong.”

“Stop,” Ryan said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I know what you meant, you don’t have to explain yourself, I’m just glad you’re ok.”

“I knew that if I survived, if I could just hang on you guys would find me.”

“That’s an awful lot of confidence in us.”

“I trust you.”

“We promised to always tell each other the truth, right?”

Gabriel nodded.

Ryan reached down and firmly grabbed Gabriel’s right arm. He gently pushed up Gabriel’s sleeve until he could see his wrist and the two white scars that were stationed there. Gabriel sucked in a breath, he knew what Ryan was going to ask and was sure that he wasn’t going to be able hold his emotional resolve together for that conversation.

“Why?”

Gabriel wasn’t looking at Ryan so he couldn’t see the tears in his friend’s eyes.

“I...it was a long time ago.”

“It wasn’t that long ago,” Ryan said. “Gabriel, why would you do that? Why would you even think about trying that?”

“I don’t know!” Gabriel snapped. It came out with more vehemence than Gabriel intended. However, he was on the verge of losing his emotional control and as much as he liked Ryan, as close as they had become, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to break down in tears in front of him. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

“I’m sorry,” Gabriel said, taking another deep breath. “I was lonely, extremely lonely. There was no one to talk to, no one to hang out with and worst off everyone treated me like I had some horrible disease.”

Gabriel took a deep ragged breath, trying to get his words out before he completely lost it. “After I came out I could see a look of disappointment in my parent’s eyes...you know, like they had lost a son or something...like it somehow changed me.”

“They were worried about you,” Ryan nodded. “Not everyone in this world can handle someone being different, I mean just look at David. Guy’s a caveman but there are a lot people out there like him.”

“I just wanted to make them proud of me,” Gabriel sniffled. “I just wanted to be their son. I just wanted to have friends that cared about me, hell Teddy didn’t even have the decency to tell me our friendship was over. That as the worst part, just being ignored like you never existed.”

“We all care about you,” Ryan said.

And with those words the emotional damn broke. He started crying, unable to hold back the emotions that came with talking about his attempt to take his own life. He was sure that the past twenty four hours at the hands of Sainte-Pierre probably didn’t help is already fragile emotional state. He felt exposed and vulnerable all over again and that was not a feeling that he enjoyed.

Ryan wrapped his arms around the form of his crying friend, whose body was now racked with sobs. He guided him back to the couch and helped him sit down, and kept his arm around Gabriel and let him cry. He didn’t know what to say, although he imagined that right now, Gabriel didn’t really want him to say anything. The only thing that he could do was remind him that he was safe and that he was with a friend.