The Guardian Chronicles 2: Dark Horizon (28 page)

“When he says it like that,” Ryan sighed. “It makes an awful lot of sense. Maybe that’s just what Sainte-Pierre was talking about.”

“I don’t think so,” Gabriel said, shaking his head. “I get the sense that he was talking about something else...something bigger than just the fact that he managed to get to someone on the inside.”

“You know the really easy way to fix this, right?” Elise asked. “We go talk to Anton, figure out where he is hiding and ask him ourselves.”

“Preferably after I beat Sainte-Pierre down a few times, right?” Gabriel asked.

“No one said we couldn’t rough him up a little,” Elise shrugged. “But in order to do that we need to get Ethan to accept Anton’s invitation.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Gabriel offered.

“It’s worth a shot,” Ryan sighed. “What do we have to lose?”

“Gabriel’s head if he’s in a bad mood,” Tony tossed in.

“Hey,” Gabriel said, standing up. “I just survived a torture session with a supernatural arms dealer; I think that I can handle talking to Ethan.”

“He could always pull the guilt card,” Marissa shrugged. “That might work on even Ethan.”

“Might as well let him have a go,” Cody sighed. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Gabriel found Ethan in the gym, pounding away on a heavy bag. The bag weighed a modest 150lbs though it swung around like a cardboard piñata under the punches and kicks of Ethan. Judging by the way his face was flushed he had been at it for a while.

“I’m glad that you are okay,” Ethan said, noticing Gabriel. “Did they send you out here to try and talk some sense into me?”

“I sort of volunteered for it,” Gabriel shrugged. He was doing his best not to stare at Ethan’s muscular form as he went through another series of jabs and kicks. “But they did feel me surviving a torture session with Sainte-Pierre might make it easier to talk you into accepting Anton’s invitation.”

“No way,” Ethan snarled. He launched a particularly hard series of punches that sent the bag swinging high toward the ceiling. “I am not trusting him again!”

“Even if it means making the world a safer place?”

“The council should have gotten rid of him years ago,” Ethan growled, hitting the bag again. “If they would they we wouldn’t have to worry about crawling back to Anton.”

“We are hardly crawling,” Gabriel frowned. “We’re being smart about getting help.”

“And why do you want to find out where he is so badly?” Ethan asked. He hit the bag hard with a roundhouse kick before turning back around to look at Gabriel. “Revenge? You know the Guardians aren’t all about that, right? I mean the revenge thing.”

Gabriel shrugged. He did feel a certain sense of urgency when it came to finding out where Sainte-Pierre was hiding and Ethan was right, he did want revenge. What he had endured at the hands of Sainte-Pierre made him want to track the demon down and slam Aequitas right though his skull. The logical part of his brain knew that it was an emotional reaction and that such action wouldn’t, in the end, make him feel any better.

“You’re right part of me wants revenge, especially after what he did to me but part of me knows that it’s probably better that we take him out before he gets a hold of someone else.”

“And you think that we can trust this Anton guy? Even after everything that you heard he did?”

“I don’t think that we really have a choice,” Gabriel shrugged.

“He betrayed us,” Ethan said, curling his hands into fists. He exploded into motion, striking the bag with several times, the final blow breaking it free its tether and sending it crashing to the floor. Ethan turned back to him, breathing heavy.

“And if we don’t stop him then we run the risk of him doing more damage,” Gabriel persisted. “Face it Ethan, we need his help and we need it now.”

Ethan stared at Gabriel, his breathing finally slowly to a more normal rate.

“Fine.”

“Fine?” Gabriel asked.

“Fine, I’ll contact Anton in the morning, happy?”

“I guess so.”

“I’m glad you are alright,” Ethan said again. “Really, I just don’t think that you realize how much faith you are putting in a man that already once failed us.”

“And you might be right,” Gabriel admitted. “You want to give them the good news or do you want me too?”

“By all means,” Ethan grunted.

Gabriel watched him head off to the locker-rooms. He shook his head and headed back to the command center, fully aware that by this time tomorrow he would be meeting his first vampire.

CHAPTER 13

Elise had long enjoyed the fact that she was the only qualified pilot on the team. Both her parents had been pilots and passed their love of flying onto their children, including her and her younger brother Sam. The only thing that Elise did not overly like about being a pilot was the fact that she did all the flying all the time. Occasionally, they would charter a flight or bring in a replacement pilot but a lot of the time it was done by her.

She headed into the command center to finish up preparations for their flight in the afternoon. Anton had recently sent GPS coordinates, which pointed them deep into the badlands of Montana. Not exactly some place that Elise expected to find the leader of one of the most powerful vampire covens on the planet. She was sure that he would be spending most of his time in some place a lot more...luxurious.

“Get the flight plan filed?” Marissa asked.

“Ready to go,” Elise responded. “Although I still can’t believe that Gabriel convinced Ethan to go through with this...do you think that he threatened to kiss him or
something?”

Marissa just shrugged. “I have no idea, although I think that we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

“What are you doing exactly?” Elise asked.

“Well, after what Gabriel said about Sainte-Pierre, I started going back through all the information that we had on him,” Marissa explained. “I thought that maybe I could find something in his past that might lead us to his partner.”

“And have you?” Elise asked.

“Oh hell no,” Marissa huffed. “Sainte-Pierre uses people he doesn’t work with them.”

“Any more luck on tracking down the leak?”

“We’ve been through everyone at Aegis,” Marissa sighed. “We’ve accounted for everyone’s activities and been over every single computer log that we have an still haven’t been able to come up with anything, if the evidence weren’t right in front of us then I would never believe it.”

“True,” Elise nodded.

“So, since I hit a dead end in that aspect I decided to back and start looking at pretty much every legend, story, lore...well pretty much everything about the Guardians and our past you know to see if I could come up with anything like Gabriel said.”

Marissa tapped a few keys on her terminal. “The closest that I came up with that even remotely resembles what Gabriel was talking about is the incident that forced Ethan’s parents into retirement.”

“And no one seems to be talking about that,” Elise nodded. “I don’t suppose you can find any official records of what happened? Maybe of the exact circumstances of why they were asked to step down?”

“Are you kidding me?” Marissa snorted. “You try even going near those records and all hell breaks loose. They managed to scramble my system here five times before I gave up.”

Elise pursed her lips. Ethan would never talk about what happened to his parents, though it was very likely that he didn’t even know the details. She didn’t believe in coincidences and neither did the rest of the Guardians. Could this be the secret that Sainte-Pierre was talking about?

“However, since I am such a resourceful little minx I did manage to gain access to the mages archive,” Marissa smiled.

“Good thing that they decided to go digital with everything a few years back,” Elise grunted. “Do they know that you’re in the system?”

“If they know, they certainly don’t care,” Marissa shrugged. “I’ve been poking around in here for the better part of an hour and haven’t gotten kicked out yet. Although to be honest, there really isn’t much here that would help us out anyway...at least nothing that I can find.”

“It was a good try,” Elise sighed.

“I could always take Everett with me and actually go to London,” Marissa offered.

“No,” Elise said, shaking her head. “If things go south with Anton we’re going to need all the help that we can get.”

“You agree with Ethan?” Marissa asked, making a face.

“Let’s just say that I’m not entirely sure that he’s wrong when it comes to this.”

“Have you ever been to Montana?” Ryan asked, as they climbed aboard the Gulfstream G650.

“We get to ride in that?” Gabriel said, as he followed Ryan up the stairs. “And no, I haven’t ever been to Montana.”

“You already flew in one like this,” Tony reminded him. “On the way back from New York after Sainte-Pierre got done toying with you and we saved the day, don’t you remember?”

“Actually, no I don’t remember,” Gabriel said, making a face.

“You slept most of it,” Cody responded. “We’re sort of trusting Anton not to go bonkers on us and try and kill us and whatnot.”

“You have such a cheery outlook on life,” Gabriel grumbled.

Gabriel took a seat, looking into the cockpit to see Elise and Marissa going through the preflight checklists. Ethan was the last one to board and didn’t even bother taking off his sunglasses. He settled into a seat and got himself belted in.

“How long is this flight going to take?” Gabriel asked.

“A few hours,” Elise answered.

Everett secured the door and returned to his seat as the plane started to taxi out toward the runway.

“Now, there are a couple of things to keep in mind,” Everett stated. “Anton has a lot of power and he’s used to people treating him with respect, so try and keep that in mind...also, Gabriel don’t stare at his son.”

Gabriel made a face at Everett. “What in the hell is that supposed to me?”

“It means Alex is hot as hell,” Cody tossed in. “Even I know that.”

“I don’t think that he needs to be told not to stare,” Ryan said, rolling his eyes. He took a seat next to Gabriel.

Gabriel tended to agree with Ryan, although now he was curious as to see how hot this Alex was. The plane took off down the runway, jetting into the air and banking east before taking off at a shot toward Montana. Ethan kept his sunglasses on and placed some headphones in his ears, tuning out the outside world.

Gabriel settled back in his chair. “Is there anything else that I should know?”

“Just the normal pleasantries,” Everett shrugged. “Anton doesn’t stand much on ceremony so we shouldn’t have to worry about any quirky vampire traditions.”

“Got it,” Gabriel nodded, closing his eyes. “Is there anything else that I need to know, aside from not to stare at his son?”

“That should about cover it,” Everett shrugged.

No more than twenty minutes later, Elise informed them that they had reached their cruising altitude. They would land on the small private strip owned by Anton in just two hours and would then be shuttled to his compound not all that far from the airport.

Gabriel had fallen asleep, his head ending up on Ryan’s shoulder. Ryan gently shrugged him off as he stood up, heading over to where Tony was messing with his phone.

“You got a minute?” Ryan whispered.

“Unless you think I am going to go skydiving, sure.”

Ryan slide into the seat next to him. “So, the other night when we brought Gabriel home and left him at my house...well Elise showed up and...”

“Oh, no,” Tony said.

“It’s not like that!”

“No, not that,” Tony said gesturing toward his phone. “I totally did not mean to delete her number. Besides, she wasn’t that much fun anyways.”

“Would you listen to me!” Ryan snapped, getting the attention of everyone in the cabin. “Look, I need to talk to someone and I can’t tell Ethan or he might kill me.”

“Did you sleep with her?” Tony asked, this time keeping his voice low.

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I totally slept with my friend’s ex-girlfriend, I’m not you.”

Tony looked like he was about to take offense to that comment but he just shrugged.

“Anyway after Gabriel fell asleep she came over and started giving me a massage...”

“Did anything happen?” Tony asked

Ryan shook his head. “But that’s not the point; the point is that I
really wanted to kiss her...well actually I really wanted to do more than kiss her...”

“Oh trust me I get it,” Tony sighed. “But the question is you ready to go that far? I mean like I said before, dating her would be a dangerous violation of the bro code.”

“You and your damn bro code,” Ryan grumbled.

“You have two options here,” Tony said, leaning in closer to Ryan. “Forget about it and find some other girl to focus on or you can actually find out if she has feelings for you and then be a man and talk to Ethan about it and hope that he doesn’t punch your face in.”

“Well, that’s not overly reassuring,” Ryan grunted.

“Didn’t mean it to be,” Tony shrugged.

Ryan sighed heavily.

Two hours later the jet touched smoothly down at the private airstrip owned by Anton Yuri. They taxied to a stop and Cody opened the door. They departed after Elise and Marissa made sure that they plane was properly shut down. They were directed toward two SUVs by three very large, physically imposing men.

They loaded up in silence and started off toward the compound that Anton called home, as they approached it bared a vague resemblance to the same compound that Daniel Cray has been using in Missouri, with the exception that this one appeared much bigger. The first thing that Gabriel noticed as soon as they entered compound was the massive house that dominated the center of it. It looked like it belonged in London, sitting atop a rolling hillside, not in the middle of the desert. That brought up another very good question...why would vampires be living in a place that was notorious for its sunny climate. Gabriel guessed that was probably a question that he should refrain from asking.

The SUVs let them off at the door, their silent guardians grabbing their bags and hauling them off toward their rooms. The inside was just as grand as the outside, the foyer a massive space that lead directly to a grand staircase. Hallways lined with polished armor suits ran past both sides of the staircase.

“This way,” one of their escorts said.

“Nice digs,” Tony whispered to Gabriel.

“I’ll say, makes Ryan’s house look like a hole in the ground,” Gabriel said.

“Hey!” Ryan snapped. “It does not!”

They started up the stairs only to be stopped by another voice.

“I can take them the rest of the way George.”

Gabriel turned around to lay eyes on who he assumed was Alex. And one look at him, well he knew what it was that Everett was talking about. Alex was tall, about four inches taller than his own 5’10 frame. He had dark blonde hair, tanned skin, and a muscled build. Tattoos wound themselves down both arms; he also had the most intense green eyes that Gabriel had ever seen.

He noticed that Alex was dressed in garb similar to what Cody wore when he went out to practice his archery in the range outside at Aegis.

“Gabriel,” Ryan said, poking him in the side. “Do us all a favor and pick your tongue up off the floor.”

Gabriel realized that he was standing there with his mouth open, to which Ryan promptly reached up and shut. He turned bright red and hoped that Alex didn’t notice.

The larger man wandered off.

“Welcome Guardians,” Alex bowed. “My father is waiting for you guys, how was your flight in?” Alex asked, as they started to ascend the stairs.

“Fine,” Ethan snapped.

Elise and Everett shot Ethan a warning look as they came to the top if the stairs.

“You into archery?” Cody asked.

“Always have been,” Alex nodded. “I hear you’re their crack shot.”

“Well, I don’t like to brag,” Cody shrugged.

“Oh that is so not the case,” Ryan said, rolling his eyes.

Alex pushed open two large doors, which lead into a fairly large study. Anton was sitting hind a dark and rich looking desk. He stood as the Guardians entered, smiling warmly. One look at him and you could see where Alex got his good looks. He was taller than Alex but had he same dark blonde hair and intense green eyes.

“Welcome,” Anton said, spreading his arms. “I trust that your flight was well.”

“We have good pilots,” Ryan smiled.

“I can imagine so,” Anton said. “You must be the new Guardian, Gabriel, right? Jonathan did me the favor of updating me on your team composition. It’s good to meet you.”

“Well, here we are,” Ethan demanded. “You want to tell us what you know about Sainte-Pierre.”

“Well, well, well someone is inpatient.”

“Don’t start with me,” Ethan snarled. Ryan put a warning hand on his shoulder, stopping Ethan from stalking toward Anton. They all took notice that Alex moved a little closer to his father. Though Gabriel couldn’t see a weapon, he knew better than to engage someone in hand to hand combat unless you had to, let alone a vampire.

“I said I had information for you about the whereabouts of Sainte-Pierre and I was telling the truth. Please relax.”

“It’s just that Sainte-Pierre escaped once,” Tony said.

“You had him in custody?” Anton asked.

“Not exactly,” Everett said, shaking his head. “He kidnapped Gabriel and when we rescued him he got away again.”